100 Things We Learned from Untraceable - Untraceable (2008) Discussion

[–] musichead1030 16 years ago

I'm not sure how the cat died...but I don't think it was just shining the light in its eyes.

And you can get fired for planting webcams.

RIP Brandon-I miss you<3
I <3 Johnny Depp-Alton Brown-Jared Leto-Heath Ledger
HAM

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[–] krismm0326 16 years ago

8. 8-year-olds know how to download computer games by themselves.

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[–] uncle_g1234 16 years ago

8-year-olds know how to download computer games by themselves

Her mom's a computer geek. I've known kids totally unrelated to computer geeks who have that much knowledge. My guess is the girl got an email saying "Here is your gift. Click on the link to get the game to download". That is one of the LEAST farfetched things in the movie.

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[–] satviewer2000 15 years ago

"8. 8-year-olds know how to download computer games by themselves."

Err, my 5 year kid knows how to download games off the internet, install them, and then play them. It's not really that difficult.

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[–] tdibble-1 14 years ago

"8. 8-year-olds know how to download computer games by themselves."

More importantly: FBI CyberCrimes agents who deal with the scum of the earth every day let their 8-year-old daughters run round the internet unattended and without having taught them to never download an app even if it came from their friend.

I suppose it's like doctors who smoke.

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[–] Timescrew 13 years ago

QFT

This was one of those things about the movie that bugged the hell out of me.

There is no flavor text!

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[–] dragoncane 14 years ago

8 year olds CAN download computer games themselves. Kids are playing on comuters in pre-school these days. By the time they are 8, they are required to do small research projects and homework by using the internet.

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[–] maxloh-1 14 years ago

HAHAHAHA what kind of retarded 8-yr-old kid do you have?

http://www.maxloh.com/

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[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] violet_yoshi 16 years ago

You are serious, the guy was doused in sulfuric acid, and his underwear magically wasn't dissolved. Just when I thought this movie couldn't be any crappier..

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[–] fredm74 16 years ago

Excellent observation about the underwear not dissolving in acid. Good catch!

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[–] buddyup2003-1 16 years ago

9: People on the internet are sadistic and/or stupid. No offense to anyone here.

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[–] phoenix_195 16 years ago

None taken, good sir.

10. Owning 3 registered handguns and 2 registered assault rifles will only get the FBI's attention when buying watches.

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[–] mikeygeeuk 16 years ago

11. Watching this has wasted 90mins of my life

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[–] survivorisdabest 16 years ago

12. If you want revenge against sadists on the web who exploited your father's suicide then go and torture and kill the people who are TRYING TO STOP THE ONLINE SADISTS

STEPH IS THE REAL WINNER!!!

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[–] uncle_g1234 16 years ago

I'm sorry. Who would that be again? The cat? The copter pilot? The TV guy? I don't understand who you are talking about. Do you mean the FBI guy? He was trying to stop the killer, not the sadists who flocked to his site.

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[–] plottytoohotty 16 years ago

13. FBI does not need to obey any type of search and seizure law or knock & announce when entering a house/structure for means of obtaining illicit material. Warrants are unnecessary when you are the FBI and you go off of a hunch with no probable cause.

THESPIANS SUCK.

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[–] RipRip 15 years ago

That is the part that annoyed me the most. They find out the guy has REGISTERED, LEGAL guns, and she then comes to the conclusion that he must be the guy, since, obviously, all guns are evil.

Sometimes evil is just applied stupidity-Ronar

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[–] bosscain 16 years ago

sulfuric acid only dissolves clothing after it dries and when re-hydrated mixed with a sulfates(laundry detergents). You would know this if you ever changed the battery in a car and got some acid on your clothing and the washed the acid stained clothing.

... I open my mind to fit the art,not chop down the art to fit my mind.

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[–] alex-2004 15 years ago

woooooooooow - what an expert on chemistry you are!!!

you made my day - thank you

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[–] egloskerry 13 years ago

No, definitely not. Maybe diluted battery acid, which is usually 6M. The acid the killer was using was from a chem lab, so probably at least technical grade, and 18M. Try pouring some fuming H2SO4 on your clothes and see how long you have clothes.

