naightknifar
Served and Out
+642|6565|Southampton, UK

Top 10 Errors in Science Fiction Movies

Science Fiction movies are great for expanding the mind and showing us things we may never get to see in real life. Unfortunately though, they all seem to make the same fundamental errors regarding true science. This is a list of the top 10 errors in Science Fiction movies.

10. Simplicity

https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/574px-m87-jet-tm.jpg

This is less a crime of commission than one of omission. Space is full of wonders we cannot even begin to understand, yet most science fiction films are based in a very simplistic environment and do not even begin to investigate the wonderful possibilities that science fiction offers us. We don’t see interplanetary tunnels, aliens on planets around pulsars, creatures living on dead suns, alien life forms that inhabit the edges of supermassive black holes, or so many of the other thought provoking scenarios. Let’s spice up our science fiction movies!


9. Simplistic Planets

https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/133946-tatooine-l-tm.jpg

This is particularly evident in the Star Wars movies. Whenever a planet is introduced in a science fiction film, it has one equal ecological system across the entire planet - for example, it might be entirely covered in snow - or entirely covered in sand. If people are living on these planets, they must be providing water and other important things needed for survival. This, in turn, would suggest that the planet ought to have a well developed complex ecosystem which varies from region to region - for example ice at the poles and arid land at the center (this is just an example of course).



8. Alien / Human Breeding

https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/spock-1-tm.jpg

This is often seen in Star Trek - for example Spock - he was half human and half Vulcan. It is not even possible for human/ape crossbreeds to occur due to genetic differences, it is inconceivable that a human and an alien might be able to crossbreed. There are, of course, additional problems: how do you perform the cross breeding if the alien does not have sexual organs or the means to extract the necessary seeds of life?




7. Alien / Human communication

https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/dish-tm.jpg

If aliens did exist, it would be extremely unlikely that we could communicate with them in a very short amount of time. In addition to the regular problems in translating an entirely unknown language, we would also have to consider a society that probably involves concepts we do not understand at all. Imagine an alien race trying to understand God if they have never had a notion of religion in their society. Of course, none of this matters if the aliens communicate with their minds or non-audible means - it would be impossible for us to communicate at all with a race that has no concept of sight and sound.





6. Instant communication

https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/contact-large-15-tm.jpg

Even if we did use light particles/waves to transmit radio data, the vast distances in space would make instant radio communication impossible. A rare exception to this flaw is in the movie Contact; as the camera draws away from the earth we hear the radio emanations getting progressively older until you finally reach silence. This trick is very effectively used to show just how massive space is.



5. Humanoid Aliens

https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/aliennewstag7-tm.jpg

This is endemic on the various Star Trek series, where creatures from entirely different sectors of the Universe look just like Humans except for the occasional bulging ridge on their foreheads, etc. Humans evolved on earth in order to meet a very specific criteria for survival - the presumption that this is true of all other planets is ridiculous.





4. Explosions in Space

https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/explosion2004-tm.jpg

Unfortunately virtually every science fiction movie makes this error - in fact, in the vacuum of outer space, there can be no flames (as flames need oxygen) and, of course, no boom. An exception to this is the film 2001, in which Bowman re-enters the Discovery by blowing out an airlock.





3. Superluminal Travel

https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/1062881070-warp-speed-tm.jpg

According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, as an object approaches the speed of light, the energy required to propel it is immense - by the time you reach the speed of light, infinite energy is needed - this renders faster-than-light travel impossible for man.




2. Earth Gravity

https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/2001-so-panorama-03-tm.jpg

It doesn’t matter what film you watch, almost all of them has earth like gravity no matter where it is set. This is ridiculous, of course, unless you are on a planet, which matches earth in every way with regards to our level of gravity. One film, which does not fall for this error, is, again, 2001. The clever devices used in the film to show us how humans would live in a non-gravity environment really make this one of the best films in its genre.



1. Sound in Space

https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/space-image-tm.jpg

Sound requires air to travel - without air (as we find in the vacuum of space) there is no sound. Many films completely ignore this and give us ear-piercing sound effects during battles. The greatest exception to this error is, yet again, the movie 2001 - all outer space activity takes place in silence - with the occasional addition of the Blue Danube.









Taken from: http://listverse.com/movies/top-10-erro … n-movies/.
Just i put the effort in to let you all know in a fancy way
AussieReaper
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
+5,761|6157|what

I thought this was going to be erros like when Han Solo claimed that his Millennium Falcon "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs."

The parsec being actually a unit of distance, not time.

