Wacky World of Rubber: 'Rim of the World' has surprising rubber references

Though it might not feature tires as much as some other high-action summer movies, even a kid-focused 80s sci-fi throwback movie like "Rim of the World" has plenty of rubber products to go around.

For our Wacky World blog, I've been watching films from the perspective of rubber and plastic products, and this edition took me to a new Netflix original movie about a group of preteens banding together to fight against supernatural elements. No, it's not "Stranger Things," but a lot of the familiar elements are still there: a rag-tag group of four kids at a summer camp get tangled up in an attack by multi-limbed, extra-mouthed aliens, and have to work together to save their friends and the world. It also has at least one scene almost shot-for-shot pulled directly from "Jurassic Park."

From the opening scenes of the movie, we get a shot of a giant alien spaceship overtaking and eventually destroying the International Space Station, which has plenty of opportunities for rubber-based aeronautics products. I was especially impressed by the quality of the seals, which kept several sections of the craft spaceworthy despite heavy damage long enough for some crucial plot development involving a USB stick with the information necessary to defeat the aliens.

Just a note: The aliens' CGI ships are a touch on the generic side, but given the extremely amorphous, almost liquid-like shape the aliens take, I have to imagine that the insides of the ships are integrated with lots of rubber-like space tech to conform to their "bodies" and protect electronics from both heat, fluid, and probably errant claws. We never really learn what the aliens are after, so I've been choosing to believe that they are somehow out of rubber and came to Earth looking for it. At the very least, they could've helped us with our recent market surpluses in natural rubber. It could've made for some great intergalactic trade if they had only asked first.

The children at the camp go for a few standard outdoors events, including a tree course that provides a surprisingly solid amount of personal protective gear for a standard summer camp, like helmets that could incorporate polymers that reduce damage from impact. There are also canoes made from composites, maybe something like royalex, an acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic, which is a copolymer of rubber and thermoplastic. While fiberglass is the most common material for canoes, Kevlar can be mixed with carbon fiber and stretched over a mold, then impregnated with a liquid resin to make a light, durable boat.

As the kids go through their journey, they grab some bicycles to speed up the distance, and even remember to grab helmets, which automatically make them more responsible than I was at their age. The bicycles all look fairly non-descript, but I can't help but wonder if any of those tires are made from alternative sources of natural rubber, like Continental's new line made using dandelion rubber. Or, they could've scored major points with me by using an airless tire concept like Michelin's Tweel. What's going to slow down a race to save the world faster than a flat, especially when there's so much rubble around?

A waterproof pool tarp scores a major victory toward the middle of the film. One of the children lures an alien onto it to give the others time to escape and jumps to safety just as the tarp collapses under the alien's weight, tangling it in the water. I'm hoping the tarp is coated with some sort of silicone or polyurethane coating, but the movie doesn't take time to find out for certain. As resilient as it is, my guess is that it isn't built to withstand the weight of an extraterrestrial. On the other hand, it's so rare in films like this that an industry product gets to play a direct part in the resistance, I can't help but be charmed.

Finally, there is of course a mall scene in which the children all pick out new very prominently displayed Adidas-brand gear to make the last leg of the journey. Surprisingly, we don't get any closeups of their new kicks, despite what I'm guessing was a decent amount of placement ad money. But they could be Adidas' new Futurecraft.Loop shoes, their first all-recycleable shoe that uses TPUs that can be recycled and reused in new shoes.

For a movie set mostly in the wilds and war-torn cities, there's a surprising amount of rubber and plastics products to choose from, and at least in one case, an industry product directly assists in protecting the heroes. While the overall writing is pretty clunky, the movie's rubber game was surprisingly solid. I rate "Rim of the World" at four rubber bands out of five, almost entirely for the tarp scene.

Kyle Brown is a reporter for Rubber & Plastics News who watched a lot of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 while growing up. Follow him on Twitter at @kbrownRPN.