Bad science in fiction Hall of Shame

[magnemoe]

39 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

That's the least of Aliens problems. I love the movie but of course if a fusion reactor is damaged it just stops working rather than blowing up. Just about every movie that mentions fusion gets that wrong, though. 

Now it was an self destruct mechanism not an accidental explosion who as you say is impossible, if the reactor was pulsed and good you might be able to turn it into an makeshift low yield nuclear bomb having say 30 ton of tnt effect, enough to blow the ship to pieces. But you could just leaked enough hydrogen into all compartments for an larger blast   

[kerbiloid]

23 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

it was an self destruct mechanism not an accidental explosion

In Alien - self-destruction overheat, in Aliens - overheat destruction.

Technically, they could implement a ship self-destruction mechanism by having the local heatproof tungsten cistern of deuterium fuel, and redirecting the reactor power on heating the tungsten walls of the room where it is, to make it hot and emitting X-ray to compress the cistern.

It would also explain why the ship is getting hot and steaming after the self-destruction had been initiated, and even explain to some extent, why it can't be switched off several minutes later (already too hot and uncontrollable).
Or the reactor itself could contain fissiles, being forcedly fissiled by the fusion neutrons and/or Xray.

Mabe even the idea is that the fissiles are getting hot, emitting X-rays, and compress much greater amount of the fusion fuel inside the reaction zone at once, after the heat control had been disabled.

But on LV-426 the reactor would just fail burning, as the fusion fuel is just tens milligrams per second.

Edited June 10 by kerbiloid

[magnemoe]

On 4/25/2024 at 8:34 PM, SunlitZelkova said:

Ya know, one deleterious effect of these black and white, good vs evil sci-fi stories is it causes people to then view real world conflicts through the same lens, when the truth is much more complicated.

It’s quite a shame. Archetypes also get used to simplify complex histories when the reality of the events is more complex too.

I blame the format. For example, George Lucas had an interesting opportunity to make a different kind of war series with The Clone Wars TV show, as the conflict was hinted at being much more complex in the original prequel movies (Padme’s thoughts of how the Republic had become the thing they were fighting against, and the “heroes on both sides” line in the opening scrawl).

Instead, the Separatists were turned into a pseudo Empire. Yet another black and white, easy to digest story. Partially because the target audience was children and having good guys that do bad things and bad guys that do good things would be too hard to understand, but I think it was also because the format of Star Wars has always been black and white, good vs. evil.

At least Andor kind of got into how the Rebels had to get as dirty as their enemies to try and win.

Has an excellent analyze on this, newer watched the clone wars. Graphic issues, looked like an video game but an crappy one, not transparency mapping on hair for one who had been standard in game for an long time. 
But his take is good as I see it. 
However demanding that the movie audience to have seen an TV series  is an very bad idea as it limit your audience. 
Yes they done that lately unfortunately its one of the minor issues. 

Edited June 10 by magnemoe

[kerbiloid]

Not exactly bad science, but a fresh sensation about Interstellar.

https://x.com/JaredFPS/status/1816183830862258531

[tater]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

Not exactly bad science, but a fresh sensation about Interstellar.

https://x.com/JaredFPS/status/1816183830862258531

Interesting. I hated Interstellar, but I could possibly ignore the awful science of it if it was the hallucinations of a man in the process of dying.

[tater]

Quote

Ya know, one deleterious effect of these black and white, good vs evil sci-fi stories is it causes people to then view real world conflicts through the same lens, when the truth is much more complicated.

It’s quite a shame. Archetypes also get used to simplify complex histories when the reality of the events is more complex too.

^^ @SunlitZelkova quote above

 

On 6/10/2024 at 4:12 PM, magnemoe said:

Has an excellent analyze on this, newer watched the clone wars. Graphic issues, looked like an video game but an crappy one, not transparency mapping on hair for one who had been standard in game for an long time. 

Can't watch an hour about SW, what's the bullet-point take?

