Science, research and emerging technologies often play a key role in many modern action movies. In this contribution we suggest to use genre analysis of folk narratives as an innovative and useful tool for understanding science and technology in action movies. In this contribution we outline our approach using illustrative examples and detail how understanding action movies as modern fairy tales can benefit the study of science, research and technology in popular culture.
Abstract
Popularization of science and technology; Risk communication; Visual communication
KeywordsIn this contribution we outline our approach using illustrative examples and detail how understanding action movies as modern fairy tales can benefit the study of science, research and technology in popular culture.In this text we propose that the genre analysis of folk narrative is a useful analytical tool for the interpretation and understanding of the role of science and research in present Hollywood action movies. In particular three films 1 are discussed; Mission Impossible II (MI II, 2000), Live free or die hard (the fourth Die Hard film, 2007), and Tomorrow never dies (the James Bond film of 1997). These films caught our attention because they deal with key challenges in present high tech high risk societies, often referred to by terms such as globalization, networked knowledge society etc. The MI II film from the year 2000 has the dual use of biotechnology as a key theme, roughly coinciding with academic discussions of the theme. The same can be said about the James Bond film's focus on media manipulation of political conflicts in networked society, and also the focus of the Die Hard film on how digitalized society becomes vulnerable for terrorist attacks. It is of special interest to us how these Hollywood productions elaborate key themes in present academic and political discussions on ethics and governance. This apparent consensus, or at 1 For plot summaries and further details see the three following URLs: