Mission Impossible 3 [PGP-13]
(Spoiler Warning)
Overall Thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed the third installment even if it had all the cliche elements of any spy movie. Surprisingly, I have not seen the first three but have seen the latest ones in theaters. It does not amaze me that the thrill-seeker (Tom Cruise) is still alive performing death defying stunts each movie. He has all my respect for the hard-working attitude and dedication he has towards the entertainment business. I mean who else would want Mr. Cruise to wear a mask of your face and beat you up? I loved the humor and the emotional roller-coaster delivered by the side characters. The opening scene was instantly intriguing with a high stake hostage situation executed well that had me on edge. Also personally I would never doubt Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) as my leader. I was only dissatisfied that the director did not follow the suspense when Ethan was stealing the "rabbit's foot". After that quick preparation for the swing we see nothing that lead to his escape from the shooting goons. However, justice was done when Owen Davian was swept by a truck and the mole of the agency was shot by the wife (very bada$$). I was left with more questions than answers as to the whole central conflict of the movie. I think it was a waste when Benji had a monologue of the "Anti-God", the destruction of all civilization but we did not witness it one bit. The only weapons I saw were turrets, missiles, and brain explosion pills (never do drugs kids). Is it just me or was anyone wondering who Davian killed as the fake Julia? Anyways I don't know anyone in their right mind who would stay in a relationship constantly in danger unless I get a piece of it. Of course watching this in a Physics-in-film class meant that there was some funny scenes that were questionable in the laws of the universe.
Scene 1: Building Swing in Shanghai
Q: Could Tom's stunt be realistic to perform?
We can see Ethan Hunt desperately trying to find ways to get into the targeted building as time is against him. He quickly analyzes the tallest structure near the secured rooftop and proposes an incredulous version of a pendulum. The movie implies that the first building is around 226 m while the second is 162 m tall. They somehow knew that the distance between the buildings was 47.55 meters. I have estimated the total stunt time was around 25 seconds. So the speed of the swing was around 2 m/s. Ethan's mass is 148 lb or 67 kg. He fortunately made the distance with the help of movie magic and blind luck. If you ask me I would have done a more conventional approach such as a zip line but I guess that's how you keep the franchise going.
- First Building = 226 meters
- Second Building = 162 meters
- Distance between Buildings = 47.55
- Total swing time = 25 seconds
- Speed of swing = 2 m/s
- Ethan Hunt's Mass = 67 kg
Scene 2: Zhen's Sprint from Grenade
Q: How did Zhen escape from the grenade?
The second scene I am inspecting is when Hunt's whole squadron is on a recovery mission to get Lindsey inside the hideout located in Berlin. They infiltrate the whole factory with super awesome tech that the bad guys obviously didn't see. Swept with certainty, the crew took out most of the mercenaries without getting shot once. After Zhen extracts the required hardware, she "instinctively" turns to find out one worker has a grenade cooking and she only had 3-4 seconds to escape. She sprints at a speed of about 3 m/s. On the other hand, the standard grenade's blast radius suggests to be about 15 meters. In the final seconds of the scene she jumps over a desk at around 1.22 meters high to also penetrate the wall of windows. Which to be honest (if seen in slow motion) it was already going down before she jumped.
- Time left before explosion = 3 sec
- Sprint speed = 3 m/s
- Grenade's blast radius = 15 meters
- Jump height = 1.22 meters
Scene 3: Humpty Dumpty Laid on the Vatican Walls
Q: How much force is needed for Ethan to slow down before landing?
In my final scene I chose to analyze the conniving slip within the Vatican City. Ethan must require a foothold within the Walls to let Luther and the facial developing tech in. The purpose of the mission is to grab both the briefcase and Davian away from the black market buyers. To do so, he must bypass the security cameras that hinders his entrance. After referencing an old nursery rhyme and breaking the fourth wall, he repels down at a quick pace with a questionable balance that somehow did not have him end up face first on the ground. Totally avoiding Newton's first law of motion. The height of the wall is seen to be at 16.55 meters. We can also define that the acceleration due to gravity is that -9.8 m/s^2. The audience have seen that he slows down just enough at a final height of about 2 feet or 0.61 meters.
- Height of the wall = 16.55 meters
- Acceleration due to gravity = -9.8m/s^2
- Final Height = 2ft = 0.61 meter
- Time of drop = 4 seconds
- Speed = 3.99 m/s
- Force = 67kg * -9.8m/s^2 = -656.6 Newtons
This is a nice blog post -- fun to read, nice visuals, plus some movie clips embedded or linked to the post. And thank you for remembering to rate the movie physics. There were one or two issues with your analysis. For instance, normal walking speed is about 1 m/s; a full-on sprint should therefore be more than 3 m/s. It's also fun to notice things like glass walls coming down before the stunt actor actually hits them, although in this case, you could attribute that to the grenade going off.
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