MIT in popular culture
Encyclopedia
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), a teaching and research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts
, USA, has been referenced in many works of cinema, television and the written word. MIT's overall reputation has greater influence on its role in popular culture than does any particular aspect of its history or student lifestyle. Because the Institute is well-known as a breeding ground for technology and technologists, the makers of modern media are able to use it to establish character in a way that mainstream audiences can understand. A smaller number of works use MIT directly as their scene of action.
of" for "most luxurious," or "an Einstein
" for "intelligent person." Similarly, any regionally prominent science or engineering school is likely to be called "the MIT of" that region. For example, U.S. Senator Richard Shelby
(R
-Alabama
) touted the University of Alabama in Huntsville
as a possible "MIT of the South." The Georgia Institute of Technology
has also been called "the MIT of the South". Other examples, make "X is the MIT of Y" an example of a snowclone
(a family of formulaic cliché
s).
for intellect in general: "Would they think of that at MIT?") Numerous films and television series indulge in this technique, including:
In Iron Man, several close-ups of Terrence Howard clearly show his character ("Jim Rhodes") to be wearing a brass rat
; Robert Downey, Jr.'s character ("Tony Stark") appears to wear one as well in the movie.
The Star Trek
episode "Bread and Circuses" uses a shot of the Great Dome to depict a generic building on a planet dominated by ancient Roman
culture.
James Burke
's television series The Day the Universe Changed
(1985) employs the same technique for a more academic purpose. In the episode "Point of View," which describes the discovery of perspective geometry
and its ramifications, Burke spends a little time in the Italian
city of Padua
. This city, which hosted the second-oldest Italian university
after Bologna
, boasted a large concentration of intellectuals. In Burke's phrase, Padua was "the MIT of the fifteenth century." An episode of his later series Connections 2 (1994) uses a similar shorthand to characterize the seventeenth-century Royal Society
.
The TV show Numb3rs
has several different connections to MIT. The pilot was shot in Boston. Co-creator and Executive Producer Cheryl Heuton says, "We originally tried to choose MIT for the show. We originally set the show in Boston, and Charlie [Eppes, one of the main characters,] was going to be a professor at MIT. We contacted MIT, and their answer was they're not in the film and TV business..." Multiple episodes of the show mention that Charlie studied at MIT. Dylan Bruno
, the actor who plays Colby Granger
, has a degree from MIT.
Films set at MIT are less common than those that use the MIT name as metaphor. Nevertheless, MIT has been part of movie settings, in such films as Blown Away
(1994
), Good Will Hunting
(1997
), A Beautiful Mind
(2001
), 21(2008
), and Knowing (which also features exteriors of the Haystack Observatory
). Most of the scenes for these movies, especially indoor scenes, are in fact filmed elsewhere due to MIT's reluctance to give permission to film on campus. Although portions of Blown Away were shot on the Institute campus,, the film still makes several geographical errors about MIT and Boston in general. An incidental scene in The Friends of Eddie Coyle
(1973
) was shot on location outside of MIT Baker House. A scene in A Small Circle of Friends
(1980
) was shot in Walker Memorial, an MIT cafeteria. The movie setting portrays Harvard University
, but Harvard declined to allow the filming on their campus.
Some cinematic references to MIT betray a mild anti-intellectualism, or at least a lack of respect for "book learning." For example, Space Cowboys features the seasoned hero (Clint Eastwood
) trying to explain a piece of antiquated spacecraft technology to a rather whippersnapping youngster. When the young astronaut fails to comprehend Eastwood's explanation, he snaps that "I have two master's degrees from MIT," to which Eastwood replies, "Maybe you should get your money back." Similarly, Gus Van Sant
's introduction to the published Good Will Hunting screenplay suggests that the lead character's animosity towards official MIT academia
reflects a class struggle with ethnic undertones, in particular Will Hunting's Irish background versus the "English aristocracy" of the MIT faculty. Help!, the Beatles' second film, ties MIT to the mad scientist
stereotype
when Professor Foot (Victor Spinetti
) declares, "MIT was after me, you know. Wanted me to rule the world for them!"
HBO's television miniseries From the Earth to the Moon (1998) contains segments set at MIT, most notably in the episode covering Apollo 14
. The series portrays the Institute's denizens as very slightly eccentric engineers who do their part to keep the Apollo program running successfully.
"Inside" MIT references also appear in film without attribution. In Stir Crazy
(1980
), the opening close-up shot of Grossberger, played by Erland Van Lidth De Jeude (MIT Class of 1976, SB in Computer Science & Engineering), clearly reveals his actual "Brass Rat" class ring. In The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
(2000
), a background image of Whassamatta U. is recognizable as a main MIT building.
MIT is even referenced in some Japanese anime: the sci-fi series Neon Genesis Evangelion
mentions MIT as the location of one of the replica MAGI
supercomputers; the comedy series Pani Poni Dash!
revolves around an 11-year old student who graduated from MIT and travels to Japan to become a high school teacher. The CIA character "Ed Hoffman" in the film Body of Lies (film)
can be seen wearing an MIT shirt in multiple shots.
In the TV series Las Vegas
(2003), Mike Cannon (played by James Lesure
), one of the main characters, is a highly intelligent, and technically very gifted engineer and MIT graduate.
MIT was also mentioned in the pilot episode of 'Gilmore Girls
'.
Randal Pinkett
, the winner of season 4 of The Apprentice
, is an MIT alum, with an SM in Electrical Engineering (1998), an MBA from Sloan School of Management (1998), and a PhD in Media Arts & Sciences from the Media Lab (2001).
and his younger brother Ray
are "Click and Clack, The Tappet Brothers," the hosts of National Public Radio's comedy car advice show Car Talk
. Both are MIT alumni — Tom has a degree in chemical engineering (1958), and Ray has a degree in humanities and general science (1972) — and they regularly use that fact in their self-deprecating attempts to establish their credibility on technical matters. After campaigning on-air for years, they were finally invited to speak at MIT's 1999 commencement exercise.
Nonfiction works have examined MIT, its history, and its various subcultures. In addition to books like Nightwork, which recount the Institute's hacking
tradition, Benson Snyder's The Hidden Curriculum
(1970) describes the state of MIT student and faculty psychology in the late 1960s. Noted physicist and raconteur Richard Feynman
built up a collection of anecdotes about his MIT undergraduate years, several of which are retold in his loose memoir Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Some of this material was incorporated into Matthew Broderick
's film Infinity
(1996
), in addition to Feynman stories from Far Rockaway, Princeton University
, and Los Alamos, New Mexico
.
On the fiction side, the novel The Gadget Maker
(1955, by Maxwell Griffith) traces the life of aeronautical engineer Stanley Brack, who performs his undergraduate studies at MIT. Ben Bova
's novel The Weathermakers (1966) about scientists developing methods to prevent hurricanes from reaching land, is also set in part at MIT. Patricia Vasquez visits (or comes from) MIT in Greg Bear
's Eon
(1985). Neal Stephenson
coyly hints at MIT in Quicksilver
(2004), and other books of The Baroque Cycle
, by having Daniel Waterhouse found the "Massachusetts Bay Colony Institute of the Technologickal Arts" in the 18th century.
