What's your favorite science film and why?

In summary, the best science film is Good Will Hunting, while pi is not very amazing, it's one of those numbers that just is. Kiwi was a crazy scientist, while pi is not very amazing anyway, it's one of those numbers that just is. The dinos in Jurassic Park didnt have feathers bah. gattaca is also a good film, while aliens might be the best science film.
  • #1
J77
1,096
1
Obviously Jurassic Park wins hands-down, so we exclude that one :tongue:

What's the best science film out there?

And what science does it represent?

I quite like Good Will Hunting - probably more cos it's a good film than to do with the maths tho'
 
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  • #2
how about gattaca?
 
  • #3
cool as ice. also greatest film of all time, period.
 
  • #4
A science film ? Do we really want to see that ?

marlon
 
  • #5
I vote for Pi but I'm biased.
 
  • #6
slugcountry said:
how about gattaca?

Gets my vote or maybe aliens. Scientists and marines.:smile:

I don't understand what the big deal is in pi, that's just a typical maths head. :smile:
 
  • #7
The dinos in Jurassic park didnt have feathers bah.
But a movie about people beeing chased by giant chickens might not be as cool.
 
  • #8
A Beautiful Mind
 
  • #9
antonantal said:
A Beautiful Mind
With the Kiwi fella? Nah.
 
  • #10
Schrodinger's Dog said:
I don't understand what the big deal is in pi, that's just a typical maths head. :smile:
come on. the great powerful number that fries computers, kills priests and mathematicians, is not a "big deal"?
 
  • #11
whatta said:
come on. the great powerful number that fries computers, kills priests and mathematicians, is not a "big deal"?

OK wasn't he just nuts though, really:smile: pi's not very amazing anyway, it's one of those numbers that just is. Did you know if you drop sufficient square slabs of concrete they tend to break up into and average of pi number of pieces, now that's wierd.
 
  • #12
J77 said:
With the Kiwi fella? Nah.
Who's Kiwi?
 
  • #13
wasn't he just nuts
no, you missed the point. the number was not pi, it was 216 digits representing underlying structure of the world. the other guy was studying pi trying to find the system, and when he found it, his computer was fried, and he himself has almost died so he stopped. later, he attempts it once more, and the number kills him. that's when our hero realizes that it was exactly why his head hurts - since economic system is also explained by that number, and he was getting closer to it. that is also why his computer died twice after calculating the number. that aligns with the story told by rabbi (about "true name of god" that kills people). that's why he drills his head. to survive.
 
  • #14
Contact...
 
  • #15
whatta said:
no, you missed the point. the number was not pi, it was 216 digits representing underlying structure of the world. the other guy was studying pi trying to find the system, and when he found it, his computer was fried, and he himself has almost died so he stopped. later, he attempts it once more, and the number kills him. that's when our hero realizes that it was exactly why his head hurts - since economic system is also explained by that number, and he was getting closer to it. that is also why his computer died twice after calculating the number. that aligns with the story told by rabbi (about "true name of god" that kills people). that's why he drills his head. to survive.

Or was he just nuts? That's the point you don't really know do you?
 
  • #16
well I wouldn't need to make a 2 hour movie with the point that someone is just nuts. that would be like recording 2 hours of nothing at some mountain river site, and calling the movie "water flows".
 
  • #17
Pi's got a wicked soundtrack :cool:

ps: I thought the point was that it was the key to God - hence, industry, some Jewish guys and some government people all wanted it...
 
  • #18
I hated pi, it was a complete mess. Plus there was an unforgiveable number of obvious mathematical errors (the digits of pi in the opening were wrong after the first few places, the formula for the golden ratio was laughably wrong (I spotted this instantly and fell over laughing)), etc. etc.
 
  • #19
whatta said:
well I wouldn't need to make a 2 hour movie with the point that someone is just nuts. that would be like recording 2 hours of nothing at some mountain river site, and calling the movie "water flows".

Or you could just leave it up to the audience to decide, take it from me though it has all the hall marks of schizophrenia: links with God, obsessive interest in x, paranoia, even self harming. He could of just gone Nash.
 
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  • #20
I saw it in a little theatre with massive speakers - I wasn't really making sure the digits of pi were in the right place :biggrin:
 
  • #21
Curious3141 said:
the digits of pi in the opening were wrong after the first few places
out of the interest I decided to check this. http://faculty.ivc.edu/rzucker/snapshots/Pi_Movie.jpg [Broken]. It was 3.141592652631... not 3.141592653589... well, fx guys probably took pi from their pocket calculator, and then just added random numbers. But, how the hell did you managed to notice?

edit: I notice pi in your username. Must be going nuts.
 
