Why do spaceships in films always meet level to each other?

When you're in space there is no right way "up" but spaceships always meet each other facing together and on the same level. Surely they would be likely to meet at all sorts of mad angles.

"(When you're in space there is no right way "up" but spaceships always meet each other facing together and on the same level. Surely they would be likely to meet at all sorts of mad angles.)"


You are exactly correct!!!...They are just a movie that should be easy to be comprehended by most people. They even make emphasis on the space ship's speed which is impossible to visualize against the background stars.

My simple answer is, It has do be done that way to make it exiting to watch. Those directors know what their doing. They make movies for profit and not for science project.

Because it is not real

Well, they would use their sensors to know where the other ship was. They would then level out to face each other because their weapons face foreword, and main engines face back.
Also, in space, there would be many common destinations. When 2 ships meet, they would be going between the 2 points in opposite directions in a straight line.

For the same reason why you can always hear their laser/phaser/whatever blasts in the vacuum of space: Hollywood can't seem to afford scientific advisors.

Come to think about it, scientific advisors should be able to come up with rationales for those level space ship encounters, such as:
* They actually do meet at angles out far, but when they come into transporter rage, they have to move into one plane because that simplifies the math and thus reduces the risk of teleportation. (Well, it would be better thank Star Trek's non-explanation, at the very least.)
* Within a spiral galaxy such as the Milky Way, there is a pronounced disk, so there is a real statistical bias against a spatial offset along the z axis. (Okay, still mumbo-jumbo, really.)
* Planned travel between to stellar systems would happen more or less in a single plane in space (shortest distance!), so ship on trips between the two systemswould meet fairly level. (A good one, actually, for many encounters..)

I have SO wondered why directors so often miss out on the opportunity to add both realism and interest in such shots by not using basically random 3D intersections. Yes, the galaxy is a disk, but one that is about 10,000 light years thick. Our neighbors are all around us in every direction.

The reason they do is because the decks of the ships are always under artificial gravity of some kind. And it makes for better cinematography, the action is "right side up" like we experience things on Earth.