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[–] morgan_mourning 16 years ago

Bruce, are you being serious or sarcastic? The light killing the cat seems to be in the spirit of these “What I’ve learned…” threads, but transmitting messages by blinking can happen…if you use Morse Code.

Anyways, here are mine:

13. If you want people to stay away from a website, don’t go on the news telling them to stay away from the website; everyone knows most people (at least in the movies) have the self control of a 3-year old who’s hopped up on chocolate milk.

14. Even though all your “Sessions” to date have been of things dying by logging on, you, as the psychopath, get offended when you secretly video tape an 8-year-old girl and think your viewers expect her to die as well.

15. If you invite a woman to an 8-year-old’s skating party as a first date and ditch her the second she shows up, it’s totally plausible she’ll call you back.

16. If someone hijacks your OnStar system and completely shuts down everything electrical in your car (also locking you inside the car because let’s face it, those door locks are really tough to pull up!) AND cell phone, quickly smash a window and escape…and then just jump back in the car if the lights come back on, I’m sure nothing will happen.

Goblin Cannonball: I hit something! Yes?!? No?!?

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[–] jedibob03 16 years ago

17. even if u are a computer specialist working for the government, u dont run protection programs to prevent being hacked into.

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[–] uncle_g1234 16 years ago

I didn't think it at the time, but why didn't her firewall stop or at least identify the Trojan? And a further question. How did the kid discover Marsh's identity?

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[–] jedibob03 16 years ago

All I know is, she had no protection and that's how she was infected with the trojan from the game her daughter downloaded. The kid used the trojan to get into her system and find out stuff about her.

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[–] uncle_g1234 16 years ago

Unless the Trojan could hide itself from the firewall, but that's pretty sophisticated for one kid working on his own.

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[–] jedibob03 16 years ago

The firewall can't pick up anything. Firewall is just there to protect intrusion into the pc. so, she probably doesn't even have a firewall too, if she got hacked easily.

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[–] maxloh-1 14 years ago

Actually if you download and run a malicious .exe file yourself with administrator priveleges then I'm pretty sure it can do anything.

http://www.maxloh.com/

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[–] Timescrew 13 years ago

Contrary to popular opinion, having the latest and greatest up to date and paid for Antivirus, anti spy/ad/mal/graware blocker, and Firewall does not eliminate the possibility of a virus or a hacker from accessing your system.

It really only narrows down the chances it will happen.

Example:

* - You feel your streets are not safe at night.

* - You lock your door. Does this prevent someone from breaking in? No. If he wants to, he'll pick the lock.

* - You put a deadbolt on the door.
Great! He can't pick the lock, but he can still pry open the window or, worse case maybe smash it.

* - You install a security system that trips when the doors or windows are opened.
Excellent. Now he can't smash the window or force the door open. Youi're totally secured now... right? Wrong. If the crook really wants to get in, he can still do so by the conventional means and then disable the alarm. You can learn how to do that with six months training in electronics.

The point is, if they really want access, they will get in.
A Trojan, by its very nature (and definition of its name) is designed to get in your system and bypass your security protocols.

So, how do I keep my computer safe?

Its like catching an STD. If you don't have sex, its nearly impossible (but not completely) to get one.

i.e. Don't go to the wrong kinds of websites, click on the wrong kinds of links, or install the wrong kind of software and you will never - NEVER - get infected.

There is no flavor text!

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[–] Herald 15 years ago

17. it's possible to show a fullscreen live videofeed without any buffering for 24 million people. One heck of a server the killer has!

18. it's possible to get 10 million views after 2 minutes your show started at a random time nobody knew.

19. checking who registered and pays the bills for killwithme.com isn't on the checklist for the FBI.

20. it's possible to script a winch to react to pageviews

21. it's possible to hack into a car

22. the FBI really has a magic enhance button on their keyboard

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[–] parker-58 15 years ago

23. If, during the course of your federal murder investigation, you have a hunch about the identity of the killer, don't bother mentioning the details to anyone. Just call your partner and say you'll tell her all about it later.

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[–] DaytonaBob 15 years ago

Number 23 is right on target.

ANYTIME I see that in a movie you know the next thing is the person who knows is going to die. It is one of the stupidist and weakest writing arcs in existence.

The single worst one is where the man/woman comes home, sees a gun/knife that just killed their boy/girlfriend wife, wife whatever and PICKS IT UP and then the cops come in.

