History Film / OverdrawnAtTheMemoryBank

* {{Dystopia}}: A milder example. It's implied the world is run by three MegaCorps (TransCorp, LexiCorp, and NoviCorp) who control everything from the economy to the weather. However, all it takes is for one corp to leak one mistake from another for the media to near-instantly bankrupt that corporation, showing that they're not invincible institutions, and the physical/financial standard of living appears to be pretty good. The chairman gives the heroes plenty of chances before resorting to evil, and their [[spoiler:escape to open up a small bar at the end is treated like an unquestioned happy ending]], not a life as fugitives. In fact, if the kid never switched Fingal's card (a kid who's traditionally mischievous without draconian repercussion), nothing bad would have even really happened in the story. Its strongest dystopian feature is the suppression of human empathy, creativity, individualism and other social concerns.

* FutureFoodIsArtificial: With a name like Flavo-Fibes, you just ''know'' they taste like plastic. Not to mention Reconst, a drink whose name just screams "[[{{Squick}} I'm made of faecal matter!]]" [[note]]It's likely just pseudo-futuristic jargon for water, since the word appears to be "reconstitution," abruptly shortened.[[/note]]

* UnbuiltTrope: The film is not very well made but it's way ahead of its time regarding virtual reality stories. What appears cliche to anyone who's seen ''The Matrix'' was much fresher in 1984, cheesiness aside. May also constitute EarlyInstallmentWeirdness for its entire ''genre.''

* SmallReferencePools: Fingal's ''Casablanca'' simulation comes complete with a Creator/PeterLorre character who hangs around for almost the whole movie before he helpfully sacrifices himself to buy time for Fingal. In ''Casablanca'', Lorre's character Ugarte is a OneSceneWonder who shows up, gives Rick the {{Macguffin}} and then dies off screen. The film seems to muddle a lot of details of ''Casablanca'' with those of ''Maltese Falcon''.

** In the other stories set in the same universe, Varley describes this being done. The tension of the story comes from the problem that the process for doppling between bodies normally uses a storage unit not designed for long-term storage of a personality; when Fingal's body turned up missing when they went to copy him back, just letting the unit sit would quickly result in the image turning to garbage, 'killing' him (based on other stories in the universe, he would have had an archived copy he could be restored from, although many people blow off making regular backups, so his last backup could have been years out of date); it was necessary to hook Fingal's memory unit into the Novicorp computer to keep it active so it wouldn't start degenerating.

** Remember kids! You can't have ''Casablanca'' references without a PeterLorre impersonator!

* SmallReferencePools: Fingal's ''Casablanca'' simulation comes complete with a PeterLorre character who hangs around for almost the whole movie before he helpfully sacrifices himself to buy time for Fingal. In ''Casablanca'', Lorre's character Ugarte is a OneSceneWonder who shows up, gives Rick the {{Macguffin}} and then dies off screen. The film seems to muddle a lot of details of ''Casablanca'' with those of ''Maltese Falcon''.

* CutLexLuthorACheck: Appolonia mentions that Fingle has an amazing talent with computers. Indeed, considering he managed to do all this with minimal training, one wonders what Fingle would have been able to do if The Chairman decided instead to hire Fingle as a programmer or a security expert (Or other more nefarious Novicorp-sponsored positions that are surely there) and then trained him to do things properly.

* DeusExMachina: The climax, wherein Fingal "interfaces" to defeat the Chairman... none of it is explained or built up at all, so it just comes off as

In a future that is only marginally more dystopian than the present, [[AwesomeMcCoolname Aram Fingal]] is a bored programmer working for [[MegaCorp Novicorp]], and earns his superiors' ire by "scrolling up cinemas" at work, particularly ''Film/{{Casablanca}}''. The solution, of course, is "prophylactic rehab," a two-week (or two days, depending on the scene) vacation in which his consciousness is "doppled" into a wild animal at a nature preserve. Under the supervision of Computech Apollonia James, Fingal experiences life as a decrepit old baboon until the animals on the preserve get trashed on fermented fruit and [[HolodeckMalfunction place his temporary body in danger]], prompting him to activate an escape clause.

In a future that is only marginally more dystopian than the present, [[AwesomeMcCoolname Aram Fingal]] is a bored programmer working for [[MegaCorp Novicorp]], and earns his superiors' ire by "scrolling up cinemas" at work, particularly ''Film/{{Casablanca}}''. The solution, of course, is "prophylactic rehab," a two-week (or two days, depending on the scene) vacation in which his consciousness is "doppled" into a wild animal at a nature preserve. Under the supervision of Computech Apollonia James, Fingal experiences life as a decrepit old baboon until the animals on the preserve get trashed on ripe fruit and [[HolodeckMalfunction place his temporary body in danger]], prompting him to activate an escape clause.

InAWorld where oppressive {{MegaCorp}}s rake in billions of ill-earned dollars while treating their [[{{Salaryman}} workers]] like slaves... a Toronto production company decided to adapt one of Creator/JohnVarley's ''Literature/EightWorlds'' short stories into a MadeForTVMovie. Finding financing from New York Creator/{{PBS}} station WNET and [[WTHCastingAgency somehow acquiring]] Creator/RaulJulia as the lead, they unleashed a production called ''[[PunBasedTitle Overdrawn at the Memory Bank]]''. It was the third (and last, due to not being able to get funding for any more) in a series of films by PBS that were adapted from literary works of science fiction. The first two were 1972's ''Between Time and Timbuktu'', an adaptation of several Creator/KurtVonnegut stories, and 1980's ''Literature/TheLatheOfHeaven'', based on the Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin novel of the same title. Both were generally well-received. This film...not so much.

