How Much Energy is Needed to Power MJOLNIR, or a LIGHTSABER?

When it comes to sci-fi and fantasy, very few fans (or creators, for that matter) actually know what the hell is going on behind-the-scenes of these fancy contraptions. Sometimes it’s all just brushed off with some fancy mumbo-jumbo (Star Wars), but other times it becomes a key part of the plot (Back to the Future). Knowing about how the Millennium Falcon goes into hyperdrive or how the Tesseract can open space portals isn’t required to enjoy the movies they’re featured in, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t pretty cool to search for the ‘how’.

That’s exactly what Save On Energy have set out to do: compile a top-ten list of iconic fictional power sources in order of most powerful, with a little bit of info on how much energy they would need to work. You might be a little surprised by some of the figures…

Mjolnir is as powerful as a hundred huge nuclear power stations? Well, fuck.

This is an incredibly interesting project; not only does it add whole other dimensions to the movies that we know and love but it places them into a real-life setting, highlighting just how imaginative and crazy they really are. At the same time, it makes them look pretty silly (nothing wrong with a little bit of humility!). Y’know, as cool as the flux capacitator is, I don’t think Doc Brown would have been able to create something that was as powerful as over 60% of the Hoover Dam’s output in the 80’s.

Like I said, sometimes facts and figures play a role in a movie, and in that case it’s easy to rank them. But what about the more mysterious ones, like a lightsaber? The team had to go hunting for real-world examples that were similar in size and scale and convert the units – there’s a pretty hefty source list at the bottom of their article.

I’d highly recommend going to check out the full list which is linked above all those big images; you get to find out what the most powerful source is in their books, as well as a comparison chart on the explosiveness of each of them. To cut a long story short, you don’t want to be near any of them if they were gonna blow.

There’s always one company or another working on bringing objects like this to life, but when you see stuff like this you realise that flux capacitators, arc reactors, T-800’s and Human Torches are still a very, very long way away from being realised. To be honest, after reading about how dangerous they could be, I think that might be a good thing! However, let’s say that one day scientists manage to crack the secrets of one of them, or something else off of the list. Which would you want it to be, and why? Sound off below!

A big thanks to the folks over at Save On Energy for bringing this awesome project to our attention. Go check ’em out for all your energy-saving needs – and if you want to find out if the Human Torch could burn through Mjolnir or not.