They who give up liberty to
obtain a temporary safety deserve
neither liberty or safety

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[–] justjoan46 15 years ago

24. The FBI dosen't mind if an agent lets their child use their computer at home, even if it does have firewalls.

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[–] EastExpert 15 years ago

Yeah!
That one always has p!ssed me off.

Instead of just saying: 'Look, I think the "Rush Hour Suicide" is the connection, we'll talk about this later', the idiot says nothing, keeping the mysteries from her work partner -- and ends up trying to Morse the message via his eyelids -- while being immersed in Sulphuric Acid.

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[–] EastExpert 15 years ago

To #17:
Well... may be not to 24 million people at once, but total logon count would be 24.
Still, that would mean nearly every Internet connected American home would probably be online & Watching... LOL :)

#18: Some people might be eagerly watching, but... all of the American households? No Friggin' Way!

#19: Hahaha. Yes. Even having a dummy name would be pointing to a real credit card. A lead at least.

Also why wouldn't they just wipe the domain off the registrar's servers? I.e. off the root .COM zone. DNS servers might be in Russia or wherever, but .COM is very much under US jurisdiction. I am pretty sure that real .COM TLD administrators would be damn well cooperating -- possibly of fear to be named as accomplices in these online murders, but most probably just as normal live people who hate murders and torture.

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[–] Timescrew 13 years ago

"Also why wouldn't they just wipe the domain off the registrar's servers? I.e. off the root .COM zone. DNS servers might be in Russia or wherever, but .COM is very much under US jurisdiction. I am pretty sure that real .COM TLD administrators would be damn well cooperating -- possibly of fear to be named as accomplices in these online murders, but most probably just as normal live people who hate murders and torture."

And this is exactly what I would have done.

There is no flavor text!

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[–] slindenau 15 years ago

@20:
Anything that moves with some sort of electrical power can be programmed in a way, yes.

Even if that means creating some mechanical hand that pushes the "down" button on every +1million views.

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[–] bainf 12 years ago

22. the FBI really has a magic enhance button on their keyboard

I want one of those!
It used to enhance everyone as african american but it has been improved now

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[–] wjbishop 14 years ago

I actually jumped up and screamed at the TV when Diane Lane got back into her car. i suppose they had to find an excuse for the perp to get her, having diane Lane jump right back into her car without looking is about the dumbest thing I have seen ANYBODY do in a movie. It pretty near killed this movie for me.

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[–] Six-Shooter 14 years ago

I laughed because he looked so retarded. Like a cartoon. I was expecting: "Shooo. I'm hunting foow FBI agents."

"What say you, fuzzy britches?"

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[–] LaWanda74 15 years ago

OMG, I never noticed the man's underwear was still intact!

FYC: The Dark Knight, Best Picture 12/9/08

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[–] Dumoren 15 years ago

Don't mean to be a killjoy (this list is funny :D) but in regards to number 2, I think that was some special sort of "morse code" or something (American Dad made a spoof of it once?) where you blink a certain amount of times and each set of blinks is meant to equal a letter. Like 5 blinks meant the letter H etc..

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[–] poopooperson 15 years ago

@ number 2... He made a comment earlier about blinking out Morse code. When he started blinking erratically, everyone knew he was sending a message in the language of dots and dashes.

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[–] cinephyler 15 years ago

n+1) if the FBI is looking for a suspect and the first guy they check has registered legal firearms, they stop looking for other suspects and raid the house like it's WWIII.

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[–] beat 15 years ago

25. when your boss offers you a week off, say no - even though you hardly ever see your family - because it could make you look like a pansy.

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[–] ag_pusscat 15 years ago

26. Before getting in the driver's seat of a car that contains known killers and that just ran them off the road, trained FBI agents will only ever take a cursory glance inside.

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[–] moserneely 15 years ago

ag pusscat, you stole mine!

Now I got nuttin'.

:)

That may have been the silliest moment in the movie when she didn't even look in the back seat...

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[–] Mydoona 15 years ago

I didn't understand how the killer kidnapped Colin Hanks,yes he was using the devise that made his voice sound female and probably told him to come to his house but when the 'guy' opened the door wouldn't Colin be suspicious?