Unless of course he found a tear in the space time continuum, or entered a worm hole... lol

Can anyone else think of weird sci-fi movie mistakes like that?
https://i.imgur.com/maVpUMN.png
SEREVENT
MASSIVE G STAR
+605|6111|Birmingham, UK
Wow, SOME errors there, i saw the communication, we use could use light to communicate, and also radio waves and stuff, not languages like English or French, so aliens could interperet radio waves/light waves (light waves are what we think they will communicate to us with)
Also the breeding thing, some alien species may be similar to humans, its possible isn't it?
Humanoid aliens, once again, a planet extremely similar to Earth.
DonFck
Hibernator
+3,227|6636|Finland

TheAussieReaper wrote:

I thought this was going to be erros like when Han Solo claimed that his Millennium Falcon "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs."

The parsec being actually a unit of distance, not time.

Unless of course he found a tear in the space time continuum, or entered a worm hole... lol

Can anyone else think of weird sci-fi movie mistakes like that?
Star Wars contains a multitude of cock-ups caused by lack of logic in order to keep the storyline going. So my examples aren't those of sci-fi movies, but Lucas' films in general. Here are a few off the top of my head:

1. Logical closure point 15 minutes into Episode IV (I've discussed this with chuy, lol)

When C3PO and R2 escape in a pod onto Tattooine, they're being aimed at with a laser cannon. Then some guy says: "Hold your fire, there are no lifeforms on that vessel" or something along the lines of that.

What? There's a ration of how much laeza you can use? How about target practise? It's not like that guy gets to shoot a whole lot of laser in the vast emptiness of space, right? And shouldn't they know that there are such things as droids? He should have pulled the trigger, the plans to the Death Star would never have leaked to the rebellion, the end credits should have started rolling.

2. Com-link jammers

In Return of the Jedi, there's a chase in the woods with some kinds of scooters which are too f**ing long to navigate among the trees to begin with. So, Luke (the guy we never saw in any other movies than Ep. IV-VI, ever.) tells Leia (the girl with hairy headphones) to "Jam his com-link".

What the f**k? Every Endor forest scooter comes standard with an integrated com-link jammer? Or was Leia just happening to carry one with her? Hell, I never saw one. The Imperial trooper should have radioed the base, in comes mortar fire, the Empire wins, credits start rolling.


P.S: Knifer, good OP. 2001 is the most accurate sci-fi movie made. And I still don't get the ending. It does freak me out, though.
I need around tree fiddy.
naightknifar
Served and Out
+642|6565|Southampton, UK

DonFck wrote:

TheAussieReaper wrote:

I thought this was going to be erros like when Han Solo claimed that his Millennium Falcon "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs."

The parsec being actually a unit of distance, not time.

Unless of course he found a tear in the space time continuum, or entered a worm hole... lol

Can anyone else think of weird sci-fi movie mistakes like that?
Star Wars contains a multitude of cock-ups caused by lack of logic in order to keep the storyline going. So my examples aren't those of sci-fi movies, but Lucas' films in general. Here are a few off the top of my head:

1. Logical closure point 15 minutes into Episode IV (I've discussed this with chuy, lol)

When C3PO and R2 escape in a pod onto Tattooine, they're being aimed at with a laser cannon. Then some guy says: "Hold your fire, there are no lifeforms on that vessel" or something along the lines of that.

What? There's a ration of how much laeza you can use? How about target practise? It's not like that guy gets to shoot a whole lot of laser in the vast emptiness of space, right? And shouldn't they know that there are such things as droids? He should have pulled the trigger, the plans to the Death Star would never have leaked to the rebellion, the end credits should have started rolling.

2. Com-link jammers

In Return of the Jedi, there's a chase in the woods with some kinds of scooters which are too f**ing long to navigate among the trees to begin with. So, Luke (the guy we never saw in any other movies than Ep. IV-VI, ever.) tells Leia (the girl with hairy headphones) to "Jam his com-link".

What the f**k? Every Endor forest scooter comes standard with an integrated com-link jammer? Or was Leia just happening to carry one with her? Hell, I never saw one. The Imperial trooper should have radioed the base, in comes mortar fire, the Empire wins, credits start rolling.


P.S: Knifer, good OP. 2001 is the most accurate sci-fi movie made. And I still don't get the ending. It does freak me out, though.
Thankyou.

