Spoilers: IMO the BASH CEO felt the same so he arranged for Earth to be wiped out as an act of mercy. The BASH AI predicted the bronteroc so the BASH CEO knew his plan was going to fail. But despite having this insane level of tech (prescient AI, cryogenics, interstellar spaceship) he didn't fix it. He let it happen! He persuaded the POTUS to abort the US effort & possibly nuked the Russian-Chinese-Indian launch.
Exactly. Especially corporate technology-mediated society. I for one got an urge to read Kazinski's anti-"industrial society" "manifesto" which I did and got no insights save for the unabomber really was/is a lunatic.
I think the townspeople of Springfield had the right idea: after Springfield was almost wiped out by a comet, they decided to burn down the observatory to make sure that never happened again.
right, just like trump saying we need to do less testing so covid cases won't keep growing, this is not fiction, pretend it will just go away, when 850,000 americans die.
@@murraymadness4674 The florida governor held a million tests in a warehouse so they would expire before anyone could use them. A woman preparing to run against him in the next election uncovered what was going on.
I imagine this film started when someone said "people would take climate change seriously if it was an asteroid heading towards them in 6months" and then somebody replied "are you sure they would?"
If astronomers found a large comet on an earth ending course 6 months from now, then any time you fretted about climate change, nuclear war, litter, politics,.... in the last 50 years would have been a colossal waste of time. 6 months from now is far too close to do anything...and it us unlikely we have any tool that could do anything. Even to reprogram a deep space rocket would take more than three months...and that's if we had SLS or Saturn Vs or Russian Nova rockets just hanging around the launch facilities being polished and cared for. None of the LEO and probe launch boosters could do anything. None of the ICBMs could do anything for non of them have enough thrust to escape earth orbit. So the premise of the movie is a giant propeganda strawman assembled by the producers just to be taken apart. Similar to this team's other movies. Similar to "Day After Tomorrow"
@@STho205 really, a comet of *any* size would just be hurling towards us and we can’t do *anything* about it, despite a 6 month warning and there being an actual planetary defense agency, which the movie has highlighted is a real thing? How has civilization been progressing in your mind? Are we still in the 70s?
@@spook407 I'd say as to deep Space TLI and TMI then we are not even in the 60s or 70s anymore....or did I miss those moonbases and Mars settlements when I was checking my telescope last night. We lob little probes into orbit and then use other planets to slowly propel them where they are going in a game of decade long billiards. These movies are hack jobs, as ridiculous as "When Worlds Collide" in the 50s. Science by literature and English majors.
@@STho205 Yeah because god forbid they try to save fuel when launching a fucking probe right. And the planetary defense office thing, nah that's just a farce, it's all fake. No kind of work is gonna be done when a comet heads towards us with 6 months of preparation.
This movie was genuinely chilling in a way. It almost felt like a horror movie, where you watch the main characters just helplessly running up against sheer incompetence of people in positions of power.
That Brontoroc gag at the end had me laughing for an entire day. The setup to the joke just being slipped in like 40 minutes earlier, then the punchline to end the film, was just glorious.
The most depressing thing about this film was the idea that the only survivors are uber-wealthy idiots. But then, I guess it's just a reverse variation on Douglas Adams' idea in his "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series that the entire human race is descended from the occupants of an alien spaceship that crashed on Earth millennia ago, all of whom were the home planet's rejected brainless middle-men.
They survived the Earth, but I do not think they survived the new planet. Also, they were mostly old farts, they will die out without really producing any children. Good riddance! Who needs telephone sanitizers... err... I mean mega rich selfish idiots?
I mean, if the son of the president survived under the rubble, it's safe to say a lot of people did survive as well. So the odds are the humanity in general was wounded but lived, while the rich got eaten alive. Sounds like a happy ending...kinda, if the deaths of billions can be referred to as such.
This movie gave me SO MUCH anxiety because I believe this is exactly how something like this would happen...and for the record, this movie WAS about climate change. Writer said it was.
I thought it was an allegory about what would happen if the former president of the United States were confronted by a situation like a cometary impact and how electing someone that unbalanced could literally put every human life in jeopardy.
@@byrnemeister2008 I would say it fits Covid and the rapid censorship of scientists that have an opinion differing from the "approved narrative" ie:Dr Robert Malone who literally had a hand in creating the technology and was immediately deplatformed.
@@vinnyganzano1930 tbh they say if the Earth warms a few degrees, like enough for Canada and Russia to thaw out, our ability to grow crops in these areas quadruples.
Things and people that just exist seem to get politicized too often. It makes idiots think they have a legitimate point because a bunch of other idiots are giving them a platform
Over politicization is as under statement, because including politics to ANY DEGREE in science is just... It doesn't even make sense. You don't bring facts into something all about opinions.
Well I'm certainly sick of experts failing to actually change or affect anything. When are they going to go on strike or sabotage fossil fuel infrastructure or literally do anything to help the rest of us? As it is now, they keep finding new ways to get carbon out of the ground and into the air, so they can pretty much go fuck themselves.
These "catastrophe reaction" works always exaggarate. Climate change and similar problems are really complicated, but still solvable and being solved. Don't lose hope for humanity.
@@julietfischer5056 they absolutely will, but you counteract that by materially improving the lives of working people and earning their confidence and loyalty instead of continuing to sell them out and line the pockets of those who would exploit them and destroy the world with climate change.
