There are activities that almost guarantee you will die in a film: embarking on a last-ditch space mission, being the hero’s old mentor or simply renting a haunted house. More surprisingly, the profession of geologist presents a particularly high mortality rate on screen, 1 out of 3, reports Science. This is the conclusion of a study published last April in Geology Today and cited by the American magazine.
“Sur 202 personages de géologues repertoriés dans 141 films, sortis entre 1919 et 2023, 69 meurent à l’écran ou bien sont retrouvés dead.†The four authors, “cinema-loving geologists began their analysis more than ten years ago and have added to it regularly, but this is the first time that it has been published in a scientific journal†, laughs the journalist.
A surprise
In the study in question, the researchers specify that they only retained “English or American films that have been shown in cinemas†and tell how they went through the various databases available in addition to those they had viewed themselves. To establish statistics, only characters explicitly identified as geologists are counted.
And, new unexpected discovery highlighted by Science, the risks inherent in this profession only appear second, and by far (12 out of 69), among the causes of death. The first is unrelated to quicksand or landslides: it is murder (30 out of 69). Among the examples cited is Professor Dent, in James Bond 007 vs. Dr No, one of the secret agent’s enemies.
From westerns to aliens
However, most geologists are in the category of good guys rather than bad guys. Furthermore, the narrative functions of these fictional scientists have evolved greatly over more than a century.
“The first films featuring geologists were many westerns, in which the characters are often in search of oil. More recent films focus instead on natural disasters, monsters and extraterrestrial threats… résume Science. A reflection of the changing concerns of each era.
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