Everybody knows that there's no sound in space, and everybody knows that
the vast majority of scifi movies get this wrong and present sounds audible
in space, which is physically impossible, and thus an inaccuracy.

  However, I read a rather interesting point of view about this.

  When a movie is filming some subject, let's say for example two people,
the sound environment is that of these two people, not that of the camera.
Regardless of how far (or how close) the camera is, the sound is that of
the "average" of those two persons. In other words, the film soundtrack
depicts what those persons hear (averaged between the two). The camera
itself may even be a dozen of meters away, yet the soundtrack is from the
perspective of the subjects, not the one of the camera.

  This is an accepted movie technique, and you seldom see anyone complaining
about it. It's an established way of depicting a fictive scene, and
everyone just accepts that.

  If the scene had a soundtrack from a microphone attached to the camera
(which would be "realistic"), that would actually break the fourth wall,
so to speak. It would actually make the audience aware that there *is*
a microphone, there *is* a camera, and the former is attached to the
latter.
  In the movie's own reality there, of course, is no camera nor microphone,
so making the scene so that it becomes obvious that there is, breaks the
fourth wall and the willing suspension of disbelief.

  The same goes for outer space scenes: If the movie is, for example,
showing a spaceship as the subject of the scene, the soundtrack is that
of the point of view of the spaceship. The spaceship can "hear" itself
(or, more practically, the people inside the spaceship can hear it).

  If that scene was completely silent, however, it would once again break
the fourth wall: The movie is telling that the "microphone" is in space,
probably attached to the camera, which reminds the viewers that there *is*
a camera, there *is* a microphone, and both are in space, where there's no
sound.
  This, once again, breaks the fourth wall because in the movie's reality
there should be no camera nor microphone.

  Movies which have sound in space are simply sticking to the movie
convention that the soundtrack is that which is perceived by the subject
being filmed, not that which is perceived by the camera (which doesn't
really "exist" in that reality).

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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