Which movies and TV shows have the best representation of science and math?

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The discussion centers around compiling a list of thought-provoking films and TV shows related to science, physics, and mathematics. Participants share various titles, including "The Arrival," "A Beautiful Mind," and "2001: A Space Odyssey," while critiquing the scientific accuracy of others like "Independence Day" and "Event Horizon." The importance of accurate science in films is emphasized, with some suggesting that movies exhibiting poor science should be excluded from consideration. Notable mentions include "Apollo 13," "October Sky," and "Gattaca," alongside TV series like "Connections" and "Blue Planet." The conversation also touches on the challenges of adapting beloved science fiction literature into films, expressing concerns about fidelity to the source material and the potential for Hollywood to misrepresent key themes. Overall, the thread reflects a passion for science and cinema, highlighting both entertainment and educational value.
  • #31
Danger said:
Are you kidding?! Alissa Milano naked!

:smile: I had to think about this...hmmm...which episode was that? OH, HER! YES!
 
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  • #32
one of my favourites is "dark star". check it out guys.
 
  • #33
Ivan Seeking said:
:smile: I had to think about this...hmmm...which episode was that?
I still get a little twitchy whenever I see a butterfly.
 
  • #34
Ivan Seeking said:
Am I the only one who liked the new Outer Limits?
I have seen most of the new ones. You're right, they are creative.
Did anyone here watch Taken?
Yeah, I saw the whole thing. Some parts were really good. but Spielberg being Spielberg couldn't get himself all the way over into how dark that series should have been, given the subject matter. I kept thinking Cronenberg would have been a better director.
 
  • #35
Danger said:
In that case, I must mention Barbarella. :biggrin:

Start talking like that and I'll throw in Earth Girls are Easy! :smile:

Hey, for anyone interested, I noticed one day the writer for I think three of the Original Twilight Zone episodes was Earl Hamner - the real John Boy Walton.
 
  • #36
stoned said:
one of my favourites is "dark star". check it out guys.
I've seen it. I wish I had a copy. Love that bomb.

Also, although I've only had the chance to see it 2 or 3 times, the Red Dwarf series was great.
 
  • #37
Ivan Seeking said:
Start talking like that and I'll throw in Earth Girls are Easy!
...Gina...droooooooooooolllllllll...Davis...droooooooooollllll
 
  • #38
Ivan Seeking said:
Start talking like that and I'll throw in Earth Girls are Easy! :smile:
I do own that one on tape. :redface: It was a gift.
 
  • #39
zoobyshoe said:
Yeah, I saw the whole thing. Some parts were really good. but Spielberg being Spielberg couldn't get himself all the way over into how dark that series should have been, given the subject matter. I kept thinking Cronenberg would have been a better director.

I can see that. It had a dark side but it could have been much darker. WEre there too many warm and fuzzies for your tastes? :biggrin: Still, the story definitely kept my attention. In fact Tsu doesn't even like this sort of stuff but she watched the whole thing twice I think.
 
  • #40
Danger said:
I still get a little twitchy whenever I see a butterfly.

You get butterflies when you see butterflies?
 
  • #41
Of course, we can't omit 'Rocky Horror'. :biggrin:

I don't know if this counts, because they're not mainstream. I have 2 tapes from the 'Strike Force' series: 'Test Pilot' and 'Air Battle'. They're short documentaries.
You might like the cover quote from 'Test Pilot':

About 1,000 gallons of liquid oxygen, 1,200 gallons of anhydrous ammonia and 800 pounds of hydrogen peroxide got together and did their chemical thing. It was pretty violent activity for a moment or two. It was like being in the sun.
-Scott Crossfield
 
  • #42
Ivan Seeking said:
I can see that. It had a dark side but it could have been much darker.
It wasn't dark in a proper way. The dark characters just came off as sociopaths, which is disturbing. Cronenberg can do dark. Even better is M. Night Shyamalan. Take Signs. It had all the strong family elements Taken did, but without this surface, saccharine thing Spielberg does.
 
  • #43
zoobyshoe said:
It wasn't dark in a proper way. The dark characters just came off as sociopaths, which is disturbing. Cronenberg can do dark. Even better is M. Night Shyamalan. Take Signs. It had all the strong family elements Taken did, but without this surface, saccharine thing Spielberg does.

I like Speilberg, but how many times can we watch a crowd of awestruck bystanders with brightly lit faces stare in amazement at the phenomenal?

That reminds me a bit of Independence Day. It was a fun movie, but it could have been a good movie. Instead, every time the writers had a chance to make things interesting, instead we get ole what's his name acting cool and smoking cigars.
 
  • #44
Danger said:
I thought you were a Yank? I've never met one who ever heard of the Arrow, and the ones that I told about it called me a liar. As a lot of my friends here say, "Don't even get me started on the Arrow." We're all madder than a raped nun about that, and it's a mad that will never go away. June Callwood swears that she heard the unmistakeable sound of J75 engines leaving the base when the fleet was grounded. We still hold out hope that it was ditched in Lake Ontario and is just waiting for us to find it and put it back in the air. If you can get your hands on the Arrow movie, do so. It's a CBC production available on tape.
I have the Arrow movie on video tape. We taped it when it was shown on CBC. My whole family is Canadian. I was the first to be born in the states. My Dad is an avid aviation buff/historian. The Arrow story has been my "boogie man" story for as long as I can remember. What an absolute awsome piece of aviation engineering. I would give my left arm to see one fly again. The story around it's demise is so heart breaking. My Dad has a photo hanging on his wall of the Avro flightline on the day they started hacking up the airframes. I agree that it is a mad that will never go away. I am convinced the US had everything to do with it's end and Diefenbaker was a complete and utter idiot. Who knows where Canada's aerospace industry would be now if it had kept going.

