Question about the ending (Spoiler)
Who planted the bomb on the plane?
shareIt could have just been an accident.
shareI suppose so, I just kinda assumed the worst.
share
MovieChat Forums > Przypadek (1987) Discussion > Question about the ending (Spoiler)
I wish someone else had answered your question, because I was wondering the same thing. I saw no evidence of exactly what caused the explosion – just the result.
I especially wonder how this was filmed. This was long before CGI (thankfully), and this looks like a real explosion, not a model. What a harrowing ending for meditative film.
I wondered the same thing, how the hell did they do that? Some kind of plane model..?
shareIt's amazing, isn't it? If it's just a model, they did a good job faking it because it appears to be full-scale. It looks like they actually blew up the plane, or at least something in the sky. I wish I knew.
shareIt's pretty obvious that it's a model. They did a reasonable job of matching the model position and apparent size with the footage they had of a plane taking off, although if you look at it the takeoff footage had the plane's nose pointed well to the right, while the model's nose is pointed slightly to the left. Also it's no surprise that the model doesn't have its flaps down. After the first explosion the model just hangs there in midair, I assume held up by wires, until it drops like a stone after the second explosion. It's not badly done (I don't see the wires), but I don't think it would fool anyone giving it a second look.
-- TopFrog
Thanks for the explanation. It did fool me, but I watched it only once.
shareGiven all sorts of terrorist attacks it's no wonder that the first thing that comes to mind is a bomb but in the original script it was simply an engine failure caused by an inexperienced mechanic's mistake.
Kieslowski's source of inspiration was real life so it's possible he conceived the plane crash scene thinking of a tragic catastrophe of a Russian made IL-62 aircraft "Mikolaj Kopernik" in 1980 which claimed, among others, the life of a beloved polish singer Anna Jantar. It shook the entire society and especially the artistic circles.
IL-62 plane had a potentially dangerous design flaw and although the polish authorities knew about it they were obliged to buy aircrafts from the Soviets and suppressed the evidence. The ultimate cause of the crash was a turbine explosion, something similar to what was shown in the movie. You can find details on youtube if you want.
Kieslowski didn't find it necessary to explain every detail however, in the original script this plot connection unfolds as follows:
In Part 2 Witek has an affair with a married Jewish girl, Vera. Her husband is an expert airplane mechanic and the plane crew always waits for his verdict before each take-off. He’s known for detecting the tiniest engine irregularities. After Vera returns from Witek's place, she tells her husband she has a lover. On top of it, the mechanic's father who is a doctor working at the facility for the junkies (Part 1) gets stabbed in the hand multiple times with a fork by one of them. The engineer sets out to punish the perpetrator and gets arrested by the police. The plane gets clearance from a young mechanic who was called in his place and the plane Witek boarded blows up in mid-air.
Hope this helps.
I flew on Aeroflot airlines on several occasions in the early nineties. They rattled as if every rivet was loose and as though it only had one or two flights left in it. One had their fingers crossed the entire time. :)
shareAeroflot felt like Cathay Pacific in comparison to Mongolian Airlines in the 80'ties lol. They had recycled Aeroflot aircrafts like the one I was on. The oxygen masks popped up during take off and whoever didn't secure the serving cart that started moving and loosing trays with a heart attack inducing noise, should have been thrown out of the plane! Next they served a disgustingly smelly mutton meat for dinner but TG, vodka was really good and served as a mind eraser for what it seemed like the longest flight of my life.
shareI´m sure the rattling´s a matter of shortcomings in maintenence rather than aircraft design.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
I went to the USSR in 1990 and the flight from New York to Moscow was fine. But the domestic flight from Moscow to Leningrad was as you described, and I've never been so scared!
share"A turbine explosion, something similar to what was shown in the movie".
Admittedly, it´s sort of like nit picking (not to mention completely irrelevant to the film´s themes or quality), but even an uncontained engine failure wouldn´t cause a plane to blow up mid-air in a fireball like that. For Kieslowski, however, it was obviously easier - not to mention much more spectacular - to blow the model up rather than try and be more realistic about it.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan