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SciFi movies and pathetic misconceptions of tech failing for the story line.

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coppice:

--- Quote from: Rick Law on March 29, 2023, 08:24:24 pm ---Re: Interstellar

Interstellar is the kind of Science Fiction that at least tried to be Scientifically accurate.  When Navy advisors opposed to certain part of the "Top Gun Maverick" scenes, Tom Cruise is supposed to have said "We are trying to make a movie, not a documentary.  (We need certain artistic freedom to make it entertaining)"

Kip Thorne (Professor at CalTech teaching theoretical physicist, gravitational physics and astrophysics) was Science Advisor and Executive Producer for the movie.  Kip was known to be amongst the top blackhole/wormhole authority at the time.  So he kept Christopher Nolan (Producer and Director of Interstellar) inline.  It was rumored (according to at least one youtube reviewers) that Christopher Nolan even took some Physics course at CalTech to prep himself for the movie.  Interesting to note that the first photo image of our galaxy's center blackhole (2022) is consistent with how Kip Thorne theorized a black hole should look -- as seen in the movie Intestellar movie (2014) which use mathematics provided by Kip to create the simulated images of the black hole.  Watching Interstellar is about as close to really flying around a black hole for anyone in decades to come.

In my mind, I put SciFi into 2 categories, Science-Fantasy Fiction, and Fantasy-Science Fiction.  "Interstellar", "2001 A Space Odyssey", "2010: The Year We Make Contact" (and many others) are in the Science-Fantasy Fiction category.  "Starship Troopers" is a good movie, but is Fantasy-Science.  "Star Trek The Next Generation" is like most other - tried to be Science-Fantasy, but at times Fantasy-Science.

Personally, I found Interstellar even with its consistence problems still managed to be a rather good Science Fantasy Fiction.

--- End quote ---

But Interstellar is not at all scientifically accurate. Kit Thorne focussed on one or two points, ignored everything else, and then made some rather sad looking YouTube promotional videos.. They would have looked much more reasonable if instead of saying they "followed the science" they'd followed Tom Cruise and his approach to his publicity.

Infraviolet:
Effectively, Interstellar produced a very accurate visual rendering of a black hole event horizon, and then used that accuracy as an excuse not to strive for accuracy anywhere else. The Martian came out within a few months of Interstellar, and it mnaged to be mostly fairly accurate except for the strength of wind prortrayed in the initial dust storm (the novel had a second dust storm take place too and showed it much mroe accurately, the main hazard being slow clogging of solar panels).

mendip_discovery:

--- Quote from: tszaboo on March 28, 2023, 10:46:22 pm ---
--- Quote from: mendip_discovery on March 27, 2023, 07:53:16 pm ---
--- Quote from: snarkysparky on March 27, 2023, 01:46:43 pm ---Firefly was a good show but they made no attempt to get spaceflight correct.

--- End quote ---

Hmm, I guess you never watched the opening sequence of the first episode. So they did make at least 1 attempt.

--- End quote ---
Which first episode?

--- End quote ---

The bit where they didn't have sound in the junkyard scene due to being in outerspace. It was nice to have for once that they just didn't put lots of noise there.

Rick Law:

--- Quote from: coppice on March 29, 2023, 09:44:58 pm ---...
But Interstellar is not at all scientifically accurate. Kit Thorne focussed on one or two points, ignored everything else, and then made some rather sad looking YouTube promotional videos.. They would have looked much more reasonable if instead of saying they "followed the science" they'd followed Tom Cruise and his approach to his publicity.

--- End quote ---


--- Quote from: Infraviolet on March 31, 2023, 08:05:31 pm ---Effectively, Interstellar produced a very accurate visual rendering of a black hole event horizon, and then used that accuracy as an excuse not to strive for accuracy anywhere else. The Martian came out within a few months of Interstellar, and it mnaged to be mostly fairly accurate except for the strength of wind prortrayed in the initial dust storm (the novel had a second dust storm take place too and showed it much mroe accurately, the main hazard being slow clogging of solar panels).

--- End quote ---

I gave "high marks" for Interstellar's accurate (according to then-current understanding) simulation of black hole.  This accomplishment counts a lot because for "the rest of the stuff" we have more knowledge of them and can use common sense to create mental pictures of how they should look and work.  Whereas black hole is rather alien to our common sense.  A good visual is difficult to generate mentally.  So I agree with the priority of making black hole simulation good and pay less attention to "the rest of the stuff" in the trade-offs.

In my view, the worst error committed by Interstellar is: it would have been a heck of a lot easier to repair earth's problem they are facing (dust bowl and crop blight) than to relocate the entire population of earth.  So "leaving earth" as a solution is just a silly idea; or did they even compared resource requirement of saving-earth vs leaving-earth before making the important decision.  Well, no lift-off, no movie, I suppose.  So I accepted that premise with salt.

Every movie has to do give-and-take trade offs.  I rather enjoy "The Martian" as well, but it got problems as well.  I get really bothered by: (1) Can thin Martian atmosphere really have such a strong wind storm that can blow/carry a person some multiple-meters distance?  I doubt it.  Dust storm, sure, but humans have a much heavier mass per surface-area ratio so it needs a lot more force than probably the thin atmosphere can muster.  (2) Can he really survive the radiation a year?  Mars doesn't have a magnetic field shield, so radiation is going to be deadly unless the station there is shielded for extended stays.  (3) How about the potatoes he farmed in Martian radiation with minimal shielding?  What gives the potato nutrients (minerals, vitamins...) as the only source of food?  A bit of poop wont be enough to do that, it needed more.  (4) The final "capture" of the astronaut (The Martian) by rescuers.  The sequence of events after his capsule took him into Martian orbit then ran out of fuel.  That sequence of events is pure fantasy.  But still, it is an enjoyable movie.

By the way, Kip Throne was also involved with Carl Sagan's Contact.  He helped Carl with ensuring that the Worm Hole part of that movie is accurate to the knowledge then.

I would like to see more Sci-Fi's like these three (Contact/Interstellar/The Martian) in the Sci-Fi genre.

snarkysparky:
Intersteller had mistakes in it that it just didn't need to have.  No plot impact,  no cost to do it right.  It just made me pissed.

First thing is building a starship at the end of a gravel road. 

Second thing is the relativistic aging of the guy still orbiting the planet while the explorers were investigating the surface.  If the difference was that much then they would not be able to leave that gravity well.

And the Daughter whining about how her dad left her there on Earth to die.   Really?   I'd rather take my chances on a slowly dying planet that marooned on a one way trip to nowhere.

There are a few more but i forget.

There would be no cost to have fixed these.

For a good Sci Fi of the same type check out Arrival.



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