SR Picks: Four Fun Charts For Geeks

Here at Screen Rant we love charts. Lucky for us then that over the past couple of months, a whole slew of fun movie-related graphs have hit the net. Check out four of our favorites below.

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Our first movie chart comes from the guys over at GeekTyrant. As you can see, it’s a graph comparing the relative size of a bunch of famous movie monsters. At the bottom of the scale is our old knife-wielding friend Chucky, from the Child’s Play franchise. The biggest baddie on the chart is “Clover,” the 180 ft. tall monster from J.J. Abrams’ 2008 blockbuster Cloverfield.

Movie Monster Size Comparison

For a full-size version of the graph, click the image.

Interestingly, the thing that I like about this graph the most are the monsters in the middle. For instance, did you know the Rancor was 30 ft. tall? I sure didn’t. It really puts Luke Skywalker’s challenge in perspective, you know? I mean, the Rancor dwarfs the Tyrannosaurus Rex. It must have taken a lot of force (wink, wink) to bring it down. Anyway, moving on…

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The Things You’re Most Likely to Find on the Cover of a Fantasy Book

While not necessarily movie related, this chart appeals to the geek in all of us. Coming from Orbit Books (via our friends at io9), the chart shows the most popular elements featured on the covers of fantasy books published in 2008. Unsurprisingly, swords top the list. I wonder how that category might further be broken down. For instance, are fire swords more popular than glowing, magical swords? Coming in at the bottom of the chart are the beautiful, yet terrifically unmanly unicorns.

It’s a pity the chart doesn’t track cleavage, because I can guarantee that would be somewhere near the top. Almost every fantasy book out there has at least one or two scantily clad women (sometimes humans, sometimes elves) clutching onto the story’s broad shouldered, sword-wielding hero. It’s sort of expected, right? Alternatively, we sometimes get to see a sword-wielding Amazonian woman on the cover, but even then there’s always some bountiful bosom for the reader to leer at. But, I digress. Moving on…

For the remaining two awesome Screen Rant-approved movie charts, click to the next page…

68 Must See Sci-Fi Sites in the United States

Click the image for a PDF version of the map.

Ah, the road trip. For millions of Americans, the road trip is a chance to get out and explore all of the amazing things this wonderful country of ours has to offer. Of course, no road trip would be complete without sightseeing, which is why the good folks at Sci Fi Wire put together this downloadable map of the country’s 68 best Sci-Fi attractions. I can’t say I’ve hit too many of these spots myself, except for Chicago, which isn’t exactly special since I live there), but they sound like plenty of fun. If I had my druthers (and boy do I like saying druthers), I’d visit the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle. Any of you faithful Screen Rant readers have any insights into these destinations?

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Movie and Television Timeline

For a larger version of this graph, click the image.

Time travel has always been a popular plot device in science-fiction, and it’s no wonder why. Time travel allows characters to go anywhere and do practically anything. Of course, the practical ramifications of time travel are rarely discussed in sci-fi movies. For instance, with all of these movie characters flying through time, wouldn’t they have run into each other at some point? This question has been answered beautifully by David McCandless, Dominic Busby, and Alice Cho of informationisbeautiful.net.

Coming our way again via io9, the above chart tracks dozens of popular movies and television shows that feature time travel (everything from Austin Powers to Terminator) and where in time they intersect. The chart also displays the method of time travel used by the time travelers (alien technology, time machine, etc.).

While definitely an awesome looking graphic, I did notice a couple of inconsistencies right off the bat. For one, how come there’s a line for Back to the Future 1 & 2 that shows they traveled by time machine and another line for Back to the Future 2 & 3 that shows they used an unknown method of time travel? Wasn’t Doc Brown’s famous DeLorean the time travel device in all three films? Let me know if you find any other errors or inconsistencies.

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So, what do you think of all of these charts? Which one is your favorite?

Sources: GeekTyrant, Orbit Books (via io9), Sci Fi Wire, informationisbeautiful.net (via io9)

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