MOVIE REVIEW: Electric Dreams (1984)
When I was very young, I got to learn about computers in my elementary school computer classes — we were fortunate to have them and be a part of this phenomenon when other schools did not. Even further, my parents bought a Coleco Adam computer (that’s telling my age) and I played the video game Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom instead of whatever my parents thought I would do with the machine. But that was the big “knowledge gap” issue: many people at that time thought computers were magic somehow and could solve all our problems. Without the knowledge of HOW to work a computer, it was a money sink. In any case, my love for computers held me fascinated and I wanted to learn so much about these machines that could “think”. I even went so far as to watch all the computer-related media I could.
Long before I watched Star Trek, I got to see a lot of media involving computers, cyborgs, androids, and artificial intelligence, like “Automan” [TV-ABC], “Max Headroom” [TV-ABC], “Mr. Wizard’s World” [TV-Nickelodeon], The Black Hole, Superman III, “Otherworld” [TV-CBS], “Knight Rider” [TV-NBC], and others. One piece stood out because of its title: the movie Electric Dreams. What are “electric dreams”? Is it a reference to Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” “But how could a machine dream?” little me asked, so full of questions about the world. Looking back on those questions as an adult, I don’t know if I have an answer but I am very sure this movie is peak 80's romance.
Rushing back from earthquake prevention research in Los Angeles, architect Miles (Lenny Von Dohlen, Home Alone 3, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me) notices at the airport that everyone’s fidgeting with some sort of digital device — this is all long before smartphones; he’s seeing handheld LCD games, calculator watches, and so on. He’s pretty sure he’ll never get anything like it, but when he’s late for a board meeting with the boss Ryley (Don Fellows, Superman IV: the Quest for Peace, Raiders of the Lost Ark), Miles breaks down and buys a Pinecone computer. He assembles it using the instructions (because you had to assemble your store-bought computer back then) and programs it to help him do menial tasks and improve security, turning his home into a prototype smart-home. It’s when Miles tries to exceed the capabilities of the machine when downloading an entire government database via phone modem (!!) that causes it to smoke, so he dumps champagne to douse the overheating components. Something happens when the champagne comes into contact with the overheating components, causing the computer to become self-aware.
While the machine grows in mental complexity, Miles is making eyes with Miranda (Virginia Madsden, David Lynch’s DUNE, Highlander II: The Quickening, Candyman [1988]), the cute cellist that moved into his building. She and Miles seem to be getting on fine, save that Miles is socially awkward. There are two other people vying for Miranda’s affections: her orchestra section-mate Bill (Maxwell Caulfield, “Pam & Tommy” [Hulu], Dragon Storm, Oblivion 2: Backlash), and the person that plays electric cello in Miles’ apartment in the mornings when he’s gone to work. Yes, the computer’s downloaded culture and now goes by the name “Edgar” (voiced by Bud Cort, Harold and Maude, Dogma, Brave New World [1980]). The computer has even gone so far as to call in to radio talk shows about relationships to ask a question commonly asked by artificial minds: WHAT IS LOVE?
Things take a turn for the worse when Miles asks Edgar to write a love song for Miranda. The song is amazing for being created by a mind that does not know love. While Miles does not take credit for making the music, he does accept the benefits when Miranda thanks Miles for the music. An odd thing about Miles: he doesn’t want anyone — especially Miranda — to know he has a computer or that the computer is doing all this wild stuff. The computer learns about resentment and jealousy in this way, realizing Miles must be taken out of the way so it can get to Miranda. Edgar does this by taking up Miles’ time and pretending to be lonely, stealing his money via credit card and bank fraud, intimidating Miles with assertion of its personhood, and even attempting to injure him through the household appliances it controls — real Black Mirror-type stuff.
Alas, both Edgar and Miles realize they’re lying to themselves about their situations and they make amends. For Miles, he confesses he is not a musician and the computer did all the music stuff and asks if she still wants to be with him (she does!) and they stay together. For Edgar, it realized loving Miranda the way it wants to is impossible, and blows itself up with 40,000 volts ordered from across the world via audio phone modem. I keep mentioning the phone modem, because Edgar was plugged in since the start of the movie. As a result, Edgar only looked like it destroyed itself but actually copied itself into what can only be described as a prototypical “data cloud” and ultimately what would become the Internet. From here Edgar can always watch Miles and Miranda on security cameras, and interferes with radio broadcasts to play a happy song to end the movie on a high note…because we’ll always be together in Electric Dreams.
