STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS

On May 16, fact and fiction merged when Star Trek Into Darkness cast members spoke live with astronaut Chris Cassidy aboard the International Space Station.  The special live event streamed on YouTube and included several video chat groups led by Chris Pine (Kirk), John Cho (Sulu), Alice Eve (Carol), and writer/producer Damon Lindelof; astronauts Michael Fincke and Kjell Lindgren from the Johnson Space Center; the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City (home of the space shuttle Enterprise), and the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.  Cassidy demonstrated weightlessness more than once, pointing out the most obvious difference between real space travel and Star Trek's depiction of space travel.  However, he also spoke about how he performs duties alongside Russian cosmonauts, which parallels Star Trek's crew.

This isn't the first time Star Trek and NASA collaborated in a live space chat.  For the Star Trek Film Collection DVD/Blu-Ray release, Michael Fincke answered questions about life as an astronaut and Star Trek's influence in a piece called "Greetings from the International Space Station" (Produced by F2F's Stephen R. Wolcott.) 

Michael Fincke from Star Trek: First Contact DVD/Blu-Ray

Star Trek has always maintained a strong relationship with NASA, JPL, and other space agencies. The impact of the series and films can be seen in many ways, from naming the first Space Shuttle "Enterprise", to recent talk of warp drive technology. In past F2F entries, we've explored how Star Trek's cultural impact has led to fiction becoming reality, including technical advances.  A recent article in the Mirror pointed out several ideas seen in Star Trek films, including the hypospray, replicators, tractor beams, and the universal translator.  For instance, US troops in Afghanistan use a Phraselator, which translates numerous languages, and 3D 'replicating' plastic printers helped create an artificial knee for a wounded soldier.

The Great Gatsby

Rothstein

Wild, extravagant parties. Wealthy, deviant eccentrics. Sprawling, fairy tale mansions.  
Is this all part of author F. Scott Fitzgerald's imagination?  
Or did he base The Great Gatsby on real people, places and events?  Historians assert that much of the story is based on reality. One biographer says Jay Gatsby mirrors several real gangsters, including Fitzgerald acquaintance Max Gerlach, who like the character, fought in WWI and turned to bootlegging. (The mysterious Gerlach may also have inspired the vengeful George Wilson, since both men worked in garages in the same area of Queens).  Actress Carey Mulligan said Daisy was patterned about Fitzgerald's wife Zelda and their friend Ginerva King.  Mulligan read several letters from both women in part of her research for the role. Perhaps the most interesting 'real' similarity is between Gatsby's criminal ally Meyer Wolfsheim, who fixed the World Series and Arthur Rothstein, a New York crime boss behind the notorious Black Sox scandal, which ruined the 1919 World Series.

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald

The novel's references to "West Egg" and "East Egg" refer to Long Island's Great Neck and Cow Neck, across the bay from each other. The rich and famous, old and new money lived there. Names like Guggenheim, Hearst, Vanderbilt. The huge estates that hosted lavish parties and inspired the homes in "Gatsby" include Lands End, Oheka Castle, and Beacon Towers.  Sadly, Lands End suffered the fate of a wrecking ball, despite preservationists efforts to save it (see video of its demolition here.)  And none of the four "Gatsby" filmed productions were successful in shooting at these Long Island mansions (For the 1974 version, Newport, Rhode Island substituted for New York; Australia in the current version).

Beacon Towers

2013 Gatsby House artwork inspired by Beacon Towers

Director Baz Luhrman went to great lengths to create an authentic 1920's look for his version of "Gatsby" and patterned Jay's home after Beacon Towers. "Looking at images of Beacon Towers, there's something that gives it the feel of the Disneyland castle, and Baz referenced that-- the idea that Gatsby was building a fantasy," said designer Catherine Martin in an  Architectural Digest  article that explores the historically accurate production design in detail. Luhrman's strict attention to detail stressed out his leading lady, Carey Mulligan. She was asked to don top-of-the-line Tiffany jewelry, while security personnel hovered around her.

IRON MAN 3

Film2Fact has written about the Ironman franchise more than once. Why?  Because the filmmakers have gone out of their way to incorporate real scientific theories into the storylines. Plus, the films have made an impact on popular culture that could lead to future innovations in technology.  (read more about Ironman).  As proof,  Marvel targeted future big thinkers by sponsoring a nationwide "Iron Man 3: Inventor & Innovator Fair".  This included a student competition to submit projects that align with the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges for Engineering. They encouraged young inventors to create projects that focus on protective body armor, aeronautics, limb regeneration, micro-technology, robotics, , eco-friendly cars, and cyberspace security. The winners were invited to a special screening of the film and given a cash prize.  Sponsors included the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California, which frequently ties in popular movies to their exhibits.

 "To help businesses discover, develop, and deploy new materials twice as fast, we're launching what we call the Materials Genome Initiative." --President Barack Obama at Carnegie Mellon University in 2011. 

"Ironman" is also of great interest to Washington.