The movie 'contact' (point 6) is also one of my favourites. Very impressive movie.
Trotskygrad
бля
+354|6003|Vortex Ring State
Don't forget the infamous "Cinema OS"

1. The Hero Can Immediately Use Any UI
Break into a company -- possibly in a foreign country or on an alien planet -- and step up to the computer. How long does it take you to figure out the UI and use the new applications for the first time? Less than a minute if you're a movie star.

The fact that all user interfaces are walk-up-and-use is probably the single most unrealistic aspect of how movies depict computers. In reality, we know all too well that even the smartest users have plenty of problems using even the best designs, let alone the degraded usability typically found in in-house MIS systems or industrial control rooms.
2. Time Travelers Can Use Current Designs
An even worse flaw is the assumption that time travelers from the past could use today's computer systems. In fact, they'd have no conception of any of modern technology's basic concepts, and so would be dramatically more stumped than the novice users we observe in user testing. Even someone who's never used Excel at least understands the general idea of computers and screens.

You might think that people coming from the future would have an easier time using our current systems, given their supposedly superior knowledge. Not true. Like our travelers from the past, they'd lack the conceptual model needed to make sense of the display options. For example, someone who's never seen a command line or typed a command would have a much harder time using DOS than someone who grew up in the DOS era.

If you were transported back in time to the Napoleonic wars and made captain of a British frigate, you'd have no clue how to sail the ship: You couldn't use a sextant and you wouldn't know the names of the different sails, so you couldn't order the sailors to rig the masts appropriately. However, even our sailing case would be easier than someone from the year 2207 having to operate a current computer: sailing ships are still around, and you likely know some of the basic concepts from watching pirate movies. In contrast, it's highly unlikely that anyone from 2207 would have ever seen Windows Vista screens.
3. The 3D UI
In Minority Report, the characters operate a complex information space by gesturing wildly in the space in front of their screens. As Tog found when filming Starfire, it's very tiring to keep your arms in the air while using a computer. Gestures do have their place, but not as the primary user interface for office systems.

Many user interfaces designed for the movies feature gestural input and 3D data visualizations. Immersive environments and fly-through navigation look good, and allow for more dramatic interaction than clicking on a linear list of 10 items. But, despite being a staple of computer conference demos for decades, 3D almost never makes it into shipping products. The reason? 2D works better than 3D for the vast majority of practical things that users want to do.

3D is for demos. 2D is for work.
4. Integration is Easy, Data Interoperates
In movieland, users have no trouble connecting different computer systems. Macintosh users live in a world of PCs without ever noticing it (and there were disproportionally more Macs than PCs in films a decade ago, when Apple had the bigger product-placement budget).

In the show 24, Jack Bauer calls his office to get plans and schematics for various buildings. Once these files have been transferred from outside sources to the agency's mainframe, Jack asks to have them downloaded to his PDA. And -- miracle of miracles -- the files are readable without any workarounds. (And download is far faster than is currently possible on the U.S.'s miserable mobile networks.)

(See also sidebar about excessive interoperability in Independence Day.)
5. Access Denied / Access Granted
Countless scenes involve unauthorized access to some system. Invariably, several passwords are tried, resulting in a giant "Access Denied" dialog box. Finally, a few seconds before disaster strikes, the hero enters the correct password and is greeted by an equally huge "Access Granted" dialog box.

A better user interface would proceed directly to the application's home screen as soon as the user has correctly logged in. After all, you design for authorized users. There's no reason to delay them with a special confirmation that yes, they did indeed enter their own passwords correctly.
6. Big Fonts
In addition to the immense font used for "Access Denied" messages, most computer screens in the movies feature big, easily readable text. In real life, users often suffer under tiny text and websites that add insult to injury by not letting users resize the words.

Large text is an obvious concession to the viewing experience: moviegoers must be able to see what's on the screen. Still, enlarging the information that much makes for an unrealistic UI.
7. Star Trek's Talking Computer
The voice-operated computer in Star Trek is an even more egregious example of designing an audience interface rather than a user interface. Spoken commands and spoken responses make it easy for the audience to follow the action, but it's a very inefficient way of controlling a complex system.

In predictions about computing's future, voice interaction is a perennial favorite -- it probably even beats 3D, which is the other top contender for most over-hyped UI technology. While voice has its place, it's even less suitable than 3D for most everyday interactions because it's a less data-rich channel and it's harder to specify something in words than to choose it on a graphical display.
8. Remote Manipulators (Waldo Controls)
In Tomorrow Never Dies, James Bond drives his BMW from the back seat with an Ericsson mobile phone that works as the car's remote control. And 007 drives fast, while also evading bad guys.

