Awesome tech in the movies: 10 instances

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    Minority Report

    Touchscreens are a bit less impressive these days, but in 2002, manipulating a giant screen with gloves looked like a good time, even if it was in the pursuit of would-be criminals.

    Image: 20th Century Fox
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    Tron Legacy

    Sure, it’s pretty trippy to think about how one could get sucked into a videogame. The cooler piece of tech in this movie is the light cycle\u2013 a sleek motorcycle that dissolves into something a little thinner and a little longer than the case for your glasses. And it glows. Beauty and function — get on it, Honda.

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    Back to the Future

    It’s weirdly easy to imagine a mechanic walking out of the garage, wiping an oily wrench with a towel, to tell you your flux capacitor’s busted. Between parts and labor, we don’t want to know what Marty McFly’s bill might be.

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    Her

    Last year, movie-goers took a look at a future operating system so advanced, that humans — or maybe just Joaquin Phoenix — fell in love with it. Reality check: Siri’s going to be lonely a while longer.

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    Iron Man

    From the suit itself to the interface Jarvis (wondering how Jarvis and Samantha from Her would get along, by the way), Ironman offers a lot of tech. Most astounding, especially if you’ve seen Iron Man 3, is how just one guy makes so many suits.

    Image: Decalology
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    Avatar

    Forget teleportation, try transferring conscious to an alien being.

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    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

    The achievement of the tech in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is converting what looks like a large colander into a machine that can pinpoint and erase memories.

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    Inception

    Don’t ask for an in-depth explanation, but it does look like there are a lot of tubes involved in tapping into a sleeping person’s dreams.

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Erin Carson

As a global nomad with experience living and raising children in China, the USA and Europe, Erin Carson loves to share her knowledge of both literature and travel through her writing. Carson has a master's degree in library science and a…