Also, not skilled in subsistance farming, mining, smithing, or any of the other back-breaking things that would be required to survive a new world. (Also, the 30% oxygen in the atmosphere would present challenges.) But I didn’t actually worry about that because it ain’t that kinda movie, kid. (The simultaneous launches were also just plain stupid and the depiction of the makeup of a comet just plain wrong. And the size of the comet? Very average. Huge amounts wrong with the science of the movie.)
The part I had trouble with was the idea that the lifeboat had been traveling for 22,700 years before it arrived at that planet.
Particularly when it was made by the same guy whose comet probes kept crashing into each other.
Simultaneous launches make no sense but my fanwack was that they are impressive and President Orleans wanted to impress people with the full might of what the US Space Program can do. Turning around in-atmosphere was probably the dumbest moment in the movie though. There would have been other ways to show that the mission is being aborted.
The comet’s size is in line with the estimates for the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, so that bit was fine (though at one point the scientists described it as being twice as big which is definitely wrong).
That’s not too crazy for a journey to another star system though.
My problem wasn’t the length of time, but the idea that it didn’t break down, didn’t run out of fuel, was able to keep the people in cryogenic suspension, etc, etc, etc.
That’s the only reasonably realistic part about the science. Any non-science-fiction-magic interstellar mission would likely take tens of thousands of years. The fastest device humanity has ever built travels at 330,000 miles per hour—or 1/20th of 1 percent of the speed of light. It would need close to 9000 years to reach Alpha Centari. My thought at seeing 22,000 years is that tge planet was improbably close to Earth.
I think the failure rate was something like 60%? And that was better than they expected. Also, one of the few landers burned up.
They show a picture of her embracing Bill Clinton which is placed on her desk in the Oval Office.
Sure the science was stupid. And where exactly did the lifeboat come from? I assume I’m not the only one who thought, “A bunch of phone sanitizers!”
The science thing that kinda bugged me - I gotta check - but the dinos et al didn’t die out from a shock wave, did they? I thought it was more due to longterm climate changes, airborne particulates, etc.
Most died with a few hours or days. But pockets of more isolated groups survived for a while, in NZ literally a million years.
Real photo, too.
Your link doesn’t make that claim. Go with this one.
NVM. Deleted
It does actually
In New Zealand, a region that was far from Chicxulub at the time of the impact, a full ecological suite of dinosaurs survived for another million years. Jeffrey Stilwell at Monash University in Australia and colleagues have found three herbivorous and two carnivorous species. It is interesting to reflect on what prevented the resurgence of dinosaurs from this base.
Read more: End of an era: how long did it take the dinosaurs to die out? | New Scientist
In all fairness, I would think there would be a fair amount of initial cynicism if a couple of random scientists told the POTUS that a comet was going to crash into the Earth in 6 months. Even if the science backed it up, it’s not unreasonable that a lot of people would have trouble processing that the world was actually going to end. Even global warming is not likely to be an extinction level event for humanity.
Because she was a woman? 
That’s the same link from before. (I did miss the section the first time, because it was wedged between some addresses and footer material and I thought it part of the footer.)
I flat-out do not believe those claims to be accurate.
For now, we can assume that Cretaceous terrestrial bones were reworked into Paleocene shallow marine sediments.
My understanding is that so much dust was kicked into the atmosphere that photosynthesis could not occur for years st best, potentially centuries. Under those conditions I don’t see how any large dinosaurs COULD have survived. That also fits in with what I recall regarding the extinction being WORSE for marine ecosystems than terrestrial ones.
I wanted to turn this off after about 25 minutes but was trying to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and hoping that the director and script would find their groove; unfortunately it just kept getting worse and worse. I got 48 minutes in before I couldn’t take it anymore. Good premise but what a waste of a good cast. Terrible pacing. Absolutely none of the clumsy, juvenile “comedy” worked for me. Also: worst Meryl Streep performance ever. To be fair, she was given terrible material to work with but still.
ETA: I see that I was not alone in my assessment.
Great movie for a discussion group.
Not a scientist, and haven’t researched, but a quick google of dinosaur meteor extinction suggests there is at least some debate WRT the firestorm magnitude/impact.