, much like the planet Tralfamadore
or the Vietnam War
. In part, this recurrence may stem from Vonnegut family history: both his grandfather Bernard and his father Kurt, Sr. studied at MIT and received bachelor's degrees in architecture. His older brother, another Bernard
, earned a bachelor's and a Ph.D. in chemistry, also at MIT. Since so many of Vonnegut's stories are ambivalent or outright pessimistic with regard to technology's impact on humankind, it is hardly surprising that his references to the Institute express a mixed attitude. In Hocus Pocus
(1990), the Vietnam-veteran narrator Eugene Debs Hartke applies for graduate study in MIT's physics program, but his plans go awry when he tangles with a hippie at a Harvard Square Chinese restaurant. Hartke observes that men in uniform had become a ridiculous sight around colleges, even though both Harvard and MIT obtained much of their income from weapons R&D. ("I would have been dead if it weren't for that great gift to civilization from the Chemistry Department of Harvard, which was napalm
, or sticky jellied gasoline.") Jailbird
notes drily that MIT's eighth president was one of the three-man committee who upheld the Sacco and Vanzetti
ruling, condemning the two men to death. As reported in The Tech, June 7, 1927:
Palm Sunday
(1981), a loose collage of essays and other material, contains a markedly skeptical
and humanist
commencement address Vonnegut gave to Hobart and William Smith Colleges
in Geneva, New York
. Speaking of the role religion plays in modern society, Vonnegut notes:
, who resided for many years in Newton, Massachusetts
. During much of this time, Asimov chose the date for the MIT Science Fiction Society
's annual picnic, citing a superstition that he always picked a day with good weather. In his copious autobiographical writings, Asimov reveals a mild predilection for the Institute's architecture, and an awareness of its aesthetic possibilities. For example, In Joy Still Felt (1980) describes a 1957 meeting with Catherine de Camp, who was checking out colleges for her teenage son. Asimov recalls:
Asimov's work, too, trades on MIT's reputation for narrative effect, even touching upon an anti-academic theme. In "The Dead Past
" (1956), the scientist-hero Foster must overcome the attitudes his Institute physics training has entrenched in his mind, before he can make his critical breakthrough. Several jokes in Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor and its sequel Asimov Laughs Again hinge upon MIT, its reputation for scientific prowess, and the technocentric focus of its students. In a similar vein, the satirical
newspaper The Onion
published an article entitled "Corpse-Reanimation Technology Still 10 Years Off, Say MIT Mad Scientists," among many others in the same general tradition.
s make use of MIT. In Doonesbury
, Kim Rosenthal almost earned her Ph. D in computer science
, dropping out because it was "too easy." In the fall of 2006, Kim and Mike Doonesbury's daughter Alex entered MIT as a freshman. (The 3 October 2006 Doonesbury strip satirizes the "MIT of" snowclone
; Zipper Harris declares the fictional Walden College to be "the MIT of southern Connecticut
.") Dilbert
received a degree from Course VI-1
. Bill Amend
's FoxTrot has also made MIT allusions, in keeping with the strip's genial satire of nerd
subcultures. On Christmas Day 2005, the comic strip Baby Blues featured a character reading the instruction manual accompanying a gadget that he has given to his child as a Christmas present. The first volume of instructions begins, "Assembly Instructions — Step 1: Obtain a master's degree in mechanical engineering from M.I.T. Step 2: ..."
MIT is mentioned in the computer games Area 51 (1995), Half-Life (1998), Half-Life 2
(2005) and Metal Gear Solid
(1998).
In the case of the Half-Life series, the main protagonist, Gordon Freeman
, is an MIT graduate.
The Infocom
game The Lurking Horror
(1987), written by MIT alumnus and interactive fiction
pioneer Dave Lebling
, is set on the campus of the George Underwood Edwards Institute of Technology, which strongly resembles MIT. Its fictional culture also parodies the MIT culture. For instance, G.U.E. Tech's class ring
is known as the brass hyrax
, parodying MIT's Brass Rat.
(1996-2008), a major character, Tom Collins, is expelled from teaching at MIT, "for [his] theory of actual reality."
The song "Etoh" by the electronic music
group The Avalanches
describes MIT as "the home of complicated computers, which speak a mechanical language all their own." This lyric can be taken literally, or it can be read metaphorically as a description of MIT student culture. Allan Sherman
's paean to initialisms, "Harvey and Sheila," notes that Harvey "works for IBM; he went to MIT, got his PhD." Rhythm and blues
group Tony! Toni! Toné!
mentions MIT in the song "Born Not To Know," from their 1988 debut album Who? In the song, a pretentious individual rattles off a long list of his impressive academic credentials—culminating with a "Ph. D from MIT"—only to then ask, "so, can I get a job?" Tony! Toni! Toné! responds with a resounding "No!"
"Nerdcore" rap artist MC Hawking
's song "All My Shootin's Be Drive-bys" (1997) takes tropes associated with gangsta rap
and plays them out in a more academic setting. He speaks of taking revenge for the death of a friend, part of his Cambridge
, UK crew:
When the narrator learns the identity of Pookie's killers, he decides to "give a Newtonian
demonstration, of a bullet its mass
and its acceleration
," leaving six MIT students dead in the street.
"Weird Al" Yankovic
's "White & Nerdy
" (2006) riffs upon MIT, along with a plenitude of other geek culture references — The Star Wars Holiday Special
, pocket protector
s and editing the Wikipedia
, to name a few. Yankovic claims that he graduated "first in [his] class here at MIT"; however, the Institute does not assign class rankings or confer traditional Latin honors upon its graduates.
Over the years, the students and faculty of MIT have produced their own share of musical material. For example, the mathematician and satirist Tom Lehrer
taught for a time in MIT's political science
department, lecturing on quantitative methods and statistics
. This experience led him to write a song called "Sociology," played to the tune of Irving Berlin
's "Choreography." The lyrics conclude,
Students have also written their own songs during their tenures at the Institute. This tradition, which goes back at least to The Doormat Singers of the 1960s, continues with several present-day groups.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(MIT), a teaching and research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, USA, has been referenced in many works of cinema, television and the written word. MIT's overall reputation has greater influence on its role in popular culture than does any particular aspect of its history or student lifestyle. Because the Institute is well-known as a breeding ground for technology and technologists, the makers of modern media are able to use it to establish character in a way that mainstream audiences can understand. A smaller number of works use MIT directly as their scene of action.
MIT as metaphor
The use of "MIT as metaphor" is relatively widespread, so much so that in popular culture, "the MIT of" is an idiom for "top science and engineering university," or "elite technical institution," like "CadillacCadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
of" for "most luxurious," or "an Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
" for "intelligent person." Similarly, any regionally prominent science or engineering school is likely to be called "the MIT of" that region. For example, U.S. Senator Richard Shelby
Richard Shelby
Richard Craig Shelby is the senior U.S. Senator from Alabama. First elected to the Senate in 1986, he is the ranking member of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and was its chairman from 2003 to 2007....
(R
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
-Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
) touted the University of Alabama in Huntsville
University of Alabama in Huntsville
The University of Alabama in Huntsville is a state-supported, public, coeducational research university, located in Huntsville, Alabama, United States, is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate, master's and doctoral degrees, and is organized in five...
as a possible "MIT of the South." The Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
has also been called "the MIT of the South". Other examples, make "X is the MIT of Y" an example of a snowclone
Snowclone
A snowclone is a type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different variants"....
(a family of formulaic cliché
Cliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
s).
Movies and television
Frequently, when a character in Hollywood cinema is required to have a science or engineering background, or in general possess an extremely high level of intelligence, the film establishes that he or she is an MIT graduate or associate. (MIT can also be a comparative or a metaphorMetaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
for intellect in general: "Would they think of that at MIT?") Numerous films and television series indulge in this technique, including:
- The Day the Earth Stood StillThe Day the Earth Stood StillThe Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 American science fiction film directed by Robert Wise and written by Edmund H. North based on the short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates. The film stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe, and Hugh Marlowe...
(19511951 in filmThe year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
) - Desk SetDesk SetDesk Set is a 1957 American romantic comedy film directed by Walter Lang and starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn...
(19571957 in filmThe year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:...
) - The Phantom PlanetThe Phantom PlanetThe Phantom Planet is a science fiction film directed by William Marshall.Footage from the film was used in a 2010 advertising campaign for La Quinta Inns and Suites, an American hotel chain...
(19611961 in filmThe year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:* Atlantis, the Lost ContinentB...
) - Help!Help! (film)Help! is a 1965 film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. Help! was the second feature film made by the Beatles and is a...
(19651965 in filmThe year 1965 in film involved some significant events, with The Sound of Music topping the U.S. box office.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
) - Operation CrossbowOperation Crossbow (film)Operation Crossbow is a British 1965 spy thriller and World War II film, made from a story from Duilio Coletti and Vittoriano Petrilli and filmed at MGM-British Studios...