As I watched this movie, the amount of frustration I felt almost made me stop watching.. but, that was the point. By the end I thought ‘wow, this was probably far to close to reality’ (if we were ever facing an ELE), the whole political, social media world cross over was scarily accurate
"If we were ever facing an ELE". The comet is climate change and you are, as pointed out. A scary amount of people doesnt even understand the quite obvious message of the movie. That this is happening as of right now. "Shit-box News" - Shit Fox News
Yeah, it was ironic how all the mainstream political shows were ignoring the impending doom, but in real life all you hear on mainstream media is global warming fear mongering. Nowadays we are pushed to buy eco friendly, environmentally friendly items by eco alliance etc. Mainstream media are definitely pushing the global warming narrative onto us and definitely don’t forget to remind us about it
Yeah! I was kind of happy at the end when the bash mission failed because like they banned the true scientists and all of that. And when they made the comet hit the earth it was like a wake up call for the science deniers, I don’t know but sometimes I don’t like happy endings.
A comet hitting the earth is cut and dry climate change is not. Besides Leonardo DiCaprio lives in a house that probably uses the electricity and gas of 20 houses
Watching this film made me more aware than ever (and I've never been particularly unaware) of the value of science education and science communicators. Academic communicators of all kinds are vital to the society, now more than ever. So, let me say thank you, Dr. Becky, for taking the time to make this content, and be a part of the solution we so sorely need!
@@Kryptomi pretty sure the OP is applying their comment to things like covid, climate change, chemical waste and the blurred lines between capitalism’s interest in self preservation and profits vs facts and reality
@@Kryptomi you had a lot to say. The problem lies within your original reply to me. You claim the government WANTS there to be data that supports the idea that climate change is being accelerated by humans. There’s multiple faults within this logic. Mainly that our government has done little to no action for actually solving the issues causing the acceleration of climate change. Things such as the use of natural gasses, pollution from large factories & corporations and the increased use of plastics & other non-biodegradable/recyclable products. This is because the corporations that buy and own our politicians (ALL of our politicians, it’s quite astounding how bipartisan it can be) recognize that to change over to systems that are more eco-friendly would cost them profits. Politicians act like they hate eachother, but within the United States they’re practically the same party. It’s a dog and pony show. Liberals are diet republicans. An informed individual like you would know that their voting records are the same. Sleepy Joe Biden and Ted Cruz almost unanimously vote the same on all economic issues revolving around oil, military spending, tax cuts for the 1% & corporations and for cutting regulation on corporations. While simultaneously making life harder for middle and lower class citizens by voting against healthcare systems, education and other things. The only thing they fight about for the sake of the news is wether gay people should exist, and if we should throw homeless people in jail. It’s quite silly. These are things the movie tackled head on and called out. So again, the idea that those very same career politicians that vote in favor of the corporations that “donate” to them, would decide to create a narrative that would COST those same corporations money is ludicrous. Democrats pretend to want “the green deal” but it STILL hasn’t been voted in yet. They pretend to want to regulate oil and plastic consumption. But business as usual Joe Biden and his democrat friends all know that if they do that, the millions lining their pockets will disappear. So they pretend to care while sleeping in bed with big tech, oil & the military industrial complex. The movie literally says that out loud. So excuse me for seeing your anger and rage as misguided frustration. And for suggesting you get away from the media machine that has brainwashed you into thinking democrats are socialists. (btw they’re not even fucking close, but words don’t mean anything right?) Chill out man. Ask yourself why you’re so angry about this, if the man behind the screen really has your best interest in mind or if they’re making bank off your cyclical pattern of hate watching their content. I’m being genuine in saying take care of yourself, I’m trying to do the same. Avoiding the grifters is harder said than done. And staying sane is the best thing you and I can do.
@@Kryptomi you’re right, I did assume your stance. And you’re right, we’re not the only factor. But it’s undeniable we’re greatly accelerating the process. It’s a cycle that was already going to happen, but it would’ve gone slower had we not affected the environment. Keep doing what you’re doing then. But still, not everything is big government, and left wing information can have grifters within it as well. So regardless of your position, take care.
it was the kind of satire that falls flat in terms of humor and instead makes you feel absolutely infuriated with how people can be. it definitely did a great job at that. I felt that it was relatable a lot with the whole covid situation out there as well
My issue with it is that not trusting a government with vaccines and other stuff is a little different then a giant rock hurtling at earth that you can simply take out a telescope and see. I 100 percent thing everyone would be on Leo's side in our real world because a comet is a actual tangible threat, something humans usually take seriously
@@carolusrex5213 I hope that’s true but people are literally whining about having to wear a face mask to protect themselves and there are some crazy enough to holding irl strikes during corona so my faith in humanity is decreasing by the day
@@esthykechan yeah but you have to think about their view too is how I convinced some of my family. They felt unsure about it because it didn't have years of being used behind it and my dad especially said that he was more dead set in not getting the vaccine because whenever he asked about it people called him a dumbass. Think about how many of these people would have been convinced if we just talked instead of calling them names. I legit can not find a single Twitter thread where someone talks to someone unsure about covid vaccines in a kind manner they always call them idiots it kinda makes me realize that both sides have to work together to get to the truth.
@@carolusrex5213 the problem is you’re referring to Twitter. Normal conversations refer to peer reviews studies, the stats on hospitalizations and the fact the the side effects are lessened. I refer to STD’s during these conversations. Like yeah, gonnorrea has less than a 1% chance of killing you. But I’d rather be safe, prevent it, and treat it if I catch it. Covid causes cardiovascular issues, permanent lung damage, hair loss and in a large percentage of men, erectile dysfunction. We don’t even know the long term effects or how covid effects pregnancies. When someone has a conspiracy theory. Ask two questions. 1.) who stands to “gain” from this and what do they gain. 2.) how many moving parts have to be involved/covered up to make it happen?
@@carolusrex5213 no I actually disagree with what you said about a comet being a more visible threat and people would take it more seriously, since I mean just look at flat earthers, there is a lot of “visible” evidence and people still don’t agree with it. Plus the people in the movie still didn’t think that the comit was that serious until they saw it up close with their own eyes.
