Control Data Corporation - Film and Science Fiction References

Film and Science Fiction References

• Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) — The title sequences to this film include tape drives and other early CDC equipment.
• The Thief Who Came to Dinner, 1973 by Terrence Lore Smith and Walter Hill — Ryan O'Neal plays a bored Control Data employee who decides to retire and turn to a life of crime, but breaks back in to use the computers to help him in a game of chess with the detective who is on his trail.
• The pilot episode of The Six Million Dollar Man, "The Moon and the Desert" (1974), featured computers in the O.S.I. laboratory, emblasoned with the CDC "Control Data" badge.
• The Adolescence of P-1 (1977), by Thomas Ryan — Control Data computers were very enticing to young P-1.
• The New Avengers — In episode 2-10 (#23) ("Complex", 1977) Purdey uses a CDC card reader.
• Mi-Sex — Computer Games: 1979 pop music video. The band enters the computer room in the Control Data North Sydney building and proceeds to play with CDC equipment.
• Tron (1982) — In the wide screen version of the film, when Flynn and Lora sneak into Encom, a CDC 7600 is visible in the background, alongside a Cray-1. This scene was shot at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
• Die Hard (1988) — The computer room shot up by one of the terrorists contained a number of working Cyber 180 computers and a mock-up of an ETA-10 supercomputer, along with a number of other peripheral devices, all provided by CDC Demonstration Services/Benchmark Lab. This equipment was requested on short notice after another computer manufacturer backed out at the last minute. Paul Derby, manager of the Benchmark Lab, arranged to send two van-loads of equipment to Hollywood for the shoot, accompanied by Jerry Stearns of the Benchmark Lab who watched over this equipment. After the machines were returned to Minnesota, they were inspected and tested, and as each machine was sold, a notation was made in the corporate records that the machine had appeared in the film.
• They Live (1988), by John Carpenter — As Roddy Piper is trying on his new "sunglasses" that allow him to see the world as it is, he looks at an advertisement for Control Data Corporation and sees the word OBEY. The film's credits include "special thanks" to CDC.