10 Most Technophobic Movies

January 21, 2011 / 552025

“Technophobia” is a pretty easy word to break down: fear of technology, specifically of advanced computers or other devices and a belief that they will lead to humanity’s ruin. Although a technophobe sounds like a neo-Luddite, it actually goes a lot deeper than that. What’s more, technophobia pops up in movies far more often than you might think. The easy target when it comes to tech-based movies are those films that show an egregious misunderstanding of how the Internet works, or that show older generations struggling to get along in a digital age. But real technophobia deals with tech gone awry, taking over a person or city or world in order to execute its own lethal agenda. The films below are some of the most technophobic ever made, though some of the titles might surprise you. Next time you’re at the movies, keep an eye out for the real villain.

1. The Matrix: When The Matrix dropped in 1999 (followed by lamentable sequels in 2003), it was noted mainly for its wire fu, solid action, and camera effects that used some of the oldest tricks in the book. But it’s also a hugely technophobic movie, which is pretty common for modern sci-fi. Mankind’s fields of PCs gained sentience and took over the world, sending the planet into nuclear winter and using people as living batteries for even more machines. That’s not just a creepy (and great) premise for a movie; it’s a typically morbid approach to modern tech, one that claims that the sky is falling every day.