17:31 "the earth moves the length of its diameter every 7 minutes" as long as you know what a diameter is, this is an extremely intuitive way to think about the movement of the Earth. I'll be sure to pass on this fact to others as often as possible!
Even if you don't know the diameter, you can take the 7 minutes and compare it to the length of the year (in minutes) to get an idea of how many diameters an orbit is. Reading your comment made me realize this neat relation.
Or when you look at the Moon during Third Quarter (next on January 25, exact time depends on your location), realize that's roughly where you will be 3.5 hours later! (Or during First Quarter where you were 3.5 hours ago).
@@Tinker001 7920 miles / 66600 miles per hour X 60 minutes per hour = 7 minutes 8 seconds. As for mining a comet for rare materials, that would be like polishing a turd. Asteroids made of iron and nickel would be a better bet.
THIS is what I always want when a video title says “[expert in relevant field] reacts to [media relevant to their expertise]”: full on detailed explanations of lots of stuff that helps clarify what’s reality and what’s fabricated for good storytelling. Thank you, loved it!!
This movie was cowritten by a journalist who does a lot of climate change stuff, and it was intended to be a direct parable to climate change. Apparently then covid happened as they were working on it, and they had to amp up the crazy to try to keep it comedic... but then it stopped being much of a comedy 😂
I heard the Ariana Grande song on Spotify before I’d heard of this film and I PMSL at the “get your head out of your ass and listen to the goddamn qualified scientists” line, listened to it a couple of times thinking ‘awesome, Ari is a savage’. I know people have been saying this film fails as a satire because it’s as subtle as a sledgehammer, but we’re living through a time when there’s so much wilful ignorance everywhere that a story that smacks you right on the nose is the only thing that has a chance of working. Not that the people who need to see it will watch it, or would let themselves think about it. @Becky Watch Arrival next if you haven’t done that one, it’s beautiful… well, the science will probably annoy the shit out of you but as a story about loss seen from a reversed context it just makes me shiver every time.
@@DrBecky The short story the Arrival was based on ("Story Of Your Life" by Ted Chiang) is much more down-to-earth but intriguing (and there's no China in it!), while the idea of an alien language with predictive syntax was very novel (at least for me). I suggest you to read it, it shouldn't take longer than about an hour.
The best part of the movie was the CEO/Founder guy telling the President his algorithms predicted she would be eaten by a Bronteroc, and they didn't even know what it meant. Such a good send up of the tech bros.
@@seanbutterfield1 The point about the Bronteroc was a play on the fact that many artificial neural net systems are seen as 'black box' systems because once trained you really don't have a clue why they are spitting out result x or result y, they just do and that's that. Ongoing efforts have been made to make AI/ML systems more 'human readable' so that we can more easily tweak them after training.
@@mnomadvfx yes I understand that. They programmed a computer to tell them shit they don't understand, can't check, and that often fails, and they're betting the future of humanity on these algorithms and the sociopaths who programmed them. It's terrifying.
I would suggest people watch Contact as well, it has a very similar vibe to this movie and focuses on how the scientific community would react to the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence versus how the governments and public at large would react.
@@extrules Sagan didn’t live long enough to see just how insane it has all become, who knows how he would feel today. When he died, “flat earth” was still a punchline, not a misguided belief.
I love the whole "do not look up" chant, especially how frustrating it must feel to astronomers, because it is like dealing with creationsts in biology who will ignore pretty much 99.9% of the biology research just to not have to accept the evolution. You guys are lucky that flat earthers do not have the numbers to sneak into schools really.
What he means is that the 99.9% of scientific data that contradicts the idea of a 6000 year old earth populated by the survivors of a global flood is conveniently ignored in favor of the those that can be twisted in support of their biblical view. Because even though their solitary goal is to undermine scientific understanding, science is so universally respected that they nonetheless have to employ the language of science to try to project legitimacy. Often times creationist/conspiracy grifters paint themselves as brilliant luminaries who have somehow discovered some key flaw in the theory and have some important data which will revolutionize the field. That somehow the global consensus of science is wrong and they have arrived to finally vindicate the truth of the Bible.
Some go so far as to paint universities as Satanic Masonic societies where a massive global conspiracy to erase god is being carried out by collegiate science programs. Then you have scholarships being provided to dedicated disciples of evangelicalism who pursue PhDs in Genetics/Geology in order to renounce their scientific training and publish pseudoscientific misinformation with those scientific credentials. Never in peer reviewed journals, they often are funded by creationist foundations like the Discovery Institute and the Institute for Creation Research, which receive massive donations from the Walton family for the work they do in keeping the American public dumb, divided, and scientifically ignorant.
Great video, I really enjoyed it. I didn't know the earth moved it's entire diameter every 7 mins, that's quite cool and also promising to find out that smashing a small object into a comet could save the day.
@@I_Don_t_want_a_handle Yep, and going back in time 6 months not only means moving 186 million miles to the other side of Earth's orbit but also to where the solar system would have been six months ago!
@@I_Don_t_want_a_handle in multiple directions as well, not only are we simply going around the sun, we're also moving up or down in the equatorial plane as well.
I thought it was great. I loved the General who charged them for snacks and how JLaw couldn't get over it throughout the movie. I loved when Leo went on Seasame street and yelled we are all gonna die. I just thought it was really well made comedy even though yes frustrating due to the world we actually live in(funny thing is it was written before covid, but it showed just how much farther we've moved in that direction). It's like a newer Idiocracy.
@@_PatrickO Probably, though I've seen rich people be cheap like that, and I've seen people who make a ton of money living paycheque to paycheque and don't know how to control themselves. It was funny either way.
