that scene in every sci-fi movie 

I would love to play the comic relief, “In english, please???” guy for this cinematic masterpiece

I always use complicated jargon I know others won’t understand in life or death situations where time is of the essence, it’s nice that movies make me feel represented on screen like this

Truly magnificent how sticking a pen through paper makes us all astrophysicists on the spot.

The wormhole explanation is the new kind of 'this is an EMP, an electromagnetic pulse. It is an intense burst of energy that will knock out the power of whatever system we need to avoid on this mission." that they used to do literally every time it came up

"Now stick a pencil through it." _uses a pen_ How can you "drive your point home" if you don't even use the correct writing equipment? This story has some serious -worm- _plot_ holes

Next, you should show how the main character gets a crazy idea in the second act of the movie and never tells it to anyone but everyone just plays along

“Look, I know that everyone in this room is a genius scientist is this field of study, but I still feel the need to explain this concept to everyone like you’re a bunch of toddlers.”

I love how your title, "Man carrying Thing", applies to most, if not, all characters in your skits. For example, one of the characters in this skit is a scientist carrying a piece of paper and a pen, while the other character is a concerned person carrying the burden of being the comic relief.

The least realistic part of Interstellar is that they sent Cooper on a mission to travel through a wormhole to another solar system...without ever apparently bothering to explain to him what a wormhole is prior to when he's about to go through it.

You forgot “you would think the smallest distance between them is a straight line, but actually…”

Fun fact: a piece of paper and a pen are the only two things astrophysics in movies carry on their presence at all times.

Yep every movie with science requires the “English please” guy.

The funniest thing is that both of them are engineers/scientists, the best humanity has to offer

You forgot to mention that both characters speaking would also be so comically over-qualified to even ask if they knew about one of Einstein's most famous theories.

I want one where the guy explaining has no idea what he's talking about "So imagine the universe is like a big apple, now imagine a hungry worm chews inside of it. That's a wormhole, gentlemen."

"We can use a wormhole to travel through time and alternate dimensions to save the world" "Ok how do we find this wormhole and utilize it's power?" "IDK we just do it"

To top it off, the “scientist-explaining-black-holes” scene in Interstellar contains the observation that a sphere is, in fact, a 3-D circle.

Scientific explanations in movies are almost always cringe. The latest I remember was Tony Stark inventing time travel by "inverting the Möbius trip" , and "finding its eigenvalues" and "spectral decomposition" none of which makes mathematical sense in regard of the Möbius strip unfortunately.

Well, I’m convinced

I love how the plan is to literally bend the universe with no further explanation

This explanation started with the movie Event Horizon. You could also do a similar video for how every astronaut movie explains the slingshot effect.

that Event Horizon trailer on Netflix really clears things up

To be fair, the first film (that I can recall) to do this was Event Horizon, a film named after a property of black holes and about breaking through the known boundaries of space-time to travel vast distances across the universe. At the time, this was not a trope and was legitimately trying to explain a form of space travel that was foreign to not only the audience, but the crew of the ship.

Also at the climax: “I am ready to risk my life but now that we’re at the black hole and everything is tearing apart, please repeat this exposition to me again while shouting”

That scene where they did this exactly in Thor Love and Thunder even though it had no relevance to the story whatsoever and they explicitly mention all the other sci-fi movies that had already used that explanation before so the audience knows exactly what they are talking about and shouldn't have to explain anything but they do it anyways

the fact this explanation originated in Event Horizon proves that Paul W.S. Anderson is one of the most influential filmmakers of the last 25 years

Physics advisor: actually the wormhole would shred anyone coming near to pieces, since it’s a black hole. Producer: Get me a new physics advisor.

Thor 4 pointed out that it's a cliche, then did it anyway. That's like the scriptwriting equivalent of starting a sentence with, "I'm not racist, but..."

There's a bit in Torchwood when a rift in time opens, the character Jack gets a piece of paper he draws a straight line and goes, "normal time" then he scrunches up the paper and says, "screwed up time" then throws the paper away.

The best bit is when one astrophysicist uses the paper & pencil to tell this elementary school level explanation to a seasoned astronaut.

