Does It Fly?

Subscribe to Does It Fly? Pod: https://www.youtube.com/@doesitflypod?sub_confirmation=1 On DOES IT FLY?, we explore the science and story logic behind your favorite pop culture topics. Today, we’re looking at whether the science and story logic behind the Upside Down from Netflix’s Stranger Things could work! The final season of Stranger Things has finally arrived on Netflix, and we know it was wo...

One of the best things about the version of Oz portrayed in the Wicked movies is the wonderful talking animals. But how real could they actually be? Wicked: For Good is finally here, so it’s time to return to that magical land of Oz to celebrate one of the most beloved (and commercially successful) musicals of our era. And we don’t JUST mean Wicked, but also MGM’s original, beloved Wizard of Oz ....

Subscribe to Does It Fly? Pod: https://www.youtube.com/@doesitflypod?sub_confirmation=1 On DOES IT FLY?, we explore the science and story logic behind your favorite pop culture topics. Today, we’re asking: if you die in your dreams, will you die in real life, like we see in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies? “Welcome to prime time…” Freddy Krueger “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you…three, four, b...

Superman (2025) brings audiences a version of Lois Lane and Clark Kent who are clearly very hot for each other. But could they ever actually consummate their relationship? “Putting it delicately…do you…eat?” Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Lois Lane Welcome to Does it Fly? After Dark, the podcast that puts your favorite pop culture concepts to the test…but this time in a slightly more adult settin...

“My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts…” Vulcans right before they guess your phone password. We’ve all seen them do it. A Vulcan gets cozy with an individual, gently places a perfectly-manicured and long-fingered hand along their face, gets that distant look in their eye, and suddenly their minds are one. No, it’s not a clever party trick, it’s an incredibly useful information gather...

It’s a time honored trope in movies: one brain, soul, consciousness…whatever you want to call it, either gets placed in a brand new body or gets swapped with someone else’s. Sure, it’s been done a bunch, but some would argue that it has never been done better than in the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. It’s such a simple premise, where a daughter and mothe...

“You’ve got ME? Who’s got YOU?!? Lois Lane With a new Superman movie now in theaters (James Gunn’s aptly titled Superman ) it’s time to take a look at one of the biggest conundrums in all of popular culture. Just where do Superman’s powers come from? While there have been conflicting explanations for this given by comics, TV shows, animated series, and movies through the decades, one point has tak...

“I’m simply saying that life, uh, finds a way.” Dr. Ian Malcolm, master of understatement Oh those silly humans in the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies. When will they ever learn? You’d think that maybe after the events of the first film they might take a breather on trying to mess with nature, or at least with dinosaurs specifically, but nope! But if they did, we wouldn’t have all these fu...

“I have a new primary user now…me.” The title character from M3GAN being bratty. When the first trailers for the original M3GAN arrived, nobody quite expected it to be one of the horror movie sensations of recent years. But it sure did! Or, we should say, she sure did. Because like all the best horror movie protagonists who go by their first names alone (Freddy, Jason, you get the picture), M3GAN...

How to Train Your Dragon is only the latest piece in a cultural puzzle that dates back thousands of years. How realistic are dragons, anyway? “ While other places have ponies or parrots, we have…dragons.” When you think of modern day animated classics, the first projects that people tend to think of are the titans of Disney/Pixar. But under no circumstances should you sleep on the brilliant people...

"Ye intruders beware. Crushing death and grief, Soaked with blood, Of the trespassing thief." With that ominous passage inscribed upon a map, the timeless adventure of The Goonies begins. And what an adventure it is! Equally influenced by golden age of Hollywood swashbuckling pirate movies like Michael Curtiz’s Captain Blood , vintage movie serials that also inspired the likes of Star Wars...

“This podcast will self-destruct in 5 seconds…” We’ve often talked on this show about the potential of science fiction to become science fact. It’s fairly common for even the most out-there concepts discussed here to be on the verge of becoming reality, even if they don’t yet fly in the real world, they sometimes will soon. It’s more rare for us to tackle a concept that seemed like pure fantasy at...