(19651965 in filmThe year 1965 in film involved some significant events, with The Sound of Music topping the U.S. box office.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
) - Colossus: The Forbin ProjectColossus: The Forbin ProjectColossus: The Forbin Project is an American science fiction thriller film. It is based upon the 1966 novel Colossus, by Dennis Feltham Jones, about a massive American defense computer, named Colossus, becoming sentient and deciding to assume control of the world.-Plot:Dr. Charles A...
(19701970 in filmThe year 1970 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 9 - Larry Fine, the second member of The Three Stooges, suffers a massive stroke, therefore ending his career....
) - WarGamesWarGamesWarGames is a 1983 American Cold War suspense/science-fiction film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film stars Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy....
(19831983 in film-Events:*February 11 - The Rolling Stones concert film Let's Spend the Night Together opens in New York*May 25 - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the final film in the original Star Wars trilogy, is released. Like the previous films, it goes on to become the top grossing picture of...
) - GhostbustersGhostbustersGhostbusters is a 1984 American science fiction comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis and follows three eccentric parapsychologists in New York City, who start a...
(19841984 in film-Events:* The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name.* Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film....
) - HackersHackers (film)Hackers is a 1995 American thriller film directed by Iain Softley and starring Angelina Jolie, Jonny Lee Miller, Renoly Santiago, Matthew Lillard, Lorraine Bracco and Fisher Stevens...
(19951995 in film-Top grossing films:-Events:* March 22 - The Dogme 95 movement is officially announced in Paris by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.* March 28 - Actress Julia Roberts and singer Lyle Lovett announce their plans for separation....
) - Independence DayIndependence Day (film)Independence Day is a 1996 science fiction film about an alien invasion of Earth, focusing on a disparate group of individuals and families as they converge in the Nevada desert and, along with the rest of the human population, participate in a last-chance counterattack on July 4 – the same...
(19961996 in filmMajor releases this year included Scream, Independence Day, Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire and a version of Evita starring Madonna.-Events:...
) - Conceiving AdaConceiving AdaConceiving Ada is a 1997 movie produced, written, and directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson. Produced by Lynn Hershman Leeson and Henry S. Rosenthal. Directors of Photography: Hiro Narita, Bill Zarchy-Synopsis:...
(19971997 in film-Events:* The original Star Wars trilogy's Special Editions are released.* Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.* Titanic becomes the first film to gross US$1,000,000,000 at the box office making it the highest grossing film in history until Avatar broke the record in 2010.*...
) - ContactContact (film)Contact is a 1997 American science fiction drama film adapted from the Carl Sagan novel of the same name and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Both Sagan and wife Ann Druyan wrote the story outline for the film adaptation of Contact....
(19971997 in film-Events:* The original Star Wars trilogy's Special Editions are released.* Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.* Titanic becomes the first film to gross US$1,000,000,000 at the box office making it the highest grossing film in history until Avatar broke the record in 2010.*...
) - OrgazmoOrgazmoOrgazmo is a 1997 comedy film written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the animated series South Park, and directed by Parker.-Plot:...
(19971997 in film-Events:* The original Star Wars trilogy's Special Editions are released.* Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.* Titanic becomes the first film to gross US$1,000,000,000 at the box office making it the highest grossing film in history until Avatar broke the record in 2010.*...
) - Armageddon (19981998 in film-Events:* February 14 - Sharon Stone marries Phil Bronstein.* Former child star Gary Coleman is charged with assaulting a young female bus driver at a California shopping mall.-Top grossing films:...
) - SphereSphere (film)Sphere is a 1998 science fiction psychological thriller film, starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, and Samuel L. Jackson. Sphere was based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park and The Lost World...
(19981998 in film-Events:* February 14 - Sharon Stone marries Phil Bronstein.* Former child star Gary Coleman is charged with assaulting a young female bus driver at a California shopping mall.-Top grossing films:...
) - Space CowboysSpace CowboysSpace Cowboys is a 2000 science fiction film directed by Clint Eastwood. Eastwood also stars in the film alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner as four older "ex-test pilots" who are sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite...
(20002000 in filmThe year 2000 in film involved some significant events.The top grosser worldwide was Mission: Impossible II. Domestically in North America, Gladiator won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor ....
) - The Fast and the FuriousThe Fast and the Furious (2001 film)The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 street racing action film starring Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster. Directed by Rob Cohen, The Fast and the Furious was the first mainstream film to feature the Asian automotive import scene in North America. It is the first film...
(20012001 in filmThe year 2001 in film involved some significant events, including the first of the Harry Potter series and also the first of The Lord of the Rings trilogy...
) - UndergradsUndergradsUndergrads is an animated television series centered on the lives of four college undergraduate freshmen. Originally broadcast on MTV during 2001, only thirteen episodes were created. It has since been shown on Comedy Central in the United States, Teletoon in Canada, and Trouble in the United Kingdom...
(20012001 in filmThe year 2001 in film involved some significant events, including the first of the Harry Potter series and also the first of The Lord of the Rings trilogy...
) - xXxXXXXXX may refer to:* The number 30 in Roman numerals* The year 30 AD* Games of the XXX Olympiad, the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, England* Super Bowl XXX, held on January 28, 1996* A mark indicating "extra strong"* Alcoholic beverages...
(20022002 in filmThe year 2002 in film involved some significant events. The first significant releases of sequels took place between The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Men in Black II, Analyze That, Spy Kids 2: The Island of...
) - Arrested Development (2003)
- The RecruitThe RecruitThe Recruit is a 2003 American spy thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson, starring Colin Farrell, Al Pacino and Bridget Moynahan. It was released on January 31, 2003 in North America by Touchstone Pictures....
(20032003 in filmThe year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
) - National TreasureNational Treasure (film)National Treasure is a 2004 mystery adventure heist film from the Walt Disney Studios under Walt Disney Pictures. It was written by Jim Kouf, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Cormac Wibberley, and Marianne Wibberley, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and directed by Jon Turteltaub...
(20042004 in filmThe year 2004 in film involved some significant events. Major releases of sequels took place. It included blockbuster films like Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Meet the Fockers, Blade: Trinity, Spider-Man 2, Alien vs. Predator, Kill Bill Vol...
) - The Fantastic FourFantastic Four (film)Fantastic Four is a 2005 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics comic Fantastic Four. It was directed by Tim Story, and released by 20th Century Fox. It is the second live-action Fantastic Four film to be filmed. The previous attempt, a B-movie produced by Roger Corman only for the...
(20052005 in film- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
) - Mr. & Mrs. SmithMr. & Mrs. Smith (2005 film)Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a 2005 American romantic comedy action film directed by Doug Liman and written by Simon Kinberg. The original music score was composed by John Powell...
(20052005 in film- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
) - RentRent (film)Rent is a 2005 American musical drama film directed by Chris Columbus. It is an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, in turn based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. The film depicts the lives of several Bohemians and their struggles with sexuality, cross-dressing, drugs, life...
(20052005 in film- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
) - E-RingE-RingE-Ring is an American television military drama, created by Ken Robinson and David McKenna and executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, that premiered on NBC on September 21, 2005...
(20052005 in film- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
) - 2121 (2008 film)21 is a 2008 drama film directed by Australian director Robert Luketic and stars Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts, and Aaron Yoo. The film is inspired by the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team as told in Bringing Down the House, the...
(20082008 in filmThis is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
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(20082008 in filmThis is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
) - Death Race 3000 (20082008 in filmThis is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
) - Iron ManIron Man (film)Iron Man is a 2008 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, an industrialist and master engineer who builds a powered exoskeleton and becomes the technologically advanced superhero, Iron...
(20082008 in filmThis is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
) - KnowingKnowing (film)Knowing is a 2009 American-British science fiction film directed by Alex Proyas and starring Nicolas Cage. The project was originally attached to a number of directors under Columbia Pictures, but it was placed in turnaround and eventually picked up by Escape Artists. Production was financially...
(20092009 in filmThe year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...
) - Edge of Darkness (20102010 in filmThe year 2010 saw many new films released worldwide. 2010 saw a dramatic increase and prominence in the use of 3D-technology in filmmaking and film releases after the success of Avatar in the format, with releases such as Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans, Jackass 3D, all animated films and...
