Sunday, December 19, 2010

'Tron Legacy' illuminates Cinema's Science Story

Speeding-light cycles, illuminated catsuits and the computer-recreated head of Jeff Bridges, Tron Legacy has plenty of fun stuff.
Are we just being spoilsports "when we ask how much science there is in the just-released science-fiction flick?
Nope, says film director Joseph Kosinski. "It's in there," they says, citing meetings with Scientists from the National Academy of Science's "Science Exchange" that shaped the look, story and Sensibility of the sequel to the 1982 cult classic, Tron.

"Once the discussion Moved past the 'how' Could you do it, if you HAD to do it," the stage, the Scientists HAD great ideas, "Kosinski says. Discussions have centered physics advances made since the late 90's in the "quantum" teleportation, "where atomic particles Their CHARACTERISTICS CAN transfer from One to Another instantaneously across great distances.

The talks influenced the design of the Tron: Legacy Laser That magically (let's be honest) zaps the story's hero, Sam Flynn (Played by Garrett Hedlund), Into the world of computer game "The Grid," Kosinski says. The laser Comes equipped with canisters of carbon, oxygen and on the other chemical ingredients for Rebuilding a person out of computer game information. "It is still a story of a father-and-son, But the science definitely helps in lots of Subtle Ways," Kosinski says.

No surprise, says the history of science, David Kirby of the United Kingdom's University of Manchester, author of the upcoming book, Lab Coats in Hollywood: Science, Scientists and Cinema, an exploration of the long-running Interplay Between movie-makers and Scientists. "Virtually every movie involving science now relies Advisors is a science," Kirby says. "And They Do a lot More Than Just Fact-check scripts. They are part of the wholesale creative process."

Not that fact-checking is so bad, Kosinski says. "Audiences are very sophisticated now," they says. Even for a movie as fantastical as Tron: Legacy, The Filmmakers can not commit a science Blunder so implausible That filmgoers tune out the movie or so bone-headed That it creates complaints among science-savvy fans That drive folks away from buying tickets Thurs see the flick.

"Of course this is good for science, too," Kirby says. "Ideas get out there into the public mind in a shape Closer to Scientific Thought and real Reflecting Areas of Scientific Interest. There is no publicity like movie publicity for an idea."

Just last week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, Hollywood screenwriters discussed the process of working with Scientists Produce Thurs plausible, if impossible, Scenarios for Scientific stories. Bruce Joel Rubin, screenwriter for 1998's Deep Impact, described how there learning of The Dangers of Trying Thurs blow up a comet headed for Earth, Creating more bullets out of a big one, Drove the film's plot. Deep Impact is often contrasted with Armageddon, released The Same Year, M a bomb miraculously Saves the Earth from an asteroid. New Scientist magazine That Reported in 2007, NASA uses Armageddon as a Training Aid in finding errors, at Least 168 then.

Scientists Filmmakers help with the look and feel of a lab, How They Behave With Each Other and more. "It's counterintuitive, But somethings putting limits is what is Possible in a story helps writers," Kirby says. "If anything is Possible, then you are stuck for Conflicts in a story. But if there are logical limits Thurs what CAN happen, then the writers have EDGES Thurs Exercise Against Their creativity and the result is a more exciting story." Kosinski agrees, saying That helps Scientists Talking With "Discipline," stories, evangelical ones as fantastic as Tron: Legacy.

"What Scientists Have to Learn" Is that film and television-makers are experts too. Expert storytellers, "Kirby says. "Science Advisors are Often Used To Being TDAE as the experts. But top creative people in film and television are very sophisticated and Individuals They are just as much experts at telling stories," Delivering Emotional Impacts Thurs audiences, as the Scientists are Experts in Their Fields ". The best result "when science Collaborations Advisors Respect the story as the central focus of Their Assistance, suggests they are, NOT as a MEANS to Deliver a science lesson.

"What I'm really excited about is the next film we are working is, Which is a remake of The Black Hole," Kosinski says. Astronomers have made tremendous advances in the understanding of super-massive black holes thought Thurs lurk at the center of most large galaxies, since 1979 "when the Disney film That released. "Hard science will drive That film, the reality of what happens at the boundaries of Black Holes, What They Might Look Like, Because So Much More is Known now." Kosinski says.

Science and the Cinema, Not Quite "The Beginning of a beautiful friendship," to Borrow from Casablanca, But an Old One That looks likely to Grow Stronger As Time Goes By.

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