# Inspiring movies about other sciences? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2019, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925 "2019-05-13T21:45:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/21 "2019-05-14T09:54:56Z")
If you blink, you’ll miss Helen Hunt as a frog biologist in Cast Away. I’m not sure we actually see her doing anything biological [except breathing perhaps]. She’s on screen a lot less than the volleyball. The original Godzilla features a biologist / palaeontologist as the most useful human in a time of great crisis and drama. ---
**Author:** ![Wrenching\_Spanners](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecb155/32.png) [@Wrenching\_Spanners](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wrenching_Spanners)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/22 "2019-05-14T09:59:49Z")
Life Story AKA The Race for the Double Helix, starring Jeff Goldblum > **[Life Story (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Story_(film))** > > Life Story (known as The Race for the Double Helix in the United States) is a 1987 television historical drama which depicts the progress toward, and the competition for, the discovery of the structure of DNA in the early 1950s. It was directed by Mick Jackson for the BBC's Horizon science series, and stars Jeff Goldblum, Tim Pigott-Smith, Juliet Stevenson, and Alan Howard. It won several awards in the UK and U.S., including the 1988 BAFTA TV Award for Best Single Drama. > The film dramatises t... Also, this category: [Category:Biographical films about scientists - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Biographical_films_about_scientists) ---
**Author:** ![And\_his\_buzzer\_goes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/and_his_buzzer_goes/32/377_2.png) [@And\_his\_buzzer\_goes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/And_his_buzzer_goes)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/23 "2019-05-14T10:35:37Z")
_ **The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks** _ > **[The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immortal_Life_of_Henrietta_Lacks_(film))** > > The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a drama television film directed by George C. Wolfe and starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne. It is based on the book of the same name by Rebecca Skloot and documents the story of Henrietta Lacks, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the 1950s, and whose cancer cells (later known as HeLa) would change the course of cancer treatment. The film premiered on HBO on April 22, 2017. > The film was announced on May 2, 2016 with Alan Ball and Oprah Winfrey as ... ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/24 "2019-05-14T10:56:58Z")
a Beautiful Mind is the true story of a math genius who won the Nobel prize in economics [A Beautiful Mind (2001) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268978/) ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/25 "2019-05-14T11:13:14Z")
**Agora** is my absolute fave. About her: Hypatia (born c. 350–370; died 415 AD) was a Hellenistic Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/26 "2019-05-14T14:31:41Z")
> [@Wrenching\_Spanners](#): > > Life Story AKA The Race for the Double Helix, starring Jeff Goldblum > > [Life Story (film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Story_(film)) Came here to post this one. It was available to download to educational institutions from some site the last time I looked for it. “So we got it 2400% wrong. Anybody can make a mistake.” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/27 "2019-05-14T19:32:59Z")
Is _A Beautiful Mind_ actually what you’d call “inspiring”? It seems to me that its message (as well as that of _Proof_, fictional but also good) is that mathematicians are crazy. Which does admittedly have some measure of truth to it. And I’m not sure that _Godzilla_ is any sort of model of good science. Fiction is one thing, oxygen-destroyer bombs are another. Darwin, Annings, and Henrietta Lacks look promising, though. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/28 "2019-05-14T20:09:08Z")
I wouldn’t call the Henrietta Lacks story exactly “[inspiring](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=615557)” either. And the Mary Anning story? That is almost as bad as my crack about making a movie about the discovery of penicillin a romance between Alexander Flemming played by Hugh Jackman and bread mold played by Jennifer Lawrence. Mary Anning spent her adult life scraping together a living for herself and her younger siblings by searching for fossils on the beach/cliffs near her house. She had a very tough life and died young from cancer. But some piece of shit comes along and decides that story isn’t sexy enough and makes the movie into a Secret Lesbian Love Affair. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/29 "2019-05-14T20:22:34Z")
In a Beautiful Mind John Nash overcomes his mental illness and returns to do more math, that is inspiring. In real life he actually stopped taking his medications but they did not mention that in the movie because they did not want people to think they should stop medication without their Dr. approving it. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/30 "2019-05-14T21:20:25Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Maybe [_Awakenings_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awakenings)? > Not likely to be many examples–it isn’t easy to sexy/action up a story about years of standing in a lab watching test tubes and petri dishes. _Maybe_ they could pull off Hugh Jackman as Alexander Flemming, but no way would they get Jennifer Lawrence as bread mold. My first thought when you said that was "they should totally make a movie about the **development** of penicillin, during WWII - it’s actually a killer story, with intra-team drama, the backdrop of the larger conflict, stops and starts, sick little boys in hospital. Fleming’s original discovery is actually the least interesting part of the penicillin story. So I looked, and [they did](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1434927/). Now I want to watch it. It’s a great story, the film’s got good enough reviews, and mmm, Dominic West 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/31 "2019-05-14T21:37:22Z")
_ **I Aim at the Stars** _ (1960). Kurt Jurgens, James Daly. The story of Wernher von Braun and how he ended up directing the US space program. How “inspirational” this movie is I guess depends on your nationality. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/32 "2019-05-14T21:48:39Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > url=[Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies (TV Mini Series 2015) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4383082)]Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies may be bit longer than you’re looking for, but this three-part 6-hour series is excellent. They made a documentary from that? I missed it. That book was possibly the most interesting thing (certainly the longest most interesting thing) I’ve ever read! ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/33 "2019-05-14T21:51:20Z")
I thought [_Contagion_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contagion_(2011_film)) seemed to be\* a far more realistic treatment of the “killer worldwide plague!!!” plot than Hollywood normally produces; and the scientists and doctors–mostly government employees to boot–while human, flawed, and capable of making some mistakes, were fundamentally portrayed as the heroes of the story. It was [rated PG-13 and has various parental cautions](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/parentalguide?ref_=tt_stry_pg) attached to it ([_Apollo 13_ was a mere PG](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112384/parentalguide?ref_=tt_stry_pg)); so that might be an issue with trying to show it to high school students (whether or not any of the things discussed in that link _should_ be problematic for high school students). \*IANA epidemiologist ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/34 "2019-05-14T21:53:02Z")
(Oh, and _Contagion_’s not a _true_ story–it’s fiction, not a documentary–but, again, I thought it was very realistic and very well done.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/35 "2019-05-15T05:44:56Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > _Not_ so much the making Anning a lesbian, I’m OK with that, since we don’t know her sexuality (although IMO it doesn’t gel with her very religious nature). But Murchison was AFAIK quite devoted to her husband so it’s a bit of a stretch. There’s no correspondence or even rumour about her having affairs with _anyone_. Yeah … not that there’s anything wrong with distorting history for the sake of being _au courant_. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/36 "2019-05-15T08:48:24Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Doctor Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet** > > A movie about a mostly-forgotten doctor who discovered a treatment for syphilis. It was controversial when it came out in 1940, because it dealt with venereal disease. Somehow, it got made. > > Starring Edward G. Robinson as Dr. Paul Ehrlich! > There’s also **The Story of Louis Pasteur** (1936), starring Paul Muni as Pasteur. I saw that when I was in high school! It had one really scene where Dr. Ehrlich was explaining his work to some high-society women, and a couple of them got the fantods. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925/37 "2019-05-15T09:24:37Z")
Sorry. I meant to say really funny scene. I’ve been up too long. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inspiring-movies-about-other-sciences/833925.md?page=1)