Art/Physics 123

Cinematic adventures are a great pass time for most individuals. They enable us to leave our world behind and allow us to be enveloped by a universe that holds different rules and restrictions. Many of the same rules of reality remain in place, but are warped to show individuals with extreme powers. Newton’s third law, action/reaction principle, is often distorted in films to allow for dramatic battle poses and to demonstrate the unwavering strength of a person. There are countless examples of this law being bent for a character’s benefit. Naruto of the series “Naruto” defies this law every time he uses his special attack called Rasengan. Arnold Schwarzenegger bends this law in nearly every film he is in, but most notably is in his role as a terminator in the movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” Even everybody’s favorite child that never grows old, Peter Pan, finds it possible to ignore Newton’s third law (as well as the law of gravity).

My first example of animation breaking the law of physics is in the series “Naruto.” This series deals with the world of ninjas and each individual has their own special abilities. The main character, Naruto, develops a special technique called Rasengan which concentrates a dense amount of chakra (fuel for ninja abilities) into the palm of his hand. When an opponent is hit point blank with this attack they are sent flying from the immense force of the attack. The first time he uses this attack in combat is in episode 95 where he is fighting Kabuto. In the scene he extends his arm fully to hit Kabuto and he even leans forward to extend his arm further when he strikes. Afterwards, Kabuto is sent flying clear across the battlefield into a massive boulder which he makes a nice indention in. Kabuto flies roughly 50 yards prior to being pressed into the boulder by the force of the attack. Naruto’s battle pose is quite dramatic with his body fully extended showing that he put all his effort into the one strike. Unfortunately, if you actually attacked with your limbs straight like that and with that much force then you probably would have broken a bone or two from the opposing force from Kabuto’s body. This is of course if you stayed in the same spot like Naruto did. Since the force is so much greater than the force of friction from the contact of his feet with the ground what is more likely to have happen is that he would be pushed back as well.

Naruto isn’t the only character in this series that defies Newton’s third law. Many of the other main characters also have similar abilities which contain huge amounts of force. Just like Naruto they extend their limbs for a dramatic pose and release the force with no corresponding force reaction upon their own bodies.

Newton’s third law is often broken or bent in films for dramatic effect. In the animation “Naruto” it was to help display the sheer strength of an individual’s attack and to allow their battle poses to have more power behind them. In my next scene the law is ignored to help show the solid frame and will of the individual. In “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” the terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is often seen shooting firearms that usually would have a high recoil. The main scene from this movie I wish to comment on is when the terminator is shooting down on the police that are surrounding the lab he is in the process of destroying. During this scene the terminator uses a mini gun to shoot at the police. Usually, a mini gun requires to be mounted is some fashion so that an individual can use it accurately. otherwise the recoil would be too strong for someone to aim properly with it. Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, is able to hold it merely with his hands without any visible kickback from the high velocity bullets being fired out of the gun. I am uncertain if the terminator’s metal frame is solid and heavy enough to imply that holding it is the equivalent of it being mounted to a solid frame or if they just wanted to show how badass he can be. In a typical situation, if a person tried to fire a mini gun with their bare hands, and no mounts, they would probably be pushed back rather hard and wouldn’t be able to fire accurately. There is even a high possibility of them being pushed to the ground due to the combination of the force from the recoil as well as the sheer weight of the mini gun itself.

This wasn’t the only instance where the action/reaction principle was ignored in the movie. The character Sara Conner also fired off a shot gun which did not have recoil. This example is easier to see the error due to the fact that we know she represents a human and therefore should follow the same rules without a hidden exception. The scene takes place near the end of the film when she is trying to shoot the T1000 terminator into the pit of lava. Prior to the scene she was attacked by the T1000 and her right arm and leg were injured badly. Despite this damage to her, and her apparently frail body frame, she was able to fire a shotgun several times to knock the T1000 back towards a pool of lava behind it without feeling any force of recoil from the firearm. In reality, each shot should kick her arms back from the force and more than likely in her specific situation knock her whole body back or down to the ground.

The application of Newton’s third law is easier to see when the effect of gravity is no longer in play, such as the case in space or a fictional character that can fly. My final example is from our favorite child that never grows old, Peter Pan. There are many renditions of “Peter Pan,” but my example comes from the 2003 live action version. There is a scene towards the end of the film where Captain Hook learns how to fly. Peter and Hook have their final sword fight in the sky. In this situation there is no force from gravity to apply to a ground thereby eliminating the possibility to use the associated friction force to prevent them from wavering with each strike of their blades. Assuming that Newton’s third law should still apply, even though other laws of physics are being broken, with each strike from their swords the characters should recoil from the opposite force being applied. In this specific scene, Peter actually starts to spin his blade around Hook’s blade which causes Hook to also spin from the affiliated force. Peter remains firm in his position in the air as Hook spins frantically. While this helps portray our hero’s triumph over evil it does not portray the action/reaction principle. If Hook is spinning clockwise then Peter should also be affected by the opposite force and be spinning counter-clockwise. There is the possibility that whatever ability he has to defy gravity also allows him to effortlessly emit a force from his body to enable him to remain in his constant upright position. If that were the case then he would be much like a spacecraft that has to blast a rocket in one direction to enable it to go in the other direction.

In conclusion, cinematic films are well known for bending and breaking the laws of physics. Each law is broken for specific reasons throughout films. Newton’s third law is ignored to allow for powerful poses and to demonstrate our hero’s unwavering nature, even the laws of physics can’t stand against our protagonist. If cinema didn’t ignore Newton’s third law then our heroes would be flung back nearly as far back as their opponent when they strike with their power attacks. Also, it would be near impossible to show how solid their structure is when they are firing a mini gun held steady only by their bare hands. Finally, ignoring the action/reaction principle allows the hero to stand even more triumphant as their foe spins uncontrollably due to their fantastical sword play.

**Slight change from my original outline. Instead of a scene from "V for Vendetta" I will use a scene from "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." I changed movies because I looked back at the original scene I was going to do and noticed that they did show a reaction on his face from the punch. I picked "Terminator 2" to show the lack of a recoil when firing a gun. Also, I am changing what scene from the series "Naruto" I looked at. I changed to a scene where Naruto uses an ability called Rasengan which is a more exaggerated example of improper use of Newton's third law. **