All I can say is that I would not apply "science" concerns to SW, except that Lucas added them (a huge mistake) in the prequels, meaning the baseline test for me for the space opera which is SW is to check for internal consistency/logic.

Having made "the force" heritable in the prequels, to me both sides going forward are bad. The choice of normies in the SW galaxy (far, far, away) is to be ruled by their betters, who are either nominally "bad," or "good." The problem being that they can apparently become bad, or become good—but regardless, "force people/beings" are objectively better than normies. They have magical powers, and are hereditarily suited to rule over lesser peoples.

The new movies should have, IMNSHO, had new Jedi vs first order... then the protagonists, allied with the utterly subjected, enslaved droids (clearly conscious, and incapable of magical force powers), to overthrow all the magical beings. A war to destroy "the force" entirely and institute self-rule.

Han and Chewie could have realized they were taken in by the quasi-religious movement, and Han's realization results in his split with Leia. Son still goes the magical route, wanting to subject/dominate people, his ex-wife wants her magical son to come back to her flavor of subjecting/dominating people, and Han has the unenviable role of wanting to end the magical nonsense entirely. Perhaps create some rumor of ways to destroy the force parasites, and eliminate the source, rather than simply murdering all force-capable beings? Han & Chewie are then on a quest to find this elusive stuff, him agreeing the magic needs to go, but not wanting his son dead.

A much more interesting universe I think (I have come up with this over time in discussions with my kids who have seen the non-movie stuff (I have seen only the original movies, then the first prequel (which was so bad I never saw the other 2), then I saw the latest movies (took the kids to them), of which I only really liked Rogue One.

[DDE]

4 hours ago, tater said:

The new movies should have, IMNSHO, had new Jedi vs first order... then the protagonists, allied with the utterly subjected, enslaved droids (clearly conscious, and incapable of magical force powers), to overthrow all the magical beings. A war to destroy "the force" entirely and institute self-rule.

It's one of my pet in-universe takes as well. I believe some in-universe characters did even arrive to the notion of destroying the Force, but this was always localized.

Spoiler

Roughly within five minutes of approval of such an idea, SW will become a subsidiary setting of Wh 40k. Burn the witch!

Out of universe, I blame the more recent writers for tarnishing of the Jedi. That, and with regards to droid sentience, Lucas absolutely set up a bomb with a lit fuse.

[Jacke]

On 7/28/2024 at 2:40 PM, tater said:

Interesting. I hated Interstellar, but I could possibly ignore the awful science of it if it was the hallucinations of a man in the process of dying.

I hated Interstellar too.  It was in many ways a crap film.  Trying to rehabilitate a bad film by imagining a framing device that wasn't put in the film in the first place (spent more time on Okra and Tom) is not going to change that the film is crap.

There's more honesty about Interstellar in these 2 videos.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited July 29 by Jacke

[kerbiloid]

At least, the dying dream hypothesis explains, why does the random space dust turns into books on crossing the event horizon.

[Jacke]

2 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

At least, the dying dream hypothesis explains, why does the random space dust turns into books on crossing the event horizon.

I think the crap screenplay and execution hypothesis explains it all much better with a more common cause.

[tater]

28 minutes ago, Jacke said:

I hated Interstellar too.  It was in many ways a crap film.  Trying to rehabilitate a bad film by imagining a framing device that wasn't put in the film in the first place (spent more time on Okra and Tom) is not going to change that the film is crap.

I was cursing dumb stuff about it in real time while watching... I bought it (dvd) on sale at Target having missed it in the theater. My reaction was wanting my 2+ hours back—I only sat through it because I had paid for it (& being at home I could enjoy beverages to fuel my annoyance).

6 minutes ago, Jacke said:

I think the crap screenplay and execution hypothesis explains it all much better with a more common cause.

Yes.

 

Edited July 29 by tater

[kerbiloid]

What is good for Jacob's Ladder, is good for Interstellar.

