Great SciFi films with bad SciFi
Great SciFi films with bad SciFi
Author
Discussion

Skeptisk

Original Poster:

8,897 posts

125 months

Sunday 5th January
quotequote all
Some of my favourite SciFi films are based upon some really bad premises or very bad science.

The Fly: whole premise is that the presence of a foreign object (a fly) in the teleporting unit causes the computer to splice Brundell and the fly. However, the air, our skins and our bodies are full of other organisms so it would happen every time.

Alien: without eating the alien grows from the size of a rat to bigger than a man in one day!

Any others?

Sparky137

920 posts

197 months

Sunday 5th January
quotequote all
Well, Back To The Future is acknowledged as being close to the perfect film by many yet it could be argued that the whole concept of time travel is somewhat questionable.

The answer is don't over think films, just watch and enjoy them.

Edited by Sparky137 on Sunday 5th January 17:04

Sheets Tabuer

20,410 posts

231 months

Sunday 5th January
quotequote all
If anyone mentioned the two greatest Sci Fi films ever made, The Core and Armageddon I'll be round for a shoeing.

FourWheelDrift

91,065 posts

300 months

Sunday 5th January
quotequote all
Any film where the ships have artificial gravity.

Chauffard

917 posts

13 months

Sunday 5th January
quotequote all
Not sure of the objection to The Fly when teleportation is accepted without murmer in Star Trek.

Years of suspended animation for crewmembers is a mainstay of many space westerns, not sure of it's scientific credentials.

Sparky137

920 posts

197 months

Sunday 5th January
quotequote all
Chauffard said:
Not sure of the objection to The Fly when teleportation is accepted without murmer in Star Trek.
But their transporters have bio filters so that a fly scenario can't happen.

rider73

4,047 posts

93 months

Sunday 5th January
quotequote all
The last jedi


juice

9,334 posts

298 months

Sunday 5th January
quotequote all
Galaxy Quest hehe

Chauffard

917 posts

13 months

Sunday 5th January
quotequote all
Sparky137 said:
Chauffard said:
Not sure of the objection to The Fly when teleportation is accepted without murmer in Star Trek.
But their transporters have bio filters so that a fly scenario can't happen.
scratchchin

SoulGlo

234 posts

47 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
Sparky137 said:
Well, Back To The Future is acknowledged as being close to the perfect film by many yet it could be argued that the whole concept of time travel is somewhat questionable.

The answer is don't over think films, just watch and enjoy them.

Edited by Sparky137 on Sunday 5th January 17:04
I think it's one of the best version of time travel imo.

That you only can move in time and not space. You can't just travel to ancient rome from Hill Valley. You would have to get the car to Rome in present day and then time travel from there.

rider73

4,047 posts

93 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
SoulGlo said:
Sparky137 said:
Well, Back To The Future is acknowledged as being close to the perfect film by many yet it could be argued that the whole concept of time travel is somewhat questionable.

The answer is don't over think films, just watch and enjoy them.

Edited by Sparky137 on Sunday 5th January 17:04
I think it's one of the best version of time travel imo.

That you only can move in time and not space. You can't just travel to ancient rome from Hill Valley. You would have to get the car to Rome in present day and then time travel from there.
it does have that major plot hole in BTF II though,
where old biff goes back in time to give young biff the book to alter the future, but how does old biff go back to the future to the unaltered future so the car is still there for marty and doc to get into it, without them knowing old biff stole the time machine.....



ChocolateFrog

32,285 posts

189 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
SoulGlo said:
Sparky137 said:
Well, Back To The Future is acknowledged as being close to the perfect film by many yet it could be argued that the whole concept of time travel is somewhat questionable.

The answer is don't over think films, just watch and enjoy them.

Edited by Sparky137 on Sunday 5th January 17:04
I think it's one of the best version of time travel imo.

That you only can move in time and not space. You can't just travel to ancient rome from Hill Valley. You would have to get the car to Rome in present day and then time travel from there.
It was always the pictures appearing and disappearing that got me, especially as it was so prominent in the film.

Catatafish

1,479 posts

161 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
SoulGlo said:
Sparky137 said:
Well, Back To The Future is acknowledged as being close to the perfect film by many yet it could be argued that the whole concept of time travel is somewhat questionable.

