So… I was watching the Shark Movie marathon on SyFy last weekend… (Don’t judge me. You are seriously missing something if you’ve never seen Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus.)
And on comes Spring Break Shark Attack. The plot isn’t important. Sharks swarm. Co-eds get eaten. What IS important, at least for this post, is that when Dorky Guy, Hunky Guy, and Hot-but-supposedly-smart Girl get on a boat to lead off the bazillion sharks chowing down on the spring breakers, Hunky Guy gets stuck through the shoulder with a harpoon. Something with a tip like this:
And Hot-but-supposedly-smart Girl… Pulls the harpoon out.
Me: Oh. My. God. How did that even happen? How would you even DO that, let alone thing it’s a good idea.
Mr. RCM, on his way through to the kitchen: You’re expecting realism from a movie called Spring Break Shark Attack?
And yes, I was. Well, okay, maybe not from THAT movie, but no matter how fantastic the premise, I expect realism about realistic things. Hot Girl might not know that it’s better to leave a foreign object in place until you get to a hospital. But there’s the problem of the ginormous barb on the end. Anyone with Earth Logic could not not realize that pulling that out would do much more damage than just leaving it in.
It’s called Earth Logic. Even a fantastic world will have it’s own rules, but no matter how bizarre the situation presented to your characters, they still have to make their decisions based on reason that makes sense to the reader.
This can make it a challenge sometimes when you need to have your hero make a wrong decision or do something that might seem foolish later (like go off into the haunted woods alone in a storm). Her reasons for doing so have to make sense based on the evidence available to her as well as her mental state and her goals and motivations. You have to justify her actions to her, and by extension, to the reader.
So don’t let a lack of Earth Logic make a reader throw your book against the wall. On land or sea, on the planet or in outer space, your characters always have to make decisions–wrong or right ones–based on reasoning that an Earth-based life form can follow.
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Anyhow, I couldn’t more with the real point of your post. There’s nothing I hate more than the transparent puppetmaster. However, I am equally delighted by the unseen hand that makes the most ridiculous character decisions seem not only reasonable, but completely logical given the information available to the character. Of course, the information has to act in a believable manner within the character’s emotional and mental framework, too.
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It’s really tricky, making those puppet strings invisible! But they’re vital. Nothing turns me off a book more quickly than a stupid character, but I will go along with a character who does something that turns out to be wrong, but was based on good reasoning at the time.
Or, you know, overwhelming emotional turmoil… as you say, within the characters mental framework. If a freak out and run in all directions panic is out of character for your character, it’s still cheating.
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So funny. Ever notice how the SyFy channels series are excellent, their mini series are so-so, but their made for tv movies downright suck–but are hilarious to watch?
Well, hopefully Hot-guy didn’t bleed to death, unless Smart-girl was actually just looking for a little chum to put in the water.
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The standard logic in Westerns with barbed Indian arrows is that you cut it out, shove it through, or cut off the shaft and leave the arrow head in until you can reach a doctor. The smartest choice these days is cut the shaft and find a doctor.
That would be particularly smart for a harpoon considering its length and weight which would increase the damage unless it was held absolutely still, and that would be pretty dang impossible in a moving boat.
The problem at this point would be that a harpoon shaft is probably metal, and you’d need a special tool to cut it. Maybe yanking it out wasn’t that stupid.
Some readers or watchers have no problem with bad real world logic or facts, but every time an error shows up, some readers or watchers will walk away cussing and never bother with the creator/creators’ products again.
I consider that a really bad thing.
As an aside, the SFWA blog now has a column by a doctor who answers writers’ questions on all things medical and fictional.
As another aside, MYTHBUSTERS did an entire episode on shark movies and the possibilities and impossibilities of killing those honking big sharks. Almost none of the movies was remotely accurate.
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I should note that a harpoon is a long javelin shape with a permanent barb which is thrown by hand or from a cannon-style mounted gun, a speartip is a barb with a short metal shaft that is shot from a speargun, and a gaffe is a barb on a much shorter pole that’s usually used for jabbing a fish or shark close to the surface.
My comments above were specifically about a harpoon.
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Well, I admit, one of the advantages of a book over a movie (one of many) is that the character could have a sentence or two to debate and justify her actions–right or wrong. Because all those things could certainly be true.
Mostly, I just wanted a jumping off place for my point.
And I agree that it’s a shame when someone gives up on an author or series after one mistake… Depending on the mistake. Because I’ll forgive or literally overlook something that might not be accurate if I’m engrossed in the story and love the characters. It all comes down to what pulls me out of the story.
Also, you know a lot about spear fishing!
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I’ve read MOBY DICK six times. The joy of getting a Masters and most of a Ph.D. in American Lit.
The rest is from reading a lot, action movies, and a little research I did for action scenes in several novels. I also did a quick Google on spearfishing before I replied to make sure I knew what I was talking about as far as terms.
God bless search engines.
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Wow. Lots of thought in today’s post. I’m down with not pulling the harpoon out–that would’ve been one of those moments when I was jumping off the couch screaming: “No way!”
But all this is really funny, too, since I’m editing the scene today in my WIP that has a knife protruding from my hot-guy’s chest. Can MC pull it out and then use magic to keep him from dying? We’ll find out…
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If you make us believe it, then it works.
That’s the advantage of magical worlds.
I now feel the need to go stab a Hot Guy in my WIP.
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TOTALLY Agree! My other top pet peeve is obviously bad science. Since my birthday is 12/21, the day the world ends, I was Hanging for 2012 to come out. I LOVE Natural Disaster movies. LOVE. Them. Promos looked Awesome. We even went back to OBX from DC to go with friends on opening night. And it was Sooooooooo Bad. Not even Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus bad, but Bad bad. I was So disappointed and you’re right, I doubt if I’ll ever go to another of his films. He broke our trust not once, but twice. I didn’t think he could do worse than A Day After Tomorrow. Silly me.
The good part is that it made me research every nuance of our WIP, especially our villain which is a mosquito, so that I could never be accused of the same failing. Hopefully.
And oh yeah, Vampires shouldn’t sparkle in sunlight.
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re: 2012. My mother LOVES disaster movies. The cheesier the better. and even SHE hated that movie. I think sometimes it comes down to intent. No one is expected to take Mega Shark seriously. But it was silly fun. Whereas 2012 goes for earnestness, and commits the sin of being boring. I’ll forgive a lot of breaking the laws of physics if you entertain me.