Hacker News Reader

Comment by bjpirt | Hacker News Reader

This is one of my favourite distractions when watching Sci-Fi films set in the future - spotting objects from now. For example:

- In Luke's home in Star Wars IV there's a lot of Tupperware - https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2014/02/in-praise-of-t...

- In Alien, Ripley drinks from a Tupperware mug - https://twitter.com/EverRotating/status/1156650673972363264

View on HN

I think the most famous/beloved/notorious version of this is the guy in Star Wars running around with a completely unaltered off the shelf ice cream maker.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Thatsabooklight/comments/bf20dp/i_p...

I just found that link through Google, but that is apparently a whole subreddit devoted to this type of use of modern objects getting repurposed as some fantastical movie/TV props.

Sure looks like an electric ice cream maker but it's not the exact model pictured. Look at the pattern of vents on top of the motor, how far the "arms" overhang the pot, and the thickness of the pot lip for example. ;)

That's addressed in the comments, it's probably a Sunbeam rather than a Hamilton Beach

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Egbert_Sen

You mean a camtono?

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Camtono

My favorite example is in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, where one of Captain Pike's hobbies is cooking. Real cooking with fresh ingredients, not replicated food.

Pike grew up on a ranch in Montana, where his family used Lodge cast iron pans. Cast iron isn't perfect for cooking - the heat distribution is mediocre - but one thing you can say about it is that it will outlive you.

Even if it gets rusty from neglect, you can sand it down, re-season it, and it will be as good as new!

I don't know if they make it explicit in the show, but I have a feeling that Captain Pike's pans were handed down from generation to generation, so naturally he brought his family's old cast iron pans with him on the Enterprise.

https://www.foodandwine.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-kit...

I would think induction tech and power delivery would be so good by that era, you could heat a cast iron pan in no time!

Set phasers to “fry”.

Probably something to do with warp plasma conduits.

now that you mention it, I can't think of anything more futuristic than using magnetic flux to induce current into an iron pan

a sous vide bath of vacuum sealed meat is rather dull in comparison to a good sear

Forget the pans, well, okay, they are cool, but where is Pike getting fresh, non-replicated ingredients to use?

IIRC, the doctor grows the fresh ingredients for Pike. There's a recent episode where he goes to meet the doctor (for other reasons I think) and he gives Pike some fresh greens. So essentially many tiny green houses.

My mother-in-law (from Alabama) recently gifted me all _her_ grandmother's cast iron (my wife can't cook). I hope they get passed down for a few more generations!

This is the dream, cast iron pans well seasoned and looked after will last practically forever and are a joy to cook with. Heck, even poorly looked after pans can usually be brought back to a long and delicious life. I envy you!

The Galactica miniseries had a scene near the beginning with a futuristic looking alarm clock on a nightstand. I had that exact same alarm clock, as it was given as a cheapo christmas present to all the student employees in my department at the university.

Were you guys habitually late to work?

Not especially, I worked in an IT support lab and most of the guys set their own schedules.

FWIW Star Wars is set a long time ago, not in the future ;)

I've always liked to imagine any similarities between Star Wars and humanity on Earth is because Star Wars is set so indeterminately long ago that it seems 'plausible' that Star Wars is all really true, and if we build the right telescope and point it at the right galaxy, perhaps we can watch the Rebels fight the Empire IRL!

Maybe it depicts a part of this galaxy history. I like to believe that work of art that touches us, stay in our memory, has some truth into it that fascinate us.

We are strongly led to believe we are alone in the universe, and that we are the first human like specie in the whole universe and our solar system to ever have existed. Believing otherwise is pure heresy. What is left for us to contact part of the world that we know exist but that "can't be real because that would be heresy" ?

Science-fiction, fantasy.

In The Expanse, a painted Ikea "washcloth hanger" that looks like an octopus is actually a game for special childrens. Also a 3d connexion space mouse is used to control the rocci. I kind of hate spotting them tho.

The Expanse used a ton of off-the-shelf props; most of them were used cleverly enough that they didn't stand out too badly. My personal favorite was a couple of laptop coolers used as "vents" in a maintenance passage: https://i.redd.it/rn2iac41t8h51.jpg

A good Belter never wastes anything.

One of the real skills of commercial model and prop making is know all the corners you can cut, and things you can reuse.

To take an example from Aliens, the ship is only seen from one side, so the model only has one finished painted side, and the interior sets scavenge loads of bits and pieces from computer cases and whatever.

You also shouldn’t underestimate the tradition of hiding Easter eggs in models and sets.

they used a Thule or Yakima (don't remember) car roof box (something like that) https://www.thule.com/en-us/cargo-carrier/car-top-carrier/th... as a casket :D

Yeah that one was a little bit too obvious IMO. A bit immersion breaking

Had to look this up and I found it: https://www.reddit.com/r/Thatsabooklight/comments/hna8zo/tv_...

lol, I have that! I never noticed it on the show.

> Also a 3d connexion space mouse is used to control the rocci.

Did you know that the SpaceMouse got developed by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) as DLR SpaceMouse for controlling robot arms in space?

https://www.dlr.de/rm-neu/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-3808/

I mean 3D connexion makes a good product. I just figured they never went out of business :)

One of my favorites was seeing my toy chest from when I was a kid in Wrath of Khan

"Little Tikes kid’s Apollo Space Capsule Toy Chest." - https://third-wave-design.com/2018/11/30/houston-we-dont-hav...

It also pops up in a ton of other places.

I can't really imagine a future without Tupperware to be honest.

I love these to. The manual control for Moya in Farscape is a Logitech TrackMan.

Vintage Tupperware mug.

pre-space retro chic!

50 credits, transportable anywhere in the Sol cluster

Reply on news.ycombinator.com