) - Iron Man 2 (20102010 in filmThe year 2010 saw many new films released worldwide. 2010 saw a dramatic increase and prominence in the use of 3D-technology in filmmaking and film releases after the success of Avatar in the format, with releases such as Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans, Jackass 3D, all animated films and...
) - Take Me Home TonightTake Me Home Tonight"Take Me Home Tonight" is a song by American rock singer Eddie Money, from his album Can't Hold Back, released in 1986. It was released as a single and reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks...
(20112011 in filmThe year 2011 is notable for containing the release of the most film sequels in a single year, at 27 sequels. The following tables list films that are in production or have completed production and will be released in the United States and Canada at some point in 2011.- Highest-grossing films :...
) - No Strings Attached (film) (20112011 in filmThe year 2011 is notable for containing the release of the most film sequels in a single year, at 27 sequels. The following tables list films that are in production or have completed production and will be released in the United States and Canada at some point in 2011.- Highest-grossing films :...
)
In Iron Man, several close-ups of Terrence Howard clearly show his character ("Jim Rhodes") to be wearing a brass rat
MIT class ring
Massachusetts Institute of Technology's class ring, often called the Brass Rat, is redesigned each year by a student committee. The class ring has three main sections: the bezel, containing MIT's mascot, the beaver; the MIT seal ; and the class year . The side surfaces show the Boston and...
; Robert Downey, Jr.'s character ("Tony Stark") appears to wear one as well in the movie.
The Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
episode "Bread and Circuses" uses a shot of the Great Dome to depict a generic building on a planet dominated by ancient Roman
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
culture.
James Burke
James Burke (science historian)
James Burke is a British broadcaster, science historian, author and television producer known amongst other things for his documentary television series Connections and its more philosophical oriented companion production, The Day the Universe Changed , focusing on the history of science and...
's television series The Day the Universe Changed
The Day the Universe Changed
The Day the Universe Changed is a British documentary television series written and presented by science historian James Burke, originally broadcast in 1985 by the BBC...
(1985) employs the same technique for a more academic purpose. In the episode "Point of View," which describes the discovery of perspective geometry
Perspective (graphical)
Perspective in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface , of an image as it is seen by the eye...
and its ramifications, Burke spends a little time in the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
city of Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
. This city, which hosted the second-oldest Italian university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
after Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, boasted a large concentration of intellectuals. In Burke's phrase, Padua was "the MIT of the fifteenth century." An episode of his later series Connections 2 (1994) uses a similar shorthand to characterize the seventeenth-century Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
.
The TV show Numb3rs
NUMB3RS
Numb3rs is an American television drama which premiered on CBS on January 23, 2005, and concluded on March 12, 2010. The series was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, and follows FBI Special Agent Don Eppes and his mathematical genius brother, Charlie Eppes , who helps Don solve crimes...
has several different connections to MIT. The pilot was shot in Boston. Co-creator and Executive Producer Cheryl Heuton says, "We originally tried to choose MIT for the show. We originally set the show in Boston, and Charlie [Eppes, one of the main characters,] was going to be a professor at MIT. We contacted MIT, and their answer was they're not in the film and TV business..." Multiple episodes of the show mention that Charlie studied at MIT. Dylan Bruno
Dylan Bruno
Dylan Bruno is an American actor and former model. He portrayed FBI agent Colby Granger in the CBS series Numb3rs.-Personal life:...
, the actor who plays Colby Granger
Colby Granger
Colby Granger is a fictitious FBI agent on the American television show Numb3rs. First introduced during the second season, he has become a part of the team led by FBI Special Agent Don Eppes and is usually partnered with David Sinclair...
, has a degree from MIT.
Films set at MIT are less common than those that use the MIT name as metaphor. Nevertheless, MIT has been part of movie settings, in such films as Blown Away
Blown Away (1994 film)
Blown Away is a 1994 action film starring Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones. It was directed by Stephen Hopkins.-Plot:Ryan Gaerity , an Irish terrorist, escapes from his cell in a castle prison in Northern Ireland....
(1994
1994 in film
1994 was a significant year in film.The top grosser worldwide was The Lion King, which to date stands as the highest-grossing traditionally-animated film of all time...
), Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting is a 1997 drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgård...
(1997
1997 in film
-Events:* The original Star Wars trilogy's Special Editions are released.* Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.* Titanic becomes the first film to gross US$1,000,000,000 at the box office making it the highest grossing film in history until Avatar broke the record in 2010.*...
), A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Mind (film)
A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American drama film based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film was directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman. It was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar...
(2001
2001 in film
The year 2001 in film involved some significant events, including the first of the Harry Potter series and also the first of The Lord of the Rings trilogy...
), 21(2008
2008 in film
This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
), and Knowing (which also features exteriors of the Haystack Observatory
Haystack Observatory
Haystack Observatory is a group of astronomical observatories owned and operated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is located in Westford, Massachusetts . It is the home of the Millstone Hill Observatory....
). Most of the scenes for these movies, especially indoor scenes, are in fact filmed elsewhere due to MIT's reluctance to give permission to film on campus. Although portions of Blown Away were shot on the Institute campus,, the film still makes several geographical errors about MIT and Boston in general. An incidental scene in The Friends of Eddie Coyle
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
This is an article about the movie. For information about George V. Higgins' 1970 novel, go to The Friends of Eddie Coyle .The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a 1973 crime film starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle. Directed by Peter Yates, the screenplay was adapted from the novel by George V. Higgins...
(1973
1973 in film
The year 1973 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces his second wife, Barbara Blakely. Blakely would later marry actor/singer Frank Sinatra....
) was shot on location outside of MIT Baker House. A scene in A Small Circle of Friends
A Small Circle of Friends
A Small Circle of Friends is a film released in 1980 by United Artists starring Brad Davis, Karen Allen, Shelley Long, Jameson Parker, Peter Mark, and an uncredited Craig Richard Nelson, who played Bell in The Paper Chase, another film set at Harvard. The film follows the life of three students at...
(1980
1980 in film
- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....
) was shot in Walker Memorial, an MIT cafeteria. The movie setting portrays Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, but Harvard declined to allow the filming on their campus.
Some cinematic references to MIT betray a mild anti-intellectualism, or at least a lack of respect for "book learning." For example, Space Cowboys features the seasoned hero (Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
) trying to explain a piece of antiquated spacecraft technology to a rather whippersnapping youngster. When the young astronaut fails to comprehend Eastwood's explanation, he snaps that "I have two master's degrees from MIT," to which Eastwood replies, "Maybe you should get your money back." Similarly, Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...
's introduction to the published Good Will Hunting screenplay suggests that the lead character's animosity towards official MIT academia
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
reflects a class struggle with ethnic undertones, in particular Will Hunting's Irish background versus the "English aristocracy" of the MIT faculty. Help!, the Beatles' second film, ties MIT to the mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
when Professor Foot (Victor Spinetti
Victor Spinetti
Victor Spinetti is a Welsh comic actor.-Early life:Spinetti was born in Cwm, Ebbw Vale, Wales of Welsh and Italian heritage from a grandfather who was said to have walked from Italy to Wales to work as a coal miner...
) declares, "MIT was after me, you know. Wanted me to rule the world for them!"
HBO's television miniseries From the Earth to the Moon (1998) contains segments set at MIT, most notably in the episode covering Apollo 14
Apollo 14
Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the American Apollo program, and the third to land on the Moon. It was the last of the "H missions", targeted landings with two-day stays on the Moon with two lunar EVAs, or moonwalks....
. The series portrays the Institute's denizens as very slightly eccentric engineers who do their part to keep the Apollo program running successfully.
"Inside" MIT references also appear in film without attribution. In Stir Crazy
Stir Crazy (film)
Stir Crazy is a 1980 American comedy film starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor as down-on-their-luck friends who are given 125-year prison sentences after being framed for a bank robbery; while in prison they befriend other inmates and ultimately escape. In 2000, Total Film magazine voted it the...
(1980
1980 in film
- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....
), the opening close-up shot of Grossberger, played by Erland Van Lidth De Jeude (MIT Class of 1976, SB in Computer Science & Engineering), clearly reveals his actual "Brass Rat" class ring. In The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle is a 2000 comedy film based on the television cartoon The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show by Jay Ward. The animated characters Rocky and Bullwinkle shared the screen with live actors portraying Fearless Leader , Boris Badenov , Natasha Fatale , and FBI agent Karen...