The answer is don't over think films, just watch and enjoy them.

Edited by Sparky137 on Sunday 5th January 17:04
I think it's one of the best version of time travel imo.

That you only can move in time and not space. You can't just travel to ancient rome from Hill Valley. You would have to get the car to Rome in present day and then time travel from there.
You would have to move in space as well though to make sure you 'appear' at the site on the earth's surface. It's all moving on some convoluted spiral through space, which is the result of earth orbiting sun, sun orbiting galaxy, galaxy orbiting cluster, cluster orbiting super cluster etc etc.

Hedobot

710 posts

165 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
Are you saying I just cannot "Slingshot around the sun" to travel back in time ?

My day is ruined already.

wolfracesonic

8,324 posts

143 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
SoulGlo said:
I think it's one of the best version of time travel imo.

That you only can move in time and not space. You can't just travel to ancient rome from Hill Valley. You would have to get the car to Rome in present day and then time travel from there.
TBF, the Romans would have some decent roads ready for you…

Zetec-S

6,481 posts

109 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
Hedobot said:
Are you saying I just cannot "Slingshot around the sun" to travel back in time ?

My day is ruined already.
No, everyone knows you need to fly backwards around the Earth really quickly to reverse it's rotation.

98elise

30,114 posts

177 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
SoulGlo said:
Sparky137 said:
Well, Back To The Future is acknowledged as being close to the perfect film by many yet it could be argued that the whole concept of time travel is somewhat questionable.

The answer is don't over think films, just watch and enjoy them.

Edited by Sparky137 on Sunday 5th January 17:04
I think it's one of the best version of time travel imo.

That you only can move in time and not space. You can't just travel to ancient rome from Hill Valley. You would have to get the car to Rome in present day and then time travel from there.
Hill Valley isn't in the same place in space though when you move through time.

P-Jay

11,079 posts

207 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
ChocolateFrog said:
SoulGlo said:
Sparky137 said:
Well, Back To The Future is acknowledged as being close to the perfect film by many yet it could be argued that the whole concept of time travel is somewhat questionable.

The answer is don't over think films, just watch and enjoy them.

Edited by Sparky137 on Sunday 5th January 17:04
I think it's one of the best version of time travel imo.

That you only can move in time and not space. You can't just travel to ancient rome from Hill Valley. You would have to get the car to Rome in present day and then time travel from there.
It was always the pictures appearing and disappearing that got me, especially as it was so prominent in the film.
Ah, it's a film for Kids and Teenagers... and old Gen Xers of course.

It's not the only problem with their version of time travel. If you could 'instantaneously' travel back 100 years, or even 100 minutes, the Earth would be millions of miles away, it takes 225 million years for our Sun to orbit around the centre of our Galaxy, but it's still shifting at 200km/s, even if you only travelled back a second, you're 200kms from where you started, and that could be in another country, or withing the Earth, or in space.

That's only half the problem, our Galaxy is moving at 7.5 trillion Km/s.

Our past didn't just happen in a different time, but a very different place relative to the Universe.

P-Jay

11,079 posts

207 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
Warp Drive / Lightspeed is another one.

Obvs, it's an easy thing for writers to make interplanetary travel possible, it's not even the faster than light travel bit, right now very clever people don't think it's possible, and even if it is, you'd perceive travel as being quick, but if you returned great amounts of time would have passed.

It's the acceleration, "hold on Chewie, I'm going to make the jump to lightspeed" Hold on! You just went from hundreds of miles an hour to millions or even billions of miles per hour in a second, there's no holding on, you'd reduced to a vapor. "inertia dampers" brilliant.

RizzoTheRat

27,013 posts

208 months

Tuesday 7th January
quotequote all
FourWheelDrift said:
Any film where the ships have artificial gravity.
I don't really have a problem with a stated technology which doesn't (currently) exist like artificial gravity, inertial dampers, warp drive, etc, surely that's the point of it being Science Fiction.

It's the unexplained violations of physics that annoy me, eg Starwars where you hear lasers and ship engines in space, and space fighters fly like aerodynamic aircraft. Something I think Babylon 5 did quite well as thier fighters changed orientation without changing direction.

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Tuesday 7th January 11:40