Things you're tired of seeing in movies

[somerset fox]

what about when vast distances are covered in seemingly no time at all, while the protagonists are travelling at a snails pace. How much did the Fellowship cover in a day, on foot on the road to Mordor? Absolutely no time scale given but it must have taken months.

More recently, Daryl Dixon and entourage travelled by horse drawn wagon from Marseilles to Paris, a distance of nearly 500 miles. I’m sure it would have taken weeks, but they were being pursued by a villain who had a motor vehicle! And he still arrived after them! What was he doing while Daryl and co plodded northwards; smoking galloise cigarettes and drinking cognac! Merde…

 

[Lightning]

How much did the Fellowship cover in a day, on foot on the road to Mordor? Absolutely no time scale given but it must have taken months.

They left on September 23, and the Ring was destroyed on March 25 the next year, after a distance of approximately 1300 miles. But you have to subtract the 2 months they stay in Rivendell.

 

[Astyanax]

How much did the Fellowship cover in a day, on foot on the road to Mordor? Absolutely no time scale given but it must have taken months.

There is one line in the first movie from Gandalf, after they leave Rivendell: "We must hold this course west of the Misty Mountains for forty days." So it's better than nothing, and does give somewhat of a sense of scale.

 

[drusselmeyer]

People fighting in films and winning when they clearly don't know how to fight.

It doesn't matter if they are swinging a sword or shooting, there are certain tells that reveal if someone knows how to do something.

 

[pengbuzz]

They left on September 23, and the Ring was destroyed on March 25 the next year, after a distance of approximately 1300 miles. But you have to subtract the 2 months they stay in Rivendell.

But was it a leap year?

 

[Laspector]

There is one line in the first movie from Gandalf, after they leave Rivendell: "We must hold this course west of the Misty Mountains for forty days." So it's better than nothing, and does give somewhat of a sense of scale.

Gandalf also said it was a four days journey through Moria to get to the other side.

 

[Treadwell]

And they had lost poor Bill and presumably almost all of their supplies with him. A hungry four day journey!

 

[scarf man]

Elrond should have given the fellows a few loaves of lembas for the journey.

 

[MaxPower89]

Here's one:

The same generic police chatter on the police radios? "175, code 6" or whatever that's used in every show or movie?

 

[p51]

How about when something can't be defeated by the good guys, then something happens that clearly wouldn't change that and suddenly theyre defeated.
I'm thinking of the Imperial walkers in Empire Stirkes Back. The blasters on the speeders have no effect until they trip one with the strongest cables ever made. Then suddenly, the very same blasters blow it to bits. Nothing changed with the walkers and the speeders had clearly tried attacking from above with zero effect.
The only way that'd made sense would be if the ground forces had good direct fire weapons but couldn't hit the tops of them, and when the one got tripped it exposed weak armor to Alliance artillery.
I saw that movie as a kid in it's first release and even then I knew that made no sense!

 

[batguy]

How about when something can't be defeated by the good guys, then something happens that clearly wouldn't change that and suddenly theyre defeated.
I'm thinking of the Imperial walkers in Empire Stirkes Back. The blasters on the speeders have no effect until they trip one with the strongest cables ever made. Then suddenly, the very same blasters blow it to bits. Nothing changed with the walkers and the speeders had clearly tried attacking from above with zero effect.
The only way that'd made sense would be if the ground forces had good direct fire weapons but couldn't hit the tops of them, and when the one got tripped it exposed weak armor to Alliance artillery.
I saw that movie as a kid in it's first release and even then I knew that made no sense!

That one always bugged me too.

I could buy an excuse that undersides of the AT-ATs had heavier armor than the top. But that still doesn't explain why the snowspeeders weren't just blasting away at the top areas the whole time.


I can think of a fix for future SW re-editors. The snowspeeder shot that blows that AT-AT (after it falls down) is right at the top of its neck. So, add a quick extra shot right after it hits the ground, showing a big chunk of exterior cladding falling off the neck area. Then add an audio clip of Luke or somebody saying "Look, aim for the neck!" right before the snowspeeders blast it.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Supposedly the Snowspeeder was shooting the neck which is lightly armored. Of course it's really just a tunnel to access different areas of the AT-AT, so I'm not sure what would cause the whole thing to explode. The bigger question is, they had encountered Imperial walkers before this, so why did they equip the speeders with blasters and not laser cannons of an X-Wing or Y-Wing?!?! Why didn't they have some ground launched proton torpedo launchers, which in the EU and Rogue One, is shown to take out AT-ATs? Because the story said so.

