It all began with a perfectly ordinary chat over coffee among four researchers. How many films featuring geologists can we think of? Quite quickly, the colleagues were able to come up with about ten films. But then the scientific mind of one of them sprang into action.
“I decided that we should systematise the search for geologists in films. Find out what role they play and how realistically our profession is portrayed, for example,” says Erik Sturkell, Professor of Applied Geophysics at the University of Gothenburg.
141 films
15 years of work have now resulted in what the researchers consider to be a final report. After diligent searching of various film databases on the internet, 141 American or British films featuring geologists have been found, and the material appears to be sufficient for statistical analysis. The film must have been shown in cinemas to qualify for the list. There may be more films, the researchers emphasise. They have watched almost all of the films.
“We wrote our first article in 2013, by which time we had identified around 60 films. But the main trends remain the same: the geologist is generally a likeable character, often wears a plaid shirt and uses his expertise to drive the film’s plot forward,” says Erik Sturkell.
Erik Sturkell believes that the reason geologists appear relatively often in films is that, in the US, anyone studying the humanities at university must also take a term of science courses, and many choose to study geology because it is concrete and relevant to everyone’s daily life. Geology is a major field in the US; the Grand Canyon became a national park as early as 1919.
85 per cent are good
“Besides, being a geologist is a good profession to have if you want to find yourself in unusual places in a film. Brad Pitt’s character, Rusty Ryan, in Ocean’s Thirteen pretends to be a geologist who needs to gain access to a restricted area beneath a casino to install a seismometer. We classify him as a villainous geologist because he’s involved in a heist against the casino,” says Erik Sturkell.
The study analyses geologists’ appearances on the silver screen since 1919 from every angle.

• Geologists most often appear in dramas, adventure films or science fiction films
• 85 per cent of geologists in films are portrayed as good characters
• 11 per cent of geologists are women, and this proportion is increasing in more recent films. In reality, researchers estimate that a quarter of all geologists are women
• Only 3 per cent of geologists are non-white
• 32 per cent of geologists (69 out of a total of 202 geologists) die in the films
• Murder is the most common cause of death, followed by deaths caused by geological phenomena or by aliens
• The film with the most geologists in a single film – seven – is the scientists’ favourite, Dante’s Peak

Physicists in films are evil
“Yes, as a volcanologist, I have to say that Dante’s Peak is good. It depicts most aspects of a volcanic eruption in a scientifically accurate way, even though the film combines different types of volcanoes into a single volcano to make it more spectacular,” says Erik Sturkell.
The researchers behind the article are also keen to share the findings of a similar study on how physicists and chemists are portrayed in films. Unlike geologists, they are usually depicted as evil or mad, seeking world domination or the destruction of our planet.