How the Control Room Has Been Used to Implicitly Signify Power in Modern Films

Filmmaker Cormac Deane has created “The Cinematic Control Room”, a rather comprehensive history of the how the idea of a “Control Room” has been used in films from 1971 -2015 to convey the implicit sense of absolute power, knowledge and command, while remaining current within the political and technological context of the day.

A video essay about control rooms in film and television since the 1970s. Computers, screen interfaces, and the rooms they are in are connected to the political context of a particular era. Always-on control room technologies result in a security and political crisis that is permanent, so potential threats in popular screen narratives come from sources that are imagined to be permanent, such as ‘terrorism’ and ‘cyberattack’.

Thanks Jason Scott!