(2000
2000 in film
The year 2000 in film involved some significant events.The top grosser worldwide was Mission: Impossible II. Domestically in North America, Gladiator won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor ....
), a background image of Whassamatta U. is recognizable as a main MIT building.
MIT is even referenced in some Japanese anime: the sci-fi series Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion
, commonly referred to as Evangelion, is a commercially and critically successful Japanese anime series that began airing in October 1995. The series was highly influential, and launched the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. It garnered several major animation awards...
mentions MIT as the location of one of the replica MAGI
Magi
Magi is a term, used since at least the 4th century BC, to denote a follower of Zoroaster, or rather, a follower of what the Hellenistic world associated Zoroaster with, which...
supercomputers; the comedy series Pani Poni Dash!
Pani Poni Dash!
, also known as through its anime adaptation , is a Japanese manga series that uses parody, frequently referencing Japanese and American pop-culture in many ways...
revolves around an 11-year old student who graduated from MIT and travels to Japan to become a high school teacher. The CIA character "Ed Hoffman" in the film Body of Lies (film)
Body of Lies (film)
Body of Lies is a 2008 American spy film directed by Ridley Scott. Set in the Middle East, it follows the attempts of the CIA and Jordanian Intelligence to catch "al-Saleem", a fictional jihadist terrorist...
can be seen wearing an MIT shirt in multiple shots.
In the TV series Las Vegas
Las Vegas (TV series)
Las Vegas was an American television series broadcast by NBC from September 22, 2003 to February 15, 2008. The show focuses on a team of people working at the ficticional Montecito Resort & Casino dealing with issues that arise within the working environment, ranging from valet parking and...
(2003), Mike Cannon (played by James Lesure
James Lesure
James Lesure is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Mike Cannon on the NBC comedy-drama Las Vegas, and as Mel Ellis on the NBC/WB sitcom For Your Love. He also starred as basketball star Alonzo Pope on the ABC series Mr. Sunshine, a 2010-11 midseason replacement with Matthew...
), one of the main characters, is a highly intelligent, and technically very gifted engineer and MIT graduate.
MIT was also mentioned in the pilot episode of 'Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls is an American family comedy-drama series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. On October 5, 2000, the series debuted on The WB and was cancelled in its seventh season, ending on May 15, 2007 on The CW...
'.
Randal Pinkett
Randal Pinkett
Randal D. Pinkett is a business consultant who in 2005 was the winner of season four of the reality television show, The Apprentice...
, the winner of season 4 of The Apprentice
The Apprentice (U.S. season 4)
The Apprentice 4 is the fourth season of The Apprentice, with Donald Trump as the executive producer and host. The show was aired on Thursday nights at 9 p.m...
, is an MIT alum, with an SM in Electrical Engineering (1998), an MBA from Sloan School of Management (1998), and a PhD in Media Arts & Sciences from the Media Lab (2001).
Radio
Dr. Thomas Louis MagliozziTom Magliozzi
Thomas Louis "Click Tappet" Magliozzi is an American radio talk show host. He and his younger brother Ray Magliozzi, also known collectively as Click and Clack, The Tappet Brothers, are the hosts of National Public Radio's Car Talk. -Biography:Thomas Louis...
and his younger brother Ray
Ray Magliozzi
Raymond F. "Clack Tappet" Magliozzi is a co-host of NPR's winning weekly radio show, Car Talk. They are known as "Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers"...
are "Click and Clack, The Tappet Brothers," the hosts of National Public Radio's comedy car advice show Car Talk
Car Talk
Car Talk is a radio talk show broadcast weekly on National Public Radio stations throughout the United States and elsewhere. Its subjects are automobiles and repair, and it often takes humorous turns...
. Both are MIT alumni — Tom has a degree in chemical engineering (1958), and Ray has a degree in humanities and general science (1972) — and they regularly use that fact in their self-deprecating attempts to establish their credibility on technical matters. After campaigning on-air for years, they were finally invited to speak at MIT's 1999 commencement exercise.
Written works
- Also see References in the main article, and the bibliography maintained by MIT's Institute Archives & Special Collections
Nonfiction works have examined MIT, its history, and its various subcultures. In addition to books like Nightwork, which recount the Institute's hacking
Roof and tunnel hacking
Roof and tunnel hacking is the unauthorized exploration of roof and utility tunnel spaces. The term carries a strong collegiate connotation, stemming from its use at MIT, where the practice has a long history. It is a form of urban exploration...
tradition, Benson Snyder's The Hidden Curriculum
The Hidden Curriculum
The Hidden Curriculum is a book by Benson R. Snyder, the then-Dean of Institute Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Snyder advocates the thesis that much of campus conflict and students' personal anxiety is caused by a mass of unstated academic and social norms, which thwart...
(1970) describes the state of MIT student and faculty psychology in the late 1960s. Noted physicist and raconteur Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
built up a collection of anecdotes about his MIT undergraduate years, several of which are retold in his loose memoir Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. The book, released in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life...
Some of this material was incorporated into Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...
's film Infinity
Infinity (film)
Infinity is a 1996 American biographical drama film about the early life of physicist Richard Feynman. Feynman was played by Matthew Broderick, who also directed and produced the film. Broderick's mother, Patricia Broderick, wrote the screenplay, which was based on the books Surely You're Joking, Mr...
(1996
1996 in film
Major releases this year included Scream, Independence Day, Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire and a version of Evita starring Madonna.-Events:...
), in addition to Feynman stories from Far Rockaway, Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, and Los Alamos, New Mexico
Los Alamos, New Mexico
Los Alamos is a townsite and census-designated place in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, United States, built upon four mesas of the Pajarito Plateau and the adjoining White Rock Canyon. The population of the CDP was 12,019 at the 2010 Census. The townsite or "the hill" is one part of town while...
.
On the fiction side, the novel The Gadget Maker
The Gadget Maker
The Gadget Maker is a 1955 novel by Maxwell Griffith. It is notable for its vivid depiction of an otherwise-rarely-described milieu: campus life at MIT in the 1940s...
(1955, by Maxwell Griffith) traces the life of aeronautical engineer Stanley Brack, who performs his undergraduate studies at MIT. Ben Bova
Ben Bova
Benjamin William Bova is an American science-fiction author and editor. He is the recipient of six Hugo Awards for Best Professional Editor for his work at Analog Science Fiction in the 1970's.-Personal life:...
's novel The Weathermakers (1966) about scientists developing methods to prevent hurricanes from reaching land, is also set in part at MIT. Patricia Vasquez visits (or comes from) MIT in Greg Bear
Greg Bear
Gregory Dale Bear is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict , artificial universes , consciousness and cultural practices , and accelerated evolution...
's Eon
Eon (novel)
Eon is a 1985 science fiction novel by Greg Bear. It is the first story written in The Way fictional universe.Events in Eon take place in 2005, when the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. are on the verge of nuclear war. In that tense political climate, a 290 km asteroid appears within the solar system...
(1985). Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson
Neal Town Stephenson is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction.Difficult to categorize, his novels have been variously referred to as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and postcyberpunk...
coyly hints at MIT in Quicksilver
Quicksilver (novel)
Quicksilver is a historical novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2003. It is the first volume of The Baroque Cycle, his late Baroque historical fiction series, succeeded by The Confusion and The System of the World . Quicksilver won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and was nominated for the Locus...
(2004), and other books of The Baroque Cycle
The Baroque Cycle
The Baroque Cycle is a series of novels by American writer Neal Stephenson. It was published in three volumes containing 8 books in 2003 and 2004. The story follows the adventures of a sizeable cast of characters living amidst some of the central events of the late 17th and early 18th centuries in...
, by having Daniel Waterhouse found the "Massachusetts Bay Colony Institute of the Technologickal Arts" in the 18th century.
