There is a going trend in movies and TV shows to just make shit up regarding science. Is it that hard to hire a grad student who would work for peanuts to answer some basic questions regarding the science in these movies. Now I know the SciFi channel has this magic $1million per movie formula for their Original Movies that they make, but come on, some beer would probably get a resident genius.
So i’m watching Solar Attack right now, and skipping the ridiculousness of the whole premise, I have 1 major gripe. The premise is that the sun is shedding a massive amount of matter in cataclysmic sized Coronal Mass Ejections (solar flare), or CMEs. These happen all the time, and some do even become powerful enough to cause technical problems. Could a CME ever be big enough to mess us up, possibly even destroy us? Sure, why not.
The beef I have with this movie is the fact that they keep saying the Ozone Layer is what normally protects us from the CMEs, and that these CMEs are going to “break through”. Like its a brick wall… Let’s clear up the first issue…
The ozone layer protects us from ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION. Probably some other things, but NOT CMEs. The ozone layer IS NOT responsible for the aurora borealis. This entire movie is blabbering on and on about the stupid ozone layer not pulling its weight and such, when it has nothing to do with what would possibly be involved in this whole catastrophe.
The actual planetary thingy they were looking for was the VAN ALAN BELT. Get your freaking information at least remotely correct for god sake.
The rest of the premise is ridiculous sure, but it has to be in order to be “good television”. Methane buildup in the atmosphere getting ignited by the CMEs will burn up all the oxygen and we all suffocate. Sure, why not.
This is just a glaring example of a greater problem I have been seeing. Movies and TV shows are becoming careless about science, to the point of possibly causing harm to education and knowledge of younger folks or the less educated. This is not about entertainment. The story would not have changed at all if the correct terminology was used. So why wasn’t it?
Yes the average person could probably care less about Van Alan or Ozone, but why add to the ignorance, almost willfully? If movies used the correct science, at least when its not important to the movie, maybe people would be less confused by it. I know you gotta bend the rules for things like people being able to fly or shoot heat beams from their eyes, but at least make the heat beam consistent. If it can melt steel instantly, it should vaporise water, not just pass through it magically.
And I gotta mention the one movie science gaff that makes me cringe every time I see it. Tom Sizemore, playing the world famous scientist, Dr. Quinn Burchenal in Mission to Mars says the following: “I’m a geneticist. I write code. Like a hacker. Four elements, A-G-T-P, in different combinations. Hacking the human genome.”
Dammit! It’s AGTC. Didn’t you people see GATICA? It’s not GATIPA.
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