Editor’s note: Today is a holiday, so WRAL Local Tech Wire is publishing on a limited basis.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Even though today is July 4, fireworks started a week ago with a high-tech display across the good old U S of A.
The premier of “Live Free or Die Hard” packed a lot of movie theaters, including the one at North Hills I crowded into along with my sons Ross and Ryan and numerous friends.
Bruce Willis is back in the fourth edition of his John McClane role, and this time he is taking on home-grown terrorists.
Their weapons are the latest in high tech.
Tough guy Willis may be a Timex watch in a digital world as his antagonist calls him, but Willis, – believe me – is not about to be a victim of identity theft.
The movie has been called an attack on the dangers of high tech by some. I didn’t see it that way. Rather, it’s a warning against the abuse of technology and taking such things as cyber security for granted. In other words, avoid a single point of failure in your network. I won’t say any more. I don’t want to ruin the plot.
True to Die Hards past, the movie is filled with individual combat to the extreme. But the tech toys are stars, too, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that can stop on a dime and fly vertically.
I have to say seeing a movie filled with analog special effects, including many stunts done by the 52-year-old Willis himself, is a great treat.
Too often now technology is a crutch in movies with CGI, or computer generated imagery, substituting for gold old fashion hand-to-hand combat.
Bottom line: In today’s tech-dominated world, no one is safe. But as long as there are a few good men and women around like John McClane, technology can be tamed.
It’s hard to believe the McClane character has now been around for nearly 20 years and four movies. Even as we have all grown older, technology continues to amaze – and threaten. As for me, I can’t wait to see the "Transformers" movie. It, too, promises to be a high-tech thrill ride.
Have a wonderful holiday.