People told me this was a sad movie. When I got to watch it, in the end I was actually glad it ended like it did instead of a couple other possible alternatives. It's not the disaster movie we wanted, but it is definitely the disaster movie some people need to watch nowadays.
@@juzoli it kinda sucks to want to have that ending, cos if we do, then we have apply that rationale to other circumstances. It’s good though that I can root for global destruction because it’s just a movie, but in real life have to face the very real probability that we’re facing that in our near future.
@@BGraves Those who see it as an attack instead of a hyperbolic critique are too far gone already. The message is targeted at those who might still have an ounce of rationality in their brains and might nudge some people in the right direction. In this sense, it's better than Idiocracy in the sense that it isn't rooted in The Bell Curve and other such disservice pseudoscientific works that do more to make people feel unwarrantedly superior than to raise actual issues we might propose solutions to. Scientific minded people don't finish watching this movie feeling superior, but worried, and that's a positive at least in my book.
The part you says about Looking Up is amazing. I always feel so small when I look up in the sky and see stars, makes me humble but also makes me feel like a wonder that occured. It really also is a deeper meaning that in a world now that should been run by technology, science and logic, there are still so many people ignoring facts and turns away from logic.
As someone into AI and ML, i would love to hear you give the state of affairs on its use in astronomy. Pros, cons, its history and future, stuff like that.
It's so cool that professional astronomers use FITS files. Being an amateur astronomer I'm used to FITS files from programs like APT, NINA, SGP, etc. when those programs store the data from consumer grade astronomy cams!
Doesn't it feel surreal to be an amateur in a field and finding even the smallest of similarities between us (an amateur) and the professionals in the field which we idealise to work in? 😂Eg. I used to play keyboard (now I don't get much time to), and I also used to watch some Astronomy related series on Discovery, Discovery Science, and National Geographic, and there were a lot of intro scenes where professionals like Michio Kaku were shown playing piano. I don't know why but I felt so happy seeing that I have some similarities with some professionals working in Astronomy.
@@harshvardhan4771 Interesting, I just finished composing synthesized music and find myself still fascinated by discoveries and methods used by professional and amateur astronomers to reveal the images and data defining the night sky
@@harshvardhan4771 How could it not be? You found it surreal to have even small similarities to them. Since you are all human, how could you possibly *not* have small, and big, similarities? There's nothing surreal about it.
On not having the telescope control right next to the telescope, light pollution wasn't my first thought, but more the ambient conditions. Apparently right now we're looking at a day range of 18-27C at Subaru. But if you were in the UK then being exposed to sub zero temps overnight wont be as fun! Operation from a warm room is much preferable.
Only problem with the UK is we don't have high enough mountains for worthwhile astronomical observatories. The Canary Islands are better for us, closer and with pretty decent nightlife for the days you're off duty👍🍹🥃🍸🍾🍷🥂🍻🍺
Even in the old optical telescopes (with the eyepiece), you'd cover your reading lamp just to avoid contaminating your observations with light pollution. The amount of accent lighting in that room is insane.
@@vinnyganzano1930 In modern times for sure they optimise location, but there are many historic observatories around. I mainly thought that way as I used to do astrophotography as a hobby, and the best nights tended to be freezing nights!
When I had my 8" telescope, in the olden days, used to have to wait quite a while in the winter after setting it up on the coldest (best, i.e., driest) nights, and it's not even very cold here, but very humid (like soup in the atmosphere). Also same issue the rest of the year, in reverse (A/C to outside), although not really viewing season, due to humid, tropical weather and disease carrying mosquitos. I imagine that professional, modern telescopes have the temps all equalized and timed. Even amateur viewing is massively better nowadays with wi-fi and remote control, so you can sit in comfort inside. I would still do some eye to eyepiece viewing, though, just because it's magic. 🤩
I don’t know if it’s a film you would want to comment on, but one of the greatest films on something impacting the earth I’ve ever seen was “seeking a friend for the end of the world”. You will thoroughly enjoy it
Came for the reaction videos on movies, stayed for the science. I love how you interject these videos with references to actual scientific methods, missions and so on. :) Thanks!
Also, did you know that not even ostriches actually bury their heads in the sand? It was a mistaken observation by a biologist way, way back - which has survived as a myth ever since. They were observing ostriches and then a predator showed up, and they noticed that the ostrich saw the predator but didn't immediately run. Rather, it seemed to "bury its head in the sand" - hence the saying. And the myth floated around that ostriches would "bury their heads in the sand", as if, because they couldn't see the predator, then there wasn't a predator and all was fine. But this was a mis-observation. A misreporting of what was actually going on. The ostrich was a MOTHER ostrich and what was missing from the understanding was that she was prioritising the safety of her eggs first. She was NOT "burying her head in the sand" but rather using her beak to brush sand over the eggs (because, you know, ostriches don't have hands, so she uses her beak), to hide them from the sight of the predator. Then, once hidden, the ostrich will run from the predator... which is as much about leading that predator away from where the eggs are buried, as it is about, you know, getting away from the predator themselves. Oh, and, also, lemmings don't commit suicide. It's just the crush of the crowd, when all the lemmings are marching together. If they march near a cliff, then the lemmings behind just keep instinctively marching forward and they end up pushing the lemmings near the edge of the cliff off. It's kind of like when folks sometimes get crushed up against the barriers at a rock concert, as the crowd moves forward - because the artist has come on stage or whatever - and then a "wave" moves forward through the crowd, until the folks at the front, get crushed up against the barriers. And, yes, the crush has sometimes been so bad that it's killed people. But, like, no-one is committing suicide or intending to kill anyone, it's just a chain reaction moving through the crowd that by the time it reaches the front, is now a crush of deadly force. Same thing with the lemmings, but it's a cliff, instead of a barrier. And, yes, that Disney movie where they supposedly filmed lemmings committing suicide? It was actually staged. They created an artificial "crush" to push them all off the cliff to their deaths. In a cruel twisted bit of logic that Disney had come to film this famously suicidal animal, but then found that, like, none of them actually wanted to commit suicide. So rather than create a documentary that dispels this myth about lemmings, Disney decided that it would fake it to meet its audience's expectations. They actually murdered these animals in order to capture footage of a myth that's not even true, just because audiences think it's true. I watched a lecture by David Attenborough about the ethics of making nature documentaries and that's his example of how you absolutely 100% should NEVER do it. The textbook example of the most horrible breach of the general rule "don't interfere with the animals, just observe them and explain to the audience what's going on". Just to be clear that, actually, the one animal that really is so dumb as to "bury its head in the sand" or kill actually non-suicidal animals just because everyone expects them to be suicidal from myth... is the human being. Human beings have advanced linguistical skills. Innate ability for speech. Handling abstract concepts for words and such. But to call that "intelligence" might be a stretch, looking at how the average human actually behaves. And, you know, there's no evidence yet that this isn't an evolutionary dead end... and it turns out that our supposed "intelligence" was actually a really bad idea. There's no evidence that "intelligence" is an ultimately evolutionarily beneficial trait yet.
