Building a Scene in Maya

For some reason those dots kept appearing when I rendered but I was able to get most of them to go away.

Second Term Paper

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction? in "Serenity"

The movie “Serenity” is in itself classified as a piece of science fiction. Much of its plot and premise revolves around defying the laws of physics. However, usually what is considered science fiction consists of following the new rules of physics that the world of the movie dictates. For example in the movie it is a common fact that people can travel far distances through space in a matter of minutes or that hover crafts are an accepted way to travel. However, there are also scenes in the movie “Serenity” that breaks the movie’s own accepted laws of physics for the sake of dramatic effect. In the first chase scene of the movie the protagonists are being chased by Reavers (unexplained mad cannibals) across the desert. The main characters are in a small hover craft that they themselves claim to be bearing too much weight while the Reavers chase them in a space ship flying close to the ground. In the process of being chased and escaping the Reavers the scene defies three laws of physics that the movie did not previously set parameters for. In fact there are hints that the world of “Serenity” usually follows these laws. First the Law of Acceleration is unrealistic between the hover craft and the Reaver ship, next the Law of Inertia is inaccurate when the hover crafts spins around, and finally the action reaction principle is not represented correctly in the ship’s hanger.

The scene begins with the main characters racing away into the desert while the Reavers massacre a town. The scene implies that main characters have a few minutes head start before there is suddenly a Reaver ship racing toward them from town. One of the first obvious problems with the scene is that the two crafts move at the same speed but one appears to be capable of moving faster than the other. The Reaver ship demonstrates that it is faster than the hover craft by catching up fairly quickly. However, once the Reaver ship is only a few yards away from the hover craft, the ship doesn’t seem to be able to go any faster. The Law of Acceleration states that the greater the net force on an object, the greater the acceleration of that object. The Reaver ship openly shows two large engines capable of flying through space while the hover craft seems to be only capable of flying a few feet off the ground. The Reaver ship therefore shows that it has a greater net force than that of the hover craft. Additionally, one of the main characters is harpooned by the Reaver ship and then he is dragged behind the hover craft. The other occupants of the hover craft try to pull him back into the car while the Reaver ship tries to pull him back. The law of Acceleration also says that the greater the mass of an object, the less it accelerates when acted on by a force. By harpooning and dragging down one of the characters the hover craft has mass added to it and should therefore slow down. One of the characters even kills a man before the chase because his weight would have slowed them down, therefore verifying that the technology of the hover craft is susceptible to the law of Acceleration. However, somehow the Reavers are still unable to slow the hover craft down with their ship’s mass and the net force of their engines.

After the harpooned character gets cut loose from the Reaver ship the hover craft makes an attempt to get some distance so that it can meet with the main ship Serenity. The hover craft suddenly stops and spins around sharply while the Reaver ship keeps moving forward temporarily unaware of the directional change. After a few seconds the Reaver ship also makes the same sharp turn. The Reaver ship seems to temporarily lose control of itself, adding to the previous theory that this ship has a stronger force acting on it and therefore its speed on a turn would be more unbalanced. The Law of Inertia states that An object moves with constant, uniform motion until acted on by an unbalanced force. The protagonists’ hover craft spins out in a 360 degree turn but the passengers hardly move in their seats. Their lack of movement is suppose to be due to how hard everyone holds on to the edge of their seats. In normal circumstances the extremely sharp spin should have created a strong centrifugal force where the people in the craft keep moving forward in a straight line before catching up to the change in the force of the craft. The way the Reaver ship spins out of control confirms that centrifugal force and therefore the law of Inertia is a part of the movie’s universal laws even with hovering ships. Additionally, the people in the hover craft were not wearing seat belts when they experienced the unbalanced force. With these factors in mind the Law of Inertia should have caused them to be practically thrown from their seats.

