Category: Movie

Surf’s Up – Cody’s Second Board and Tube Talk

Cody is a surfing penguin who is preparing for a big competition. He’s already broken his first board and his mentor Big Z is trying to break his second one. Cody doesn’t have a lot of time left for the big competition, so he’s focused entirely on getting this board finished. Time is one of our scarce resources, and requires us to make decisions about how to properly allocate them to get the most out of what we’re doing. When Big Z goes on a memory trip about riding a tube, Cody can only focus on how many points that would earn him in the competition. His focus on limited time and maximizing points is frustrating Big Z.

Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the scene recommendation.

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Surf’s Up – Building a Surfboard

Cody is getting ready for his first big competition with his mentor “Big Z,” but it turns out to be more difficult than he thought. Cody has gotten his hands on some koa board, the very best wood for building surfboards. In this scene, Cody is frustrated with how long it’s taking Big Z to build the board. Time is one of our many scarce resources, and Cody doesn’t feel like he has time to waste by slowly building this surfboard. He’s running out of time and needs to get it done much quicker.

Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the scene recommendation

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Surf’s Up – Wasted Day

A surfing penguin currently riding the wave of success enters his first professional competition. In this scene, Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf) spends his day making a board that he thinks will help him win the contest, but things aren’t looking too good. His mentor reminds him it’s supposed to be fun, but Cody reminds him know he doesn’t have time for fun. We all face a limit on our resources, which economists refer to as the scarcity principle. As a result, we have to make decisions about how we allocate those resources.

Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the scene recommendation!

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Dodgeball – I Know You

An event is considered common knowledge among a group of agents when each player knows the information, each player knows that the other one knows it, and so on. Common knowledge is the limit of a potentially infinite chain of reasoning about knowledge. In this scene from Dodgeball, White Goodman (Ben Stiller) is trying to assert that common knowledge exists between himself and Pete LaFleur (Vince Vaughn).

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The Longest Penalty Shot in the World – Common Knowledge

During the final local league soccer game, the starting goalkeeper is seriously injured and the backup (Fernando) must enter the game to face a final-minute penalty kick. Before the shot can be taken, the crowd storms the field and the referee decides to postpone the kick to one week later. The problem? Fernando has all week to think about where the shooter will kick.

In this scene, the team works through the penalty kick scenario. The options available to the kicker are common knowledge among the team. The team knows the kicker prefers to kick right, so the kicker may kick left instead. But the kicker knows that the team knows that and may kick right after all. The team gets frustrated because they soon realize there is a potentially infinite chain of reasoning about what everyone knows.

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Bullet Train –- Prisoner’s Dilemma

Bullet Train is an American action comedy that pits various killers against each other while riding a bullet train. In this scene, Lemon has tracked down two people (Prince and Kimura) and needs information. Instead of torturing the two of them, he opts instead to place them in a classic prisoner’s dilemma. He hopes that the two will be self-interested and reveal the outcome he desires.

Prince and Kimura are asked to close their eyes and either confess or rat the other person out. Lemon reminds them that cooperation (both raising hands or both pointing at each other) is likely a lie and he will kill them both. It’s a slight twist on the traditional prisoner’s dilemma played in classrooms, but it’s nice to see an application of interdependence and game theory in movies.

Thanks to Liam McDermott for the clip recommendation!

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Spider-man (2002) — Making a Choice

In this clip, Green Goblin has given Spider-man a choice between saving his girlfriend or a car full of children. Even superheroes face opportunity costs! While it looks like there is a tradeoff between saving one versus the other, there are also larger opportunity costs associated with choosing to be a superhero. By becoming Spider-man, Peter Parker places his loved ones in danger when he could be living a “normal life,” but that also means the larger population loses their “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.”

This clip was submitted by Lianne Kulik, who learned about it from Megan Kirts and Brian O’Roark.

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Braveheart — We Didn’t Get Dressed Up for Nothing

In this scene, the Scottish army is waiting to fight the English army. William Wallace (Mel Gibson) is going to “pick a fight” and make sure that the nobles from each army don’t negotiate a peace. His fellow leaders are in charge of passing out weapons. When asked what to do they remark, “we didn’t get dressed up for nothing.” 

They are falling prey to the sunk cost fallacy. Just because they’re all dressed and ready to fight doesn’t mean that is the logical thing to do. The soldiers are not using effective marginal analysis to determine whether fighting is the next best course of action.

Thanks to Luke Starkey for the clip and summary!

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How the Grinch Stole Christmas — Extreme Decorating

The increasing commercialism of Christmas can be used to illustrate the concept of inflation. In The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, the Whos engage in a yearly competition to have the best Christmas light display. Each year the neighbors attempt to outdo each other with bigger and more extravagant displays. In a similar manner, inflation can devalue money and cause people to spend an increasing amount of money each year to keep up with the past. A specific length of Christmas lights isn’t as valuable the next year as it was the year before and neighbors will have to spend more and more to remain competitive.

Thanks to Mandy Mandzik for the clip recommendation. Check out her working paper, All I Want for Christmas is an A on My Econ Final: A Holiday-Themed Review Class, for more Christmas-themed economics examples.

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone — Not Enough Presents

Harry Potter’s spoiled cousin Dudley Dursley is upset that he received fewer presents for his birthday than last year. Instead of holding firm, Dudley’s parents decide to increase the number of presents to make up for Dudley’s disappointment. Similar to inflationary pressure seen across a broader economy, Dudley’s gifts seem to lose value over time and only an increasing number of gifts will satisfy him. There’s an expectation that each year Dudley will receive more gifts than the year before.

Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for this clip suggestion and summary!

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