Science At the Movies

Like most science fiction fans and writers, I've spent a lot of time and oxygen ragging on the horrible science in motion pictures. Our own Dr. Diane Kelly has even taught a course on sci-fi movie science. Now the mighty Carl Zimmer has called the whole issue into question. In a very shrewd column he asks the simple question "Why do we care?" After all, science fiction movies are fiction, not documentaries, and so are concerned more with storytelling than with accuracy. Why does it matter if they are riddled with errors?

My own answer to this is that there is (or should be) a difference between science fiction and fantasy. In a fantasy, the author can manipulate reality at will for the sake of the story -- a Ring can hold ultimate power, a Lion can redeem the world, and a little girl can save a kingdom by melting a witch. There's nothing wrong with that.

But if you call it science fiction, I think there's an implicit contract with the reader -- or the movie viewer -- that this stuff is possible. It may not be true, but then no work of fiction ever is factually true. There is no MI-6 operative named James Bond, but there could be, and a British intelligence agent could foil the plans of various crazed criminal masterminds. In the films James Bond does not, however, help hobbits escape the Nazgul, or free the Talking Beasts of Narnia from their oppressors. He's fictional but not fantasy.

So a science fiction movie should honor that same implicit contract. There are plenty of wonders and adventures which don't require magic disguised in technobabble. I agree with Mr. Zimmer that the focus of any film should be a good story and interesting characters, but I see no reason why they can't operate in a world of plausible science and technology.

Comments

[DIaneAKelly]

To be fair, science fiction has 'rubber science' conventions -- things we know are impossible, but they're fun anyway. Faster than light travel or time travel for anything bigger than a photon are not going to happen in our universe, but they do provide more interesting settings for writers. I guess the key word for Jim is 'plausible,' because I can think of only three of his SF stories which could work in our physical universe. The others all have some impossible element (time travel, FTL spaceships, vampires).

[andrewstras]

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