The Sloppiest Sci-Fi Movie Science Violations of 2012

Ok, for the record, Wayne was out for months in that prison. They made a pretty big deal about how the bomb was going off in 5 or 6 months from when they activated it. I don't know if that's long enough for his back to heal, but it's definitely not a few days.

First, Prometheus did not investigate an alien temple, it was an alien spacecraft on route to Earth. Second, the crew was not all archeologists. It had rich investors, and crew hands that had no space experience yet when the first guy took off his helmet he got a reading from his advanced space suit on the atmospheric conditions. The dumb one was the guy who played with the serpent-like thing (a common horror movie technique). Finally, to get it you have to watch the other alien films. On a side note, the android that can't tell time is funny!

Thanks for the clarification, ralphierocket. Is the 5-6 months figure from the comic books? Or the movie? If the latter, I heard no mention of it (even indirectly). The pace of the movie made it seem like days.

Don't forget that Prometheus hinges on evolutionary concepts, which are also evade any good scientific reasoning and experimentation.

mediasyko - Defending Prometheus is a long and lonely battle. Just about the only thing I liked about the movie (besides the amazing special effects work. Did you know most of the big blue aliens in the movie were animatronic?) was trying to justify the seemingly nonsensical plotline and character behavior. I couldn't do that though, I was hoping for a complex film and instead I got a film that flails around desperately proclaiming that it is complex when really its just a raving lunatic.

If you want more bad science Popsci, watch the movie Lockdown. Ugh

This video asks all the questions about Prometheus and all the movie mistakes and it's also very funny. Enjoy!

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2012/06/16/questions-about-prometheus-spoilers/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_24983

---
In space, no one can hear a tree fall in the forest.

"The estimated power output was about 1.21 gigawatts, more than twice the maximum output of a real aircraft carrier."

I think the physics professor who "crunched the numbers" is pulling our leg.

"One point twenty-one jiggawatts!"

Keep in mind that it's FICTION.

"The estimated power output was about 1.21 gigawatts,"

Are you telling me....... you built a time machine.............. out of an aircraft carrier????

"Within these parameters, it's unlikely any known material could survive the tension exerted by such a rotor."

Uhm: youtube.com/watch?v=3QFHFXcIMuA

It's a toy, but it works. I'm thinking the same principals apply.

Based on the chronology of The Dark Knight Rises, about three months or so pass between Batman's injuries and when he climb out of the pit, as evidenced by the change in seasons.

Articles like these would be great, except it is a major detraction from the credibility of authors when they overlook details themselves. Yet another example of the steady decline in the quality of writing at PopSci...

While you pick out the sloppiest sci-fi violations, allow me to pick out your sloppiest grammar violations.

"...1 hour and 52 minutes and 42 seconds..."

So, you're saying that he broke the record by taking three separate baths? One for one hour, one for 52 minutes, and one for 42 seconds? Because that's what the 'and' indicates.

It should read "...one hour, 52 minutes, 42 seconds..."

The math on the Total Recall one is wrong. To travel 4000 miles in 8.5 minutes (the acceleration phase), we'd need to accelerate at only 49.5 metres per second, or 5G, which is not impractical with the appropriate preparations. Gravity itself would be contributing to the effective geforce, but only to +/- 1G, I believe. But figuring that stuff out is more than my brain can handle. Suffice it to say that the trip in 17 minutes would not require 10G of acceleration, but merely accelerations that are survivable with preparations.

So, excepting the problems of materials science being nowhere near what would be required to build a vacuum tube straight through the center of the earth, if somebody actually managed to do that, a 17 minute trip through it would certainly be survivable, albeit unpleasant.

There was a time when *movies* weren't *expected* to be real. Don't you think it's ironic when people criticizing *movie science* can't get their *real* science right?

Here's the solution: Grow up to the point where you can tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

Why? Because then you can enjoy the wonders of reality *and* the wonders of fantasy without furrowing your brow and thinking, "How'd dey do dat?

Jack Cain

Bucks, Blisters or Blood - Everyone needs to pay for the freedoms we enjoy!

A *real* science clarification because somebody mentioned it.

All currently commissioned US aircraft carriers have two 550 megawatt reactors. While this is for redundancy - remember these are built for battle - technically they can produce enough heat to convert to 1.1 gigawatts of electrical energy.

I think it's sad that I have to say this: No, you can't *directly* convert heat to electricity in the type of nuclear reactors used by the US Navy. *They* don't even convert most of it to electrical energy - yet. No matter how you heat the water, steam still rules the waves.

I think it's even sadder that I have to echo nielwestover and reiterate that there is a difference between a *real* unit of energy like a gigawatt and a *fantasy* unit of energy like a "jigawatt!!" no matter how you pronounce it. If they had called it a "convolutirunalottawatt" you would have complained it was not "real".

Jack Cain

Bucks, Blisters or Blood - Everyone needs to pay for the freedoms we enjoy!

OK - last comment because I just not going to read the rest.

We see this said a lot: PopSci, get some science education.

I'll add: Do your research.

Let's take your SkyFall examples. I'm not going to claim movie stunts are real. The entire concept is one most children get over by the time they get to write for a mainstream magazine. However, did you see the testing done in National Geographic's Freeze Test? Do you think that particular S.E.A.L. is unique? The scientists *gave up* trying to get his core temperature below 98 degrees after a hour and then he went through an obstacle course, picked up a pistol and shot a moving person between the eyes.