Such a beautiful story of a subject smarter than the scientist observing it. I'm guessing that Disney had a whistle-blower. Who uncovered the biologist's mistake, & how?
A lot of people in groups I’m in, told me to look at it like they are talking about covid, but it was written about climate change too. It’s awesome learning how true it was and seeing your reaction!
Watched the movie with my 10 years old daughter, to try to oper her mind to different stuff and to have a critical mind despite telling her that something is like that or not, specially science... Loved the «Frustration Boils over» segment at 18:34... Frustration indeed... Congrats on your channel and content!
Your a real scientist if you can start to give scientific information a split second after the movie started, before even there was any dialogue. LOL. Always good to see a new Dr. Becky vid.
@@olencone4005 This is yet another example of the Dunning-Kruger effect. There is an unfortunately significant portion of the population that is too stupid to have a clue as to how stupid they are. Their ignorance makes them think that they are really smart. :(
@@gilb_4 I see it like when your neighbor's dog comes over and starts bothering you while you're trying to do something. So you pick up a ball, wave it around to get the attention of the dog's walnut-sized brain, and then pretend to throw it waaaaaaaaay down the street. The dog runs off, and you chuck the ball back in a box and go about your day again. It's an amusing distraction for a minute or so, and anyone else who sees it can have a good chuckle at the dog as it runs off in its own little world ^_^
Loved this ! Theres something so amazingly pleasing about watching someone talk with such passion and knowledge about something they deeply care and love ❤
3:40 - what pops into my mind is a balanced twisted pair in an audio or signalling cable: any interference will be applied to both, and you can use this to cancel out the effect of the interference. It's a really simple yet cool mechanism!
21:49 In the early 20th century someone caused a major panic by announcing that Earth would be passing through the tail of a comet consisting of carbon monoxide. (I think it was the 1910 Halley's Comet.) As far as I am aware no humans or intelligent lifeforms were wiped out on that occasion.
That's true, but humans have always had problems understanding the difference between detection and dosage. Water, at high enough doses over a short enough period is lethal. Botox is most definitely toxic but given at small enough doses and it will smooth out your wrinkles. It's the same with understanding local and global changes. A change of 2 degrees sounds like nothing when you only consider a local area where day/night temp can change by 10-20 deg (big change over small area=small dose). But a global average change of 2degC is most definitely problematic (small change over massive area=massive dose).
*and* hydrocyanic acid. On a technical level, this was correct, but the density was so low, and there is still the atmosphere that would tamper with the molecules, that it was'nt dangerous at any given time.
The funny part is that this movie was meant to satirize climate change and was released during COVID, so people think it's a COVID response satire. Still works.
Really enjoyed this reaction (and the film!). I went to school for astrophysics and yet mid-degree switched to art (imagine that). It was a lot of fun to see your reactions to the film and see a little slice of that life.
I loved this movie, i watched it in theatre and didn't expect the impact at all. I love that it makes you think about how we handle the climate crisis!
Like Al Gore whose mansion uses 15 times more fossil fuel than the average American…. if he’s so worried about global warming, then he should move into a standard size housr
16:46 doesn't it still take a pretty significant amount of momentum and energy to give even the required "tiny nudge" to a 10km-wide comet? I was under the impression that nukes wouldn't be enough if we only had 6 months
this is correct. someone did the math in a comment on Astral Codex Ten and you need hundreds or thousands of massive nukes to deflect a 10km comet if detected that late
Dr. Becky is not wrong under certain conditions, it's just that she never mentions those certain conditions. There is NO WAY that a tiny nudge would have changed the course of this comet enough when the Peter Isherwell (the crazy business man) sent up the mission. The comet was already too close for a tiny nudge to be successful. A tiny nudge would be successful when the comet is at a much larger distance from us.
If the Earth moves out of the way every 7 minutes, then the most we'd have to deflect is about 3 minutes earlier or later, assuming a dead center bullseye hit. If we have 4 months then we only need to change it's velocity by 3/(4*30*24*60) which is 0.0017%. A comet close to Mars' distance from the sun should be about 20-30km/s so just slowing it by about 50cm/s (1.1mph) would be plenty. The sooner we'd hit it the slower the comet would be moving and the less force we'd need AND the less correction that would be required, so sooner is much much better in this case.
