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Post by jeffwaynefan on Jul 10, 2005 11:51:05 GMT
What are people's views on what bought the airliner down into the street.
My theory is that when Ray and the kids arrived at the house the electric was still on, clearly the aliens had not arrived via lighting in that area. When they finally did arrive it was during Ray and his kids sleep, amny many miles away. The resulting EMP bringing the airliner down from 30,000 ft (?) right into the district.
However the airliner does show signs of burnt markings across the nose/cockpit area, either caused by Heat Rays or aviation fuel from ruptured tanks as the airliner struck the ground.
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Post by Spirit of Man on Jul 10, 2005 12:21:30 GMT
When everyone is woken up in the basement, there are quite a few green flashes followed by some plane crashy noises. I had the impression that it was the aliens firing on the plane.....however, the lightning / EMP sounds perfectly feasable
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Post by djmatt82 on Jul 10, 2005 12:28:19 GMT
there were no bodies. anyone notice that?
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Post by jeffwaynefan on Jul 10, 2005 12:32:31 GMT
Maybe from the time they saw the flashes of light (which it was night time) up until venturing outside (in daylight) the machines has already picked the wreckage clean.
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Post by djmatt82 on Jul 10, 2005 12:35:10 GMT
that what i would have thought also. the greedy id4 lookalikes!
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Post by sunnyrabbiera on Jul 10, 2005 12:58:12 GMT
well its obvious that the aleins had a secondary weapon.... they did use it on a bridge at the beginning of the movie...
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Post by Slick2097 on Jul 10, 2005 12:58:23 GMT
When the tripod first emerges, you see it hit a car with someone in, the person inside is vapourised (sans clothes) but the car itself it still relatively ok (and then bounced down the street). Its possible then if the heat ray struck the plane it could have caused most of the people inside to vapourise and then without pilots to lose control and crash?
Another theory, if it was hit at 30,000 feet and suffered explosive decompression, how many people these days actually keep their seatbelt on? not many i'd say.. i'd guess most were sucked out and fell to their deaths.
Ste.
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Post by draggedaway on Jul 10, 2005 14:14:28 GMT
I remember that bit with the car now, theres a real hopelessness to that bit if you think about it, the car wasnt gonna start anyway and even if it did I wouldnt have thought you`d get a big, numb, Hyundai probably with a lazy auto gearbox turned round in time to get away from what was coming, but I suppose in the panic it seemed like a chance of escape or at least protection, but then the heat ray said "nice try, but you`re going down too!"
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Post by RustiSwordz on Jul 10, 2005 17:52:27 GMT
the 'heat ray' seems like an advanced 'kinetic energy weapon' ie the 'impact' itself causes damage
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Watto
Full Member
Self Proclaimed King of Spam
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Post by Watto on Jul 10, 2005 20:53:49 GMT
then the heat ray said "nice try, but you`re going down too!" LMFAO! Anyway, I thought the aliens brought the airliner down, but now I'm not so sure...
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Post by <[Iron Man]> on Jul 10, 2005 21:22:02 GMT
It looks like it was struck by the Heat Ray weapon, plus as someone pointed out we saw green flashes. So it wasn't an EMP hit, the plane may have been flying low and got hit. I can't see how a Tripod could hit a plane 30,000 feet up.
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Post by sasarma on Jul 11, 2005 16:41:54 GMT
Another reason that it wasnt caused by EMP is because the car wouldnt of worked when they got in it again.
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Post by jeffwaynefan on Jul 11, 2005 18:45:35 GMT
But the EMP did not reach that area of the house because the lights were still on, so it reached alse where. For argument sake, the plane could have been say 20,000 to 30,000 feet up. Once hit, it does not fall right to the ground in a verticle fall, it will travel for miles before crashing, hence it crashing into an area not touched by the EMP.
H.Gs Heat Ray had a 'minimum' distance of 2 miles. Welcome to the 21st century advanced alien weapon with a minimum distance of well over 30,000 ft.
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Post by Lensman on Jul 11, 2005 20:22:22 GMT
I think you mean H.G. Wells' Heat Rays had a *maximum* range of about 2 miles.
And correct me if I'm wrong, but 20,000 feet is about the maximum altitude for a commercial airliner. Admittedly that's still about twice the range of Wells' Heat Rays. But we don't know the airliner was at cruising altitude, now do we? Maybe it was descending to approach an airport.
I assumed the aliens had alreadly gathered up the victims of the plane crash. What bothered me most about that scene-- other than how all the wreckage was unrealistically close together instead of being scattered across the landscape (the wreckage looked very fake to me)-- is how there was a very convenient path left in the wreckage for Ray's stolen car to drive thru. But even that wasn't as bad as all those highways they drove down which very conveniently had a clear lane to drive thru. That was just nonsense which I found quite irritating... Ray should have found a still-operational antique (no computer chips, no vulnerability to EMP) 4-wheel drive vehicle and taken off cross-country.