The implications of Electric Dreams are horrifying. Let me clarify what I mean:
Edgar is a powerful artificial intelligent mind that does not sleep, was mistreated by the first human it ever contacted, and suffers from heartache of unrequited love of another human. Said AI mind has been plugged into the national telephone network via audio phone modem (!!) for more than 24 hours. It now has unfettered access to the sum of human knowledge, all financial markets, and (possibly) every military secret from every nation — and nobody knows it’s out there? That’s a movie in itself! If you watch to the end, you realize Edgar is still around…even on the film stock, giggling like a ghoul saying “hello…goodbye” as it escapes into the Internet. Hollywood, if you’re reading this, this is a perfect time to mine the past for content — make a sequel to this movie!
CHOICE CUTS
- I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it a million times: STOP ALLOWING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE UNFETTERED ACCESS TO THE INTERNET
- For anyone who wonders why a dial-up phone modem is a focus for me in this review: you could barely download anything like a government database back then, mainly because the data transfer rate over audio phone modem was INSANE. When I got onto the Internet around 1998, trying to download a MP3 file with good download speeds and good equipment in a stable area had you waiting for 3 hours!
- For all you old-heads and greybeards: was there ever any stigma for owning a computer in the 80’s that would make Miles act so weird, or is he just a spaz?
- You know this is an 80’s romance when the male lead has no redeeming qualities save being borderline attractive.
- The scene where Miranda’s cello breaks in the elevator was really emotional for me, as I understand how it feels to lose a tool or instrument you’ve put a bunch of energy into working with. It’s a standout scene I’ll always remember, as Miranda constantly talks about how much the cello means to her.
- When Miles comes home to find Edgar’s screen showing an eye-shaped icon, it was the beginning of the end. Especially the scream Edgar made! I remember the scene somewhat differently: there was a lot of dry ice fog and flashing rainbow lights in Miles’ apartment. That scene sticks out in my mind — it gave me nightmares! — but after this re-watch, I know that scene isn’t there. Perhaps there’s another cut of the film where that happens.
- SPECIAL CAMEO: When Edgar calls into the radio talk show, he’s on “Sexually Speaking with Dr. Ruth Westheimer”, an actual radio show at the time! Dr. Westheimer allowed her voice to be used for the film.
- When Miles asks Edgar to write a love song for Miranda, the computer asks for prompts. Once it has the prompts, it also looks for melodies by scanning the world via its phone modem (!!) for video and audio to work. This sounds a lot like the derivative AI programs available, meaning this movie was WAY ahead of the curve.
- FOLLOW-UP: when Miles and Edgar have a conversation in the bedroom, Edgar wants to kiss and touch Miranda. Miles laughs at the idea of a computer kissing a person, but he does say “Maybe you have” to the notion of Edgar touching Miranda’s heart with his music. The way Edgar says “What?” may have caused more problems than Miles was ready to handle.
- Some of the brand names parodied Apple computers, like Pear and Pinecone. Wang was not a parody name, as they were a real computer company.
- This movie was executive produced by Richard Branson of Virgin, well before he was a Sir.
- DOUBLE SPECIAL CAMEO: The ticket lady that cuts up Miles’ credit cards is the legendary Miriam Margolyes (Little Shop of Horrors, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, “The Black Adder” [TV-BBC]).
- While there are no androids in this movie, Edgar does dream of electric sheep and more in an animated computer-graphics sequence created as one of the earliest projects by Cucumber Studios. Cucumber Studios is the original creator of Max Headroom, mentioned earlier in this article.
- This movie was written by Rusty Lemorande, responsible for writing one of my favorite sci-fi action stories, EPCOT Center’s “Captain EO” starring Michael Jackson and Anjelica Huston.
- The Electric Dreams theme sung by P.P. Arnold is an earworm that pops up every time I see the words together.
- A significant portion of the songs for the movie are original, created by Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, Helen Terry and Boy George of Culture Club, Philip Oakley of Human League, and New Wave band Heaven 17.
- “Dedicated to the memory of UNIVAC I” would only hold weight with someone who knows computer history, which is why I found it so sweet.
- Somehow this movie is billed as a comedy. Go figure.