As for "Q", first, you act as if you nor anyone else has never heard of the iconic mad scientist of the Bond movies, then you act as if programmers never use back doors? Are you even aware that "password guessing" - normally called "Social Engineering" or "know your enemy" is the most common way to break into a system?

You remind me of a person who attempted to steal a bicycle from me in the late '80's. He destroyed his bolt cutters on my large, hardened lock when he could have easily cut the much thinner chain. I kept my bike because he wasn't smart enough to not try to force the hardest element open.

You may be more familiar with the real-life 21st Century version of the Skyfall password story - it's called IEDs and murder innocents in markets instead of trying to fight a US soldier head on and die.

I like the pretty pictures, but your comments are infuriating, and I don't usually hang where I am uncomfortable. I think I'll get my pretty pictures where everyone else does - Google.

Jack Cain

Bucks, Blisters or Blood - Everyone needs to pay for the freedoms we enjoy!

Sure most of this is a little wrong, but so what?

Spidey, the Bat, and Bond have been defying physics and human fraility for a long time, and in various media types. A little late to call them out now.

And time travel is a an old gimmick. I only get annoyed when they make rules (e.g. "you can't meet yourself"), and then try to slip a violation by because it fits the story line.

Of everything here, I'd probably only fault Prometheus.

These are just stories. If they don't rub your face in it, let it go.

Luminus:
Most people don't know this but in real world scaling is not linear.

What I mean is, for example if you take any jet engine design and just built it much bigger it would not work as expected anymore. Its efficiency and thrust to weight ratio would drop.

Same for natural systems also. For example each type of tree cannot be bigger than a certain size depending on how much load can be carried by unit volume of its wood type.

But I still think it maybe possible to built a flying aircraft carrier especially if it is made of light aircraft materials like aluminum and carbon fiber. Because that scientist assumed weight of a normal aircraft carrier which is mostly iron.

I do not believe scientific mistakes in movies are okay because they are fiction.

For example, Star Trek has lots of loyal fans and it was great inspiration for generations of scientists and engineers because most of great technologies it showed maybe theoretically possible.
If they showed tech that so obviously impossible I don't think this would happen.

@ boucains; Any semi-literate or actual educated person that saw Prometheus had a hard time watching it because NOTHING WORKED TOGETHER in it.
Charlize Theron owns a trillion dollar spaceship, but the medbay can't work on a woman? Quit preaching because that movie, part of a BILLION DOLLAR FRANCHISE, totally sukked in almost every category. 'A Film by Ridley Scott' Yeah, ok. Put your name on the next one, Ridley; I dare ya.

I guess in the year 2012 you can just go to your nearest corner shop and pick up plutonium, but in 1955 it's a little hard to come by. 1.21 gigawatts, what was I thinking?

I would say that The Advengers would be mild if one considers that this is in a universe with Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, and Tony Stark. No doubt the S.H.I.E.L.D. carrier would have been built largely by Stark Ent. So, any assumptions of weight and therefore thrust required would be invalad.

The end of Looper was without a doubt the biggest "science violation."

*spoiler: If his younger self dies, then he wouldn't be chasing his older self. Thus he would never have been on that farm to shoot himself in the first place.

WTF is this for crap?? Have you actually WATCHED Prometheus while you saw it on the internets, or are you just partial blind you dumb f****???!!

So what if it's a crew where ALMOST no one have met each other (but some already did meet Vickers!!), this was the same situation on the first Alien, did I hear complains about that?? And so f*****gggggg what, all that the non-scientists crewmembers are thinking about is just doing their jobs and get paid for it that's it, Fifield even literally said to Milburn "I'm not here to be your friend", how f**** more CLEAR can you get it??

Alien temple??? What the ffff....!!!! IT WAS A spaceship you motherf****!

Oooh ooh, they put off their helmets!!! OOOOOH NO!!
"What if there's an unknown, undetectable, and highly toxic compound in the air?" HAHAHA, you really don't know SH*T about technology and space, don't you think that in f*ckin 2093 they have enough advanced technology to detect even the SMALLEST things??!! Don't you think this is NOT a first visit on an alien planet???
ALL instruments and even David said it's perfect conditions to breath inside the room!!! And even so, did it caused something?? Did they all died because they took off their helmets?? NO, IT DIDN'T!!!!!!! Fifield & Milburn died because of that alien worm, Charlie was poisoned by David!!! There were NO lethal consequences for taking off their helmets!!!!

"And then, only after all of this death and catastrophe, they decide to map the temple." HOLY F*****!!!!!, NO you really ARE blind!! The FIRST SINGLE THING THEY DID, was mapping it! When they entered the structure, Fifield activates his Spectagraphs in order to analyze and virtually map...OR DID YOU F****NG MISSED THAT??
Of course, in front of closed doors, the Spectagraphs are halted! Just like in the scene when David discovers the alien control room, and after a while the clever captain realize the structure is a f*ckin spaceship!!

If you at least want to TRY to understand the instant-classic that Prometheus is, watch this on Youtube -> /watch?v=D7CChfYoO_I

I don't know what you think you are (doing), but please, do something else in your life and leave the REAL stuff for the adults, okay??? THANK YOU