Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?
Thanks to the development of technology,
computer animation has become a new stage to animation and films. Special
effects, such as exaggerated powers and supranational fights, increase the entertainment
of films. However, to get interesting effects in both live-action and animation
world, the rules of real physics are pushed
so far that turns unreal. In other words, physic of the films turns to be more dream-like,
or idealistic to entertain people. As an example, Newton’s third law is often changed
in the film.
In
the reality, Newton’s third law describes the relationship between two objects
and the forces acting upon them. According to the lectures from Phys 123 class,
when an object exerts a force onto another one, the second object will
simultaneously give a reacted force which is equal in magnitude and has
opposite direction to the first object. It is why the balloon can rise to the
sky, and why the Earth rotates around the Sun. Although action and reaction are
the basic in the real world, they often get ignored or changed in action films.
To really explain how action and reaction is different in the film world, we
will look at the following three films: Mr.
and Mrs. Smith, Kung Fu Panda: The
Secret of Masters, and Iron Man 3.
The
first example, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, an
action comedy film directed by Doug Liman, contains an obvious mistake in
Newton’s third law of physics. The film focuses on a hit man couple and how they
deal with their love when they realize they are lying to each other. Fighting
from a modern building to their own house, the conflict develops into firearms
war to kill each other before their identities exposed. Jane Smith decides to
shoot her husband with her shotgun, but her husband escapes. This classic
couple “quarrel” scene actually ignores one of action and reaction effects,
which is recoil of the gun. Based on Newton’s third law, recoil is the backward
momentum of a gun to balance the forward force of the shooting bullets. Also, the
strength of recoil depends on bullet’s speed and weight of the gun. Recoil not
only influences the gun itself, but also transfers to the shooter through the
body. Therefore, as powerful weapon as shotgun, the recoil should be strong
enough to force Mrs. Smith moving back or even feeling the pain. According to IMFDB,
Internet Movie Firearms Database, the gun holding by Mrs. Smith is an H &K
Fabarm shotgun. Here are the fighting scene from the film and a test shooting video for H&K Fabarm in the real
world:
Based
on the first video shown above, the man responses to the recoil when he pulls the
trigger. His upper body moves back, and he even scream “Aw!” to show his pain
caused by the recoil. Compared with this man, nevertheless, Jane Smith does not
either move back or feel pain at all in the film. Moreover, she still can strafe
John Smith and almost destroy her whole house by using both shotgun and machine
gun later. Even the man in the video screams “Aw!” when he pulls the trigger, a
slim lady like Jane does not hesitate or slow down her shooting frequency. Therefore,
the shooting scene works much smoother and faster since the shooter does not
have to stop and release the pain caused by recoil. As a result, even though the
physics in this film does not include the recoil from Newton’s third law, it
actually helps the director to get compelling of firearms battle in this scene.
In
addition, sometime films not only ignore action and reaction rules, they also exaggerate
this law too much. One example is from a short film of Kung Fu Panda series, The Secret of the Masters. Directed by a
new studio called Duncan, the Kung Fu power in this animation is often
increased so much that becomes an impossible case to be seen in reality. In
this animation, Master Oogway calls up three young masters, Rhino, Ox and Croc,
to beat the evil Cat Sisters. To make this ideal come true, Oogway and three
young masters have to pass through mountains and deep cliffs first. Oogway grabs
each character’s hand, and throws them into the sky; they become bridges so that
Oogway is able to across the cliff. The physic in this scene is very questionable
since Master Oogway does not use much strength to throw the three huge animals into
an incredible height. Essentially, we all know that turtle is much smaller than
rhino, ox and crocodile, so Oogway’s weight must be lighter than the other
three. Also, the power from an old turtle, like Master Oogway, is definitely weaker
than the others. Thus, it is nonsense to see Master Oogway holding Rhino, Ox,
and Croc up in the real world. However, in this scene, he tosses up rhino, ox
and croc by just touches their hands gently in few seconds. Without pushing the
ground by legs to get a reaction support, three men fly to the height we cannot
even calculate out. Even though their weight is much greater than Master Oogway’s,
the old man still has his “Kung Fu power” to fight against gravity, and make
the young men respect his supernatural, mysterious strength. Therefore, when
the audience senses the oddness of Master Oogway’s Kung Fu, the curiosity about
his secret power catches our eyes, and develops this character’s image.
Similar
to Master Oogway’s power of Kung Fu, there is another example about exaggeration
of Newton’s third law in Iron Man 3. In this film, Tony Stark has to face new
powerful enemy, Aldrich Killian, who injects a special virus called Extremis and
becomes a superhuman. Killian can generate extreme heat to melt Tony Stark’s iron
suit. It seems despaired because Stark’s iron man suit cannot fight against
with Killian anymore, until Virginia Potts, or Pepper, jumps out. Pepper is
also injected with the same virus as Killian, so she earns the power. She jumps
into the battle when Killian is trying to destroy Stark. She kicks Killian’s
waist with her right foot. Receiving her strength, Killian flies six feet away until
he hits the wall behind. At this moment, if we are paying more attention on
Pepper instead of the gracious special effects, we will immediately find out
that this film made a mistake on this climax scene. Based on Newton’s third
law, when Pepper gives a force to Killian by her leg, there is also a reaction
force acting on Pepper at the same time. The reaction force is equal in
magnitude but opposite in direction with the kicking power; consequently, this
backward force will make Pepper’s body move backward. It means Pepper should
push the ground by using her left leg to create another force against this
reaction effect, so her body will not be unbalanced and fall down. Yet, Pepper
does not respond to the reaction at all. After she kicks Killian at least six
feet away, Pepper keeps her kicking pose and staying at the same place for a moment.
Since the rule of Newton’s third law is changed, this scene is showing how
strong Pepper is after she turns into a superhuman. Moreover, it gives the
shocked ending to the audience about how Iron Man will develop in the next
movie.
From
Mr. &Mrs. Smith, Kung Fu Panda: The Secret of Masters, to Iron Man 3, we
can see and understand how Newton’s third law is redefined in the film world. Although
the rule is changed sometimes in both live-action and animation films, these
adjustments or differences support films to develop scenes, characters and
story. According to Art Babbitt from Walt Disney Company, “Animation follows the laws of
physics—unless it is funnier otherwise.” I believe this quotation can apply to
all the CGI movies—science fiction is not wrong to twist the physic facts; it
just represents an ideal dream for people and films they made.
