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Insultingly stupid movie physics – The Core (2003)

19 points by swatkat 6y ago

aniijbod 6y ago
I tell everyone that The Core is the science community's most derided movie, and yet it is in fact an excellent science movie for an important reason, which is simply that it puts science and scientists on a world-saving pedestal. The fact that just about everything that is in the film is in fact unscientific doesn't detract for a moment for the deep implicit respect for the value of science to humanity that the film promotes. This script would likely never have been given the kind of budget it got when it was made and so we need to count ourselves lucky that something so entertaining also offers so much to those looking for a scientific stick with which to beat the Hollywood studio system.
- GrumpyYoungMan 6y ago
  Apollo 13 was a much better movie to point to with regards to STEM types saving the day, despite the artistic license it takes.
nyx_ 6y ago
Also has DJ Qualls as Rat, one of the dumbest computer hacker stereotypes to ever be committed to film. After the FBI knocks to raid his apartment, he rushes into his computer room and starts microwaving CDs and shoving floppies down the garbage disposal... then once they have him, they tell him they need him to control the information on the entire Internet. He says yes, but only on the condition that he's given "an unlimited supply of Xena tapes and Hot Pockets." Quality stuff.
dylan604 6y ago
It's funny to me how a sci-fi movie gets chided for being so fake, but people are so willing to oblige fantasy movies like LoTR/HarryPotter/Superman/Avengers/etc with a suspension of disbelief. And no, I'm not white knighting this waste of celluloid.
- cwillu 6y ago
  It's almost like there's a difference between the genre of science-fiction, and that of fantasy.
  - ironmagma 6y ago
    Is there, though?
credit_guy 6y ago
Can I confess that after about 20 minutes of Interstellar, I stood up and left the movie theater? I was initially annoyed by the fact the movie makers ignored the tyranny of the rocket equation: a reasonably normal looking rocket took our heroes to some faraway planets. Guys, you need an absolutely huge rocket to just go to Mars. We'll never make it out of the Solar system with chemical rockets only. But somehow, in a world with rusty trucks you get a rocket to take you to some planet that obviously is not one of the seven planets in our neighborhood. Now, you can suspend your disbelief, and accept that in this movie-universe the humankind was more advanced. But then they reach the ocean planet, and instead of getting whatever information they came for via radio transmission, they need to land to pick up a robot. And they couldn't just retrieve a memory stick from the robot, they needed to take the whole thing with them. That's how much I saw from the movie before I decided enough is enough.
- brtkdotse 6y ago
  I read this in my head with Comic Book Guy's voice and it made my day. It's funny how once you get hung up on a minor detail it spoils the entire experience. I had a friend who refused to play Jedi Knight II because the light saber physics didn't work like they did in the movies. Each to his own I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  - thicknavyrain 6y ago
    I think there was actually a cheat code in Jedi Knight II that _did_ enable movie style lightsaber dynamics.
- mcv 6y ago
  I loved the rocket they used to take off from Earth. I was also fine with them landing on other planets. Where this broke, is that after they reached those other planets, all of a sudden they didn't need a rocket for take-off anymore. Just pretend you're the Millennium Falcon and take-off without needing much fuel. As if by going through the wormhole, they entered a universe where physics worked differently. I'm totally on board with movie physics, but it's the inconsistency of the physics that's jarring. Especially if they then claim it's the most realistic hard-SF space movie ever. It started out that way and then abandoned it halfway through. Still loved the movie, but the physics wasn't very consistent.
Camillo 6y ago
Here is the oxygen grill video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sab2Ltm1WcM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sab2Ltm1WcM
ahartmetz 6y ago
Uhm, I'm a physicist by education and I like The Core. I see it as action-comedy that is played with a straight face. Of course it's all nonsense! It's not insulting if you never think you were supposed to take it seriously. The "unobtainium", the talk about money and timeline to build the ship (to anyone who has done anything remotely similar) and the uber cliche (and very funny) hacker type should be obvious clues.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

19 points by swatkat 6y ago

I tell everyone that The Core is the science community's most derided movie, and yet it is in fact an excellent science movie for an important reason, which is simply that it puts science and scientists on a world-saving pedestal. The fact that just about everything that is in the film is in fact unscientific doesn't detract for a moment for the deep implicit respect for the value of science to humanity that the film promotes. This script would likely never have been given the kind of budget it got when it was made and so we need to count ourselves lucky that something so entertaining also offers so much to those looking for a scientific stick with which to beat the Hollywood studio system.

