Well, I guess the fun part is over and it's time for the real work to begin.

   "We do more than watch movies in here?", I asked as I sat through the first day of class. Plot twist -- we do! And even though Mission Impossible III was so much fun to watch, it's time to analyze and critique the physics behind the film.

• Scene 1: Shanghai Shenanigans 

   At the beginning of the third act of the film, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) needs to obtain a cleverly ambiguous device called the "Rabbit's Foot". But it's never that simple, is it? The device is located in a laboratory on the top floor of a heavily guarded building. And since taking the elevator is out of the question, Ethan and the team seem to be out of options -- or only seemingly. Ethan Hunt does something even more shocking than breaking into the Vatican or assassinating a whole room of people in the blink of an eye; he uses science!

Tom Cruise can do anything, can't he?

   In spy movie fashion, Hunt decides to use a fulcrum and swing from the adjacent building to the laboratory rooftop. And because he apparently has the blueprints for every building in Shanghai (the perks of being a spy, I guess), Hunt figures out that the height of the lab building is 162 meters and the adjacent structure next to it tops out at 226 meters. With a distance of only 47.55 meters between the two, its practically begging to get swung across.

   There are many questionable variables concerning this stunt and certain aspects of it (like the furthest horizontal distance it can be placed such that he can jump to the roof using this method, or the angle at which Hunt cut the rope being a plausible release point), but given that we are currently studying kinematics and not trigonometry and geometry, the best I can deduce is whether or not the length of the cable attached to Hunt is a realistic length in relation to the footage shown. To find this, I'm going to watch the scene from when Hunt jumps off the roof until it shows the cable running out on the fulcrum. Using the amount of time, I'll be able to conclude how far Agent Hunt fell, and in turn, the length of the cable.

   Note: At this point, I assume the initial velocity of Hunt is still 0, seeing as he is simply falling off the building. If I am wrong, I apologize and will rework the math.

   From the point Hunt jumped off the roof and when the cable length ran out, 4 seconds pass (negating all the dramatic angles and slow motion. I only used the footage focusing on the fulcrum, counting the seconds I heard the unraveling sound of the cable until the snap when it ran out). I defend this observation, because using the time (4 seconds) and the acceleration (-9.8 m/s^2) in the kinematic equation for displacement, I get 78.4 meters. Recalling the 47.55 meter gap between the buildings, a cable that long could surely swing Agent Hunt across the gap.

  And also remember in the scene that Hunt releases quite a length above the target building, explaining the extra few meters of cable used (shown below).

That's going to hurt.

• Scene 2: Humpty Dumpty is a Secret Agent

   Apparently the Vatican is the easiest place in the world to break into (I really hope it isn't -- the new pope is pretty dope in my book). However, there is a pretty accessible scene in the realm of physics that is ready to be dissected.

No, not this one. Let's forget this one ever happened.

   The scene I'm referring to is the one right after the tragedy shown above -- when Agent Hunt rappels down the opposite side of the wall. There isn't much to I can deduce about this scene, as you will see later. Using a range finder, Hunt measures the distance between the top of the wall and the ground  to be 16.55 meters. Now, from the time of the descent to the point where he stops, 4 seconds pass. It becomes clear that this isn't a simple free fall given the variables (a descent of 4 seconds would equal a drop of 78.4 meters if it were). Rope rappelling is a complex area of its own in the realm of physics, with variables such as: the mass of the climber, the height, where his center of gravity is located in relation to his feet, the degree from the horizontal, the angle from the cliff face and so forth. Given the lack of deductible quantities here, this scene makes like the title of the movie, as it's an impossible mission to accurately figure out the validity of this stunt. So close yet so far.

• Scene 3: Shanghai Splat

Let's revisit the fulcrum swinging scene once more to analyze a critical part that made me wonder: the releasing of the rope.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

Now, that just looked like it hurt. And it looked like it was pretty high up as well. If only there was a way I could surmise the actual distance of that fall. Oh wait, I learned how to do that in class last Monday. At the point of free fall and the point of contact with the landing (and I'm being very liberal with the editing, negating the frame in the middle of the scene), 2 seconds pass. With the knowledge that the only acceleration acting upon Hunt during the fall is gravity (-9.8 m/s^2), I can plug this into the kinematic equation for displacement. Using this equation, I get that the displacement of the fall should have been -19.6 meters. That's 64 feet! I don't think Secret Agent Humpty Dumpty Hunt or his team could put all his pieces back together again after a fall like that.

Roll the credits. Movie over. RIP.

• Conclusion

So yes, we do more than watch movies in this class. And after watching Mission Impossible III -- plot twist -- the physics, in most cases, are indeed atrocious. For as much as the movie tries to remain plausible and correct, there are still a few glaringly obvious hiccups in the universe of physics that undermine all of its precautions.

I'm not even going to comment on this one. Case dismissed.