Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

            It is often obvious when an action and reaction from a film is exaggerated. And, because it is obvious it can make a movie unrealistic, but it opens up our imagination and gets us to wonder, what if? Most movies go by Newton’s Third Law: action-reaction principle, but will exaggerate it to keep the viewers interest.

            In the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, Bella has become a newborn vampire and was about to meet her daughter for the first time. Seconds after meeting her she finds out that Jacob had imprinted on her daughter, meaning that they are both destined to be together forever. Raging with anger, Bella lashes out at him pushing him around. To Jacob’s defense, his friend Seth who is in a large wolf form jumps at Bella. Instead of the large wolf knocking Bella over she catches Seth in mid-air and throws him against a tree. This is called an Action-Reaction Pairs, where Seth exerts a force on Bella, and as a reaction Bella exerts a force back on Seth. Because these two characters are both unusually stronger than an average human and an average wolf, maybe the action-reaction principle was realistically executed. However, if Bella was just a human and Seth was really a wolf then Newton’s Third Law would have been applied differently. Realistically speaking, Bella would have been knocked over easily and would not have been able to push Seth off at all.

            When person A and person B both push off of person C there should be a major reaction to person C but that is not the case in the movie Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. Towards the end of the movie Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, and Drew Barrymore are faced with an evil character played by Demi Moore. The last final kick that ends up killing Demi was an action where Lucy and Drew jump on Cameron’s hands and they push off from it, with a little push from Cameron as well. When Lucy and Drew kick Demi, her reaction is of her unrealistically flying far from the kick and the force causes her body to break through the stages wooden floor, causing Demi to fall to her death. There were a number of things that did not look right. First, when two people’s entire weight is on one person it shouldn’t have that one person react as if the other two were light as feathers, because obviously they are not. The two women that used Cameron’s hands to push off should have had Cameron reacting by moving back. Because Cameron did not react to the push, it only tells us how strong Cameron is because then that would mean that the action force of the two women and the action force from Cameron was equal. For Demi Moore’s character her reaction to the kick was overly exaggerated making it obvious that her character used wires in the scene because when she broke through the wooden floor it created a dramatic impact force. By manipulating the action-reaction principle it gave this semi-comedic/action film a “lighter” story line, pun intended.

            This next scene was obviously illustrated the action-reaction principle incorrectly. A 250 pound panda bear gets his teeth knocked out by an air filled punching bag, how is that possible? It is not.  In Kung Fu Panda, Po is asked to hit the air filled punching bag. He gives the bag a sissy punch and it just wobbles in place with not much reaction. The second time around he gives the bag a good punch and the bag swings off screen for a second or two then the bag swings back, knocking Po to the ground and even got a tooth knocked out of his mouth. Physically the air bag cannot possibly swing back so fast and hard that it knocks out someone’s tooth. Po is much more heavier than the air filled punching bag so it would be like the bag is hitting a wall, causing no reaction to Po. Newton’s Third Law is broken when Po gets knocked over by something that he should have knocked over. Even though the action-reaction principle was broken, it worked well with Po’s character. Po’s character was portrayed perfectly in that scene because it showed how big of a weenie he was and that even an air filled bag could defeat him. It pushed Po back so far that it was more entertaining to watch him bounce back and grow strong enough to beat Tai Lung. In this case I think that breaking the action-reaction principle played will in the main characters favor.

            Sometimes movies need to break Newton’s Third Law because if it were to be as real as it gets it would just make the movie boring, and have the viewers feel like it is something they already seen. Of course when it is a serious story line being extra realistic will heighten the seriousness of the story. However, for an action film or animated film it helps to exaggerate and break the action-reaction principle. We, as viewers want a break from reality and want to be entertained by something that isn’t possible in the real world. It not only opens up our minds for imagination but it also leaves us wanting more of it. If the Newton’s Third Law were based on human emotion and feelings, then I would say that the creators of these films executed the action-reaction principle correctly. The principle of action and reaction plays a big roll in how the animators want the characters to be portrayed. Being able to withstand a large wolf lunging at you or being able to push off two people with your hands and not reacting to it shows how strong that character is, which is what they want the viewers to know. Or, literally a full-grown panda being knocked over by an air bag shows how weak he is with an extremely low stamina, which is what the animators wanted the viewers to know about him before they take on the story further.

            Science fact and cinematic fiction are both considered when making a movie. They push the action-reaction principle to draw the viewers’ attention but sometimes not too much, where it might look extremely fake that the viewers don’t absorb the story and process it in their minds. There is a line between science facts and cinematic fiction, and it is up to us to decide where to draw the line depending on what type of theme, mood, etc., you want the viewers to get involved with.