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[–] mokamoka 15 years ago

BILLY BURKE IS FREAKIN' HOOOT!!!

Setting goals can blind you to opportunities.

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[–] Timescrew 13 years ago

He probably hid in the bushes, and when Griffen hit the doorbell he pounched on him with his taser.

There is no flavor text!

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[–] daMasterShoNuff 15 years ago

27. Concrete is the most efficient way to keep a man in place while you burn him with heat lamps

28. If you are burning alive, it's best to wait until you're almost fully burnt to mouth the address to the camera

29. Her daughter likes being videotaped and showing off her biking skills for cameras posted outside her house. Don't let her go to Cancun when she's in college, we'll see her on Girls Gone Wild!

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[–] hannethereza 15 years ago

30. If you work for the FBI, your kids are not important. You can't take a week off to stay with them, even if they just have been videotaped by a psyko-killer.

31. Cars can be hacked and unhacked in a couple of minutes. (when she was in the motel)

32. After you called for backup, youll go and sit in your car that just started to work again. Without bothering to check for the psyko killer.. Thats not important.

33. If you are supposed to meet a boy you've never seen before, and he runs off immediatly(?), you will stay a while at his co workers daughters birthayparty..

34. The daughter gets bored by horsegames

35. People watching other people being killed will make suggestions about who should be killed next..

36. American internet users are very bloodthirsty.. (no offence)

37. The best part of the movie is reading this list after:)

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[–] robborak 15 years ago

38. An FBI Agent specializing in Cyber Crimes wouldn't have a seperate computer strictly for home/personal use and instead let's her 8 year old fool around on a computer containing sensitive files and confidential information.

39. Instead of staying in a more secure upscale hotel with security and a concierge while hiding out, Diane Lane's character stays in a ratty run down looking motel that is easily accesible by the killer.

40. Apparently the FBI computers are not sophisticated enought to track down some maniac with limited resources.

41. Even though a sadistic murdered is violently torturing animals and people, including an FBI agent, openly on the internet. The US government doesnt think it warrants the use of their supercomputers that would track down the killer instantly.

42. The killer instinctively knows when the FBI have finally figured out where he is hiding and leaves before they show up.

43. One jolt of a taser will incapacitate someone and knock them unconcious long enough for the killer to do what he needs to do.

44. On-star WILL kill you

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[–] mxlflx 15 years ago

45. Female FBI agents entrust their families' safety to strangers, but don't think those same strangers can catch the psycho trying to kill them.

46. After a night in a woman's upstairs bedroom, a man can easily identify her basement---that he has never been in--from a lo res video stream.

47. Serial killers always warm up with the most helpless victims, then balk at hurting other helpless victims after the warm up.

Fundamentals are the crutch of the talentless--Kenny Powers

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[–] bill-pyle 15 years ago

@46, the detective investigated Marsh's basement after she addressed the camera that was watching her house. So yes, he was there before.

----------------
http://www.divineclothingco.com

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[–] arkom24 15 years ago

2. You can transmit messages by just blinking your eyes.

It's called morose code.

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[–] wreckingcrew 15 years ago

48. When FBI Agent Jennifer Marsh announced to Detective Box that she was going to take a shower (in the scene where he brought her dinner to her hotel room), it was not considered as an invite to Det. Box for "something else" as in other typical Hollywood films - or perhaps that scene was deleted?

49. Serial killers can be so creatively sinister when designing the means of death of their victims - kind of like the villains in the James Bond movies.

50. Not all FBI agents consult computer geeks (e.g. The Lone Gunmen from the X-Files) to help catch high tech criminals - the FBI now have their own computer geeks.

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[–] philagg711 14 years ago

51. After doing lots of intricate research to track down a serial killer, it is better to make an elaborate presentation about ebay accounts and news stories to your FBI group than to act swiftly and go directly to the home of that killer.

52. While working on a case that involoves a manhunt of an extremely gifted internet murderer, it is a good idea to continue on-line dating during the investigation. There is no way this could end badly.

53. It's a good idea for everybody in the FBI to visit the website on both their work and home computers, adding to the swiftness that the subjects will be killed.

54. Threatening to arrest those who visit the website for being a party to homicide is not a good idea.

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[–] metalboy_5150 12 years ago

2. You can transmit messages by just blinking your eyes.

It's called morose code.