Revisiting the Physics of Buckaroo Banzai

serutan writes "Shortly before the release of 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension' in 1984, physicist Carl Sneider of U.C. Berkeley wrote a surprisingly interesting essay on the physics behind the movie. Since the essay is not widely available on the web and I could only find it in plain text, I posted a more readable HTML version on my site. Among the more interesting points Sneider makes are that the oscillation overthruster is the result of decades of research instead of the usual laboratory accident, and its development corresponds surprisingly well with the evolution of particle physics from the 1930s to the 80s."

Comments

Weird science

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Consider this, if you were to disrupt the particle behavior of an object so that its molecular bonds were permeable (since they are mostly made of space in the first place), you'd end up with the particle either collapsing on itself or blown to bits due to repulsive charges of neigbor particles. So Banzai wouldn't be able to fly through a mountain because the mountain would have collapsed upon itself. If he used the oscillator on himself and his ship, he wouldn't be able to recover from the damage.

There's no doubt a lot of fun speculation to be made here, but if you're going to get your science from the web, it's best to stay away from Slashdot.

Re:Weird science

[IdahoEv]

On the other hand, not knowing much about particle physics, I had always assumed that the "science" in Buckaroo Banzai was just so much vapid technobabble.

The fact that phrases like "intermediate vector bosons" tossed around in the movie actually have a connection of any sort at all to the issues being discussed puts BB already a few parsecs ahead of the typical S.F. junk that hollywood puts out.

I'd always thought of BB as a camp fantasy classic. It's refreshing to know that the writers actually knew a little science and applied it, even if the final product was entirely improbable.

Re:Weird science

[serutan]

Bear in mind that the article was written in the spirit of making the movie more enjoyable for people who are geeky enough to understand something about particle physics. The point was not to prove the feasibility of the oscillation overthruster, but to show that the science thread that runs through Buckaroo Banzai is a cut above standard movie technobabble. Sneider sort of addressed the mountain-collapsing issue by mentioning that the area of effect was small and short-lived, which is why the jet car had to travel 700 mph to keep up with it. It's all in fun.

Re:Weird science

[h4rm0ny]

All the I know, is that The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (Across the Seventh Dimension), was the worst thing that I ever ever got in charades once. My sister got Jaws!

Re:Weird science

[JabberWokky]

For what it's worth, if you like it, it's pretty much a direct lift from the classic Doc Savage, "Man of Bronze" pulps of the 30s and 40s. They weren't camp at the time, just from a different era, both in terms of literature and science. This was before physics was considered a major branch of science, so much of the wizz-bang new inventions are through the modern miracle of cutting edge chemistry. The characters were painted in bright, broad strokes, just like Buckaroo's sidekicks. One even carries around a long eared pig. Ethnic stereotypes and slurs weren't considered politically incorrect, and women had only had the ability to vote for ten years, so you have to take some things with an understanding of the era (i.e., if you're offended by such things, don't read 'em).

Fun stuff, and highly recommended if you really like Science Fiction, as you can see where much of it came from. The Philip José Farmer take on the characters later in the century is a different beast (enjoyable, but not what we're talking about). Things like ice bullets and enzymes are the high tech weapons, plus a little dabbling in the (even at the time) classics of SF like hollow world theory. (There was an official Doc Savage movie that was done to be camp and sucked monkey balls).

--
Evan

Re:Weird science

[hal2814]

"The point was not to prove the feasibility of the oscillation overthruster, but to show that the science thread that runs through Buckaroo Banzai is a cut above standard movie technobabble."

Right. It's basically an inside joke. Most people think Buckaroo might as well be reversing the polarity of the neutron flow but a few people out there are really going to appreciate the effort put forth in creating the technobabblish scenes. And this sort of inside joke is a lot harder to pull off than throwing Gil Garrard's name into a Family guy episode.

Re:Weird science

[mbourgon]

Agreed on the Doc Savage reference. Buckaroo is an updated version of the old pulps - and the novelization of the movie (written by the script writer) is written like a pulp, complete with references to other adventures. FWIW, Evan, someone took the old movie and replaced the "songs" with the original (instrumental) John Philips Sousa tunes, and it makes the movie MUCH more watchable. Still not great, but it holds up a whole lot better this way than I would've imagined.

Here's hoping that Raimi does wind up doing Doc (he recently got the rights to do movies based off of Street & Smith characters).

Re:Weird science

[mengel]

Actually, as long as you did it for a really short period of time, the main effects would be:

• particles would fall due to gravity (unless this effect also weakened gravity, but current theory wouldn't support that). But it would take a signifigant portion of a second for the particles to move much due to gravity.
• particles vibrating due to brownean motion would possibly continue past each other possibly rearranging crystaline structures

Once you turned the field back off, the forces between the atoms would reappear, and most of the molecules would snap back into place.

If you left the field on a long time, yes you would possibly get a tunnel, as the particles would fall to the bottom of the region at which point their fields would turn back on, and there would possibly be... fusion? an explosion?

Disclaimer: I am not a particle physicist, but I do talk with them in the cafeteria...

Cool car mod

[Timberwolf0122]

I for one would love an oscilating overthruster on my car, it would enable me to drive through traffic jams. My only consern is that if I can pass through solid matter what is to stop me passing throught the crust of the earth? I drive a MR2 Roadster and I don't think the canvas soft top is rated to magma.

Re:Cool car mod

[MaGogue]

If you project your intermediate vector bosons accurately, you'll obtain a tunnel through the mountain with solid floor just below the wheels, and a collapsing yet transparent core in front.
Move fast enough, and banzai!, you tunnel through.
It is interesting to note that 'electron tunneling' is an actual term used in quantum physics.

Only make sure you don't use up your batteries too soon.

This was already discussed by Londo Molari

[rogerborn]

He discussed it a long time ago in the far off, but rather close future.

Here is the link -

http://www.rogerborn.com/commentary/a-walk-among-t he-atoms.html

""These are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others."

Buck-A-Roo!

[beezly]

Curse that headline. I thought this was going to be an article about the inner workings of some extreme version of Buckaroo!.

I was so disappointed when I found out it was about a sci-fi film.

Buck-A-Rooooo!

Lesson to be learned

[Lord Grey]

Not only did Buckaroo's car go wicked fast -- so fast that the on-board camera shook alarmingly -- and was able to drive through a mountain, it had turn signals . And Buckaroo used them . This Half Japanese/Rockstar/Neuro-Surgeon/Particle Physicist/Adventurer sets a good example for all of us!

Re:I dunno

[Minwee]

I believe that that's one of Clarke's Laws. Any sufficiently advanced technobabble is indistinguishable from smack.

Re:I dunno

[somersault]

Mod parent diagonal.

Now excuse me while I go phlib my enjuntificator.

Copyright?

[MMC Monster]

Doesn't the original writer have copyright over this essay? Is it legal for it to be posted to the web without his authority? I know we don't care so much about copyright on /., but this is a bit rediculous.

Re:Important questions

[MrPlastic]

Though the movie answers with, "Er...I'll tell you later," ISTR that Earl Mac Rauch has said that the watermelon in the vise was part of a program under development at the Banzai Institute to create food that could be air-dropped into a famine area without parachutes or other special equipment: any bush pilot could fly over and drop a load of watermelons, and the starving masses would rejoice, needing only a sharp knife to get through the tough, drop-rated skin. (This idea is somewhat reminiscent of the water spheres in the classic short story "Arena," by Frederic Brown, which are unbreakably held together with increased surface tension until something sharp releases the water.)