Opinion

15 tech movies to watch this Christmas holiday

15 Christmas movies/documentaries that will not only entertain and educate you, but they will deepen your understanding of technology.

Working as a professional in the tech industry requires depth technical knowledge, a lot of dedication, time and effort. Seeing movies is a great way to relax because they not only entertain but inspire you to find inspiration and keep learning new things.

As a techie, you can spice up your holiday by spending less time smashing your keyboard and more time seeing a movie that’ll surely our selection will provide you with hours of entertainment, but also a vast overview of state-of-the-art in technological advances and innovation.

With our love for all things tech at heart, Benjamindada.com is sharing 15 awesome Christmas gifts. Sorry, movies, we think every developer and techie should (re)watch. Not only will these movies entertain and educate you, but they will deepen your understanding of technology.

The movies are The Social Network, The Imitation Game, Jobs, The Social Dilemma, Coded Bias, The Great Hack, The Internship, Banking on Bitcoin, Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet, Crypto, Banking on Africa: The Bitcoin Revolution, Bitcoin: The end of money as we know it, The Great Reset and the Rise of Bitcoin, Crypto Rush, Ready Player One, The Social Dilemma, Coded Bias, and The Great Hack.

The American drama is among the best picks for developers. The Social Network traces the origins and journey of social networking giant Facebook and the many lawsuits that the company had to face in its initial years.

Every programmer and software developer should watch the Social Network to see the life journey of Mark Zuckerberg, a coder at heart who achieved success through his sheer passion for coding.

The Imitation Game

This American historical drama film was released in 2014. This movie as it portrays the journey of investing in the world’s first computer. The movie is recommended for developers to understand the initial struggles of Alan Turing and his team.

The Imitation Game tells the story of mathematical genius Alan Turing (Benedict) and his fellow mathematicians, who built the world's first computer that cracked the German Enigma code.

Based on the real-life story of the computer scientist and crypto-analyst, the movie brilliantly takes you on a tour of the dark days of war and how Britain eventually won the War for the Allies.

Jobs

This American biopic movie is based on the early life of Steve Jobs. The movie takes you through the journey of Apple’s early years to its downfall when Jobs was kicked out of his own company.

If the life of Steve Jobs fascinates you, and you’d like to dig deeper into his story to follow his' ascension from college dropout into one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of the 20th century. The movie is recommended for programmers, as Jobs remains an inspiration for young developers and tech entrepreneurs.

The Internship

The Internship is a story of two middle-aged salesmen who get coveted internships at Google, where they compete with young tech nerds for landing a full-time job. Vaughn and Wilson portray two old school salesmen who, finding themselves suddenly unemployed and passed by in the digital world, try to reinvent themselves by becoming interns at a major tech company.

Google allowed this movie to be shot at Googleplex HQ (the corporate headquarters complex of Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc.) for five days, while the rest of the film was shot at Georgia Institute of Technology, where they made a replica of Google HQ.

Banking on Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the most disruptive invention since the Internet. Banking on Bitcoin shows the players who are defining how this technology will shape our lives.

The documentary explains the fundamentals of Bitcoin, where and by whom it was founded – and why the creator’s identity still remains a mystery. It also provides some insight into the usefulness of using cryptocurrency, considering such transactions have no fees or very low fees, and fewer risks in terms of being used online.

Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet

Five years after his first documentary, award-winning producer/director Torsten Hoffmann revisits Bitcoin and sets out to explore the evolution of the blockchain industry and its new promise.

A deep dive into the crypto ecosystem and blockchain technology, Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet reveals the good, the bad and the ugly of the controversial industry, its major narratives, conflicts and the major players behind it.

Crypto

Demoted back to his hometown, a young Wall Street banker is drawn into investigating a tangled web of corruption and fraud in Upstate New York, affecting both his personal life and business career.

Crypto uncovers a money laundering scheme that involves an art gallery and a ruthless Russian gang.

Banking on Africa: The Bitcoin Revolution

This documentary follows the journey of Bitcoin pioneers as the African continent seeks to leverage cryptocurrency to increase its independence from a banking system that has failed.

As the world races to lead the way in blockchain technology, could Africa have an advantage? Banking on Africa: the Bitcoin revolution follows the journey of Bitcoin pioneers as the continent seeks to leverage cryptocurrency to leapfrog standing world economic powers.

Bitcoin: The End of Money As We Know it

For anyone who has not fully understood the controversial Bitcoin yet, this is a concise and informative crash course about money and cryptocurrency. This crypto movie reveals the practices of central banks and the financial industry that brought the world to a financial crisis.

Apart from that, the government’s role in money creation is also highlighted, as well as how the central bank operates and how it might lead to inflation. Bitcoin: The end of money as we know is another blockbuster about crypto assets that can’t be missed.

The Great Reset and the Rise of Bitcoin

The Great Reset and the Rise of Bitcoin is a documentary that explores the current state of our economy and the impact a new monetary system like Bitcoin can have on the world. The movie explains the details of how Bitcoin works, how mining works and the existing scaling options, that unlock bitcoin's potential for growth and global adoption as a currency.

The Great Reset and the Rise of Bitcoin puts together all the important details about our economic context - central bank actions, history, bitcoin and more - in order for viewers to get a good level of understanding of our current situation and be able to make educated decisions on the future of the financial world they want to live in.

Crypto Rush

The first documentary explains cryptocurrency and blockchain in simple terms. The Crypto Rush documentary reveals the mysterious world of hackers, entrepreneurs, regulators, startups mega-corporations and crypto-mining farms to help ordinary people understand what this new, digital era gold rush is all about.

Ready Player One

Steven Spielberg's journey into virtual reality is a celebration of nostalgia at its heart, as people of the year 2045 use Virtual Reality to revisit familiar characters and settings from pop culture.

The movie is a film adaptation of Ernest Cline’s international best-selling novel, Ready Player One. Ready Player One delivers an action-packed show if you love video games and virtual reality.

This documentary-drama hybrid explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations. The Social dilemma is an eye-opener for people who spend hours on social media and allow the technology to intrude on their privacy.

The movie blends documentary investigation and narrative drama to disrupt the disrupters, unveiling the hidden machinations behind everyone’s favourite social media and search platforms.

Coded Bias

This documentary investigates the bias in algorithms after M.I.T. Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini uncovered flaws in facial recognition technology. To solve this dilemma, she embarks on a journey to push for the first-ever U.S. legislation against bias in algorithms that impact us all.

Coded Bias explores how tech can be racist and sexist: Code switch facial recognition systems from large tech companies often misidentify black women as male — including the likes of Michelle Obama and Serena Williams. This documentary, "Coded Bias" unpacks why.

The Great Hack

Another recent technology documentary on Netflix, The Great Hack tells the in-depth story of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Numerous people involved in the case are interviewed in the documentary, giving a birds-eye view of one of the most controversial scandals in the history of technology.

The Great Hack offers an alarming glimpse of the way data is being weaponized for political gain—and what it might mean for future elections. A number of whistle-blowers appear in the documentary to explain how the dubious partnership has influenced world-changing political decisions.