MovieChat Forums > The Core (2003) Discussion > Are movies like The Core just anti-scien...

Are movies like The Core just anti-science propoganda?


Seriously, these kinds of movies just reinforce the slack jawed yokels view of science as a load of rubbish. Movies like The Day After Tomorrow are so ridiculous that they help reinforce in the minds of the stupid that climate change is a scientific conspiracy and that the academics are trying to take away the livelihoods of the layman.

I can suspend belief for an entertaining story, but when the so called science is just utterly ridiculous, it's infuriating. It may as well be about magic and supernatural forces.

The quote in The Core is a giveaway: "This is all best guess commander. That's all science is, is best guess." when science is anything but.

Or perhaps I'm just mistaking incompetence for malice.

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Agreed. Which is precisely WHY I didn't watch this film expecting scientific accuracy. I mostly viewed it as comedy... and a really bad one at that.

Just a few of the really eye-rolling, ridiculously over the top nonsense in the film:

The team is gonna use weapons of mass destruction to save the planet? O-kay.

The material used in the film is called Unobtainium? Well, heck.. why not just go the extra mile and call it Ridiculousnium or something along those lines.

The Earth's core spins? And setting off multiple WMDs at the now non-spinning Earth's core is gonna jump start it again? Wow... just wow.

The team, in their crippled drilling vehicle, which is stuck at the bottom of the ocean is saved.... by whales...? Whaaaa?

There are so many problems with this film that it would be nearly impossible to write them all down... and seriously, haven't we all got better things to do with our time?

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actually no. They are not anti-science, since several of the scientists in the movie save the day. It is anti- "selling out to the military to allow them to turn scientific research into weapons of mass destruction" propaganda.

The thing to remember though is, all our technology is eventually pushed ahead by our desire to find military applications for scientific research.

If you go back to the early 1900's bi-planes were developed to fight wars. Same with our first jets.. etc... Nuclear Physics was first a weapon's project.

And I am certain that before the Internet was appropriated for commercial ventures..( Like this one) it was started to preserve knowledge in the event of an attack on any computer, by spreading the information to many, and setting all the computers up in a network. NOT laying all our eggs on one basket so to speak.

So No..It's not anti-science. And it's not even anti-military. Ultimately 2 scientists figure out how to save the earth, and use 5 Nuclear Bombs to do it.

If I can reccomend an awesome movie... watch Dr Strangelove: How I learned to stop worrying, and love the bomb.

Relax, and stop taking movies so seriously.

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dolores wrote "Relax, and stop taking movies so seriously."

Except that this film is so eye-rolling, over-the-top ridiculous that it strains credulity in almost every way imaginable. I wasn't able to view this drivel in one sitting. I could only tolerate it in like 5 to 7 minute increments before I had to change the channel to something else.

It may not be anti-science, but it is definitely NOT accurate science.

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it was never intended to be accurate science. But more along the lines of " All we have is our brains and what we brought with us... what now?" type of " Rah rah ain't humans awesome?" type of movies.

I am sorry you didn't Like it. I totally enjoyed it, then again, I also enjoy soap operas.

To each his own, or " Degustibus et coloris non disputandum est"

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Yeah, because Star Wars is scientifically accurate?

roflmao

Because Jurassic Park is scientifically accurate?

roflmao

Because Back to the Future is scientifically accurate?

roflmao

Its a jungle out there.

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Exactly, casm. Well said. :thumbsup:



You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

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I'm glad Star Trek wuznt on ur list

Werd 2 ur mudda, bruddafckka

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And I am certain that before the Internet was appropriated for commercial ventures..( Like this one) it was started to preserve knowledge in the event of an attack on any computer, by spreading the information to many, and setting all the computers up in a network. NOT laying all our eggs on one basket so to speak.

internet was iveted by the millitary to have constabt unbreakable connection in a event of nuclear war and first itneret span between military bases. there was a period that americas were proud that their internet infrastructure was built to survive a nuclear war, which it was. just that it has been left to rot ad is now useless in comparison to the rest of the world.

---------------------------------------------
Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

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Actually, all our technology is eventually pushed ahead by our desire to Get Laid. Or at least find a reasonable facsimile thereof.

This is why the greatest information tool of all human history is used, first and foremost, to obtain and distribute porn.

That's not poo-pooing the action, that's acking it. We are sexual creatures.

If your parents weren't you would not be here. You descend from a LONG line of creatures who considered sex an important thing.

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[deleted]

I mostly viewed it as comedy... and a really bad one at that.

Fails on that level. Miserably.

Mork and Mindy was a comedy featuring a space-traveling alien. Now THAT had a certain absurdity which worked as comedy. So did the Coneheads. Or even Back to the Future or Ghostbusters.

While this movie COULD have had that kind of quality, it didn't. It took itself WAY too seriously. You can't have that much bad science in a film which takes itself seriously... especially about the science!


______
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - Carl Sagan

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Very succinctly put, Sir, i couldn't have said it better myself.

