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Favorite Film Scientists?
theodp asks: "From Rotwang in Fritz Lang's Metropolis to Wallace the Engineer in last year's Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Slate notes that scientists have long been a staple of the movies. So who are some of the more memorable scientist characters from your movie-going?"
..Cristopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy.
The gift of death metal does not smile on the good looking.
Dr. Strangelove of course
Doc Brown:
"If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious shit."
Let's hear another scientist top that quote.
Tom Cruise... oh wait... Scientist. Nevermind.
Jeff Goldblum, no contest.
A blog about stuff.
Of course, the real heros are engineers.
.. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
Dr Strangelove, of course. Although he was more of a 'political' scientist... "Mein Furher! I can walk!"
Dr Buckaroo Banzai and his arch nemesis Dr Emilio Lizardo
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
Dr. Peter Venkman
Dr. Raymond Stantz
Dr. Egon Spengler
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
Dr Bunsen's assistant. They must have appeared in at least one of the muppet movies.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Why? For one of my favorite lines in all of film: "Sorry, Venkman, I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought."
See, like a true scientist, even when a epic global disaster is about to take place in front of him and his death is imminent, he says something coherent and explanatory. He even apologizes!
mahlen
Samantha Carter
[Insert pithy quote here]
Mr. Spock, science officer of the USS Enterprise.
His objectivity, intellect, and curiosity made him the quintessential scientist.
(Okay, he's mostly a TV character, but he appeared in his share of movies.)
Favorite Mad Scientist?
Winner: Dr. Evil
Favorite Scientist?
Winner: Einstein
The problem with the way scientists are depicted in movies is that they are Hollywood stereotypes. They know little or nothing about what science really is. An exception is Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) in Contact. I cannot think of any other movies that depict scientists as people who love science - real science, not the glamorous or nefarious hobby that it is for Hollywood.
first place for me would be:
Dr. Daniel P. Schreber
(played by Keifer Sutherland in Dark City)
Honorable mentions would be:
Dr. Evil & Dr. Stranglove
They were about to reveal it to the world. You don't want to tell the world that you PLAN on making one, as then the other countries will bomb you back to the stone age to make sure you don't make it.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
I humbly submit:
Hell, you could probably take half a dozen other quotes from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
Of course, Real Genius had some great lines too.
The professor from Gilligan's Island. When I was a kid, that's what a scientist was like.
He knew nearly everything except how to get them off the island. He was a social misfit, still everyone respected him because of his high intelligence.
Hump? What hump?
...
...
Wow! What knockers!
So which brain did you get?
Abby.
Abby who?
Abby normal.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben