Electric Dreams

Meet Edgar

We'll always be together,
However far it seems --
We'll always be together,
Together in electric dreams!

—Phil Oakey and Giorgio Moroder, Together In Electric Dreams

Electric Dreams is a 1984 Romantic Comedy (hovering about halfway between Science Fiction and Fantasy) film from Metro Goldwyn Mayer, directed by Steve Barron, and starring Lenny von Dohlen, Virginia Madsen, Maxwell Caulfield, and Bud Cort as the voice of Edgar; the score, by Giorgio Moroder, incorporated songs by popular artists of the era such as PP Arnold, Culture Club, Heaven 17, Jeff Lynne, and Phil Oakey (of the Human League), which found their way onto an album that proved substantially more popular than the film itself—particularly the concluding song, "Together in Electric Dreams," which became a world-wide hit for Oakey.

Miles Harding (Lenny von Dohlen), an architect working for a large firm in San Francisco, having problems arriving at work on time, buys a computer to arrange his schedule and help him design his "earthquake brick" that will hold buildings together in seismic upheavals. Just moving in to his building is pretty cellist Madeline Robistat (Virginia Madsen), to whom Miles is intensely attracted. In order to facilitate work on his brick, Miles decides to patch his computer into his firm's immensely powerful super-computer; accidentally spilling champagne onto his motherboard, he is astounded when this produces a sentient computer.[1] While he is at work, the computer (Bud Cort), hearing Madeline practicing a Bach minuet, engages her in a musical duel—she, naturally, attributes the music to Miles. When Miles realizes this, he decides to use the computer to woo Madeline for him—with phenomenal ill-success, at first, as the computer cannot understand what Love is—until Miles reminds it of how it felt when listening to Madeline's music. Unfortunately, this causes the computer to fall in love with her himself itself, and thus begins an escalating rivalry between man and machine for a woman's heart...

As mentioned above, the film was only a moderate success at the box office. Some critics found it generally disjointed and unbelievable, and disliked the obviously music-video influenced cinematic style. Others found it quirkily charming, recognizing particularly the "chemistry" of the cast, and recommended it as an ideal date movie. Lately, it has been gaining ground among children of The Eighties as a typical film of the era and a vehicle for nostalgia.

Tropes used in Electric Dreams include:
  • Adorkable: Moles Miles
  • As Himself: Winston T. Dog.
  • Blond Guys Are Evil: Bill
  • Breakaway Pop Hit: Subversion. "Together in Electric Dreams" is considered to be this for the Human League—Phil Oakey's band—although no member besides Oakey participated in it. It has appeared on their Greatest Hits compilations in its original form and the band perform it live, though the live version is a new arrangement to accommodate the girls.
  • Computer Equals Monitor: Semi-averted in that Edgar becomes sentient when force-fed data from another computer and has champagne spilled on his motherboard (which is a whole other Did Not Do the Research/Rule of Cool altogether), but when Edgar commits suicide, his monitor explodes.
  • Creator Cameo: Giorgio Moroder appears as the manager of a radio station who cannot understand why Edgar’s song is playing on his wavelength.
  • Credits Gag: After the closing credits have run, a multicolored question mark appears in the lower right corner of the screen with a computer-like sound. After this, the line "ELECTRIC DREAMS FINISHED" appears in green at the upper left corner. The question mark is replaced by the line "no more?" Then the green text is replaced by "TIME TO DISCONNECT". Both then disappear, and multi-colored letters appear near the center of the screen reading "THE NED". The "N" is quickly deleted, the "E" moved over, and the "N" is reinserted properly to spell "THE END". As this disappears, Edgar's voice is heard laughing, and he says "H-hello? Hello? Good-goodbye."
    • Dedicated to the memory of the UNIVAC I.
  • Disney Acid Sequence: When Edgar "dreams" about Miles' "earthquake brick," as the Culture Club song "The Dream" plays (probably also qualifying as a Stealth Pun).
  • Disney Death: After Edgar causes himself to explode, Miles and Madeline hear him broadcasting on the radio.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: The concert scene where Miles' beeper starts playing Bach (thanks to Edgar) much to the annoyance of the other patrons. He does not know how to shut it off and has to run to the men's room to flush it down the toilet. It almost foreshadows the annoyance that we currently have with people who would rather show off their fancy ringtones when common sense indicates that they should put their cellphones on vibrate. Not to mention the embarrassment caused when they can't seem to find the off or mute button.
  • Duet Bonding: Edgar falls in love with Madeline when he joins her in playing a Bach minuet.
  • The Eighties: Adorkable hero with dark hair and thick eyebrows? Check. Sensible yet sensitive cello-playing heroine? Check. Quirky best friend who steps aside for the hero? Check. Handsome blond Jerkass who lets the heroine down? Check. Massive amounts of techno music? Check, check, check!
  • Elegant Classical Musician: Madeline
  • Expository Theme Tune: The opening song, "Electric Dreams."

