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Movie Villains Don’t Use iPhones

It’s no secret that Apple is protective of its image. In a wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair, Knives Out director Rian Johnson revealed that Apple will let filmmakers use iPhones in their movies only if the bad guys don’t have them on camera. It has long been rumored that Apple makes demands like this. In 2002, eagle-eyed viewers of the TV show 24 figured out which character was a traitor, because the good guys all used Macs, while the bad guys used PCs (duh). However, on shows produced for Apple TV+, every character seems to use Apple products, regardless of alignment.

Rian Johnson

Apple exerting pressure on studios to present its products in the best light isn’t unusual. In fact, Apple’s interference pales in comparison to that of the US Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency, both of which have exerted an outsized influence over Hollywood since at least the 1950s.

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Comments About Movie Villains Don’t Use iPhones

Notable Replies

  1. Ironically, I remember the James Bond movie Goldeneye, where the bad guy’s lair was packed full of IBM desktop systems, all with oversized IBM logos on the monitors.

    I wonder how this affected their sales (if at all).

  2. It’s important for the bad guys to inflict pain on everyone, including their IT henchpersons.

  3. And don’t forget about how a battered and elderly SE 30, Wall-E, and a sleek, sexy and beautiful iPod, Eve, defeated the evil Axiom Autopilot and saved the planet Earth:

    https://movies.disney.com/wall-e/characters

  4. Bad guys always seem to use cheap disposable (aka. burner, throw-away) phones so they cannot be traced. A lot of times, they are simple flip phones.

  5. That’s because crime doesn’t pay. :slight_smile:

  6. Now if Google could do the same thing, then the bad guys would have to just use old Windows phones!

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