What's the worst example of bad science in a film you've watched?

[VicunaBlue]

That lasers make a clean, neat hole, that goes all the way through them instantly. Were someone actually hit by a high powered laser, it would boil the water in the first few layers of flesh, causing a large amount of messy tissue damage from the steam escaping.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

The fact that, in the Star Trek movie (you know, the one that rebooted the franchize), the creators don't know how a Super Nova works.

Star go boom. Wipes out Solar System. Leaves a neutron star or blackhole. Done.

A super nova CANNOT threaten more than one solar system - it certainly cannot threaten "the entire galaxy". If Romulus's star went super nova, the process would be over in minutes, so Spock would not have time to build a ship and fly anywhere - he wouldn't have time to do more than Twit "Oh my, so much for 100 years of diplomacy." before the planet was gone.

Correct descriptions of super nova are in CHILDREN'S BOOKS. This wasn't even "rule of cool" because they could have easily made up something else - a gravaton implosion or some other vague phrase mixing advanced physics with an impressive verb - and it would have been fine. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for an event they made up, but taking a real, definable event and screwing it up in such an idiotic fashion is simply unforgivable.

To be clear, I liked the rest of the movie. I own it on Blueray. But whenever Spock gives the insanely stupid background about galaxy threatening super nova and the "unthinkable" tragedy he was on his way to prevent, I leave the room to make a sandwich or something. Ugh.

On a mostly unrelated note (to the thread anyway) I have to say - Sylar's actor as Spock is SOOO hot. ^^ I was never a spock fangirl before, but I am now! I just hope the next Star Trek movie does better with the psudo science (and makes something up rather than getting a real stellar event so terribly wrong). **eagerly awaiting eye-candy**

-- Bara no Hime

 

[ninja555]

this is probably going to sound stupid

Spoiler

at the end of Wanted Angelina Jolie's character fires a bullet around in a circle that kills 9 people I think. that was so unbelievably ridiculous that it ruined the whole movie for me.

I'm sure I can think of other ones but that one sticks out in my mind the most

The Wanted movie was pretty silly, get the comic book, so much better.

OT:I was a bit iffy on the mutants in Pandorum(And how they weakened as the movie went on). How does a drug that speeds up evolution so you can adapt to a new planet faster turn you into very loud and annoying, virtual indestructible mutants?

 

[-Ezio-]

this is probably going to sound stupid

Spoiler

at the end of Wanted Angelina Jolie's character fires a bullet around in a circle that kills 9 people I think. that was so unbelievably ridiculous that it ruined the whole movie for me.

I'm sure I can think of other ones but that one sticks out in my mind the most

The Wanted movie was pretty silly, get the comic book, so much better.

OT:I was a bit iffy on the mutants in Pandorum(And how they weakened as the movie went on). How does a drug that speeds up evolution so you can adapt to a new planet faster turn you into very loud and annoying, virtual indestructible mutants?

the bigger question is how can a drug speed up evolution in the first place?

 

[Falseprophet]

Well, I'm not entirely sure how sound the science is in Knowing, but that movie pissed me off with its portrayal of scientists. Apparently an MIT physics class teaches rudimentary high school physics. Also, scientists are apparently not people who believe in testing the evidence, or sharing important (and matter-of-life-or-death) findings with their colleagues, but are instead Priests of the Church of Science, whose dogmatic laws of nature shall not be questioned! Who wrote the script, Kirk Cameron?

Ironically, one the best recent portrayals of a scientist in a movie was Snakes on a Plane. The herpetologist is a bit geeky (but what PhD isn't?), but as soon as he's apprised of the situation, he takes complete control, and tells the Feds exactly what they need and what they need to do, giving them important information on the case.

 

[ENKC]

The scene in Iron Man 2 where the computer says something like "Congratulations, you have created a new element!" was so lame and yet so awesome that the entire cinema pissed itself laughing. I fully expected it to become an internet meme overnight, but apparently 4chan didn't see the humour in it.

 

[captaincabbage]

That you can hear explosions and laserguns in space.
It's the worst because the film-makers can't even plead ignorance - everybody knows about this.

This. It seriously pisses me off.

I once was give a plausible(ish) explanation for this.

In the future starships will come equipped with a program that replicates the noises humans expect to hear through the internal speakers, including zappy lasers and doppler effects when approaching\passing an object, just to help them make decisions faster and feel more comfortable.

It think it was on the free-space forums I was told that, I mean why else go to the effort of making a doppler effect sound program that calculates everything on the fly for your space game?

that's basically the excuse given in a game callede Shattered Horizons. The premise is that the spacesuits you're wearing have the same doppler effects used to give the characters more awareness to their surroundings, since fighting in space would be really difficult with no hearing, as it's a huge part of our battlefield awareness and to not have it is a massive disadvantage.
The thing I like about Shattered Horizons is that it doesn't just use that as an excuse for sound effects in space, but it gives you to option to turn them off, so you only hear your own breathing and the low batter of your space-rifle (????) in your hands as the vibrations are transferred to the air in your suit.

 

[Damoclies]

Ahhh, a topic near and dear to my heart. Just a couple that I have worked out over the years, from older or less Scifi specific movies. forgive me if I become progressively more incoherently angry as I list them.

