Movies are a wonderful source of
entertainment and are made and viewed with enthusiasm and excitement. As such,
they are also critically analyzed for any mistake or error. These mistakes can range from camera errors
all the way to ignoring basic physics principles. One rule that is broken a lot in film making
is the principle of action and reaction.
According to this principal, every action has an opposite and equal
reaction. There are three different movies that are prime examples of this: Man
of Steel, Identity Thief, and Hotel Transylvania. These three movies all incorrectly illustrate
this principle at some point during the film.
In the live
action movie, Man of Steel, Clark Kent, otherwise known as Superman, has to
save the world from General Zod, a Kryptonian who is trying to bring back
Krypton by destroying earth. During this
movie, there is a scene where Lois Lane, a journalist from the Daily Prophet,
is saved by Superman. He saves her as
she is falling from the Kryptonian ship and they land in a corn field. He then takes off and flies away, leaving
her. According to the principal of
action and reaction, the amount of force required to fly away would have been
huge and he should have left a very large dent in the ground, also possibly
hurting Lois Lane. All of which did not
happen. This is interesting because
later in the film, as he is getting ready to fly away he has Lois Lane step
back so she is unharmed. He then takes off, leaving a large and understandable
dent in the ground from the force of his take off. That leaves the question of
why did that not happen in the corn field.
Could this really have been an oversight on the part of the director or
the special effects team? One possible reason is the director might not have
wanted to ruin that moment he was trying to create between Lois and Clark. Either way, the law of physics was broken
during that scene.
The next
movie that breaks the principle of action and reaction is Identity Thief. This live action, comedic crime film is about
a Man named Sandy Bigelow Patterson who gets his identity stolen. He is then
fired from his job and decides to go after Diana, the woman who stole his
identity. During this movie, the two characters become closer together and
develop more of a relationship. There is
a scene near the end of the movie where Diana saves Sandy’s life by pushing his
out of the way of a car, which ends up hitting her. The reaction her body has is correct when she
is hit by the car, but with the amount of force hitting her, her body should
have incurred a larger amount of injuries. Yet, a few minutes later, she gets
up perfectly okay, no visible or physical injuries and barely a limp. This is not the kind of reaction a person
should have after being hit by a car at that speed. This was also probably done for the sake of
the story and well as a comical effect.
It has the ability to make the audience laugh at the fact that she is
just able to get back up on her feet and able to run away without being
seriously hurt. It also gives her
character a sense of indestructibility which adds to the humor. They were also running away from people who
wanted to kill them so they had to keep moving for the sake of their safety. According to the law of physics though, she
should have been in a lot more pain, and most likely severely injured.
The third
movie, Hotel Transylvania, is an animated film about a hotel for monsters and
creatures which is owned by Dracula. He
built the hotel as a sanctuary for these creatures to be safe from humans as
his own wife was killed by humans. But a
human boy finds his way in and by the end of the film is able to change their
minds about humans. During the course of the film, there is a scene where the
hotel is having a party and Frankenstein decides to jump into the hotel pool
from a giant tentacle arm. He body flops
into the water with a somewhat small splash and his body parts disconnect. According to the principle of action and
reaction, his body should have created a much larger splash, especially when
one considers the height from which he fell.
The splash from his fall was way too small to be physically possible. This was probably done again, on
purpose. The animators most likely
wanted the audience to see Frankenstein’s body split up, which created a
comical effect. With a larger splash,
that could have been more obscure and hard to see. Though the water does not react to
Frankenstein’s fall in a physically believable manner, it does make the comical
effect that his body has much more entertaining as well as visible.
In conclusion,
these three films all break the basic principle of action and reaction. The first, Man of Steel, the reaction of the
earth to his feet during takeoff should have been a lot bigger. The second, Identity Thief, where Diana gets
hit by a car, yet her body has no visible or physical injuries. The third,
Hotel Transylvania, where the water does not have a believable reaction to Frankenstein’s
belly flop into the pool. The films did
break the principle of action and reaction but it was done most likely done on
purpose. In the case for Man of Steel, the director probably did not want to
ruin the moment between Lois and Clark Kent.
In Identity Thief, it brought humor to the scene to see Diana able to
just get up without a problem after being hit by a car. With Hotel
Transylvania, having a small splash made it easier for the audience to see the
effect of Frankenstein’s body coming apart.
Though all these films broke the law of physics and the principle of
action and reaction, they are all done for the sake of humor or the story.
