I had to check and according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Emacs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Emacs , font-lock was added in version 19.28 released

I had to check and according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Emacs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Emacs , font-lock was added in version 19.28 released November 1, 1994. The movie certainly looks like it was recorded in the 80s. Some people also still use Acme which AFAIK does not have syntax highlighting.