Kamran Jehle
Ashlei Hardenburg
Preston Miller
Lasers/Technology Group Project Data
From Films:
Goldfinger (1964)
The SPI Laser (cutting) torture device used by Goldfinger while interrogating James Bond at the end of the film. The visible (red) diagonal laser inches closer and closer to our hero tied up on a table. Bond’s only question to the evil genuis is, “Do you expect me to talk?”… To which the laser wielding villain replies, “No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!” The scene is both timeless, and doesn’t stray very far from reality (especially considering it is a James Bond film).
- www.spilasers.com (lasers used for cutting)
Mission Impossible (1996)
The security laser-tripwire maze the Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) must carefully avoid while breaking into the CIA headquarter building from a duct in the roof. This scene is brilliantly suspenseful, and the laser technology used (tripwire, detection lasers) is not at all overly fictional, quite the opposite in fact. Even in 1996, when the film came out, lasers were being used for security purposes in museums, Government buildings, banks, and so on. The visibility of the laser maze is a slight scientific inaccuracy we should excuse in the interest of dramatic storytelling.
- www.scientificsonline.com/lazer-tripwire-laser-security.html (sells tripwires)
- www.engineering.cornell.edu/diversity/summer/high_school/catalyst/upload/Laser-Trip-Wire-catalyst-2010.pdf (published PPT on laser detection security)
Daybreakers (2009)
Laser-sights (visible) are mounted on guns used throughout the movie to hunt vampires, especially in the darker scenes. This technology certainly exists; one example most people are familiar with are the laser guns used in laser-tag businesses. Because the playing court is kept dark, the laser sights mounted on the laser beam/infrared(IR) toy guns produce futuristic-ally visible “laser bullets”, complete with tracing tails.