Reel Science

Reel Science is an Inverse series that reveals the real (and fake) science behind your favorite movies and TV.

Science

The Weirdest Sci-Fi Movie on HBO Max Reveals an Even Stranger True Story

ByJennifer Walter

The Men Who Stare at Goats fictionalizes real-life attempts by the Pentagon into psychic powers.

Reel Science

The Best Dystopian Movie on Netflix Reveals a Dark Psychological Truth

ByTara Yarlagadda

Political scientists explain the perverse role of psychology in The Hunger Games.

Reel Science

What Tom Cruise's Weirdest Sci-Fi Movie Gets Wrong About Time Travel

ByTara Yarlagadda

Are time loops possible according to physics?

Reel Science

The Best Marvel Movie of 2022 Reveals an Incredible Quirk of Human Evolution

ByTara Yarlagadda

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s plot raises deeper questions about humans’ evolutionary relationship to the sea.

Reel Science

The Wildest Sci-fi Movie On Netflix Reveals a Real-Life Ethical Dilemma

ByJennifer Walter

The twist no one saw coming ...

Reel Science

The Most Underrated Sci-Fi Movie on HBO Max Reveals a Controversial Branch of Pseudoscience

ByTara Yarlagadda

Weathering with You features a way to make the rain disappear — and it has a message for our warming planet.

Reel Science

The Wildest Sci-Fi Show on Netflix Defies the Rules of Dream Science

ByTara Yarlagadda

Alice in Borderland's Season 2 plot might have something interesting to say about mutual dreaming.

Reel Science

The Weirdest Sci-Fi Apocalypse on Netflix Reveals a Controversial Field of Medicine

ByTara Yarlagadda

The fear of death depicted in White Noise is real — and some studies say magic mushrooms could help treat it.

Reel Science

The best mystery thriller on Netflix ignores a basic fact about hydrogen energy

ByTara Yarlagadda

Could a solid hydrogen crystal really power our homes today? Experts weigh in on Glass Onion.

Reel Science

A deadly fungal plague swept the world of The Last of Us — is it realistic?

ByTara Yarlagadda

Can the cordyceps fungus really infect humans and cause a global pandemic? Experts weigh in on The Last of Us.

Reel Science

Did Minority Report predict our current reality?

ByTara Yarlagadda

In this Tom Cruise classic, police use sophisticated tech to stop crime before it happens.

Reel Science

The most underrated dystopian thriller on HBO Max ignores a simple scientific reality

ByTara Yarlagadda

Maze Runner's experiment seems to mimic real-life rodent mazes — but not very convincingly.

Reel Science

The best James Cameron sci-fi movie on HBO Max reveals a modern threat to society

ByTara Yarlagadda

Are Terminator 2’s killer robots inching ever closer to our lived reality?

Reel Science

The worst Tom Cruise sci-fi movie on Netflix reveals a possible path to nuclear fusion, physicists say

ByTara Yarlagadda

Turning seawater into energy might actually be a good idea.

Reel Science

Is Superman’s strength possible? Scientists debunk DC's most iconic hero

ByTara Yarlagadda

Super strength is super stupid.

Reel Science

This classic sci-fi movie on HBO Max popularized a futuristic technology — can science make it happen?

ByTara Yarlagadda

Star Trek’s science fiction inspired real-life science on the warp drive.