A Trip to the Moon

The first science fiction film ever made was "Voyage dans la lune" or, in English, "A Trip to the Moon," by George Melies in 1902. The silent film was largely influenced by the Jules Verne book we talked about in class.

If you would like to watch the film, it is only 14 minutes and can be found here: http://www.stage6.com/Science-Fiction-Faction/video/1171409/A-Trip-To-The-Moon-(Le_voyage_dans_la_lune)


The following article (http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20041016/bob10.asp) discusses the film in the context of more recent science fiction films including "The Day after Tomorrow." Here is part of the article:

In Georges Méliès' 1902 short film A Trip to the Moon, six adventurers travel in a capsule fired from a large cannon. After their lunar landing, the explorers are kidnapped by disgruntled moon inhabitants, escape to their capsule, nudge it off the moon's edge, and fall back to Earth, where they splash down in the Atlantic Ocean.

Just a few problems: No cannon can fire a projectile into space, and even if it could, the explorers inside would die from the fantastic acceleration that would be required. Also, Méliès depicted the moon as having Earthlike gravity early in the movie and then conveniently ignored this gravitational pull later, so that the explorers could return home. The list of technical critiques could be much lengthier, but you get the picture.

In the century since Méliès' 14-minute film debuted, special effects have improved substantially, but scientific accuracy often has remained low on the priority list. The premise of last summer's The Day after Tomorrow is that global warming suddenly interferes with the ocean's thermohaline circulation that brings warmer water to the North Atlantic and warms Europe. The sudden collapse of the thermohaline circulation brings on a new ice age in a matter of weeks.