Location:Home » Caribbean » General AAS » Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics: Hollywood's Best Mistakes, Goofs and Flat-Out Destructions of the Basic Laws of the Universe
Product Description -Would the bus in Speed really have made that jump? -Could a Star Wars ship actually explode in space? -What really would have happened if you said "Honey, I shrunk the kids"?
The companion book to the hit website (www.intuitor.com/moviephysics), which boasts more than 1 million visitors per year, Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics is a hilarious guide to the biggest mistakes, most outrageous assumptions, and the outright lunacy at work in Hollywood films that play with the rules of science.
In this fascinating and funny guide, author Tom Rogers examines 20 different topics and shows how, when it comes to filmmaking, the rules of physics are flexible.
Einsteins and film buffs alike will be educated and entertained by this wise and witty guide to science in Hollywood.
Can you really blow up gasoline by flicking a cigarette into it? December 1, 2008 Can you really blow up gasoline by flicking a cigarette into it?
Yes it's lame but I've actually asked myself this exact question. And it turns out the answer is no because a cigarette is designed to smolder and not burn...qualities that are particularly poor in lighting gasoline.
But it also turns out that a lot of the "science" we see in even science fiction movies is contrary to what really would happen.
Here are some for instances...
Being shot by a gun WILL NOT hit you so hard you get thrown into a wall behind you.
Similarly getting kicked very hard WILL NOT throw you into a wall behind you.
A ship exploding near another ship in space would actually destroy the other ship too (making it more like Star Deaths than Star Wars).
Operating even repeating fire weapons will create truckloads of empty shells (so if Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to have an extended shoot out he'd need to be followed by his own ammo trucks).
In all, movie physics for its part is just as fantastical as, well, the rest of movies are about real life.
And that's fine with me. Or as Blanche put it in a Streetcar Named Desire: "I don't want realism I want romance."
But it's still nice to be able to look behind the curtain a smile. If I was inclined to smoke, it would also make me feel a little safer too...at least around gasoline puddles.
Impress Your Friends! Smash Hollywood Stupidity! September 4, 2008 Hollywood writers and director would just love for audiences to "turn their brains off" when they're watching their movies. It makes for much less work on their part if they don't have to research things like the second law of thermodynamics, or even whether a cigarette can really light gasoline (hint: it can't). This book is written for both, the common man who is curious about how things work, and the physics enthusiast. It smashes giant gaping holes through Hollywood's poorly researched attacks on the laws of physics and shows in detail the facts to back up their claims. This is a definate blow against those who thumb their noses saying "it's just a movie" as they contribute to the dumbing-down of audiences everywhere. Most importantly, you can impress your friends and family with your newfound wisdom (while hopefully not ruining their favorite movie!).
Vindication for those who don't suspend disbelief April 14, 2008 Unlike a previous reviewer, I watch movies with a very critical eye. It's not just mindless escapism for me. What may be an innocuous or even undetectable detail for one is something that will illicit vitrol from me. One movie that would have fit very well into this book, along with the others the author picks on--including "Speed", "Independence Day", and "Armageddon"--is "The Astronaut Farmer". My disbelief was immediately shattered on Billy Bob Thornton's first attempt to fly into space. An Atlas missile would not have taken off horizontally after falling from a vertical position. Thornton, his wife (Virginia Madsden), his farm, and everything within about a thousand feet would have been blown away, and the movie would've ended right there.
That being said, this is a fantastic book that vindicates those of us who note the details in film. If you really want to know whether or not the bus jump in "Speed" could've actually happened, this is the book for you.
The Author Needs to Get a Life April 4, 2008 1 out of 26 found this review helpful
What the author doesn't seem to understand, is that most people don't really care about the lack of physics in the movies. Most people go to movies to be entertained. What I find even most absurd is that he bashes movies like The Matrix, the Core and War of the Worlds. What Rogers doesn't seem to realize is that these movies are in the Science Fiction genre. Science fiction movies in general are inaccurate when it comes to science. Most people know this, but they just don't care. Movies are all about suspending disbelief. This books seems to prove that people who study physics have no imagination. What is Rogers going to write next, a book showing why the existence of Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny is against the laws of physics?
Highly Interesting for Geeks like me! March 15, 2008 5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book examines many things that happen in movies. So, you see a guy with an automatic weapon firing for 20 seconds straight. This book lets you know the firing rate, and capacity so that it would be empty in 1.5 seconds. Also, the weight of bullets, e.g. Matrix Revolutions, at that firing rate, wheelbarrels of bullets won't do it, you need truckfulls. Besides the physics - how fast an explosion goes, versus gravity pulling our hero down to water (they always jump away from an explosion), would give him 17 inches down toward water - oops, fried. Beside the fun physics, what I remember from high school and freshman college physics is in seperate boxes (e.g. Force = Mass x Acceleration) used to give details. You can skip these if they are too dry for you - but I love the backup info. What is great about this book is that the author does not just dismiss stuff - e.g. let's say Superman can fly (given), but if he swooped in to save Lois, coming to an immediate stop, all his kinetic energy would be converted to heat - about 6000 degrees. Or Spiderman, to zip around would need about 1/3 of his body weight to be web creating fluid. Lots of great stuff covered, Star Trek inertial dampers (without they'd be pancake crew), shields in all space movies, Matrix Revolution firing, bullets knocking someone off his feet (e.g. Lethal Weapon), how much explosive to blast the asteroid in Armageddon (oh, about 1000 of the largest nuclear bombs Russia ever built), the bus jump in Speed (how it could actually happen, versus how they filmed it), etc. Lots of great movies covered, without ruining them. Clearly this author loves movies as much as I do, and yet wants to educate readers on physics so you don't try to start a gasoline puddle fire with a cigarette (highly unlikely to work - read the book and see why!). The end of each chapter has a short list of PLUS and MINUS for movies in the category - e.g. [-][-] planets that explode in a few seconds, [0] terrestrial fireballs traveling great distances at hypersonic speeds (incorrect but forgivable), [+][+] fragmentation grenades detonating without large fireballs. So each of these plus and minus relate to movies in the prior chapter, and notice the author often 'forgives' some physics because it is good for the movie/story.
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