Things you've always wondered about in sci-fi movies
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Just turn on any current news station. It obviously happens every day.
drusselmeyer
Master Member
In Trek, how can you have strange 'new' worlds if everywhere is already populated by advanced societies?
Also, what is the motivation in the trek universe? Almost every problem can be resolved with the transporter or replicator and the computers can answer almost any question!
Also, what is the motivation in the trek universe? Almost every problem can be resolved with the transporter or replicator and the computers can answer almost any question!
drusselmeyer
Master Member
You question the abilities of greatest criminal mind to ever grace this planet!?
Seriously though, look at all the scams that major players get away with today.
Any smart detective could solve such a case, but anyone with an IQ over 115 is prohibited from becoming a police officer.
Any good prosecutor could indict him, but "prosecutor" is a political position subject to elections. Any billionaire could unduly destabilize a local election.
How could he NOT get away with it?
Because unless investigators can prove he tampered with the missiles, all they have is someone buying property along a fault line, which is not inherently illegal. There would be nothing left of the missiles to prove Luthor or his cronies accessed the missiles and changed the coordinates; even if they were to investigate the delays in the missiles shipping across the country, the Army and Navy personnel didn't actually see anyone tamper with them. All they would have is vague descriptions of "a blonde who needed CPR" and "a trucker and his buddy who got confused on their route".
So while there would be suspicions (and rightly so), there would not be anything directly tying Luthor to the incidents. The Pentagon would have to either write it off as a "glitch", or pursue a "more plausible theory", such as a foreign agent managing to access the two missiles. Not to mention Luthor would probably have an alibi for buying that land, and feign ignorance about the possibilities of real estate. He might even play the "noble developer" card and claim "I'm just trying to rebuild what was destroyed and give people a chance at a new California!"
bwayne64
Master Member
Even more implausible, is the military launching live nuclear warheads over the US. I mean the military does stupid stuff all the time, but that would be a major Charlie Foxtrot, ; )
CB2001
Master Member
Why the hell do spaceships have self-destruct systems? I mean, what’s the point of them, other than being a plot device? I’ve heard people say “it’s to deal with pirates and ship hijackings.” So, destroying your ship, with you along with it if you can’t get to an escape pod, is a deterrent for pirates? That makes even less sense. Now, I get the idea of rigging a ship to blow (basically, throwing a wrench Into the clockwork), but having a pre-made system designed to destroy your ship makes no sense. That’d be like having dynamite wired to your car in case someone attempts to carjack you, and you have a button to press to destroy the car, you and the hijacker at the same time. There’s no purpose for such a system to exist.
CB2001
Master Member
Not necessarily. The Galactica in the RIS BSG, nor other Battlestars in that universe, had a self-destruct system despite being able to be breached. One episode literally had that happened, and there was a story that even recounted where a similar situation had occurred during the previous Cylon War (and even then, the Colonial Fleet never installed a self-destruct system to any Battlestars after that). Even in Star Trek, there were more situations where ships were boarded but successfully defended that didn’t warrant the use of the self-destruct system (the only exception was two different episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, one where the ship got twinned and one of them got boarded by aliens, resulting in the self-destruct having to be used anyway, and the one where the Kazon boarded but the self-destruct was disabled because Seska knew where to target the ship’s systems to disable the ability to self destruct. And lest we forget the death of the NCC-1701 from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and that occurred because there was no other way for Kirk and company to stop a boarding party or survive a fight with the Klingons).
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I just watched a korean subtitled drama and the guy looks for all these listening devices in his hotel. They had blinking red lights, in true Hollywood fashion. So if I turn the lights out at night, do I not notice all the blinking red lights?????
It denies the enemy their "prize"; as it is, there's a different mentality behind a car than there is behind a merchant vessel.
Some of my friends seem to think cars come installed with one, in the form of turning up the AC more than halfway.
"It's 101 degrees, can we crank it?"
"What, and blow up the engine?"
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Even though military vessels don't or didn't come with self destructs, there were numerous instances of ships captains purposefully destroying their ships, using explosives or opening the seacocks, to stop them being captured by the enemy during both world wars.
drusselmeyer
Master Member
There is reason why the term "broken arrow" was created. You'll never guess why.
Riceball
Master Member
Exactly, and opening the seacocks is pretty much the modern day equivalent of a self-destruct.
Basically, having a self destruct is far quicker and more efficient than planting explosives or thermite grenades over sensitive areas, which is something the present day (US) military does for things like tanks,. radios, and other sensitive equipment that you don't want your enemies getting their hands on. When I was in the Marines we had these radio relay terminals that we worked from and on them were markings for where to place thermite grenades in order to make sure that they're well and truly destroyed and that an enemy won't be able to recover anything useful from it. But a starship, even a regular waterborne naval vessel is too large for that, there are simply too many systems in too many places for the crew to realistically be able to place thermite grenades, or other such things to destroy them. So you sink or blow up your ship before the enemy can board and that solves the problem of them being able to capture a prize for use as propaganda, or to add to their own forces, as well keeping from learning secrets like how it's built, how certain things work, codes, etc.
bwayne64
Master Member
I saw the movie, ; )
I don't know what's scarier, losing nuclear weapons, or that it happens so often there's actually a term for it.
What's really scary is that there are still a number of lost nuclear weapons, including in the mainland US.
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