I always love that their explaining it to other scientists/astronauts who should 100% already know what a wormhole is

Literally every episode of The Flash. "Oh no, the bad guy poisoned me with a lethal virus" "Why don't we manipulate the intergalactic molecular DNA with it's string vibrations at a quantum level to rearrange the metaphysical electromagnetic matter" "Genius!"

The real question: is it really Man Carrying Thing's birthday or did someone bend space time so it could be his birthday every day?

Science: "Wormholes are not ruled out by physics" Every sci-fi story: "There are like a trillion wormholes and we make a new one every 5 minutes using this small device, and we can teleport wherever we want instantly!"

lol, I noticed this. movies did something similar with EMP devices around the 2000s. "They're going to use an EMP burst!" "An electromagnetic pulse???" "Yes, its going to wipe out all electronics in a mile radius" "oh no, that'll take down the bla bla bla" I feel like the writers have to explain this very slowly to producers and they're like "you gotta put that in" "yeah, I still don't get it..."

"That's crazy!... So crazy it just. might. work."

The worst version of this trope is when the thing they say is torally understandable but sounds like, mildly nerdy and the other character just comes off as moronic as a result lol

Respect to him for spotting all these tropes to make these videos

I am left with no questions at all

I think my favorite thing is that there's like this trope that robots or androids will use nuclear weapons because the radiation will not affect them (Cough cough, Detroit: Become Human), but radiation actually screws up electrical devices severely, which is one of the reasons why satellites and probes have to be radiation hardened and armored to survive out in space.

Meanwhile Interstellar put a bookcase inside the wormhole because love is more powerful than physics apparently

Woah! The pencil thing really explained quickly. And I literally have no questions and I am also an expert in wormholes now. Thank you vey much

Sticking a pencil through the paper really gets the point across

I love when a molecular scientist explains another molecular scientist how molecular science works but it turns out molecular science doesn’t quite work out as they were taught on school because plot twist.

I like when the smart guy of the group explains things in a way the other scientists/ astronauts/doctors in the story should have no problem understanding, but the audience doesn’t so instead of being competent at their job everyone needs to act dumb as bricks or else they can’t be relatable. Bonus points if they're incredibly rude to the smart character for no reason.

I'm always more impressed that the actors can punch a hole in the paper with a pen or pencil. It never works when I try it.

Kyle Hill made a whole ass video complaining about and trying to find a better analogy

I swear I've seen this in literally every movie ever.

Happy Birthday man :)

Just once I’d like a movie to have a scene like this but the guy pulls out a completed PowerPoint presentation complete with professional voiceover work, unobtainable data/images, and fully rendered 3D models. The scientist would have it ready to go for years hoping the situation would come up

This guys videos really remind me of old youtube and I love every second of it. No expensive camera, no expensive lighting, no expensive set, just a man in his house with a cheap camcorder/maybe iphone (idk what he uses for sure)

gotta break a few "exposition eggs", if you wanna make Inception, Interstellar, TENET, etc! Well put, concise and informative as always sir!

Now stick 'quantum' in front of every thing you say to really hammer home how smart you are.

Due to this explanation, I was able to get a degree in astrophysics. Thanks Man Carrying Thing, very cool.

I remember first reading that analogy in A Wrinkle in Time like thirty years ago, and it’s just been beaten to death ever since.

Would love to see a compilation of all the movies where they do this

I too like to make snarky one liners when someone tries to explain a scientific concept in a dangerous situation

“Explain it to me like I’m 5” is the go-to for every modern movie

IT'S LIKE LETTING THE AIR OUT OF A BALLOON

THIS should leave the audience with no questions at all....

Literally was just having my friend explain how a planet with three suns would go when this video dropped. Wild

This is every sci-fi show and movie that got wormhole. It so ridiculous how it is overused so much. Also great video and happy birthday Jake.

Well I've been left with absolutely no questions at all

I love how the clip cuts off short at the end.

Just saw Thor last week. Someone was reading her book on wormholes and she used this exact example... if he's reading a book on wormholes he probably has at least that level of understanding, it was weird imo.

I want a sci fi movie where they make a wormhole and are just like “A wormhole..? Explain that.” “Bro fuckin…. Can’t.”

"Maybe we already have the plan" - Most underrated line in this whole clip.

a guy did this at work once and i just knew he watched some movie yesterday and thought it was so cool he wanted to make it look like he made that up

I am in the audience right now and still have so many questions. Can that pen fit through the hole all the way or does it get stuck? What happens when you fold the paper the other way? If you use bristol board from the dollar store, does the wormhole become longer?