Blade Runner takes the concept of A.I. to its logical conclusion by merging it with artificial consciousness and biology. Is this the future we’re headed toward? “Wake up, time to die!” Leon When Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner was first brought to the screen in 1982, the notion of “artificial intelligence” as we have come to know it, was a niche subject at best. If you can believe it, the idea of a p...

“Incomprehensible guttural noises” The Heptapods Arrival is as difficult a movie to discuss in the limited space of our show notes as it is a truly great work of modern science fiction filmmaking. It’s also virtually impossible to discuss without spoilers. Heck, we had trouble cramming our discussion of the central concepts of the film into  One of director Denis Villeneuve’s crowning cinematic ac...

“Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational battlestation!” Emperor Palpatine, shortly before nothing goes wrong for him whatsoever. Say it with us, “that’s no moon…that’s a space station.” One of the most quotable lines in the Star Wars saga actually tells you quite a bit about the central threat of the original film (now officially known as Episode IV: A New Hope but to anyone who...

The cordyceps brain infection that turns humans into terrifying monsters in The Last of Us is something that already exists in our world. So is it time to start worrying about Clickers and other fungus zombies? We are going to cut right to the chase on this one: Cordyceps, the brain infecting fungus that causes people to mutate into increasingly grotesque zombies in The Last of Us video games and...

We’re looking at the science of the microbots from Disney and Marvel’s Big Hero 6 in our latest episode. “Are you satisfied with your care?” Baymax Considering how the entire mission statement of our show involves the intersection of science and story, and how we love the thought of getting younger people excited about STEM, it’s something of a wonder that we didn’t get to Disney’s Big Hero 6 soon...

It’s been welcoming to see the re-evaluation of James Cameron’s 1989 underwater sci-fi opus The Abyss in the last few years. While sometimes lost in the shuffle alongside his other blockbuster credits (including the similarly aquatic megahits Titanic and Avatar ), The Abyss has been undergoing something of a renaissance, fueled in part by a gorgeous 4K restoration and a director’s cut that adds ne...

Released in 1999, The Matrix has become a timeless sci-fi classic. Whether it’s the groundbreaking visual effects, the positively bonkers action sequences, or the disturbing looks at a world that has been consumed by AI and virtual experiences, there’s something that will resonate with just about any member of the audience, even a quarter century after its initial box office success.  But there’s...

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Han Solo (wait…wrong franchise!) Ever just get one of those feelings? A faint chill, a little crawling of the skin that tells you that maybe the path you’re currently on is the wrong one and that something terrible is about to happen. You’ve heard the saying “like someone just walked over my grave,” right? Well, some Hollywood genius decided to build an entire...

RoboCop may be “the future of law enforcement” but he might also be much closer to reality than anyone ever dreamed or feared. Join us as we unpack this classic 1987 movie and the central concept that drives it. “Come quietly or there will be…trouble.” Officer Alex J. Murphy (R.I.P.) This episode of Does it Fly? is brought to you by our friends at Omni Consumer Products, who would like to encourag...

“No capes!” Edna Mode It’s hard to believe that in this age where superhero movies have conquered (and some might say ruined) moviegoing in ways that never seemed possible even 20 years ago, but Disney and Pixar’s The Incredibles was truly a revolutionary superhero movie. An animated film utilizing all original characters that lovingly plays with all of the tropes of the superhero genre in suitabl...

From the poison apple to the kiss that awakens Snow White to a philosophical and scientific exploration of the nature of love itself, this episode has it all! “Zzzzzzz…” Snow White (circa 1939) Ah, love is in the air. Someday, YOUR prince (or princess) will come, dear Does it Fly? fans. Of this, we are certain. Why? Because even something as seemingly metaphysical as love, like everything else in...

There's one big reason why Invincible season 3 will never be the realistic superhero animation that it truly wants to be... “It’s like peeing your pants on purpose!” Omni-Man “Iconic” is a word that’s overused to the point of meaninglessness, but it’s pretty safe to say that the power of flight is the one most associated with being a superhero. There were plenty of super strong heroes in myth,...

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock are built around one key piece of technology which may or may not have real world implications. “KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!” Admiral James Tiberius Kirk, 2285 There are countless reasons why fans love Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . Up until that point, it was the most action-packed installment of Star Trek ever put on screen, s...