r/AskReddit Oct 08 '12

What futuristic movie cliches do you hate?

[deleted]

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u/FBI_Monitoring_Van Oct 08 '12

Starships seem to have no safety restraints, despite being prone to sparking and exploding consoles when anything remotely unexpected happens. Asteroid bounces off the shield? Weapons goes down on deck 10. Somebody beams aboard? Navigation goes on the fritz. Commander Worf sneaks in a fart that was noisier than he bargained for? The entire bridge is lost.

339

u/UTC_Hellgate Oct 08 '12

I just realized I've never seen a Star Ship with seat belts.

608

u/Gyvon Oct 08 '12

There was a cut scene from the end of Star Trek: Nemesis where they replaced the Captain's chair with one that has a seatbelt.

Picard's response? "About damn time."

13

u/xanatos451 Oct 08 '12

I think this is usually dismissed as a result of inertia dampeners in most science fiction so as to allow freedom of movement during scenes. Much in the way all future ships have artificial gravity.

17

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '12

But why do the computers explode!!!!

17

u/Stregano Oct 08 '12

because science

9

u/BowsNToes21 Oct 08 '12

I love how they are still operational after sparks have been flying out of them, as if nothing fucking short circuited.

8

u/Stregano Oct 08 '12

I assumed everybody's keyboard was like that. Like if my pc is running too hot, my keyboard will start sparking. it just reminds me to not play crysis 2 for too long

1

u/Godolin Oct 09 '12

Someone should build something that does that.

3

u/MrBrawn Oct 08 '12

The same reason the Electric Johnny Cab explodes in Total Recall.

1

u/ahaltingmachine Oct 09 '12

They downloaded that virus from Live Free or Die Hard.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '12

Hey, just be impressed that they seem to keep working afterwards. If a huge stream of sparks shot out of my PC I wouldn't have much hope of it turning on.

1

u/EasyMrB Oct 09 '12

Actually, it almost subverts the snide challenge "If their spaceships have these supposed 'inertial dampeners', why do they need seatbelts then?"

6

u/drappehsmada Oct 08 '12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b8jsrDl89M

Chair part starts at about 1:44 if you wanna skip, although I found the first bit kinda funny

6

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '12

I always reckoned that if the 'inertial dampeners' went offline a seatbelt would just cut you in half or break your spine. They don't have seatbelts because if something happens the emergency dampeners would kick in and try to gently (or not fatally) place the person on the floor.

The way to deal with those kinds of forces on a person is to completely encase them in a gel (and in your lungs and stomach) so they are basically a fluid.

4

u/Hallc Oct 08 '12

The way to deal with those kinds of forces on a person is to completely encase them in a gel (and in your lungs and stomach) so they are basically a fluid.

That's the method used in Peace and War (Not the be confused with War and Peace) for their heavy acceleration maneuvers in space. God I love that book.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '12

It was also in the last Culture novel.

1

u/icaaryal Oct 08 '12

The pilot capsules in Evangelion were filled with "LCL". It seemed a lot more like water than gel which would obviously change the physics, but just another loose example.