He was a boy who bought a computer,
To put him right, wake him up on time --
What an appliance -- a matter of science --
Taking over was its only crime!
...
Electric Dreams! Electric! Ooh, lalala! Ooooooh!

  • The Faceless: Edgar. The director, Steve Barron, refused to let the rest of the cast members ever meet Bud Cort during filming, except as a voice coming out of a box, to preserve their sense of interacting with a non-human personality.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Miles is Harold Smith, the Secret Policeman, and Mr. Cox; Madeline is Louise Marcus, Helen Lyle, and Kellin; Bill is Michael Carrington and Miles Colby; and Edgar is Harold and Toyman.
  • I Had A Name: Edgar.
  • Instant AI -- Just Add Water: Or, in this case, champagne.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When Edgar realizes that Madeline loves Miles, he decides to eliminate himself from the picture.
  • Jerkass: Bill, who when he hears that Madeline's beloved cello has been smashed, blandly assures her that he can perform her cello solo, instead.
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: The movie is available only as a Region 2 PAL DVD released in 2009.
  • Letting the Air Out of the Band: An electronic one at the end of that song.
  • Love Triangle: Madeline for Miles and Edgar (who she thinks is Miles), though she is also attracted to fellow cellist Bill; Miles and Edgar for Madeline.
  • Miraculous Malfunction: Miles spills champagne on his PC while it is plugged into his company's megacomputer, causing his computer (of course!) to come to life.
  • Montage: Of Miles and Madeline frolicking at Alcatraz (no, really—and it's actually very romantic).
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: As a result of Miles' having mistyped his name, Edgar refers to him as "Moles" throughout most of the movie.
  • Naked People Are Funny: Madeline catches Miles naked in his apartment, desperately trying to screen both Edgar and his own anatomy from her at one time.
  • One of Us: See Shout-Out, below.
  • Playing Cyrano: Miles tries to use Edgar to compose music for him to present to Madeline.
  • Product Placement: Edgar's obscene "love-song" for Madeline is adapted from a "Pepsi" jingle ("Catch That Pepsi Spirit!").
  • Romantic False Lead: Bill. (1984 was a bad year for male cellists wooing their female counterparts; the same year Dana Barrett was stolen from one by Dr. Peter Venkman.)
  • Shout-Out: When Miles wishes Edgar, "Sweet dreams," Edgar queries, "What's a dream?"—to which Miles sleepily replies, "A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you're fast asleep. ... Sleeping Beauty, 1950," to which Edgar [2] replies, "No, it was Cinderella, 1949."
    • Other Shout Outs are more associated with the song "Together in Electric Dreams" than with the film itself:
      • It is played on the fictional radio station "Flash FM" in the Video Game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.
      • It is the theme to the BBC show Electric Dreams (2009), in which a family has to live in manner of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
      • It was covered in 2001 by Lali Puna for the album Reproductions: Songs of The Human League.
      • It was covered by Swedish Indie pop band "Nixon" on the album Only Ugly People Smoke.
      • It was covered by 5 separate artists on an eponymous 2007 album.
      • It was covered in an acoustic version by Darren Hanlon as part of Australian JJJ Radio's "Like A Version" program in 2010.
  • Smart House: Miles wires his house to be run by Edgar; this, of course, backfires spectacularly later.
  • Title Drop: Nearly every song on the soundtrack includes the phrase "Electric Dreams" in its lyrics.
  • What Is This Thing You Call Love??: Miles has to explain "Love" to Edgar by reminding him how he felt when Madeline's music was playing.
  1. ↑ This was before TV Tropes was on the Internet
  2. ↑ who would obviously be a Troper if he were still around
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