Monday, May 31, 2004
“THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW”
Richard B. Cathcart
Geographos
rbcathcart@msn.com
On 29 May, theatre ticket sales spiked globally, due in large part to the spectacular cinematic special effects displayed in Roland Emmerich’s allegedly Geoscience-based film.
In 1998’s movie box-office hits ARMAGEDDON and DEEP IMPACT, huge sea waves caused by ocean impacts of extraterrestrial debris destroyed coast-located urban regions, including New York City. However, in THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, a confection of every Green person’s dreamt epic ecodisaster desires, a monstrous sea wave merely inundates the streets of New York City, even allowing for super-ships to float placidly in the flooded city streets. [See still picture reproduced from the film that accompanied Myles Allen’s review, “Making heavy weather”, Nature 429: 347-348, 27 May 2004.]
How can truly cinematic Geoscience be so inconclusive?
Never mind that comedian Jay Leno’s nightly national TV program recently mocked the movie’s title with a delightful video skit, presented as a “promotional trailer”, by playing on its confusing time sequence—a la “Abie”, the child-character, in THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (1950) concocted by Jack Trevor Story (1917-1991).
The dynamic force of a large slamming sea wave on a vertical wall is immense. Roland Emmerich’s Manhattan Island skyscrapers, however, don’t even quiver, let alone collapse or shatter from the sea wave’s watery impact! Geoscientifical rubbish!
The maximum physical wind pressure on a tall building’s solid exterior sheath could be ~3 Newton per square meter of surface. But, a slamming sea wave—as depicted in the film—might exert ~690 Newton per square meter. [Seawater’s density is ~1.025 gram per cubic centimeter while air’s is ~0.0012 gram per cubic centimeter. One Newton is the SI unit of force equal to the force that gives a mass of 1 kilogram an acceleration of 1 meter per second per second in the direction of action of the force.]
So, Roland Emmerich’s computer-skilled special effects employees took considerable artistic license with ordinary geophysical facts. After all, who’d care about a subsequent new Ice Age’s effect on New York City if New York City had already been rendered into crumbled beach debris! In fact, a pulverized New York City would be of interest only to geoscientists, who must struggle to come up with an agreed new name for an abruptly formed new geological deposit! That would be an unfilmable scientific conflict!
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW gets its physical geography, geology and basic physics wrong; its storyline is preposterous. Nevertheless, its commercial public showings as well as its eventual DVD rentals and sales will gross a geophysical-scale quantity of money worldwide! All that cash, collected in one place just might cause….
With Hollywood, it’s never “The End”!
Richard B. Cathcart
Geographos
rbcathcart@msn.com
On 29 May, theatre ticket sales spiked globally, due in large part to the spectacular cinematic special effects displayed in Roland Emmerich’s allegedly Geoscience-based film.
In 1998’s movie box-office hits ARMAGEDDON and DEEP IMPACT, huge sea waves caused by ocean impacts of extraterrestrial debris destroyed coast-located urban regions, including New York City. However, in THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, a confection of every Green person’s dreamt epic ecodisaster desires, a monstrous sea wave merely inundates the streets of New York City, even allowing for super-ships to float placidly in the flooded city streets. [See still picture reproduced from the film that accompanied Myles Allen’s review, “Making heavy weather”, Nature 429: 347-348, 27 May 2004.]
How can truly cinematic Geoscience be so inconclusive?
Never mind that comedian Jay Leno’s nightly national TV program recently mocked the movie’s title with a delightful video skit, presented as a “promotional trailer”, by playing on its confusing time sequence—a la “Abie”, the child-character, in THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (1950) concocted by Jack Trevor Story (1917-1991).
The dynamic force of a large slamming sea wave on a vertical wall is immense. Roland Emmerich’s Manhattan Island skyscrapers, however, don’t even quiver, let alone collapse or shatter from the sea wave’s watery impact! Geoscientifical rubbish!
The maximum physical wind pressure on a tall building’s solid exterior sheath could be ~3 Newton per square meter of surface. But, a slamming sea wave—as depicted in the film—might exert ~690 Newton per square meter. [Seawater’s density is ~1.025 gram per cubic centimeter while air’s is ~0.0012 gram per cubic centimeter. One Newton is the SI unit of force equal to the force that gives a mass of 1 kilogram an acceleration of 1 meter per second per second in the direction of action of the force.]
So, Roland Emmerich’s computer-skilled special effects employees took considerable artistic license with ordinary geophysical facts. After all, who’d care about a subsequent new Ice Age’s effect on New York City if New York City had already been rendered into crumbled beach debris! In fact, a pulverized New York City would be of interest only to geoscientists, who must struggle to come up with an agreed new name for an abruptly formed new geological deposit! That would be an unfilmable scientific conflict!
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW gets its physical geography, geology and basic physics wrong; its storyline is preposterous. Nevertheless, its commercial public showings as well as its eventual DVD rentals and sales will gross a geophysical-scale quantity of money worldwide! All that cash, collected in one place just might cause….
