Hey everybody, I just came back from seeing the movie "National Treasure". (Yea I know I am a little late) Anyhow there is the part when they have 30 seconds to disarm the security system in the house of the love interest.
Anyhow, (if you saw it) did you notice that it was a NX-148E Keypad.
And did you notice that by removing the cover the circuit board, keys and display still hang on the wall.
And did you notice that a couple of alligator clips and something the size of 9 volt battery attached to the top left corner of the keypad cracked the code in less than 30 seconds.
Now I want me one of them things. Or maybe that is one of those thingies that was being discussed a while back..............................................
If you did not see the movie I hope this did not spoil it for you.
I also noticed that somehow someone could clone a cell phone and listen in to all conversations on the old phone. And does anyone ever notice in movies that people pull out their cell phone and begin talking 2 seconds after dialing? Like what carrier is that???
Well at least they didn't pull the old trick of bypassing the alarm panel, which is conveniently mounted on the outside of the building or in an unprotected mechanical/electrical area or basement.
That drives me crazy. Almost as much as when I see actors using the same Motorola radios I use and they are pressing the headset connector cover to talk - as well as holding the damned things to their ears like cell phones.
Frankly, it has to be a pretty good movie for me to overlook the ridiculous stuff that is there because they fail to do their homework.
It used to be military gaffs screwed up a movie (like Will Smith in 'Independence Day' wearing a Kuwait Liberation medal but not wearing the Southwest Asia Service Ribbon - how could he free Kuwait if he wasn't in the area? I liked the movie enough to more or less overlook it) but now that I am in the alarm industry even more movies are ruined or semi-ruined.
It would be the first time I ever got anything to connect to a panel in less than thirty seconds, never mind talking to it and and getting a working code.
I liked the first one, so other than the alarm gaff, would you recommend it?
I liked the first one better, but the second is still entertaining. They didn't try as hard to create a mystery about the next "clue",a la NT1 or Davinci Code (the book, the movie sucked).
Eddie Murphy used the foil from chewing gum as a magnet in Beverly Hills Cop. Another movie showed a guy spray paint the lens on the motion. Ocean's Twelve they launched an apparatus via harpoon from the roof of a building, across the street, through a window, and directly onto the victim's keypad. Then they disarmed the system using the gizmo mounted to the keypad. Absolute Power with Clint Eastwood was another doozy. It's Hollywood. Nothing is supposed to make sense. Hollywood is where
Then whenever someone is on a computer, especially when they are breaking into that "secret" missile control computer, the computer will make "Hollywood computer noises". Like in the movie war games.
There is an old movie (from the 70's) "Thief" with James Caan and Jim Belushi that somewhat realistically shows Jim bypassing the old DC reversing-relay telephone line circuits with batteries and reostats. The movie is also noted for accurately depicting an oxygen torch burning bar in a vault cracking scene.
The Clint Eastwood Movie "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" has brief scenes of an alarm central station monitoring company with old Admeco equipment.
Oceans Twelve (2004) depicts George Clooney and a gang of thieves using some sort of mechanical device that they place over a residential alarm keypad to push all combinations of the buttons.... it is mostly unbelievable BS, though.
The newer version of the Thomas Crown Affair (1999) shows an undercover police unit cracking a high-end residential keypad in under
30 seconds... again... mostly bs.
The old movie Grand Slam (1967) is an unintentionaly hilarious story of an attempt to beat a super-sensitive sound detection alarm system using shaving cream placed on the floor and sliding a safe over it. The title Grand Slam even refers to the name of this alarm system.
The two Alistair MacLean movies (Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare) were noted for their use of "Panic Buttons" inside the various German military headquarters.
Upon discovering the presence of Allied soldiers in their lair, typically one of the German soldiers pressed a button, thus causing loud Klaxon horns to sound, bells to ring, and air raid sirens to howl in the distance.
And during all this, scores of German storm troopers would instantly pour out of their barracks and instantly give chase on motorcycles, motorcycles with side cars, jeeps, troup carriers, etc.
I still like the "laser beams" effect best. That shows two areas where knowledge is missing from Hollywood's depictions. First with alarm technology and secondly with basic physics. I can remember in college physics using a Kundts tube to study nodes and anti nodes. Later when doing lasers it was easy to see why an otherwise solid beam of light would visibly appear and then disappear. So even in the attempt to make it look real, a true laser beam would not display as a solid beam of light uniform from end to end. There would be spots where it would be visible and areas where it would disappear.
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