In practice, there's a reason we use steering wheels to drive cars instead of joysticks, touchpads, or push-buttons. The steering wheel is an excellent input device for fast and accurate specification of directionality.

Many other films feature other types of remote control, which always work with high speed and accuracy despite input devices that are suboptimal for the task. Designing good input devices is a tricky human factors problem, and you can't substitute devices willy-nilly and retain the same performance. A foot pedal, for example, is not as good as a mouse for text editing, because you can't move your legs as accurately as your hands and fingers.
9. You've Got Mail is Always Good News
In the movies, checking your mail is a matter of picking out the one or two messages that are important to the plot. No information pollution or swamp of spam. No ever-changing client requests in the face of impending deadlines. And you never overlook information because a message's subject line violated the email usability guidelines.
10. "This is Unix, It's Easy"
In the film Jurassic Park, a 12-year-old girl has to use the park's security system to keep everyone from being eaten by dinosaurs. She walks up to the control terminal and utters the immortal words, "This is a Unix system. I know this." And proceeds to (temporarily) save the day.

Leaving aside the plausibility of a 12-year-old knowing Unix, simply knowing Unix is not enough to immediately use any application running on the system. Yes, she could probably have used vi on the security terminal. But the specialized security system would have required some learning time -- significant learning time if it were built on Unix, which has notoriously inconsistent user interface design and thus makes it harder to transfer skills from one application to the next.
Do the Usability Bloopers Matter?
Does it matter that most films offer such an unrealistic depiction of usability? Mainly, no. A movie's purpose is entertainment, not task performance. So, go ahead and employ user interfaces and interaction techniques that are entertaining and would never work in the real world.

Films are littered with so many other unrealistic plot details: you'd imagine, for example, that the ability to shoot straight might actually be a primary job requirement of Imperial Stormtroopers.

In the film context, unrealistic usability is only to be expected. Still, I see two real problems with it:

    * Research funding and management expectations are subtly biased by the incessant emphasis on unrealistic UI design such as voice, 3D, avatars, and AI. When you see something work as part of a coherent and exciting story, you start wanting it. You even start believing in it. After all, we've seen 3D and voice so often that we've developed an implicit belief in their usefulness.
    * Users blame themselves when they can't use technology. This phenomenon is bad enough already; it's made worse by the prevalence of scenes in which people walk up to random computers and start using them immediately. We need people to start demanding easier design and blaming the technology when it's too hard to use. Movies make this change in attitudes more difficult.
[pt] KEIOS
srs bsns
+231|6657|pimelteror.de
to add one more thing, i was annoyed, when i first saw episode IV:

why did they waste pilot after pilot in the trench of the death star? do they have to fly into this trench a dozen kilometers away, so darth could pick them out? why didn´t they enter it in weapons range? and when there are three fighters attacking, why don´t they pull out one or two, when darth and his wingmen came up to their six? one looping - three exploding tie fighters... only han solo seems to know what to do, because he attacked them from above and saved lukes ass.
Mekstizzle
WALKER
+3,611|6625|London, England
Yeah the sound thing pisses me off. There is no feckin sound. What else, oh yeah. I don't really watch Sci Fi movies anyway. I was trying to watch Star Wars but fuck me that's the most boring peice of shit ever. Forget about Star Trek. It's just absurd. The closest to Sci Fi i've ever been is Half Life and Futurama. I dunno, it never really appealed to me. In games it's ok. As it doesn't matter, but the typical Sci Fi films and shows like that Battlestar/Enterprise/Stargate shit I hate that.

They need to make some realistic/gritty Sci-Fi's, I suppose Starship Troopers was ok. Half Life 2 had a nice thing going. Independance Day and War of the Worlds and stuff like that is good.
Fenris_GreyClaw
Real Хорошо
+826|6523|Adelaide, South Australia

Anyone seen Dracula 3000?
DrunkenPirate
Rum Baron
+44|6697|Norfolk, England

2001 a Space Odyssey is an absolute Epic.
bennisboy
Member
+829|6650|Poundland
science-fiction
Mitch92uK
aka [DBS]Mitch92uK
+192|6239|United Kingdom

bennisboy wrote:

science-fiction
Doctor Strangelove
Real Battlefield Veterinarian.
+1,758|6472

bennisboy wrote:

science-fiction
Well Star Wars is more of Fantasy if you ask me.

