The Physics of Science Fiction - Essay Example

THE PHYSICS OF SCIENCE FICTION (Men in Black II) of (affiliation) Astronomy Date Submitted: Introduction The genre of science fiction continues to gain adherents worldwide because many of its ideas can seem realistic enough to be within the realm of reality. Science fiction in literature and in the movies depict highly imaginative content, situations, and context to make these stories or films quite believable but this hinges on the scientific knowledge of the audience. If it is realistic enough to be credible, then the story gains traction or credence with the audiences. However, if it is too imaginative to the point of being absurd, audience members will dismiss it outright as just another inane novel or film. This paper examines some of the scientific principles as portrayed in some scenes of the movie “Men in Black II” that deals with space aliens, space travel, and other innovative scientific ideas that are very futuristic in some scenes but unrealistic in other scenes. This film reprises the roles of agents “J” (Jay) and “K” (Kay) who must re-unite and combine all their strengths and knowledge to fight off a new enemy named Serleena out to steal the magical “Light of Zartha” and things got a bit complicated before they finally prevailed over the evil kind of beauty queen from the outer reaches of the universe. The movie also known as MIB 2 was made in 2002, produced by Columbia Pictures Corporation, and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Discussion The rise of the Industrial Revolution in seventeenth century England had given way to the present Scientific Revolution in which scientific and technological advances had made so many things previously considered as mere science fiction possible. These advances include the fields of medicine, engineering, chemistry, physics, and other fields of human endeavor such as human organ transplants, genetic engineering to produced so-called “designer babies” and in the use of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to help infertile couples and have 3-parents babies today. All of these stuff were once considered as just mere products of a highly imaginative or creative mind and yet today these things are taken for granted and thought of as perfectly normal. People do not find a heart transplant surgical operation as unusual or a woman getting paid to be surrogate mother by carrying a fertilized embryo in her womb in a “baby factory” in some poor country. It is with the same open mind and careful observations that the movie “Men in Black II” is discussed and examined for some of the scientific principles portrayed in the film to enhance its appeal to audiences worldwide. Theories and principles about science are used in this film to aid its storyline and plot but these theories can either enhance the films portrayal of these theories or go off tangent and instead turn off audiences with unscientific embellishments. Right off the bat, so to speak, the movie seems to start on the wrong foot. In the opening credits of the film, a small alien spaceship appeared outside the window of the room where Peter Graves was recounting the history of the secret organization called “Men in Black” and the said spaceship is moving or flying very erratically. This means it was moving back and forth in a very unusual manner that defies the laws of flight, in particular that of momentum. Any object that is flying in a certain direction (inertia) cannot just change course so easily. In other words, it will take some time for that flying object or spaceship to change its course because momentum will carry it forward before its engines or whatever is powering it to fly can alter its flight path. Then a few scenes later, a small spaceship was shown arriving on Earth and departing in a little while supposedly carrying the sought-after “Light of Zartha” and this conical spaceship is shown taking off with very little exhaust from its booster engines. It requires a lot of power to overcome the force of gravity and very little smoke coming out defies logic and gravitys force. Another scene in the film shows a spaceship landing on the Earth but without using anything to slow down its descent; more remarkably, its landing on a hard surface of the Earth did not destroy it although gravitational force is so strong it can pull anything within its field to pull it down like what happens when a spaceship re-enters the atmosphere and gets burned down in the process due to the very strong pull. That particular scene did not portray a correct scientific principle which dictates any object approaching Earth must be slowed down or otherwise it gets destroyed before it can even reach the Earths surface as what happens when most meteorites that inadvertently swung into the Earths field of gravity. A chute could have been used to slow it. In most instances, landing is preferred on water to minimize damage on impact of the landing. As Serleena emerged from her spacecraft, she changed into a very beautiful woman. In the process, she attracted a potential mugger or rapist