Danger said:
By the way, where the hell were you when we were trying to find out the weight of a JT9D in GP?
I saw that thread. I actually could not find a weight in any of my references, so I didn't think I should chime in. I am still looking though.
 
  • #45
zoobyshoe said:
The Dish (Never heard of this one, so I looked it up):

Australia's involvement with the 1969 Apollo moon mission arrived with an unexpected wallop when its radio telescope in rural Parkes was elevated fron the Southern Hemishpere's backup broadcaster to primary broadcaster of Neil Armstrong's "one giant leap for mankind'. It is a modern wonder that the ten-year-old multibillion-dollar program became solely reliant on an untested crew based in a sheep paddock to capture this priceless moment in history."

DVD & Video Guide, Martin & Porter, 2004
Like many Australian movies, this is a pretty off-beat one. I really enjoyed it (PS: I currently live in Australia so may be biased).
 
  • #46
Someone already mentioned "Silent Running." Did "Outland" already get mentioned? BOth are good in that they portray silent explosions in space.
 
  • #47
FredGarvin said:
Who knows where Canada's aerospace industry would be now if it had kept going.
And think where NASA wouldn't be. The whole bloody space programme was put together by Avro engineers who had to move to get work. (And the Germans, of course.) I saw some guy claiming to have designed the Apollo LEM specifically for NASA. How'd he get away with that, when it was already on the drawing board to be launched from Arrow?

FredGarvin said:
I saw that thread. I actually could not find a weight in any of my references, so I didn't think I should chime in. I am still looking though.
You'd still have a head start over the rest of us. I was just taking what I thought was an educated guess based upon size and materials. Somehow 4 tons just feels wrong to me.
 
  • #48
Chi Meson said:
Someone already mentioned "Silent Running." Did "Outland" already get mentioned? BOth are good in that they portray silent explosions in space.
Of course, 'Outland' also shows a guy carrying a shotgun inside a pressure dome... :rolleyes:
 
  • #49
Danger said:
Of course, 'Outland' also shows a guy carrying a shotgun inside a pressure dome... :rolleyes:

Why? Is it a bad idea to shoot firearms at windows when inside a space colony? :confused:
 
  • #50
Chi Meson said:
Why? Is it a bad idea to shoot firearms at windows when inside a space colony? :confused:
'Bad' is such a moralistic term. Perhaps 'ill-advised' is more appropriate. Sort of like poking a tiger with a stick, or teasing Moonbear on a bad day. :biggrin:
 
  • #51
You could get a swollen head that way. I suppose it would be OK if you have an inflated ego.

(I only had a minute to come up with this, so give me a break.)
 
  • #52
Ivan Seeking said:
I like Speilberg, but how many times can we watch a crowd of awestruck bystanders with brightly lit faces stare in amazement at the phenomenal?
If someone else imitated him the way he imitates himself, they'd be dismissed for it.
That reminds me a bit of Independence Day. It was a fun movie, but it could have been a good movie. Instead, every time the writers had a chance to make things interesting, instead we get ole what's his name acting cool and smoking cigars.
I love Will Smith. Yawned at that one, though. I'd rather watch the under-rated Wild, Wild West again. The repartee in his first scene with Loveless is hysterical. Great effects and the lovely Salma Hyak. That is a fun movie.
 
  • #53
alexandra said:
Like many Australian movies, this is a pretty off-beat one. I really enjoyed it (PS: I currently live in Australia so may be biased).
I love off-beat, and Australia seems to specialize in off-beat movies. Or maybe those are the only ones they export. They always seem to be energised by originality.
 
  • #54
Chi Meson said:
(I only had a minute to come up with this, so give me a break.)
Not bad for short notice. Sometimes a groaner is the appropriate type of joke.

zoobyshoe said:
I'd rather watch the under-rated Wild, Wild West again.
Haven't seen it, but maybe I should. It's the same as things like 'The Mod Squad' and 'Beverly Hillbillies'; I don't like the idea of characters changing that much from what I remember. I was wrong about 'The Addams Family' though, so maybe about this too. Although James West was pretty much interchangeable witht the likes of Kirk or James Bond, I can't imagine anyone but Ross Martin being Artemus Gordon.
 
  • #55
"Through the Auditory Canal With A Gun And Camera"...a precusor to "Fantastic Voyage"
 
  • #56
Chi Meson said:
Someone already mentioned "Silent Running." Did "Outland" already get mentioned? BOth are good in that they portray silent explosions in space.
Do't get so exited. They only do that because accuracy in this case is cheaper.
 
  • #57
Danger said:
I don't like the idea of characters changing that much from what I remember.
This film seems to go out of its way to be radically different from the TV show. I know what you mean; sometimes you just feel "They got it all wrong and this just sucks." Wild Wild West doesn't bother to pretend to be getting it right. They just took a few key elements and went crazy with them.
 
  • #58
Danger said:
And think where NASA wouldn't be. The whole bloody space programme was put together by Avro engineers who had to move to get work. (And the Germans, of course.)

I read a book not too long ago about the "brain drain" that Avro's closing caused. It really was a shame for Canada because the people this book talked about were incredibly bright people. NASA would have not been able to do what it did without them.

Screw "Who killed Kennedy?"...I want to know what the hell happened to the Arrow.
 
Last edited:
  • #59
Artman said:
Numbers

I love Numb3rs :biggrin:. It's not on TV here, so I've been downloading it.
 
  • #60
I just saw the day the Earth stood still yesterday, good movie.
 

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