"NTD" The Massive Movie Holes Thread!

[Quorthon]

Wait wait wait... there are lots of movies with holes and problems and mistakes, not just SF films! you say!

Well I must defend this topic in this forum: I think we might generally agree that no genre is more open to speculation, ridiculous theory, and blatant mistakes than the wonderful world of Science Fiction--the world that all too often, totally ignores Science Fact and ends up looking ridiculous.

Here are my movie holes to note (to get this ball a-rollin'):

Back to the Future Part III ---> Plot device: No gas for DeLorian, uh-oh! Won't be a gas station around for 30 years! Problem? Gasoline existed in the 1800's and even before. Turns out that when you refine oil into kerosine you get this once useless by-product: Gasoline. They had Kerosine back then, now, didn't they? And oil for longer--oil lamps anyone? So how is it that a scientist can invent the greatest invention of all time--a time machine--but he can't refine simple oil into usable gasoline?

Planet of the Apes---> The original film here, folks. Not a Walburg in sight. Problem? Simply put, in the final scene, the sun is seen setting in the EAST. (Discovered this one in a Playboy article)

Jurassic Park---->There was never an animal like the Dilophosaurus--the "spitter." You'd think renown paleontologist Alan Grant would've known better.

Total Recall---> I never knew that Mars, a planet roughly 2/3 the size of Earth had the exact same gravity! Did you?


What other bloopers has anyone else here found? Spacer, I would imagine, has found more than a few...

[spacer]

Actually ;D:
Mars is 0.532 times the diameter of Earth:
So it's much closer to 1/2.
Talking about Mars gravity:
It has about 1/3 gravity of Earth.

LOOK HERE

Many Bloopers indeed ;D

Let's take Star Wars first:
Lucas was even asked about one Science Blooper, which is to be fair quite common in sci-fi flicks, that is about the loud explosions in the airless space. At first he answered what's wrong with it?
When the reporter explained to him that explosions in vacuum where space ships are hit cannot be heard because of lack of any medium to transmit the bang
like the air here on Earth Lucas after a long pause and with an unpleasant grin on his face answered : "This is my world"

[Quorthon]

Hey, at least I knew enough to know Mars is smaller than earth--I just didn't remember if it was half or 2/3--you caught my own error!

[spacer]

I just couldn't resist it. ;D

Going back to main topic here:
Armageddon is a very fine example of a really bad bad science. It is basically one big blooper from the beginning to the end. Still' I enjoyed the flick.
I'll just say one which is really more than one:
Armageddon Scientists ?? say that the asteroid is the size of Texas then say that we couldn't detect it cause we haven't got big scopes enough and because of that it was detected only 18/19 day before impact. ;D
First off, there are no asteroids in the solar system that big. We'd have discovered them ages ago ;D Ceres, the largest asteroid in the main asteroid belt, is about 900 kilometers across, and Texas is about 1400 kilometers across.
The asteroid is completely missed by everyone on Earth until it is only 18 days away. How on Earth
The movie says it is moving at 22,000 miles per hour and I repeat is 18 days away. That puts it about 40 times the Moon's distance. At that distance it is 30 times closer than Ceres. Ceres itself is just barely too faint to be seen by the naked eye, but if it were 30 times closer, it would be 900 times brighter, no actually, it would be even brighter than that. Since it would be closer to the Sun, it would receive more light from the Sun, making it about four or so times brighter, plus the 900 times, making it about 3000-4000 times brighter than Ceres. And I am talking about CERES, now add extra Texan size and whoops it would be one of the brightest objects in the sky. Even if we were to assume it was farther away, like 60 days from impact, it would be ten times brighter than Ceres, and an easy naked eye object to spot. Anyone familiar with the sky would spot that easily.
Unfortunately, they said in the movie that only 15 telescopes in the world could spot the asteroid. ;D
But billions of unaided eyes could have seen it as well. Well to say the truth even cavemen would notice it easily ;D

[Quorthon]

Damn you're smart... I'm going to have to come up with some much harder questions for you in that thread in Off the Chest...

Anyway, here's another SF plothole I remembered:

AVP--that stinker of stinkers--> Ancient pyramid discovered in the Antarctic had writings and markings from three ancient "builders:" The Egyptians, Cambodians (as I recall), and the Aztec.

The Aztec, the movie claimed, built the massive pyramids and quantity of pyramids in Central America/Mexico. In reality, the Aztec were pyramid users, not builders. Those pyramids in Central America were built by the ancient Maya!

[spacer]

quorthon said:

Damn you're smart... I'm going to have to come up with some much harder questions for you in that thread in Off the Chest...

Anyway, here's another SF plothole I remembered:

AVP--that stinker of stinkers--> Ancient pyramid discovered in the Antarctic had writings and markings from three ancient "builders:" The Egyptians, Cambodians (as I recall), and the Aztec.

The Aztec, the movie claimed, built the massive pyramids and quantity of pyramids in Central America/Mexico. In reality, the Aztec were pyramid users, not builders. Those pyramids in Central America were built by the ancient Maya!

Don't exaggerate I'm not that smart as you think cause I haven't answered your one question.

AvP has so many blunders but hmmm...
but what you found is not a blooper at all

Both Maya and Aztec were pyramid builders and users ;D

In the pyramids that the Aztecs built, the early Aztecs used a style very similar to that of earlier Mesoamerican people of the Classic and Post Classic periods, including the Maya. There were some differences though.

