21 The Movie Night

21 The Movie Night Before we get to scenes from the MIT Class of 2012 Movie Night, Ill share a few of my thoughts and observations after having seen 21 this weekend (now the #1 movie in the country): Lots of folks have been interested in 4-145, the Blackjack Team practice room. For example, Chris wrote, 4-145, the blackjack team room, should be one of the first-floor rooms of Building 4 here at MIT. Although the movie producers got the numbering system right, the numbers of the rooms arent stuck on the lower right of the glass panels of the rooms (especially not in Building 4 theyre affixed to a placard next to the door). Also, we have a lot of recitations in Building 4, and the classrooms are definitely not laid out anything like that classroom in the movie. I actually thought the movie 4-145 was closer to the real thing than most of the rooms in the movie (I thought Bens dorm room was much more soulless than any dorm room Ive seen at MIT). But see for yourself. Below is the movie 4-145, then the real 4-145: Anyway, see the room for yourself when you visit MIT. Its not hard to find. I liked seeing Jeff Ma 94 (the real Ben Campbell) get more than a passing shot of screen time as Jeffrey, the blackjack dealer: In the movie, Bens major is pre-med. Of course, theres no pre-med major students interested in medicine major in lots of different departments. Giving MIT characters fake majors is nothing new, though: take, for example, 2003s The Recruit, where Colin Farrells CIA trainee character, James Clayton, majored in non-linear cryptography. The 2.09 competition? Well, as others have already noted, there is no class called 2.09 at MIT. The closest in number would probably be the awesome course 2.009: Product Engineering Processes. 2.009, like 2.09, is a team-based competition, but team size is 15-18 students rather than 2 for 2.09. Near to 2.009 is 2.007: Design Manufacturing I, MITs famous robotics competition course (and the class that FIRST Robotics was based on). Unlike 2.09, though, 2.007 is an individual competition, and theres no judging only robot battle to determine the winner. Both 2.009 and 2.007, like 2.09, are pretty big deals on campus, and have significant corporate sponsorship. The fictional 2.09 is sponsored by the MIT alum-founded company iRobot. Their CEO, Colin Angle 89 SM 91, makes a cameo in the movie (I believe as the 2.09 judge, but Im not sure). Zach 10, though, notes in the comments of Chris entry that the course could be 2.12: Introduction to Robotics: Great post! my one comment is directed toward clarifying the course 2 part of the movie :). the 2.09 competition would be most analogous to 2.12, Introduction to Robotics. 2.007 is indeed a robot competition, BUT: 1) its an individual event 2) the robots are remote controlled, not programmed and 3) the materials and task are very limited. The robots in the movie seem too complicated, plus they all do their own thing, to be 2.007 bots. however, 2.12 is a team based competition, and the robots are programmed to be autonomous (although I think that course 2 and course 6 students team up and the 2s build while the 6ers program) Probably, were all just over-analyzing this its just a movie, after all. Okay, on to movie night 21: Bay Area Back row: Jackie Chan, Peter15, Alejandro12, Mike12, Drew12, Michael Front row: Yuanyu12, Tiffany11, Stephen11, Rachel12, Sareena12, Katherine12, Linda12, Steffi Rachel 12 writes, Sorry, a few non-prefrosh sneaked into the picture. Hopefully we have enough real ones to make up for it. The Bay Area is pretty conducive to finding MIT people =) It might be noteworthy that 10 people in our group are FIRST Roboticsers, and I think 5 are/have been team captains (including the guy taking the picture, but he goes to Harvard). Coincidence? The movie was pretty fun, although a lot of scenes went like this: 21: [math joke/commentary about MIT students not having lives] Us: [collective groan] Also, during the abrupt, exposition-free sex scene: Oh my god, where did the plot just go? I lost it!' 21: Boston Lauren 12, Xiaoli 12, Kimberly 12, Kevin, Allison 12, Mario 12 21: Seattle Calvin 12, Darien (younger sister 12), Matthew Says Calvin, We attempt to spell MIT with three people, but as you can see, it didnt go very well. I guess our human positioning skills were a bit lacking. We had a great time, and I loved the opening panoramic shot of Boston along Harvard Bridge. I tried to spot some of the Smoots, but I think I ended up missing them. 21: Chicago Emily 12, Evelyn 12, Stephanie 12 Emily writes, At the movies. We didnt have our MIT gear, but we spelled out MIT with our fingers and brought the book. 21: San Antonio Kayla 12, Beatriz 12 Says Kayla, Two MIT 12s in MIT gear. :D (no book though, sorry!~) 21: Kalamazoo Omar 12 21: Houston Ahmed 12 Ahmed writes, I thought the movie was alright. The cheesy and cliche dialogue kind of killed it. 21: New York City Akara 12, Evá 12, Lesley 12, Becky 12 Becky writes, Lol, we forgot to take our picture when we were at the theatre, and the nearest bookstore didnt have the book. Oh, well. 21: Howard County, Maryland Phil 12, Danny 12, Jennifer 12, Samantha 12 Kayla 12 of San Antonio (above) says of this photo, ah i think you guys get the most bonus points! despite the one guy not wearing MIT gear. unless i cant read that? haha whatev, props. :) 21: Atlanta Heidi 12, Marcel 12 Not only did they see the movie, Marcel also wowed everyone with a card trick: 21: East Bay Ivy 12, Celena 12 21: Florida Keys Friend and Fausto 12 Fausto writes, Me and a friend (non-prefrosh sorry, I needed someone to hold the poster up) going to see 21. No book but I brought MIT stuff! 21: Cleveland Matt 12, Alison 12, Steven 12, Beneah 12 After the blog entry was posted, Steven 12 wrote, Nooooo!! I just came back from seeing 21, WITH 3 MIT PREFROSH!! AND TOOK PICTURES! (and even put them on the MIT Class of 2012 website SO if you wanted to put a picture up it would be really cool and I would love you forever) (and ever) (andevveerrrr)