Good video

I can just imagine Netflix's future series _"3 Body Problem"_ is gonna be this but far more confusing to understand and will be in each and every episode ever.

excellent cut at the end. Not hearing the final syllable really helped drive home the point that you're

The funny thing is that this _actually_ leaves the audience with no questions at all.

The speak English please is literally in every sci fi movie😂

At this point movies don’t even need to have this explanation. I’ve seen it so many times, they could just cut to a sheet of paper, cut back to the science character approaching it with a pencil, and I’ll understand perfectly.

What a great Man Carrying Thing video!

I’ll be honest: I’ve seen this analogy in movies so many times, it’s comically stupid to me. It’s the “warp speed” of time/alternate-dimensional travel.

This also happens to a lesser extent with the slingshot maneuver in space movies

So much is packed into so little time in these videos.

His exclamation after sticking the pencil through had me dying 🤣

My Semiology proffesor in college once said "if an student can't come out with an example of their own, and just repeat the example given in the book, it means they didn't understant a thing of what they're talking about" ... I think it applies to a lot of the screenwriters who use the pencil-and-paper-wormhole demonstration

“Just bend the universe”

Little known fact the "Speak English, please" guy is actually second cousins with the "We've got company" guy

I want to see a movie where everyone in the room is smart and they're like "Oh it's simple. You see we start with the equations for a spherically symmetric mass distribution, already used for black holes ds^2 = -\dfrac{1}{1-2m/r}dr^2 - r^2(d\theta^2+\sin^2\theta d\phi^2) + (1-2m/r)dt^2 Then perform a coordinate transformation to remove the region containing the curvature singularity. The singularity at r=2m is removed by the coordinate transformation u^2 = r - 2m resulting in a final solution, ds^2 = -4(u^2 + 2m)du^2 - (u^2 + 2m)^2 d\Omega^2 + \dfrac{u^2}{u^2 + 2m} dt^2 This coordinate transformation gives the spacetime two distinct asymptotically flat regions, one defined by u→∞ and the other by u→−∞. Where a singularity once was, at r=2m, we now see that there is a bridge connecting each asymptotically flat region u=±∞

The flat piece of paper analogy always works with me. Can confirm I am now with fifth degree black belt level theoretical physicist. I now recite Steven Hawkins theories as a fun game before breakfast with my other humans. Winner gets extra bacon 🥓

"This is a singularity, it's got my back. I would advise not getting close to it. It's gravitational pull can pull even light into infinite oblivion like water down a toilet."

Literally the ending of Diebuster. Nono... 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Literally Thor love and thunder, Doctor who, interstellar and etc.

QUESTION. I’m reading wrinkle in time for the first time right now, and I saw this example used. Was wrinkle in time the first one to use this? Or who was?

He stuck a pen through though

“English please” guy is always some astronaut/scientist who probably shouldn’t need a 5yo explanation

If more teachers stuck pencils and or pens through paper with any sort of regularity maybe kids these days wouldn’t have such trouble with fractions.

Interstellar loses a lot of it's impact as a sci-fi movie when you realize that it uses the same exact explanation for wormholes as Event Horizon, and any scientifically accurate aspect of the concept is abandoned so "the power of love" can save the day.

picks up paper us: is it the wormhole thing does the worm hole thing

I can't remember what I saw it on, but it was something so recent I couldn't believe they were doing it. This has got to be one of the most specific tropes I've ever seen get repeatedly used

I mean, that's pretty self explanatory. I prefer this to not explaining at all or over explaining non-organically.

Scientists "our only hope is to go through the wormhole, but they are incredibly hard to navigate, and the side effects can be super deadly!" Main character: "I guess we have no hope but to do it." Space ship: goes through wormhole, *is perfectly fine and nothing bad happens to the crew* The space aliens on the other side of wormhole: *either are too afraid to go through wormhole or conveniently get lost in space time and ripped to shreds.*

My favourite part of tenet was when he started asking about free will and time travel and the lady just goes "don't worry about it".

This is taken word for word from a movie and you can’t change my mind

One simple alternative is that they can have the technical discussion, but reserve the easy-to-understand explanations to much later. I think Thor 1 did this.