How did Enyalat die?

I have never been great at science, but I beleive it was from carbon monoxide poisoning. There wasen't a airhole so they were breathing their own air. That or they suffacated, one of the two.

Please don't reveal major plotpoints in the subject line. You've probably stopped people from watching it now even though I know you were encouraging them in your other post.

They ran out of air after more than 40 hours in the container.

Are you familiar with the concept of spoiler?

*spoiler*
it was from suffocation, they spent a few days in that truck with little or no fresh air and with the seven(?) of them in there they would have used up the air fast. he was shouting and banging because they knew they were going to suffocate.

Please change your subject line from "How did Enyalat die?" to "SPOILER Question about Enyalat's fate" or words to that effect. Otherwise, you are risking giving away a MAJOR plot point to people who haven't seen the movie yet and are just browsing the main imdb webpage for info.

That said, it could have been either suffocation or thirst. The human body is not meant to go more than two or three days without fresh water, and the travelers clearly didn't have time to get fresh provisions before being locked in.

Anyone else notice that the "Plot Keywords" section kind of gives this away?

'Suffocation' is one of the keywords! Kind of wish it wasn't, any way to change this?

And people really need to stop putting spoilers in thread titles! If it shows up as one of the main threads at the bottom of the page you can get a plot element spoiled without even going to the message board.

Suffocation. There were no air holes. Jamal only survived because he was the smallest and needed the least air.

The most probable cause of death for Enayat & the rest is asphyxia (ie. lack of oxygen to brain & body tissues) due to environmental oxygen depletion. The steel shipping container that the illegal immigrants were stowed away is almost airtight after being sealed. This would have resulted in a drastic decrease of available oxygen in the enclosed space, as the journey persisted over a number of days.

Notice how the entrapped people had shouted & banged on the container's walls in frustration & confusion (as it became increasingly difficult to breathe), before gradually losing motivation, attention & consciousness. These are some of the symptoms of asphyxia & low oxygen levels in the blood (hypoxemia).

In contrast, for acute carbon monoxide poisoning occurring at concentrations high enough to be fatal, victims typically experience headaches, dizziness, nausea within a short span of time (0-20 minutes) after exposure. These are followed by more serious symptoms, including vomiting, frothing from the mouth &/or nose, as well as the loss of bladder/ bowel control. Respiratory failure & death follow within 3 minutes to less than 2 hours after exposure.

Furthermore, in the movie, the ill effects of asphyxia due to oxygen depletion were likely exacerbated by additional complications arising from being trapped for days without adequate food & water within an unheated shipping container. Survivors of such dangerous passages often suffer from dehydration & hypothermia.

Below is a recent case, which is a being investigated as a homicide.

* Man dies, as 35 people found 'screaming and banging' in shipping container at Tilbury Docks (16 Aug 2014): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/11038521/Man-dies-as-35-people-found-s creaming-and-banging-in-shipping-container-at-Tilbury-Docks.html

From a biomedical point of view, it may seem peculiar that Jamal (a 16-year-old teenager) & the toddler survived, while the adult characters (including Enayat) died in the movie.

Below are the normal ranges for blood hemoglobin concentration in humans. Note that higher hemoglobin concentration correlates to higher oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood, which in turn leads to better resistance & outcome against the effects of asphyxia.

* Newborn: 17-22 g/dL (mean 16.5 g/dL)
* 1 week: 15-20 g/dL (mean 17.5 g/dL)
* 1 month: 11-15 g/dL (mean 14.0 g/dL)
* 3-6 months: mean 11.5 g/dL
* 0.5-2 years: mean 12.0 g/dL
* 2-6 years: mean 12.5 g/dL (mean 12.5 g/dL) ====> TODDLER
* 6-12 years: 11-13 g/dL
* 12-18 yrs (Male): mean 14.5 g/dL ====> JAMAL
* 12-18 yrs (Female): mean 14.0 g/dL
* Adult Male: 14-18 g/dL (mean 15.7 g/dL) ====> ENAYAT, TODDLER'S FATHER
* Adult Female: 12-16 g/dL (mean 13.8 g/dL) ====> ENAYAT, TODDLER'S MOTHER
* Middle-aged (Male): 12.4-14.9 g/dL
* Middle-aged (Female): 11.7-13.8 g/dL

Notice how the teenage Jamal & the toddler should by right possess lesser oxygen-carrying capacity than adult males & as such, should have been more susceptible to asphyxia than the older Enayat.

However, the brain is able to survive for some time without oxygen, if there is sufficient glucose stored within the body for anaerobic metabolism. Although the human brain itself does not store significant amounts of glucose, this can be derived from the significant amounts of glycogen stored within the cardiac muscle. As long the circulation system is not impaired, heart muscle glycogen can be transported to the brain for anaerobic metabolism in the absence of oxygen.

And children do have higher rates of blood circulation to & within the brain than adults (see below). Moreover, the adults in the shipping container might have sacrificed food in favour of the younger ones (Jamal & the toddler), thus resulting in the latter two being better-fed than the adults before food supplies totally ran out.

* Blood flow through whole brain (child): 105 ml/100 g/min
* Blood flow through whole brain (adult): 54 ml/100 g/min

As such, the above factors might have the reasons why the 2 youngest people survived, while the adults perished from asphyxia during the transit across the sea.

In any case, one should also bear in mind that the real-life Enayat (ie. Enayatullah playing himself) did not actually die in the movie, although his fictional character did.

References:
[1] Hemoglobin Concentration: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2085614-overview
[2] Definition of Hemoglobin Normal Values: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=15737

[3] Diving and Asphyxia: A Comparative Study of Animals and Man (Cambridge University Press, 1983):
— pg 105 (Google Books): http://goo.gl/x11rBV
— pg 106 (Google Books): http://goo.gl/xZJ9AP

[4] Cerebral blood flow and Metabolism — Blood Supply in Numbers: http://www.neurosurg.cam.ac.uk/pages/brainphys/02-Cerebral_blood_flow. pdf