The Signal : Physically and medically impossible

Personally, I can go along with crazy science in a movie if it's well thought out and treats the audience with intelligence. The whole "going into the matrix" thing was an example of that. Scientifically impossible (perhaps) but presented in an engaging, thought-provoking way that made me happily suspend my disbelief.

On the other hand, there's stuff like "artificial gravity", which generally serves no purpose in movies other than to save the producers the expense of showing astronauts floating around. It's just a plot device wrapped in technobabble, and no-one bothers to explore the massive implications of manipulating gravity. Why, for example, are the explorers in Prometheus trundling around in wheeled vehicles if science can now control gravity?

The bionic limbs under discussion here are the same kind of thing. It feels like lazy writing (bionic = strong, so sure he can smash through concrete). Either the writers didn't spot the bad science or they thought the audience would be too dumb to notice. Or they just shrugged and said, "Meh, we'll call it alien science. That'll cover it."

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The bionic limbs under discussion here are the same kind of thing. It feels like lazy writing (bionic = strong, so sure he can smash through concrete). Either the writers didn't spot the bad science or they thought the audience would be too dumb to notice. Or they just shrugged and said, "Meh, we'll call it alien science. That'll cover it."

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You cannot make a perfect film. You have limited resources and time so you have to limit where you put your energy, in other words, what to explain and what to show to the audience. Otherwise you don't have a film. You also have to make the story to go nicely forward so you demote things that don't really matter for the story. Unfortunately in real life those "unimportant" things are a little bit different for every person. It is not about being dumb or about bad science, it is about film making and story telling.

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Why is this still acceptable to have an bionic arm or leg to give super powers that would require the same strength in the connecting body?

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Just here to say that I seriously feel for you on this. This effect happens all the time in movies, and it's not just limited to body parts either. I haven't found a solution to not letting it ruin your enjoyment, but it's got to have something to do with developing the ability to selectively dumb yourself down at will.

Every time something like this comes up, I keep thinking of the scene in Blade Runner where Roy lifts Deckard onto the roof with one hand. Deckard's weight doesn't affect Roy's center of gravity one bit.

Jonah remembered back to only a few moments ago, his shock and fear of the grenade bouncing around on the floor next to him. It had made his adrenaline levels shoot sky high, activating his bionic limbs' full functionality. As the blast reached him, his fully powered limbs emmitted some kind of force field, for the lack of a better description, that protected him from most of the explosion's destructive power. As the remnants of the blast faded, so did the glow from his alien hands.
When he went outside and walked towards the truck they had arrived in, he felt two powerful impacts in his back. He had been shot! But why could he still move? He should be dead. Maybe his limbs were still protecting him somehow?
He was able to reach Nic and convince him to leave with Haley, while Jonah himself would take care of the concrete pillar that prevented the truck from moving.
Again his adrenaline levels rose as he focused on the task ahead of him and in an explosion of anger and frustration he hit the pillar with all he had. His artificial hand glowed bright as it again emmitted its force field, affecting the concrete on a molecular level. It looked like an explosion but felt like smashing his hand through water. Relieved he saw his friends take off into safety. Time to deal with the guards


Disclaimer: I blame any weird grammar or spelling on English being my secondary language

Thanks for your reply, that is actually a rather nice explanation :)

OP: Yes, the scientifically intelligent part of my brain said the same thing as I was watching all this, especially that last scene where he broke out into the "super run" and crashed through the glass, but then I had to suspend disbelief and remember that it's just a sci-fi film and since there's so far and few in between :/

I agree. Movie physics is stupid and absurd.

Even the IPs they showed were some rfc1918 IPs - private reserved IPs which are non-routable on the internet. MIT students in Computer sciences would know that and laugh.

Same for comic super heroes like IronMan. Sure, he can create a suit but there's no escaping the g-forces and he takes a tank shell? He'll become pulp inside his suit and will be leaking out of his suit.

His arms would just snap off and some of the things shown seem physics defying.

Knowing what we know about the universe and the universal constants like the Planck Constant etc. physics out in another planet wouldn't be dramatically different at all. Sure, gravitational forces will be diff, but all the physics would be the same.

