First of all, what a film. Absolutely loved it up until the "twist" ending. The buildup was brilliant! My girlfriend who
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jtonks — 9 years ago(July 08, 2016 04:48 AM)
In regard to your comment about the grenade into the spaceship at the last moment. This originally comes from the 1967 John Christophers book,
The White Mountains
in which the Earth has been subjugated by aliens whos machines are tripods much like that from HG Wells original
War of the Worlds.
During a battle with a tripod near the end of the book, the hero, Will, and his companions, try to bring down a tripod by throwing hand grenades at the legs, which is unsuccessful. Will is then subsequently grabbed by the tripods tentacles and is lifted towards an open hatch in the bottom of the tripod hemisphere. Realising he still has a grenade in his hand with the pin pulled, he throws it into the open hatch before it swallows him, where it explodes, and the tentacle releases its grip and he falls back down to the ground.
Anyone who has read
The White Mountains
will realise the writers of the 2005 Spielberg version of War of the Worlds borrowed this idea, and yes I did think of it again when Michelle threw the Molotov cocktail into the creatures mouth, although you dont have to be Mythbusters or a physics/chemistry major to realise a Molotov made of one bottle of potable spirits would not have the concussive power to produce such a resulting explosion. There was also a childrens TV series based on
The White Mountains
simply called,
The Tripods
. Here again, Spielberg stole the trumpeting sound that they used for the tripods ululation, (which HG Wells described as sounding like Ullah!
There is nothing new under the sun.
To answer other critics of the closing scene, it does seem ridiculous that they couldnt kill one human female with 1. A bio-mechanical dog creature, 2. A lot of poison gas (which seems to benignly dissipate rather quickly for something meant to be a chemical weapon/WMD which took out large populations) and 3. A large biomechanical spacecraft which for some reason decides to eat an entire car as well to get the occupant.
You would think a military aircraft would have guns of some description, after figuring out intergalactic travel?
The car eating scene can only be explained in that these are not the same aliens from
Cloverfield
2007, but from the Blondie rap-song
Rapture
Go out to the parking lot
And you get in your car and you drive real far
And you drive all night and then you see a light
And it comes right down and lands on the ground
And out comes a man from Mars
And you try to run but he's got a gun
And he shoots you dead and he eats your head
And then you're in the man from Mars
You go out at night, eatin' cars
You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too
Mercury's and Subaru's
And you don't stop, you keep on eatin' cars
Logical.
As much as the ending was quite unbelievable with many plot holes, like Signs, which was also bad but good, I thought it was suitably creepy. When Michelle spots the alien craft for the first time flying over the fields at sunset, I thought was the creepiest scene of the whole film. -
asherrod — 9 years ago(July 28, 2016 08:48 PM)
One nitpick with your otherwise fine response:
A Molotov cocktail would have NO concussive power at all. Molotov cocktails are incendiary, not explosive, devices. It is a common error in films to have them explode, but since they are not enclosed, and burning alcohol does not quickly vaporize in any case (gasoline vapor does, but liquid gasoline is a poor explosive, so that would not work either), there would be no explosion. The purpose of the device is to spread burning liquid quickly over a large area, not to explode. So the only way it would cause an explosion would be if the flames spread and encountered something explosive within the target. Since film explosions usually come seconds after the Molotov is thrown, this seems unlikely, so I think Hollywood is playing fast and loose with physics, as it so often does (just look at the explosive power of a Hollywood hand grenade, or the tendency for cars to explode from any impact).
Oh, and as for the "hitting the one vulnerable spot with the last weapon available), you may be right as far as contemporary sci fi goes, but read medieval epics involving dragons and you will find the same concept played out again and again with dragons having one vulnerable spot, often one which our hero discovers at the last moment and successfully penetrates with his broken lance or the remains of a shattered sword. So it is a concept which has been around even longer than your essay suggests.
But, other than that, I quite enjoyed your reply. -
sekhmet622 — 9 years ago(February 04, 2017 04:40 PM)
I know this is really belated but I think the explosion after the Molotov cocktail was appropriate. When the poisonous gas was released we see how the flames on the ground shoot up, showing that it was very flammable. I think we were suppose to assume that the gas was present inside the alien and that was what caused such a reaction.
