MovieChat Forums > The Ipcress File (1965) Discussion > The metal ? box

The metal ? box

posted 18 years ago by ermitage18
8 replies | jump to latest

I like this film a lot, ever since I first saw it in 1965, and have since watched it many times. One thing however has always worried me, the suspended 'torture chamber' has 16 mm projectors on arms pointing at it, therefore the images seen by Palmer inside the box are presumably back projection. But since the box is apparently solidly made of metal how can this be. He is strapped to a chair facing the door of the box, yet when this door opens it is definitely not an opaque screen. Has this worried anybody else?

[–] Akzidenz_Grotesk 18 years ago

These projectors on arms are supposedly on "booms" (I haven't seen the film in a while) so they would "tilt" and project the images down into the (roofless?) box from above. If it is an enclosed cube with a roof, then the images must be somehow relayed through a secondary device/projector in order for them to get inside the cube.

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[–] Autlan 17 years ago

The cube was darker inside after the door was closed, so it can't have been roofless. The solution is obvious, the cube was lined with nine foot high LCD screens. The projectors were used to put on a dazzling lightshow and alleviate boredom for the pulley wenches and boom lackeys waiting patiently on the floor below.

[–] ermitage18 17 years ago

LCD screens ? 1965 ?

[–] Autlan 17 years ago

You don't think government agencies release all their technologies to the public immediately after they're developed, do you? If all this stuff was in the public domain, what would there be for Harry Palmer to investigate/procure?

[–] steveraybould 17 years ago

And what was the point of housting the metal box in the air? Some sort of sensory deprivation device? Or do they swing it around to disorientate the victim? Not really demonstated. But it looks good.

[–] Autlan 17 years ago

Maybe to reduce vibrations from footsteps and the road outside. I can't think what swinging someone inside a box would accomplish other than making them seasick.

[–] megArnold 16 years ago

...other than making them seasick.

That's exactly the purpose.

[–] paulsdhart (277) 4 years ago

Rewatching the scene where they are about to raise the box, it looks like fabric fastened to poles with projectors on each side, why else would they be there?
I agree the later shots inside the box look like it is metal