Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

When it comes to physics in animation and many high-stakes live action movies most of the laws of physics have their turn being twisted, ignored, or re-valued. Special effects leave the live-action movies just as susceptible to defying physics in both slight and extreme ways. However when one evaluates just how much any individual aspect of physics is affected, it's quickly clear that of everything gravity is the force most toyed with, stretched, or broken. Gravity, in terms of cinematic story telling, is a very useful tether to relate the described world to our world, but in application it is far from a constant set of rules that characters and objects are restricted to. When it comes to altering gravity film makers usually make changes to a character's center of balance, alter gravitational effects on individual objects, or at times pull on the gravitational stability of buildings in order to make more intense action sequences that are just believable enough to thrill an audience with a heightened sense of reality. The phenomenon of altering gravity is not restricted to animation, live action, movie, or television show, to being believable or extreme, or to science fiction, fantasy, or action adventure movies.       When it comes to an extremely versatile personal center of gravity few characters flail so much to ultimately defy impossible positions as Jack Sparrow from the popular Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. In these live action movies the pirate captain regularly finds himself making daring plan-as-you-go escapes from soldiers, rival pirates, and angry sea entities, often with an acrobatic skill that is hidden by an average muscle distribution and an uncommon amount of dreadlocked and adorned hair. One of the very first examples of Jack Sparrow's dramatic handle on a personal center of gravity occurs in the beginning of the first movie, when he launches himself into the air and lands on a thin wooden beam, where he struggles with catching his balance (20:08). This is a subtle example of breaking the laws of physics and one's personal center of gravity, especially as he leans forward and back in a very basic effort to catch his balance. Even without factoring in the momentum he gathered in the spring-loaded arc he swings to the beam on, or the fact that he is handcuffed with movement-impeding shackles, even a basic and stationary attempt to recreate the balance catching reveals how dramatically outside of reality the self-catch is. Jack's center of balance is far outside the base of support he has available on such a narrow beam. Even if his arms were free to fully utilize counter balance measures (he does flail a bit, of course) the idea that he would be able to recover from such an extremely off-balance center of gravity is, by the most whimsical standards, laughable. And that's not factoring in the wind that would be blowing in from the ocean, or the afore-mentioned force resulting from the launch from at least two stories below.        People are not the only objects granted clemency from any recognizable gravity, as the force is played with with individual objects as well. In the quirky science fiction series Warehouse 13 two special agents, Pete and Mica, find themselves the victims of a localized gravity-swap. Thrown into the ceiling by a machine that alters gravitational pull (24:30), while not technically objects but simply two large-ish masses it's applicable to look at them as large flour sacks. Flour sacks which with a simple flip of a switch suddenly collapse into the ceiling as if they were just dropped onto it. This is an interesting phenomenon of gravitational alteration, especially since it's also worth noting that while H.G. Wells appears unaffected due to wearing magnetic boots (which somehow also control her hair as well), the rest of the objects in the room remain in place as if the room's gravity is normal. So either the popular literary mastermind was obsessed with nails and glue, or gravity is being REALLY weird in the very specific location of the house where Pete and Mica were standing and then being pressed into the ceiling (hair and all).       Nothing, however, pulls at an audience's sense of gravitational awareness like a building suddenly acting out of the norm. To pull off bringing entire structures into alternate gravitational science the audience must be wholly sold on the idea that the building has enough mass to exist while not enough to counter whatever is being done to it. Case in point: the house from the animated movie Up. Since the house remains in the air supported by thousands of balloons for pretty much the entire movie, the question of gravitational affect on the structure is a fairly consistent problem to be addressed. It's pushed around by wind, as balloons deflate it hangs lower to the ground and moved like it is restricted movement-wise when it doesn't have enough to lift it. This is completely ignoring many laws of physics, of course, but gravity is ultimately the cheated party in the matter. after all, on an episode of Mythbusters (where they like to challenge all of these rule-breaking ideas) they found that to simply lift a four-year old girl it would take so many helium-filled weather balloons that it would be all but impossible to blow up and attach them all to the object that needed lifting (Episode 5 of season 2).         In conclusion, although many aspects of physics are regularly bent or altered in cinema and television, gravity is almost certainly the most commonly ignored and abused. The force itself, and its effects on body, object, and structure, is distorted in almost any nameable science fiction or action movie. Most of the time it tends to be subtle, more or less linked into our real-world understanding of the force, in order to make a connection to our reality that often masks dramatic and intense law-breaking. This stretch of an inescapable truth, however, creates the heightened reality that makes us believe in the supernatural abilities of a pirate, and wonder at the notion of a house flying away supported by balloons. And as long as some of the effects are observed in a realistic light we are more than willing to allow the abuse to natural law to forward a story, be it science fiction or just a whimsical version of our own reality. PS: (foot note apart from paper word counter): I know you said only three movies or shows were required but Mythbusters is the best example to disprove the notion, so I enter them as my first surprise witness and not an actual example of defying gravity in popular media. PPS: I feel like Max or Mary from Max and Mary with many P-P-S's all the time. PPPS: Here is a picture of the House Cat, revealed to be the crime boss he is: PPPPS: Yes I'm shameless in seeking extra credit opportunities. But to be fair I wanted to include a paragraph about the amazing gravitational alteration involved in the destruction of Sauron's tower and you didn't want more than three movie examples so I feel something extra must be included. PPPPPS: Just in case you never watched Max and Mary, you should. It's on Netflix. And it's wonderful.