MovieChat Forums > Jean de Florette (1987) Discussion > Re Jean's demise: Why a rock and not a f...

Re Jean's demise: Why a rock and not a fall ? [spoilers]

posted 11 years ago by Sol2010
1 reply | jump to latest

One of my top 10 favourite movies, however, something that troubles me;

Jean is killed by a rock, but surely this is implausible ? it must a full 5 seconds after tha blast that he rushes in to see the spring water "rushing up". Is it realistic to expect the audience to believe a rock would be hanging in the air for so long, before it falls on his head?

Surely it would have been better that he met his end by rushing to the well and accidentally falling in amongst the smoke, excitement and confusion.... trip on a rock.... down he goes....

What do you think?

[–] gtpunch 11 years ago

Rocks don't "hang in the air". For the rock to have hit him 5 seconds after the blast, it would have been travelling upwards for about 2.5 seconds, paused instantaneously, and then downwards for 2.5 seconds. Ignoring air resistance (won't make much difference to the estimate), for a rock to stay in the air for 5 seconds it must be thrown vertically at 2.5 * 9.8 = 24.5 meters per second = 88 km/h = 55 miles per hour.

Do you think it's unreasonable for a rock to be thrown upwards by the explosion at 55 miles per hour? If the rock took 10 seconds to return to earth, then that would double my estimate, and the rock would have to be thrown vertically at 110 miles per hour - still not unreasonable. So really not that unreasonable a cause of death, although yes running into that cloud of dust he was surely also at risk of falling into the hole.