problems in space


Couple things that made me laugh other than the acting was the fundamental mistakes made in space. When the fighters are taking off from the battleship and reach the end of the runway they dip down as if there was gravity pushing them ....... and why is there a runway there anyway! When Forbes dies in the crash they push the wreckage off and it drops as if there was gravity!! Didnt understand why they didnt bulldoze the ship back inside and check if shes alive! And lastly when they are hiding on the asteroid, why does Paladin shout at everyone to be quite when sound cant travel through space.

Not being anal just thought it was pretty basic stuff that they overlooked, in fact it probably makes the movie better because it makes it worse. Does that make sense?

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The characters' interaction with the laws of physics aside, some questions of my own;
Where's the Kilrathi (sp) hair that they had in the game?
In what way is it sensible to deny a dead persons existence?
In what century in our future will overt racism and bigotary not be acceptable?
Who still employs Freddie Prinze Jr or however he spells his name?
Where the hell are the medics when you need them?
And Neil young? maaaaan...

Its an exciting film.

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Overall I think this movie does a pretty good job at introducing movie watchers to the Wing Commander universe. Despite some script/special effects problems which to be honest if your a real fan you see past and look on the movie as a whole.

Addressing some of the above comments:
The Kilrathi Hair thing, Well we have different breeds of cat on earth some with hair some without. Maybe there are different breeds within the Kilrathi a bit like planet of the apes sorta thing, but you'd have expected to at least see one of the sort we've seen in the games cut scenes (though the games ones reminded me of the Honey Monster).

The denying a dead persons existence thing, that was more a personal demon with devereux since she lost her parents at a young age and was raised in an orphanage and was explained as such in the movie, therefore anyone that died didnt exist.

Bigotry will exist no matter where you go in time, its been happening for thousands of years on earth, why not still 600 and odd years in the future?

On the gravity thing, I think there was supposed to be some sort of gravity plating on that forward deck hence why the fighters dip down a bit when leaving and i didnt see the vehicle that scraped her off the side using anything to stay down, though this never happened in the game :P But also bear in mind that they were in a system full of planets and asteroids some concievably large enough to have their own gravity.

Fighters running out of fuel:- Well the carrier in time of war wouldnt stay stationary unless it really had to (We saw the skipper missile and a stationary target makes for an easy kill), hence fighters would have to circle in order to land. Also there are asteroids moving all over the place so keeping moving to avoid these would also explain. Sorry common sense answered this one.
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Though I really liked this movie, they obviously threw alot of money at it and boy it shows, nice effects excellent CGI , and the acting was pretty decent, very good cast, alot of British actors whom will be recogniseable from normal TV here in the UK all of whom acted their parts well.

I'd really hope that Origin Systems decides to make sequels to this continuing the history of the WC universe, would be nice to have a different type of Sci-fi on screen other than Star Trek, which seems to have had its day for now.

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Bearing in mind I did actually liked the film. (Coz I damn well loved the games - That's why... In case anyone asks why!?)

More to the point (Re bulldozing) - They said they needed to land in a hurry as they were "running on vapour" (Thus didn't have time to save the ship - Better to just get it out of the way) - Being in space they could just turn off the engines and drift??? That's a glaringly bad mistake which actually costs the film in my opinion - It made it look like they couldn't give a hoot about the downed pilot - Just scrape Forbes off and continue!

You might like to look at the film again though as I think I see a bit more to the story that's not told (Unless it's just me) - I don't think that Forbes IS dead after the crash... not just yet anyway - Not until the bulldozer pushes the ship off the side and the cockpit is shattered... (Look closely)... I wonder if someone is trying to tell us something as they made the cockpit destruction kinda obvious for no apparent reason!?!?

As far as the 'runway' goes - Maybe there were gravity rails that held the ships down, thus 'gravity' was still pulling just after the end of the runway? Or maybe they didn't want to be like Star Wars all over again!?

Again - Forbe's ship being pushed over the side might be a side effect of the gravity rails - Otherwise, how would the dozer stay on the surface?

I think the 'shout' was just out of reaction. Normally you wouldn't tell people (in a calm voice) to "please be quite" in that situation!?


** You have to remember, regarding space and gravity, that they were (in some way) trying to keep to the Wing Commander Game universe - This was before everyone got anal about 'physics' in space!!! In Star Wars, there would be NO sound, nor could any of the fighters be able to fly they way they do - Anyone want to comment about that!? **

After all this - IT'S A FILM people! It's just a film.

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yes you are being anal. Its just a movie.

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Aside from the obvious gravity problems listed by the original poster, I really liked this movie. I'd seen it about 20 times before I knew it was made from a video game:)

Therefore I am not biased about any missing content. Good movie, interesting gravity.

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There's one hilarious artistic addition I found in this movie...

Just to add to the effect of the rapiers being "fighters" the helmets have oxygen masks just like our military jet fighters...

Those masks are to keep pilots concious at high speed or altitude ONLY because military craft don't have pressurized cockpits.

In space this is irrelavant. If the cockpit's life support system weren't pressurized in space, you'd need a FULL suit, not just a mask :)

But it still served as a cool reference to fighter jets.


