Badmovies.org Forum

 List the most amazing, incredible and surprising scientific facts you've ever learned from watching bad movies, especially the ones your science teachers never taught you.

Watching "Battle in outer space" taught me that gravity is produced my the motion of atoms(!) and that if you freeze an object to absolute zero(!) it will have no atomic motion and therefore be immune to gravity. A bridge in japan, hit by an invisible alien freeze ray, become white and frosty, then levitates off the ground (I guess there were no bolts holding it in place. Oh, those crazy japanese and their weird engineering...)  then, when the ray is apparently shut off, warms up and falls to the ground.  I mean, this could save a fortune in shipping heavy stuff. Just freeze it to absolute zero, then ship it while it's weightless and not so hard to move. Think of the fuel we'd save! The oil companies must be keeping a lid on this bit of scientific data to keep making money on shipping stuff...

As I watched "The Devil-doll" with Lionel Barrymore I learned that matter was made of atoms and atoms were made of electrons. Electrons are minute bits of electrical energy and if you hook an object up to an empty electrical storage unit it will drain the electricity from the electrons, making the object shrink! Wow! Hey, why aren't we disposing of toxic waste by hooking it up to empty batteries and draining out the electricity till it vanishes altogether, and then using the electricity for something? It's obviously a conspiracy between the energy and waste disposal companies!

Superman (1978) ~ spinning the Earth backwards reverse time... I'd wonder what would happen if you make the Earth spin forward at a faster pace... (seems like the controls on my DVD player)

(http://www.dvddrive-in.com/images/i-m/incredibletwohead2.jpg)

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971) ~ the new head dominates the original head.

When people disintigrate, there is no smell the other characters need to comment about.

The standard of the 1950s: atomic radiation makes almost everything living (bugs, dinosaurs, human beings) that's been exposed grow huge.

Square cube law? We don need no stinkin' Square Cube law!

Movie?

There is an exception to this.  If it's a person that's exposed, they might just turn into a hideous mutant instead. 

Live and Let Die (1973)  ~ a strong magnet can be used to unzip a womans dress...

The Core (2003) -

All of the science in that movie is totally legit. All of it. I don't care what the scientists say.

I think we're forgetting "the incredible shrinking man".

Well, that's pushing the envelop for you.

If someone could invent a magnet to unclip a woman's bra the world would be a much better place...

If atomic radiation from an atomic explosion doesn't make things grow huge, shrink people or turn people into hideous mutants, it's still prone to waking up hideous monsters frozen in the Arctic or awakening them from some other means of slumber.

The whole premise of "Mac and Me", a being from a distant planet's natural staple in their diet is a liquid that is manufactured on Earth. This suggests that indeed Coca-Cola is a possible naturally occurring product throughout the entire universe, it just so happens that on Earth it is a man made concoction.

That's funny. George Carlin once made a speculative observation that perhaps the whole purpose of human beings was to provide plastic for the Earth. The Earth needed plastic, and didn't know how to make it, needed us. Could be the answer to the age-old question "Why are we here?"

Answer: "Plastic, a***ole."

He went on to say that, now that the Earth has plastic, the human race can now be phased out.

He was also the first to admit he had a sick sense of humor.

If you replace your blood with embalming fluid, you'll go into suspended animation. If you pump out the embalming fluid and pump blood back in, you'll be good as new. (DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN)

Careful though, the human body contains over 15 gallons of blood and it's often under high pressure. 

When a "fusion reactor" is damaged it will inevitably begin building up an "overload" which will unavoidably result in it exploding in the near future. Apparently technicians, scientists and engineers in the future, despite achieving controlled thermonuclear fusion, have lost the ability to install shutdowns on the fuel feed to the reactor to avoid overloads and explosions.

Aliens.

Every computer on the planet is hooked into the same network which can always be easily hacked into...

You can drive a truck through sub-atomic space (Buckaroo Banzai)

The main component in the manufacture of cars appears to be explosives. 

Using a GUI that simulates the hacker removing physical obstacles to find information represented by objects in 3D space.

And as an addendum to the rules of atomic radiation: Any random mutation, whether by radiation, chemicals or other genetic alteration, will result in a viable creature which, in spite of its misshapen appearance, will be more robust, overall, than a healthy organism, and possess various adaptations that make it very deadly and difficult to kill. The mutation will seldom, if ever, result in a debilitating deformity, terminal cancer or any kind of ill health. Physical health, that is. Mental health usually takes a turn for the worse.

:bouncegiggle:

I'll do you one better. Jeff Goldblum was able to hack an alien computer network and infect it with a virus in Independence Day, because, alien computer network operating systems are similar enough to our own that we could do such a thing, right?

Not to defend ID4 because it was a huge letdown for me, but technically I think the reason goldblum could hack into the alien's computers was that their and out computers were very similar because out computers had been reverse engineered from the alien fighter at hanger 18.

You can easily outrun a nuclear explosion (Broken Arrow) or failing that, just hide in a refrigerator. (Indiana Jones)

The ice ages were the result of giant ice hurricanes and not all that nonsense about gradual expansion of glaiciers. (The Day After Tomorrow)

I wish there were some people who could test out these movie science myths, maybe they could have a show on discovery channel.....

