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Intuitor's Recommendations for Movies With Good Movie Physics |
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Movies and physics have a lot in common: neither are completely
realistic, both are simulations of reality.
Physics not completely realistic? Shocking! But consider a simple
classroom example: measuring the depth of a well by dropping in a
pebble and timing how long it takes to hit the water. For the
calculation we would typically write a simple equation that says the
Earth is flat and has no atmosphere. (in other words, the
gravity field is constant and there is no air resistance.)
Furthermore, we'd assume that the speed of the sound produced by the
pebble hitting water is infinitely high and ignore all sorts of
effects like the gravitational attraction force of Jupiter.
Why would we digress so far from reality? If all possible influences
were somehow miraculously accounted for, we'd be unable to measure
the difference. Hence, the physics model used for measuring depth,
while not absolutely realistic, is operationally realistic. It
accounts for the major effect and yields predictions well within our
measurement accuracy.
There's a big difference between operationally correct movie physics
and the ridiculously spectacular marketing-driven special effects
designed to boost box-office take. We're periodically told that
realistic movie physics are too boring, so we've put together a
list of highly-acclaimed movies with physics that we consider, if
not perfect, then at least operationally
realistic. Note, that this list is neither exhaustive nor in any
special order. It includes a wide variety of movies with everything
from historic accounts to science fiction. All the listed movies
were either box office successes and/or cult classics with steady
DVD sales.
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Apollo 13 (1995) - Dramatizes the near
disastrous Apollo 13 moon shot. Has sometimes been criticized
for unrealistic and overly dramatic dialog . Our impression
(based on some very intense personal experiences in the chemical
industry in which careers, millions of dollars and even lives
were at stake): much of the emotion and dialog rings true. The
parts that do not are generally parts contrived to make the
movie more exciting for marketing purposes. This includes the
contrived adolescent conflict aboard the spacecraft.
While not perfect, the filmmakers paid attention to physics details. For example, they went to the bother of simulating many of the movie's low gravity scenes aboard NASA's Vomit Comet aircraft during parabolic dives. About the only way the movie physics could have been significantly improved would have been to actually make a moon shot while filming.
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The Right Stuff
(1983) - Details the early days of supersonic aircraft and Mercury space flights.
Unlike the more balanced Apollo 13, The Right
Stuff focuses mostly on the astronauts and test pilots
rather than the nerds who made the flights possible. Still
the movie has a lot to say about the drama of a high tech
project. The movie is based on
Tom Wolfe's best selling book, considered a classic example
of how a nonfiction book can be written to read like a novel.
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Saving Private Ryan (1998) - A D-Day tale that makes you feel like you've hit the beach. Includes realistic bullet noises as well as grenades and high
explosive shells that do not contain gasoline.
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Unforgiven
(1992) - Simply the best western
ever made. It explores many of the dime-novel/Hollywood myths
created around both bad guys and lawmen, including their use of
firearms.
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2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968) - This movie has an almost incomprehensible story line (you have to read the book to understand it) and is
mind numbingly long (unless, of course you're tripping on LSD--a
popular enhancement for hippy-type viewers). If you do
eventually decipher the story, you'll find it has some fairly
bizarre elements which are beyond known science. Still, the
movie has an almost mythic status among techno-nerds because it got many of the aspects of space flight right, including: no sound in space
and artificial gravity.
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Blade Runner (1982) - A dark, highly stylized tale about a future in which
artificial humans (called replicants) are manufactured for
performing the dirty tasks that real humans wish to avoid. The movie includes
clichéd futuristic flying cars which do not appear to use any principles of
aerodynamics to keep them aloft. Still the film avoids common movie nonsense in its portrayal of artificial humans.
The replicants are biologically, not mechanically, based--an important feature. While mechanically based humanoids may eventually equal or exceed biologically based types, the truth is that its hard to beat hundreds of millions of years worth of evolutionary design. Replicants are perfected for their designated tasks and are more athletic than garden variety humans, yet still within the range of biological possibility. Unlike many of Hollywood's artificial humans, replicants do not violate the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics and are not capable of making ridiculous jumps or performing absurd feats of strength, like tearing open steel doors with their bare hands.
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