And Stanly Kubric is FTW (see username)

Last edited by doctastrangelove1964 (2007-11-25 07:30:52)

Locoloki
I got Mug 222 at Gritty's!!!!
+216|6644|Your moms bedroom
I strongly disagree with your point on number 5
You think an alien without opposable thumbs would be able to build a space ship, and the electronics and computers needed to run it?
Do you think the Predators hands are small enough and dexterious enough to even type on a keyboard? I would be willing to believe that perhaps and there could be non-intelligent aliens yes, like our mammals/reptiles here on earth. If there are aliens out there they probably look just like us, yet not as technically advanced, because they would have found us first with the same intentions that we have of finding them
gene_pool
Banned
+519|6625|Gold coast, Aus.
lol sci fi.
williedyna
Member
+7|6649
I don't like the way many films go to great, and frequently over complicated, lengths to explain things.  I'm a Zombie film lover ( I know "that's a horror film" .. not necessarily)  And  rather than just saying it's happened .. and leaving it unexplained..   Some queer scientist know it all will, in about 10min, figure out the genetic link/ mutation catalyst for the epidemic.  These explanations are usually what bother me about a film.. 

oh here is a Star wars one..  Metachlorians (sp) 

it used to be "The Force"  it's in the tree , it's in the rock .. it's what binds us together...  (A perfect explanation to my way of thinking)
Then Lucas can't leave well enough alone and has to explain the whole thing..  oh there are these tiny creatures who live in every cell who tell you what to do ... So now Luke is getting advice from the cells of his anus while fighting Vader..   

that's the #1 problem with sci-fi
r2zoo
Knowledge is power, guard it well
+126|6600|Michigan, USA
Biggest problem in my opinion is people over thinking movies, just sit there and enjoy the damn thing.  No one said it was 100% accurate, or ties to acheive that, they're there to entertain, and will bend the laws of physics, and whatever else to acheive it.  If a movie was 100% accurate it would be terribly boring, not to mention over quickly.

Look at the 007 movies, nearly everyone Bond is captured and could be easily killed, always to be left alone to his own devices...cruddy villans.
Zukabazuka
Member
+23|6689

Mekstizzle wrote:

They need to make some realistic/gritty Sci-Fi's, I suppose Starship Troopers was ok. Half Life 2 had a nice thing going. Independance Day and War of the Worlds and stuff like that is good.
Independance day, they take down enemy shield with a MAC virus, MAC virus only work on MAC. Yeah realistic.
War of the worlds, They invade a planet that they have planned for a long time and in the end they die by our diseases.
In starshiptroopers the Aliens are capable of launching a HUGE FUCKING ROCK enough to wipe a entire city on earth and it travels through space to, Where is the bug that launch that rock anyway? None of these movies had any kind of realistic thing in them.
Well Half life 2 is also stray away from realistic part.

Sometimes it just bugs me that people are able to solve some problem so friking easy. But then I don't really care about if there are no sounds in space or that shit, it would be so boring watching a scene where no sound was on.
Ryan
Member
+1,230|6847|Alberta, Canada

For #2, they use artificial gravity. They spin the spaceship at a certain rate to obtain gravity like that on Earth.
SamTheMan :D
Banned
+106|6003|UK

Ryan wrote:

For #2, they use artificial gravity. They spin the spaceship at a certain rate to obtain gravity like that on Earth.
It's talking about the gravity on other planets.
naightknifar
Served and Out
+642|6565|Southampton, UK

Ryan wrote:

For #2, they use artificial gravity. They spin the spaceship at a certain rate to obtain gravity like that on Earth.
Read again.
Ryan
Member
+1,230|6847|Alberta, Canada

Oh, lol.
Flaming_Maniac
prince of insufficient light
+2,490|6711|67.222.138.85
There would be some degree of an explosion in space, when all the oxygen in the space ship burns up. I'm sure there is quite a bit of air in the death star that would make a nice boom.
AussieReaper
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
+5,761|6157|what

Combine then the other factor in space other than it being a vacuum, it's also in most cases zero gravity.

If I fire breaks out in a spaceship, which has it's artificial gravity generators knocked out, how does the fire burn?

Flames on Earth always reach for the sky due to gravity.
https://i.imgur.com/maVpUMN.png
Zukabazuka
Member
+23|6689

TheAussieReaper wrote:

Combine then the other factor in space other than it being a vacuum, it's also in most cases zero gravity.

If I fire breaks out in a spaceship, which has it's artificial gravity generators knocked out, how does the fire burn?

Flames on Earth always reach for the sky due to gravity.
Well fire will go for oxygen but damn, never though of that problem.

Board footer

Privacy Policy - © 2024 Jeff Minard