Round of 16 Recap: Oh, how the Mighty have Fallen

If the Round of 32 made you wince, the Round of 16 made you cry.  Young upstarts defeated old favorites, artificial intelligence fell to corporate shenanigans, and corporate interests disassembled old friends.  Grab a tissue because if you aren’t sniffling this round, are you even human?

There were plenty of nail-biters in the Round of 32.  Some brackets were determined by as few as five votes, while several films enjoyed landslide victories against their opponents.  Before we move on to the Round of 16, let’s look back at the winners and losers from this round.

Hack the Planet

• Modems are more powerful than John McClane. Full stop. WarGames (1983) handily wins over Live Free or Die Hard (2007) by a nearly 2:1 margin. And lest we forget the remote-controlled pterodactyl? Die Hard had nothing as cool.
• By a similar margin, the Praetorians win! Or, more accurately, The Net (1995) falls.  Hopefully, the Tron (1982) and the Flynn family will have something stored in RAM designed to keep the rest of the world safe. Sandra B did her best, but old-school arcade cabinets took the “W.”

Paranoid Android

• In an A.I. throwdown, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) runs away with the win against the A.I. (2001) that just wants to be loved. Capturing around 75% of the vote, you decided the murdering Heuristically programmed Algorithmic computer should move on.  We choose not to think about what this says about THWACKsters.
• Flair! That’s right, you chose the Chotchkie's food and corporate theft from Office Space (1999) over the heartfelt, Asimov-inspired introspection of I, Robot (2004). Capturing over 60% of the votes, was your minimum of 37 pieces of flair. “PC Load Letter” still gives IT people chills.

The Hubris of Man

• It’s a truth universally accepted that dinos are greater than landscapers. That might be gilding the lily a bit, but you came out in force to rally behind the residents of Jurassic Park (1995) and left Jobe and his GCI dreamscape behind.  Looks like The Lawnmower Man (1993) could ring every phone on the planet, but Dennis Nedry took down the comms, so no one on Isla Nublar was aware.
• “Dead or alive, you’re coming with me,” said Alex Murphy, the RoboCop (1987). Grab your tissues because Johnny 5 was handily disassembled.  Short Circuit (1986) rolled away with under 40% of the vote, so Detroit’s finest continues to the quarterfinals.

Tech Noir

• Frequently touted in the comments as the hardest of matchups, the numbers did not agree. The Matrix (1999) quickly leaves Deckard and Blade Runner (1982) in the march for the quarterfinal. The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar celebrated victory with over 70% of the vote.
• One cyborg cop advances while another falls. Major Motoko Kusanagi didn’t stand a chance against the T-1000, and The Terminator (1984) wiped the floor with Ghost in the Shell (1995).  With over 75% of the votes, our only hope is that John Connor will move to New Port City and set things right by 2029.

The lot has been set and the Quarterfinals are ready for your votes! The battles are C-R-A-Z-Y for the top spot in each quadrant.

Add your voice and continue to recruit your THWACKster friends to cast your votes.  The quarterfinals close on March 21 at 4 p.m. Central US Time.