So, Curnow is this master space engineer, and he's afraid of heights. How the (bleep!) did this guy ever get off the ground?
Logic notwithstanding, my guess is that Curnow is just written that way to provide dramatic tension during the Discovery recovery scene, and to maybe put the audience in Curnow's shoes.
But, I do not see how it can possibly make any sense.
They did say he was supervising the building of the Discovery 2. However, the reason they sent him on the mission is because Curnow was needed to get the original Discovery back up and running. Due to his familiarity with the Discovery 2's systems he was needed to be able to find out what made the original Discovery fail. Didn't matter if he was afraid of heights. If he was doing most of his work from the ground, which is what I got, on Discovery 2. I'm trying to recall if he was that way in the book, but I hope that answers your question. And it really wouldn't matter if he was afraid of heights. If he's the best person for the job hell yeah Floyd was going to take him with them. There are architects who are afraid of heights and who won't go up in high buildings to supervise. They will let their assistants do it.
shareOkay, I get what you're saying. I thought that he was in space BUILDING Discovery 2. So, if he was on the ground, that makes more sense. I've seen the movie so many times, I would have thought that I would have caught what you're talking about. That being the case, I think they should have at least thrown in a line of dialogue like, "Hey, I'm in an office designing these things, not up in space building them," or something like that.
shareNo. He was supervising from the ground. Floyd said to Milson that he needed both Curnow and Chandra for the mission. Chandra of course was at the university where he was programing SAL, but Curnow was supervising from the ground. It's not explicitly stated that's what Curnow was doing. I really don't think a line would have been necessary. It really didn't matter where Curnow was, just so long as he was needed for the mission.
shareYeah, but his whole freak out in space took me out of the movie. And, John Lithgow's propensity for overacting got on my nerves. I personally needed a good reason for his hysterics.
shareFor me it's just one small part in the film. It doesn't bother me at all. I thought all his scenes with Max were cute. When Max died and how Curnow reacted really got my heart. I also loved the scene where Curnow and Floyd are joking about the hot dog wieners. Too funny.
share[deleted]