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- Emily Dinuzzo
- Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park is a classic sci-fi adventure movie from director Steven Spielberg. The entertaining franchise focuses on a team of genetic scientists working with de-extinct dinosaurs.
- The Day After Tomorrow. It’s hard to forget the frightening image of a frozen New York City shown in The Day After Tomorrow. It’s even harder to understand the science in the movie because of the many inaccuracies, oversimplification, and dramatic embellishments.
- Armageddon. Bruce Willis saves the Earth in Armageddon by landing on the surface of an asteroid set to collide with the planet. He detonates a hydrogen bomb at the center and splits the asteroid into two pieces, so they float by the planet.
- I Am Legend. The goal for Will Smith in I Am Legend is to develop a vaccine to cure people from a virus that essentially wiped out humankind. The virus mutates and becomes airborne.
The scientific community wants to see the world in a way that's at least marginally believable, without any huge infractions against the basic rules of physics, math, biology and chemistry. We can't undo all the factual wrongs in these movies, but we can explain just how preposterous they are in these 10 examples.
- Jessika Toothman
- “Jurassic Park”
- “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”
- “Outbreak”
- “Rampage”
- “Skyfall”
- “Journey to The Center of The Earth”
- “Contagion”
- “Prometheus”
Starring Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, and Laura Dern IMDB plot summary During a preview tour, a theme park suffers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok. Expert fact-check One of my favorite bloopers was “Jurassic Park” using “Lysine Contingency” for biocontainment. [Editor’s note: Lysine Contingency was an intro...
Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley IMDB plot summary When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it. Expert fact-check In the old “Star Trek” movies, it used to bother me a lot when a character was shot...
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, and Morgan Freeman IMDB plot summary Army doctors struggle to find a cure for a deadly virus spreading throughout a California town that was brought to America by an African monkey. Expert fact-check “Outbreak” was awful. How in the world did they get enough plasma from a single monkey to save thousands of peopl...
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman IMDB plot summary When three different animals become infected with a dangerous pathogen, a primatologist and a geneticist team up to stop them from destroying Chicago. Expert fact-check “Rampage” has fun with CRISPR gene-editing, but makes big, George-sized mistakes along the way. CRISPR could ...
Starring Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, and Naomie Harris IMDB plot summary Bond’s loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. Expert fact-check The villain in the James Bond movie “Skyfall” is an embittered former spy whose jaw...
Starring James Mason, Pat Boone, Arlene Dahl IMDB plot summary An Edinburgh professor and assorted colleagues follow an explorer’s trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the earth’s center. Expert fact-check I have yet to encounter anyone who has visited the center of the earth, sailed a subterranean sea in a mushroom boat, or safety floated at...
Starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, and Jude Law IMDB plot summary Health care professionals, government officials, and everyday people find themselves in the midst of a worldwide epidemic as the CDC works to find a cure. Expert Fact-check In many ways it gets the science right, but I was struck by the speed by which they created a new vaccine and s...
Starring Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, and Michael Fassbender IMDB plot summary Following clues to the origin of mankind, a team finds a structure on a distant moon, but they soon realize they are not alone. Expert fact-check I have to say the movie that really annoyed me was “Prometheus.” The cartographer gets lost immediately, and as soon a...
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- 222 VOTES. Die Another Day. What Happens In The Movie: A baddie from North Korea has his DNA replaced so he can masquerade as a British mogul.
- 299 VOTES. Gravity. What Happens In The Movie: George Clooney makes the ultimate sacrifice by cutting himself free of the tether to Sandra Bullock when he starts to drift away.
- 372 VOTES. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. What Happens In The Movie: Indiana Jones is stuck in a nuclear testing site.
- 195 VOTES. Waterworld. What Happens In The Movie: The polar ice caps melted, covering the entire world in water and making it one massive ocean.
- Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.
- You Can't Hear Sounds in Space. Let's face it: space fights in science fiction movies would be beyond boring if there wasn't any sound. Yet, that's the reality.
- Global Warming Can't Flood the Earth. While audible lasers and explosions may be forgivable because they make movies more entertaining, the notion that global warming could create a "Waterworld" is bothersome because so many people believe it.
- You Can't Save a Person Falling Off a Building. It's plausible you can catch a cat or a baby that falls from a second or third story building. The force with which either object strikes you equals its mass times the acceleration.
- You Can't Survive a Black Hole. Most people understand you weigh less on the Moon (about 1/6th) and Mars (about 1/3rd) and more on Jupiter (2 1/2 times more), yet you'll meet people who think a spaceship or a person could survive a black hole.
Feb 10, 2024 · By Lindsey Clouse. Updated Feb 10, 2024. The science in this movie is a mess, but it led to positive changes across Hollywood. The Big Picture. The Core is a poorly made sci-fi disaster...
Sep 19, 2012 · 1. Armageddon (1998) Director Michael Bay did consult with NASA on this action-packed end-of-the-world movie starring Bruce Willis. “So, all the spaceships are great. They film scenes inside...
