| HOLLYWOOD SCIENCE Movies, Science, and the End of the World Sidney Perkowitz New York: Columbia University Press, December 2007 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-231-14280-9 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-231-14280-3 | 255p. | HC | $27.95 | |
| Page 32: | "In Independence Day, scientists find that a huge unknown body is approaching the Earth. It can't be a natural object because it's slowing down rather than speeding up. It turns out to be a truly enormous spaceship, nearly 350 miles across and a quarter the mass of the moon. The ship splits into three dozen smaller units, still stupendous at fifteen miles across and each stationed above a major city." |
| Perkowitz gets several things wrong here. First, the mother ship is (IIRC) 750 miles in diameter. I don't clearly recall its mass being stated but I'll stipulate to 0.25 of Luna.1 Second, it doesn't split; it merely releases the smaller ships and remains in orbit behind the Moon.2 |
| Page 32: | "Although David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), an MIT graduate who works for a cable company, begins to analyze patterns in the alien radio signals..." |
| Imprecise: S/B "a cable TV company". |
| Page 33: | "...David plugs his laptop computer into the alien system and unleashes a virus that takes down the shields. To finish the job, an international fleet of aircraft attacks the now vulnerable ships." |
| A rather important element of tactics is missing here: the two nuclear missiles that Hiller and Levinson leave behind in the mother ship, on 30-second timers, as they manage to escape in the alien fighter craft. (And it's a nit, but the ships at Earth are attacked by whatever planes any nation can muster. I wouldn't call this an "international fleet of aircraft.") |
| Page 62: | "Still, that six-mile asteroid is the reason that Deep Impact can claim, justifiably, that a such body could wipe out much of life on Earth..." |
| Word order: S/B "such a body") |
| Page 69: | "Another worldwide temperature and climate change now underway..." |
| Missing space: S/B "under way". |
| Page 69: | "Other possible outcomes, with varying probabilities, include violent weather, effects on ecology and agriculture, and, paradoxically, a chance of a new ice age." |
| Is there a scientific basis for this? I'm not aware of any. |
| Page 77: | "...the polar icecaps have melted, coastal cities are underwater, and there's not enough food." |
| Missing space: S/B "under water". |
| Pages 79-80: | "Tattooed on Enola's back is a map supposedly showing the way to Dryland, which interests the Smoker's chief , Deacon (Dennis Hopper)." |
| Misplaced apostrophe: S/B "Smokers'") |
| Page 137: | "The next phase, also underway, is to determine which genes connect with..." |
| Missing space: S/B "under way". (This error appears at least three more times.) |
| Page 246: | Index error: "Beautiful Mind, A, 192-195, 196; Golden Eagle award, 201, 202; moral issues in, 97-98" |
| S/B "200-202". |
| Page 247: | Index error: "Day the Earth Stood Still, The, 3, 9, 10, 20; Golden Eagle award, 206-207" |
| S/B "200, 206-207". |
| Page 246: | Index error: "Blade Runner (1982), 6, 145, 145-146, 163, 196; Golden Eagle award, 203-204; moral issues in, 97-98" |
| S/B "200, 203-204". |
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