What indeed worries now, wasn't Gravity same hallucinations of Sandra Bullock's heroine.
She was talking to a phatom, riding a fire extinguisher, distances and speeds between the orbital stations were meaning nothing.
Looks like a somebody's dream.

P.S.
Also, I would immodestly quote my post from the Shower Thoughts, that the whole StarWars since the V episode is actually a dream of frozen Han Solo, being decarbonized(?).

That's why the strange fan cult of Boba Fett, an absolute nothing as a character, who became a key person later.
He's just the last thing which Han Solo had seen before sleeping. So, his thoughts are orbiting around Boba.

That's why ep.VI is almost a copy of the ep.IV, and they are fighting Death Star again.
There was just one Death Star, and they killed it in ep.IV. The second one existed only in Han's imagination.

That's why the ewoks look like a mini-chewbacca. There are no ewoks. Just Han is watching a nightmare with a crowd of mini-chewbaccas trying to eat him.

That's why the princess Leia Organa almost married to the piece of a smugglers' misfit.
She didn't, that's just Han's wet fantasies.
The same about naked Leia in chains, tough Leia with a nuke grenade, hoverbiking between trees, old Han and Leia together, and so on.

That's also why Luke finished where he finished.
The subconscious mind of Han is trying to remove his competitor, hide him on a desert island and finish him.

Of course, Leia is not Luke's sister. She's a princess, while Luke is just a useful peasant boy, a stuck piece of countryside manure for her.
Just Han's jealousy makes his mind make Luke Leia's brother to prevent them from merging joining.
Later the Leia's image gets transformed into alternatively beautiful Rey Skywalker, to calm Han's imagination.
Also, the surname of this imaginary girl, her fighting skills, force management, and lightsaber, make to think that this hallucinated Rey is actually a mix of both Leia and Luke to be defeated and possessed by Han's ego.

The real Jabba Hutt is not a giant slug, he was just a body-positive person, Han's former employer on Tattooine.
He's sitting in his office, and has no idea about any chained leias, dungeons with dinosauruses, or sarlaccs looking like a predating rectum, sticking out of sand.
Jabba is a trader, not a psychiatrist.

Spoiler

Jabba, after watching Han's fantasies.

He perfectly knows that a captured rebel princess costs a lot, and is a too risky thing to hide it from the Empire.
If he captured Leia, he would immediately inform the Imperial authorities.
Everything we can see in the series, is a reflection of Han's fear that somebody will take Leia from him.

The same about Darth Vader betrayal, death, and returning as a phantom together with Yoda and Obi.
Darth Vader keeps honestly serving Emperor Palpatine, and has no idea that he is a bald bold jerk under the helmet, or was fighting to his master and teacher.
He cut Luke off his life, and let him fall down. There was no real Luke since ep.V, and the well where Palpatine fell in the Han's dream, is actually the abyss where the Luke came to.
Actually, he prefers healthy food, meditations, wears conservative military-style mustaches, and looks like

Spoiler

rather than

This theory also explains the whole further progressing idiocy of prequels, sequels, and spin-offs.
While Han's brain is getting more damaged, the fantasies are getting more surrealistic, the new characters clone the previously existing ones, the death stars become more and more weird, the villains become more and more grotesque, the less real physics remains.

Edited July 30 by kerbiloid

[Jacke]

12 hours ago, tater said:

I was cursing dumb stuff about [Interstellar (2014)] in real time while watching... I bought it (dvd) on sale at Target having missed it in the theater. My reaction was wanting my 2+ hours back—I only sat through it because I had paid for it (& being at home I could enjoy beverages to fuel my annoyance).

Oh, I know about that in for a penny, in for a pound about bad films.  Doesn't make sense.  But sometimes, you just have to finish something off.

