Term Paper 2: Science Fact or Science Fiction
The real world is made up of certain laws. It is because these laws exist, that life as we know it can continue on. They are the laws of physics, and though we may try to fight against them, they preside over all of existence. As animators, or even, as filmmakers, we sometimes bend the laws of physics in an unnatural fashion, to suit our needs to tell a compelling story. In today’s world there is a fascination with super heroics, and how they bend and stretch what the human body should be capable of. This essay in particular will be focusing on the concept of the “punch.” The punch is an excellent exhibitor of physics, because so much goes into throwing a punch, such as anticipation, follow through, and action and reaction, and yet requires action from the entire body, not just the arm.
One Punch Man is a Japanese animation, and is a parody of the superhero genre. In it, a man named Saitama has trained his body to the point of invincibility. Saitama has become so powerful nothing is able to injure him any longer, and he kills every enemy he encounters with a single punch, hence his title of “One Punch Man.” Aside from the monsters that appear, nearly everyone else in this anime have to follow the basic laws of physics, with some exceptions from particularly powerful antagonists. In one particular scene, Saitama encounters Hammerhead, the leader of a terrorist organization who has stolen an experimental suit which gives super strength. After an altercation, Hammerhead lands an enormous blow on Saitama, strong enough to create an explosion of dust in the area. After the dust clears, it is revealed that Saitama was not effected in the least by the punch, and has, in fact, not moved an inch. Punching is all about a transfer of energy from one person to another. In reality, if such a thing were to occur, Hammerhead would not only have been sent flying back, as Saitama’s boku returns the energy into Hammerheads hand, he would also likely experienced multiple fractures in his arm. It is the same concept that martial artists train with, when learning to break wood planks or bricks bare handed. If they hold nothing back and manage to break the object, the energy flows outwards and is transferred into the now broken object. However, if they are not able to break the object, the energy of the punch is bounced back to the source, and creates a painful recoil.
Moving from animation to live action comic book heroes, in the movie Hellboy, the title character of the same name punches straight down on a car to protect someone about to be hit. This punch causes the car to go flipping over his head before landing back on the ground, greatly damaged, but passengers largely unscathed. There are many things unrealistic about such a punch, not the least of which being the sheer amount of force needed to crush the front side of a car, built to withstand impacts with other cars. From a standing position, Hellboy’s arm would not have very long at all to build up force from the beginning of the punch, to the point where it makes contact with the car, meaning it would not have nearly enough time to build adequate inertia. Another inaccuracy is the way the car reacted to being punched. Such a car is built with suspensions designed to absorb impact as to avoid flipping out of control. As the front suspension is brought down, the rear suspension would the raise, lessening the impact, and also providing a counter-balance to bring the car back down in place. Even if the back raised a bit, it would not go so far as to do multiple flips over Hellboy’s head. This device was pushing the realities of physics to make Hellboy seem more superhumanly powerful, and more heroic than someone who was bound by the realities of physical limits. This is a distinctly common occurrence in comic book and martial arts movies, as their main objective is entertaining audiences with the supernatural and the superhuman.
Speaking of supernatural, in 2012 Sony released the animated film Hotel Transylvania with the main characters largely being comprised of mythical and macabre beasts. In Particular, there is Dracula, the wolf man, Frankenstein, and the invisible man. Sony has really come into it’s own, producing films in a cartoony style reminiscent of old school animation. What this means is that the characters all exhibit very “cartoony” styles of movement, with long stills followed by large quick motions, which almost instantly then come to rest with extremely little follow through. At the beginning of the film, as all the guests are arriving, the invisible man comes to greet Dracula, after which, Dracula makes a joke about how good it is to “see” him. The invisible man slaps Dracula, retaliates with a broad swipe, followed up by three consecutive fast swipes. In theory, what Dracula is doing is not physically impossible. However it is the way the animators executed the slashes, that breaks the laws of physics. Firstly, there is almost no anticipation for the punches, maybe hanging back for a single frame, before blurring across his entire body in 3-4 frames. After the first punch, his arm takes roughly 2-3 frames to settle before coming to a complete standstill. The following sequence of swipes have even less settle, leading into each other one after another with 1-2 frames of settle before becoming a hold. Dracula’s hand largely settles through the use of squash and stretch, the arm coming to a stop, but the hand morphing back into shape. Though it gives the movie a more cartoony feel, Hotel Transylvania’s reason for breaking physics is very different from the previous two examples.
The laws of physics in the natural world are absolute, and govern the way we experience our day to day lives. Maybe that is the reason it feels so fantastical when filmmakers break those rules to entertain and mystify. The punch is only one small example of a much larger trend in breaking reality, but it is also a very compelling subject to analyze.
