Science in Science-Fiction

Could you watch a science fiction movie even though it is scientifically inaccurate?

We all love science fiction especially because of all the cool technology and fancy science,  but sometimes fiction gets the best of it and we are left with doubtful science and technology that doesn’t even make sense.

I am not talking about small mistakes or inaccuracies. There are mistakes in all movies, even in the best ones. Take for example the famous hologram scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

This is actually a “volumetric projection” rather than a hologram

This scene were they are watching the message that Leia recorded in R2D2 had left me perplexed ever since. Because the princess’ image is not facing any of the listeners in the room. It is as if someone had filmed her from multiple other angles. To me a video message should face the person it is intended to.

S’up Obi Wan!
(image from codemink website)

But of course this doesn’t prevent me from enjoying this timeless classic. What about the Terminator saga? My sister told me once that the robots’ visual interface in The Terminator movie didn’t make any sense. Since the robot is self-conscious(!) it is not piloted by a human. So why is there written information on the interface if there is no human to read it?

Who is reading these?

But this could make sense in a way that these robots were built by humans at the beginning and back in time there must have been a human pilot controlling the robot’s movements. This is nothing compared to the plot-hole the movie is based on, which is one of the biggest time travel paradoxes in fiction history (in my opinion). You sure know what I’m talking about. John Connor sends Kyle back in time to protect his mother but Kyle ends up sleeping with her and fathers John Connor. From my point of view as a biologist, Kyle fails his mission miserably because his son is definitely not John Connor! Even if we assumed that the only thing which made him the rebellion hero was his mitochondrial DNA, in the 2nd movie he and his mother are trying to prevent the war from happening. But if the war doesn’t happen, his father won’t go back in time to conceive him, so isn’t he fighting against his own existence?? Still, I really enjoyed watching Terminator 2. Especially due to Sarah Connor’s character!

 Unfortunately some movies’ whole scenario is based on a scientific inaccuracy. Have you watched Lucy from Luc Besson? When it was out couple of years ago, my girlfriend suggested to watch it together since she knew I would very much enjoy the sight of Scarlett Johansson pulling off superpowers and being all kick ass but I couldn’t. The 10% of your brain myth has been debunked a long time ago, it was already unbelievably stupid to begin with and even a narration from Morgan Freeman cannot make me sit through it.

I guess science fails Science-Fiction sometimes. Do you have any other examples to that?