Most of the top-grossing movies of all time are science fiction. With that being said, these movies have a substantial impact for growing generations. They transcend truth, ultimately becoming the artificial equivalent of outer-space. Into the vast darkness of this world sits a cornucopia full of (for lack of better words) bad science. Most of the plots are made up entirely, with a rocky theory as its premise, much like allusions to political hypocrisy and pandering to the masses . . .but back to bad science in films. These four movies just have a bit more fi than sci. I'm no expert on astronomy or science in general, but I took a bad science in film course so I am practically an expert. Worry not, for there are no spoilers.
4. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
Besides the depressing amount of infantry used during this movie, ROTS has some seriously bad science, beginning with Obi Wan and Darth Vader battling it out with light sabers on the volcanic moon to plain old gravity issues. Darn gravity. Lava radiates heat, and is substantially hotter than an oven. In fact, lava is generally at a temperature of about 1200 degrees Celsius. Those guys should have been vaporized. Also, a ship in orbit has no up or down, so how can the ship carrying Obi Wan, Anakin and the Chancellor begin to "fall" or "tilt" in space and cause R-2 to slide? This is one of those things that make you go "hmm."
3. Star Trek
Alright, I talked about Star Wars, so now I'm going after the Trekkies. Anything remotely resembling an alien in these movies are one-headed, two-armed and two-legged man-like creatures. According to Jessica Toothman, the closest they're realistically going to get with another life-form out in space would be a brush with a bacterial infection. Come on commander.
2. Avatar
This one is pretty simple, the animals/beasts have six limbs and the avatars have four. Sorry my friend, but evolution just does not work that way. Again with body types, the females have breasts, even though James Cameron (director) admits they aren't placental mammals.
1. Titanic
Have you ever have a sports coach that was extremely picky and actually used a ruler or protractor during practice to make sure your arms, feet and shoulder alignments were perfect? Imagine that x1 million. In Titanic (another Cameron film), there was a focus on the starry sky above the shipwreck. Neil deGrasse Tyson ( debunk-er of said bad science) pointed out that, not only are the stars all wrong for that time and location, they're also mirrored from the middle. The sky was basically a finger-painted Rorschach test.
These facts were not discovered to burst the science fiction bubble you enter when sitting down with your $85.00 bag of popcorn and $40.00 Jujubes,but rather are a reminder to you that science is an interesting truth worthy of your investigation, and fiction is a magical world ready to be rediscovered. If done properly, the combination is priceless.
