Brower didn't hear the train?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Stand by Me
poet515 — 11 years ago(May 26, 2014 04:07 PM)
I love this movie, but something bothers me. Ray Brower was picking blueberries and got hit by the train. He didn't hear the train coming? I haven't read the book yet, so I don't know if it was mentioned in there, and I never questioned it until recently. I just find it odd that being so close to the tracks it "snuck" up on him killing him. Did I miss something?
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PenTheater — 11 years ago(June 14, 2014 01:48 PM)
you've never been so involved in something that something else didn't startle you?
lots of people have been hit by trains, not just ones that are drunk or that walk into one. People don't realize how fast trains move, and of course you could easily trip up. -
IcingOnTheCake — 11 years ago(June 14, 2014 11:36 PM)
Maybe he was playing like Teddy was, committed suicide, tripped, etc.
I remember it being mentioned that he was picking blueberries but not if anyone was with him. Did he tell someone that he was going near the tracks to pick the berries? or was separated from a group picking them? They seemed to know what he was doing there. -
YankeeDood — 11 years ago(June 27, 2014 06:20 PM)
The Writer mentions he was "knocked out of his Keds" shoes, so I think he got his foot stuck in a track groove and couldn't escape. I heard about that happening to people before.
"They don't care about you."- George Carlin
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IcingOnTheCake — 11 years ago(June 29, 2014 09:20 PM)
He could have taken off his shoe and maybe escaped. I don't remember it being said that his foot was on the track so maybe the being knocked out of his shoe was just a reference to the force. His shoes could have then been anywhere.
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IcingOnTheCake — 11 years ago(August 26, 2014 04:09 PM)
Were they? It's been awhile seen I saw the film. I believe they said he might have walked the tracks to get that far. If so, maybe he heard it but couldn't jump off or was too scared.
It's just hard to believe he didn't hear a train at all. -
gabby_bm — 11 years ago(June 30, 2014 01:56 AM)
I'm sticking with the story that Ray Brower was on that train trestle and couldn;t out-run the train and the train hit him and carried his dead body for miles before depositing him down in that gulch
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mcfly-31 — 11 years ago(July 14, 2014 09:37 PM)
Being a kid who used to hang around railroad tracks with my friends, can't tell you the number of times we were almost killed. When you're in a remote area (like Brower was) trains don't routinely blow their whistle and sneak up on you.
"Jesus, does anyone?" -
MargiePax — 11 years ago(August 23, 2014 11:14 PM)
The Doppler Effect plays a role in how a train can seem to "sneak up on you."
Doppler effect is observed whenever the source of sound waves is moving with respect to an observer. I'm going to make a lame attempt to visually describe what is going on. And my number and letters I will be pulling out of my butt and just reflect relative amounts.
I've got 5 people. Person S is sitting in a noisy car. R and T hear the volume of the engine half of what S hears; Q and U hear the volume of the engine half as loud as R and T, and a quarter as loud S. Parentheses will represent the sound waves.
Q( ( ( R( ((S)) )T ) ) )U
now, suppose the noisy car starts to move toward Q, and R & T get out of the way.
Q( ( ( (((S)) ) ) ) ) )
The motion of the car causes the sound waves to compress in front of it, and lengthen behind it. Which is what causes that nnnnnnyyeeeeeeerrrr noise as the noise source passes by R. (Think: Sheldon Cooper dressed as the Doppler Effect at Penny's Halloween party.). Poor Q doesn't hear the approaching car and gets run over, because the movement of the car shortened the time it took for the sound wave warning, and splat.
So what happened to the other guys? T turned to U and said, "Look at that S car go!"
People think, how dumb can you be, not to hear the train coming up on you? My dad worked for the gas and electric company and they would be out by tracks sometimes, using power tools, possibly wearing ear plugs, then nnnnnnyyeeeeeeerrrr! A train goes by.
Can anyone name the movie reference? I changed my example names from ABCDE to QRSTU just so I could make the joke. -
steve-mason66 — 10 years ago(January 29, 2016 02:55 PM)
Very rarely if at all can a train 'sneak up on you' I used to hang around train tracks as a young lad, and you could hear a train coming long before it came into view because the track started making a noise. It's quite a loud and unique noise, and impossible not to hear.
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Public-Enemy-01 — 11 years ago(October 06, 2014 05:20 PM)
Trains seemed very loud and incredibly slow as well in film. Especially during bridge scene I almost laughed, the train was at jogging pace and with just one carriage it could have easily stopped I reckon. What train driver wouldn't try his hardest to not mow down a group of kids?
"I believe what ever doesn't kill you, simply makes youstranger"
The Joker -
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guppie2335 — 11 years ago(December 04, 2014 11:52 PM)
What people also don't understand is that you can be 5-10 feet off the tracks and the train can suck you in with a vacuum like suction. So he may have been picking the berries by the side of train and got sucked into the wind tunnel that happens when a train passes at high speeds. This could also explain the idea of his shoes flying off. The intense suction could have drawn him in and shot him out at a drastic force.
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TwoThousandOneMark — 11 years ago(December 06, 2014 03:15 AM)
A woman I worked said she & a friend nearly got hit by a freight during the 80's.
She described how the wind direction all but muffled any sound, pushing towards the train, away from them walking, erasing most warning.
It wasn't a railway crossing with horns & signals.
Having said that, I don't think she implied a sudden train dodge either like the movie lols. More to the point had they not looked around, in less than a minute they'd have been dead.
All in all, it is very probable to be killed by a train. If you go stand near a local railway crossing, esp an urban/suburban one, & see just how fast they're plowing through those in real time then realize that train speeds are regulated through populated zones encountering one out in rural/wilderness would be f'd up.
Like driving on a highway 120kph, & a train off to the side just cruises right on by that would be instant killshot. -
regexfan — 11 years ago(February 16, 2015 10:03 PM)
I know it's been quite a while since you asked the question, but I'm going to answer it anyway.
According to the book, the Brower kid's mom told the police her son went out (bringing with him a bucket) to pick blueberries and never came back. So that was what was on the news, and that was how the 4 main characters knew.
And then the kid got lost and he followed the track all the way (the reason why he got so far away) thinking it could lead him back home. He became disoriented when he realized he was still in the middle of nowhere, and now having lost interest in picking blueberries he threw his bucket away (this is the reason there was no bucket or blueberries anywhere near his dead body).
In the book, the 4 main characters discussed how the Brower kid had probably gotten so scared when the night arrived and had stick to the track, or even slept very near to or even on the track. He was alone, unprepared, so far away from home, and was probably in shock too, plus it was dark, so it's very logical that he didn't hear the train (or was to shock to move before the train hit him).
IN SHORT, he was not hit by the train when he was in normal mental state, picking blueberries and whistling (lol). He was hit by the train after he got lost, became disoriented and scared, most likely at night, and was probably sitting or sleeping on the track.
So there ya go!
poor buddy. haha