Science in TV/Film

Time is money, so the saying goes, but in Andrew Niccol’s latest film In Time, time is money. A bus ride home will cost you 2 hours, a cup of coffee is 4 minutes, and a car could cost you years. Time is the currency, and you are given only a year. In the future, In Time posits, humans stop aging at 25. After that each person receives 365 more days to live, which they watch countdown on a clock glowing bright green on their arm. The poor work each day for more time, dying as the cost of living rises. (As Justin Timberlake’s character remarks, “For one day, I’d like to wake up with more hours on my arm than there are in the day.”) The rich are immortal.

Recently, we stumbled on a clip from the 1966 film Batman known mostly for its use of shark repellant. Yes, shark repellant, as well as barracuda repellant, whale repellant, and manta ray repellant – all part of Batman’s Oceanic Repellant Bat Sprays, conveniently located in his helicopter. Did we mention during this clip that Batman is hanging off a rope ladder from said helicopter as a shark chews on his leg? Yes, that’s happening, too. With Robin’s help, he manages to get the shark to drop off his leg (with the use of the shark repellant, of course) and somehow escapes without even a rip in his costume. It is silly and unbelievable – a startling contrast to realism and plausibility in a growing number of recent superhero films.

Refusing to eat the communal peanuts at airport bars, an extra bottle of hand sanitizer, the sudden usage of a word like “fomite” – spotting an individual who has recently watched the movie Contagion is as simple as recognizing the symptoms. Contagion, released September 9, 2011, is a chilling look at what happens when a lethal virus transmits from animal to human, and explodes into a global epidemic. Sure, other films have featured viruses taking over the world (turning humans into zombies, for example) but Contagion is different. The film’s fictional world is much more real and much more plausible.