I'd mentioned on the sidebar a list of bad physics in Hollywood. A few of theirs were problematic but I thought I'd add my own. Quite a few are the same, but I have a few others plus comments.
1. All vehicles blow up when hit. Many I hate this one. Cars just aren't that explosive. Diesels are even less so. Associated with this is the pouring of gasoline that then gets triggered by a cigarette. (Like in Usual Suspects) Sorry, it just can't happen. I'd love it if Hollywood would stop doing this.
2. Barrel rolls are hard. I'm not saying they don't happen. But in Hollywood the only tired worn out cliche worse than exploding cars are barrel rolls. And they happen at almost anytime! Of course Hollywood has a standard machine to do them. So I think they just get stuck in a rut. Most Hollywood car chases are cliched and boring. Although there are some good ones. (Check out Ronan or The Bourne Supremacy for good recent car chases)
3. Everything is bullet-proof. Characters hide behind tables and even cardboard boxes as if they were sand embankments. What's up with this? Yes, hiding behind even something bullets go through is somewhat helpful. There's less of a chance of being hit since the shooter can't see you. But in the movies there is often a blaze of gunfire which makes it unlikely you'd survive. In real life bullets, especially rifle bullets, tend to go through even walls.
4. Banking in Space. Why is it in science fiction movies spaceships tend to behave like they are WWII planes in atmosphere? You don't need wings in space and you don't bank in space. (I'll give some credit to Battlestar Galactica for not doing this. Star Wars is of course the worst offender)
5. Computers can't aim. Why is it that I could write a computer program now that could aim better than Hollywood computers? It's so weird. Cylons can't hit anything inexplicably. Robots in general are worse shots than Stormtroopers. But it's just a weird thing. In general computers can't fly well either in the future. Kind of odd.
6. People explode in outerspace. I hate this one. Yes you'll get pretty seriously hurt by explosive decompression. But you're not going to blow up like a balloon. I'll give BSG credit here as well. As bad of shots as their Cylons are, they did a great treatment of being in vacuum last week.
I'd add in the other ones that the afore mentioned blog brought up.
Now for the audience gaffes.
Gun shots are loud. There was this urband legend that Hollywood artificially made guns loud by playing .44 magnum shots for all guns. I don't know what recording they use, but in real life guns are far, far louder than in the movies. That's why you wear hearing protection when you shoot. Typically in a gunfight, especially one indoors, most of the people would be temporarily near deaf after the firefight. Some movies actually get this right. But recognize that of necessity Hollywood tones down gunfights.
A couple of observations:
.22 caliber shots are very quiet. I guess if everyone was using these then the quieter shots would be understandable. Also, if the movie is trying to imply distance between the audience and the shooting then it also makes sense to have a softer sound.
BSG may have some bad physics but the psychology and sociology is far worse. I stopped watching mid way during the second season when I realized that the humans had become so morally reprehensible that I didn't care if they survived the Cylons. The problem is that the creator seems to want grittiness and darkness for their own sakes, without regard to actual human pyschology or sociology. This may have improved later, but I don't have the energy or time to try it out again.
The only gunfire I've heard was on city streets, and it sounded like firecrackers or maybe a car backfiring. Must've been a .22?
What I love are how computers are depicted on screen. Every tv show and movie we watch with a computer screen being shown I always say to my husband, "That's exactly how my computer works, too."
I can't stand it when a major clue is revealed by watching a shadow produced by the sun hit a particular marker--as in the case of The Da Vinci Code or McKenna's Gold or what-have-you.
Even if you were to watch the shadow at the right time on the right day of the year, it still wouldn't hit the right marker--or at least not at the right time. There are too many factors involved that have an affect on the Earth's position--especially when the story incoporates such a clue that is thousands of years old!
Clark,
I came across this web site a few years ago and thought you would probably enjoy it:
Insultingly stupid movie physics
The reason why Star Wars fighters bank when turning in space is probably that the scenes were modeled after WWII dog fights. The scene where Han and Luke are in the Millenium Falcon shooting at TIE Fighters was taken virtually frame for frame from a "highlight reel" of WWII footage that George Lucas put together to help the model guys envision the scene. Even though the physics of it is not correct, it still makes the flying seem more organic (for lack of a better word); everyone has seen footage of dog fights between fighter planes and knows how the fighters should behave as they turn in the atmosphere.
"I can't stand it when a major clue is revealed by watching a shadow produced by the sun hit a particular marker--as in the case of The Da Vinci Code or McKenna's Gold or what-have-you."
You mean like the well of souls and the staff of Ra (which always seemed a bit long for a staff that should be about 5 feet) in Raiders of the Lost Ark?
Speaking of bad movie physics, The Core (labeled "worst physics movie ever" by the site I linked above) was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, especially the giant geode scene. Two words: lithostatic pressure.
If you can control garvity, then banking makes the most sense.
Your only other option is to go straight. What do you want to see, a 90 degree turn at high speed?
The wings were never used for flight in Star Wars. They were weapon platforms.
How does banking make sense with artificial gravity?
And yes, high rotations at high speed make a lot of sense. (Note that BSG does this in their space battles)
The fact is that in Star Wars Lucas copied dog fight videos from WWII and made it the way it was because it "looked cool."
I've closed comments in order to avoid spam since I don't check this older blog as much anymore.
and Theology
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Blogged by Clark Goble