A Survival Plan

Ironman 3 was entertaining on a few points. Who would have expected Ben Kingsley?

SPOILER ALERT

Toward the end, there is a scene (spoiler alert……) where we see multiple Ironman suits flying without a human encased within. They are under Jarvis’ control at the behest of Stark. They undergo dramatic offensive attack maneuvers to defeat multiple enemies. Jarvis does a great job of commanding the effort, under the management of Stark himself.

Back in 1983, Roy Scheider starred in a movie titled “Blue Thunder”. It was a tale about good and evil centered around an experimental helicopter by the same name. It possessed “whisper mode”, a quiet operating condition useful for stealthy hovering surveillance. It also had thermal imaging capability that allowed the crew to “see” human energy through walls. But the neatest technology in my opinion was the remote controlled chin gun beneath the nose. Wherever the gunner looked, the gun would also. Advanced tech for the time. The end credits mentioned that the tech on that aircraft was either in development, or in use. Except to see it in the future. Well, we did. It’s here now.

From picsearch.com

A lot of what went into the creation of the Blue Thunder concept found its way into production, though the movie makers were queuing on what was in the pipeline, rather than the other way around. The active idea was the representation of a fighting aircraft that would be able to stealthily engage the enemy, remain combat capable after taking damage, and in essence become an extension of the pilot’s fighting spirit. Perhaps a better way to describe it would be to say that the helicopter would be something a pilot would strap on and wear into battle – becoming one with each other, because each needed the other to survive and get home.

In the series of movies in which we see Tony Stark /Ironman, we see a rather talented guy strapping on a suit and dealing justice to evil guys of various sorts. He is a one man wrecking crew.

What we saw in this movie is the future – drones operating under central control, working together to accomplish whatever mission the need to. Military, law enforcement and private. The tech exists, and will only grow. Most people often make the mistake of assuming that whatever level of new and exciting tech they see is the end of the line. They don’t consider that the next generation is being tested and that the one following after that is already on the drawing boards. Coordinated attacks by UAV fighter bombers. Coordinated take-downs of fugitives. Coordinated mischief against private targets.

So, in your thoughts on the state of the world in the near future, don’t forget about the drones, swarming suits and toys for big boys.