Geologic Movie Clichés
Monday July 7, 2008
Maybe geology doesn't get into the movies as much as it used to. For instance, I haven't seen an episode featuring quicksand in many years, not since the prime of Westerns and jungle movies. You can't have a cliché without having a lot of examples, like we have in cop movies or revenge dramas or, to hark back, World War II movies. Are there even any geologic clichés at all any more? Screenwriters, look at those wicked hammers we use . . . couldn't they be used as weapons, as in Smilla's Sense of Snow or like the guy in Arizona who killed a rabid bobcat with one? Could you write in a scene where the villain straps the heroine into a deadly mass spectrometer? Or ties the protagonist down on a seismic-refraction line and starts up the Vibroseis truck with a greasy grin? The profession needs more visibility, and I'll accept whatever it takes.
Comments
I just read your piece on travertine. You mentioned that the Sierra’s are full of Igneous and metamorphic stone. Then referred to travertine as if to say other type formation. FYI Travetrtine is a metamorphic stone. It begins as mud and or sedimentary stone and then metamorphs into a crystaline structure commonly called calcium carbonate. Marble is the same chemical composition. Contact me if you like.
Armageddon was the last movie that I can remember that had a Geo in a starring role. Shamefully, Owen Wilson played the Geologist. I think his character was eventually killed while trying to drill and plant explosives on a meteor plummeting towards earth. I agree, more exposure is needed but selective exposure would be better.
I think “The Core” was the last geo-movie.
I’ve never laughed so hard in my life. “They’re coming up between the plates! Somewhere near Hawaii!”
Before the core was Armageddon, and Dante’s Peak, and Volcano (I didn’t see Deep Impact, but it may have been one). Actually, one could make an argument for The Day After Tomorrow (climate studies are earth science). So we do get some play on the silver screen. The comedy Evolution even had Mos Def playing a geologist who worked with the USGS (US Geological Society?). And coming out soon is Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth (far from accurate, but there is “geology”)
And we do get some notoriety. People like volcanoes, landslides, earthquakes, and tsunamis (recently). People like dinosaurs (paleo, I know, but it is a cross discipline with geology and biology [this would add the Jurassic Park series to the above list]). People like cataclysmic events. To see the “big stuff” (excluding super novae and whatnot), you need a geologist. True, we don’t have the cliches, but we are above that.
My favorite story is from a friend of mine leading a group of school children on a field trip. He stopped at an outcrop and explained how it was deposited by a river system. Reportedly they looked at him in disbelief as if to say “My God! You didn’t even use a Particle Accelerator!! That’s not real science”.
I think the biggest obstacle that needs to be overcome is actually teaching people what constitutes science. In all my years of schooling, nobody ever bothered to discuss it. All the courses assumed it had been covered in a previous year/course. That is the first hurdle. After that, it will be easy to convey what is cool about geology to the general populace.
USGS = US Geological Survey. As Andrew well knows, having once been in its employ!
Bryan,
I forgot about the Core! I actually went to the premiere with a bunch of Geologist buddies (talk about a tough room).
I know what you are saying about teaching real science. I have worked in the environmental industry for about 12 years now. The recent popularity of “going green” has been a mixed blessing. I am often given a wide range of solutions by the general public to combat environmental problems, which are not necessarily backed with any scientic merit and usually start off with “you know what you should do…”. But at least there is an interest…
What about “The Day After Tomorrow”?? That was in 2004… It was so geologically horrible it was amazing