Morse code turns up in places you might not expect: the opening of a Rush song, the message tone of millions of old Nokia phones, the plot of Interstellar and the climax of Independence Day. Each one uses Morse for the same reason, because a rhythm of long and short beats can carry a message hidden in plain sight.
Every example below plays when you tap it.
Rush, "YYZ" (1981)
The rock band Rush named an instrumental after YYZ, the code for Toronto Pearson International Airport, near the band's home town. A radio beacon at the airport broadcasts that identifier in Morse code, and the band first heard its rhythm while their guitarist Alex Lifeson was flying them into Toronto. The drummer Neil Peart said later that the rhythm stuck with them.
The opening of the song, in an unusual 10/8 time, repeats Y-Y-Z in Morse code with different instruments:
-.-- -.-- --..
Play it and then listen to the start of the song: once you know the pattern, you cannot miss it. The beacon itself is explained in Morse code in aviation. Peart and the singer Geddy Lee both said that it was always a happy day when YYZ appeared on their luggage tags.
The Nokia message tone
On classic Nokia phones, one of the message alert tones, called "Special", is widely described as three short notes, two long and three short. That is SMS in Morse code:
... -- ...
Whether or not every listener noticed, a whole generation heard a little Morse code every time a text message arrived.
Interstellar (2014)
In Christopher Nolan's film, the astronaut Cooper finds himself inside a tesseract built behind his daughter Murph's bedroom, able to reach her room across time but not to speak to her. To pass her the data she needs to solve the gravity equation, he moves the second hand of her wristwatch in Morse code. Murph, now grown up, recognises the ticks and decodes them.
The scene works because Morse needs nothing but a signal that can be long or short: a ticking watch hand is enough.
Independence Day (1996)
In the film's climax, the United States military contacts the rest of the world in Morse code to organise a coordinated counterattack against the alien invaders. There is even a cut to two British officers in a desert outpost receiving the message.
It is a fine example of Morse's reputation as the message that gets through when everything else has failed, the same reputation that kept it in use at sea for most of the twentieth century.
A true story: TORTURE
Not every famous use of Morse is fiction. In 1966 a US Navy prisoner of war, Jeremiah Denton, blinked T-O-R-T-U-R-E in Morse code with his eyes during a televised propaganda interview, the first confirmation that American prisoners in North Vietnam were being tortured:
- --- .-. - ..- .-. .
The full story is in the prisoner who blinked TORTURE.
Why it works on screen and in music
Morse has two features that make it ideal for hidden messages:
- It is rhythm. A drummer, a ticking clock or a blinking eye can all carry it, so it fits naturally into music and film.
- Anyone can check it. The code is public, so fans can decode the message and feel let in on the secret, which is half the fun.
Find your own
Want to hide a message in a song, a ringtone or a video? Type it into the Morse code generator and download it as an audio file, or use the translator to see and hear any word. Keep it short: three letters, as Rush and Nokia found, is plenty for a rhythm people remember.