"Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?"

  In nearly all forms of visual media, be it television, movies, or video games, the underlying mission in each is primarily to entertain. In order to do so, many times real world physics must be bent to create something that is truly unique. But while doing so, the sense of belief is always at risk of losing its audiences. As technology continues to evolve, filmmakers and game makers are getting better and better at blurring the line between science fact and cinematic fiction. One of the physical laws in particular that are nearly almost always broken is the law of inertia, which states that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Many video games and movies, while initially believable to its audiences actually usually portray real world physics with many flaws.

In Sony Pictures Animation's "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs", a young kid name Flint Lockwood accidentally invents a machine that can rain any kind of food down to the small population inhabiting the city. The nature of animation in combination with the plot of this story is already a sure sign that not everything in the movie will follow the physics of the real world, despite the rendering technology they put in to make the movie give it a fairly realistic flair in terms of stylization. In one particular scene, we have a situation where Flint tries to initiate machine but it ends up turning into a high speed rocket dragging him along behind it. When considering Newton's Law of Inertia, a very close inspection reveals the flaws in the accuracy of the physics in the film. The machine travels at an extremely fast speed and takes some very tight turns. The problem with the initial part of this sequence has to do with centrifugal and centripetal forces. Considering the mass of the machine compared to the mass of Flint and also taking into consideration the high speed at which they are travelling, unless Flint truly had superhuman strength to be able to keep hold onto the machine, real world rules would dictate that Flint would not have been able to hold on and thus would have flew hundreds of yards away in a high arc after the machines first tight turn as it launched into the air. Another thing to note is that while we do not know the exact weight of the machine itself, the tight turns that it was making throughout its travel would be impossible if it were a very mass heavy object unless its force of thrust was incredibly powerful enough to shift its direction from turn to turn. The second obvious example of the films flaw in physics comes at the end of this sequence, as Flint eventually manages to get his feet on the ground to try and stop the moving rocket. The machine drags him along the street and Flint eventually runs head first into a stop sign on the sidewalk. A close look at the scene reveals that prior to this very moment, he ran past through a small tree, over a car, and even toppled over a fire hydrant at his speed. All of these signs should indicate that a stop sign should not stop him in his tracks while in fact, it does. However, once again taking into account the Law Of Inertia, even if in theory the stop sign did stop Flints movement, that amount of force would be at least be portrayed in a bending or swaying of the stop sign as he was swiftly smashed into it. Rather, the stop sign barely budges a few inches enough for the viewer to even notice. A more "realistic" result would have been for Flint to have either knocked the stop sign over and kept going in the same fashion as he did with the fire hydrant (which should be noted as having a much higher mass than the stop sign, thus further debunking the belief that this stop sign was strong enough to hold its ground), or to at least have had the stop sign wobbling back and forth after Flint hits it head on. Following this scene at normal playspeed, it is tough to read into these inconsistencies, but the production achieves its objective to make a very hilarious scene while effectively breaking the laws of physics.

Movies are not the only form of media that breaks the laws of physics - video games are a world wide media that do this all the time as well. Publisher Capcom is known for making a variety of games in an even wider variety of themes. In its release "Devil May Cry 4", the plot deals with a devil hunter Nero who wields a powerful non-human arm that he uses to destroy his enemies in dramatic action. This particular series is well-known for is over the top action and almost matrix-like physics shown in its cut scenes. Despite the game itself having human models and realistic visuals, the physics are anything but. In a cut scene near the very beginning of the game, multiple scenes help reveal to the player the types of abilities they will be handling throughout the rest of the game. One of these scenes in particular involves Nero revealing his devil arm. In this very tense and exciting moment, Nero's enemy Dante hurls himself forward sword first towards Nero (from a dead stop in fact, meaning Dante went from zero to very, very fast at a very incredible acceleration speed, further emphasizing the superhero physics in this game.) Right before Dante collides into Nero with his arm, Nero pulls his arm up in defense to block the attack. The result is a huge shock wave that pushes everything outwards  away from the two in a large bubble wave. This effect indicates the strength that these two super humans have and the scene slowly pans outward to show a close up of the area of impact, revealing that Nero took the full brunt of the sword with his devil arm. First thing to note here is that while we do not necessarily know what type of material his arm consists of (we can easily determine that human flesh is not the answer), the results indicate some very tough skin. The sword did not pierce at all and Dante was put at a dead stop. Dante's speed and Nero's defensive stance and make up, in a real world situation, means that the sword should have very easily pierced through his arm, and most likely past and through his body, killing him in action. A more "realistic" situation would mimic the solution for the Cloudy With a Chance Of Meatballs scene. Had Nero ended up sliding across the floor in the direction of Dante's attack, the resulting blow would have taken a very small step in the direction of a more realistic physics based action. Instead, Nero physically makes no noticeable reaction to the moving force, showcasing his strength against his rival. Although while this change would have possibly made things a little more believable, it would also undercut the fact that these two are some of the strongest people in the world that the publishers created and that this scene thus was made to indicate that these two individuals are anything but human, especially in contrast to the normal humans scene just prior to this particular fight scene. In that regard, this is an example of a publisher properly breaking rules of physics to showcase some very important traits in the games two main characters.

