History Film / OverdrawnAtTheMemoryBank

[[quoteright:155:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SmallerMemoryBank_8425.jpg]]

* MindReformatDeath: Fingal (played by the late Creator/RaulJulia) nearly experiences this. The technicians only have a few hours to find Fingal's body and reunite it with his mind before ''that'' degrades within the supercomputer.

%% * {{Mondegreen}}: "My nuts?"

* FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit: The Chairman may or may not be from the South, the movie never establishes where it's set, but he nonetheless fits this trope shockingly well.

** This is {{lampshaded}} when shown on ''[=MST3K=]'', as after Apollonia slaps Fingal after he tells her that she wasn't "her kind of woman", Crow retorts "Well, now you kinda are..."

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 along with Linda Griffiths, one of Canada's top stage actresses, they unleashed a production called ''[[PunBasedTitle Overdrawn at the Memory Bank]]''. A low-budgeted affair, shot on video and making heavy use of chromakey (early green screen) special effects, 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 ''[[https://vimeo.com/336308131 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.[[note]]The running theme between all three productions was an ordinary man put in extraordinary circumstances.[[/note]]

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 along with Linda Griffiths, one of Canada's top stage actresses, they unleashed a production called ''[[PunBasedTitle Overdrawn at the Memory Bank]]''. A low-budgeted affair, shot on video and making heavy use of chromakey (early green screen) special effects, 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 ''[[https://vimeo.com/336308131 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.

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 along with Linda Griffiths, one of Canada's top stage actresses, they unleashed a production called ''[[PunBasedTitle Overdrawn at the Memory Bank]]''. A low-budgeted affair, shot on video and making heavy use of chromakey (early green screen) special effects, 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.

* TheMole: Appolonia's shift replacement Djamilla is apparently a Lexicorp spy, since she breaks the story of Fingal's misplacement to the public.
* NamedByTheAdaptation: In the original short story, we never learn Fingal's first name. Various other minor characters have names in the movie version, too, and Appolonia's [[AdaptationNameChange last name]] is now [[ButNotTooForeign James instead of Joachim]].

* NamedByTheAdaptation: In the original short story, we never learn Fingal's first name. Various other minor characters have names in the movie version, too, and Appolonia's [AdaptationNameChange last name] is now [ButNotTooForeign James instead of Joachim].

* FutureFoodIsArtificial: With a name like Flavo-Fibes, you just ''know'' they taste like plastic.[[note]]"Fibes" seems to indicate a fibrous snack, so maybe something akin to Frosted Mini-Wheats[[/note]] 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, or perhaps some powdered drink ''reconstituted'' by mixing it with water, since the word appears to be "reconstitution," abruptly shortened. That said, it ''is'' yellow...[[/note]]

* FutureFoodIsArtificial: With a name like Flavo-Fibes, you just ''know'' they taste like plastic.[[note]]"Fibes" seems to indicate a fibrous snack, so maybe something akin to Frosted Flakes[[/note]] 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, or perhaps some powdered drink ''reconstituted'' by mixing it with water, since the word appears to be "reconstitution," abruptly shortened. That said, it ''is'' yellow...[[/note]]

* 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, or perhaps some powdered drink ''reconstituted'' by mixing it with water, since the word appears to be "reconstitution," abruptly shortened. That said, it ''is'' yellow...[[/note]]

%% * {{Jerkass}}: Slavin, [[InformedAttribute allegedly]].

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: All it takes is one BrattyHalfPint switching some patients' tags around to nearly cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

* YearInsideHourOutside: Although several days (maybe even months, according to onscreen graphics) seem to pass within Fingal's simulation, only a few hours pass in the real world. This is, in fact, a plot point: they have only a few hours to find Final's body before the computer will no longer maintain his personality.

* ChromaKey: Used for most of the special effects. Since the movie was not actually shot on ''film,'' and was instead videotaped, this results in lots of [[SpecialEffectsFailure pixelation artifacts]] (though given a large portion of the film takes place within the computer, this actually is appropriate).