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asherrod — 9 years ago(February 04, 2017 06:23 PM)
It is possible. Though it would not be unusual for Hollywood to treat a molotov as if it were an explosive. After all, they treat fragmentation grenades in a pretty unrealistic way, and until about 1980 they also pretended you could put silencers on revolvers, so realism has never been a serious concern.
Then again someone else offered the same explanation as yours. I have not checked it out, but until I do, I will assume that is likely the case. -
jtonks — 9 years ago(July 08, 2016 04:52 AM)
In regard to your comment about the grenade into the spaceship at the last moment. This originally comes from John Christophers book, The White Mountains in which the Earth has been subjugated by aliens whos machines are tripods much like that from HG Wells original War of the Worlds. During a battle with a tripod near the end of the book, the hero, Will, and his companions, try to bring down a tripod by throwing hand grenades at the legs, which is unsuccessful. Will is then subsequently grabbed by the tripods tentacles and is lifted towards an open hatch in the bottom of the tripod hemisphere. Realising he still has a grenade in his hand with the pin pulled, he throws it into the open hatch before it swallows him, where it explodes, and the tentacle releases its grip and he falls back down to the ground.
Anyone who has read The White Mountains will realise the writers of the 2005 Spielberg version of War of the Worlds borrowed this idea, and yes I did think of it again when Michelle threw the Molotov cocktail into the creatures mouth, although you dont have to be Mythbusters or a physics/chemistry major to realise a Molotov made of one bottle of potable spirits would not have the concussive power to produce such a resulting explosion. There was also a childrens TV series based on The White Mountains simply called, The Tripods. Here again, Spielberg stole the trumpeting sound that they used for the tripods ululation, (which HG Wells described as sounding like Ullah!
To answer other critics of the closing scene, it does seem ridiculous that they couldnt kill one human female with 1. A biomechanical dog creature, 2. A lot of poison gas (which seems to benignly dissipate rather quickly for something meant to be a chemical weapon/WMD which took out large populations) and 3. A large biomechanical spacecraft which for some reason decides to eat an entire car as well to get the occupant.
The latter can only be explained in that these are not the same aliens from Cloverfield 2007, but from the Blondie rap-song Rapture
Go out to the parking lot
And you get in your car and you drive real far
And you drive all night and then you see a light
And it comes right down and lands on the ground
And out comes a man from Mars
And you try to run but he's got a gun
And he shoots you dead and he eats your head
And then you're in the man from Mars
You go out at night, eatin' cars
You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too
Mercury's and Subaru's
And you don't stop, you keep on eatin' cars
Logical.
As much as the ending was quite unbelievable with many plot holes, like Signs, I thought it was really creepy. When Michelle spots the alien craft for the first time flying over the fields at sunset, I thought was the creepiest scene of the whole film. -
Clem_DeFontane — 9 years ago(July 31, 2016 11:59 AM)
The movie would have been great if she had been killed outside at the end. Then, the message could have been "antagonizing people creates antagonists."
As it stands, it's just new survivor girl realizes it's better to run toward problems than away from them.
Thanks for the tip, Hollywood. Never heard this one, before. -
lisavonbitten — 9 years ago(June 24, 2016 05:37 PM)
Ur2026, yup. That's what I thought he was hinting at too. Perhaps if the human were a "faster stronger Male" then it would be believeable to him and he wouldn't nitpick the f'n movie so much?
It's a film.
again.. It is a film. -
Lupin-III — 9 years ago(June 21, 2016 12:07 AM)
The ending is terrible because that was Jar Jar Abrams' contribution to the film after he appropriated this unrelated indie film for the purpose of turning it into a Cloverfield movie.
The first transport is away hey! -
CalibMcBolts — 9 years ago(June 25, 2016 07:46 AM)
I completely agree, the buildup and everything is phenomenal, i loved this film up untill the final 15 minutes or so.
Favorite films of all time list
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls031708001 -
lEvilDeadl — 9 years ago(June 26, 2016 08:32 AM)
you're right, it was a great movie but uh.what twist? This is a sequel to Cloverfield, a movie about an Alien invasion. How was the ending a twist? I'm guessing you watched this sequel without watching the first movie?