GrumpyYoungMan 6y ago
Apollo 13 was a much better movie to point to with regards to STEM types saving the day, despite the artistic license it takes.

nyx_ 6y ago

Also has DJ Qualls as Rat, one of the dumbest computer hacker stereotypes to ever be committed to film. After the FBI knocks to raid his apartment, he rushes into his computer room and starts microwaving CDs and shoving floppies down the garbage disposal... then once they have him, they tell him they need him to control the information on the entire Internet. He says yes, but only on the condition that he's given "an unlimited supply of Xena tapes and Hot Pockets." Quality stuff.

dylan604 6y ago

It's funny to me how a sci-fi movie gets chided for being so fake, but people are so willing to oblige fantasy movies like LoTR/HarryPotter/Superman/Avengers/etc with a suspension of disbelief. And no, I'm not white knighting this waste of celluloid.

cwillu 6y ago
It's almost like there's a difference between the genre of science-fiction, and that of fantasy.
- ironmagma 6y ago
  Is there, though?

credit_guy 6y ago

Can I confess that after about 20 minutes of Interstellar, I stood up and left the movie theater? I was initially annoyed by the fact the movie makers ignored the tyranny of the rocket equation: a reasonably normal looking rocket took our heroes to some faraway planets. Guys, you need an absolutely huge rocket to just go to Mars. We'll never make it out of the Solar system with chemical rockets only. But somehow, in a world with rusty trucks you get a rocket to take you to some planet that obviously is not one of the seven planets in our neighborhood. Now, you can suspend your disbelief, and accept that in this movie-universe the humankind was more advanced. But then they reach the ocean planet, and instead of getting whatever information they came for via radio transmission, they need to land to pick up a robot. And they couldn't just retrieve a memory stick from the robot, they needed to take the whole thing with them. That's how much I saw from the movie before I decided enough is enough.

brtkdotse 6y ago
I read this in my head with Comic Book Guy's voice and it made my day. It's funny how once you get hung up on a minor detail it spoils the entire experience. I had a friend who refused to play Jedi Knight II because the light saber physics didn't work like they did in the movies. Each to his own I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- thicknavyrain 6y ago
  I think there was actually a cheat code in Jedi Knight II that _did_ enable movie style lightsaber dynamics.
mcv 6y ago
I loved the rocket they used to take off from Earth. I was also fine with them landing on other planets. Where this broke, is that after they reached those other planets, all of a sudden they didn't need a rocket for take-off anymore. Just pretend you're the Millennium Falcon and take-off without needing much fuel. As if by going through the wormhole, they entered a universe where physics worked differently. I'm totally on board with movie physics, but it's the inconsistency of the physics that's jarring. Especially if they then claim it's the most realistic hard-SF space movie ever. It started out that way and then abandoned it halfway through. Still loved the movie, but the physics wasn't very consistent.

Camillo 6y ago

Here is the oxygen grill video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sab2Ltm1WcM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sab2Ltm1WcM

ahartmetz 6y ago

Uhm, I'm a physicist by education and I like The Core. I see it as action-comedy that is played with a straight face. Of course it's all nonsense! It's not insulting if you never think you were supposed to take it seriously. The "unobtainium", the talk about money and timeline to build the ship (to anyone who has done anything remotely similar) and the uber cliche (and very funny) hacker type should be obvious clues.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]