Comments on: Silly Science Movies

Question: Silly Science Movies

kechi — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:25:13 -0800

What (bad) movies about science and nature have you seen?

I'm trying to compile a list of movies about earth sciences. The subject matter can be anything from weather (ie twister) to volcanos (ie volcano). The main criteria is that there is at least one character who is a scientist and that character tries to explain some science concept. (If they explain it incorrectly that's fine, in fact the worse the explaination the better). So far I have: Dante's Peak, The Core, The Day After Tomorrow, Armageddon.

By: kcm

kcm — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:26:38 -0800

start here.

By: frogan

frogan — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:28:05 -0800

Deep Impact

By: special-k

special-k — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:28:30 -0800

Day after tomorrow.

By: meerkatty

meerkatty — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:30:01 -0800

Volcano! Lava flows in the middle of LA. Anne Heche as the scientist that can't really explain anything. Tommy Lee Jones to the rescue!

By: frogan

frogan — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:31:18 -0800

A-ha -- Amazon lists called " Movies To Dissect In Earth Science Class" and "Most complete list of natural disaster movies"

By: unmake

unmake — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:32:31 -0800

Anything with Kirk Cameron.

By: kechi

kechi — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:34:02 -0800

I've seen the bad movie physics link before. That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for.

By: 0bvious

0bvious — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:37:28 -0800

What the bleep do we know?

By: Hildago

Hildago — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:38:57 -0800

The Day After Tomorrow

Specifically, the scene where a decrease in temperature chases them through a building.

By: aneel

aneel — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:51:40 -0800

Jurassic Park

By: rob511

rob511 — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:57:29 -0800

An oldie, but a baddie: Crack in the World
All the many versions of Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth

By: tracicle

tracicle — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 22:28:03 -0800

Pretty much anything lampooned on MST3k, specifically Clonus.

By: easternblot

easternblot — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 22:29:39 -0800

I remember Deep Blue Sea being terrible that way, but I only saw it once, in the middle of the night, and I don't recall too much of it. Just that nothing made any sense. (I remembered there was something with water and a door, which is also referred to on the imbd page, and that's how I was able to retrieve the movie title)

By: clarahamster

clarahamster — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 22:34:13 -0800

10.5, if tv movies count.

By: oxonium

oxonium — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 23:00:31 -0800

I second what the bleep do we know.

Utter, utter crap. A complete misunderstanding of quantum mechanics misappropriated into a religion. Read up on "Ramtha" for more info.

God, that pissed me off.

By: arkhangel

arkhangel — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 23:43:42 -0800

Not for nothing, but wasn't Deep Impact based on The Hammer of God, by Arthur C. Clarke? I thought the science was okay there.

By: zanni

zanni — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 01:53:45 -0800

Bad Astronomy movie review.

By: biffa

biffa — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 02:55:35 -0800

Elizabeth Shue's scientist in The Saint must be among the most thinly written scientific characters in film history. I especially like the part where she calls a meeting of physicists at Oxford University just to tell them we really, really need some more environmentally friendly energy sources.

There's also Chain Reaction, where Keanu plays a scientist, which should give you enough of a clue as to plausibility in the film.

Buckaroo Banzai and Young Einstein are intentionally silly science wise.

By: AndrewStephens

AndrewStephens — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 04:23:45 -0800

I am not sure about an actual scientist, but Vertical Limit has plenty of high altitute exposition sandwiched in between cheesy melodrama and stock characters, all wrapped in one of the dumbest plots I have ever experienced. It's jaw-droppingly stupid.
Easternblot: Deep Blue Sea might be silly, but you have got to admit that Samuel L Jackson's big speech near the begining is pretty cool. Its all down hill from there, though. The Abyss is a much better underwater movie that might suit Kechi's needs better, lots of SCIENCE! in it.

By: FreezBoy

FreezBoy — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 05:30:52 -0800

Day of the Animals - the depletion of the earth's ozone layer causes animals above the altitude of 5000 feet to run amok.

By: Cyrie

Cyrie — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 06:04:49 -0800

The Core. Good lord that was bad - bad movie, and bad science.

By: Kirth Gerson

Kirth Gerson — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 06:52:13 -0800

The Cave

Cleopatra 2525

Volcano

The Lost Volcano

Bats

Earthquake

Earthquake 2010 (may be 'R'-rated)

IMDB is your friend.

By: mcstayinskool

mcstayinskool — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 07:39:56 -0800

To follow up Biffa's comment on Elizabeth Shue as a nuclear physicist in The Saint, there's also Denise Richards as nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones in The World is Not Enough.

That's more ridiculous nuclear physicists than should ever have hit the big screen.

It's a tough call on who is worse...Shue trying to effortlessly explain cold fusion or Richards trying to make viewers believe that a drop-dead hot woman in her early 20s with a boob job would be in the middle of nowhere in Russia doing experiments on warheads. I'm going to give the award to Richards, though it's very, very close.

By: Hildago

Hildago — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 07:53:58 -0800

I don't know if hot physicists == bad science.

Also, I think The Core was an example of a movie where the producers at least made an attempt to stick to the science. I know the screen writers had degrees in physics and (I believe) geology, and in interviews they seemed to genuinely have tried to do their homework. It was a ridiculous movie, but more I think because of the plot and the acting than because the science was fundamentally flawed. I would give it a B- for effort, and I'd feel bad about putting it in the same category as something like Atomic Twister.

By: malp

malp — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:12:28 -0800

PI

Not a movie, but in one episode of the TV show sliders, an asteroid was going to crash into earth. Some scientists launched a nuclear rocket at the asteroid to blow it up. The next scene shows several scientists standing outside looking at the rocket in flight. The rocket impacts the asteroid and, after a very long delay, the asteroid blows up. One scientist then claims the delay was due to the time the light took to travel from the explosion to earth.

By: staggernation

staggernation — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:56:41 -0800

When Worlds Collide has some gems.

By: biffa

biffa — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:24:58 -0800

Hey, Shue goes to Russia too! And strips down to her bra! It's like a sisterhood. Of science.

By: luneray

luneray — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 11:07:10 -0800

Tremors

A giant worm/snake/big bad creature terrorizes an isolated community and geologic field team.

My favorite line:
"There's no evidence of this in the fossil record!"

By: luneray

luneray — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 11:10:54 -0800

Let's not forget the Kelly McGillis played an astrophysicist in Top Gun. I believe she also strips down to her bra.

By: The Bishop of Turkey

The Bishop of Turkey — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:38:32 -0800

I have to second the call that hot woman does not equal bad science (at least in biology/chemistry) -- there are plenty of staggeringly hot women of science that I have either worked with or am in grad school with now and all on par with me, your typical dorky, frumpy, science nerd male in intellegence. Unfortunately, I haven't noticed too many of them (the science babes, not frumpy males) just stripping down to their bra at work/school. ;)

Denise Richards though... no, she was plain dumb in the dumbest Bond movie ever. Any why did they cast her in Starship Troopers as Carmen? Carmen was supposed to be fantastic at math! Why do they keep trying to make us think Denise can add any two numbers together correctly, much less understand nuclear physics?

Yeah, the worst science-type movie I remember seeing is The Day After Tomorrow.

By: yodelingisfun

yodelingisfun — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 20:05:42 -0800

Twister....