who sneaked behind her and put a knife to her through and then dragged her towards the bushes in the park. However, she managed to devour this man and the next scene showed her with a very big or unusual bulge on her tummy (to show the man she had eaten probably whole inside her stomach). Any person knows for sure that no human being can ably manage to eat a whole human being in just a few seconds. This is a very unrealistic portrayal of the cannibalistic tendencies of people because only snakes (pythons) or some other large animal in the wild are known to devour their victims alive and whole. The light-pen (neuralizer) used in the film to erase the memory of people is not realistic. What is known about neurobiology is that certain areas of the brain are used in memory recall so only those areas that are affected by injury or trauma or disease can erase memory. The cells in the brain cannot be destroyed or their memory erased using a strange light directed at the eyes. Serleena was also shown in the film holding a man up with only one hand. This was in the scene inside the pizza outlet at SoHo where she was interrogating the store owner to reveal the whereabouts of agent Kay. The man she held up in the air was much heavier than her and so it follows she would probably need all her strength to do so, maybe with both of her hands. This scene was illogical from the standpoint of gravitational force as the man was certainly heavy. In one of their conversations after agent Kay had deneuralized himself and then walked away before the process was finished, agent Jay told him (agent Kay) that he needed to re-boot his mind first before the whole process of deneuralization takes full effect. This may have some basis in biological science as the brains of people need rest such as when people go to sleep and re-charge their minds. So computer lingo was used (re-boot) to indicate the same process where the brain has to be re-charged first before it can function at maximum again for later use. A brain is a very mysterious organ and there are many neurological processes that are as yet not fully understood by science. For example, a coma is almost similar to sleeping but in sleep, people are capable of waking up on their own after a few hours but comatose people cannot do so. Another scene in the movie showed agent Jay being held up and carried crosswise by an enemy alien who then tortured him by bending his body backwards. This action had certainly did damage to his spinal column and surely paralyzed him but when he managed to get down from the hold, he (agent Jay) was able to walk normally and act perfectly as if nothing happened. This defies common medical knowledge that a serious injury to the spine can cause paralysis. People who suffered severe back or neck injuries take time to recover fully and yet agent Jay was able to walk again. An example is whiplash during car collisions where the neck is stretched backwards. Some scenes in the movie depicted planets and other celestial objects as too close to each other and this goes against the laws of universal gravitation by Johannes Kepler. If objects in the universe or cosmos are very near each other, the tendency is to collide against each other because two such objects have too strong gravitational pull to overcome the inertia of the orbits to which these objects were originally traveling in outer space. Put differently, the centripetal force of these planets will be overcome by their gravitational forces and make them collide. In the last quarter of the film, Jarra and Serleena were negotiating for something and it was Serleena who wanted a spacecraft from Jarra in exchange for delivering agent Kay to him. In this scene, Serleena mentioned the spacecraft to be very fast, at least 300 times faster than the speed of light. In Einsteins theory, the speed of light is the fastest thing in the universe. Nothing has been discovered that surpassed this speed and so asking for a spacecraft that can travel at 300 times the speed of light is absurd and an outright impossibility. Near the end of the film, the evil queen Serleena got atomized (vaporized) by agent Jay and this scene is unbelievable because an atom (or matter) cannot be created nor destroyed (similar to energy that is merely transformed). Conclusion Science fiction has the ability to stir creativity and it inspires the mind. However, it can sometimes go too far because it crosses over to the realm of the impossible. But science fiction can have its positive side too such as giving actual scientists the general direction of the research they may be doing because science fiction points the way towards what is doable and possible. It can also provide entertainment to audiences with splendid tales of space travel, time warp, extra-terrestrial life, exo-planets, time travel, parallel universes, and many other wonderful ideas. Reference Fisher, J. (2014, November 19). Full action movies: Men in Black II. You Tube. Retrieved on November 28, 2014 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TURyFiz-_HM Due: November 30, 2014 @ 11:01 a.m. Read More