Kurt Vonnegut
MIT is a recurring motif in the works of Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
, much like the planet Tralfamadore
Tralfamadore
The Tralfamadorians are a fictional alien race mentioned in several novels by Kurt Vonnegut. Tralfamadore is their home planet. Details on the inhabitants of the planet vary from novel to novel:...
or the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. In part, this recurrence may stem from Vonnegut family history: both his grandfather Bernard and his father Kurt, Sr. studied at MIT and received bachelor's degrees in architecture. His older brother, another Bernard
Bernard Vonnegut
Bernard Vonnegut was an American atmospheric scientist credited with discovering that silver iodide could be used effectively in cloud seeding to produce snow and rain...
, earned a bachelor's and a Ph.D. in chemistry, also at MIT. Since so many of Vonnegut's stories are ambivalent or outright pessimistic with regard to technology's impact on humankind, it is hardly surprising that his references to the Institute express a mixed attitude. In Hocus Pocus
Hocus Pocus (novel)
Hocus Pocus is a 1990 novel by Kurt Vonnegut which deals with themes of class, race, crime, suicide, and globalization.-Introduction:Like many of Vonnegut's novels, Hocus Pocus is not organized in a traditional linear fashion, and has a plot centered around a major event which is alluded to early,...
(1990), the Vietnam-veteran narrator Eugene Debs Hartke applies for graduate study in MIT's physics program, but his plans go awry when he tangles with a hippie at a Harvard Square Chinese restaurant. Hartke observes that men in uniform had become a ridiculous sight around colleges, even though both Harvard and MIT obtained much of their income from weapons R&D. ("I would have been dead if it weren't for that great gift to civilization from the Chemistry Department of Harvard, which was napalm
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
, or sticky jellied gasoline.") Jailbird
Jailbird
Jailbird is a novel by Kurt Vonnegut, originally published in 1979. Its plot concerns a man recently released from a low security prison after having served time for a minor role in the Watergate scandal. The novel uses a standard memoir format, revealing Walter F...
notes drily that MIT's eighth president was one of the three-man committee who upheld the Sacco and Vanzetti
Sacco and Vanzetti
Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were anarchists who were convicted of murdering two men during a 1920 armed robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts, United States...
ruling, condemning the two men to death. As reported in The Tech, June 7, 1927:
- President Samuel W. Stratton has recently been appointed a member of a committee that will advise Governor Alvan T. FullerAlvan T. FullerAlvan Tufts Fuller was a United States Representative from Massachusetts. He became one of the wealthiest men in America, with an automobile dealership which in 1920 was recognized as "the world's most successful auto dealership." He was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of...
in his course of action in the Sacco-Vanzetti case, it was announced a few days ago by the metropolitan press. The President is one of a committee of three appointed, the others being President A. Lawrence LowellAbbott Lawrence LowellAbbott Lawrence Lowell was a U.S. educator and legal scholar. He served as President of Harvard University from 1909 to 1933....
of Harvard and Judge Robert Grant. It was stated at Dr. Stratton's office that this appointment was very reluctantly accepted, for not only has the President not had experience with criminal law procedure, but he has not been following the case at all in the newspapers. It is thought by some that this very fact may result in an entirely unbiased review of the case, which might not be possible had he followed the case closely.
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday (book)
Palm Sunday is a 1981 collection of short stories, speeches, essays, letters, and other previously unpublished works by author Kurt Vonnegut Jr.-Content:...
(1981), a loose collage of essays and other material, contains a markedly skeptical
Skepticism
Skepticism has many definitions, but generally refers to any questioning attitude towards knowledge, facts, or opinions/beliefs stated as facts, or doubt regarding claims that are taken for granted elsewhere...
and humanist
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
commencement address Vonnegut gave to Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, located in Geneva, New York, are together a liberal arts college offering Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in Teaching degrees. In athletics, however, the two schools compete with separate teams, known as the Hobart Statesmen and the...
in Geneva, New York
Geneva, New York
Geneva is a city in Ontario and Seneca counties in the U.S. state of New York. The population was 13,617 at the 2000 census. Some claim it is named after the city and canton of Geneva in Switzerland. Others believe the name came from confusion over the letters in the word "Seneca" written in cursive...
. Speaking of the role religion plays in modern society, Vonnegut notes:
- We no longer believe that GodGodGod is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
causes earthquakes and crop failures and plagues when He gets mad at us. We no longer imagine that He can be cooled off by sacrifices and festivals and gifts. I am so glad we don't have to think up presents for Him anymore. What's the perfect gift for someone who has everything?
- The perfect gift for somebody who has everything, of course, is nothing. Any gifts we have should be given to creatures right on the surface of the planet, it seems to me. If God gets angry about that, we can call in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There's a very good chance they can calm Him down.
Isaac Asimov
Kurt Vonnegut was friends with fellow humanist and writer Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
, who resided for many years in Newton, Massachusetts
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
. During much of this time, Asimov chose the date for the MIT Science Fiction Society
MIT Science Fiction Society
The MIT Science Fiction Society is a literary society and library of science fiction and fantasy books and magazines, located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
's annual picnic, citing a superstition that he always picked a day with good weather. In his copious autobiographical writings, Asimov reveals a mild predilection for the Institute's architecture, and an awareness of its aesthetic possibilities. For example, In Joy Still Felt (1980) describes a 1957 meeting with Catherine de Camp, who was checking out colleges for her teenage son. Asimov recalls:
- I hadn't seen her for five years and she was forty-nine now, and I felt I would be distressed at seeing her beauty fade.
- How wrong I was! I saw her coming down the long corridorInfinite CorridorThe Infinite Corridor is the hallway, 251 metres long, that runs through the main buildings of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specifically parts of the buildings numbered 7, 3, 10, 4, and 8...
at MIT and she looked almost as though it were still 1941, when I had first met her.
Asimov's work, too, trades on MIT's reputation for narrative effect, even touching upon an anti-academic theme. In "The Dead Past
The Dead Past
"The Dead Past" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov, first published in the April 1956 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It was later collected in Earth Is Room Enough and The Best of Isaac Asimov , and adapted into an episode of the science-fiction television series Out of the...
" (1956), the scientist-hero Foster must overcome the attitudes his Institute physics training has entrenched in his mind, before he can make his critical breakthrough. Several jokes in Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor and its sequel Asimov Laughs Again hinge upon MIT, its reputation for scientific prowess, and the technocentric focus of its students. In a similar vein, the satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
newspaper The Onion
The Onion
The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
published an article entitled "Corpse-Reanimation Technology Still 10 Years Off, Say MIT Mad Scientists," among many others in the same general tradition.
Comic strips
Several comic stripComic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
s make use of MIT. In Doonesbury
Doonesbury
Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
, Kim Rosenthal almost earned her Ph. D in computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, dropping out because it was "too easy." In the fall of 2006, Kim and Mike Doonesbury's daughter Alex entered MIT as a freshman. (The 3 October 2006 Doonesbury strip satirizes the "MIT of" snowclone
Snowclone
A snowclone is a type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different variants"....
; Zipper Harris declares the fictional Walden College to be "the MIT of southern Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
.") Dilbert
Dilbert
Dilbert is an American comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. First published on April 16, 1989, Dilbert is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring the engineer Dilbert as the title character...
received a degree from Course VI-1
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
. Bill Amend
Bill Amend
William J. C. "Bill" Amend III is an American cartoonist, best known for his comic strip FoxTrot.-Early life:Amend attended high school in Burlingame, California where he was a cartoonist on his school newspaper. Amend is an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. He attended Amherst College,...
's FoxTrot has also made MIT allusions, in keeping with the strip's genial satire of nerd
Nerd
Nerd is a derogatory slang term for an intelligent but socially awkward and obsessive person who spends time on unpopular or obscure pursuits, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Nerds are considered to be awkward, shy, and unattractive...
subcultures. On Christmas Day 2005, the comic strip Baby Blues featured a character reading the instruction manual accompanying a gadget that he has given to his child as a Christmas present. The first volume of instructions begins, "Assembly Instructions — Step 1: Obtain a master's degree in mechanical engineering from M.I.T. Step 2: ..."
