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Good Guys Use Macs
Annamite writes "Wired news reports about the Mac as 'a good guy' conspiracy, while the traitor was busy hauling a Dell laptop. Can product placement be even better than this. What is next? OS war on screen? You can betcha anything comes out of AOL/TimeWarner would be of AOL/Netscape, but can Bill Gates buy the rest of the movies industry?" I've seen every episode of 24 so far, and did notice certain Macs and PCs being used, but didn't pay attention to who used which one. I probably would have been killed by the traitor.
I'm new to the Apple Computer Company of the 00s, but having used the svelt TiBook, I've started to recognize it more often on TV. I guess looks do count for something, but it is refreshing to see OS X grace the screen once in a while.
CSI - TiBooks throughout the lab, never see the back of the screen or it's blocked by something.
West Wing - CJ & Co tapping away on TiBook' also, normally hidden by a [tasteful] vase.
Props to Six Feet Under for using Apple's top of the line laptop to write pr0n.
Ever since an army of Macs appeared on the screen in 1993, Godzilla and Mothra, the King and Queen of Monsters, have made this abundantly clear: Mac users are good guys deserving of their protection, and users of Microsoft OSes (PCs and PDAs) are either evil or just imbeciles (though Mothra holds out the hope that they can change).
;)
;). The good guys, the Godzilla Prediction Network, use lots of Macs. The imbecilic (the American version makes a running joke of calling her an imbecile) reporter hanging out with them has a sensible iMac at work, but runs around with yet another Sony notebook. She stupidly flashes her camera in Godzilla's eyes (the whole scene is a tribute to Jurassic Park -- not the first tribute to Spielberg to appear in the Godzilla series), causing him to go after the car she is in with the GPN people, but since they are Mac lovers, he lets her off with just a bad scare. The head bad guy, Katagiri, uses a WinCE PDA. This, his attempts to kill Godzilla, and his endangering Japan by his gross arrogance and stupidity get him killed by Godzilla. The evil alien, Orga, the Millenium Monster, seems as much a kaiju incarnation of Microsoft and their Millenium research project, as it is the Y2K bug. It hacks into computers (that Sony/Windows notebook is the first one hacked), "soaks up every last bit of data", seeks world domination, and attempts to embrace and extend Godzilla. A store full of iMacs, Japan, and the whole world are in danger! Who's gonna save us? Why Godzilla, of course. ;)
In 1993, the Mac appeared in its first Japanese kaiju eiga (monster movie): "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2". This movie stared Godzilla, MechaGodzilla, MechaKingGhidora (cameo), Rodan, Baby Godzilla. Cameo appearances of Toho's other two big stars, Mothra and King Ghidora, were later cut from the final movie. Dozens of Macs were used to design MechaGodzilla. In the scene of Baby Godzilla's birth, the camera switched back and forth between the rocking egg and a Mac, showing a chart of the energy levels, that was in the same room.
In 1994, the Mac returned in "Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla". Director Miki Saegusa, wearing jewelry with Mothra's symbol on it and acting as Mothra's agent in this movie (Mothra was off in space trying to stop an asteriod from destroying the Earth), viewed the approach of Space Godzilla on a Mac. In case we wouldn't recognize it as a Mac, they stuck a big Apple logo sticker on the monitor.
In 1995's "Godzilla vs. Destroyer" (Godzilla's 40th birthday celebration), the Apple logo appears on the wall of the dorm room of no less a personage than the grandson of Dr. Yemane himself (a star of the first Godzilla movie back in 1954). He also has a Mac in his dorm room, with a model of Godzilla sitting on the monitor (have we quite gotten the concept that Godzilla loves the Mac yet?). Macs appear throughout the movie. At the end, Godzilla's son, born in the same room as a Mac, succeeds his father as the new King of the Monsters, and saves Tokyo from the fallout of his father's death.
It's 1996, and the name of the movie is "Mosura" ("Rebirth of Mothra I" in the US). Apple is in big trouble. So are Mothra and her infant daughter Mothra Leo. There are no Macs in this movie, only a Windows 95 running Sony notebook (with the title bar and other Windows 95 parts blurred to avoid giving Microsoft any product placement). The PC is used by the guy that releases Death Ghidora from his prison (done out of ignorance and some mind control from Belabera) and who runs a logging company (a Mothra no-no). However, Apple does appear in symbolic form: an apple sapling burnt to a crisp (and shown several times so we know that it is "special") is resurrected and grown into a mighty tree by Mothra Leo (along with the surrounding 8000 acres of forest that Death Ghidora destroyed). This movie was released on December 14th, 1996. Later that same month, Apple makes a surprise announcement: the return of Steve Jobs.
In 1997's "Mosura 2" ("Rebirth of Mothra 2" in the US), the Mac is back, with Fairy (Mothra's little avatar who provides transport for her Elias/fairies) perched on top. Mothra Leo transforms first into Rainbow Mothra, then into Aqua Mothra (shooting little blue X-shaped bolts of energy at her foes). Five months after the movie's December 1997 release, the rainbow hued iMacs are introduced, and a new operating system named OS X would be announced (which just happens to have an Aqua GUI).
Computers of any kind are not really used in the 1998 "Mosura 3: Kingu Ghidora Raisu" (not yet released in the US). Mothra spends too much time in the time of the dinosaurs (who didn't have computers). King Ghidora is too busy kidnapping kids and acting out his King of Terror persona (complete with the destruction of a building featuring twin towers and a guy dodging falling debris while talking on a cell phone). Aqua Mothra does have a cameo (as a transition to Lightspeed Mothra). I'm still wondering if the white hemisphere of the Egg of Eternity (Mothra's tomb/cocoon/egg/time capsule) didn't have something to do with the design of the new iMac.
In the 1999 "Godzilla 2000 Millenium" (released in US theaters as "Godzilla 2000"), the iMac makes its kaiju eiga debut. This is very clearly a case of Mac = good, PC = bad or stupid (and gets you stomped if Godzilla catches you using one
A note to Open Source fans. G2K is also the first G movie to show computers running Open Source software (MAME). They do try to help Godzilla and the good guys figure out what Millenium is up to. Unfortunately they are destroyed by Millenium.
"Gojira X Megaguiras" (2000). Not yet released in the US. There are no Macs that I can find in this movie. Then again, it doesn't have any humans of sterling character either. The closest would be the inventor kid (can you say Slashdot geek) with his homebuilt PC running a custom OS (based probably on some Linux/BSD variant). He does brag to his coworkers that it is 10 times faster than their OS (Windows). This movie is best for the monster scenes. The final fight betweeen Godzilla and Megaguiras employs an excellent combo of CGI special effects and suit acting inspired by both anime and the Three Stooges. The result shows tremendous comedic timing and really gives the monsters personality.
"Gojira, Mosura, Kingu Ghidora: Daikaiju Soukougeki" (2001 - may still come to US theatres this summer, but Sony is going to have to stop making Godzilla and Mothra mad by making audio discs that are mean to Macs): I haven't seen more than the quicktime trailer, but there appears to be something resembling an Apple logo in the background of one of the King Ghidora clips (KG plays a good deity in this movie: the Guardian God of the Heavens, one of the three beast gods of Yamato). According to the director, some (storyboarding?) of the work on this movie "more than ever before" was done on Macs.
"forever...friends...farewell"
Mothra Leo to four humans and a resurrected Apple tree.
"Mosura" 1996 (US: "Rebirth of Mothra 1")