I've been meaning to get one for the whole seven years.Adam B. It was a chat with a safety officer who explained what could happen during a +7.0 magnitude earthquake, especially for someone like her who was living in a high-rise building at the time.Īfter more than seven years living in the Bay Area, I still don't have an emergency kit.
It wasn't a movie that finally pushed Nagy to get an emergency kit, though. "We started this program because the literature search demonstrated the effectiveness of this strategy." "We're the National Academy of Sciences, we didn't start this program because it would be fun to go to Hollywood," she says.
The research shows that movies have an impact on the scientific ideas of the audience, and this program wants to take full advantage of that.
The Science & Entertainment Exchange launched in 2008, and they've consulted on around 3,000 film and TV properties, San Andreas and Contagion among them. Silje Breivik and Kristoffer Joner in The Wave. "He got his science out to an audience that might otherwise not have heard from him." "It received national coverage," says Merchant. When the movie was released, Jordan was interviewed by several media outlets about the real science of earthquake safety. Thomas Jordan, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, consulted on San Andreas. Merchant recognizes movies don't always get the science right but there are benefits to cinematic portrayals even if they contain scientific inaccuracies. At the end of the day, The Rock's character reunited with his estranged wife, they rescued their daughter and found their happy ending. But even with all the fallen skyscrapers, the movie didn't show the millions of deaths that would have resulted from such devastation. The film starring Dwayne Johnson as a Los Angeles firefighter was indeed a spectacle, portraying several massive earthquakes that struck Los Angeles and San Francisco. "If it's an earthquake movie, there must be an earthquake. Nagy also believes disaster movies need to deliver on the "disaster." Even if the hero - and this is a variation - dies saving the world." And you're the survivor of your own narrative."Ĭontemporary disaster movies can't be hopeless: "Earth and the people of the Earth have to survive. "It provides a sense of comfort that there'll be a survivor. They die heroes and the protagonist of the movie lives," she says. Nagy, who was nominated for an Oscar for her 2015 screenplay Carol, breaks the formula most natural disaster movies are built on. "Film and television are a form of accidental curriculum," she says. "Even if you live in an earthquake-free kind of area," says Merchant, "you can get a sense of what it is to live through one, watching a movie where an earthquake takes place." Merchant leads The Science & Entertainment Exchange, a program connecting filmmakers, producers and screenwriters with a database of more than 2,400 scientists and engineers. "Hollywood's first job is to entertain people," says Ann Merchant, the deputy executive director at the office of communications of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. When you sat in the theater, you actually felt the earthquake." "It was released in theaters with something called Sensurround. She also points out that when the 1974 film Earthquake was released, it didn't move the needle in terms of preparedness in California. I mean, Contagion was made some time ago," says Phyllis Nagy, head of screenwriting at UCLA's School of Theater, Film & Television. "Do we learn anything from them? Obviously not. We even have movies that feature the impact of climate change, like The Day After Tomorrow. Movies about tsunamis, like The Wave or The Impossible. It got me thinking: What else could we learn from natural disaster movies? There are movies that deal with earthquakes, like San Andreas or The Quake. Not for nothing - it was praised for its scientific accuracy. It's just a movie, but I learned a lot about disease transmission and prevention from Contagion. I wasn't alone searching solace in Contagion, it became one of the most watched movies on iTunes. Damon's character turns out to be immune, but he makes sure his teenage daughter takes all the precautions not to catch it: isolation, mask-wearing, avoiding contact with others at all costs. The 2011 film directed by Steven Soderbergh depicts a pandemic with a flulike virus very similar to the one we are facing today (but much more lethal). They make it till the end mostly unscathed. And if the story depicted on screen ever became reality, I'd want to be Matt Damon's character in the movie. Back in March, when COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders were imposed in California, I realized it was the perfect occasion to finally watch Contagion.