Which parts of the earthquake related movies are exaggerated?

This blog is a part of a group project in City university of Hong Kong GE1313 Earthquake. 

The purpose of this blog is to correct the misunderstanding of people toward earthquakes and its effect. Our group wants to illustrate that not all the earthquakes are scary. You will see 6 earthquake scenes in the movies and 6 screen captures of real earthquake video clips that have a similar magnitude in order to compare the damage of the building, road etc. However, our group understands that to entertain the audience, computer graphics and a variety of tools are essential to the movies. Our group has no intention to criticize the movie and movie producers.

1. Ashfall

Ashfall is a Korean movie and was released in 2019. The movie demonstrated a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which caused a major effect. 

The chosen video clip demonstrates the same earthquake magnitude in Kaikoura, New Zealand, which happened in 2016.

Movie scene 1: The road collapses and creates a large hole. A truck can easily fall into that hole.

Reality: The road is only splitted, and small cars may pass through this road.

Movie scene 2: All the buildings, either big or small, collapse.

Reality: The building can stay still, and the structure of the building is the same. Only the glasses in front of the building are broken.

2. San Andreas

San Andreas is a 2015 American movie. In the movie, the earthquake caused by the San Andreas fault in the US. The magnitude of the earthquake is 9.6. It causes a great effect.

The biggest earthquake that was recorded was 9.5 magnitude in 1960. However, our group could not find the video clip of that earthquake so we chose the 9.0 earthquake that happened in Japan to compare with the San Andreas movie instead.

Movie scene 1: The movie scene shows that many buildings collapse, and some of them are on fire.

Reality: From the video clip, the building is explicitly swaying. Compared to buildings around, this building is the highest one, and there is not much effect on this building.  

Movie scene 2: The ground is lifted very high. The subway is also lifted from underground. 

Reality: The earthquake caused the ground to split a little bit. The area that was filmed is the bay area, so there was water coming out from the ground.

3. 2012

This American movie was released in 2009. It demonstrated a 10.5 magnitude earthquake.

We compare the quake scene with the 9.0 magnitude earthquake happening in 2011 in Japan.

Movie scene: This scene shows that the ground moves like a wave. The houses are completely damaged. 

Reality: At the circle area, it can be seen that the ground is separated. One side of the ground moves back and another side moves forth.

Moreover, this scene seems unrealistic. The house should be more robust than trees and the fence in front of the house, but the house is completely damaged while there is no damage to trees and the fence.

4. The Quake

The Quake is a 2018 Norwegian movie that shows an 8.5 magnitude earthquake.

The video clip was shot in Nepal in 2015. The earthquake’s magnitude was 8.0.

Movie scene: The mountains around the city explode. 

Reality: In the video clip, at the mountains, landslides are spotted. This is because earthquakes also cause landslides. However, the mountains do not explode like in the movie scene.

5. Tokyo magnitude 8.0 

Released in 2009, Tokyo magnitude 8.0 is a Japanese anime series. As indicated by the anime’s title, it exhibits an 8.0 magnitude earthquake. 

The chosen video demonstrates the same magnitude of earthquake with the anime. The video shows the earthquake in Nepal in 2015.

Movie scene: The red car swerves and crashesinto the road barrier.

Reality: Even the white car travels at a similar speed with the red car in the anime, it does not swerve ( first picture). However, with this earthquake magnitude, the motorcycle can easily swerve ( second picture).

6. Descendants of the Sun

Descendants of the Sun is a 2016 Korean TV series. The series illustrates a 6.7 magnitude earthquake.

The video clip shows an earthquake in Turkey in January, 2020. The magnitude of the earthquake is 6.8.

Movie scene 1: Most of the medicine on the shelves fall on the ground. Also, the woman in the scene cannot balance.

Reality: A few items drop during the earthquake especially the items that have low weight. Moreover, the person who films the video clip can balance himself/herself, which is contradict with the actor in the movie.  

Movie scene 2: In the series, the ceiling collapses and falls 

Reality: Only the color on the wall drops on the floor.

To conclude, we can see that the earthquake scenes in the movies are usually exaggerated. Moreover, our group has shown which parts of the movies are too surreal by comparing the effect of earthquakes in movies and reality scene by scene.

However, the earthquake size is not the only factor that determines the impact level of an earthquake. Read another blog to find out what other factors could affect the degree of destruction in an earthquake.

Credits: 
Ashfall: https://youtu.be/BUzdzSSvOoU?t=24

Earthquake in Kaikoura, New Zealand: https://youtu.be/sQYAfY5GfNk?t=5

San Andreas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urkmxrqoqrs

Earthquake in Tohoku, Japan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zw-BvKo0pI

2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NclH5qEfL5c

The Quake: https://youtu.be/uMIilivI7Lg

Earthquake in Nepal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1-JBmzDC7E

Tokyo magnitude 8.0:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=Nx6PFk04kMw&feature=emb_logo

Descendants of the Sun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3DSDk1pxes

Earthquake in Turkey: https://youtu.be/a2xbEh_M9K8?t=7