 

[Treadwell]

They were being installed on Tuesday.

 

[JediMichael]

Here's one:

The same generic police chatter on the police radios? "175, code 6" or whatever that's used in every show or movie?

Yep, I know that one for sure.
This also, which scrolling through real quick, didn't notice it here.

 

[drusselmeyer]

Isn't scrutinizing OT SW here grounds for perban?

 

[Ron]

You can take it a step further and ask why even shoot at it if it's already down?

 

[Astyanax]

You can take it a step further and ask why even shoot at if it's already down?

To take out the couple dozen troopers who are now sitting ducks.

 

[Laspector]

Perhaps AT-ATs have shields? They maybe went down when it hit the ground?

 

[Astyanax]

I can offer a few thoughts here...

1. First off, Luke says "That's armor's too strong for blasters!". Nothing about shields. But armor is by definition not the actual body of the walker, but something layered on top. And therefore not guaranteed to be 100% coverage.
2. The neck area does not appear to be armored to me. Or at least not intended to be so in 1980.
3. Snowspeeders don't have blaster turrets, which means they only shoot in the direction of flight. So their blasters don't seem to be quite as accurate "on the fly" as you'd want them to be. It will be very hard to hit a neck in flight.
4. Sure, Luke could do it, as he hit the Death Star exhaust port, but by the time he figured out the walkers' armor was too strong for blasters, he had a malfunction at fire control (who knows what all that affects).
5. The walker fell down in a position that appears the neck shouldn't be able to functionally angle upward that high. Take a close look at the neck break in the first screencap above. That neck is "snapped." It stands to reason it's now more vulnerable at that point.
6. It's possible a delicate system or volatile fluid was exposed.
7. The crash could have damaged some other areas, and the blast from the snowspeeder was a "lucky shot".
8. The novelization of the film suggests that there was an internal explosion and the walker blew up on its own.
9. A snowspeeder that is finally able to fly close and head-on to the walker (thanks to lack of incoming enemy fire) is going to be able to line up its shot more easily. Even then, it took two speeders at point blank range, as the first one missed.

 

[Ron]

For the record, I don't have a problem with that scene. Even if I knew there were no infantry inside, I would've shot it too just for a morale boost which incidentally is what happens as you see the rebels charge out of their trenches (they charge out just before the kill shot but the logic still applies). I was just making a contrarian observation. Also, the fact that they animated the lasers hitting the neck implies there's a catastrophic point of vulnerability that was exposed after the walker fell.

I can offer a few thoughts here...

View attachment 1849802 View attachment 1849803

1. First off, Luke says "That's armor's too strong for blasters!". Nothing about shields. But armor is by definition not the actual body of the walker, but something layered on top. And therefore not guaranteed to be 100% coverage.
2. The neck area does not appear to be armored to me. Or at least not intended to be so in 1980.
3. Snowspeeders don't have blaster turrets, which means they only shoot in the direction of flight. So their blasters don't seem to be quite as accurate "on the fly" as you'd want them to be. It will be very hard to hit a neck in flight.
4. Sure, Luke could do it, as he hit the Death Star exhaust port, but by the time he figured out the walkers' armor was too strong for blasters, he had a malfunction at fire control (who knows what all that affects).
5. The walker fell down in a position that appears the neck shouldn't be able to functionally angle upward that high. Take a close look at the neck break in the first screencap above. That neck is "snapped." It stands to reason it's now more vulnerable at that point.
6. It's possible a delicate system or volatile fluid was exposed.
7. The crash could have damaged some other areas, and the blast from the snowspeeder was a "lucky shot".
8. The novelization of the film suggests that there was an internal explosion and the walker blew up on its own.
9. A snowspeeder that is finally able to fly close and head-on to the walker (thanks to lack of incoming enemy fire) is going to be able to line up its shot more easily. Even then, it took two speeders at point blank range, as the first one missed.

I think we can dismiss 8. Otherwise, that's some monumentally convenient timing.

Unrelated but, I 'love' how novelizations feel the need to explain things that don't need explaining and then do so in the most contrived way.