In the second episode of Tech Film Noir, hosts Lianne Potter, Jeff Watkins, and Simon Painter travel back to 1984 to watch Clippy gone wild in Electric Dreams!

*** Regular Compromising Positions Resume on 28th May***

This week on Tech Film Noir, we plug ourselves into the strange, synth-soaked world of Electric Dreams — the gloriously weird 1984 cult sci-fi movie where a socially awkward architect, a spilled bottle of champagne on his brand new PC, and an overenthusiastic home computer accidentally create one of cinema’s earliest AI love triangles.

What starts as a light PG comedy quickly mutates into something far stranger: part rom-com, part techno-thriller, part MTV fever dream. We unpack why the film was massively mismarketed, why Edgar the computer has more chemistry than the actual romance, and why its depiction of AI learning feels surprisingly relevant in the age of generative AI and smart homes.

Expect retro tech nostalgia, Commodore 64s, Casio calculator watches, suspiciously British “San Francisco” locations, exploding smart appliances, and plenty of discussion about the iconic Together in Electric Dreams soundtrack from Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder.

As the song says, “we’ll always be together, however far it seems” - which becomes slightly more sinister once your house develops emotional attachment issues.

Listen now if you love cult sci-fi, retro tech, AI chaos, and weird 80s cinema.

When movies guess the future, we check their work.

Ps. Big up the Tech Time Traveller for their great video on the tech in this film