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  • #22
whatta said:
well, fx guys probably took pi from their pocket calculator, and then just added random numbers
Nah - they used the other value of pi...
 
  • #23
Alien. :tongue2:
 
  • #24
Non-fiction: The Day After Trinity
Fiction: well, there's no science in ficiton movies so I vote for Spiderman II
 
  • #25
bladerunner

alien

terminator 2
 
  • #26
whatta said:
out of the interest I decided to check this. http://faculty.ivc.edu/rzucker/snapshots/Pi_Movie.jpg [Broken]. It was 3.141592652631... not 3.141592653589... well, fx guys probably took pi from their pocket calculator, and then just added random numbers. But, how the hell did you managed to notice?

I just did. Guess I'm weird that way. :biggrin: Helps that I know pi to just over 200 digits, thought it'd come in handy someday (y'know, when the saucers land). :eek:

edit: I notice pi in your username. Must be going nuts.
That was intentional. You're perfectly sane. :rofl:
 
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  • #27
neutrino said:
Contact...

Gets my vote.
 
  • #28
either Contact or 2001 (if that counts)
 
  • #29
An Inconvenient Truth, which I believe is Andre's favorite, and it is the only actual science movie listed so far.

The best part is that I still don't know how it ends.

As for Sci Fi:
Metropolis
2001
Contact
Close Encounters
Star Wars
The Republican National Convention
 
  • #30
movie name: Cube

sci-fi: Gattaca, Contact, or an alien vs pred vs marine type movie(AVP, SST, ST, DOOM)

science? mmm march of the penguins? congo medicine man(were those science movies)
 
  • #31
neurocomp2003 said:
mmm march of the penguins?

I didn't think I would like march of the penguins but it was actually pretty interesting.

Pi was interesting as well.
 
  • #32
neurocomp2003 said:
movie name: Cube

sci-fi: Gattaca, Contact, or an alien vs pred vs marine type movie(AVP, SST, ST, DOOM)

science? mmm march of the penguins? congo medicine man(were those science movies)

Seen Cube 2: Hyper cube, tesserachtal fun in four dimensions, poorly executed but a brilliant plot.

Wiki link.

Cube 2: Hypercube
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Jump to: navigation, search
Cube 2: Hypercube

Cube 2: Hypercube film poster
Directed by Andrzej Sekula
Produced by Ernie Barbarash
Peter Block
Suzanne Colvin
Written by Sean Hood
Starring Kari Matchett
Geraint Wyn Davies
Grace Lynn Kung
Music by Norman Orenstein
Cinematography Andrzej Sekula
Editing by Mark Sanders
Distributed by Lions Gate Films
Release date(s) 2002
Running time 95 min
Langauge English
IMDb profile
"Cube 2" redirects here. For a game engine, see Sauerbraten (game).
Cube 2: Hypercube is the sequel of the science fiction movie Cube. Released in 2002, Hypercube had a bigger budget than its predecessor, and a new director, Andrzej Sekula.

The Industrial style rooms of the first movie are replaced with high-tech, brightly-lit chambers; the plausible technology of the traps — flamethrowers and extending spikes — are replaced with floating shapes with razor-sharp angles and shimmering translucent walls that disintegrate matter. The group discovers that the cubes are moving, not with lumbering slowness, but instantaneously. They realize they are inside a functioning tesseract in which gravity seems to shift, space distorts and time splits off into many separate paths. While some hailed the sequel as inspired madness, others derided it as brilliantly conceived but poorly executed. Particular criticisms include the level of acting and confusing ending.

Contents [hide]
1 Time and Space
2 Cannibalism
3 Relationships to Izon
4 The sub-plot
5 Traps
6 See also
7 External links



[edit] Time and Space
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
In the Hypercube, time and space seem to merge into one (hence, a 4-dimensional shape). The film has several facets.

First is the interpersonal relationships between the different people who find themselves inside this prison and the choices they make regarding survival.
Second, the reason each person is inside the prison, which has to do with their various relationships to a defense company called Izon.
Third, there is a sub-plot which by the end of the film takes over from the simpler story of survival. It regards the possible existence of a hacker called Alex Trusk, who some of the characters believe is linked to the Cube's construction.

