{"id":17423,"date":"2022-02-01T22:38:29","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T14:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/bad-moon-falling-geophysicist-adds-her-own-scientific-spin-to-moonfall-movie\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T22:38:29","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T14:38:29","slug":"bad-moon-falling-geophysicist-adds-her-own-scientific-spin-to-moonfall-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/bad-moon-falling-geophysicist-adds-her-own-scientific-spin-to-moonfall-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad moon falling: Geophysicist adds her own scientific spin to \u2018Moonfall\u2019 movie"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cMoonfall\u201d features a resurrected space shuttle and an ominously looming moon. (Courtesy of Lionsgate)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even geophysicist Mika McKinnon, one of the science consultants for a $140 million disaster movie called \u201cMoonfall,\u201d admits that the moon-crashing tale is ridiculously exuberant.<\/p>\n

But what\u2019s wrong with that?<\/p>\n

\u201cA movie is supposed to be fun, and science is allowed to be fun,\u201d McKinnon says in the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast, which focuses on the intersection of science and fiction. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to nitpick at it, or rip it all apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Science-minded spoilsports would probably find it about as easy to rip apart the plot of \u201cMoonfall\u201d as it was for giant tidal waves to rip apart the space shuttle launch pad at California\u2019s Vandenberg Space Force Base in the movie. (One of the plot twists involves taking the shuttle Endeavour off its L.A. museum perch and blasting off from Vandenberg, which was once set up as a shuttle launch site.)<\/p>\n

The movie is based on a premise that\u2019s even harder to imagine than resurrecting a space shuttle for a lunar mission: A conspiracy theorist (portrayed by portly John Bradley of \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d fame) discovers that the moon is spiraling out of orbit toward Earth, and eventually persuades NASA to go into world-saving mode (with Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson playing leading roles).<\/p>\n

\u201cMoonfall\u201d riffs on the recent scientific speculation over alien megastructures, throws in a villainous swarm of nanobots, and adds a dash of Apollo moon-hoax hokum. It\u2019s the kind of ripped-from-the-tabloid-headlines approach that\u2019s worked in the past for the film\u2019s director, Roland Emmerich, in movies like \u201cIndependence Day,\u201d \u201c2012\u201d and \u201cThe Day After Tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some who believe that the moon is not a natural object,\u201d Emmerich says in the \u201cMoonfall\u201d production notes. \u201cI thought that was an intriguing idea for a movie. What happens if this object falls down to Earth?\u201d<\/p>\n

McKinnon and the movie\u2019s other science consultants were tasked with providing plausible answers to that implausible question.<\/p>\n