Computer and video games
Some genres of computer and video games have characterization requirements like those of movies. For example, a game involving a team of commandos might require a member who can break into computers, crack security systems or work with explosives. This character's background would typically have to be established very quickly and efficiently, perhaps within one screen of introductory text. Stating that a commando or top-secret operative "graduated from MIT" is one way to accomplish this.MIT is mentioned in the computer games Area 51 (1995), Half-Life (1998), Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...
(2005) and Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid
is a videogame by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake...
(1998).
In the case of the Half-Life series, the main protagonist, Gordon Freeman
Gordon Freeman
Gordon Freeman is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Half-Life video game series. He is a theoretical physicist who finds himself thrust into a battle for survival against both alien and human forces. Throughout the series, Gordon must prevail in hostile situations despite...
, is an MIT graduate.
The Infocom
Infocom
Infocom was a software company, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced one notable business application, a relational database called Cornerstone....
game The Lurking Horror
The Lurking Horror
The Lurking Horror is an interactive fiction computer game released by Infocom in 1987. The game was written by Dave Lebling and inspired by the horror writings of H. P. Lovecraft...
(1987), written by MIT alumnus and interactive fiction
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
pioneer Dave Lebling
Dave Lebling
P. David Lebling is an interactive fiction game designer and programmer who has worked at various companies, including Infocom and Avid....
, is set on the campus of the George Underwood Edwards Institute of Technology, which strongly resembles MIT. Its fictional culture also parodies the MIT culture. For instance, G.U.E. Tech's class ring
Class ring
A class ring is a ring worn by students and alumni in the United States and Canada to commemorate their graduation, generally for a high school, college, or university.-History:...
is known as the brass hyrax
Hyrax
A hyrax is any of four species of fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. The rock hyrax Procavia capensis, the yellow-spotted rock hyrax Heterohyrax brucei, the western tree hyrax Dendrohyrax dorsalis, and the southern tree hyrax, Dendrohyrax arboreus live in Africa...
, parodying MIT's Brass Rat.
Music
In the Broadway musical RentRent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
(1996-2008), a major character, Tom Collins, is expelled from teaching at MIT, "for [his] theory of actual reality."
The song "Etoh" by the electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
group The Avalanches
The Avalanches
The Avalanches are an Australian electronic music group formed in 1997 with mainstays Robbie Chater on keyboards, Tony Diblasi on keyboards, bass and backing vocals, and Darren Seltmann on vocals and keyboards. They are known for their live DJ sets and their debut album Since I Left You , which was...
describes MIT as "the home of complicated computers, which speak a mechanical language all their own." This lyric can be taken literally, or it can be read metaphorically as a description of MIT student culture. Allan Sherman
Allan Sherman
Allan Sherman was an American comedy writer and television producer who became famous as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer , became the fastest-selling record album up to that time...
's paean to initialisms, "Harvey and Sheila," notes that Harvey "works for IBM; he went to MIT, got his PhD." Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
group Tony! Toni! Toné!
Tony! Toni! Toné!
Tony! Toni! Toné! is an American Soul/R&B group from Oakland, California, popular during the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. During the band's heyday, it was composed of D'wayne Wiggins on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Raphael Saadiq on lead vocals and bass, and their cousin Timothy...
mentions MIT in the song "Born Not To Know," from their 1988 debut album Who? In the song, a pretentious individual rattles off a long list of his impressive academic credentials—culminating with a "Ph. D from MIT"—only to then ask, "so, can I get a job?" Tony! Toni! Toné! responds with a resounding "No!"
"Nerdcore" rap artist MC Hawking
MC Hawking
Ken Lawrence is a nerdcore hip hop artist who purports to be theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking rapping under the name MC Hawking.MC Hawking gained some popularity on the Internet in the early 2000s...
's song "All My Shootin's Be Drive-bys" (1997) takes tropes associated with gangsta rap
Gangsta rap
Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...
and plays them out in a more academic setting. He speaks of taking revenge for the death of a friend, part of his Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, UK crew:
- I saw Little Pookie just the other day.
- Pookie was my boy we shared Kool-AidKool-AidKool-Aid is a brand of flavored drink mix owned by the Kraft Foods Company.-History:Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins in Hastings, Nebraska, United States. All of his experiments took place in his mother's kitchen. Its predecessor was a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack...
in the park, - now some punks took his life in the dark.
- I ask Doomsday who the motherfuckerMotherfuckerMotherfucker is a vulgarism which, in its most literal sense, refers to one who participates in sexual intercourse with a mother, either someone else's mother, or his own.- Variants :...
s be, - "some punk ass bitches from MIT."
When the narrator learns the identity of Pookie's killers, he decides to "give a Newtonian
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
demonstration, of a bullet its mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
and its acceleration
Acceleration
In physics, acceleration is the rate of change of velocity with time. In one dimension, acceleration is the rate at which something speeds up or slows down. However, since velocity is a vector, acceleration describes the rate of change of both the magnitude and the direction of velocity. ...
," leaving six MIT students dead in the street.
"Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
's "White & Nerdy
White & Nerdy
"White & Nerdy" is the second single from "Weird Al" Yankovic's album Straight Outta Lynwood, which was released on September 26, 2006. It parodies the song "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone...
" (2006) riffs upon MIT, along with a plenitude of other geek culture references — The Star Wars Holiday Special
The Star Wars Holiday Special
The Star Wars Holiday Special is a 1978 American television special set in the Star Wars galaxy. It was one of the first official Star Wars spin-offs, and was directed by Steve Binder. The show was broadcast in its entirety only once, in the United States and Canada, November 17, 1978, on the U.S...
, pocket protector
Pocket protector
A pocket protector is a sheath designed to hold writing instruments and other small implements, such as slide rules, while preventing them from damaging the wearer's shirt pocket...
s and editing the Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, to name a few. Yankovic claims that he graduated "first in [his] class here at MIT"; however, the Institute does not assign class rankings or confer traditional Latin honors upon its graduates.
Over the years, the students and faculty of MIT have produced their own share of musical material. For example, the mathematician and satirist Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater...
taught for a time in MIT's political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
department, lecturing on quantitative methods and statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
. This experience led him to write a song called "Sociology," played to the tune of Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
's "Choreography." The lyrics conclude,
- They consult, sounding occult,
- Talking like a mathematics Ph.D.Ph.D.A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
- They can snow all their clients,
- By calling it "science"—
- Although it's only sociologySociologySociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
!
Students have also written their own songs during their tenures at the Institute. This tradition, which goes back at least to The Doormat Singers of the 1960s, continues with several present-day groups.
List of fictional characters
- Ellie ArrowayJodie FosterAlicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
, ContactContact (film)Contact is a 1997 American science fiction drama film adapted from the Carl Sagan novel of the same name and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Both Sagan and wife Ann Druyan wrote the story outline for the film adaptation of Contact....
- SETI researcher (in Carl SaganCarl SaganCarl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
's novel, Ellie Arroway is a HarvardHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
graduate) - Stanley BrackThe Gadget MakerThe Gadget Maker is a 1955 novel by Maxwell Griffith. It is notable for its vivid depiction of an otherwise-rarely-described milieu: campus life at MIT in the 1940s...
- Mike CannonJames LesureJames Lesure is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Mike Cannon on the NBC comedy-drama Las Vegas, and as Mel Ellis on the NBC/WB sitcom For Your Love. He also starred as basketball star Alonzo Pope on the ABC series Mr. Sunshine, a 2010-11 midseason replacement with Matthew...
, Las VegasLas Vegas (TV series)Las Vegas was an American television series broadcast by NBC from September 22, 2003 to February 15, 2008. The show focuses on a team of people working at the ficticional Montecito Resort & Casino dealing with issues that arise within the working environment, ranging from valet parking and...
- "MIT graduate degree" - Ben ChapeskiDian BacharDian Bachar is an American actor. He is most notable for his roles in various films by or starring his friends Trey Parker and Matt Stone, such as Cannibal! The Musical , Orgazmo and his most famous role as Kenny "Squeak" Scolari in 1998's BASEketball, as well as making the occasional appearance...
, OrgazmoOrgazmoOrgazmo is a 1997 comedy film written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the animated series South Park, and directed by Parker.-Plot:...