The same equations true on Earth will be true in the alien floating ship as well.

Also, for OP - Amazon has a good book on this - Insultingly Stupid Movie physics or something. Check it out

Haha I missed the IPs. And I bet the IPs looked good to the director because those are the IPs you most see on a network in your office.

Thanks for the info about the book but I better not read it. Might spoil even more movies!

Yeah lots of fantasy in sci fi movies for some reason didn't annoy me in Iron Man even though it's totally implausible.

This whole thread is like cavemen discussing quantum physics.
Obviously, the aliens are able to control gravity (their spaceships dont need to rotate to produce gravitational force).
Most likely the arms and legs have their own power supply (hence the red glowing) to manipulate gravity. therefore he can smash anything without straining his muscles, because the hands move by themselves.

I was referring to IronMan's arms, not the arms of the guy in The Signal

I think they used the 192 intentionally like the use phone numbers with 555 so you dont get movie wacks calling the number or tracking down a legit ip address.

I also think it was on purpose.

I'm thinking the legs weren't the only 'improvement', because Nic wasn't hurt too badly after being thrown off the tractor trailer the first time, before chasing it down again. Jonah was still getting around pretty good after being shot twice in the back. Apparently they had 'replacements' AND 'improvements'.

This is my siggy. It appears, automagically, when I post.

this isn't exactly Dr. Rudy Wells performing these installations

Great post, Dejay, well put and an excellent point to highlight!

Additional reading material about enhanced bodyparts and superpowers:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RequiredSecondaryPowers

And about the plausibility or stupidity of some ideas or depiction of ideas:

http://lesswrong.com/lw/sp/detached_lever_fallacy/

I'm really sick of the "this is a movie with FTL spaceships, aliens, laser weaponry, etc. and you are hung up on THAT detail?" type of argument. That's not even an argument of course, since overall believability and plausible plot points are two different things.

If something is explained in-universe with a some degree of science, then that is believable. If something was sloppily executed and the explanation was omitted or was particularly stupid, then it is right to complain about it. And the bionic arms and legs in this movie were perfect examples of the second case.

I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you

I was initially going to thank you for linking me to that site but now I hate you for it! ;)

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife

Hours later

For all the "it's just a movie" supporters this explains the different viewpoints to sci fi best:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness

Wait you didn't know this site before? Well, prepare for living with 25+ browser windows at all times in the next 1-2 months

I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you

Haha yeah. No I knew and browsed the site before but you made me fall off the wagon again! ;) I think they added more hyperlinks / updated the wiki / or I got in to different and more interesting area. I'll definitely have to read more.

PRO tip: If you end up with a big cluster of open links just click right on tabs and click "save all tabs". It feels so good closing all that ballast even though you know you'll never use those bookmarks again ;)

For exactly the reason you mentioned - I'm never going to open them again - I never save "to read later" type of links into my favorites. I'm also allergic to having 10 or more browser tabs open at the same time.

I was nervous reading TVTropes for the first time for exactly this reason in 2010. But I'm better now.

You can find my fave articles here - if you have not read one of them, I strongly recommend to do so:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Tropers/Sati1984

I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you

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his pelvis would break and tear itself to pieces

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Never underestimate the power of the human pelvic region.

Death by snu-snu?

Very similar remarks were said in the past about flying at supersonic speeds, space travel, submarines, and talking to somebody on the other side of the planet.

But those solutions were enabled by our deeper understanding of new area of physics. But for example a human smashing a concrete rod while wearing metallic gloves - we fully understand the physics of that scenario. And what is presented in the movie, doesn't make sense.

The arm is bionic, but the rest of the body isn't - so that human should not be able to exert such force. There is nothing presented in the movie that would explain the scene. So the point still stands.

I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you

jesus christ, there is always one isn't there.

Nope. We are in fact many. And more plausibility in regards to science makes for better movies.

just accept it for what it is and move on ffs, nitpicking to that degree shows you need everything spoon fed to you and have a very limited imagination.

No. Discussing what you liked and didn't like about a movie and what could be improved is what these forums are for.

Except for the fact that it makes absolutely no sense it's a great movie.