Astro-physicist Neil deGrassi Tyson is known for no-nonsense viewpoints, especially when it comes to sci-fi movies that often get their facts wrong and are misleading. Now, with the release of "Interstellar", one wonders how this international blockbuster is graded by Tyson in terms of scientific accuracy.
In 2013, the makers of Sandra Bullock-starrer "Gravity" had faced his wrath for getting the details wrong on everything from Bullock's zero-gravity hair to the direction of the satellite's motion.
"The Cosmos" host, who is more impressed with the scientific accuracy in Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" than with "Gravity", took to Twitter to praise the film. Highlighting what he thought were the positive aspects of the film, Tyson posted the following tweets, which contain spoilers, with the prefix "In Interstellar...":
- Experience Einstein's Relativity of Time as no other feature film has shown.
- Experience Einstein's Curvature of Space as no other feature film has shown.
- The producers knew exactly how, why, & when you'd achieve zero-G in space.
- You observe great Tidal Waves from great Tidal Forces, of magnitude that orbiting a Black Hole might create.
- You enter a three-dimensional portal in space. Yes, you can fall in from any direction. Yes, it's a Worm Hole.
- They reprise the matched-rotation docking manoeuvre from "2001: A Space Odyssey," but they spin 100x faster.
- Of the leading characters (all of whom are scientists or engineers) half are women. Just an FYI.
In an interview with CBS This Morning, Tyson further discussed the scientific accuracy of film with the hosts and shared some "cool" information that viewers who intend to watch it should know. While he asserts that he does not rate films, nor does he care if anyone agrees with him or not, as a scientist and an educator, Tyson deems it necessary to alert people on what science they could look forward to, in films.
Tyson also expressed his happiness in seeing five lead actors in "Interstellar" playing scientists. "Typically when there are scientists, they are wire-haired, lab coat-garning.. You don't care if they're in love, or have kids.. In 'Interstellar' fully family relationships were explored," says Tyson.
Early Wednesday morning, "The Cosmos" host had also posted nine "Mysteries of Interstellar", in which he points out a few shortcomings in the Matthew McConaughey-starrer.
- If you can poke through a tesseract and touch books, why not just write a note & pass it through.
- Stars vastly outnumber Black Holes. Why is the best Earth-like planet one that orbits a Black Hole
- Who in the universe would ever know the titles of all their books, from behind, on a bookshelf.
- How a pick-up truck can drive with a flat tire among densely planted corn stalks taller than it.
- If wormholes exist among our planets, then why can't one open up near Earth instead of Saturn.
- Gotta tell you. Mars (right next door) looks waay safer than those new planets they travelled to.
- If you crack your space helmet yet keep fighting, the Planet's air can't be all that bad for you.
- Can't imagine a future where escaping Earth via wormhole is a better plan than just fixing Earth.
- In this unreal future, they teach unscientific things in science class. Oh, wait. That is real.
On 3 June 2014, Tyson, in association with CinemaSins, had published the following video to point out everything that's wrong with Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity".