@@aaronmcculloch8326 You are assuming a situation that is like a dart board moving left to right across your flat wall, while you throw a dart perpendicular to the wall. Once you throw your dart at an angle, then trig will be required to patch up your calculation. But this is orbital dynamics where you have two objects traveling in an ellipse. Which is like a dart board moving across an elliptical wall with you throwing the dart in an elliptical trajectory. But let's assume your calculation has merit and that we just need to reduce the speed by 0.0017%. Assuming Halley's Comet with mass = 2.2 * 10^14 kg and (velocity initial) vi = 910 m/s, then a 0.0017% reduction in speed is (velocity final) vf = 909.984 m/s. Kinetic Energy initial is then 1/2 * m * vi^2 = 9.1091 * 10^19 Joules. Kinetic Energy final is then 1/2 * m * vf^2 = 9.1088 * 10^19 Joules. The difference in energy is then 3 * 10^15 Joules. This amount of energy is equivalent to 200 Hiroshima bombs.
I'm definitely not an expert, but yeah, I think Becky was off on that. You just need a tiny amount of delta-V, but the mass is extremely high. 6 months for something that big on a direct impact course is a game over with current capabilities. We would either need new laws of physics (warps or something) or massive infrastructure like space elevators, large orbital shipyards, ect. If this was a novel instead of a movie, it would be better to make the threat a near Earth asteroid which is coming in for a close pass in like a year or two and is calculated to impact on the next pass a decade or two later. By the time people get their shit together and see the threat as imminent, the opportunity to actually deflect it has passed. I see why that doesn't really work on for a popular film though. But not only is the science more realistic, the analogy to climate change is even stronger.
AL Gore's documentary "an inconvenient truth" was so well named. People just would rather not think about anything that disrupts their lives and forces them to "look up".
Too bad climate science is not as accurate as astronomy and this parallel is immediately shut down. The movie is a satire about society. I'd say it's more fair to compare this to covid reactions. Where you have models tested on recorded history and crapton of current statistically significant data.
I think it can actually summarizes the humanity at this point in time, we have the science community screaming that shit is happening, but given the average Joe and Jane are oblivious/unaware/cannot watch it, they think it is a hoax, or as Dr. Becky would say, humanity just stuck its head in the sand... I see how many governments like in my country (Mexico) effectively behaved like the pandemic did not happen...
My dream was to watch a movie that accurately depicted the depressing and terrifying scenario of an asteroid impacting the planet and pretty much ending global civilization. From Hollywood, Deep Impact (1998) was the closest one to show this, at least until 'murica saving the planet in the last minute. What they also got wrong was the impact of the smaller piece, with people staring at it without as it traveled in this really weird angle in the sky without being burned alive or blinded, not to mention it would only take seconds rather than a full minute. From international movies, These Final Hours (2013) was the almost-perfect depiction. We don't get to see the actual impact, but the debris cloud reaching Australia after an impact in the North Atlantic. Although depicted as this wave of fire, it is symbolically the same as what would likely be in real life (temperatures high enough to kill every human). Not to mention this movie has such a hopeless atmosphere throughout it's really terrifying, and so masterfully crafted, you just KNOW there is nothing they can do about it. (PS. There were some pretty neat viral ARG that never caught on, which shows even more details about the event.) Now, there were other movies over the years. Armageddon (1998) and Greenland (2020), which are just silly pro-America blockbusters with some silly "science", and then you have Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012) and now this one, and in both of these, the actual disaster and its very-much serious risk is not the main focus, but just a vessel for comedy/satire. What this leads me to believe is that an actual, scientifically-based movie about this scenario is pretty much impossible now since it has become an overused topic. It would be harder to sell for studios to pick up and give the greenlight. And as someone else said in the comments, the message of this movie is as subtle as a sledgehammer, which I dislike, because it could've easily be a very-much serious drama tackling with the same issues in a more intelligent way. I also believe The Road (2009) could be "considered" a post-impact scenario, but both the movie and the book leave the actual cataclysm ambiguous. For it to work as a post-impact scenario, the people in the movie would have have survived the "summer" first somehow, to only then experience the "winter" as shown in the movie, and that would require some obvious changes, so it's not really a post-impact story. But this is just my ramblings since no one else would hear my venting, I guess in the end what matters is to keep it simple and funny for movies nowadays. Guess tastes are tastes.
Deep Impact showed the east coast of America & Western Europe/Africa get flooded by the tsunami. Basically half the humans killed. I wouldn’t call that “saved”
My favorite movie of the year. Mark Rylance just killed it as the billionaire nutjob. The ending was my favorite scene where Meryle Streep gets her head bitten off by a brontaroc, and Mark's character, Peter Isherwell, says “Whatever you do, don’t pet them!”
I would love to see you do this with Greenland. I found it very refreshing as a disaster movie and the human response. I think you’d enjoy it. It’s definitely not satirical but quite beautiful.
AS a scientist involved in climate, I am frustrated that far too many of us communicate in the Leo manner. Joe Public wants to know "was this really bad storm/fire/flood/drought due to CC" and the scientist will usually say something like"Our models will show that the intensity of events will increase by 21% on average, with 12% chance of an increased number of 1 in 50 year storms based around a statistical mean etc etc" - its good science but doesn't communicate very well. AAArgh.
It also comes down to the attention span of the listener. In high school you'll get about 10% of the kids actually interested in the science, the rest just want to see something explode. So how do you get the 90% interested in what you're saying.
The policy of looking up reminds you of climate change denial; it also reminded me of certain US states, politicians, and some nations, who sought to reduce Covid numbers by reducing testing.
It reminds me of all the democrats who thought covid hospitalization was 30%. It reminds me of the Democrats trying to shut down scientists who don’t fall in line with their narratives. It reminds that Democrats need to stoke fear in order to push their agenda. Be it racism, guns, climate alarmism, white supremacy, or COVID.
Glad you enjoyed it. I loved the movie. It parallels not only science denial but also corruption among the political class, hypocrisy of today's media and the pitfalls of social media. It was great to get a astronomer's POV on the science and the theme of the movie.
