2012: The number of reasons this movie stinks

It's a long list, so it will take some time...

Breakout Role for Rock Hammer

Always take your rock hammer with you no matter where you go! That's the take home message from "The Shawshank Redemption". Great attention to geologic detail throughout this morality tale - rock names are used accurately and that piece of obsidian that Morgan Freeman finds is the real thing.

Don't Take it for (Cary) Granite!

"North by Northwest" is one of director Hitchcock's best and in no small part because of the dramatic ending set atop the Mount Rushmore monument carved into Harney Peak Granite. Denied access to the real thing, the moviemaker had to resort to a Hollywood soundstage with huge background images and cliffs of concrete. Check out the aplite and pegmatite dikes that cross-cut the faces of the presidents!

Worst Movie of the 00s...with Geology

"The Day After Tomorrow" has to be one of the worst sci-fi flicks of all time. One of the heros falls through a snow covered roof of a shopping mall in New Jersey! The only saving grace is a short scene that shows a TV broadcast of illegal aliens escaping across the Rio Grande from Texas into Mexico. Is this the future???

Accretionary Wedge #7: Geology/ists in the Movies

See Accretionary Wedge #7 at MagmaCumLaude for more movies with geology and geologists:

http://magmacumlaude.blogspot.com/2008/03/accretionary-wedge-7-geologyists-in.html

A 90s Movie with Some Geologic Content

I had to dig pretty deep to get a movie with some decent geology from the 1990s. "Tremors" will have to do. From the name of the fictional town (Perfection, Nevada) to Reba McEntire playing a survivalist, this movie never takes itself too seriously. Filmed on location in the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

Best Use of Paleontology in the Movies

"Bringing Up Baby" is a (perhaps "the") classic screwball comedy from the 1930s. Gary Grant plays the mild-mannered paleontologist to Katherine Hepburn's slightly ditzy socialite. Rapid-fire dialogue and unpredictable plot turns abound.