10 Scientific Errors In Movies That Really Need To Stop

9. Sounds In Space

We all love a good space battle, don't we? Shuttles racing through the stars, ships slaloming through asteroid fields, big baddies chasing plucky rebels through the stars. Even better is when they start shooting at each other and things begin exploding, because the only thing cooler than regular explosions are explosions happening in zero gravity as a result of lasers. Plus space battles give an excuse for foley artists to go totally hog wild with their sound effects, with huge ridiculous BOOMs and POWs accompanying the carnage. You get it in Star Wars, Star Trek, basically every sci-fi movie ever made. And it's totally unrealistic. Obviously we're not expecting realism from the likes of those films, but they tend to be pretty right-on with the forces of gravity and the fact that leaving the pressurised container of a spaceship will see you immediately die in the vacuum outside. You know what also can't exist in a vacuum? Sound. There is no sound in space, so anytime you watch an epic space battle that has a load of loud noises, it's a load of unscientific guff. Which means, despite its other problems, Gravity was actually one of the more scientifically sound space-based movies. All the sound came from the characters and the music - no sound effects in space.