Moving away from more fantastical iterations of physics, some games aim to create a very accurate physics based model. These types of games are referred to as "simulations", as they aim to "simulate" things in real life. One such game is Turn 10's own Forza Motorsport 3, which claims to be one of the best racing car simulations next to the the likes of Sony's video game Gran Turismo. As a fan of the series myself, I can vouch for the game's handling of car physics to a very notable degree. The way cars take turns and how the springs roll the cockpit cage from right to left, all the way to how the tires screech and slide as a player uses the brakes, the game does an incredible job of making you feel as if you are in the game and driving the car in real life. Much of the process of production of this game even included the likes of professional race car drivers providing input for its design, and some pro drivers even go as far as using the game to learn the ins and outs of a certain race track and use their findings in real life when their race day comes. While all of these aspects of racing are portrayed well, there are still moments that can immediately take you out of the believability of the game world. Due in part to some of the video games design, players are required to stay within the confines of the game, and in this game in particular that means staying within the vicinity of the track. This means that producers of the game had to include invisible "barriers" around each track to prevent players from wandering too far away.  Unfortunately, this means that visual decoration such as tiny wooden fences result in taking the characteristics of steel walls 12-feet deep. A player travelling at high speeds may accidentally (or in the videos case, purposefully) running into these walls and, to no surprise, begin flipping around  as it bounces off these invisible barriers". In the video example, this wall, indicated as a very thin wall made of metal, propels the car going more than 250 miles per hour and shows no physics damage as a result. The Lamborghini itself goes into a violent spin in multiple directions. Had this been a barrier in real life, that wall would stand no chance in keeping the car confined to track and the car would thus continue in its direction rolling over and wall completely. While the Law of Inertia indicates that the moving object would have a force acted upon it, the wall itself was not a material or mass strong enough to stop a force going at that speed. Another thing to note is that the car, while spinning and jumping in different directions, does not tumble over itself, but rather keeps the tires facing towards the ground. Theoretically, if it was a steel wall that the car had hit, that sort of crash could easily result in the car possibly tumbling over itself onto its roof. While this would have been more realistic, this would present the problem of removing the control from the player, as the player would not be able to move at all if their car was turned upside down. This sequence makes such a believable game look quite toy-like, as the car is violently tossed around like something much smaller than its actual size. While this does not look believable, this is a result of a specific moment in the game that does not particularly happen very often, and reveals a part of the game that was not necessarily a primary focus for its developers. This is a great example of a production utilizing specific features to keep the player into the area of focus that was meant for them to experience and that this specific situation is not purposely representative of real world physics at a high level of accuracy.

Although filmmakers and game makers may not always follow real world physics, they have to bend reality in ways to create something fresh and exiting. Even in things that claim to simulate real life, flaws can still be found. While these physics aren't necessarily accurate, they always create a fantasy reality that is meant to entertain us. After all, what we see in real life is what we see every day, and seeing something out of the ordinary is precisely what makes things like these forms of media very exciting and very fun.