PC Bad Science: The Cloverfield Paradox *Spoilers*

Kurogo

Kurogo

New member
So my gf got me a Netflix account a few days ago while I was stuck in bed with a sick. One of the things I decided to watch was The Cloverfield Paradox. ... It took me an extra 2 hours and 4 attempts to finally get through that mess. Of all the things I could female dog about, let's pick apart the science, I'll start.

Water in space.

Masses of water do not instantly freeze in space. This is something most movies get wrong, but CP just went way,way overboard. Water will boil first, and then freeze. It would have instantly sprayed out of the airlock into a fine mist of molecular crystals, not frozen into a solid block of ice.

Who's next?

 
You can't expect movie script writers to know basic facts of physics like temperature/pressure diagrams.

They have a hard enough job learning all the necessary tropes like all gay people talking funny or space being cold!

In reality it totally depends. Space cannot be very cold because there is nothing cold in it. It actually insulates pretty well.

It's the water that cools because it evaporates.

Oh well. Close enough for a space opera, I guess.

 
You can't expect movie script writers to know basic facts of physics like temperature/pressure diagrams.They have a hard enough job learning all the necessary tropes like all gay people talking funny or space being cold!

In reality it totally depends. Space cannot be very cold because there is nothing cold in it. It actually insulates pretty well.

It's the water that cools because it evaporates.

Oh well. Close enough for a space opera, I guess.
Click to expand...
Actually, space is very, very cold. There are particles in it, but nothing close enough to be able to generate any kind of heat. This also means space isn't an insulator, it's just a terrible convector and conductor. Nothing to transfer heat to. You are correct that water freezes because it evaporates, but it's more of water's ability to store heat and surface tension that cause boiling(low pressure) to occur slightly before freezing(low temperature).

Few movies have gotten this right, so by itself, I wouldn't really fault the screenwriters. So I'll move on to the next issue:

Global energy crisis.

This isn't Mad Max. Nor is it the 80's. Running out of fossil fuels isn't going to be the catalyst to global panic in a society that's discovered wind/solar/hydro power quite to the degree they depict.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
The ending.

Predictable. They could make their own version of 'Destroy All Monsters' at this point, called 'Destroy All Cloverfields' lol :rolleyes2:
On the flip-side, I didn't hate it. Nice to see a new sci-fi movie, but there seems to be a shortage of good ones. The last one I really enjoyed was Predestination.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top