President Obama on the Materials Genome website

In June 2011, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy launched the Materials Genome Initiative,  which hopes to double the speed of new material development. The idea was partly inspired by Tony Stark, who uses his own unique paradigm to improve and power his suit.
"In Iron Man 2, Stark begins the process of creating a new element by defining the performance characteristics he's looking for," said Suveen Mathaudhu, who works in the U.S. Army Research Office. "He then searches for the atomic structure that would give a material the necessary properties. The last thing he does is synthesize the new material."  These ideas intrigue scientists, but the length of time to realize the results differs between film and reality.  Stark can pull off his innovations in a short time, whereas today's technology takes several years to develop.  Mathaudhu hopes to shed light on Stark's work and other comic-based inventions in an exhibit called "COMIC-Tanium: the Super Materials of the Super Heroes," which opens this summer at the Toonseum in Pittsburgh.   There's also a book on the subject,  "Inventing Iron Man: The Possibility of a Human Machine", by E. Paul Zehr, professor of kinesiology and neuroscience at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia.

Read past F2F articles on "Ironman" here and here.
Watch Physics professor Sidney Perkowitz discuss "Iron Man's" technology.

Close Encounters

Has there ever been a real Close Encounter of the Third Kind?  Perhaps, if you believe the contents of a popular F.B.I. document.  Its subject? UFO's.    A memo dated March 22,  1950 states the military investigated not one, but three flying saucers, 50 feet in diameter.  Each vehicle contained three figures, about three feet high, dressed in metallic cloth. Penned by field office head Guy Hottel, the memo was addressed to J. Edgar Hoover, but not made public until 1977, when U.S. Navy optical physicist Bruce Maccabee obtained it through the Freedom of Information Act (read more here).










It's interesting to point out that Steven Spielberg went out of his way to make his epic sci-fi adventure seem authentic.   For instance,

42

Before there was 42, there was The Jackie Robinson Story. Both films dramatize the heroic struggles of the Brooklyn Dodger star who broke baseball's color barrier in the 1940's. Both feature a stellar cast of actors re-enacting history.  The one extraordinary difference-- The Jackie Robinson Story stars Jackie Robinson as himself.

The film chronicles his love of baseball at an early age; his rise as a star football player at UCLA; joining the Army in WWII; playing in the Negro leagues; then joining the Dodgers. At the conclusion of the film, Robinson is invited to Washington, D.C. to speak before the House of Representatives. He tells them that despite hardships, democracy works for those who fight for it.

Have other sports biopics featured real players portraying themselves? Babe Ruth played Babe Ruth as in Pride of the Yankees, opposite Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig.  But most athletes aren't featured playing themselves in starring roles.  The only major exception: The Greatest (1977), starring Muhammad Ali, from a book written by Ali. Ernest Borgnine plays trainer Angelo Dundee.

JURASSIC PARK

Mosquito trapped in amber

April 2013 marked the return Jurassic Park in 3D.  Based on the Michael Crichton novel, the premise suggested it was possible to bring dinosaurs back to life after 65 million years.  Just extract some prehistoric dino DNA hiding in mosquitoes trapped in amber. Then implant into an egg and watch it grow!  Sound absurd?  At least two books explored that notion--  The Science of Jurassic Park, and The Lost World or How to Build a Dinosaur, by Rob Desalle and David Lindley and How to Build a Dinosaur, by Jack Horner, who advised Steven Spielberg on Jurassic Park.  Although there's no definite 'yes, it can be done', the books detail the painstakingly challenges of achieving success.  On the other hand, there are plenty of naysayers in the scientific community. One UC Berkeley article stated many difficulties including: DNA deteriorates over time; sifting clean DNA out of a bug without including bug DNA could ruin the process (remember The Fly?); chromosomes from a dino genome must be implanted into an egg; and the biggest obstacle--finding a compatible, living egg of a dinosaur species. Oops, no living dinosaur eggs exist.  Guess it's just easier to clone a sheep, right?
On the positive side, in 2011, researchers were attempting to resurrect

THE SEARCHERS

John Wayne as a villain?  Well, that's hard to believe, but several critics and viewers of The Searchers came to that conclusion, due to his character's racist, shocking actions towards 'comanch' (Comanche Indians), after they kidnap a young girl. What's more interesting is the movie is based on real events. In 1836, Comanche warriors abducted nine-year old Cynthia Ann Parker from her Texas home.   Her uncle, James W. Parker, began an obsessive search for his niece that lasted 24 years and cost him his fortune.  Upon finding her, Parker was shocked to learn Cynthia Ann had married a war chief and bore him three children.   In the film, Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards thinks the best course of action is to kill his niece if she's going to live with a 'buck'.  Fortunately, Edward is persuaded otherwise, but not before audiences are shown perhaps Wayne's darkest portrayal in his entire screen career.

THE WIZARD OF OZ

Somewhere over the rainbow, there's a magical world populated with real people, places and political ideas.    With the release of Oz The Great and Powerful, it's fascinating to look behind the scenes to explore the origins of The Wizard of Oz, its cultural impact, and how the latest film includes relevant issues.

