Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

The entertainment industry have always balanced a fine line between reality and fantasy.  Whilst some films and games may strive for creating a realistic experience, some look to break away from physical reality.    A physics law that is often ignored or broken is, Newton’s Third Law of Motion.  This law states that for “every action force there is an equal reaction force in the opposite direction.  The action and reaction forces occur simultaneously in pairs, and though the magnitude of the forces are equal the resulting accelerations often vary.  These productions often break away from physical reality to create surreal scenes in order awe the audience and leave them with their jaws on the floor.  For example Movies such as Kung fu Hustle, defy this law to create ludicrous, yet entertaining fight scenes.   In other productions, specifically video games, it leans away from the reality of physics to maintain fair gameplay mechanics.  Video games such as League of Legends and Street Fighter are prime examples of video games dropping reality in favor of gameplay balance.

The film Kung fu Hustle directed by Stephen Chow.  In this film the main character Sing aspires to find his identity and his place in the world.  He hope to find his worth, by joining the notorious Axe Gang.  With his affiliation with the Axe Gang, Sing is drawn into supernatural disputes between legendary kung fu masters.  Throughout the film the are numerous displays of feats that break the law of physics.  Some examples are musical instruments creating blade constructs, cartoon running speeds, and the thrust of a hand creating a crater in the ground.  

In a specific case there is the Landlady character who possesses the ability of the Lion’s Roar.  This ability allows the Landlady to intake immense amount of air and the release the air in a powerful scream.  This force is so powerful that it is able to send bodies flying and dismantle entire buildings.  Excluding the fact that she is already generating an impossible amount of force with her body, the action force generated project from her yell, the opposite reactionary force would cause her to fly backwards.  However, her body stay firmly in place without moving.  Some may argue that with the supernatural environment this film has setup, she may have displaced the reaction force into her feet with her kungfu.  But even then the force exerted by her feet would cause the floor she’s standing on to crack and sink.  

A secondary example within this film was their physics of jumping.  Throughout the film there were times where fighters would jump high into the air to perform their spectacular aerial feats.  The physical forces occurring in a jump are when the body exerts force into the ground and the reaction force that accelerates them upward.  With that in mind, the force that these kung fu masters generate when jumping that high would be pretty substantial.  Therefore they would reach the apex of their jump at very high speeds.  However, with wire tricks and special effects they are able to “fly” around mid air as they dodging and fighting as they please.  

Moving onto video games, the ever popular online game League of Legends pits five players against five players to see who can first destroy the enemy base.  With a total of 118 unique champions players able to choose a champion that fits their play style. Of these 118 champions each have their own spells and abilities to use in battle, but many of them do not abide by Newton’s Third Law.  The game is designed to drop realistic physical properties such as action and reaction forces to vary gameplay and keep the game fair.  Sometimes a character’s spell would normally do damage and displace the target, but if the subsequent damage was enough to kill the target they often die on the spot.  In a more specific case, there is spell that the champion Jayce uses known as “Shock Blast”.  This spell shoots a ball of energy that then emits a powerful explosion upon contact, in reality one would expect the target to be sent flying or at least forced back.  But within the game the spell merely does damage, this due to the fact that Jayce already has a displacement ability and give his character an unfair power advantage.    Another example is the champion Lee Sin who possesses an ability called “Raging Dragon Kick”.  This ability upon use will kick the target, displacing the target in the direction of the kick.  The displaced target will also knock subsequent enemies upward.  If viewed from a realistic point of view, upon making contact with subsequent enemies, the initial displaced target would be expected to slow down due to the reactionary force.  However, in game that is not the case at all.  In this case, the use of cinematic fiction is to allow the player to feel like that ability has a large impact when used.  Another intriguing note is that the reactionary force for the subsequent enemies will accelerate them in an upward direction.

The video game Street Fighter is another good example where realistic physics are dropped for the sake of gameplay.  In this game players fight in one on one matches choosing from a variety of fighters with different weights and body sizes.  Zangief, Balrog, and M.Bison are some of the larger characters within the game.  Zangief for example, is said to weigh around 253 pounds.  In reality if any of the other smaller characters were to apply force to the larger characters the reactionary force would case a more intensive acceleration for the smaller character.  Yet in the game, no matter the character’s size any force applied results in similar acceleration from both parties.  This is to keep the game fair and hold the large characters in check from having an unfair space advantage.  

Animators, whether in games or movies often bend the laws of physics to cater toward their goals.  League of Legends, Streetfighter, and Kung fu Hustle were just some of the few examples that went against Newton’s Third Law.  These example showcased how to alter or ignore the reactionary force, whether the force wasn't equal or wasn't in the opposite direction. Sometimes the rules are bent to create amazing feats that leave the audience flabbergasted.  Other times it’s to uphold fair and varied gameplay.