Shane West's character asks what echelon is. I was wondering is his character the one person in the world who doesn't know, cause I was familiar with what it was after watching Alias.
shareI'm very familiar with the concept, but didn't know it was termed "echelon". But I never watched Alias.
shareMaybe he didn't watch Alias?
Sometimes, baby bison die.
I was wondering is his character the one person in the world who doesn't know, cause I was familiar with what it was after watching Alias.
LOL - I watched a fictional TV show and now wonder why the whole world is not familiar with a word they used on it!! Hmmmm, But then if the "whole world" was watching the TV show "Alias," it would still be on, would it not?
Some comments are just funny cause of how dumb they are!!
Hey OP, they now have Hulu....TV shows you can watch all the time on the Internet! It will soften your brain like a ripe banana until its reduced to a cottage cheese like mush so the aliens can scoop it out with a melon baller and gobble them up. True!! I saw it on a TV commercial!
I too first learned of Echelon from Alias, but HELLO? The Alias writers got the idea from somewhere. One quick check of Wikipedia reveals that Echelon has been public knowledge since 2001. Same name, no fictitious Hollywood spy name like Eagle Eye or WOPR, just ECHELON, because everyone SHOULD have heard of it, especially a computer security tech.
shareSomeone may have heard of it but not everyone has heard of it. I didn't know what it was and that doesn't mean I assume that no one knew what it was meaning just because you knew what it was doesn't mean everyone knew what it was.
shareSounds like Wikipedia is wrong. Echelon has been public knowledge since at least the 80's.
shareYeah, I was wondering about that too especially that he works in the field of computers. lol. Well, maybe he hasn't watched Alias nor played Splinter Cell. lol
shareMost people dont know of echelon. I would argue that his character would know of it though as it is widly known among computer people. In fact, part of the online community shortly after echelon was started tried to start a campaign to shut it down by adding key words to all their email forcing echelon to take notice of them.
This sadly failed as not enough people went onboard.
I know about Echlon and NSA cuz I played Splinter Cell games.
shareI never watched Alias and I knew what echelon is...it was revealed to me when I, just for fun for a few months, started every phone conversation with:
Achmed, I have not yet received the package...is the package ready for delivery?
I would never belong to any club that would have me as a member
my unnecessary question is why didn't they just cut the power to Echelon to begin with. It would have saved a lot of people time and hassle. Or when Echelon was upgrading itself?
I know the obvious answer which is who ever thought of this movie's plot didn't quite think things through! Just my two cents about the ridiculousness of this movie
It's a movie for smart people...pay atention...and you'll understand!
shareThis movie reminds me of Colossus: The Forbin Project http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064177/.
That was really good, but dated now.
Same question, why not just pull the plug?
Why would anyone choose to "stand UNDER" someone else?
shareExposition. Whether you think it is too much (could be, but not everyone seeing the film is going to know what Echelon is), it's far from the worst flaw in this rather cheesy and dumbed-down movie. Although a computer security expert (or a character presented as such, lol) probably isn't the best person to be asking (rather than, maybe, being asked by someone who'd more plausibly not know) this expository question.
I like the genre of cyber-thrillers, which is why I checked this out. But I've seen so many others that are far superior and more intelligently written than this one, so I'm spoiled and particularly pissed at the suckery of this. 4 rating for me.
Understanding is a three-edged sword.