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[deleted]

Even before it gets to that part about science being a best guess. The true turning point of the movie is where Zimsky says "what if we could?" when referring to drilling to the center of the Earth. It's hopelessly impossible in reality but for the sake of a disaster/fantasy movie, I'm ok with it. Initially the bad science bothered me but I've grown to enjoy this movie because I take it with a large grain of salt. it's not intended to be anti or pro science. It's just B grade entertainment that has it's fair share of moments. I also like Stanley Tucci, so there's that. :)

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The quote in The Core is a giveaway: "This is all best guess commander. That's all science is, is best guess." when science is anything but.

The thing is: that IS what science is. It's our best guess as to what will happen in any given situation based upon on our mathematical approximations of how similar situations have panned out in the past. Those approximations or formulas can only take into account whatever variables that we were mindful of in the past. But whenever new variables pop up and come into play, then we find the limits of our existing formulas, and we have to revise.

One of the hallmarks of science is the commitment to revise our current "knowledge" (or really, "best guess") whenever new, relevant information comes in.

It's just as much of a disservice to science as any would-be propagandist film when you try to depict science as something more than that. Don't deify it. Don't glorify it.

Just celebrate it, but in a qualified, realistic manner.

Scientists can send down probes or use sonar or whatever to try to get an idea of what is beneath the crust, and then fill in some of the gaps with logic, but whatever picture they have been able to develop so far is far from complete. There are huge black holes in the picture--something akin to the crystal cavern that is found in this movie.

So if a team were ever to attempt something like this, they would indeed be operating by a hell of a lot of best guesses as to what they would encounter along the way.

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A best guess implies that we kind of did a rough estimate and ended up with a rough answer, this isn't really science. Science is about looking at why and how things happen then testing theory, if the theory work then it is most probably right. A 'best guess' implies that a child took a simple guess out of A, B, or C.

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1. A tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.
1. To predict (a result or an event) without sufficient information.
The first is the definition for hypothesis and the second is for guess. While there is much wrong with this movie on a scientific level, I have to say this quote is not one of them. Is the hypothesis not the foundation for the scientific method?

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Science is about the questions, engineering is about the answers.

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If you can't tell the difference between science and science-fiction then you are dumb as a brick.

:: filmschoolthrucommentaries ::

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they help reinforce in the minds of the stupid that climate change is a scientific conspiracy


Climate change is not a scientific conspiracy. It's an UNscientific conspiracy.

Anyone who thinks "climate change" is "scientific" does not grasp what SCIENCE is. And anyone -- anywhere -- who even BREATHES the word "consensus" is either an ignorant fool or a lying charlatan, and perhaps both... Science does not operate by "consensus". Never has, never will. Every single person on the planet can believe one thing, and one solitary person another. If the solitary person performs the right experiment, with the correct results, he/she can demonstrate that he/she is right and everyone else wrong.

If you doubt this, look into the history of "Lumniferous Ether" (once one of THE prevalent theories of physics that EVERYONE knew was correct) and the Michelson-Morley Experiment. "Consensus" debunked by two men.

Science is about experiment, reproduction of experiments, and predictions based on theories and conducting experiments to test those theories.

Richard Feynman on The Scientific Method.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdMmbaQHIs0
Pay particular attention to the part where he is talking @ 5:10, about vague theories. This phrase describes Global Warming/"Climate Change" in a nutshell.

"Global Warming" (the fact that you need to change the basic TERM to refer to it says how badly its predictive qualities are) continually twists, alters, and cherry-picks data, hides experimental procedures to prevent the reproduction of experiments, and uses social tricks to attempt to "refute" debate over its validity -- like "Change Denier" (suggesting a false equivalence with "Holocaust Denier") and claiming "consensus" (already debunked above).

Supporters constantly attempt to silence critics, who continually produce challenging evidence to dispute the claims made by its supporters, rather than counter the evidence provided -- mainly, because it usually cannot.

They also attempt to suggest that anyone opposing it is a fraud in the pay of rich monied opposition, all the while ignoring -- utterly -- that the REAL money is to be found in SUPPORTING "Climate Change", not in opposing it. There may be millions to be had in challenging "Climate Change". But there are MANY BILLIONS to be had in supporting it.

P.S., As far as being "stupid", I taught MYSELF Calculus at 15, with no outside help, and was taking -- and passing with A's -- graduate level math courses before I was 19. I'm also a programmer by trade, so I more than amply understand the limitations of computer modelling techniques, which is what the whole theory is based on.

Is there "Warming"? Probably. The question is not "is there?" -- and this is yet another place where the Climate Change Religionists distort things, by claiming all opposition denies that "change" happens.

Of course it happens. The historiological record is filled with cases where it changes, often quite rapidly.

The questions are not IF it's changing, but HOW, and WHY, and HOW MUCH. And, on top of that, what is the BEST APPROACH to dealing with it, regardless of cause.

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I read through the endless paragraphs and the only thing I could surmise is that your full of yourself and for some reason you need to validate your intelligence....... Sorry it's actually one in the same.

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i know and and what worse they see no problem in ghost or horror films or even films like raiders of the last ark!

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