Break into the things that you learned!

[Trekker4747]

Let's break the ice (see what I did there?) and go into the things that we learned!

I learned that I need to make sure I have blank DVDs always on hand for these VODs, didn't have any last night when I saw that this came out and it was too late for me to want to go the store and buy some.

[CJones]

I learned that my College (William & Mary), did not come up with that vegetable naming game.

I was Charles Carrot. I have absolutely no memory of anyone else. 

[Lemming Howard]

I learned while watching this movie during the biggest snowstorm I've ever seen since moving down here to Lancaster County is snow snow snow snow snow  snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow...is this irony?

[eegah]

I learned that electricity doesn't go out immediately when you destroy it's source and cut the lines, it just kinda trickles down and then inexplicably comes back on later.

I learned that it's not a good idea to annoy your pilot by talking too much. He might decide to crash just to shut you up.

I learned not to stop for a snack in the middle of a rescue operation.

I learned that bank cleaners exist, and that they moonlight as ski resort rescue guys.

I learned that performing medical experiments on people who live in the slums might cause one of them to want to blow up a city with a nuke on his birthday. And his hired hencemen will be perfectly happy to help and join him in dying in the explosion.

[Trekker4747]

Wasn't it Sean Astin's father who was the bank janitor, not Sean Astin himself?

I learned that you need not introduce us to our main character, much of our setting or even really any of the real story in a movie right away. In fact, you pretty much put it off until the end of the first act.

I learned that it's possible to survive a plane-crash in the woods with little more than a broken nose.

I learned that even though the electricity is off that electric number-display sign thingie between the kitchen and the main dining area will still work.

I learned that a bomb place on a gondola set to go off in 4-minutes will take the better part of 10 minutes to go off.  (I'll have to go back and check the actual time(s) but it was ridiculously long time compared to what was happening. I swear in one shot the bomb says something like "3:58" then we get a couple minutes of Sean Astin's stunt-double ski-boarding and then a shot of the bomb timer says "3:56."

I learned that the gondolas and t-bar things don't need electricity to operate.

I learned that ski-resort managers unhinge pretty damn easily, they may also have issues with dry eyes.

I learned that Vermont really doesn't much care who's employed as their park ranger service.

I learned that Bruce Campbell was going to set off the nuke by... shooting it... with the... electric(?)... bazooka?

He does know that would have destroyed the nuke and maybe spill some radioactive material but not set off the nuke, right?  A nuclear explosion is part of a REACTION, if you destroy the means for that reaction to occur then no nuke.

I learned there's no need for your action "Die Hard on a Ski Resort" movie to take place at night.

I learned that Stacy Keach could have really sold me on a time-share.

[Compound]

I learned that bank cleaners exist, and that they moonlight as ski resort rescue guys.

That was his Dad, not him.

I learned that Bruce Campbell was going to set off the nuke by... shooting it... with the... electric(?)... bazooka?

I think that was supposed to be an anti-air missile. I'm guessing Edgewood didn't have enough of a budget to get a real looking replica, so they faked it.

Here's a real life Stinger, which would have been around at the time.


Here's the one from earlier in the film, just before they shot down the helicopter.


And here's Campbell at the end:


It's got the correct pipe shape, but they went overboard on the sighting thing on the top.

[eegah]

Wasn't it Sean Astin's father who was the bank janitor, not Sean Astin himself?

I learned that bank cleaners exist, and that they moonlight as ski resort rescue guys.

That was his Dad, not him.

Oops, missed that.

By the way, wasn't this more of a ripoff of Cliffhanger than Die Hard?

[Trekker4747]

I went to Patient 0, since Cliffhanger (and pretty much every action movie since 1988) itself was inspired by Die Hard.

[CJones]

Knock off Stinger missiles: They'll lock onto anything. Helicopters, snow plows, SWAT teams, one guy standing out in the open armed with a knock off Stinger missile...

[Trekker4747]

To be fair the "power tricking" to a stop isn't entirely inaccurate. When the sub station blew up the area would have tried to draw power from the next sub station which would have over loaded it. It would try to get more power from yet another sub station and so on. There wouldn't be enough power being produced by the plant and a large blackout would occur. The plant would have to begin generating more power to compensate for the lost sub station and then each sub station would have to be reset. Likely manually and in person. But until the lost station is repaired the entire system would be strained likely leading to brownouts during peak times.

But everything wouldn't have been fixed to manageable level so quickly, likely would have taken the better part of a day.

Okay, so morbid curiosity got to me and went to NUKEMAP to see what kind of damage the bomb would have done.  We're not given anything on what kind of bomb it is, so I went with a 10-Kiloton Highly Enriched Uranium device of type that'd be used for nuclear terrorism.

