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The Big Question: What Happered In Detroit? [POSSIBLE SPOILER]

posted 18 years ago by radioguyreturns
7 replies | jump to latest

I've wondered about this, but would like to know for sure...

I never read the story or novel, and it isn't explicitly explained in the film (at least not in the cut I saw) but from the special effects, it seems while they were in the Detroit wrecking yard, that a meteor or asteroid hit the earth and reset it on it's original axis.

Is that actually the case? It would make sense, if so.

http://www.xm202.info

[–] tgs333 18 years ago

They were in some junk yard, 'near' Detroit, probably Monroe Michigan (but looked like Southern California to me), and there is a big storm and their is a tidal wave, and then everything is back to normal.

"I'm a vehemently anti-nuclear, paranoid mess, harbouring a strange obsession with radioactive sheep."

[–] Avenger69 17 years ago

It was the Earth coming back on its axis (WTF?). Earlier in the film, George Peppard's character explains that the Earth shifted off its axis, and that if it were to come back, everything could come back to normal. He goes further and explains that "it could do it all on its own."

I don't know where a missile wing commander gets his scientific info...

Also, the Earth returning to normal is not in the book.

[–] radioguyreturns 17 years ago

They were in some junk yard, 'near' Detroit, probably Monroe Michigan (but looked like Southern California to me), and there is a big storm and their is a tidal wave, and then everything is back to normal.

Describing to me, what I actually see in the film, is not what I was looking for. :-D

It was the Earth coming back on its axis (WTF?). Earlier in the film, George Peppard's character explains that the Earth shifted off its axis, and that if it were to come back, everything could come back to normal. He goes further and explains that "it could do it all on its own."

I don't know where a missile wing commander gets his scientific info...

Also, the Earth returning to normal is not in the book.

Likewise, I'm not looking for what I can see played out, just clarification. Obviously the Earth returns to is axis. What I'm looking for is the cause of it.

The line you refer to takes place around 1:00 in the version I've seen, and what is actually said, in addition to the special effects, leads me to wonder if it's a meteor.

Billy: So what's gonna happen?

Tanner: Nothing. This is it. This is how things are gonna be.

Denton: Billy, with all those explosions...they knocked the world off its axis.

Billy: What's is its axis?

Tanner: It's kinda like it's center.

Denton: Yeah...something like that...and if it comes back, everything can come back to normal.

Billy: Well, would it take another explosion to do that? Straighten it up?

Denton: I don't know. It could do it all by itself.

Billy: Nothing good just ever happens by itself. No matter how much you want it to. You gotta make it.

There seems to be some emphasis on Billy's last line in that scene, which seems to be a setup of some kind.

Watching the scene later in the junkyard, it looks (visually, from the sky) as if the Earth is in the midsts of a meteor shower. The tsunami that occurs afterward would surely happen if there were oceanic impacts.

It makes sense, and it seems to me it's implied, but it's not explicitly explained. I'd love to know for sure if it was.

EDIT: I just watched the "storm" scene again. While I still think a meteor/asteroid impact to be more likely, I wonder if Billy's line may have meant that some action on the part of man literally had to occur. Looking at that dark veil cover the USA, I notice it's coming from over the pole. The same direction the ICBMs came from. Could the glowing objects we see be more ICBMs? Within the science of the film, I wonder if that's meant to imply a second launch to reset Earth's axis.

Too bad there isn't a "making of" book to explain their intent. :(

http://www.xm202.info

[–] Avenger69 17 years ago

I think you are looking for WAY too much explaination here -- nothing explains the meteor shower. And after two plus years, the odds are, there would be no more ICBMs in the ground to fire.

I think what it comes down to is one of two things: Peppard's line of the Earth "doing it all on it's own" seems to be an option, but the most likely one for me seems to be director Jack Smight and the writers saying "uhh... we've got to end this movie! Find me some stock footage of waves from "When World's Collide" and the dam collapse from "Earthquake," and you... guy... go grab the model of the Landmaster and a camera, and go throw the thing in the waves at Santa Monica Beach, and that will be our ending..."

Or something like that...

[–] radioguyreturns 17 years ago

Heh, yeah, I know. It could be that simple. :)

Still, the scene with the kid seemed a bit too much like a setup to me. It stuck in my head, The ICBMs was something that crossed my mind, but far more of a long shot. Just thinking out loud there.

It would be nice to know the intentions here, though.

http://www.xm202.info

[–] tgs333 17 years ago

The scene to me looked like a a game of Missile Command being unpluged in the middle of unplaying it.

"I'm a vehemently anti-nuclear, paranoid mess, harbouring a strange obsession with radioactive sheep."

[–] jevicci 7 years ago

That's a good theory. I didn't think of that. What doesn't make sense to me, though, is why did it appear like a growing storm? Wouldn't a meteor or ICBM impact be just a very abrupt catastrophe instead of a gradually-worsening storm? Also, it doesn't make sense that things would return to normal so suddenly after the correct axis of rotation was restored. It would take many years.