Movie questions thread - Why did they do that? (1 Viewer)

[RobertR]

Although Jack Briggs would think it sacrilege to suggest turning to it as a source of info, the explanation is given in 2010. Essentially, Hal was driven insane by the conflict between his basic programming, which was to give accurate data, and orders to keep the purpose of the mission a secret.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Oh come on guys, we're just scratching the surface! How about:
(a) In Back to the Future III, when the gas tank of the DeLorean gets punctured by an arrow, why don't they take gas from the other copy of the DeLorean hidden in the mine?
(b) In Star Wars (or indeed in every other science fiction film), you can see the 'bullets' leaving a laser gun, even though the projectiles are travelling at the speed of light?
(c) Again in Star Wars, how come the sky on Luke's home planet is blue? It's a desert planet, and blue skies are a product of light reflected off oceans.
(d) In Total Recall, if your helmet broke on Mars, your eyes would not pop out of your head.
(e) In Othello, when Othello asks for the handkerchief back, why doesn't Desdemona say 'it's at the cleaners'? It would have saved so much fuss.

 

[SteveMc]

(c) Again in Star Wars, how come the sky on Luke's home planet is blue? It's a desert planet, and blue skies are a product of light reflected off oceans.

um..no its not. The sun reflecting off the oceans is how we can see the moon since it obviously doesn't emit any light. The sky is blue because of our atmosphere...just like Luke's planet.
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"I don't even own a gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack."
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[Neil Joseph]

wrt Total Recall and his eyes bulging out etc etc, the part I have a real hard time with is after the oxygen atmosphere comes into being (another one for this thread), his eyes unbulge and go back inside his head and everything is hunky dory again. Naturally his vision is unaffected.
orangeman
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[Bhagi Katbamna]

Never mind all of the above, why isn't there more nudity in films?

 

[RicP]

quote: (c) Again in Star Wars, how come the sky on Luke's home planet is blue? It's a desert planet, and blue skies are a product of light reflected off oceans.[/quote]As Steve stated on the prior page, this is totally incorrect.
Blue skies are caused by the contents of our atmosphere refracting the light from the Sun. As in any Prism, white light is broken up into its constituent colors. Because of the wavelength of blue light, that is the one that is reflected through our atmosphere and makes the sky appear to be blue.

(d) In Total Recall, if your helmet broke on Mars, your eyes would not pop out of your head.

Just a nitpick, but how do you know?

How does anyone know for sure what would happen to a human left unprotected in Mars [lack of] atmosphere?
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Ric Perrott - My DVD's
[Edited last by RicP on September 29, 2001 at 01:55 PM]

 

[andrew markworthy]

Steve, Ric - thank you, I stand humbly but gratefully corrected. I was told that 'fact' some (ulp!) 25 years ago by my physics teacher and have taken it as the absolute truth ever since. Come to think of it, this may partly explain my lousy grade in my physics O level [a type of national exam which used to be taken at 16 in the UK].
The reason we know about eyes not popping out at low pressure is because Arthur C Clarke told me so (in a TV documentary). But seriously, folks - the real but horrible reason is studies of corpses who died in low pressure situations (some of the data were obtained by Nazis on concentration camp inmates, and I really don't want to go into more details).
I am still right about the ray gun 'bullets', though, aren't I?

 

[Alex Spindler]

Well, it depends. Imagine that they aren't lasers but instead particles. Maybe the particles emit the light you see, but are able to move at slow speeds (slower than bullets by all indications). Heck, for all I know they are the exhaust of some kind of little missile.
Of course, real laser battles are likely to be pretty boring on film, as they will likely be outside of the visual spectrum (from what I understand of potential laser weaponry). Just stuff melting and holes coming from nowhere.
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Bombardment Society - Member

 

[TimW]

the thing that bothered me most about Total Recall was the fact that they portrayed Mars as being a near vacuum. Mars most definately has an atmosphere, but is considerably less than that on earth. I mean HELLO, they still have dust storms!
And, um, the thing about light reflecting off the oceans being the reason we can see the moon?.... Where did you get that one?
Tim

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I think the real question here is, "How far can your suspension of disbelief go?" People just have different limits and expectations.
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"I don't know, Marge. Trying is the first step towards failure." - Homer J. Simpson
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[Jody C Robins]

"And, um, the thing about light reflecting off the oceans being the reason we can see the moon?.... Where did you get that one?"
Yeah, the light reflected off of the moon comes directly from the sun. I'm not aware of any phenomenon caused by light reflecting off of oceans (besides it being very bright when you're on a boat in the ocean on a sunny day).

 

[Chauncey_G]

The reason your eyes pop out of your head on Mars, and then retract again when an atmosphere appears, is because none of it is real. It's all a dream, so when you see the eye-popping scene, it's just Arnie's mind creating an image based on the stuff he's heard about space: where there's no pressure, you explosively decompress; there's virtually no atmosphere (and pressure) on Mars. His mind is just putting the two together to form an image of what it might look like.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Air Force One - when AFO touches down in Frankfurt, that should have been the end of the flight for AFO. The pilot should have cut the engines at that point in time.
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[Shawn C]

The reason your eyes pop out of your head on Mars, and then retract again when an atmosphere appears, is because none of it is real. It's all a dream, so when you see the eye-popping scene, it's just Arnie's mind creating an image based on the stuff he's heard about space: where there's no pressure, you explosively decompress; there's virtually no atmosphere (and pressure) on Mars. His mind is just putting the two together to form an image of what it might look like.

No way, man! That was no dream. That was real!
KUATO LIVES!

[Edited last by Shawn C on October 01, 2001 at 04:26 PM]

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Or how about in The Third Man they...oh wait, Edwin could tell you about that one

.
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"I don't know, Marge. Trying is the first step towards failure." - Homer J. Simpson
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[Neil Joseph]

I was watching Deep Impact and the following was always in the back of my mind. After the impact of the first comet, it creates the tidal wave. That wave finally washes up on the eastern seaboard creating all kinds of havoc, buildings falling over, people running for their lives. On the other side of the pond, the wave washes up on Paris, same deal with people running etc, then I always get a little bothered by that man sitting on the bench reading his newspaper. Go figure.
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[BrianW]

And, um, the thing about light reflecting off the oceans being the reason we can see the moon?.... Where did you get that one?

This is called Earth Shine, and it’s what allows us to see the part of the Moon that is not illuminated by the sun. However, it’s the whole Earth, not just the oceans, that contributes to Earth Shine. Without it, the shadowed portion of the Moon would not be visible at all. There's even a study underway to examine the possibility of measuring the amount of global pollution in our atmosphere by monitoring the Earth Shine reflected by the darkened portions of the Moon.
Any guesses as to what Moon Shine could possibly be?

 

[Chuck Anstey]

Moon Shine: A liquid taken in liberal quantities to reduce your need to ponder such questions as "Why didn't the planes go to different airport?" while watching movies that have plot holes of universe sized proportions.
Chuck Anstey