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Post by Commandingtripod on Sept 21, 2006 6:20:30 GMT
A couple of questions.
When Ray and his kids are escaping, they take a van.
Is this the same van that Ray's boss and some mechanic were trying to fix earlier?
And what did Ray suggest they do to try and get it working? Replace something beginning with 'S'?
What's it called and what does it do?
And how did replacing it help?
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Post by Luperis on Sept 21, 2006 10:24:29 GMT
The van they took, if I remember rightly, was the same one featured earlier in the movie; the one for which we see Ray suggesting the mechanic changes the Solenoids. A solenoid is a loop of wire wrapped around a metallic core, which produces a magnetic field when an electrical current is passed through it. They are like electromagnets - creating controlled magnetic fields. I don't really know how replacing this would get the car working again, though... More info on Solenoids can be found on good ol' Wiki (where I looked them up ;D ): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SolenoidNotice the third bullet point under the title 'Solenoids in Fiction': "In Steven Spielberg's 2005 War of the Worlds movie, the alien tripods disable all flow of electric current in a wide area, thus rendering vehicles useless; the problem is fixed by replacing the solenoid, a weak deus ex machina (improbable plot device)." |
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Post by theredweed on Sept 21, 2006 12:16:20 GMT
I think the other question should be how is it that all army vechicals work and how did the TV van still work??
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Post by nervouspete on Sept 21, 2006 16:58:50 GMT
I think the other question should be how is it that all army vechicals work and how did the TV van still work?? Just one of the questions that finally caused my brain to implode and for me to take a break from 'The Great Invasion' - the mega-fan fiction that attempts to explain every gaping plot contrivance and inconsistency of the film. Which I still love regardless - so ner.  |
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Post by RustiSwordz on Sept 22, 2006 15:53:26 GMT
Artistic Licence.
can fix anything. ;D
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Post by Lensman on Sept 23, 2006 6:03:50 GMT
Presumably the army vehicles work because they're "hardened", or protected, against EMP bursts.
How did the TV van work? A good question, and a rather glaring error in the movie that it wasn't explained. *Perhaps* it was inside something (a tunnel?) which protected it, but if so why didn't we see more vehicles that had escaped the effects?
A solenoid is a very heavy switch used to close the circuit between a car's battery and the starter motor, when starting the car. The idea that a very heavy switch would be particularly sensitive to EMP is crazy. It's the computer circuits in the car which would be most susceptible, followed by any delicate wiring. The solenoid would be about the very *last* piece of electrical equipment to be affected by an EMP burst.
A lot of things in the movie reflect the fact it was rushed thru production, and these problems appear to be some of them.
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Post by nervouspete on Sept 23, 2006 10:56:54 GMT
What's annoying about the TV van for me is that it sets against the mission statement of the film. It would have been far more effective not to have that scene, so as when we see the battle it would be a shock that the tripods have shields. It would also go a long way to explaining Robbie's urgent desire to join the army and fight back - which in the face of the machines being indestructible is incomprehensible, more so when Ray doesn't use the winning arguement, "But they're indestructible, Robbie. You oaf."
It's a little scene that makes me wince, and despite the cool tripod fog-horn moment that chills me, and the video footage of the cities thing - is just too convenient and unlikely to happen. It also believes that a statement about how the aliens arrived to drive their tripods is needed, and it's simply not necessary. A serious blunder in an otherwise very, very good film.
Gagh.
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Post by jeffwaynefan on Oct 9, 2006 18:19:26 GMT
"you can't get better than a quick fit fitter, there the boys to trust!"
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Post by richardburton on Oct 11, 2006 8:22:04 GMT
The military hold thousands of spares for all their equipment and machinery, some of which is stored in secured locations in case of nuclear or EMP attack. That explains how the military got working vehicles and also their slow response to a counter attack. It would have taken them a while to re-organise and re-equip units.
In relation to the Solenoid, the mechanic had already replaced a number of different components. All Ray did was suggest the Solenoid too. It is never confirmed, but I assume that the storm effected several components, not just the Solenoid.
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