* AdaptationalVillainy: The biggest change between the story and its adaptation is the treatment of Novicorp. In the story, Novicorp (aside from Apollonia) is barely a factor in the story, and to the extent they are they're trying to locate Fingal's body before he becomes trapped in the cyber world. In the movie version, Novicorp is a nefarious EvilInc, whose Chairman eventually tries to kill Fingal (albeit only after Fingal openly rebels against them by breaking into restricted file).

* TheBurlesqueOfVenus: Appolonia randomly appears to Fingal in the simulation by descending from heaven dressed as Aphrodite (complete with giant seashell). She intones the advice, ""Thou shalt not screw around with things thou dost not understand."

At first Fingal creates a simulation of a typical work day, but he quickly grows bored and starts boinking a simulacrum of a hot co-worker. Once cybersex loses its charm, Fingal builds his own version of Casablanca, complete with a Rick character that is his own digital double. Apollonia warns him not to cause too much trouble, but our Fingal is a little rebel, and starts messing around with Novicorp finances while inside the [=HX368=], also causing catastrophic weather disasters around the globe in a fit of whimsy. Soon the Chairman is dispatching his own electronic agents to kill Fingal, while Apollonia sides with the renegade programmer as she tracks down his body.

* ChromaKey: Used for most of the special effects. Since the movie was not actually shot on ''film,'' and was instead videotaped, this results in lots of [[SpecialEffectsFailure pixelation artifacts]] (though given a large portion of the film takes place within the computer, this actually works).

* 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.

* {{Dystopia}}: A milder example. It's implied the world is run by three {{Mega Corp}}s ([=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, or perhaps some powdered drink ''reconstituted'' by mixing it with water, since the word appears to be "reconstitution," abruptly shortened.[[/note]]

* ScrewYourself: As Appolonia says when Fingal has sex with a simulated version of a coworker (from his own head, mind), "Now he's started playing around with himself!"

* TheArtifact: Some of the things that make no sense in the movie are leftovers from the short story that aren't as well explained or just dropped in. For example, Appolonia appearing as Venus is basically because in the simulation, she was only able to really appear to Fingal through bizarre phenomena, and after he accidentally reroutes a bunch of finances by screwing with things she gets through to him in the most direct way possible: divine intervention.

* ChromaKey: Used for most of the special effects. Since the movie was not actually shot on ''film,'' and was instead videotaped, this results in lots of [[SpecialEffectsFailure pixelation artifacts]].

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.

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.

* YearInsideHourOutside: In the short story, they told Fingal that they were searching for his body all over the world, at various doppling institutes, for six months, when really they were searching for his body at the one institute for six hours. But had he ever realized that because he was in the computer he was experiencing time dilation, he would have GoneMadFromTheRevelation and broken everything. (The Literature/NineteenEightyFour elements were [[AdaptationExpansion not present in the story]], and the company was really just trying to be helpful.) This element was somewhat in the film with the "Cube Time/Fingal Time" display, but never really discussed.

* GRatedDrug: "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sclerocarya_birrea#Popular_culture Marula Fruit]]" (called "maruba" in the film, for some reason), which apparently makes the animals used by the dopplers drunk. [[note]]This is a leftover from ''Animals are Beautiful People'', a nature documentary that the filmmakers used for the stock footage of the dopplers. The documentary made the claim that the fruits contained alcohol that intoxicated animals, which is a persistent, but disproven, myth.[[/note]]

* 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 [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]] crew gets a lot of mileage from in their treatment of the movie.
--> '''Mike''': I don't want to bungle or bobble the Fingal dopple.

** In the other stories set in the same universe, Varley describes this being done routinely. 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, even though everyone was entitled to an annual backup and as many more as they wanted to pay for, so his last backup could have been years out of date). They had to hook Fingal's memory unit into the Novicorp computer to keep it active so it wouldn't start degenerating. None of this appears in either the short story or the film, so it's one more of the unexplained aspects of the world of the film.

* PragmaticVillainy: In a scene deleted from the ''MST'' version, The Chairman decides to immediately terminate Fingal and send his family a telegram and a bouquet, but he's talked into retrieving Fingal instead when Appolonia points out that letting someone die as a result of doppling would shake consumer confidence in [=NoviCorp=]'s products so severely that it could bankrupt the company.