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32 Movies With a Preschool Understanding of Science

Hollywood has an understanding of science that can only be described as juvenile

32 Movies With a Preschool Understanding of Science

November 22, 2023 Add Cracked to Google

We all know that movies are never 100 percent accurate when it comes to portraying science, but sometimes they’re pretty close. Other times, though, the only thing they’re winning a Nobel Prize for is how badly they butcher the science at hand. Below are movies in which even a four-year-old has a better grasp on the science found therein…

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CRACKED.COM If you focus immense strength against a very small area of a large object... you wouldn't move it. You would pierce it. — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

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Lack of pressure can kill you as quickly as lack of oxygen. An oxygen mask is not sufficient equipment to explore an asteroid. CRACKED c COM — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

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32 Movies With a Preschool Understanding of Science — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

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Speed

32 Movies With a Preschool Understanding of Science — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

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Battlestar Galactica

You can't hide in a nebula, because they're very thin. Battlestar Galactica If you were in one, you'd just see black space around you. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

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In Pacific Rim, they destroy the bridge to Kaijus' lair by detonating the nuclear reactor that powers Gipsy Danger. In reality, a nuclear power reactor can never be detonated. In fact, it doesn't even use the same radioactive material as a nuclear bomb. Atomic bombs use radioactive materials that are enriched to 90% while the materials used in reactors are only enriched to 4-5 percent. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

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George Clooney's character in Gravity doesn't really need to die. In the movie, he sacrifices himself by cutting the cable SO that Sandra Bullock's character won't drift along. It's stupid considering he is not pulled by anything, not even gravity. When the cable stops him, a gentle pull by Sandra Bullock's character is all that was needed to bring him back. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

25

Sofas and tables only stop bullets in movies and TV shows. As seen in Psych and countless others. In real life, you'd have better luck hiding behind a full bookcase or large box of kitty litter. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

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If you could use most parts of your brain, instead of only 10%, you would... not acquire god-like mind capabilities like Lucy. You would stay the same, apparently, because we do use most parts of our brains. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

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Star Wars VI

Faster-than-light travel would not be streaks of light. STAR WARS RETURN DE THE FED According to physicists at Leicester University, space travelers would see a central disc of bright light. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

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The explosion is all wrong, too

In Star Wars (and basically any film taking place in space), destroying a spaceship forces it to stop. In reality, when a spacecraft's engine suddenly dies while in motion, it won't stop; in fact, it can't stop. The lack of friction in space will make the spacecraft move basically forever, well until it hits something, that is. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

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Angels and Demons

CRACKED.COM In Angels and Demons (2009), the bad guys attempt to use antimatter, stored in vials, to destroy the Vatican. While the effect of antimatter is accurately shown in the film, scientists said that the real-life production of the amount of antimatter used in the plot would take billions of years. — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

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60-mph winds can HELP IS ONLY 140 MILLION MILES AWAY do a lot of damage here on earth... MATT DAMON MARTIAN TI IN CINEMAS SEPTEMBER 30 But :on Mars, the atmosphere is only 1% as dense. Dust storms are a problem, for real Mars missions, but mostly because the dust covers up solar panels. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Annoying Ways Movies Keep Getting Science Wrong

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32 Movies With a Preschool Understanding of Science — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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In famous a scene from Oliver Stone's JFK, district attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) shows the Zapruder film to a jury and repeatedly points out that the assassinated President's head went back to and to the left - proving that the fatal shot must have come from somewhere in front of Kennedy's car. In reality, a a frame-by-frame analysis of the famous film shows that Kennedy's head moved forward slightly when he was hit, before snapping back. His head movement was inconsistent with being shot from somewhere in front, but perfectly consistent with a shot from Lee Harvey Oswald's sniper's nest. CRACKED.COM — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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In the opening scene of Armaggedon, the Chicxulub impact (the one that killed off the dinosaurs) is described as having hit with the force of 10,000 nuclear weapons. The real Chicxulub impact released an energy (on low estimates) of 100 million megatons of TNT, which is not 10,000 but 1,000,000 times stronger than the Tsar bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever designed. CRACKED.COM — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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In Dante's Peak, the protagonist, a volcanologist, drives over slightly cooled fresh lava. Fresh lava approaches 1, .700 degrees Fahrenheit which would almost immediately melt the tires as well as any aluminum parts on the car. It would also ignite the gas tank. Everyone in that truck would be dead in seconds. CRACKED.COM — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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Interstellar

