First, Kevin Costner attempted to fix the ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico with his Ocean Therapy device at the request of BP. Now, officials from the Environmental Protection Agency have reached out to "Avatar" director James Cameron and numerous other ocean experts to address the Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused by the destructive blowout of a BP oil rig in April.
Clearly, this is a case of desperate times calling for desperate measures. With relief workers looking towards filmmakers, actors and other Hollywood icons for ideas and assistance, it seems that there's something that Hollywood can offer when it comes to rectifying the Gulf's catastrophic environmental situation.
But why focus purely on the people responsible for filmmaking? There are plenty of potential crisis-averting techniques already available — albeit in fictional form. After the jump, here are a few of the movie and television concepts that could present solutions in eliminating the oil crisis. We understand that this is a very serious situation, with potential long-term ramifications that may not even be entirely clear yet. This is nothing more than an attempt to lighten moods while more serious minds gather to figure out a very real, lasting solution to this grand-scale ecological disaster.
The Axiom
While it doesn't exactly solve the problem of the oil crisis, perhaps it's time to build ourselves a global-sized space cruiser ala the Axiom from "WALL-E" and get the heck out of dodge. With this BP catastrophe and other disasters including earthquakes and tsunamis upon us, it almost seems like it's time to hightail it away from Earth and leave the cleanup duties to the robots. We'll be busy getting fat on a massive automated spaceship while Earth becomes a problem for future generations to deal with.
Desmond Hume
Okay, abandoning the planet isn't an option, so what else do we have to work with? Based purely on looks, it appears that The Smoke Monster was finally able to leave the Island of "Lost" — as Jacob would put it, the wine has left the bottle. Looks like it's time to get the time-displaced Desmond Hume back to the Island so he can put his funky electromagnetic resistance to good use by uncorking and recorking the source, thereby causing the Monster (aka the oil spill) to become vulnerable to physical attack.
Electromagnetic Shrink Ray
For all his quirks, Wayne Szalinski's shrink ray is a truly brilliant invention. The "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" device was able to shrink Szalinski's kids and neighbors down to miniscule scale, so why shouldn't it be able to do the same with the massive amounts of oil? As long as the ray isn't set to "blow up," the shrink beam's effects could render the oil spill into the size of an inconsequential puddle.
The Force
Just as Szalinski's shrink ray could miniaturize the oil spill, perhaps the collective efforts of the Jedi Council could channel the Force, remove the oil from the Gulf and relocate the mess to a safer location for everyone. Of course, Jedi Knights aren't really real, even if Movies Blog editor and "Star Wars" enthusiast Adam Rosenberg would like to believe otherwise. But even if they were real, they've all been murdered thanks to Anakin Skywalker's bratty betrayal.
Time Travel
Admittedly, time travel is a tricky thing that rarely works out quite like you'd hope. (See: "Heroes.") That said, I think sending a few Terminators backwards in time to systematically "remove" those responsible for the oil spill wouldn't backfire too badly. If that's too hardcore, we could always have Doc Brown take his DeLorean back in time to alter something seemingly insignificant, thereby derailing the entirety of BP's oil efforts in the Gulf.
What fictional methods would you look towards for fixing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill? Give your thoughts in the comments section and on Twitter, and please feel free to leave some real suggestions for helping relief efforts as well.
Tags james cameron
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Gulf Coast Oil Spill Worsens And James Cameron Steps In... But How About These Fictional Plot Devices?
Posted 6/2/10 12:34 pm EST by Josh Wigler in Commentary, Humor, News
First, Kevin Costner attempted to fix the ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico with his Ocean Therapy device at the request of BP. Now, officials from the Environmental Protection Agency have reached out to "Avatar" director James Cameron and numerous other ocean experts to address the Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused by the destructive blowout of a BP oil rig in April.
Clearly, this is a case of desperate times calling for desperate measures. With relief workers looking towards filmmakers, actors and other Hollywood icons for ideas and assistance, it seems that there's something that Hollywood can offer when it comes to rectifying the Gulf's catastrophic environmental situation.
But why focus purely on the people responsible for filmmaking? There are plenty of potential crisis-averting techniques already available — albeit in fictional form. After the jump, here are a few of the movie and television concepts that could present solutions in eliminating the oil crisis. We understand that this is a very serious situation, with potential long-term ramifications that may not even be entirely clear yet. This is nothing more than an attempt to lighten moods while more serious minds gather to figure out a very real, lasting solution to this grand-scale ecological disaster.
The Axiom
While it doesn't exactly solve the problem of the oil crisis, perhaps it's time to build ourselves a global-sized space cruiser ala the Axiom from "WALL-E" and get the heck out of dodge. With this BP catastrophe and other disasters including earthquakes and tsunamis upon us, it almost seems like it's time to hightail it away from Earth and leave the cleanup duties to the robots. We'll be busy getting fat on a massive automated spaceship while Earth becomes a problem for future generations to deal with.
Desmond Hume
Okay, abandoning the planet isn't an option, so what else do we have to work with? Based purely on looks, it appears that The Smoke Monster was finally able to leave the Island of "Lost" — as Jacob would put it, the wine has left the bottle. Looks like it's time to get the time-displaced Desmond Hume back to the Island so he can put his funky electromagnetic resistance to good use by uncorking and recorking the source, thereby causing the Monster (aka the oil spill) to become vulnerable to physical attack.
Electromagnetic Shrink Ray
For all his quirks, Wayne Szalinski's shrink ray is a truly brilliant invention. The "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" device was able to shrink Szalinski's kids and neighbors down to miniscule scale, so why shouldn't it be able to do the same with the massive amounts of oil? As long as the ray isn't set to "blow up," the shrink beam's effects could render the oil spill into the size of an inconsequential puddle.
The Force
Just as Szalinski's shrink ray could miniaturize the oil spill, perhaps the collective efforts of the Jedi Council could channel the Force, remove the oil from the Gulf and relocate the mess to a safer location for everyone. Of course, Jedi Knights aren't really real, even if Movies Blog editor and "Star Wars" enthusiast Adam Rosenberg would like to believe otherwise. But even if they were real, they've all been murdered thanks to Anakin Skywalker's bratty betrayal.
Time Travel
Admittedly, time travel is a tricky thing that rarely works out quite like you'd hope. (See: "Heroes.") That said, I think sending a few Terminators backwards in time to systematically "remove" those responsible for the oil spill wouldn't backfire too badly. If that's too hardcore, we could always have Doc Brown take his DeLorean back in time to alter something seemingly insignificant, thereby derailing the entirety of BP's oil efforts in the Gulf.
What fictional methods would you look towards for fixing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill? Give your thoughts in the comments section and on Twitter, and please feel free to leave some real suggestions for helping relief efforts as well.
Tags james cameron
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