Ask HN: What are some technically inspiring movies, TV shows or documentaries?

General Magic (2018) absolutely captures the essence of running & working at a startup doing innovative work on products that were well ahead of their time. Marc Porat is an incredible speaker, and he sheds a ton of light on what struggles they went through (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RaTIF6st4c), and the thought process behind bringing Magic Cap to market. The soundtrack alone (done by Benji Merrison) makes the film worth watching, and it's my go-to album for when I need to get focused. Highly recommend. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6849786/

I found the original “Indie Game: The Movie” very personally inspiring, the sequel less so. It’s a documentary about a number of indie game developers working really hard and risking it all to make it. The passion these people are pouring into their games is palpable.

“Mr. Robot” is great if you don’t mind it’s overdramatized dystopian atmosphere. Probably one of the most realistic use of computers in a TV show. It has ups and downs, some of its best and worst episodes are in its final season, it’s a pretty interesting roller coaster.

“Computer Chess” is a weird black and white fictional movie about people trying to build the best Chess AI in the 80s. I really enjoyed it. Does a great job capturing the vibe of the era.

The Martian. I don’t know of any other movie that better celebrates the uniquely human ability to overcome challenges through innovation and persistence. That movie gets me charged up.

For what it’s worth I would say the book is even stronger at it.

The movie watered down Watney’s technical know how quite a bit. That is to say if you liked the movie, you’ll love the book.

One that immediately comes to mind is "The Imitation Game", on the life of Alan Turing during WWII.

For something less tech-oriented, "Molly's Game" is inspiring for me. The characterization of Molly as being both smart and relentlessly hard working is motivating to me, while also showing the dangers of taking it to the nth degree.

In a similar vein to "Molly's Game", "The Queen's Gambit" series on Netflix is not about tech, but very much on being the best you can be at something, along with the dangers of taking it too far.

"The Hundred Foot Journey" has nothing to do with technology at all, but rather cooking (which I usually hate). But, it captures the feeling of iteration, hard work, and self-improvement, and the notion of dealing with adversarial people and eventually becoming allies.

While definitely silly and kid-friendly, "Real Steel" gives me similar "iteration and self-improvement" vibes that give me a mental boost.

Finally, on the anime side, I have one hugely overlooked recommendation that I LOVED and yet got very little recognition: Knights and Magic. It's standard "isekai" setup has a software developer transported to another world, but he very much captures the excitement of taking an engineering mindset to problem solving when coming up with new mechanical solutions to each new fight. It's not as technical as I wish it were, but in terms of capturing the spirit of tech and engineering in a stylized way, this show was a ton of fun for me!