Every Space Battle Gets This Wrong (Except One Star Trek Movie)

Spock spotted it in 1982: "His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking." Almost every space battle ever filmed still fights like ships floating on an ocean. We put seven of the most famous movie space battles through the same three inspections (the up, the weight and the dark), and only one passes all three. Another day in the yard! Star Wars, Return of the Jedi, Rogue One, The Last Jedi, Starship Troopers, Ender's Game and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The real-world side: Isaac Newton, the ISS's deck and overhead, the only gun ever fired in space (Salyut 3, 1975), the Battle of the Coral Sea (1942), the 2021 Kosmos 1408 debris cloud and the Pillars of Creation. Spoilers for all seven films. CHAPTERS 00:00 Every space battle gets this wrong 01:32 The rules: the up, the weight, the dark 04:53 Star Wars (1977) 07:06 Return of the Jedi 08:17 Rogue One 09:06 The Last Jedi 10:48 Starship Troopers 12:15 Ender's Game 13:20 The Wrath of Khan 17:52 Even Star Trek forgot Narrated by: Me :) SOURCES Kirk and Khan never share a set (Den of Geek): https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan-blu-ray-review Meyer on Hornblower and The Enemy Below (Film Stories): https://filmstories.co.uk/?p=53026 Budget, the 12-day script, Harve Bennett: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_II:_The_Wrath_of_Khan Montalbán's chest was real (Tampa Bay Times): https://www.tampabay.com/35-years-lets-get-this-off-our-chest-about-star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan/2336229 The Genesis Effect and Pixar (Pixar's own history): https://www.pixar.com/our-story Star Wars' WWII dogfight reel (Air & Space / Smithsonian): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/air-battles-became-star-wars-1-180975832/ The Dam Busters and the trench run (/Film): https://www.slashfilm.com/557980/dam-busters-influenced-star-wars/ The Last Jedi's "magnetic" bombs (Ben Morris, VFX supervisor): https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/16557740-the-last-jedi-s-effects-supervisor-on-how-to-drop-bombs-and-make-leia-fl Verhoeven on Starship Troopers the novel (Task & Purpose): https://taskandpurpose.com/entertainment/starship-troopers-facts-trivia Ender's Game on the Marines' reading list: https://www.marines.mil/News/Messages/Messages-Display/Article/1184470/revision-of-the-commandants-professional-reading-list/ The cannon fired from Salyut 3 (Space.com): https://www.space.com/space-exploration/did-the-soviet-union-really-fire-a-cannon-from-a-space-station Kosmos 1408 and the ISS shelter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_1408 The Battle of the Coral Sea: https://ehistory.osu.edu/battles/coral-sea Pillars of Creation density (Astronomy): https://www.astronomy.com/science/how-dense-are-giant-gas-clouds-like-the-pillars-of-creation/ Maths in the video: Newton's second law (a = F/m), the Stefan-Boltzmann law (P = σAT⁴; (300 K / 2.7 K)⁴ ≈ 1.5 × 10⁸) and light delay (10,000 km ÷ 300,000 km/s ≈ 1/30 s). FOOTAGE Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982, Director's Edition, Paramount) · Star Wars (1977), Return of the Jedi (1983), Revenge of the Sith (2005), Rogue One (2016), The Last Jedi (2017) (Lucasfilm) · Starship Troopers (1997, TriStar) · Ender's Game (2013, Summit) · Star Trek Into Darkness (2013, Paramount) · The Enemy Below (1957, 20th Century Fox) · Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951, Warner Bros.) · The Dam Busters (1955, Associated British) · 633 Squadron (1964, United Artists) · The Matrix (1999, Warner Bros.) · Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001, Warner Bros.) · Fantasy Island (ABC) · The Last Starfighter (1984, Universal) · Serenity (2005, Universal) · Guardians of the Galaxy (2014, Marvel Studios). Every film line quoted is from the film itself. Real footage: NASA / Canadian Space Agency (ISS), 1943 Upkeep bouncing-bomb trials (Crown copyright expired), U.S. Navy Coral Sea newsreel and Universal Newsreel (public domain), ILM's Last Jedi breakdown. PHOTOS (Wikimedia Commons) George Lucas: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Gary Kurtz: Documentally (CC BY 3.0) · Rian Johnson: Max Surprenant (CC BY 4.0) · Paul Verhoeven: Georges Biard (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Orson Scott Card: Nihonjoe (CC BY 3.0) · Nicholas Meyer: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Harve Bennett: Robert Williams (CC BY-SA 2.0) · William Shatner: Super Festivals from Ft. Lauderdale, USA (CC BY 4.0) · Steve Jobs: Matthew Yohe (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Ed Neumeier: pinguino k from North Hollywood, USA (CC BY 2.0) · Robert Mitchum: Bjørn Fjørtoft (CC BY 4.0) · Kosmos 1408 debris cloud: Cam Key on behalf of Numerica Corporation (CC BY-SA 4.0) · de Havilland Mosquito: Royal Netherlands Air Force, restored by Chris Woodrich (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Avro Lancaster: Cpl Phil Major ABIPP / UK MoD (OGL v1.0) · Supermarine Spitfire: Airwolfhound (CC BY-SA 2.0) Stacks of VHS tapes (CC BY-SA 4.0)