Difference between revisions of "1451: Background Screens"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Jump to: navigation, search
m (fix sentence fragment)
(Transcript: completing transcript)
Line 18: Line 18:
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
[Cueball and Hairy are watching a movie, Cueball sitting on the floor and pointing the remote at the TV.]
+
:What I pay attention to in movies:
 +
:[A pie chart with a small piece (5%) in the upper right part labeled:]
 +
:Plot, characters
 +
:[The rest of the chart (95%) is labeled:]
 +
:Computer screens shown briefly in the background
  
[A pie chart shows what Cueball pays attention to in movies:
+
:[Below the chart Cueball, sitting on the floor, and Hairy, sitting in an armchair, are watching a movie on the TV. Cueball points the remote at the TV.]
* Plot, characters: 5%
+
:Cueball: Hang on– That blurry map behind the general shows one of the alien ships is in ''Greenland''! Why '''''Greenland?!'''''
* Computer screens shown briefly in the background: 95%]
+
:Hairy [quietly]: Can we ''please'' just watch the movie?
 
 
Cueball: Hang on – that blurry map behind the General shows one of the alien ships is in ''Greenland''! Why '''''Greenland?!'''''
 
 
 
Hairy: [quietly] Can we ''please'' just watch the movie?
 
  
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
Line 32: Line 32:
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
 +
[[Category:Charts]]

Revision as of 19:48, 24 November 2014

Background Screens
No way, we gotta rewind and cross-reference this map with the list of coordinates we saw on the other screen. This Greenland thing could be big.
Title text: No way, we gotta rewind and cross-reference this map with the list of coordinates we saw on the other screen. This Greenland thing could be big.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Discuss title text, Greenland, related memes
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

Plot and characters are generally considered the major reasons for watching a movie. Cueball, however, pays particular attention to what's on the computer screens shown briefly in the background. Generally speaking, these screens are shown to the audience for such a short period of time, and at such a low-level of detail, that the contents of the screen don't match what is said in the dialog or otherwise put in the movie. Also, they sometimes contain irrelevant data or jokes. It's unlikely that important information would be communicated in such a way.

Background screens typically only serve to provide a "high-tech feel" to the movie, with endless columns of data flashing by in an eyeblink, and crosshairs zipping across maps. They are designed by artists who may not even be aware of the details of the plot, and as a result, their content (where it is intelligible, such as in a map) has little to no connection to the dialog or other story events going on in front of them.

Greenland, the Earth's largest island, is 80% covered in ice up to several kilometers in depth, and has a population of less than 100,000 people. It is an unlikely place for aliens to land, especially movie aliens, who generally prefer more action-laden locations.

Unless, of course, they are planning something devious. In the title text, Cueball suggests that they should investigate how a list of coordinates from another background screen relates to the location of the alien craft in Greenland, laying the groundwork for a conspiracy theory connecting the movie's story to the "real" world.

Transcript

What I pay attention to in movies:
[A pie chart with a small piece (5%) in the upper right part labeled:]
Plot, characters
[The rest of the chart (95%) is labeled:]
Computer screens shown briefly in the background
[Below the chart Cueball, sitting on the floor, and Hairy, sitting in an armchair, are watching a movie on the TV. Cueball points the remote at the TV.]
Cueball: Hang on– That blurry map behind the general shows one of the alien ships is in Greenland! Why Greenland?!
Hairy [quietly]: Can we please just watch the movie?


comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

"contain irrelevant or irreverent jokes" 108.162.249.231 06:30, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

This sounds like it could be a reference to Independence Day specifically, but I'm not sure if a map is shown with Greenland specifically in that film. Anyone feel like skimming through it? 108.162.215.169 09:10, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

Probably worth pointing out that this relies on being at home where you can pause the film to study the image, which doesn't often happen in a cinema. --141.101.99.50 11:02, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

It sometimes happens in a cinema, though! :p - fixed the "irrelevent or irrelevent" line. This does seem like common practice, though: I too pay attention to what is shown on screens in the background of movies, just to catch odd things. I'm sure plenty of people do this?? Maplestrip (talk) 12:12, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

lol I look at the screens and try to actually read the texts. Mostly won't success but it's really fun to do 173.245.48.134

See also: Source Code in TV and Films. --141.101.104.45 18:06, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

What memes? Smperron (talk) 19:33, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

Sometimes, of course, background screens show something that's a Chekhov's gun. (If you really have nothing to do for a few hours, after reading the Wiki article wander over to TVTropes and also enquire about Chekhov's Gunsmith, etc...) Although as an inveterate "ha! that's just DOS DEBUG scrolling away, feigning being an Enemy Code Transmission'"-person, myself, I think I might visit that Source Code in TV and Films link myself, when I've got more time... ;) 141.101.98.247 21:41, 24 November 2014 (UTC)


You guys sure it isn't a reference to "The edge of tomorrow" scene where the general has a map of europe behind him? That map had some innacuracies (like brazilians instead of portuguese), though i'm not sure if the aliens were shown in greenland... 108.162.254.42 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Star Trek during the Okuda era had all kinds of throwaway jokes and continuity references in its background screens (e.g., the two-plane periodic table that's used to explain dilithium has a bunch of Three Stooges references).

Doctor Who in the past few years has sometimes put carefully tailored continuity nods into its background screens specifically to troll the fans. As soon as someone discovers something, Moffat tweets that it means nothing and was just created by the graphics team at the last second. Since the last part is clearly not being true, everyone assumes the first part isn't true either, so that scene proves that one of the things that a 1991 novel claims was covered up is actually known to mainstream news organizations, and therefore that other novel that implies another layer of disinformation within UNIT has been confirmed on TV. 162.158.255.52 11:54, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

It may be worthy of note that the 2016 film "Arrival" (released 2 years after this comic) does, in fact, feature one of the alien ships landing in Greenland for no apparent reason, and we first find this out by way of a (fairly prominent) background map. I can't find anything suggesting it's a deliberate xkcd reference, but... 162.158.154.157 07:09, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

I think it's at least a partial reference to how many common map projections grossly exaggerate the size of Greenland. 162.158.186.96 03:01, 24 September 2019 (UTC)