Disclaimer: There will be some spoilers if you haven't seen these films.
IBM
Movie Character Doppelgänger: Agent SmithMovie: The Matrix, 1999
Played By: Hugo Weaving
In The Matrix, the "real world" is actually a software simulation run by machines in the future. Every living being has been programmed to assimilate into and accept the laws and philosophies forced upon them by society and the government. This environment is controlled and enforced by an army of agents, led by Agent Smith, who has the ultimate goal of eradicating humans from the earth.
IBM was founded in 1911, but since the eighties it has been accused of symbolizing "the establishment." Apple created an ad for the 1984 Super Bowl, which was only aired once, and portrayed PC users as mindless drones in an Orwellian dystopia. The commercial even cast real-life neo-Nazi skinheads to play the part, marching single-file and being indoctrinated by Big Brother propaganda on a gigantic screen. It was meant to be a dig at IBM. Motorola tried to pull the same stunt 27 years later with their Xoom tablet in an attempt to shake new technological leader Apple, but it was to no avail since Apple was still riding its upwards momentum in 2011.
Research in Motion (RIM)
Movie Character Doppelgänger: Dr. Evil
Movie: Austin Powers films, 1996-2002
Played By: Mike Myers
At Fueled, we believe that Dr. Evil has become about as iconic as Darth Vader since he reared his pale, bald head in theaters. He underestimates his enemy's, Austin Powers, abilities during their every encounter; a trait shared by many other movie villains. Often to the frustration of his son, Scotty, Dr. Evil invents embarrassing names for his own projects (e.g., "Preparation H"). He also leaves his arch nemesis alone in a room, rather than killing him outright, believing that Austin Powers couldn't possibly survive. Guess what happens?
Similarly, in 2007, CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie pretty much ignored the iPhone's release. Lazaridis said that "full QWERTY keyboards" were the biggest thing in the mobile industry. Upon the arrival of the iPad, he wondered aloud "what problem [tablets were] solving." We would include some quotes from Balsillie but his unintelligible blathering would be an insult to our readers. It should come as no surprise that Blackberries aren't selling like they used to.
Ancestry.com
Movie Character Doppelgänger: Jonathan Safran Foer
Movie: Everything Is Illuminated, 2005
Played By: Elijah Wood
This semi-autobiographical film is based on Foer's novel of the same name. It recounts a trip to the Ukraine, in which a young man searches for an old woman who rescued his grandfather during the Holocaust. An avid collector, he takes many souvenirs along the way, even Ziploc bags of dirt. As the title suggests, Jonathan periodically learns some interesting new details about his family's history.
Ancestry.com is all about helping people find the true story of their genealogical journey and can connect individuals with everything from census records to marriage certificates. If that weren't enough, for those that are curious about their ethnic makeup, for $99 the site even provides a DNA kit that can be sent to a lab to discern just that.
Movie Character Doppelgänger: Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Movie: Silence of the Lambs, 1991
Played By: Anthony Hopkins
Consistently rated as one of the top ten most terrifying villains in American cinema, this cannibalistic psychiatrist - we were surprised to find out - actually had a very small part in the film. He only meets with Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) three times and has less than 17 minutes of screentime, yet the legends and reactions coming from other characters are not necessarily the man that we see on screen. In fact, there are only about 30 seconds of Hannibal Lecter actually committing any violence and it's when he is escaping from prison.
Google has long been the subject of concern for conspiracy theorists and anti-government anarchists everywhere. Sometimes people can't get their small business listed correctly in a large city and blame Google for its malevolence, but this minor mistake could easily be solved if Google had a customer service department; we will admit that it's kind of mischievous that it doesn't. There's also an assumption that Google is "evil" anytime it cooperates with the government (like any other major site), even though the search engine is free to use and voluntary. People seem surprised when they realize Google is just another big company with big company problems. There's bureaucracy, as well as an obligation to work with other big entities like the Department of Homeland Security, and to keep citizens safe. At least, that's what they want us to think.
