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Why were there never dot.com movies?

24 points by nytesky ↗ HN
With Dumb Money coming out, and Big Short, Wall Street, Smartest Guys in the Room, Silicon Valley (yeah not a movie).

Why did that heralded period when secretaries became millionaires, and economy was humming, and then it shattered so ridiculously and kinda of setup the housing bubble and ZIRP period.

24 comments

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fragmede
About 2001, I don't know, but Blackberry, SuperPumped, and General Magic are three other things I'd recommend watching in this general area.
bediger4000
What about "Antitrust"(2001)?

As a Unix user since 1989, and a Linux user from 2001 on, I'll mutter darkly about the media's precious treatment of Bill Gates, and Microsoft in general as a reason.

tim--
This is a fantastic movie. I wish Hollywood would make more movies like this!
romanhn
Startup.com was great. I've also heard good things about Valley of the Boom. And, while not exactly a dot com movie, Pirates of Silicon Valley is a classic about the Jobs vs Gates rivalry.
user3939382
Yeah I saw Startup.com in high school it was hugely influential for me.
NoZebra120vClip
I worked as a systems admin, sometimes as a consultant, between 1992-1999.

First and foremost in my mind was that I simply couldn't explain the things I did to other people. I didn't produce any tangible goods, I didn't develop software and produce an app, or a website. I might bring a briefcase in to work, but there was usually nothing to put in it, and nothing to take home.

I had some friends and coworkers who could relate, and of course that was a tight-knit crew; we had in-jokes, we knew what Usenet was like, we downloaded games from anon ftp. But if I told a normal person what I did for a living, they'd always say "oh! you know computers! you can get great jobs that way!"

So Hollywood would be hard-pressed to dramatize my workplaces. First to just depict it all in an appealing way, and then to inject some sort of conflict or interpersonal tension. Good night, and good luck.

dharmab
The Big Short was able to depict financial instruments in an appealing way.

Partly by interjecting a scene where Margot Robbie explains the mortgage bond market and short selling while wearing very little, but people seemed to like that movie.

AndrewKemendo
Albeit not a movie specifically, I feel like Halt and Catch Fire did the dotcom thing well.
pistol_pete
That is one of my favorite shows of all time! Heavily undderrated and not that well known
TZubiri
What season is that? I saw the first season and it was just like the 70s
pbjtime
That is by intent. Each season is another chapter in the story of the origins of the home PC revolution.
pbjtime
Quite easily one of the most thrilling and beautiful technology related productions of all time. An absolute must see.
Nevermark
Just discovered it. I loved it!

But my career has that same mix of cutting edge potential mixed with human limitations making it stressful for me too.

Very well done

mikewarot
I almost bailed after the first episode... you could just PEEK() the roms, it wasn't hard to do. It got better after that, much better.
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toast0
You've Got Mail (1998)
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dragonwriter
There are several (both about the boom and the bust), but probably less than there otherwise would have been because during the boom it was the new normal (it, and the changes it wrougt, was context in a lot of movies while it was happening, but the boom itself wasn’t often the direct subject) and after... well, the 2000 election drama followed by 9/11 followed by the series of wars following that event drew a whole lot of the media (including movies) focus that otherwise would have gone to looks back at the dot-com boom & bust.

> and then it shattered so ridiculously and kinda of setup the housing bubble and ZIRP period.

Not really, the long-term hollowing out of the economy outside of a very narrow slice at the top that culminated in housing collapse and Great Recession was more a result of tax and other policy shifts that led to the 2001-2007 expansion having horrible distributional characteristics, and not to the dot-com bust itself and the short and shallow 2001 recession it produced.