[edit] Cannibalism
The first angle takes on a unique twist in the unusual environment of the tesseract. No fixed concept of time and space means that some events happen repeatedly. Also within a tesseract, people can meet themselves. This, coupled with the incarceration, has an obvious impact on the characters. Indeed, one of them - Jerry - is killed (and eaten, it is implied) by Simon, the private detective, again and again. The softer, more human Jerry, oblivious to the plights of his alternate selves seems to fall victim to the same character throughout the latter stages of the film. After each murder, Simon takes Jerry's watch and ID tag.

By the end of the movie we see that Simon (now aged by many years) has dozens of identical watches up and down both arms, several ID tags and he tells us that he has survived for years in the hypercube through cannibalism.

This is an allegory of the will to survive: even though there is seemingly no way to escape the hypercube, and no real quality of life to be had in killing and eating "the same" man over and over, our cannibal continues to pursue his goal: survival.


[edit] Relationships to Izon
Each of the characters begins to realize that it is his or her relationship with a company called Izon that seems to be the common thread between the prisoners. To one degree or another it appears that each character posed a threat to the Cube's existence becoming known by the wider public.

Simon Grady — a private detective who was searching for a missing Izon worker, Rebecca Young, who was also imprisoned in the Cube. He survives by cannabilism until the cube implodes.
Max — a computer hacker who is involved in a legal dispute with a company, Cyber Thrill, that stole his idea for a game. That company used the idea to make the cube and is a subsidiary of Izon. He dies of starvation. (Death not shown on screen.)
Julia — a defense lawyer for Izon in Max's legal case. Dies of starvation with Max.
Mrs. Paley — a retired theoretical mathematician with Alzheimer's disease who previously worked for Izon. Is murdered by Simon.
Colonel Thomas H. Maguire — a man who seems to have been intimately linked with the project. He references the first film by angrily crying that "The first one had numbers, dammit! At least give me something!" He then attempts suicide and fails, he is eventully burned to death in a trap.
Jerry Whitehall — a designer who worked on some of the Cube's mechanisms including the touch panels for the doors. He also seems to have a rough understanding of Quantum Physics. He is killed by a spinning cube trying to save Mrs Paley.
Sasha — a blind teenager whose link only becomes known in the last few minutes of the film and is in fact Alex Trusk. Her neck is broken by Simon.
Kate Filmore — a psychologist whose link is also revealed at the film's end in a plot twist. She escapes the Cube but is shot by the army.
Dr. Rozenzweig — a Nobel Prize nominee who was imprisoned within the cube for a while and was found by Kate's group. He is the person who deduces when the cubes unstable nature will destroy itself. It seems that this was his purpose in the Hypercube as he was left with a pen. He dies of starvation.

[edit] The sub-plot
As characters haggle about who could be responsible for building the Cube and what its purpose might be, the hacker states he knows who is responsible. He says a mythical hacker known as Alex Trusk is behind the project. His evidence is that the Cube bears all the hallmarks of a computer game and fits in with the way Trusk thinks. Other characters dispute this assertion (most notably Jerry, who believes Trusk is a myth).

The film ends with the revelation that the blind girl Sasha is in fact the real life Alex Trusk. She explains that she was horrified to learn people are being put into the cube. She stole important information to reveal its existence and then hid inside the Cube, reasoning that her employers would not search for her there. In the film's closing minutes, after revealing her true identity, she is killed by Simon and her necklace taken by Kate. Upon retrieving the necklace, Kate escapes the Cube and it is revealed that all along she was working for its builders. She hands the necklace over to her bosses because it contains a data storage device. They congratulate her and while she is being thanked, she is executed with a shot to the head.

Thus, every single prisoner of the Cube has died.

Cube 2 was followed by Cube Zero, a prequel to the original film.


[edit] Traps
All traps in the hypercube are a result of its unbalanced nature, and the fact that it is merely one room with doors leading to the same room in a different state — in four dimensions (time and space):

Some rooms appear to shift gravity — this is merely the next room being rotated relative to the previous room (such rotations are never less than 90 degrees, so the doors always line up)
Some rooms move in time and/or space relative to other cubes. So time in one room may go faster relative to another, and observers in the first room may even see occupants of the first room age quickly.
Rooms may move through each other:
The simplest observance of a room passing through another is moving walls, especially where the cube moving into the observer's room has faster time. The Colonel died when a room with faster time moved into the room he was in, aging part of his body much faster than the rest.
A room may pass through another in stages (or possibly, many rooms passing through another), as crystalline columns.
"The Expanding Tesseract" is one result of the hypercube's movement through itself — the edges of a small spinning tesseract which expands as it moves through the observed room temporally, until it fills the room, and then reduces again as it leaves. The Expanding Tesseract cuts like blades as anything which occupies the same space as the tesseract is subject to the properties of the tesseract "room(s)" — for instance, time in the tesseract room(s) may be relatively faster, resulting in a similar effect to the one which killed the Colonel. Jerry is killed by these blades saving Mrs Paley. Ultimately he is still alive though, in an alternate reality cube.

