Fatal Flaws in Sci-Fi Films: which ones drive you mad? I'll start it off...

micdavis said:
How do they get from Hoth to Bespin with no lightspeed?

Solar systems are light years apart.

And they are still wearing the same clothes.
Click to expand...

BS answer time.. (assumes a George Lucas voice)
The Falcon's "sublight engines" were the ones Han was referring to when he said that she makes .5 past lightspeed. So the Falcon really is the fastest ship in the galaxy.. The trip to bespin takes six months and the washing machine on the falcon runs on the hyperdrive's engines so they HAD to wear the same clothes.. they just showered with them on.

Apparently Bespin was 3/4 lightyear away. For any other questions see subsection entitled "12parsecs".
 
In Armageddon, the shuttles dump their fuel tanks at the same time as they jettison the SRB boosters. Effectively they would have zero fuel to reach orbit.

I mean for that movie, that is nitpicking it is filled with so many crazy errors, but that one always bugged me.
 
In Road Warrior*, the interceptor has no intake air filtration. A roots style blower would last maybe a hundred hours in those dirty conditions(Based on how filthy the car is) The motor would be toast as well, but it would last longer than the blower.

*One of my faves.
 
With regard to Fantastic Voyage, I'm probably one of the few people here who bothered to read Isaac Asimov's novelization (back in the pre-dvd stone age it was the only way a geek in the 4th grade could re-experience the story of beloved movie following the end of its theatrical run. Come to think of it, that's how I learned to read).

Anyway, in the book, following the Proteus' destruction, agent Grant has the bright idea to lure the splinter-laden antibody out of Benes' body via the same tear-duct escape route employed by the micronauts themselves. When the Proteus' crew subsequently reverts to normal size on the miniaturizer platform they are surrounded by what's left of the crushed submarine.

Thing is, Sci-Fi films are generally strong on ideas and weak on verisimilitude -- and with good reason. Hell, even Kubrick took artistic license with parallax in 2001 so as to depict the Discovery moving against a static starfield when, in "reality," given the angle, no movement would be evident.

All part of the fun. I mean, who wants to see Escape From the Planet of the Apes if Cornelius and Zira are unable to fix Taylor's spaceship and fly it back in time moments before mutant humans blow up the Earth in the year 3995 (or whenever -- the dates are wildly inconsistant in that series)? As escapes go it's a patently absurd one, but the story still rocks.
 
CB2001 said:
Water is an incompressible medium. It can't be shrunk or compressed like oxygen can. It could very well be that the ship was shrunk twice, not the water that surrounded it.
Click to expand...

Hmmm..Water can be compressed...you just need a large amount of energy or gravity..( Inside a black hole)..
 
CB2001 said:
Water is an incompressible medium. It can't be shrunk or compressed like oxygen can. It could very well be that the ship was shrunk twice, not the water that surrounded it.
Click to expand...

What about the water inside their bodys... 70% water, their bodys would go POFF/SPLAT :lol
 
It's not compression anyway. If it was, you have all the compression/decompression stuff to deal with, or rather, you'd just be crushed to death.

It's a *shrinking ray* - or whatever, been ages since I last saw it - anyway, presumably it shrinks everything, down to the molecular and even subatomic levels.
 
The new Star Trek movie.

Where the hell was the Vulcan fleet? They would have taken out that drill. As one of the main and founding planets of the federation, it would have been crawling with Traffic and ships.

Also, Star Trek in general. Earth, the capital of the Federation, has virtually no space traffic, unless another ship being there serves the plot.

Star Wars... Jar Jar Binks.
 
It's not a film, but Space: 1999 really has to go into the dock here, since the whole concept is one gigantic fatal flaw.

At the development stage why didn't anyone say to Gerry and Silv, 'Uh, look, the moon is going to encounter precisely nothing at all for probably billions of years...' Instead, the scriptwriters were free to show the moon happily running into planet after planet week after week. Given the miracle that a planet may even be in its path, to reach it, the moon would have to be travelling faster than the speed of light (the moon's thrust is derived from one atomic explosion). But not only that, the moon then slows right down to go into orbit for episode-time then shoots off again when the resident life-forms tell the Alphans to bugger off.

The only person with any sense seems to have been Brian Johnson, who when asked about the show's science-fiction pedigree replied, 'There was never any science in an episode.'

There was an episode where the professor character alerts them to a 'black sun'. What they encounter is a black hole to all intents and purposes, but no one from script to shooting ever said, 'Uh, look I think that should be a black hole, you know. There's no such thing as a bloody black sun.'

(Wonderful visuals, though.)
 
Last edited:
ReaverReject said:
Ah, but you're wrong - just watch the movie... :D

RR
Click to expand...

In terms of the reality that the film presents. Thats how I meant.

contec said:
What about the water inside their bodys... 70% water, their bodys would go POFF/SPLAT :lol
Click to expand...

Like ReaverReject stated, it's just a movie. In fiction, any reality presented within it, no matter how similar it is to our reality, is not subjected to the same rules. If the reality presented in "Fantastic Voyage" calls for water to not be compressible, except for the water inside a human body, then that is the rule of the story's universe. I don't see someone arguing this with "Star Trek" or "Battlestar Galactica", or even arguing it with movies, including "The Book of Eli", where something so impossible with Eli (trying to avoid a spoiler with that for those who haven't seen it) was able to occur.
 
Tom Starkiller said:
The new Star Trek movie.

Where the hell was the Vulcan fleet? They would have taken out that drill.
Click to expand...

I want to know why they needed the drill. A same-size drop of red matter was able to stop a supernova. From the outer radius of the nebula, to boot, and did it instantly, i.e. faster than light.

What chance would a mere planet have, drill or no drill?

Also, seconded re the space traffic stuff. There's never any. Cf. Red Letter Media's review of ST: Generations.

Colin, seconding you on Space:1999. For some reason that one never bothered me as a kid. I guess I was too busy geeking out over the Eagles. :)

CB2001 - in case you hadn't noticed, he's gone, dude. It's odd to think that in an earlier thread I was being lectured on my personal morality by, well, enough said I guess. :confused :confused
 
Regarding sound in space, I consider it non-diagetic, meaning, the characters don't hear it, it's just for us. Like the music.
 
Pssssssst! "Reaver Reject" got the boot last night- he was Guy Raz again...

-Sarge
 
Why does he bother at this point? Every time enrollment hits, he gets found out and shot down. Oh well, moving right along...thank you Anonymous Member who figured it out!
 
Paradox said:
Thank you. That actually makes sense. I admit, I forgot about PD.
Click to expand...

No prob, believe me, the reason you gave is a perfect one for me. I can't wait to have kids. But I figure, ya know, her husband just tried to kill her, he presumably died at the hands of obiwan, she was birthing the children of a maniacal fiend who just murdered half the jedi and jedi younglings...she was probably pretty stressed, lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top