It was 1998.  I was an on-call field tech with no calls, so I decided to see a film.  That film was Lost in Space (1998).  After seeing it, I can say it makes both the 1960's and the recent telly series look art-house masterpieces in comparison.  But I was a bit late for it, missing about 20 minutes.  Then I got called out before the end.  Damnation.

A few years later and it was on Pay Television.  It was a crap film, but I had to watch that missed beginning and ending.

[Mr. Kerbin]

Moonfall. First of all, the supposed power source is a white dwarf, yet, a white dwarf is the size of the Earth. How does that  fit in the moon??? Secondly, I think flying a Space Shuttle through water ( the whole vehicle) would cause some problems. Also,  why didn’t the AI attack with the Apollo missions? Then, why does the president think that sending NUCLEAR BOMBS WOULD HELP???  Another example, is that the insanely fast turnaround time, after all the shuttle’s were put in museums, they are still able to be used within a week? How does that not make any problems?? And even after that, how did the ET and SRB’s get made so fast? I know, apocalypse reasons, but come on! That is such a short time! Okay, now I’m done.

[Shpaget]

Not science, but bad stuff in fiction anyway.

In A Quiet Place: Day One (2024), just like the previous two movies (but it's more pronounced in this one), the aliens hunt by sound and are drawn by even the smallest of sounds humans make, yet they completely ignoring all the racket made by their fellow aliens.

Also, this is a still from the same movie. It is one of two almost still frames in the middle of the movie, placed there just to set the atmosphere It lasts for about five seconds and absolutely nothing happens in this shot. It has nothing to do with the plot, it was completely unnecessary. Chess has nothing to do with the movie. It could have been cut out of the movie and absolutely no one would miss it, yet somebody decided this abomination was needed. What is going on here? It a mix of at least four different chess sets, white pieces come in two distinctly different colors, black pawns are not all the same size, queens come from a smaller set, kings and queens are on wrong squares, black bishop is hanging two different ways, black rook is hanging and what's with all that debris on the board? It would have been abandoned for only a few hours, maybe a day (it's not entirely clear since the main character loses conscience at one point) but certainly nowhere near long enough to account for this amount of leaves / flowers. Is it really so hard to find a chess set and look up a realistic position?

 

[tater]

28 minutes ago, Shpaget said:

Is it really so hard to find a chess set and look up a realistic position?

The percentage of people in our society who are operating at a grade school level (at best) is shockingly high. There are large school systems graduating people (sometime a majority) from high school who can't read or do math at an elementary school level.

[kerbiloid]

On 10/12/2024 at 5:12 PM, Shpaget said:

Is it really so hard to find a chess set and look up a realistic position?

No, it's easy.

And the very fact, that you have caught this five-second short frame and gave a try to it, means that it is some encrypted message, where the size ratio and the color variants symbolize something prophetic (from the authors' pov) / conspirological message, and this message was not missed by everyone (at least by you, but obviously by numerous frame-hunters investigating the minor details frame-by-frame).

Idk if youtube can autotranslate this from Russian for you, but that's a good and well-known example, HP#1 with special details in almost every frame.

Spoiler

 

Such things are found in thousands of movies and videoclips.

The pieces positions may code some dates, events, political figures, etc.

It doesn't necessary work magically, but it does definitely work for the movie director's ego.

Katie Pery, Beyonce, Madonna, Lady Gaga clips are full of that.

Btw, aren't you surprised by three white bishops?

Can this position be reached by playing from the initial one, or it's impossible to be reached? (I.e. an eden garden in terms of the Life game).

Isn't it some well-known position with minor but shocking difference from the original?

Don't the taken figures match some political changes of the movie date?

I'm bad-to-nothing in chessing, but the excessive white bishop looks strange for me.

Got it. The white queen is so small that looks like a bishop.

You would be shocked by the number of 911 references in various clips and movies.

Even the Soviet-time Mary Poppins ecranization has an Easter Egg consisting of a weird Western movie poster on wall and a song hiddenly related to it.

Edited October 14 by kerbiloid