Dr B, I've been a computer programmer, often working with digital signal processing, for nigh on 43 years. That tool to inspect FITS images is almost stupidly good and useful! (Mind you, these days I'm writing Perl code to do giant mail-merge print/mail runs. Hey ho - still cutting code at 63!)
I absolutely loved this movie. I don't think I've ever had a movie before make me laugh and cry at the same time. I've seen people criticise it for either not being funny enough or preaching to the choir or not being subtle enough to change people's minds. But this movie wasn't meant to do any of that. It's not a comedy, it's a dark satire. And it's not trying to preach or convert anyone. The time to do that is already past. What this movie is, is a despairing howl from scientists and doctors telling people the facts and being ignored, derided or accused of lying. Anyone who is scientifically literate will feel the frustration and hopelessness radiating from this movie. Loved your breakdown of it.
This was a great video Becky. I think people like you really help the world with making people believe in science, which sadly is very important these days!
Believe in science? So science is some kind of religion? I think you meant to say "believe in scientists". And this is the biggest issue: there are a pretty big bunch of people who don't believe scientists. And they don't believe scientists because they understand that any man/woman can be corrupted. When I was a child I was raised to have a blindly faith in authorities: police, doctors, etc. But I met cases when, for example, doctors took some decisions based on greed, on their incompetency or other stupid reasons. So I don't blindly listen to what doctors say to me anymore.
@@sfappetrupavelandrei You are right that the word "believe" is not the best one since it reminds us of religion. I also agree with you that one should not blindly believe say doctors. I find it is very good to read the actual research papers about various topics. That is the most clear way to get an understanding of the topic. One of the most important things I learned in University was how to evaluate sources. It is not an easy topic, but very important and in these days maybe even more important.
@@andreasoberg2021 Exactly. The comment I did was because of this misconception some people have that those who disagree with major scientific opinions don't believe in science. I hate this way of thinking. It gives no place for conversations. More productive would be to discuss with those people and understand with what they disagree and give them arguments. If only people would be very open to honest conversations (and no patronising or insulting the other) a lot more things would be done.
Great review. I’m actually collecting some FITS image files of the HorseHead nebula on my telescope as I’m watching this. Got to make use of the rare clear nights of late in the South UK.
Easiest to look FITS up in the wiki. They are default format output by my ZWO imaging camera and they contain load of metadata useful for image stacking and follow-on processing.
I loved this film. And saw the allegory of how we respond to existential threats. With our response to Covid in some circles, science denial and of course climate change. Ever since I watched it I've kind of lost hope that we will successfully combat climate change in any meaningful way.
These "catastrophe reaction" works always exaggarate. Climate change and similar problems are really complicated, but still solvable and being solved. Don't lose hope for humanity.
As an environmental engineer, I was torn emotionally for the whole duration of the movie. Fulfillment, the feeling that you are right and everyone finally understands it and despair, thinking "people never listen until it is too late". And the despair was even greater, knowing that this movie was written with climate change in mind. And climate change is not a fast, hard hitting comet. It is a slow, painful process. Making sure, that people will not listen until we've hit more than 2 degrees Celsius of warming... And seeing how people reacted to a pandemic in the 21st century, I am more than certain about this...
@-GinΠΓ Τάο and this kids is why you should go to an actual university in order to learn HOW TO LEARN. I won't even begin to analyze a 1000 words nonsense because it is a waste of time, I have actual work on my field to do (maybe this is the problem in the end, that we leave too many ignorant ideas floating around without answering, but I have no desire to teach someone the correct way of thinking right now-and RU-vid doesn't let you post links outside of the site, such as peer reviewed studies). I will just summarize: In summary, the guy here has mixed and matched hypotheses that he has zero understanding about, twisting what they try to say and cherry picking in order to get to a "conclusion". This is exactly why he has only pasted RU-vid videos and an article from the Guardian. It is the essence of what you SHOULD NOT do when trying to learn a subject. Don't go about watching RU-vid videos if you want proof about something. Read the papers. The peer reviewed scientific papers in scientific journals. Not the random newspaper article. This is how science progresses. Oh, and disregard his comment. It is completely ignorant.
From a geomorphological perspective, I am curious to know how accurate was the impact's consequences. I understand the eventual climatologist impact: would the entire planet be consumed in earthquakes?
The entire planet would feel the effects of what is essentially one giant earthquake - all strong earthquakes send out waves that can be detected all over the world, and a crater-forming impact like this would do the same thing on a much larger scale, to the point that the vibrations could actually be felt on the other side of the planet. As an interesting side note, Mercury actually has mountains that are thought to have been formed by the convergence of seismic waves at the point directly opposite some of its biggest craters. A much bigger problem, though, would be the pressure wave in the atmosphere (essentially a high-intensity sonic boom), which would also reach the whole planet (remember, e.g. the 20-meter asteroid that injured 1500 people in 2013 just by breaking apart 30 kilometers up in the atmosphere)
The most horrifying funny movie ever. Don't know whether to laugh or cry. I love watching your reaction. It was like looking in the mirror. You would notice even more parallels, if you lived in the US during the pandemic.
You must have gotten onto the internet yesterday. Watching this film nearly 2 years into the pandemic, let me tell you it is not only the US who behaves in such a way.
@@ThisNoName And I don't even blame China. A lot of people (including me) totally underestimated COVID, because the former 'epidemics' of swineflu and birdflu had a lot less impact than expected. And a lot of people even now mistake influenza for the sniffles.
