We reached BSFN #20! :-) in which we rewatched the ultimate film of 2010: 2012!
After noting that a large proportion of the crowd had actually not seen this now classic film yet, it seemed a good call. It also mend that the people who had seen it already had to make sure not to give any spoilers!
[Image courtesy of wikipedia].
For those of you that don't know the film yet; it's an absolute must see for bad science films. It starts all with scientists noting that neutrinos from the sun are heating up the Earth's interior and causing the core to melt! Governments start ambious plans to save their civilisation, power, techniques and culture in a secret project, where individuals can participate in by paying 1 bln dollar.
In the meantime, our main character and hero (John Cusack) is camping with his children in Yellowstone and realises there something is wrong as the lake has evaporated. Time to go home and convince his ex-wife they should leave. Just in time as well, as suddenly the Earth starts rupturing under their feat (Earth crust displacement theory), with nice propagating faults chasing them (as in Megafault almost!). In a spectacular car ride, which is completely unrealistic with driving through buildings etc) they reach the airport and take off in a small aircraft, taking off just as San Francisco slides into the Ocean. In the meantime they pick up a map for the 'secret projects ships' location (outrunning the volcanic bombs and pyroclastic flows once again) and fly to a more stable place.
There, they meet John Cusacks' boss, a Russian billionaire who has tickets for the 'ships' as well. They take off alltogether in a Russian aircraft, trying to fly to the Himalaya where the ships are located. They crash, see some giraffs and elefants flying, and get to the ships (huge vessels with food and water storage, like Noach arks, to survive for a few years until the Earth is stable again), where they can't get on without tickets. Secretly, they manage to climb in through the hydraulics chamber, but they mess up the vessels system. Desperately trying to close the doors, and start the engines (so they won't bump into Mount Everest) John Cusacks ex-wifes new husband dies, but the day is saved. His ex-wife immediately returning to him and his children are all reunitied, and the ships travel to South Africa which has now become the roof of the world.
One major disadvantage of the film is that it is way and way too long. It goes on and on, and after a while all the volcano ducking and almost drowning scenes become very similar. They could have saved a lot of money by making it shorter for sure! We enjoyed watching the deleted scences for a while, definitely the right decision to delete these, although a good punch could have stayed in the film. Having some trailers of Michael Jackson on the same dvd was somewhat surprising and gave an end to the evening.
Bad Science Film Night 20 - 2012 (rep):
- Favourite Tagline: Can that thing fly? It's Russian!
- Hero: Gordon, who dies saving the others and is immediately forgotten.
- Interesting fact: The film is forbidden in North Korea as it shows the year 2012 in a too negative light.
- Best bit: Giraffs and elefants being flown over the Himalaya!
- Worst piece of science: That just has to be the basic thought behind the scene; neutrinos heating up the core, which melts, and causes all plates to become unstable and shift instantly overnight! Also, The scientific paper on crustal shifting is alleged to have been published in 1958, and Einstein agreed with it. Einstein however died in 1955.
- Unresolved questions: Where does all the water come from to flood all cities and the Himalaya? How does the core melt by neutrinos???
- Overall review: Horrible science, but if you just ignore that fact, the film can be quite entertaining with a lot of special effects. Great material for a field trip when the power in your lab is off! ;-)
- Total number of BSFNight-ites: about 15, great turnout, but missing our most favorite BSFnightie of course!
