Many people don't walk around every
day having to remind themselves that if they run off a cliff, they will fall.
This is because the laws of physics in the real world are part of what keeps us
living every day. We must abide by them because it is part of the world we live
in. It is what we understand, and since we know these laws to never be broken,
we never have to think about them. One of these laws is Newton's third, where
he states that , "For every action, there is an equal and opposite
reaction". In entertainment, particularly in the film and television
world, the laws of physics are optional thanks to special effects and
animation. Below are examples from film and television where Newton's law is
broken to help aide in telling the story.
Cartoons often play with the laws of
physics because it is so easy to do. With animation, writers and directors can
truly play with the laws of physics in way that a live action tv show or movie
can't. In the clip above, at around 14 seconds, Coyote runs of the cliff and
continues "running" through the air in a straight line until he hits
a sheer wall of rock. In the cartoon, he is running from truck, and the premise
of the clip is that he is running so fast to get away from the truck, that the
momentum of his running carried him through the air as the ground fell away
from him. If this had been recreated in the real world, he would have simultaneously
lost the force of the ground acting upon him and then gained the force of
gravity acting upon him. These two forces paired together would create an
overwhelming force carrying him to the ground. In other words, he should fall to
his death in this clip. This type of comical play with nature is a common theme
in animation as it adds to the comical, entertaining storyline. Viewers expect
to see things they would not see in their everyday lives because it is part of
the entertainment. In this type of animation, animators can play with the laws
of physics without being judged or held to the standard of comparison with the
"real" world.
Live action films also often ignore
the laws of physics with special effects and animation to add to the story.
Though it is not as simple as animation, many of the laws of physics can be
broken with the combination of stunts and computer graphics. In the scene above
from The Matrix, the main characters
continually shoot guns over and over with little to no recoil. Thanks to the
world of computer graphics, the actors in this scene just had to run around the
set carrying large, empty firearms acting as if they were shooting at each
other. Later, the shooting sounds, the falling debris and other effects were
added in. If this were to happen in a real world setting, the force it would
take to shoot a bullet out of the barrel
would cause the gun to throttle backwards. This is proven by Newton's third law
once again. The director most likely chose not to abide by this basic law because
he wanted a more fluid scene. The characters are stealthy and matter of fact,
and jerking their guns backwards every time they took a shot would not mesh
with this idea. The fact that the viewers are not distracted by this jerking
motion adds to the scene and allows them to focus on the storyline and exciting
action scene.
Above is another example where a
live action scene has been enhanced in order to create a more exciting moment
for the viewers. There are many examples in this particular scene from Charlie's Angels of kicks that cause the
kicked person to go flying through the air. There are also examples from the
same scene of very hard kicks that don't cause much of a reaction at all.
Finally, there are also examples of people flying through the air and staying airborne
much longer than they should. The kicks in this scene are lopsided. According
to Newton's third law, the kicks given by the girls into the stomachs and other
areas of the men fighting with them should cause much more of a reaction. The
men barely double over, giving the appearance of very strong, almost superhuman
men. This is meant to convey to the viewer how strong and formidable these men
are to fight. The men should be seriously hurt and unable to continue to fight
after these kicks. In the same vein, there are kicks from the men and women
alike that cause people to go flying through the air. The kicks given here
should not send them flying through the air, as the force needed to project
something as heavy as a human body is much more than a simple kick. Finally,
when these people are kicked, they are staying airborne much longer than
physics says they should. As with the Looney Tunes clip above, the force of
gravity should be bringing them down much sooner. Had the director stayed
aligned with the laws of physics, this fight scene would have been much shorter
and much less exciting. Every person in the scene would have been hit once and
been laying on the ground in a very short time. Breaking Newton's third law
here helps extend the scene and create a more exciting experience for the
viewers.
In each of the examples above,
Newton's third law was broken in order to enhance the story that the writers
and animators were trying to tell. If these stories were told with the correct
laws, they wouldn't be the same. While we, in the real world, have to abide by
these laws, the characters in these television shows and films do not. Being
able to break outside of these simple laws helps the audience escape into
different worlds where people are able to fly through the air, shoot large guns
with no recoil, or kick men with iron abs and never feel pain. It allows
directors to convey exciting and action filled stories so viewers will continue
to come back for more. All in all, as directors, writers and animators continue
to break the laws of physics, they will continue to delight movie goers and TV
watchers throughout the years.
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