Cameron Seibly
Phys 123
Prof. Garcia
Science
fiction or Cinematic fact
Ever
since the late 50's, with the dawn of the Space Age, audiences across
America and the world have been enamored with space. So, it would
follow that movies made with space as the back drop have mostly
always done well. Considering the time when many classics came out,
between the 70s and late 80s, most people knew very little of what
space actually was, and most knew even less about the laws of physics
while in a zero gravity environment. So, in turn, many movies where
spiced with a good dose of Hollywood fakery to enhance what would in
actuality be a very bland environment.
Three
movies that have gathered large followings come to mind. The first is
Aliens, a horror action thriller that is a squeal to Alien. The mood
is tense and their motto was correct, in space no one can hear you
scream, except when your on a planet surrounded by hundreds of the
Aliens. The you mostly hear machine gun fire. The second is a movie
that fell rather flat with the majority of those who saw it, but I
find it charming, and that is Mission to Mars. This movies follows
the exploits of a crew sent to Mars on a daring mission to save a
missing group of explores and unravel an ancient secret that is as
old as we are. Lastly is the widely acclaimed Gravity, a space
thriller so intense and realistic that I am sure I lost at least a
decade of my life from stress while watching it. Gravity, unlike
many, uses real space physics to enhance the terrifying scenario of
being adrift in the vast emptiness of space.
The
first Alien movie did stick to reality fairly well and so too did its
sequel. The final menace in the second movie was dealt with in almost
the exact same way as the first, however the physics of the ending of
Aliens is dubious at best. Our hero Ripely battles an enormous Alien
queen while in a loading dock mech suit before throwing it into an
open air lock hatch. Ripley is dragged in as well when the Queen
grabs the mech's leg as she falls. Despite the tumble Ripley manages
to open the second airlock door hoping to throw the Queen into space.
Right as the doors open though the Queen manages to grab Ripley leg,
but the vacuum of space eventually pulls the Queen off Ripley. It is
a tense end to a tense movie, but it simply couldn’t happen. I am
no physicists, but I do have a small understanding of pressurized
environments, and I know that on Earth we live under a constant 14
psi. So it would stand to reason that the ship, like an airplane, is
pressurized to that amount. When Ripely opened the door to space the
rush of air that flowed past her would not have been enough to rip
her from her grip, but the weight of the Alien queen added to that
would have been more than enough to rip Ripley's leg, or arm from her
sockets or at least rip her from her grip. The queen alone must have
weighed 500 lbs or more, and could withstand several blows to the
head from the large mechanical suit.
Mission
to Mars, a film with less focus on killer aliens, is a recent film
being shot in 2000 that followed more closely to what would happen in
reality, but one moment in the film can be called into question.
About midway through the film as the rescue team enters Martian orbit
their vessel is struck by a micro meteor shower that eventually leads
to the explosion of on of the fuel cells that sends the crew fleeing
into space. The explosion of the fuel cell was a spectacular fireball
that left much of the debris in and around the station, but would
that really have been the case?
When it
comes to explosions in space what really takes place? It has been
show that fire from an explosion can be seen in a vacuum, however it
has no fuel after the initial flash, so all one would see is instant
bright flash of light then nothing. The debris shown in the film
should fly past the camera faster than the eye can see given that in
space there is no resistance. Smaller debris would not linger around
the station as it would have been blow too far away from the gravity
attracting mass of the space craft.
Hollywood
is notorious for depicting explosions wrong on Earth, and so it
follows that FX's in space suffer the same short comings. However,
one film shot recently in 2013 had its research done and was made
into a masterpiece. That movie is the best seller Gravity, a film
about a crew of astronauts whose space shuttle is destroyed by a
cloud of space junk traveling faster than bullets sending two
survivors into the cold dark of space to try and rendezvous with a
different station in Earth's orbit. As they travel the films
atmospheres is cranked up with the claustrophobic fleeing you receive
by hearing what it is like inside the space suit. That is the
strongest part of the film by far, because there is no loud audible
sound in space. There is nothing for the sound waves to travel on,
because air is not concentrated enough in the vastness of space.. In
most space flicks we hear the whizzing of space ships, the zing of
laser fire, and even the percussion of massive Hollywood fireballs.
None of that is possible though, but since sound can literally make
or break a movie things will most likely not change anytime soon.
Gravity stand out as a great of example of what reality sounds like
and using that as an advantage.
Our
fascination with space will not end, and neither will our obsession
with space and futuristic adventures. Though, as time progresses the
general publics understanding of space will increase. This is helped
by the amazing shows on the Science Channel, the Mythbusters, and the
numerous other TV shows that explore the wonders of space. From
Aliens to Mission to Mars, and then to Gravity we see how that
increasing understanding has lead to more believable science in
movies. Overall audiences wont opt out of seeing movies because of
less than believable physics, but good space movies will be made
better with an increasing audience appreciation.
