our ass back to the Stone Age”
I don’t get that line, why would he think they would bomb the place when there’s hostages there?
They had actually committed to bombing it. If they didn't then several million people were going to be killed.
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few".
Just like 911, why were fighter planes scrambled? What could they do? All they can do is shoot down a passenger jet with a 100 plus people on it. Well, if they had a plane they discovered in time was flying towards a city target on a suicide mission they were going to shoot them down.
80,000 not several million , as Jones70 pointed out already.
Odd that he was the one to point it out, being the OP.
Its like he answered his own question
Where is 80,000 coming from? It has been years since I saw the film. San Francisco's population in the mid 1990's was on the order of 700,000 and the whole Bay Area something like two and a half million or so.
Author:
The Road from Antioch
In the Markets of Tyre
it was an estimate from one of the cia men in the film
shareThanks, moviechaterer.
Given that, I'm not sure why they think only 80,000 people are in jeopardy. San Francisco itself has a large population, and the bay area has more. Granted the gas would eventually "peter out", but there were multiple missiles and gas isn't containable in those circumstances. Even assuming all the missiles are targeted at the same coordinates, they won't all hit at that exact point. Each impact will have an independent radius of exposure, complicated by the various shockwaves from each impact. (assuming the missiles actually explode and don't just shatter the glass globes the gas is contained in.)
The most likely explanation, of course, is the writer/director wasn't that concerned and just pulled a number out of the air.
yeah i think dispersal of the gas is the main factor , its not going to hang around for ever , or travel much.
so wont kill an entire city, maybe everyone within half mile or something.
also i think the 80k quote may have been for a single rocket