I've been waiting for this reaction video since I saw this movie on Christmas Day. As you, I expected the comet not to hit Earth and I was really blown away by the finale and also frustrated by the general public not accepting the scientific data and denying the evidence. Thank you for the video, always fun and educational ^_^
I really appreciate you using the film as context for describing how something like this would unfold. In practice, the *movie* is political satire using the comet as an analogy for climate change, according to the producers. We thought it was laugh-out-loud hilarious. One could also critique the film from its stated purpose of lampooning climate change deniers, and the film suffers similarly.
Can I make a suggestion please? I am currently reading The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu and without giving any spoilers there's a lot of actual science in it (unlike some sci-fi!) and I would really like to hear your comments on it if you have read it.
This was actually made to be a commentary on climate change. And I believe it was partially to make light of how ridiculous it is that we have a disaster looming and everyone is still concerned with profit and politics.
Yeah, but the economic aspect is kind of critical to solving the climate problem. It's not possible to just shut down or scale down large parts of economy. You can clearly see that now during the pandemic. If people don't normally care about some uncertain danger somewhere far in the future then they certainly won't care about it if they can't afford to buy food or pay the rent.. This is not a simple problem to solve. (Not saying that global warming is uncertain, just that the effects and costs of it are not clearly visible to average person.)
The End is Nigh! Been heard too often before to be taken seriously now. No matter how likely the crisis is to be real. Also, if the solution to the problem is more tax, then there is a tendency to believe the problem is political and not scientific. Add in the complete failure of the activists to target China, a country building coal powered stations like there will be no tomorrow, and it is hardly surprising that some think this is all fake news.
@@I_Don_t_want_a_handle Exactly, and since every time they exaggerate it so extreme. No one believe anything now, even it there is some truth on what they say. And yup, last year they announce they were building 43 new coal plants to meet demands. The hypocrisy, ban fracking in USA but keep pushing the consumption of Chinese goods. If they didn't have so many factories there, they wouldn't be opening coal plants every yer. Ban pipeline in the US but allow one in Europe. Cause you know, somehow if pollution comes from that side of the globe is less damaging. >.> An yeah, their solutions is always a method that only make the goverment take more, spend more, waste more, NOT fix the problem and need even more to fix the problems that weren't fixed the other times they tried. It's all BS.
These "catastrophe reaction" works always exaggarate. Climate change and similar problems are really complicated, but still solvable and being solved. Don't lose hope for humanity.
@@Omizuke It is no an exaggeration at all. If you truly understand how ecosystems work you would be very worried. Flooding coastlines is the least of our worries. I'm a pretty steadfast fellow, but the outcome of the coming scenario literally terrifies me. And well before the actual environmental catastrophe fully takes shape there will be constant war. Don't know about you all, but I don't want war at my doorstep. There are just so many consequences, most of which are completely ignored by the media and science communicators.
I caught this a week ago, and at 3 minutes into your video the doors open JUST before they run measurements. Please correct me; Aren't the doors open "far" in advance so the room temp and the outside temp don't affect the mirror?
@@ThisNoName Oh goodness no, and I get that "for effect" and drama showing the doors opening is more interesting than just data on a screen. I am only curious what the time delay from opening to gathering data where the temp change does not affect that data. ie: Can you open the doors and take pictures right away
According to Wikipedia, the domes are there to also maintain the night temperature of the telescope during the day, so they are probably already equalized when the dome opens.
Love watching you look at sci-fi films and breaking it down, especially when you see stuff that it pretty realistic and get excited about working out what the telescope was in the opening scenes. If you haven't already then you should do Armageddon or Deep Impact.
This reminds me of a 70's movie called "the day the dam broke". Especially the scene where they picked up the phone that was under water and answered it. I also liked the scene where they drew cracks on the dam with a sharpie. Wait, they didn't have sharpies back then, it must have been a black crayon. Good movie for a party.
Thank you Dr. Becky. It was fun watching your reactions. 👏 I really found the movie entertaining and can forgive the misrepresented science in these productions but it's good to know that it seemed to hit all the main marks - Amy Mainzer did you proud! 😂 plus everybody on the internet should check out this section 18:34 Dr. Becky gold! ❤
You are so great I watched your video and decided to enroll in a quantum mechanics course online I'm not the brightest tool in the tool box but I seem to be getting through it alright ❤️
Your reaction to it hitting ws the same one I had. I was expecting their math to be HORRIBLY flawed because of a 3 being out of place or something, and we would see the comet skip by harmlessly. I would have been on the beach, too. ~LOL~
Awesome breakdown Doc, as per the usual. I would love to see you tackle Ad Astra. For my money it's the most scientifically illiterate sci-fi film ever made. There's an absolute howler every 5 minutes.
The thing I love most about the reactions to this movie is. Either you had people claiming it was elitist scum that wasn’t a good watch or you had people who were interested in the physics of an astroid or comet hitting earth. When the whole point of the movie was to be an analogy for our stupidity when it comes to climate change LOL so even in trying to talk about how we are missing the mark, we missed the mark. I was so pleased about the ending. Ultimately we will get what we deserve based on what we do or don’t do. Sadly you can be literally on fire and there would still be people in the world that would be angry at you for losing your cool or swearing or forgetting your manners. Which just goes to show the priorities some people have. Southpark movie when all the mothers get outraged. Graphic and deplorable violence on television is okay as long as nobody says any naughty words. A very good metaphor for climate change and the reaction to this movie.
Thanks for all your content! It's been a great time watching it all and learning so much. I do have a suggestion of a movie: "Stowaway", a netflix space movie that came out last year. It's pretty good for a movie but I would be interested in knowing your thoughts as a scientist.
I'm a Masters student in physics (research in astronomy) and man this movie was great but it infuriated me. I'm not even finished with grad school and I already have to deal with the anti-science crowd. That point to Brexit was a really good analogy with "we're tired of experts." It's happening in more fields than science, economics is the biggest one outside of STEM that I can think of.
