I could be completely wrong about this, but I’m willing to take a shot.

In January, a movie called Another Earth was acquired by Fox Searchlight at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s a really amazing thing to have happen, so congratulations are in order.

According to the trailer and synopsis I read, the movie is about a mysterious “second Earth” that appears within our planet’s eyeshot and, obviously, affects our lives. One woman’s in particular. It’s a movie, so none of this really bothers me- except for the visual selling point of the trailer:

Before I begin, here’s my disclaimer: As a hopeless unromantic when it comes to scientific phenomena in movies, it’s tough for me to approach an unrealistic premise without imagining the unintentional calamity that would ensue. It’s dark, but hey, so is the reality of the cosmos and life on Earth. We’re really, really fragile, and the most minor change could wipe us all out. Call it buzz kill, but I think of it as an appreciation for the here and now. But I can’t take credit. Some people have found that feature of my personality charming and, thus, are to blame for encouraging me.

The still above shows the second Earth floating peacefully near our own planet, with a full moon orbiting beside it.

So, what’s wrong with this picture?

First, the trees in the foreground, well, are in the foreground, and not submerged or on fire. And second, the sky is blue, meaning that the Earth still has an atmosphere. Earth has a little thing known as gravity. While gravity is a relatively weak force of nature (a 3-year-old can overcome it just by jumping), it’s pretty significant when you get to planet- and moon-sized objects.

Our moon is roughly 30 times smaller than Earth, and is located approximately 250,000 miles from it. Based on the screen shot from the trailer, the second Earth is located about half a million miles from our planet, meaning that the moon is located almost directly in between. Two planets of that size in that proximity would create a gravitational cage match that would end in no less than an annihilation of anything living on either. No romantic subplots; just sheer, unbridled carnage.

Here are a few likely highlights of the resulting devastation:

So long atmosphere: One would speculate that, because our planet’s gravity holds our atmosphere in place, an significant opposing force might start to attract our atmospheric gases and send them off to space. The result would be a significant atmospheric thinning, and a crappy day for everything that likes to breathe.

New (and changing) ocean front properties: The moon creates the tides with it’s gravity. As I stated before, the moon is tiny compared to the Earth. So, you can imagine what effect an Earth-sized pull would have on the tides of both planets. Tsunamis of hundreds of feet would likely be a normal occurrence while both planets are within close distance of one another, and tides would vary enough to make land within miles of the coastline uninhabitable. On the upside, deep ocean exploration would be possible for those of us besides Richard Branson or James Cameron, as the side of the Earth not facing the twin planet would have temporarily extreme shallow waters.

Goodbye, moon?: So, if the moon orbits the Earth due to gravity, and the other Earth is almost equidistant; which Earth does it orbit? The model would probably vary based on how, when and where the alternate Earth showed up, but the consequences might be the creation of a stellar slingshot or rock grinder. Imagine the moon orbiting our Earth, approaching the other planet, catching its gravity. If you’ve ever seen a pitching machine that throws tennis balls or baseballs, you know what happens next. The moon might be thrown outwards into space, or potentially into one of the planets. Alternatively, the gravitational forces might simply rip the moon apart.

Peeling off the crust: None of the aforementioned might be relevant to humans in the event of the last scenario, in which both planets’ gravities begin tugging away at each others’ rocky skin. The crust of both Earths would likely feel the force of the opposing planet, as would their mantles and all the stuff in between. That stuff, by the way, happens to be superheated rock, or magma. Volcanoes everywhere would spring to life, fault lines would quake endlessly and Roland Emmerich wouldn’t even have time to make a movie about it.

That said, I realize that, not having actually seen the movie, I could be totally off. Perhaps the filmmakers have created some clever device to make it all plausible. Or maybe they just don’t care. In either case, I concede.