The earthquake disaster film, “San Andreas,” opens this Friday and is expected to rake in at least $40 million at the box office. A premiere for the movie was held last night in Hollywood. Among the stars, U.S. Geological Survey seismologist and the number one go-to-earthquake expert in the Southland, Dr. Lucy Jones. After the event, Dr. Jones posted a critique of the film in the form of tweets on her Twitter account. Here are some of of those tweets.
My first experience of a red carpet at to the premiere of San Andrea pic.twitter.com/eHcL4NdPvL
— Dr. Lucy Jones (@DrLucyJones) May 27, 2015
We expect serious damage to 1 in every 16 buildings in a real San Andreas EQ. The movie damage over the top.
— Dr. Lucy Jones (@DrLucyJones) May 27, 2015
OMG! A chasm? If the fault could open up, there’d be no friction. With no friction, there’d be no earthquake
— Dr. Lucy Jones (@DrLucyJones) May 27, 2015
Bottom line: don’t learn seismology from #SanAndreas but maybe it will inspire people to take Community Emergency Response Training
— Dr. Lucy Jones (@DrLucyJones) May 27, 2015
The movie makers probably should have fact checked the earthquake stuff with Dr. Jones DURING the script writing and production process. However, it may not matter to moviegoers that “San Andreas” is on, ah, shaky scientific ground. We’ll see how they react to the film when it opens in theaters this weekend.
