The [*Firewall* trailer](http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/firewall/) opens with chilling voiceovers from Harrison Ford. “*Someone’s been trying to hack in and compromise my identity… You think somebody got my information off the internal network?*”

Do members of the lay public grok *Firewall*’s vision of computer security? I buy into the Vegas of [*Ocean's Eleven*](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240772/) and the medicine of [*Grey's Anatomy*](http://abc.go.com/primetime/greysanatomy/), but it’s because I’m hopelessly unfamiliar with gambling and biology.

So does non-geekhood allow one to suspend their disbelief enough to enjoy this flick? To believe that the process of [identity theft](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft) is simply “hacking in” to some single master database maintained by who-knows-who? That a victim would be aware of *attempts* to perform this feat when it hasn’t yet seen success?

[Relationships are paramount](http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/01/04/chick-flick-shame), I’ve said that. But there’s a threshold of believability beyond which a plot becomes too absurd to be enjoyable. It’s called [jumping the shark](http://jumptheshark.com/), and it seems likely that Firewall had jumped by the end of that first trailer.

Despite my reservations about it, there *was* always the possibility that *Firewall* had a brilliant script and got skewered by a lousy marketing team. After all, Ford and Paul Bettany are both terrific actors. If the film hadn’t hit an [embarassingly low tomatometer](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/firewall/), I might have even hit the local multiplex to check it out.

### Getting Tech Right

The voice of engineering in pop culture is, so far as I can tell, pretty much split between [Red Green](http://www.redgreen.com/) slapstick and the RC-cars-plus-chainsaws of [Robot Wars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Wars).

Is there really no way to make *real* engineering exciting and sexy? What about software development? [*Office Space*](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/)? [*Hackers*](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/)?

Are automation and software so far removed from public conciousness that it wouldn’t be possible to write a show or movie about them? How about a fictional account of a [user experience consultancy](http://37signals.com/), a sexy [design firm](http://brightcreative.com/), or a [startup tech company](http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68710,00.html)?

The [stories are there](http://www.projectaardvark.com/), they just need to be a *story*, in episodic pieces, and not a documentary.

### Who Tells It

Veronica Mars is not written by investigators. Grey’s is not written by doctors. They’re written by writers who *consult* with members of the professions in question.

But is simply *consulting* with an engineer or programmer enough?

What about the [hackers who can write](http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives2/hiring_tip.php)? [Paul](http://paulgraham.com/), [Joel](http://joelonsoftware.com/), [Eric](http://software.ericsink.com/), couldn’t one of you cross over *the other way* and consult with a writer to create an awesome script?

Maybe it would be confusing and inaccessible, like the [software that geeks build for each other](http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000365.php). But maybe it would be really, really cool.

Mike

Further Reading: [On Making Engineering Sexy](http://fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie97/papers/1512.pdf) (PDF)

← Earlier Later → Posted at 10:39 am to Film, TV.