Although he fulfills other roles in our society—TV host, talk show guest, some actual astrophysics, presumably, at some point—Neil deGrasse Tyson largely exists to fill one major niche these days: Pedant. There must (apparently) be one person willing to stand up in front of the masses and point out when a science fiction movie does not space correctly, and that self-appointed job has fallen to him. It is not an easy road, nor a pleasant one, or even one anyone particularly wants him to walk. But it’s his, nevertheless, relentlessly informing audiences of every potential inaccuracy, and passing judgment—as he did in a recent interview, when he revealed that 2022’s Moonfall has stolen Armageddon’s crown as the least accurate space movie he’s ever seen.
Y’all remember Moonfall, right? Roland Emmerich flick; Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, Sam from Game Of Thrones; moon is hollow? It came and went from theaters with a quickness, with its only real hype coming from an aggressively goofy trailer. But Neil deGrasse Tyson remembers, stating (per Deadline) in a recent interview that, “I thought Armageddon had a secure hold on this crown,” (i.e., “violating more laws of physics per minute than any other film ever made”), “But apparently not.”
Sadly, deGrasse Tyson doesn’t get into any specific complaints about Moonfall’s physics, possibly because the film’s reveal that the moon is actually a Dyson sphere containing a white dwarf star is too ludicrous, on its face, to be picked apart in his usual style. (Oh, sorry, you just got spoilered for Moonfall.) We’re not entirely convinced that deGrasse Tyson isn’t somehow on Emmerich’s payroll, actually, because the idea of a non-entity like Moonfall beating out a dumb fun delivery vehicle like Armageddon on pretty much any metric is mildly laughable. (Call us when Berry and Wilson record a commentary track as joyful as Ben Affleck’s Armageddon tear-down of his own movie.)