Apple
Movie Character Doppelgänger: Josh Baskin
Movie: Big, 1988
Played By: Tom Hanks
In the movie Big, there's a famous scene where a transformed Josh is sitting in on a product pitch at the MacMillan Toy Company. His colleague, Paul (John Heard), wants to sell plastic skyscrapers that turn into robots. While everyone else in the room is impressed with the presentation, Josh - having a 13-year-old's imagination - raises his hand and says, "I don't get it." He can't seem to understand why the average kid would have any fun with Paul's toy and suggests an idea involving transforming bugs instead. All of a sudden, Josh and his love interest Susan (Elizabeth Perkins) are developing an electronic comic book for Mr. MacMillan himself.
Apple is still the most popular tech brand in the US and has been ever since the release of the iPod. That's quite a track record. While many would attribute this success to better commercials or cooler looking products, Apple's real genius comes from its ability to read consumers. Especially under Steve Jobs, the company knew exactly what we wanted even when we didn't. They knew we would fall in love with iTunes. They knew we were more likely to use an iPad than any other tablet we'd already seen before. They even allowed us to play piano on our iOS devices, which is probably the closest most of us will ever get to playing "Heart and Soul" with our feet at FAO Schwarz.
Buzzfeed
Movie Character Doppelgänger: The Cable Guy
Movie: The Cable Guy, 1996
Played By: Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey plays an eccentric fella in this cult classic. More or less raised by television, his mother called it the "babysitter," all he knows is sitcom catchphrases and Star Trek theme music. Heck, he calls himself "Chip Douglas" for most of the movie. This is how he copes with the world and expresses his feelings. See how this can be kind of unhealthy?
Buzzfeed, created by a co-founder of the Huffington Post, is chock-full of animated GIFs, viral memes, list-based articles, and melodramatic headlines. Their writing staff is also presumably composed of 30% Red Bull, which explains the rapid-fire posts that accumulate on their front page. Buzzfeed is almost everyone's guilty pleasure but can sometimes lead to pop culture overload.
Movie Character Doppelgänger: Yearbook Girl
Movie: Can't Hardly Wait, 1998
Played By: Melissa Joan Hart
Every party has its buzzkill and this one was no different. Yearbook Girl is self-explanatory since she rushes around frantically harping on each classmate to "sign my yearbook!" Of course, no one really likes her but she does serve a hidden purpose. She keeps memories alive, people!
If you know someone who uses LinkedIn, and you have an e-mail account, you might know where this is going. How many more "Please add me to your LinkedIn network" messages do we need to receive before they just create a universal "Yes or No" for everyone option? We know it's an extremely important tool for building professional relationships, but LinkedIn can you please tone it down?
Movie Character Doppelgängers: Costa and J.B.
Movie: Project X, 2012
Played By: Oliver Cooper and Jonathan Daniel Brown, respectively
Project X is the story of two friends who want to throw the ultimate, unforgettable house party for their friend's birthday. Filmed as a mockumentary (a la "Woodstock"), we follow the journey of these high schoolers as they pay a visit to their violent drug dealer, book some security guards, and warn their neighbors about the impending noise. As is the case with any teen party movie, things get out of hand. Thousands of people descend upon the housing development and numerous crimes are committed. Obviously, this makes the three boys the most radtastic bunch among their peers the next day.
Mark Zuckerberg didn't exactly end up with his father's Mercedes in the family pool, but he did get into some trouble in the process of launching Facebook. Even before the creation of the actual social networking giant, Zuckerberg was almost expelled for hacking into Harvard's system when he built Facemash, a "hot or not" site that violated the privacy of students on the university's campus. When Facebook was finally launched, Zuckerberg was taken to court by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss for allegedly stealing their idea.
Of course, everyone else in the world thanked him for it. And hey, the Winklevoss twins even got a pistachio commercial out of it!
Author Bio
This article is written by Ilan Nass from Fueled, an award winning mobile app design and development house based in New York and London.
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