Final Project: Looper

Looper is another Hollywood time traveling movie that attempts to blow the watchers mind with "unexpected" twists and crazy plot devices. Looper revolves around contract killers called "loopers" that are hired by crime syndicates from the future to execute victims they send back in time. These crime syndicates have to utilize this time travel technology because in this fictional future it's "nearly impossible" to hide a body due to future tracking systems. (written down it sounds much more absurd than it is) Regardless of these crazy tropes, Looper is still an entertaining movie. With intense and engaging action scenes and, it's easy to divulge into the mindless entertainment while not thinking too much about what you're seeing. 

But, despite the temporary amusement, it's hard to look past some of the fundamental physics problems the movie does wrong.Much like many action movies, Looper defies the conservation of momentum constantly. We see this in multiple scenes where the main character Joe (Joseph Gordon Levitt) fires his shotgun hitting his victim which sends them flying. This is inaccurate because if the victims were to be launched back after being shot, that same force would push Joe in the opposite direction.


Here we can apply the conservation of momentum,  M1Vf1 + M2Vf2 = M1+Vi1 + M2Vi2, in order to find the speed at which Joe would actually be launched back.

For this problem we can break the scenes down into two parts, a before and after. Before is Joe and the Pellets and After is the system of the pellets and the victim.

In order to find the speed of the pellets after being fired, we have to start with the After system.

After:
M1: is an estimated  85 kg which is the average weight of an adult male in the US.
M2: is an estimated .0315 kg which is the weight of the 9 pellets in a standard buckshot shotgun round.
V1i: is 0 because the victim is at rest initially
V2i: ? what's being solved for.
This system is inelastic because the pellets stick into the person moving them backwards so the Vf for both will be the same. In the clip we have to estimate the speed of the person after being shot which is maybe 1 mph or .45 m/s

(85kg)(0m/s) + (.0315kg)(V2i) = (85kg + .0315kg)(.454 m/s)
V2i = (85kg + .0315kg)(.45m/s) / (.0315kg)
So the initial speed of the bullet would be an astounding 1214.74 m/s

Before: Now, in our before system we can calculate how fast Joe would go backwards after firing the gun.
M1: is Joe’s mass (80kg) because Joe seems a little bit smaller than the victim in the After portion.
M2: .0315 kg mass of pellets.
V1i and V2i: Are both 0 because neither Joe or the pellets are moving before the shot.
V1f: ? Joe’s velocity.
V2f: 1214.74 m/s which is the pellets initial velocity from the After system.

(80kg)(0m/s) + (.0315m/s)(0m/s) = (80kg)(V1f) + (.0315)(1214.74 m/s)
-(.0315)(1214.74 m/s) / (80kg) = V1f
V1f = - .48 m/s

This means Joe or the gun he’s holding would move in the opposite direction at .48 m/s. 
Which would look a little something like this


Believe it or not, in real life during the filming of movie scenes like the shotgun scenes in Looper they don’t actually fire high powered weapons at people to send them flying. In order to get the practical effect of someone being launched with great force, practical effects teams use a system of intricate ropes and pulleys strapped to the actors/actresses that are edited out in post. We can see these pulleys in these behind the scene clips displaying the systems.







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