posted 01-06-2011 01:00 PM                

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Think of all the ridiculous, crazy things you’ve ever seen in science fiction movies: X-Wing Fighters flying through trenches, aliens bleeding acid blood, giant robots that transform into cars. Take all of those things into consideration and then realize this. NASA has named Roland Emmerich‘s film 2012 the least plausible science fiction movie ever made. They also made an inverse list, naming Andrew Niccol‘s Gattaca as the most plausible science fiction movie ever made. Want to know what else is on each list? You’ve gotta hit the jump.

According to The Australian, the whole impetus behind these lists seems to be that NASA received so many questions based on the misinformation in 2012, they actually had to create a website that would set the record straight. Here’s what Donald Yeomans, the head of NASA’s Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission, had to say.

The film makers took advantage of public worries about the so-called end of the world as apparently predicted by the Mayans of Central America, whose calendar ends on December 21, 2012. The agency is getting so many questions from people terrified that the world is going to end in 2012 that we have had to put up a special website to challenge the myths. We have never had to do this before.

NASA famously gave their input to several science fiction movies, including Armageddon, but now regrets doing so. Yeomans himself even quit a plush consultant job on The Core, with Hilary Swank and Aaron Eckhart, after he read the script.

So, here’s the list of the most absurd sci-fi films of all time according to NASA and the Science & Entertainment Exchange, which includes former chemist Dustin Hoffman.

2012 (2009)
The Core (2003)
Armageddon (1998)
Volcano (1997)
Chain Reaction (1996)
The 6th Day (2000)
What the #$*! Do We Know? (2004)
As to why all the movies are from the past 15 years, I’d venture to guess that’s when special effects caught up to the kind of global destruction that’s scientifically impossible. At least, that’s what it seems like when you look at the most plausible list, which goes way further back than 1998.

Gattaca (1997)
Contact (1997)
Metropolis (1927)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Woman in the Moon (1929)
The Thing from Another World (1951)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Apparently, they also praised Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner for being good science fiction, though it didn’t make the top seven.

Do you want your sci-fi to be realistic or would you rather see something that’s totally impossible?

Other sources: The Film Stage, Cinematical

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