With Hollywood, it’s never “The End”!
“THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW” (28 May 2004)
Richard B. Cathcart
On 29 May, theatre ticket sales spiked globally, due in large part to the spectacular cinematic special effects displayed in Roland Emmerich’s allegedly Geoscience-based film.
In 1998’s movie box-office hits ARMAGEDDON and DEEP IMPACT, huge sea waves caused by ocean impacts of extraterrestrial debris destroyed coast-located urban regions, including New York City. However, in THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, a confection of every Green person’s dreamt epic ecodisaster desires, a monstrous sea wave merely inundates the streets of New York City, even allowing for super-ships to float placidly in the flooded city streets. [See still picture reproduced from the film that accompanied Myles Allen’s review, “Making heavy weather”, Nature 429: 347-348, 27 May 2004.]
How can truly cinematic Geoscience be so inconclusive?
Never mind that comedian Jay Leno’s nightly national TV program recently mocked the movie’s title with a delightful video skit, presented as a “promotional trailer”, by playing on its confusing time sequence—a la “Abie”, the child-character, in THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (1950) concocted by Jack Trevor Story (1917-1991).
The dynamic force of a large slamming sea wave on a vertical wall is immense. Roland Emmerich’s Manhattan Island skyscrapers, however, don’t even quiver, let alone collapse or shatter from the sea wave’s watery impact! Geoscientifical rubbish!
The maximum physical wind pressure on a tall building’s solid exterior sheath could be ~3 Newton per square meter of surface. But, a slamming sea wave—as depicted in the film—might exert ~690 Newton per square meter. [Seawater’s density is ~1.025 gram per cubic centimeter while air’s is ~0.0012 gram per cubic centimeter. One Newton is the SI unit of force equal to the force that gives a mass of 1 kilogram an acceleration of 1 meter per second per second in the direction of action of the force.]
So, Roland Emmerich’s computer-skilled special effects employees took considerable artistic license with ordinary geophysical facts. After all, who’d care about a subsequent new Ice Age’s effect on New York City if New York City had already been rendered into crumbled beach debris! In fact, a pulverized New York City would be of interest only to geoscientists, who must struggle to come up with an agreed new name for an abruptly formed new geological deposit! That would be an unfilmable scientific conflict!
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW gets its physical geography, geology and basic physics wrong; its storyline is preposterous. Nevertheless, its commercial public showings as well as its eventual DVD rentals and sales will gross a geophysical-scale quantity of money worldwide! All that cash, collected in one place just might cause….
With Hollywood, it’s never “The End”!
Richard B. Cathcart
On 29 May, theatre ticket sales spiked globally, due in large part to the spectacular cinematic special effects displayed in Roland Emmerich’s allegedly Geoscience-based film.
In 1998’s movie box-office hits ARMAGEDDON and DEEP IMPACT, huge sea waves caused by ocean impacts of extraterrestrial debris destroyed coast-located urban regions, including New York City. However, in THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, a confection of every Green person’s dreamt epic ecodisaster desires, a monstrous sea wave merely inundates the streets of New York City, even allowing for super-ships to float placidly in the flooded city streets. [See still picture reproduced from the film that accompanied Myles Allen’s review, “Making heavy weather”, Nature 429: 347-348, 27 May 2004.]
How can truly cinematic Geoscience be so inconclusive?
Never mind that comedian Jay Leno’s nightly national TV program recently mocked the movie’s title with a delightful video skit, presented as a “promotional trailer”, by playing on its confusing time sequence—a la “Abie”, the child-character, in THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (1950) concocted by Jack Trevor Story (1917-1991).
The dynamic force of a large slamming sea wave on a vertical wall is immense. Roland Emmerich’s Manhattan Island skyscrapers, however, don’t even quiver, let alone collapse or shatter from the sea wave’s watery impact! Geoscientifical rubbish!
The maximum physical wind pressure on a tall building’s solid exterior sheath could be ~3 Newton per square meter of surface. But, a slamming sea wave—as depicted in the film—might exert ~690 Newton per square meter. [Seawater’s density is ~1.025 gram per cubic centimeter while air’s is ~0.0012 gram per cubic centimeter. One Newton is the SI unit of force equal to the force that gives a mass of 1 kilogram an acceleration of 1 meter per second per second in the direction of action of the force.]
So, Roland Emmerich’s computer-skilled special effects employees took considerable artistic license with ordinary geophysical facts. After all, who’d care about a subsequent new Ice Age’s effect on New York City if New York City had already been rendered into crumbled beach debris! In fact, a pulverized New York City would be of interest only to geoscientists, who must struggle to come up with an agreed new name for an abruptly formed new geological deposit! That would be an unfilmable scientific conflict!
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW gets its physical geography, geology and basic physics wrong; its storyline is preposterous. Nevertheless, its commercial public showings as well as its eventual DVD rentals and sales will gross a geophysical-scale quantity of money worldwide! All that cash, collected in one place just might cause….
With Hollywood, it’s never “The End”!