This planet is screwed. Christopher Nolan's 2014 science fiction film Interstellar depicts several planets orbiting a supermassive black hole; one of which orbits so close that it experiences extreme gravitational time dilation (time passes much slower for people on this planet than it does for people on earth). In reality, if a planet existed that close to a black hole it would be bombarded with massive levels of radiation and obliterated by the black hole's immense gravitational forces. CRACKED.COM — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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Use 1111 Underneath an astronaut suit there's never Gravity style underwear, but a liquid cooling and ventilation garment, and underneath that a pair of adult diapers. CRACKED.COM — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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The entire premise of Deep Blue Sea is that since sharks don't get cancer. the scientists experimented on them for medical research, but to speed things along, they increased the sharks brain power....00 chaos and horror ensued. Sharks can get cancer. Scientists have known this CRACKED.COM for about 150 years. — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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It looks like the neutrinos coming from the sun have mutated into a new kind of nuclear particle They're heating up the earth's core and suddenly act like microwave Dr.Satnam Tsurutani. from the film 2012 Neutrinos don't work that way, simply because they have mass so tiny they just zip right through you. Physicists theorized that deaths of stars may produce high-energy level neutrinos.. but that could only cause cancer, which is not as exciting as earthquakes. And oh yeah, neutrinos don't mutate. just like other particles. CRACKED.COM — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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HOUSTON: CRACKED.COM TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEMS ARE DEAD COMMUNICATION SATELLITES ORBIT AT AN ALTITUDE OF 35.000 K.M. International SPACE STATION AND HUBBLE ARE IN LEO(Low EARTH ORBIT) AROUND 300-400 KM ALTITUDE, — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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In Starship Troopers, the bugs hurled an asteroid from orbit around KLENDATHU SYSTEM their planet, directly at the earth. YOU ARE HERE It's sridiculous enough that they hit their target. But there is no way for the asteroid to cover that distance unless it was moving many times the speed of light. Which it wasn't... The Rodger Young had to dodge it! CRACKED.COM — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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CRACKED.CO COM In The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the scientist and the hunter got into it. My point is that predators don't hunt when they're not hungry. No, only humans do. Oh, you're breaking my heart. Well. actually... ..elephants do...so do dolphins... dogs...ar cats... and that's just the mammals. And that's not including when animals fight for territory, kill to fight off attacks or defend their young, to show dominance, or when they kill for sexual Or attention reasons. — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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CRACKED.COM ORE THE In The Core, the Earth's core stops rotating, causing the planet's magnetic field to break down. Catastrophe ensues as Earth is assaulted by radiation from the Sun, causing pacemakers to fail, birds to fall from the sky, and the Golden Gate Bridge to collapse. Not only is it extremeley unlikely that the Earth's magnetic field would stop moving, but if it did, the incoming radiation from the sun would not be suffi- cient to collapse the Golden Gate Bridge or cause adverse health effects Additionally, the Earth's atmosphere. not its magnetic field, is responsible for shielding US — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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Not quite, The Rock

CRACKED.C .COM The Rock actually gets a lot ht about VX gas, including it's lack of taste or odor. However, real VX gas is not corrosive and would not cause skin lesions. In fact, it's possible to be exposed to VX gas and not even be immediately aware. — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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Waterworld

CRACKED COM In Waterworld, the polar ice caps have melted, leaving almost all land underwater. In reality, if this happened, the sea would rise Present day 216 ft (66m), shore a catastrophic scenario, but not all-world- encompassing. — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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In Fight Club, Tyler Durden burns the back of the Narrator's hand by dusting it with lye, a caustic chemical used in soap-making. To silence his whimpering, Tyler gives him a choice between running water on it which will make it worse, or vinegar, which will neutralize the burn. The Narrator chooses the vinegar, naturally and collapses in relief afterward. Guess he never read the Material SaFety Data Sheet For sodium hydroxide (lye) because the instructions For skin contact begin Immediately flush skin with plenty of water For at least 15 minutes. CRACKED.COM — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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In The Vanishing, chemistry teacher Jeff Bridges kidnaps Sandra Bullock, incapacitating her using the chloroform- soaked-cloth method. She passes out in ten seconds. Maybe I should've tried a lullaby instead? The problem is that it takes at least five minutes of constant inhalation from a continuously applied source of chloroform to produce unconciousness. OK, he's a chemistry teacher, not an anesthesiologist. CRACK — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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Back to the Future

In Back to the Future, the flyer Marty has says the lightning will fall at precisely, 10:0 PM. In a clock with no second hand, that's a whole minute. Traveling at 88mph (142km/h), that means a possible contact length of 1.46 miles (2360 m). If they can pinpoint it at 10:04:00 that second means a possible contact length of 129ft. (39m). Also, lightning is composed of a series of short discharges, so they can't know exactly when the wire will be charged, so a wire placed across the street wouldn't work; they would need a rail or a similar delivery — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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The movie 'San Andreas' depicits a 9.0 magnitude Earthquake and a Tsunami in San Francisco - neither of which are possible. Don't worry California, the worst that fault could do is a measly 8.3 Earthquake... CRACKED.COM — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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THE PREMISE: The sun is running out of Hydrogen, and has begun dimming. Because of the sun's reduced output of energy, light and heat, Earth is starting to enter a new ice age and will soon become uninhabitable. THE PROBLEM: The sun is not becoming cooler as it uses up its fuel supply. It is actually becoming hotter. The more the sun's core material is used up, the stronger the gravitational forces on the core become, and the rate at which fusion occurs increases. Over the past 4.5 billion years, the sun has become 30% brighter, and continues to increase — Source: 19 Science Facts Everybody Assumed Movies Got Right (They Didn't)

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