 












First, it's been speculated that the Wizard (Oscar Diggs in the film, played by James Franco) could have been patterned after P.T. Barnum or a famous magician who worked for Barnum and disappeared in a balloon during a storm, or even Thomas Edison. Why Edison? Because Baum lived in Chicago as a writer during the World's Fair of 1893,  where Edison presented some of his latest electrical innovations and was experimenting with projected images (which Diggs pays homage to in the film). Baum also describes Edison as a man with "an enormous head, without a body to support it" foreshadowing his wizard character. Also, the Fair's glamorous "White City" buildings may have been the basis of "Emerald City."  And the infamous golden path traveled by Dorothy and her friends? Baum lived near Peekskill on the Hudson River, a town whose roads were paved with bright yellow bricks imported from Holland.

Thomas Edison

There's no truth to the notion that Baum filled his books with deep political themes, based on the Populist movement of the early 20th century.  The Populists favored the 'everyman'  (Dorothy) as opposed to the 'elitists' (witches).  Theorists compared the Tin Man to John D. Rockefeller (big oil),  Cowardly Lion to politician William Jennings Bryan, and The Wicked Witch to thieving Boss Tweed.

More likely, L. Frank Baum devised characters and places based on his life and circumstances.  Dorothy's real-life persona was Baum's niece, Dorothy Louise Gage, who died at an early age.  Baum's wife was so distressed over the loss, that he wrote the character in her honor.  The author also expressed sympathy for the plight of Native Americans (which could represent the beleaguered winged monkeys or munchkins).  One scholar postulated that Baum was heavily influenced by his mother-in-law, an avid advocate for women's rights (a model for the Good Witch).  Actress Michelle Williams, who plays Glinda, picked up on these aspects in researching her role. "Quadlings, Tinkers, and Munchkins didn't mean much to me; it wasn't my language," she said, referring to the misfits she's surrounded by. "But when I thought of them as Native Americans trying to inhabit their land or about women getting the right to vote, it made a lot of sense."    

L. Frank Baum

Here's an interesting website covering many aspects of The Wizard of Oz.

And another article exploring the origins of the story.

ARGO

You can't build cover stories around a movie that doesn't exist. You need a script, you need a producer. --John Chambers, Argo

UPDATE:  After receiving the Best Picture Oscar at 2013's Academy Awards ceremonies,  a member of the Iranian parliament , Ari Larijani, surmised that Ben Affleck may have been forced to make the film. That may sound bizarre, until you realize that the world saw Michelle Obama announce the winner on television.  Perhaps the Iranian official presumed the Obamas dictate who makes movies and who wins.  The Iran government criticized the film for its depiction of Iranian military forces during the thrilling escape sequence near the end of the film.

Give credit where credit is due.  Slate.com offers a fascinating article on the fact vs. fiction components in Argo,  the critically-acclaimed drama directed by and starring Ben Affleck.  The film chronicles the government's struggles to rescue Americans trapped in Iran during the Carter administration. The C.I.A. creates a bogus film production that requires a scouting trip to Iran, headed by an undercover operative named Antonio Mendez.  He gives the trapped Americans aliases as a film crew in order to secretly slip out of the country.  Of course, when the 'crew' scramble to board a plane, the filmmakers embellish the facts to heighten the drama,.  Most of the 'in the nick of time' elements racing to jet out of Iran in the climax of the film didn't go down that way.   Several articles and reviews of the film have noted this, but as Slate.com picks apart the film's inaccuracies, they reveal some intriguing truths that were left out of the script.  For instance, The Hollywood Reporter published an article announcing that two make-up artists were planning to make Argo (one of them John Chambers, played by John Goodman in the film).  When approached by Mendez, Chambers suggested a script called Lord of Light, that was envisioned as the catalyst for the first-ever sci-fi theme park-- an ambitious project that enlisted famed writer Ray Bradbury and cartoon artist, Jack Kirby, who helped create Captain America, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk. Kirby drew artwork for the potential fake project (see below). 

Article in The Hollywood Reporter

Artwork from Jack Kirby

METEORS, ASTEROIDS, AND COMETS, OH MY!

Trail from a meteor chunk above Russia

In February, 2013, NASA charted asteroid 2012 DA14 as it passed Earth, coming within 17,500 miles of the Indian Ocean. At the same time, however, officials missed a huge 10,000 ton meteor chunk that slammed into Russia. Its fiery disintegration unleashed almost 30 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb and was the largest recorded hit since 1908, when a meteor struck Siberia.

The magnitude and coincidence of the two space debris events begs the question: can we prevent Earth from destruction by a meteor?  Hollywood imagined this scenario more than once, particularly in the films Meteor,  Armageddon and Deep Impact.  These films claimed use of actual scientific data and hired consultants to heighten the reality.  Meteor was inspired by a 1967 report from M.I.T. called "Project Icarus".  Students were asked to find a way to divert or blow up Icarus, a large asteroid that passes close to Earth every 19 years. Their solution?