[edit] See also
Cube series for more details about how this film relates to the other Cube movies.
 
  • #33
That last post is more like it - not just a SF film with big guns and aliens, but some vague science/maths behind it!
 
  • #34
whatta said:
no, you missed the point. the number was not pi, it was 216 digits representing underlying structure of the world. the other guy was studying pi trying to find the system, and when he found it, his computer was fried, and he himself has almost died so he stopped. later, he attempts it once more, and the number kills him. that's when our hero realizes that it was exactly why his head hurts - since economic system is also explained by that number, and he was getting closer to it. that is also why his computer died twice after calculating the number. that aligns with the story told by rabbi (about "true name of god" that kills people). that's why he drills his head. to survive.

So that's the fiction... Where's the science?

IMHO Movie Science is an oxymoron
 
  • #35
Integral said:
So that's the fiction... Where's the science?

IMHO Movie Science is an oxymoron

Au contraire ever seen the dramatised series on Watson and Crick, now that was pretty good, not so much a movie more of a mini series, but well worth it. As was the life sotry of Stephen Hawking.

Anyone explain what the hell Solaris was all about? Wierd for the sake of wierd, anyone read the book. Reminded me of twin peaks, just bizarre for the sake of it, yes that's as deep as semolina custard dripping from a dead dogs eye, and I am curious: yellow? OK.
 
Last edited:
<h2>1. What makes a science film your favorite?</h2><p>For me, a great science film is one that combines entertainment with accurate scientific concepts and theories. I also appreciate films that explore ethical and moral dilemmas related to science, as well as those that inspire curiosity and critical thinking.</p><h2>2. Can you give an example of a science film that you consider to be your favorite?</h2><p>One of my favorite science films is "Interstellar" directed by Christopher Nolan. This film not only explores the concept of time dilation and space travel, but also delves into the emotional and psychological impact of these experiences on the characters.</p><h2>3. Do you think science films have a responsibility to accurately depict science?</h2><p>Yes, I believe science films have a responsibility to accurately depict science. While some creative liberties may be taken for the sake of storytelling, it is important for films to not misrepresent scientific facts and theories. This can lead to misconceptions and misunderstandings among the general public.</p><h2>4. How do you think science films can be used to educate and inspire people?</h2><p>Science films have the power to make complex scientific concepts more accessible and relatable to a wider audience. By using storytelling and visual effects, these films can spark curiosity and inspire people to learn more about science and its impact on our world.</p><h2>5. Are there any particular themes or messages that you look for in a science film?</h2><p>I am always drawn to science films that explore the potential consequences and ethical implications of scientific advancements. I also appreciate films that highlight the importance of collaboration and critical thinking in the scientific community.</p>

1. What makes a science film your favorite?

For me, a great science film is one that combines entertainment with accurate scientific concepts and theories. I also appreciate films that explore ethical and moral dilemmas related to science, as well as those that inspire curiosity and critical thinking.

2. Can you give an example of a science film that you consider to be your favorite?

One of my favorite science films is "Interstellar" directed by Christopher Nolan. This film not only explores the concept of time dilation and space travel, but also delves into the emotional and psychological impact of these experiences on the characters.

3. Do you think science films have a responsibility to accurately depict science?

Yes, I believe science films have a responsibility to accurately depict science. While some creative liberties may be taken for the sake of storytelling, it is important for films to not misrepresent scientific facts and theories. This can lead to misconceptions and misunderstandings among the general public.

4. How do you think science films can be used to educate and inspire people?

Science films have the power to make complex scientific concepts more accessible and relatable to a wider audience. By using storytelling and visual effects, these films can spark curiosity and inspire people to learn more about science and its impact on our world.

5. Are there any particular themes or messages that you look for in a science film?

I am always drawn to science films that explore the potential consequences and ethical implications of scientific advancements. I also appreciate films that highlight the importance of collaboration and critical thinking in the scientific community.

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