I was impressed by Sam Rockwell’s performance in the 2009 Sc-fi classic Moon.
Early on in the story, the logo (and the name) of Sam’s employer Lunar Industries reminded me of Litton Industries:
Granted, they’re not identical, but that’s what came to mind.
The likeness (or otherwise) may not be entirely coincidental. After-all, a division of Litton Industries, Litton Space Systems, designed space suits and other equipment for NASA.
Space exploration was, of course, a popular marketing theme for “space age” electronic typewriters of the 1980s and 1990s, as exemplified by this Canon Typestar 5 ad from 1985:
The ad below was one of a series released by Brother (as opposed to Luna or Litton) Industries in 1988 and 1989 …
Brother WP-1 Word Processor ad, 1988 (above) from my collection
AEG Olympia followed suit around the same time …
AEG Olympia Badge (above) from my collection
Alas, AEG Olympia failed to go “beyond” the year 1997. NASA’s Space Shuttle programme lasted longer, up until 2011— eight years after the Colombia Shuttle disaster of 2003.
There are, needless to say, no electronic typewriter sightings in Moon, which is a movie made (and set) long after the wedge apocalypse of the early 1990s.
Nevertheless, electronic typewriters are, to my mind, (oxymoron alert) retrospectively futuristic and, like Sam (spoiler alert), prone to being cloned.
If you watch this movie you will see, however, the rugged red laptop used by Sam to contact his family back on earth …
… which reminded me of the 1988 Brother word processor ad in my collection, hence this post.
… To boldly go where no electronic typewriter blogger has ever gone before …
5 responses to “Typing on the Moon”
This is a neat theme! (Your use of the word “apocalypse” leads me to invite you to consider contributing to COLD HARD TYPE. See my blog.)
Ha! Thanks Ted, Enjoyed that movie too!
Thanks John, yes I bought the Blu-Ray and captured the stills. The Brother CE series office machines are a lot better than the WPs. 😉
Great write-up! I liked this movie, too. Did you make all those captures yourself? (Images are the bane of my blogging. I find that a picture takes the effort of a thousand words.)
I owned a Brother WP-1 in the late ’80s. It was flaky and not that helpful, and I only used it for about a year. I should have stuck with my typewriter. 🙂