Documenting My Love Affair With 70's & 80's Trashy Movies, Part II

2) Giant Walls of Blinking Lights! For real, though...I hesitate to call these 'computers' 'cause I'm not even sure that's what they were meant to be. Most of the time there aren't even screens or buttons, just a mosaic of blinking bulbs that would make the most complicated carnival ride blush. I mean, this was an actual staple of set design since sci-fi was put on film and we are just in the last ten years moving away from it. How can it not be a source of pure hilarity? Here's some fun examples:

Escape From New York
This is the 'command station' that Carpenter dreamed up that basically only functions to keep an eye on Snake as he infiltrates the futuristic gangs in Manhattan to steal back Donald Pleasance from Issac Hayes. But really, I am willing to forgive and forget seeing as it's Tom Atkins and Lee Van Cleef posing in front of it. But frankly, that amount of on-screen awesomeness would negate anything any director could have done, so perhaps the point is moot...?

Wargames
Seriously...WOPR? (It stands for War Operation Plan Response). Loved this movie as a kid, though. This 'supercomputer' (okay, so this one is in fact a computer of some sort) calculates outcomes of war scenarios, back when the Russians posed a viable threat to the US. Of course, in the end it can't even win a game of tic-tac-toe, but I'd leave it in charge of the largest nuclear arms program on the globe anyday, especially since it's got all those pretty lights!

The Last Starfighter
You get extra points if you've seen this one. Basically, it's about a kid from a trailer park who masters the sole arcade game at the local convenience store...only to find out the game is actually a training module for an alien space ship. He is whisked away by a guy in a low-rent Delorean and becomes the key factor in an intergalactic battle against some baddies who threaten...something nice about the good guys. The 'space ship' scenes are appropriately humbling.

There are SO many of these I could write an entire blog on that subject alone, and they never cease to make me chuckle.