146 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
146 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
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Lessons in Lawbreaking
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BAD INFLUENCES
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[From September 1990 Issue of Premiere Magazine. -Jaded Jules]
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Movies aren't just escapist entertainment. Actually they have much to
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teach us--about the frailty of Family relations (Ordinary People,
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Terms of Endearment), or the healing power of love (Pretty Woman, An
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Officer and a Gentleman), or the victory of never letting your
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shortcomings stand in your way (Rocky, The Karate Kid). And then
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there are some lessons that are a tad unorthodox, like how to stall a
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cop car by stuffing bananas up the tailpipe. How useful is such
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information in real life?
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-In The Manhattan Project, Christopher Collet plays a prank on a jerk
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in his science class. By mixing two liquids commonly found in a high
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school laboratory, he creates nitrogen triiodide, a chemical that,
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when dry explodes at the slightest shock--which is just what happens
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when the jerk slams a drawer shut. "Oh, God--they put that in a
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movie?" exclaims Cornell University chemistry professor John
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Wiesenfeld. "It's extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, it's done
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regularly as a prank in high schools and colleges. You can do it in
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your own home." To the movies credit, it doesn't identify the two
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ingredients in the mixture. Says Wiesenfeld, "That a movie director
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would supply information on how to make a significant contact
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explosive--I wonder about our values."
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-Eddie Murphy wants to get cops Judge Reinhold and John Ashton off his
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trail in Beverly Hills Cop, so he shoves three bananas up their car's
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tailpipe, causing the car to stall. In reality, says Ron Arbizzani,
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director of engineering for Midas International Corporation (the
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muffler people), a more substantial blockage, like a jammed in piece
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of wood, would be needed to conceivably make this work. "Something
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like a couple of bananas--being as mushy as they are--the engine
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pressure would build up and blow them right out of there," Arbizzani
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says. "I'm sure that some kids probably saw that movie and tried that
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on their friends. The worst thing that's going to happen is it's
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going to splatter bananas around."
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-John Ashton wants to slow down the progress of rival bounty hunter
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Robert De Niro in Midnight Run, and he gets a credit-card company to
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help him. Pretending to be De Niro, Ashton calls the company, gives
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De Niro's account number, and tells the representative to cancel the
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card. According to American Express spokesperson Nancy Muller, before
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canceling a card the company would first confirm the caller's identity
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by asking for additional personal personal statistics, such as his or
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her social security number and mother's maiden name. "That's not to
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say that it's impossible," Muller says. "There's no question that
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there are lots of ideas that people can get from films on how to
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defraud companies. This scenario is one we feel comfortable that we
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can guard against."
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-Rather than pay a quarter for a cup of coffee like real people, Real
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Genius Val Kilmer removes an ice cylinder encased in liquid nitrogen
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from his dorm freezer, saws off a piece the size of a quarter and
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drops it in a vending machine. David R. Stone of the National
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Automatic Merchandising Associates says that might work with some
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older models. All vending machines measure coin diameter, some
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measure weight, and most new ones even test for electrical
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conductivity. "Obviously we hope people aren't going to cheat
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machines," says Stone. "It's been an ongoing challenge ever since the
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first vending machine was invented. But that one scene in Real Genius
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is not going to bankrupt the industry." And anyway says Cornell's
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Wiesenfeld, a dorm freezer isn't cold enough to liquefy nitrogen.
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-In Twins, Arnold Schwarzenegger deactivates a car alarm by lifting
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the auto's rear end. He explains that alarms automatically shut off
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when cars are lifted more than 45 degrees to allow for towing. "Not
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true," says Gary Rader, owner of Marco Locks in Manhattan. "There are
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alarms that, if you lift the car, it will set off the alarm. But
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there are no alarms that if you lift up the car it will shut them off.
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Unless you're Arnold Schwarzenegger."
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-In Bad Influence, Rob Lowe tries to blow up James Spader by running a
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wire from the leads of a broken taillight into the car's gas tank--an
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idea inspired by a terrorist practice, says director Curtis Hanson.
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But he deliberately omitted an important step, which of course we
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won't reveal. According to Robert Goulding, training and education
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director for the Automotive Parts and Rebuilders Association, gasoline
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explodes only when met with a strong flame, and the depiction seen in
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Bad Influence would fall short. The odds of it working are "one in a
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million," Goulding says. "But I sure wouldn't want to try it to see
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what would happen."
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-Matthew Broderick may be a mediocre high school student in Wargames,
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but he obviously knows something we don't know about technology.
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First he makes a free call from a pay phone with the help of a soda-
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can tab. After unscrewing the bottom part of the receiver, he holds
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one end of the tab to the mouthpiece ant the other to the keyhole in
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the coin box. We hear a buzz of electricity and then a dial tone.
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According to NYNEX spokesperson John Bonomo, this trick worked by
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extending the phones electrical ground. But AT&T spokesperson Jo
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Johnston says performing this task would require lots of trail and
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error, and anyway it can't be done anymore now that pay phones have
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welded mouthpieces.
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In another scene, Broderick manages to fool an electronic access
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lock while he's being held captive by federal agents. He connects a
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tape recorder to the wires of the lock inside the wall; when a guard
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punches in the combination outside, Broderick records the touch-tone
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sound pattern, which he plays back through the lock to open the door.
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"I'm sure that in some systems that is possible," says Rick Eisen,
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eastern regional sales manager for Kaba High Security. "But that
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technology is probably ten years behind what's actually being used. I
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think a lot of the more sophisticated systems that the government is
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using are not known to the general public and are not being depicted
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in the movies."
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ROB MEDICH [Original author]
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm)
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& the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845
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Rat Head Ratsnatcher 510-524-3649
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Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766
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realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043
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Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102
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"Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
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