There were also round pyramids constructed by the Aztecs. These were dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl. He was the god of wind and these pyramids were given a rounded shape so they would not act as a barrier and hinder the wind god's entrance. These types can be found in the Toluca Valley and in Caliztlahuaca

Quotes from :
www.courses.psu.edu/anth/anth008_cmg149/aztec.html

[spacer]

Independence Day is a good example of classy bad science undermining the logic of the whole plot from the beginning to the end.
Having so massive and large ships aliens really needn't have any weapon to defeat Mankind. Why? You tell me ;D
50% of answer is in question ;D

[Bartwald]

A lovely thread! Now you scientists keep talking here and I'll be glad to just listen...

[Quorthon]

spacer said:

quorthon said:

Damn you're smart... I'm going to have to come up with some much harder questions for you in that thread in Off the Chest...

Anyway, here's another SF plothole I remembered:

AVP--that stinker of stinkers--> Ancient pyramid discovered in the Antarctic had writings and markings from three ancient "builders:" The Egyptians, Cambodians (as I recall), and the Aztec.

The Aztec, the movie claimed, built the massive pyramids and quantity of pyramids in Central America/Mexico. In reality, the Aztec were pyramid users, not builders. Those pyramids in Central America were built by the ancient Maya!

Don't exaggerate I'm not that smart as you think cause I haven't answered your one question.

AvP has so many blunders but hmmm...
but what you found is not a blooper at all

Both Maya and Aztec were pyramid builders and users ;D

There were also round pyramids constructed by the Aztecs. These were dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl. He was the god of wind and these pyramids were given a rounded shape so they would not act as a barrier and hinder the wind god's entrance. These types can be found in the Toluca Valley and in Caliztlahuaca

Quotes from :
www.courses.psu.edu/anth/anth008_cmg149/aztec.html

Okay, okay, the Aztec's built some--however, the Maya were the real innovators, and worldwide, no one built more pyramids than they did--not even Egypt comes close. It's safe to say that the Aztec learned from Mayan techniques when they moved into the by-then abandoned Mayan cities.

[Quorthon]

spacer said:

Independence Day is a good example of classy bad science undermining the logic of the whole plot from the beginning to the end.
Having so massive and large ships aliens really needn't have any weapon to defeat Mankind. Why? You tell me ;D
50% of answer is in question ;D

Because they can just land their giant ship on our cities? Huh? Like a giant cosmic elliptical footprint going around stamping out cities like a kid on anthills? Ha ha, that would've made the movie hilarious. Besides, if they wanted our natural resources so bad, why'd they go around setting fire to everything??

[spacer]

quorthon said:

Because they can just land their giant ship on our cities? Huh? Like a giant cosmic elliptical footprint going around stamping out cities like a kid on anthills? Ha ha, that would've made the movie hilarious. Besides, if they wanted our natural resources so bad, why'd they go around setting fire to everything??

A hilarious idea indeed. You're the ideal material for a good script writer or at least gag creator

But... Hmm... I didn't think about such spectacular actions. Well indeed in this case they would use hulls of their ships as weapons

There's much cleaner way ;D
To destroy hugely the Earth surface or at least make it so turbulent as to kick back humankind (survivors) into cavemen again they really needn't even enter the Earth atmosphere. Just to position their ships..................... and wait (Massive Hint Remember huge mass is the key thing). You're smart you'll know ;D

[Quorthon]

I see, use their ships to have so much mass that they act as another moon and cause the oceans to rip up from the seafloor and flood all the land killing all humans!

(I really can't figure where you're going... see there! I think freely... and bizarrely!!)

[spacer]

You are smart after all
Yes, indeed placing only such massive ships on Earth parking orbit even if they were build from the lightest possible materials would cause immense disturbances. Floods as you say but also hurricanes, high activity of volcanoes. But if they did entered the Earth atmosphere their flight over the city would be immensely disastrous. So indeed they would crash the cities as you said but they really didn't need to land ;D
The force needed to keep such a mammoth ships flying would be so great that the drive (it's not important what kind of drive they use, it may be even anti-gravity engine or any other fancy one ) would create a crushing power flattening any city beneath. Of course gravity disturbances won't disappear too ;D
In the flick there was plenty of these ships so it would be a quick 'extinction action'

[Pulpmariachi]

Jurassic Park---->There was never an animal like the Dilophosaurus--the "spitter." You'd think renown paleontologist Alan Grant would've known better.

There was a dilophosaurus, but it probably wasn't a spitter. Crighton added that one to make the scene more intense.

But another Jurassic Park one: The Velociraptors weren't really velociraptors. That's right. They were UTAHRAPTORS. Real raptors are only a couple feet high and I think they were like that in the book. But Spielberg was like, "THIS HAS GOT TO BE MORE INTENSE" so when Baker, I think it was, discovered the Utahraptor he was, "Okay, we'll use this."

Plus, remember the compy scene at the beginning of Lost World (a movie which I do like by the way)? Yeah, imagine that as the main dinosaur "villain," if you can call them that.

[Quorthon]

There was a dinosaur I heard of many years ago that was spot-on similar to the Raptors in JP--the "Deinonicus" I believe. That may or may not be the same thing as the Utahraptor, though. I don't believe I'd ever heard of those...