1) "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." Bad because the way they describe making something smaller (reducing the distance between the electrons and nucleolus of all the atoms in the object) would actually make something smaller, but it would STILL WEIGH EXACTLY THE SAME.

2) "Starship Troopers" So.. the bugs toss an asteroid... from HALFWAY ACROSS THE GALAXY... to hit a planet. Which is insane in so many different ways that it should be impossible to even type that sentence.

3) "Star Trek" (new) Totally disregarding red matter: I am sorry, black holes don't work that way.

3) "Stuck on You." GODDAMN IT YOU CAN'T HAVE CONJOINED FRATERNAL TWINS

 

[Phantomess]

The core. If wikipedia is to be trusted it was voted the worst film ever for bad science.

And to save me the effort of listing why this is the case a man wrote an article for me.
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/movies/thecore_review.html

I second this. Not even Bruce Greenwood could save this film... and he saves most things from being too awful.

I did read something on warp-drive science. It's not too far away, but probably not exactly as 'Trek imagined it would be.

 

[Buizel91]

Star wars, laser is concentrated light right? And NO ONE thought of using mirrors?

I think i love you.

And i don't pay attention to the science in films, if i watch a movie, and i am entertained, i will watch =D

But if i have to go their...Terminator 2, Liquid Metal...a Robot made out of Liquid Metal. Seriously where are his circuits and stuff

 

[Buizel91]

That you can hear explosions and laserguns in space.
It's the worst because the film-makers can't even plead ignorance - everybody knows about this.

This. It seriously pisses me off.

I once was give a plausible(ish) explanation for this.

In the future starships will come equipped with a program that replicates the noises humans expect to hear through the internal speakers, including zappy lasers and doppler effects when approaching\passing an object, just to help them make decisions faster and feel more comfortable.

It think it was on the free-space forums I was told that, I mean why else go to the effort of making a doppler effect sound program that calculates everything on the fly for your space game?

that's basically the excuse given in a game callede Shattered Horizons. The premise is that the spacesuits you're wearing have the same doppler effects used to give the characters more awareness to their surroundings, since fighting in space would be really difficult with no hearing, as it's a huge part of our battlefield awareness and to not have it is a massive disadvantage.
The thing I like about Shattered Horizons is that it doesn't just use that as an excuse for sound effects in space, but it gives you to option to turn them off, so you only hear your own breathing and the low batter of your space-rifle (????) in your hands as the vibrations are transferred to the air in your suit.

What is that game! i want it! now! is it for 360 O_O

 

[Xaknm]

There was a 2012 knock-off movie and large amounts of bacteria had gotten into the water. One of the guys said "The water's getting hotter.This may explain the rise of bacteria."

HOT WATER KILLS BACTERIA, MORONS!!!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Teleporters.

Totally utterly illogical and physics breaking.

 

[Damoclies]

I will argue with your Terminator 2 inclusion by pointing out that "Liquid Metal" simply assumes that the technology to create a shape-reactive, circuit-free machine has not been invented yet. This thread isn't about instances of "Technology indistinguishable from magic," but instances where someone has obviously failed to respect a fundamental physical law when they present a scientific plot point.

 

[Damoclies]

BOILING water kills bacteria, but warm water can actually foster microorganism growth.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Bad Science? Hoverboards in BttF 2 and 3. But hell it was alot of fun wasn't it? n.n

 

[Damoclies]

The fact that, in the Star Trek movie (you know, the one that rebooted the franchize), the creators don't know how a Super Nova works.

Thank you, I had blocked that specific bit of asshattery from my memory.

 

[Ldude893]

2012.

Planetary Alignment is impossible because the orbit of the planets are too skewed for the planets to be positioned into a straight line.
Plus, where the hell are all the Christmas decorations if it's December 2012?

 

[captaincabbage]

That you can hear explosions and laserguns in space.
It's the worst because the film-makers can't even plead ignorance - everybody knows about this.

This. It seriously pisses me off.

I once was give a plausible(ish) explanation for this.

In the future starships will come equipped with a program that replicates the noises humans expect to hear through the internal speakers, including zappy lasers and doppler effects when approaching\passing an object, just to help them make decisions faster and feel more comfortable.

It think it was on the free-space forums I was told that, I mean why else go to the effort of making a doppler effect sound program that calculates everything on the fly for your space game?

that's basically the excuse given in a game callede Shattered Horizons. The premise is that the spacesuits you're wearing have the same doppler effects used to give the characters more awareness to their surroundings, since fighting in space would be really difficult with no hearing, as it's a huge part of our battlefield awareness and to not have it is a massive disadvantage.
The thing I like about Shattered Horizons is that it doesn't just use that as an excuse for sound effects in space, but it gives you to option to turn them off, so you only hear your own breathing and the low batter of your space-rifle (????) in your hands as the vibrations are transferred to the air in your suit.

What is that game! i want it! now! is it for 360 O_O

lol It's called Shattered Horizon. It's only for Steam on PC, sry. Here's a better vid to make you salivate EVEN MORE (in case you didn't want it enough)