Scientists say 'San Andreas' is not accurate: Will moviegoers care?
| Los Angeles
The coming release of Dwayne Johnson鈥檚 movie 鈥淪an Andreas鈥� this weekend is reopening the debate about how much creative license Hollywood should take in disaster movies.
In the film, a colossal earthquake rips apart California鈥檚 San Andreas Fault setting off a tsunami and sending devastating reverberations clear across the United States.
鈥淗ere鈥檚 the crazy thing about it,鈥� Mr. Johnson told Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on "The Tonight Show" last Thursday. 鈥淲e had the world鈥檚 top seismologist and and earthquake scientist pore over the script ... so by the time they walked away the said, 鈥楨verything you guys shoot in the movie could actually happen.鈥� We pray that it doesn't happen but it can."
Not so, says the US Geological Survey.
鈥淗ollywood exaggerates for cinematic effect, we all know this,鈥� says USGS spokesman Justin Pressfield.听
Warner Bros. Entertainment did not return requests for comment on the validity of the movie premise or identify the seismologist consulting on the film.
Mr. Pressfield takes scientific issue with the film depicting the earth splitting and says that the San Andreas would never create a tsunami because of its fault type.
Still, 鈥渢he movie has some excellent scenes that show characters taking proper safety measures,鈥� Pressfield adds. 鈥淚t is important to remember that the movie is not a documentary and doesn鈥檛 reflect reality. Still, it is fantastic to see Dwayne Johnson and Paul Giamatti yell 鈥楧rop, cover, and hold on!鈥� I couldn鈥檛 have said it better myself.鈥� 鈥�
But for Hezekiah Lewis, a film professor at Villanova University near Philadelphia who grew up living on the San Andreas Fault in San Bernardino, realistic safety protocols do not make up for what he sees as irresponsible scientific discrepancies.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 dangerous to mislead the audience to think that buildings shake and explode like that, even though it鈥檚 fiction and everyone knows,鈥� says Professor Lewis. 鈥淚 think the filmmakers should go out of their way to say what can and can鈥檛 happen, and filmgoers should know as well.鈥�
For many moviegoers, however, a trip to the theater is a break from reality 鈥� especially going into the summer season when fantastic action films dominate marquees. NASA identified 168 scientific inaccuracies in Touchstone Pictures' 1998 film "Armageddon." That didn't deter movie goers from dropping $200 million at the box office. And Jan De Bont's 1996 blockbuster "Twister" grossed nearly $250 million in box office sales despite numerous inaccuracies, including a live cow being flung out of the epicenter of a cyclone.
鈥淲henever I hear a question about whether the portrayal of this or that is inaccurate to the actual world, I say, 鈥榯hat鈥檚 why they call them movies,鈥� 鈥� says Bob Thompson, founder of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. 鈥� 'Richard the Third' is terrible English history but a really good Shakespeare play.鈥�
Professor Thompson thinks playing it right up the middle between reality and fantasy is the way to go.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to have the seal of approval from the USGS, but it can鈥檛 be so ridiculous that it鈥檚 not plausible,鈥� he says. 鈥淎udiences will turn on something if it seems too fake, but they鈥檙e not going to movies to learn truths about how the crust of the earth operates.鈥�
For those looking for some scientific accuracy to put the film into context, here are some apropos factoids from USGS:
- The San Andreas Fault is not long and deep enough to have a magnitude 9 or larger quake as depicted in the movie. The largest historical earthquake on the San Andreas was the 1906 magnitude 7.9 earthquake.听It is plausible that a 8.3 quake could hit the San Andreas, but even that would not be 鈥渇elt on the East Coast鈥� as Paul Giamatti鈥檚 character claims in the film.
- Faults do not split apart during earthquakes as shown in the movie. The ground on the two sides of the fault slide past each other; they do not pull apart. Narrow crevices may form due to bends in the fault or in regions with very strong shaking.
- There are simple steps residents living near active fault lines can take to prepare for an earthquake.听Visit听to learn more.
[Editor's note:听This story has been updated to clarify a quote that was incorrectly attributed to USGS spokesman Justin Pressfield.]
