MovieChat Forums > Three Fugitives (1989) Discussion > Really Wrong Math

Really Wrong Math

posted 9 years ago by aqweius-754-858986
3 replies | jump to latest

Unless I'm terrible at math the Guard "Cashing out" Lucas in the beginning of the film was off by a lot of money. He said "0.25 cents an hour, 6 hours a day, five years; that's 1,740 dollars..."

WRONG!

25 cents and hour for six hours a day equals $1.50 a day,
and I'm going to assume, unlike most jobs, a prison job is going to work you ever single day of the year, so for five years, that is 1,825 days he worked,

SO he should be paid "$2,737.50."
If he only made "$1740" for those five years, he only worked 1160 days or 3.17 years

OR

they took 36% in tax.

I know it's just a movie but little knits like that bug the hell out of me.

Discuss.

[–] nrangerseven 9 years ago

Why would you assume prisoners work every single day? You're the one who is wrong. The math is just fine.

The people you idolize wouldn't like you.

[–] et_tu_Brute 9 years ago

It's never safe to assume anything in a movie, or in real life for that matter. Perhaps Sundays wern't included. Maybe he went to Church service or equivalent. Maybe once a week the Prisoners played against the guards in a softball match. Anyway, Ít's Hollywood! A time to suspend belief for 80+ minutes and leave the nit-picking to pendants who can't watch afilm without noting any or all the goofs.

[–] Urmelita 8 years ago

$1740/$1.5 per day = 1160 days / 5 years = 232 days per year (on average) he worked.
Rule of thumb, a year has about 260 working days minus holidays.

So on average, he had 28 days per year off. Call it holidays, illness and whatever.