OH, and good comment on the bulldozer reference...why the hell didn't they just push the wreckage inside the shield instead of off the deck? It's not like the extra time would have been that significant. :)

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For the oxygen masks comment...

You never actually see an oxygen hose hooked up to the mask. Its more of a straight-up strap across the face. I'd think its more for communication (the mic is probably located in the mask, as in current fighters. From an editing standpoint, it could also be for the benefit of the post-production people. Maybe if they wanted to change lines or redub the dialogue, its easier to add in voice wherever you want it when you don't have to worry about syncing up the dialogue to the lip movement. They can even add in whole lines altogether that weren't there before. Comes in handy for the editing crew, I'd think. Just a thought.



"It's choice - not chance - that determines your destiny."
~ Jean Nidetch

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The thing that really got to me was when the soldiers were called Marines. There's no way in hell they were part of the Corps, for there ARE NO WOMEN! Yeah, the concept was popularized in films like ALIENS, but that film only used female Marines as reflections of how the roles of women expanded. Granted, they have more roles within the military, particularly the Navy and the Army, but the Marine Corps does not allow women.

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Yeah, the Marine Corps of the United States in present day doesn't allow women to fight, but you don't think things can change in the future (especially a science FICTION future)? Not to mention that the world is unified in Wing Commander, so it isn't the United States running everything.

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Looks like you forgot to take your anti-retard pills again.

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Women are allowed the same roles in the Marine Corps as they are in any other branch of the armed forces. They also have the same restrictions. At the CURRENT place and time, they are not allowed to be put in a combat situation. Although who is to say that couldn't change in the future. Next time at least try to google something before opening your mouth about it.

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Not everything on the internet is trustworthy. A schoolmate of mine is in the Marine Corps, plus I talked to people who were 0311s, so I know what I'm talking about. As for women in the Corps, are you referring to the Naval corpsmen and Navy officers? There are linkages between the Navy and the Marines, afterall.

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bro I just got out of the military and trust me there are many a woman in the USMC. They just can't go into combat as others have already stated. Go to the USMC website if you want. My friend's sister in an officer in the USMC. Try getting some reliabe info yourself next time.

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I feel sorry for the USMC if they really don't allow women into service, A woman is a wonderful thing.

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i think the deck plating was magnitized... if you watch when the planes land it looks as though they are sucked onto the deck and they have metal skids as opposed to wheels which would make a magnetic deck more effective

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Whilst the film did have quite a lot of scientific errors, many of the things like sound in space, ships flying in just like in an atmosphere etc are pretty much the norm for science fiction, so it's not at all fair to criticise the film based on this, unless critisising the unrealistic nature of science fiction as a whole (but if you only want relistic sci-fi, you're going to be very stuck for choice).

One thing, on the issue of fuel, I try to think of it not as running out of fuel for propulsion, but for manovering. If a ship in space runs out of fuel it will be unable to change speed or direction, so will basically continue on forever with no way of controlling it, or it might be drawn into the gravitational pull of a planet or star and crash into it.

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I agree with katherinecooper23 about other sci-fi abusing bad science all the time but on the sound in space thing most just have special effects because the viewer expects there to be special effects and not a soundless void. We can just ignore the sounds of laser blasts and what not because they're just there as filler.

The problem with Wing Commander is the overt statements to "be quiet or the Kilrathi will hear you" which really jarred me and a lot of other people right out of the movie because it wasn't just a concession like having the sounds of war in space it was an outright display of ignorance.

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Not being anal? THATS EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE BEING DOUCHE! When are you people going to learn that movies DON'T HAVE TO FOLLOW THE RULS OF OUR UNIVERSE! Just enjoy the damn thing and don't pick it to pieces.

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Although there is a lot of nonsense at work, I think that telling everyone to "shutup" to avoid detection was more of an homage to Das Boot than anything else.

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That's pretty much exactly what it was, a reference to another war movie.

But really, everyone needs to go back an watch the scene again. They *NEVER* ever say to be quiet because they'll hear them. Paladin tells them to be quiet because they are still in danger and the and the kilrathi ship is still hunting them. In other words, it was too soon to rejoice.

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You can have gravity in space, if your close to something big like a star, huge planet or black hole. Lets say they had something like that below them, then it would pull the wreckage "down" aka falling.

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You can have gravity in space, if your close to something big like a star, huge planet or black hole. Lets say they had something like that below them, then it would pull the wreckage "down" aka falling.


The gravitational pull from a nearby planet wouldn't be anywhere near enough to make it drop off the deck like that.

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Audio in space is "normally" rationalised away with sensors / computers providing the human crew with auditory ques to direction.

The gravity thing for fighters can also be a non-issue if you consider that all the ships have artificial gravity. Since everyone onboard isn't floating around. In that case a landing strip might even make sense for the transition of, perhaps, zero-g fighters to the 1 g aboard the mothership/carrier/capitalship.

In any case the bigger problems about space was the fantastical usage of pulsars, quasars, black holes and so forth. Which was wholly unrealistic. :)

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There was also a minor issue when they hid in a crater - and there was the remark - they are bombing every crater - hmmm well that was fun

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