A Developer Goes to the Movies - Simon Painter

We are kicking of 2025 by welcoming back to Liverpool Simon Painter who will be presenting a topic on A Developer Goes to the Movies
Talk
As well as being a full-time software developer, I'm also a huge film buff. I love films from any number of countries, eras and genres. One of my favourite things though, is when Hollywood decide to make a film touching on my day job - that is, a film that's about software development.
There aren't very many of these, rather unsurprisingly, considering how dry the topic can be for the "not-we" that make up the majority of a cinema audience.
What I'm going to do in this talk is take you on a whistle-stop tour of film history, looking at many of the films that try to show the rest of the world what our jobs are like.
I'll be looking at firstly - are they actually good films? But also, how accurate are they? What sorts of social trends informed a portrayal like this?
On this brief odyssey through cinema history, we'll cover:
The first film to depict a developer. You won't believe when it's from and who the actor is!
How have developers been portrayed differently over the years? Particularly with regard the role of women in tech
How The Matrix wasn't the first VR world by near 30 years!
A 90s cyber-thriller that clearly doesn't understand the difference between websites and executables
How AI is very definitely going to kill us all. At least according to any number of old SF action-thrillers
An old episode of Doctor Who from the 60s that predicted the internet (ok, not Hollywood, but I love Doctor Who!)
This talk won't help you do your job better, but it might give you a glimpse into how the rest of the world have seen us over the years!
About Simon Painter
Hi! My name is Simon Painter and I code both professionally and - since it's also my hobby - for fun as well. I live in a small town in the West Midlands, not far from the Welsh Border, along with my lovely wife and two small children.
I've been coding professionally since I graduated from university in 2005, and for a hobby since I was old enough to read my Dad's ZX Spectrum BASIC manual.