I centered the explosion on the lodge at the top of Killington Mountain's ski resort and detonated it.  The effects were.... Not terrible.  I mean, sure, it's a nuclear bomb going off, so there's going to be damage and people were in the area so there's going to be fatalities, but the program didn't register any. (Usually it provides a casualty list but there's likely not enough population data for the area to really provide any statistics.)

The type of weapon I chose produces fallout and with the default wind speed/direction selected the fallout went over where the inn and rest of the ski-resort buildings were, but didn't really extend into any heavily populated areas.

Look, I'm not saying that nuclear terrorism is something that should have been taken lightly; I'm just saying that maybe Bruce Campbell's chosen target wasn't a very high value one.  Yeah, he'd kill a few hundred people, destroy a popular ski resort and make it unusable/uninhabitable for a period of time but on a scale of nuclear terrorism?  I'd say he could have blown the thing up and no one would have lost much sleep over it beyond the victims and their loved ones.

Maybe this is why terrorists in movies go after airports or major cities? Because then you get large casualties and you destroy a sizable portion of a populated area. You make an impact.

A Vermont Ski Lodge?   Would such a thing even make it onto the nightly news? Outside of Vermont it'd probably get bumped for some local feel-good story at the end of the nightly newscast.



After watching the movie again, I will say that Bruce Campbell is a delight in this and, really, makes the whole thing worth watching. You have to hand it to the man, he'll deliver his A-Game no matter what. Stacey Keach was also great too.

Sean Astin? Meh.

So? What did I learn? I learned that Bruce Campbell had a pretty shitty plan with a pretty shitty target.

I also learned that Astin's character was supposed to be.... More than he was aspiring to be? What was his arc here? What made him be the gun-using badass he aspired to be?

I sort of wonder if the movie wasn't, almost, trying for (with Campbell's character) something along the lines of Ed Harris's character in "The Rock."  In that movie Harris takes over Alcatraz and holds tourists hostage with chemical-weapon rockets aimed at San Francisco he demands ransom money not only for himself and his team but also for families of fallen soldiers he served with/over who died doing secret operations in Vietnam. The fallen men, since their ops were secret, had no compensation given to their surviving families nor even given a military burial.   Harris is doing terrorism for "a good reason."  He even demands that the ransom be paid by the government using a secret fund they have from illegal arms sales. (I.E. pay the ransom without using tax payer money.)

So, see, he's a bad guy doing "good" things! He even gets his bluff called as he never intended to use the rockets but he's overthrown by his disciples who then take the threat to the next level.

Now, Campbell's character's goals aren't nearly as "clean" as he did really kill people and intend to use his nuke but he seems to want to do it as recompense for a "good reason" given the drug-testing thing that he and his family (and other poor people) suffer from.  Though we're not quite given a lot of information on this; but it does seem he had more noble goals in mind.

[kunedog]

I learned that I can spot flubs and continuity errors the first time through a film, if they are blatant enough.

1:02:45 - A shot to establish nothing except cops cuffing Salvado, behind his back.  Of course he is cuffed in the front seconds later.

1:09:16 - Nice job putting on the glove.

[Trekker4747]

Also, the cops didn't frisk him and remove his radio and any other lose items he had on his person?

[Raccoon Cohabitator]

I wouldn't say that the ski resort was Campbell's chosen target. The plane just happened to crash there. The crash survivor makes his way to Campbell in NYC and is dropped from the helicopter. Maybe NYC was the initial target? And once they recovered the bomb they had planned to lift it out of there, but their new pilot got arrested. So, we may as well blow up the ski resort, I guess.

I learned that if you're snowboarding and being chased by a terrorist (or a terrorist snowboarding after someone), you should still do plenty of spin tricks whenever airborne.

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, I guess the circumstances with the resort and the loss of their pilot forced his hand on where to do things, but wasn't he starting to take over the resort before he found out he lost his pilot?  Why go through all of that if all he needs is his pilot to arrive and lift his team and the bomb out of there?  I know Sean Astin and the rest of the Ski Patrol and hotel staff was flubbing things up for him, but taking hostages and taking over the lodge sort of draws attention.  I'd think he could have managed to get the bomb out of there without having to take over the resort.  Then he loses the pilot. Sure, then you go nuts, Bruce.

How far away is Rutland from New York City?  Because Asahi guy woke-up from the plane crash, got to the restaurant, stole a car, drove to NYC, found Bruce Campbell, told him what happened, then we has the encounter on the chopper and all of that happened within a single night? 

And what Holiday was it?  Wimpy Ski Resort Manager guy says it was a holiday that made their day particularly more busy.

I learned that the FBI guys just leave their fully-loaded, automatic weapons, stored in unlocked boxes in unlocked vehicles that aren't monitored during a terrorist crisis and evacuation of a ski lodge.  (That's where Wimpy Ski Manager got his gun.)

[Raccoon Cohabitator]

And what Holiday was it?  Wimpy Ski Resort Manager guy says it was a holiday that made their day particularly more busy.

Bruce Campbell's birthday!