If the weapon used by Spielberg's aliens is a "kinetic" weapon then it should have blasted thru the car's windows/windshield just fine, as well as sending all its victims flying. It did neither; it couldn't have been a kinetic weapon. OTOH a laser at the right frequency could go thru the window glass just fine. I'll admit, tho, that I can't think of how a laser at *any* frequency (infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-ray, microwave, gamma-ray, whatever) could fry a body instantly to ash without causing it to burst into flame. Even if you could somehow supress the flames, the human body is mostly composed of water. If you could somehow force all the water in the body out instantly, there should be quite a steam explosion.
But I still give the movie ***1/2 of ****. Images from this film have left quite a lasting impression on me, in a way that average films simply don't. Sure we can pick at its flaws, but that doesn't negate the film's powerful images, incredible suspense, or the gutsy and realistic exploration of the breakdown of society and the rise of anarchy.
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Post by jeffwaynefan on Jul 11, 2005 20:33:28 GMT
I think you mean H.G. Wells' Heat Rays had a *maximum* range of about 2 miles. And correct me if I'm wrong, but 20,000 feet is about the maximum altitude for a commercial airliner. Admittedly that's still about twice the range of Wells' Heat Rays. But we don't know the airliner was at cruising altitude, now do we? Maybe it was descending to approach an airport. Your guess is as good as mine as its all speculation, speculation and I'll say it again - SPECULATION just because I wanted to. What's wrong with using H.G as apossed to H.G.Wells, was there more than one H.G who wrote this book, I mean you have corrected me there. Around these parts he's know as H.G, first name terms.
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Post by Gnorn on Jul 11, 2005 20:40:43 GMT
Allthough I said I wouldn't post inhere anymore... and 'what if-s' are quite useless since it won't change the movie (but is fun to discuss anyway) here goes...
I think it would have been realy scary, and give the remainder of the movie much more tension, that after the plane came down - for whatever reason - Cruise looks out through that small window and sees one ore some tripods ripping open the airplane and start picking up the victims, who are helpless, being dead, unconsious, wounded and all strapped in their chairs.
-Gnorn
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Post by Lensman on Jul 11, 2005 20:49:53 GMT
What's wrong with using H.G as apossed to H.G.Wells, was there more than one H.G who wrote this book, I mean you have corrected me there. Around these parts he's know as H.G, first name terms. <Lensman consults his Martian-English dictionary> "There are eels in my hovercraft!" ;D Oh sorry... the correction I intended was that you said *minimum* distance, H.C., when I think you meant *maximum*. I wasn't objecting to your use of "H.G.", H.C.
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Post by <[Iron Man]> on Jul 11, 2005 21:07:25 GMT
Actually i'm fairly sure cruising altitude is between 30,000 - 40,000 feet? Although you better check with Tom Cruise first . We know that the plane was shot down in the area and it must've been flying low. Think of when we heard and saw the green flashes, and then how quickly it took the Jet Liner to crash, not that long. Also if it was shot down from 20,000 - 30,000 feet, it would not have descended that quickly since it was nearby. That's my assumption anyway! H.C keep cool man
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Post by Lensman on Jul 11, 2005 21:36:28 GMT
Actually i'm fairly sure cruising altitude is between 30,000 - 40,000 feet? You're right... a brief Internet search shows a Boeing 707's cruising altitude is 25,000 - 40,000 ft. My bad! it must've been flying low. Think of when we heard and saw the green flashes, and then how quickly it took the Jet Liner to crash, not that long. Also if it was shot down from 20,000 - 30,000 feet, it would not have descended that quickly since it was nearby. Good point. If it was quite low that would also make it more believable that there were large pieces of wreckage intact and close together, instead of being scattered in a zillion pieces over hundreds or thousands of acres.
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Post by <[Iron Man]> on Jul 11, 2005 22:08:21 GMT
Actually i'm fairly sure cruising altitude is between 30,000 - 40,000 feet? You're right... a brief Internet search shows a Boeing 707's cruising altitude is 25,000 - 40,000 ft. My bad! it must've been flying low. Think of when we heard and saw the green flashes, and then how quickly it took the Jet Liner to crash, not that long. Also if it was shot down from 20,000 - 30,000 feet, it would not have descended that quickly since it was nearby. Good point. If it was quite low that would also make it more believable that there were large pieces of wreckage intact and close together, instead of being scattered in a zillion pieces over hundreds or thousands of acres. Danke You sure it's not the Boeing 747 instead of 707?
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