Finally at the end of the scene the ship Serenity arrives just in time to save the hover craft that is once again in danger of being overtaken by the Reaver ship. The ship Serenity slowly comes towards the racing hover craft with its hanger open. The hover craft heads into the ship’s hanger at full speed with only a few yards to slow down. The hover craft does not crash significantly in comparison to its speed and the forward motion of the ship Serenity. Additionally, after the hover craft’s gentle crash, none of the passengers are thrown forward by the impact. Even more remarkable, some of the passengers have enough time to get out of the car before the second ship goes into the hanger, even though the second ship was only a few feet behind them. The loose explanation for the long pause between crashes is that the Reaver ship got cut in half by the Serenity’s hanger door. Thus a force slowed down its velocity. There are multiple laws violated in this last part of the scene. Most prominently is Newton’s third law of motion the Action reaction principle. The principle states that For every action force there is an equal reaction force in the opposite direction. When the hover craft zoomed toward the ship and the ship Serenity headed toward the hover craft there should have been a crash due to both enacting a force towards each other. Due to the hover craft’s smaller mass it should have experienced the greater change in velocity when it collided with the ship’s hanger. The scene even shows this to be a rule in the movie by how a piece of the Reaver ship, which is about the same size as the hover craft, crashes into the same wall where the hover craft landed. However, whereas the hovercraft landed gently, the large piece of metal races in at a higher acceleration and collides with larger damage. The law of Inertia should have also been seen in the passengers of the hover craft when it crashed. At stopping they should have continued in a forward motion matching the direction of the velocity at which the hover craft was going. However, the people seemed to move only to the slight motion of someone parking a car. The last inconsistency with the crash seems to be more of a dramatic pause for the scene. Once the characters seem to get their bearings, only then does the half piece of Reaver ship that was going at the same velocity if not faster come zipping in to menace the characters one more time. In the real world the law of Acceleration should have allowed the Reaver ship to come flying in seconds after the hover craft even if it was cut in half. The velocity at which it hit the wall shows that getting cut in half by the door didn’t have too much effect on its velocity.

Due to being the beginning of the movie the characters needed to temporarily remain intact. To do so the protagonists had many “lucky” breaks in evading and eventually getting away from the Reavers. Ironically, by giving the characters a lot of lucky breaks the movie better highlighted the broken laws of physics. Things such as the hover craft not experiencing a strong centrifugal force could have been written off by the audience as being a result of the technology. However, the need for the Reaver ship to be thrown of the chase revealed that their technology should have been susceptible to at least some of the same laws of physics. The Law of Acceleration was broken because without question the plot needed the main characters to never get caught by the Reavers, second, the Law of Inertia was broken to give the audience hope and shake off the doubt that the Reaver ship could stay behind for so long without catching up. Finally the action reaction principle is overlooked for the sake of the chase’s climax and idealizing the driver of the hover craft and the Serenity as being master pilots.

Outline of the Second Term Paper

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction? in "Serenity"

I. Introduction – The First Chase Scene
• a. Law of Acceleration unrealistic between the two hover crafts
• b. Law of Inertia inaccurate when the hover craft spins around
• c. Action reaction principle is not represented correctly in the ship’s hanger
• d. Thesis statement

II. Law of Acceleration unrealistic between the two hover crafts

• a. The two crafts move at the same speed but one appears to be capable of moving faster than the other
• b. The Reaver ship is more powerful and advance but it can’t catch up to the hover craft
• i. The Reaver ship catches up to them at a superior speed initially but can’t seem to go any faster once their near the hover craft
• ii. One of the main characters is harpooned by the Reaver ship but they are unable to slow the hover craft down with their mass

III. Law of Inertia inaccurate when the hover crafts spins around

• a. The hover craft spins out but the passengers hardly move in their seats.
• i. Law of Inertia should have caused them to be practically thrown from their seats without seat belts

IV. Action reaction principle is not represented correctly in the ship’s hanger

• a. The hover craft heads into the ship hanger at full speed while the ship slows in toward the hover craft
• i. The hover craft does not crash significantly in comparison to its speed and the motion of the ship.
• b. The passengers are not thrown forward by the impact
• i. Some of the passengers have enough time to get out of the car before the second ship goes into the hanger even though the second ship was only a few feet behind them

V. Conclusion

• a. Summary
• b. Restate thesis