Warning: Minor SPOILERS for Aquaman
If comic book nuts were hoping the Aquaman movie would explain his ability to breathe both on land and underwater, we've got good news and bad news. The explanation is a simple one... but more disgusting than Aquaman fans expected.
Screen Rant got to join director James Wan in the Aquaman editing bay, and see firsthand how the biology of a water-breather would be solved. The first hurdle is easy enough to explain: Yes, Atlanteans like Aquaman are equipped to breathe water just as easily as air. But the only thing weirder than the unexpected, wondrously gross side effect... is the fact that the science behind underwater breathing is totally true.
Aquaman fans, get ready for water-vomit.
- This Page: Vomiting Lets Aquaman Breathe Water
- Next Page: The TRUE Science of Breathing Underwater
Aquaman Can Breathe Water, Thanks to "Vomit"
Before we get to explaining why human beings can already "breathe" liquid like air, it should go without saying that if you're exploring the science of Aquaman, you're willing to suspend some disbelief. But rather than write off the nuances of an underwater civilization, which they probably could, Wan's team has come up with some surprisingly detailed ways of using the habitat to their benefit. Yes, Aquaman's underwater scenes have changed since Justice League - but the best detail we caught was when Atlantean shifted from breathing one substance to the other.
RELATED: New Aquaman Scene Descriptions & Plot Details
When Arthur's human father discovered Queen Atlanna washed up in a massive storm, as is shown in the first Aquaman trailer, it wasn't shocking to see her regain consciousness, and expel two lungs' worth of water before passing out once more. But when our preview of the Arthur/Orm fight showed Mera suddenly surrounding the villain with a bubble of air, and him also vomiting out a stream of seawater, we had to ask Wan the pressing question. What's the deal with this Atlantean water-vomit?
People would ask me, you know, 'So when they talk, is it bubbles that come out of their mouth?' And I'm like, 'No because there's no air in your lungs, so there wouldn't be any bubbles.' Right? So then in that sequence where you saw Mera open up this air pocket... when [Orm] lands in that, he's breathing air. The first thing he does is, he's in an air pocket, so he'd puke out all the water that's in his lungs. So that's the first step. We think about all these little details and stuff like that. And then when he's screaming [when the water returns], we want bubbles coming out of his mouth because now there's actually air in his lungs.
The question we didn't get an answer to is whether every shot of Jason Momoa or Amber Heard, majestically exiting the surf on a sun-drenched beach, would be cut short by the need for them to hunch over and heave up the water preventing their lungs from intaking and expelling air. We're going to assume the movie will either ignore that reality, or offer a quick excuse (hopefully after Arthur's origin story allows for at least one fantasy-busting aqua-barfing).
So, as we alluded to above, is Aquaman's ability to breathe saltwater just as easily as air total comic book fantasy, which the movie will similarly take as a given? Or is it based in actual science, and explained away thanks to the way Atlanteans in the DCEU evolved? Well, no sense in keeping the suspense: Yes, breathing water is scientifically sound for everyday humans already - but Aquaman has an edge.
Page 2 of 2: The REAL Science Behind Breathing Underwater
The Real Science of Breathing Underwater Like Aquaman
Most human beings will take their ability to breathe air as a given, and unless they possess a keen interest in marine biology, will never stop to compare how humans and aquatic life harvest oxygen to stay alive. On a broad level, the fact is that most marine mammals (to keep this comparison simple) effectively "breathe" water in the same way we breathe air already. Where our lungs are designed to absorb the small amounts of oxygen and exhale the rest, marine animals like sharks, dolphins, and whales absorb oxygen from water and exhale the rest. So where is the difference? Why can't humans inhale water, and extract oxygen from it, instead?
Well, we actually can. And believe it or not, we've been able to do it for decades. As far back as the days when James Cameron was filming The Abyss, in which super-deep sea divers breathed "liquid air" to keep themselves from being crushed under the water pressure. And when the film showed a character submerge a pet rat in this "liquid air" until it started to inhale, animal rights groups went into a frenzy.
Clearly the filmmakers drowned a rat on film, to "prove" this science fiction subplot... right?
Wrong. The rat really was breathing an oxygen-rich liquid, once the instinctive panic subsided and its tiny brain realized a rat's lungs can absorb oxygen from liquids, just as the film's characters claimed. And after the rat went for its swim, letting the liquid drain from its lungs to be replaced by air once more was also just as real as it seemed. The film was sharing with moviegoers the very real experiments being conducted at the time, which make the idea of a human being breathing water plausible.
So... why aren't we? Why are Atlanteans like Aquaman still special? There's actually two major problems that Atlanteans in DC's Universe would have to have solved.
- The oxygen-rich version of breathable liquid humans need doesn't occur naturally, and
- Our lungs aren't made to easily switch from air to liquid
For breathing water to keep a human being alive on a chemical level, H2O is simply too much H, not enough O. And to function properly after breathing liquid for any amount of time, our lungs would need to be designed for both, and they're not. It puts a strain on human lungs that air doesn't, and requires serious recovery time. A problem Atlanteans, even half-Atlanteans like Arthur, don't have to contend with.
Given the real science, and the physiological barriers us humans can't overcome, it makes sense that Wan's explanation for Atlanteans hinges specifically on evolution:
In our story Atlanteans, because they were surface-dwellers at one point, they evolved slightly different. So we used that to differentiate a caste system. Like the high-born evolved slightly different to the people lower than them.
Fans have already gotten some looks at Aquaman's less-evolved descendants of Atlantis in marketing, but if the science isn't sound, it is at least plausible, or easy to imagine. The number of Atlanteans who perished when Atlantis fell into the ocean isn't known just yet. Those who survived had the fortitude to endure both air and water, and the lungs to take the necessary oxygen from both.
Did the Atlanteans who could breathe only water form a lower class, confined to the seas? Does Arthur's human father make him better suited to survive, and thrive in the air than the Atlanteans he will be fighting for the throne? And most importantly, does his shared ancestry make water-vomiting an unnecessary buzz kill?
For those answers, we'll have to wait until Aquaman hits theaters. Until then, be sure to read the rest of our coverage and descriptions of the Aquaman footage we saw during our visit.
