Silly Science

I think Professor Perkowitz needs to relax a bit... If people don't know that movies aren't real, then we as a society have way bigger problems...

Well we could start with people getting knocked backwards when they get hit by a gunshot.
Then there's the whole back to the future movies...but hey, that's why we love 'em.

The one innacuracy that always bugged me was the way they made out that driving up a ramp onto a moving trailer (The Italian job or Knight rider) was some how difficult...D'uh?
I was gratified when Mythbusters corfirmed my suspicion that it was an almost trivial feat.
Del

Here's a vote for "Independence Day".

My intelligence gets most deeply offended when a movie's science isn't even internally consistent. For example:

James Bond preparing for a HALO parachute jump (high altitude low open), standing on the open ramp of a C-130. Dialog says they're at 30,000 feet and everyone but Bond is wearing an Oxygen mask. (I can't remember the movie and barely remember the scene.)

GI Joe, when they "bring down the ice pack:" Ice floats! THE ICE PACK IS SHOWN FLOATING ON THE WATER, just like it does in the real, and apparently the movie, world. Until they need it to not float.

But with James Bond then obviously Q would have provided something so that he wouldn't need the oxygen mask!

Let's see, where do I start? Killer rabbits? Sparrows carrying coconuts? Amazingly robust Black Knights? Cows flying over castle walls? And let's not forget the Castle Anthrax. Nudge, nudge . ..

Yeah right, and they should also limit the violence shown on cartoons........because....its possible the coyote could walk away from a thousand foot fall, or live after being blowing up from an ACME rocket. or have a 10 foot diameter boulder land on him.

Do they not know the meaning of....Science Fiction.

p911

Not to mention Retinol ProA with active lipids...man that stuff greases up my fur..maybe I'm just not worth it
Del

The one that had me protesting out loud in the cinema when I saw it was Indiana Jones and the one where he ends up in the catacombs under a church somewhere or other.

This is a fantasy film, yes, but not really a science fantasy/fiction film, so I'm allowed to be annoyed when, on opening the sealed catacombs and smelling petrol (that's what the man said...he didn't say "gas"), he first action is to grab an old leg bone (femur), wrap some centuries old material round it and light it! Result? No boom. Even when flaming bits of rag hit the surface of the liquid, nowt happened.

I protested, bf said "Give over. It's only a film". I shut up.

Ten minutes later, the baddies arrive at the (open) dorway, sniff, grin in an evil manner and...drop a lighted match on the surface of the petrol/water layers on the floor of the tunnel and...whoomph: flame spreads down throughout the tunnel, causing our hero (and obligatory gorgeous heroine) to duck 'neath the surface till the flame front passes.

Result: ER says very loudly "You can't have it both ways in the same film"

My main beef:

Lighting petrol fumes and a layer of petrol over water issues.

Supplimentary beefs:

No stinging eyes after getting petrol on face (although girlie did have a bit of trouble breathing after the immersion)

Only the vapour ignites...there isn't a remaining flame on the liquid surface burnign the vapour as is comes off due to the lowered partial pressure resulting from the removal of already existing petrol vapour. We know there's still oxygen left becuase our heroes are still breathing....

I don't recall it being a step down in the tunnel, but at no point did the liquid run into the church. And there was no evidence that it had ever escaped through the door...no flooding and/or heavy rains in several hundred years?

Yeah but it was in Venice right and they do have problems with their damp courses right?
Del

Rose, you should date professor Perkowitz....

Yeah. Also that in movies cars ALWAYS explode. Not just burn but explode. Unless the fuel/air ratio is pretty close to 1:17, highly unlikely, the car is just going to burn. I've seen a dozen cars burn and not one ever exploded.

Yeah you really must stop setting 'em on fire now.
Del

maybe they were driving a Ford Pinto. Mid 70's vintage

"I've seen a dozen cars burn and not one ever exploded."

Yes, but how many of those dozen cars did you film on location?

How many of those dozen cars were owned by Douglas Trumbull?

There you go.

"... on opening the sealed catacombs and smelling petrol (that's what the man said...he didn't say "gas"), ..."

The key word is "sealed." I.e., no oxygen. Highly refined crude oil (aviation grade no doubt), but not oxygen. No oxygen --> lackluster flame. Chemistry 101.

"... the first action is to grab an old leg bone (femur), wrap some centuries old material round it and light it!"

Ah! A Courtesy Femur! Sweet! I thought that tradition had died out.

"Result? No boom. Even when flaming bits of rag hit the surface of the liquid, nowt happened."

Ibid.

"Ten minutes later, ..."

Ten minutes? Really? Ten? That's extraordinary! I can hold my breath for only eight. Clearly the Good Guys are in much better shape than I. Perhaps I should follow my doctor's advice and give up smoking after all. To be in the movies, you understand. Movies involving catacombs. Catacombs and bullwhips.

"... the baddies arrive at the (open) dorway, sniff, grin in an evil manner and...drop a lighted match on the surface of the petrol/water layers on the floor of the tunnel and...whoomph: flame spreads down throughout the tunnel, ..."

No doubt the introduction of oxygen led this much more expected and satisfying result.

"... causing our hero (and obligatory gorgeous heroine) to duck 'neath the surface till the flame front passes."

Let me guess: a few minutes later, when her hair had dried (five minutes, tops), it was perfectly coiffed, was it not?

Hollywood Hair, Ms. Rose, Hollywood Hair. That's my beef. It's just plain wrong, and on so many levels! I am certain they are violating Mother Nature here, and yet no one complains. No one! Hair is supposed to be messy and tangled after that sort of nail-biting action!

Like mine, when I climb out of bed.

My favorite SciFi faux pas happens right at the very very end of Terminator: Rise of the Machines (2003) ...

John Connor: "By the time Skynet became self-aware it had spread into millions of computer servers across the planet. Ordinary computers in office buildings, dorm rooms; everywhere. It was software; in cyberspace. There was no system core; it could not be shutdown. The attack began at 6:18 PM, just as he said it would. Judgment Day, the day the human race was almost destroyed by the weapons they'd built to protect themselves. I should have realized it was never our destiny to stop Judgment Day, it was merely to survive it, together. The Terminator knew; he tried to tell us, but I didn't want to hear it. Maybe the future has been written. I don't know; all I know is what the Terminator taught me; never stop fighting. And I never will. The battle has just begun."

And, while the narrator is telling us this, we watch as Skynet gives itself a thorough, nuclear lobotomy.

Oops.