I must admit that although I found the movie as a whole decent (maybe a C+, being generous) some of the biggest sins against the laws of science and physics were committed by Indiana Jones Crystal Skull: for me the most blatant was the monkey swing.  Just because a 10lb monkey can swing from some 1/8inch thick vines doesn't meant three full grown adults can and also out manuever vehicles on the ground.

Also (this is several movies, most blatant is Armagedon but I think there was also Deep Impact and maybe a few others with this motiff) if an asteroid heads for earth the last thing the US govt or any competent entity would do would be to send some slack-jawed oil rig workers up to drill in a nuclear bomb.  If you put a nuclear bomb a little to the right of the asteroid you will push it to the left, tada disaster averted. You don't need to obliterate it, just push it around. Also, is it just me or did the asteroid in Armagedon have some pretty good gravity for something so small.  Yes, I know they jump the car thing over the grand canyon but the also do alot of calmly walking (not floating) around almost like they were under 1G of gravitational force in a film studio.

Giant prehistoric monsters of all sorts, but mostly dinosaurs, can live for hundreds of millions of years frozen in Arctic ice with no ill effects.

lol... actually the alien controls are simular to a fighter jet, although the aliens look like giant squids... :)

Or sometimes it's cavemen (Dinosaurus!) or it could be an alien frozen in a block of ice (The Thing From Another World).

All forms of alien life can reproduce with humans.

In fact, many aliens go out of their way to do so. 

Put a woman under enough stress and you'll trigger her primary defensive mechanism (ie- scream and then faint) -- from almost every creature feature made in the 1950's.

Also, all reptiles are carnivores or at least aggressive.

I once knew a guy who had an iguana that preferred bean and cheese burritos from Taco Bell.

Indeed, human females are attractive to most species, terrestrial or otherwise.

Actually in many 1950s creature features, men are just as prone to screaming as women. Women just do it more effectively in general.

Monsters are more vulnerable to fire extinguishers than other weapons.

Metallic sodium will burn monsters to a crisp, but you can fling it with your hands.

Godzilla is impervious to bullets, rockets, missiles, and fire, but not electricity.

Yeah, but it was rare that the guys would follow through with the fainting bit.

It takes all of 2 or 3 minutes to create a breathable atmosphere on mars, and if your eyes are popping out because of the no atmosphere thing, they will go back in with no ill effects as the Atmosphere is created.  :lookingup:

Total Recall FTW

I was too busy wondering why aliens would build such a vast machine, set it up to start with one button anybody can walk in and push, and then, you know, not bother turning it on.

That and I was still laughing at "Gif dis pipple ear." :teddyr:

Practically every 1950s space or rocket mission was threatened by a meteor shower or storm and nearly every planet was inhabited by leggy women with very few if any men around. If there are men around, they're usually older guys too.

Movies(s)?

Register and I'll tell you.

Whole populations of creatures can survive for millenia underground near Earth's mantle without being cooked and without having a renewable source of oxygen or food other than themselves for the latter, though they seem to know when to stop before they end up starving. They can also function perfectly well underground in their original above-ground forms without any difficulty. Any humans or humanoids will also have incredibly huge eyes to catch the staggering abundance of light that one finds miles beneath the ground. There are also apparently clouds down there, too.

(Take your pick of films like that, you'll probably find one of the above to be true.)

Classic Matrix science: humans generate a net increase in energy so much so that entire machine cities can be powered by humans being fed nothing more than IV of dead humans (hint, humans convert stored chemical energy of food to kinetic/electric energy but can not create new energy, without some kind of new energy coming into this system the humans would die and the machines would power down). 

We could probably do an entire just on the subject on Nuclear bomb, waste and power, and all the crazy stuff we see in movies about that.  But I'll do a light one.

Nuclear waste looks like green liquid!  And it's usually stored in suspicious looking and easily breakable barrels.  Also, if you're evil, radiation gives you hideous looking scars and makes you deformed or, if you're an animal, it'll make you large and increasing hostile.  If you're good, it'll give you superpowers!  If you're dead, it'll bring you back to life as a zombie.

Atomic power works just like electricity, except with much more kick.

Nuclear weapons temporarily transform their surroundings into the Nevada desert or a South Pacific atoll when they explode.

You can explode sunlight, and doing so will destroy the universe.

Rocket engines in space produce a lot of smoke. Even in deep space, the smoke rises relative to the rocket.

Rockets often look different immediately after launch. Tricks of the atmosphere make them look like either a Mercury Redstone, a Saturn 1B or a Saturn 5.

The human fetus goes through the entire process of evolution before it's born. Mercury will create a chimera (or a big, deformed bear).

Reanimating or prolonging the lives of people will make them evil and ultimately homicidal. The effect is virtually inevitable if you just save the head or brain.

The human heart is a single cell.

This is a good one - a 'classic' example of running with the popular understanding of a real scientific concept: "ontogeny recapitualtes phylogeny".  Those are the most fun!   :cheers:

Contrary to popular belief, you CAN outrun wind.
Corpses (zombies) only rot when convenient.

I like the ones where a real scientific principle has been screwed up almost beyond recognition. The single-celled heart from The Amazing Colossal Man, for example. I remember from high school biology that cardiac muscle does have a unique structure, with cells branching into each other, and the cells are organized to better squeeze in unison. The writers had facts, they just didn't understand the facts at all.