- "MIT graduate" - James ClaytonColin FarrellColin James Farrell is an Irish actor, who has appeared in such film as Tigerland, Miami Vice, Minority Report, Phone Booth, The Recruit, Alexander and S.W.A.T....
, The RecruitThe RecruitThe Recruit is a 2003 American spy thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson, starring Colin Farrell, Al Pacino and Bridget Moynahan. It was released on January 31, 2003 in North America by Touchstone Pictures....
- CIACentral Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
trainee, degree in "non-linear cryptography" - DarcyJoy OsmanskiJoy Kathleen Osmanski is an American actress. Her best known role to date is that of the role of Darcy on The Loop.-Career:Osmanski voices "Julie" on the FOX animated show Allen Gregory...
, Secretary in The LoopThe Loop (TV series)The Loop is an American sitcom that ran from March 15, 2006 to July 1, 2007 on Fox. The show starred Bret Harrison as Sam Sullivan, a young professional trying to balance the needs of his social life with the pressures of working at the corporate headquarters of TransAlliance Airways, a major U.S.... - DilbertDilbertDilbert is an American comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. First published on April 16, 1989, Dilbert is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring the engineer Dilbert as the title character...
-has a MIT degree in Course VI-1, electrical engineering - Alex Doonesbury- character in the comic strip DoonesburyDoonesburyDoonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
, daughter of Mike DoonesburyMike DoonesburyMichael James "Mike" Doonesbury is the main character in Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury. He started out as a nerdish freshman from Tulsa at the fictional Walden College, and shared a dorm room with B.D. Currently he is married to Kim Rosenthal, and divorced from J.J. Caucus. Mike's...
and J. J. - EmmaNatalie PortmanNatalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...
, No Strings Attached (film) - Protagonist is an MIT graduate, played by Natalie Portman - Jack Florey
- Gordon FreemanGordon FreemanGordon Freeman is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Half-Life video game series. He is a theoretical physicist who finds himself thrust into a battle for survival against both alien and human forces. Throughout the series, Gordon must prevail in hostile situations despite...
, Half-Life - Degree in theoretical physics - Tobias Fünke, Arrested Development, completed his fellowship in psycholinguisticsPsycholinguisticsPsycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...
- Benjamin GatesNicolas CageNicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
, National TreasureNational Treasure (film)National Treasure is a 2004 mystery adventure heist film from the Walt Disney Studios under Walt Disney Pictures. It was written by Jim Kouf, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Cormac Wibberley, and Marianne Wibberley, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and directed by Jon Turteltaub... - Harvey, from Allan ShermanAllan ShermanAllan Sherman was an American comedy writer and television producer who became famous as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer , became the fastest-selling record album up to that time...
's song parody Harvey and Sheila ("He went to MIT and got his Ph.D.") - Will HuntingMatt DamonMatthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
, Good Will HuntingGood Will HuntingGood Will Hunting is a 1997 drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgård...
- Savant on-campus janitor - James O. Incandenza, "Infinite JestInfinite JestInfinite Jest is a 1996 novel by David Foster Wallace. The lengthy and complex work takes place in a semi-parodic future version of North America, and touches on tennis, substance addiction and recovery programs, depression, child abuse, family relationships, advertising and popular entertainment,...
" -Played tennis as an MIT student, optical expert - Invisible WomanInvisible WomanSusan "Sue" Storm Richards is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superheroine created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby. The character first appeared in Fantastic Four #1 in November 1961, and was the first female superhero created by Marvel in the Silver Age of Comics...
, The Fantastic FourThe Fantastic Four (film)The Fantastic Four is an unreleased low-budget feature film completed in 1994. Created to secure copyright to the property, the producers never intended it for release, although the director, actors, and other participants were not informed of this fact... - David LevinsonJeff GoldblumJeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. His career began in the mid-1970s and he has appeared in major box-office successes including The Fly, Jurassic Park and its sequel Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and Independence Day...
, Independence DayIndependence Day (film)Independence Day is a 1996 science fiction film about an alien invasion of Earth, focusing on a disparate group of individuals and families as they converge in the Nevada desert and, along with the rest of the human population, participate in a last-chance counterattack on July 4 – the same...
- Manager at NYC cable station, degree in computer science - Mei Ling, Metal Gear SolidMetal Gear Solidis a videogame by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake...
- Black Mass (comics)Black Mass (comics)Black Mass is a fictional DC Comics supervillain. He first appeared in Justice League of America #234 -Fictional character biography:...
was a physicist at MIT before he was granted powers by the OvermasterOvermasterThe Overmaster is a DC Comics supervillain. He first appeared behind the scenes in Justice League of America #233 , and was created by Gerry Conway and Chuck Patton.-Fictional character biography:... - Tim McGeeTimothy McGeeTimothy "Tim" McGee is a fictional character from the CBS television series NCIS. He is portrayed by Sean Murray. Timothy McGee is a special agent investigating crime in this police procedural show...
, NCISNCIS (TV series)NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...
"has a Masters in Computing Forensics at MIT" - Rebecca MiyamotoHilary HaagHilary Haag Scarborough is an American voice actress who worked for ADV Films and Seraphim Digital and currently lives in Houston, Texas. Attended Lamar Consolidated High School and went on to study English Rhetoric at Texas A&M University...
, Pani Poni Dash!Pani Poni Dash!, also known as through its anime adaptation , is a Japanese manga series that uses parody, frequently referencing Japanese and American pop-culture in many ways... - Bullwinkle J. MooseBullwinkle J. MooseBullwinkle J. Moose is a fictional character in the 1959–1964 animated television series Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, often collectively referred to as Rocky and Bullwinkle, produced by Jay Ward and Bill Scott...
, "The Rocky and Bullwinkle ShowThe Rocky and Bullwinkle ShowThe Rocky & Bullwinkle Show is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959 to June 28, 1964 on the ABC and NBC television networks...
" - With a degree in Toe Dancing - Otacon, Metal Gear SolidMetal Gear Solidis a videogame by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake...
- Ryan Q. Putz
- Jim RhodesWar MachineWar Machine is a fictional character, a comic book superhero appearing in comic books set in the Marvel Comics universe. The character of James Rhodes first appeared in Iron Man #118 by David Michelinie, John Byrne and Bob Layton...
, Marvel ComicsMarvel ComicsMarvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
' Iron ManIron ManIron Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #39 .A billionaire playboy, industrialist and ingenious engineer,... - Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic Marvel ComicsMarvel ComicsMarvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
The Fantastic Four - RockhoundSteve BuscemiSteven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
, Armageddon - Geologist with two MIT doctorates in Chemistry and Geology - Tony Stark, Marvel ComicsMarvel ComicsMarvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
' Iron ManIron ManIron Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #39 .A billionaire playboy, industrialist and ingenious engineer,... - Ed Straker, commander of SHADOShadoShado is a fictional archer published by DC Comics. She first appeared in Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters #1 , and was created by Mike Grell.-Childhood:...
- Richard SumnerSpencer TracySpencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
, Desk SetDesk SetDesk Set is a 1957 American romantic comedy film directed by Walter Lang and starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn...
- A "PhD from MIT in Science" - James E. Tetazoo
- Tim Thomas AKA Ben Thomas, Seven PoundsSeven PoundsSeven Pounds is a 2008 film, directed by Gabriele Muccino. Will Smith stars as a man who sets out to change the lives of seven people. Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, and Barry Pepper star. The film was released in theaters in the United States and Canada on December 19, 2008, by Columbia Pictures...
- studied engineering at MIT - Howard WolowitzHoward WolowitzHoward Joel Wolowitz, M.Eng is a fictional character on the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory, portrayed by actor Simon Helberg.Among the main male characters in the show, Howard is distinguished for lacking a doctoral degree, for still living with his mother, and for believing himself to...
, The Big Bang TheoryThe Big Bang TheoryThe Big Bang Theory is an American sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom serve as executive producers on the show, along with Steven Molaro. All three also serve as head writers...
- Masters in Engineering - Lex LuthorLex LuthorLex Luthor is a fictional character, a supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and the archenemy of Superman, although given his high status as a supervillain, he has also come into conflict with Batman and other superheroes in the DC Universe. Created by Jerry Siegel and...
, - MIT graduate