InAWorld where oppressive {{MegaCorp}}s rake in billions of ill-earned dollars while treating their [[{{Salaryman}} workers]] like slaves... a Toronto production company decided to adapt one of Creator/JohnVarley's ''Literature/EightWorlds'' short stories into a MadeForTVMovie. Finding financing from New York Creator/{{PBS}} station WNET and [[WTHCastingAgency somehow acquiring]] Creator/RaulJulia as the lead, they unleashed a production called ''[[PunBasedTitle Overdrawn at the Memory Bank]]''. It was the third (and last, due to not being able to get funding for any more) in a series of films by PBS that were adapted from literary works of science fiction. The first two were 1972's ''Between Time and Timbuktu'', an adaptation of several KurtVonnegut stories, and 1980's ''Literature/TheLatheOfHeaven'', based on the Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin novel of the same title. Both were generally well-received. This film...not so much.

** Tooby the "Short-Bus Techie" as he's called, speaks with an odd cadence as if he has a mental problem, at least over the two-way.

* ApocalypticLog: Apollonia sees a report describing the danger of a [=CompuTech=] staying in contact with a decaying Identity Cube. The tech is seen staring vacantly into the camera, having had their brain fried.

* FollowTheLeader: Amazingly, the film, made in 1984, is far ahead of its time. It would be another 10 plus years before the virtual reality craze began, including films like ''Film/TheMatrix''. It was actually on the recommended films list for the Cyberpunk2020 [=RPG=]. That's what cyberpunk cinema looked like in the eighties.

* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: Or, in this case, "[=IY479=]" (the name of the computer, HX368, with each character incremented). It gets worse. Once the Chairman learns Fingal knows the password, he changes it to something extremely stupid:

* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: Or, in this case, "[=IY479=]". It gets worse. Once the Chairman learns Fingal knows the password, he changes it to something extremely stupid:

* {{Jerkass}}: Slavin, [[InformedAttribute allegedly]].
** Fingal, Our "Hero", proves himself to be this over the course of the film. He goes out of his way to be as rude, unhelpful and uncooperative as possible to the people trying to save him from cyberspace. Hacks into every computer and begins screwing with the worlds weather (Such as putting cyclones in Britain and snow in Africa) ForTheEvulz without a thought as to how many thousands could potentially be killed in such catastrophes, and at the end of the film, wipes his LoveInterests identity from every single state record, thus rendering her an effective Non-Entity in the eyes of the government, without asking for her permission at all.

InAWorld where oppressive {{MegaCorp}}s rake in billions of ill-earned dollars while treating their [[{{Salaryman}} workers]] like slaves... a Toronto production company decided to adapt one of Creator/JohnVarley's ''Literature/EightWorlds'' short stories into a MadeForTVMovie. Finding financing from New York Creator/{{PBS}} station WNET and [[WTHCastingAgency somehow acquiring]] Creator/RaulJulia as the lead, they unleashed a production called ''[[PunBasedTitle Overdrawn at the Memory Bank]]''. It was the third (and last, due to not being able to get funding for any more) in a series of films by PBS that were adapted from literary works of science fiction. The first two were 1972's ''Between Time and Timbuktu'', an adaptation of several KurtVonnegut stories, and 1980's ''TheLatheOfHeaven'', based on the UrsulaKLeGuin novel of the same title. Both were generally well-received. This film...not so much.

* InherentlyFunnyWords: The filmmakers seemed to think it was "anteaters." It's the only explanation for the constant anteater bashing. In the real world viewers thought it was constant use of the words "Fingal," and "dopple," which the MST3K crew gets a lot of mileage from in their treatment of the movie.

* UnbuiltTrope: The film is not very well made but it's way ahead of its time regarding virtual reality stories. What appears cliche to anyone who's seen ''The Matrix'' was much fresher in 1984, cheesiness aside. May also constitute EarlyInstallmentWeirdness for its entire ''genre.''* VideoInsideFilmOutside: Thanks to the Daisy footage coming from an old documentary.

** A far more egregious example occurs when Fingal starts screwing with the world's weather for shits and giggles.

InAWorld where oppressive {{MegaCorp}}s rake in billions of ill-earned dollars while treating their [[{{Salaryman}} workers]] like slaves... a Toronto production company decided to adapt one of Creator/JohnVarley's ''Literature/EightWorlds'' short stories into a MadeForTVMovie. Finding financing from New York Creator/{{PBS}} station WNET and [[WTHCastingAgency somehow acquiring]] Creator/RaulJulia as the lead, they unleashed a production called [[PunBasedTitle Overdrawn at the Memory Bank]]. It was the third (and last, due to not being able to get funding for any more) in a series of films by PBS that were adapted from literary works of science fiction. The first two were 1972's ''Between Time and Timbuktu'', an adaptation of several KurtVonnegut stories, and 1980's ''TheLatheOfHeaven'', based on the UrsulaKLeGuin novel of the same title. Both were generally well-received. This film...not so much.

* {{Dystopia}}: Not as evident visually, since the physical/financial standard of living appears to be pretty good; what makes it a Dystopia is the suppression of human empathy, creativity, individualism and other social concerns.