Hard Sci-Fi Movies Twitter Account Ruins Everyone’s Fun With Reason And Logic

By David Wharton | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

GravityHaving been raised by a father who was a full-time engineer, part-time astronomy teacher, I’m well acquainted with the fun of nitpicking movies and TV shows when they decide to take liberties with things like the laws of physics or common sense. But to paraphrase old Ben Kenobi, your enjoyment of that activity depends largely on your point of view. If you’re the one doing the nitpicking, it can be good fun. If it’s somebody else pointing out the flaws in one of your favorite movies, however, it can become a greased-up waterslide into a vat of pure rage. Thankfully the Hard Sci-Fi Movies twitter account has removed the names of the offenders so we can all enjoy the fun. Even though the offenders totally know who they are.

The premise is simple: take any of the more far-fetched science fiction concepts we’ve all seen trotted out many times over the years, then subject them to the harsh, cleansing daylight of reason. Because they’re totally right: never once have I seen a fictional psychic cash in the long-standing million-dollar bounty offered by the James Randi Foundation for proof of psychic ability. (Unsurprisingly, that reward remains unclaimed in reality as well.)

I actually laughed out loud at that one. How many times have we seen the “visual interface” in hacker or cyberpunk movies? A visual interface that is a stupendously inefficient way of actually getting anything done? I still catch shows doing this today, because the bottom line is that working on a computer is not visually interesting to a third party. It’s better for everybody if they just type really fast while possibly unrelated things flash across the monitor.

Well balls, now how am I supposed to defeat my android nemesis? I so wanted to see the smoke come out of his ears while he repeats “ERROR ERROR” over and over. Star Trek has used this trope at least once, but they’re hardly the only offender.

And there goes pretty much Star Trek as a whole. Of course, fans have been joking about that for decades. I always thought there should have been an episode of Next Generation where Picard insisted on leading the away team so Riker stunned him and left him bound and gagged in the conference room. If nothing else you’d think this sort of thing would be a red flag during the captain’s next Starfleet performance review.

I’m going to assume that one is Ender’s Game tie-in marketing.

Wach-ouch-ski. This next one’s my favorite, though.

Silly Signs aliens. You crossed the interstellar void to invade our home, but you didn’t bother to do a quick scan of Earth’s wikipedia entry. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go plan my invasion of Venus. I’m sure the weather’s fine there this time of year, right?

Yep, there’s just no way around it. Sometimes you just have to tell the quiet little voice of reason to shut the hell up and let you enjoy the show. Is Gravity 100% scientifically accurate? Probably not. Is it a damn good time at the movies? You bet. In fact, I’d say that’s a pretty good quality test when it comes to science fiction: does it keep you entertained enough to willfully ignore the liberties it takes? $370 million global box office suggests yes…

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