MovieChat Forums > Poseidon (2006) Discussion > Could you really kick a person to their ...

Could you really kick a person to their death?


That was a really bad scene. It just goes to show you what a lack of character we have in our society today to put that in a movie. I know it was his life or death, but come on. A real hero would have gone down with the other guy instead of sparing his own life. And he didn't even feel bad about it. I know that if I had kicked a person off of me and falling to their death, I sure would feel guilty. Horrible movie. It has no heart like the other one did.


I like cats named nightmare. I have a "nightmare" every night!

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I agree, I hate this movie for that scene alone. The coward didn't hesitate to basically murder someone to save his own pathetic life. What's worse is that he never gets his comeuppance either. I could understand if he was the villain because we've already established that he's selfish and evil, but this is one of the protagonists, someone we're supposed to be rooting for. This, I think, is one of the reasons this movie didn't do well: you have to have likeable characters that, you know, don't do terrible things. The new "Noah" movie had the same problem (among others).

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Pretty much the scene I loathe too.
And I love Josh Lucas, and it's also because I've like Freddy since Ugly Betty haha.
Ah. Conflicting with the actors, but the scene is horrible! It was different though.

You stand here sucker. You made me do this - Jeremy Renner
www.sksainitheauthor.blogspot.com

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I disagree and honestly question anyone here who thinks they would be "the hero" in this exact situation. Sure, it's easy to say you would be but dying a horrible death to save some nobody waiter on a cruise ship you don't even know? GTFOH!

I think this is a very thought provocing scene and if it brought out heavy emotions in you, then it did it's job. I actually pondered if I would do the same thing as Dreyfus and you know, I probably would. Think about when everyone was clawing their way up the Tree in the 72 version, how important is YOUR life to you??? How bad do YOU want to survive?


Oh I travel, a sort of licenced troubleshooter.

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At least one person is honest. Unless it was someone I loved dearly I would not hesitate. And I constantly (kinda) joke saying that in a zombie/killer type scenario that I don't have to outrun the killer, I just have to outrun my slowest friend. I'm only half joking....



And Max the king of all wild things wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.

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Exactly!!! And would the waiter have held onto you in the reverse situation? I think not. Its one thing when we are talking family or friends, but for a nobody?? I'm realistic... sorry Garcon, but your shift..is over.

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I agree. It was a decision he had to make very quickly and was supposed to be horrifying. Normally, the guy holding on nobly sacrifices himself while the others tell him to hang on. Here, the waiter (realistically) screams for them to help him and Dreyfus has to make a decision. Should two people die when one could be saved? There was no possibility of them both being saved, nor of the waiter being saved instead of Dreyfus.

I don't think I could kick a man to his death, but I don't think I could willingly fall down down a shaft to my death either!

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Spot on sir. It's easy sitting at a keyboard talking about a hypothetical situation and say "ofc I would have been the hero and died to" BS!
When push comes to shove, and especially in this scenario, the option was not to heroically die to save someone else but should one or two persons die.
As you said, at that point it's "Sry garcon...your shift is over".

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When push comes to shove, and especially in this scenario, the option was not to heroically die to save someone else but should one or two persons die.
As you said, at that point it's "Sry garcon...your shift is over".


Exactly! :)

Who's strangling the cat?

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You couldn't kick someone to their death to save your life. Once a person senses how high up they are they will hold on with a death grip to any hand hold they can get, including you! You break their grip, they find some other grip instantly. A team of mules could not get them to let go.

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Nope. Couldn't do it. Especially not to anyone as gorgeous as Valentin.

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I don't know if I would be successful or not but I certainly do hope I would try.

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Easy to think it would be doable to give up your own life until you're truly in that situation.

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No, it doesn't happen in real life.

In virtually all instances in real life, there is every attempt to save everyone possible.

There's a 1950s movie starring Tyrone Power called Abandon Ship, remade in the '70s with Martin Sheen, that 'touches' on people being cast adrift from an overcrowded lifeboat, but it's bunk.

Perhaps one of the greatest moments in reality, the overturned lifeboat from the Titanic, would be picked up by another lifeboat, making 70 people, standing room only and the boat was so low in the water, they appeared as tho they were walking on water by other lifeboats drawing near.

For anyone who wants to say the overturned lifeboat did turn people, such as the captain (an urban legend), the overturned lifeboat allowed all on it could several times, until it sank beneath them.

But in this instance in this movie, no one would have been kicked off like that. It's not the human conditioning to throw a life away like that. That's Hollywood drama (see Platoon).

I liked the original Poseidon Adventure, even read the book, and even liked the '79 sequel, as bad as it was, but this was the first time I've seen this Josh Lucas and I don't think I have ever seen as bad a performance as he gave in this. It was terrible.

The movie would have been better having the waiter sacrifice himself and letting go, rather than having it decided to kick him off.

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I agree. That scene made my jaw drop. Watching an innocent man, screaming in fear of dying, being kicked off a ledge and down a fiery pit only to be crushed by a racing elevator? That's awful! On top of that, the film portrayed him as being the most courageous, heroic, and down-to-earth man in the film, as well as the best and most likable, yet he gets one of the worst deaths I've ever seen in a movie (both in the sense that his death was tragic and that his death was written terribly). To make matters worse, nobody even gives a *beep* afterwards, they're just like "sucks...okay, next level!" Hell, they aren't even like "sucks", they just immediately ignore the fact that a loving guy not only died, but was murdered!

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Perhaps one of the greatest moments in reality, the overturned lifeboat from the Titanic, would be picked up by another lifeboat, making 70 people, standing room only and the boat was so low in the water, they appeared as tho they were walking on water by other lifeboats drawing near.

For anyone who wants to say the overturned lifeboat did turn people, such as the captain (an urban legend), the overturned lifeboat allowed all on it could several times, until it sank beneath them.


100% false. As somebody who has been obsessed with every aspect of the Titanic disaster since age 3, I can tell you that people were turned away from Collapsible B, some of them rather violently. And the situation was even worse at Collapsible A (the other boat that floated off the deck, which remained upright). That and the fact that most of the boats chose not to go back for fear of being swamped.

No, it doesn't happen in real life.

In virtually all instances in real life, there is every attempt to save everyone possible.


You are naively optimistic sir. Have you never heard of the sinking of the William Brown? The Raft of the Medusa? The sinking of the Estonia?

As for whether or not I would, I'll say yes, if it was a stranger. And I hazard to say everyone here would. It's easy to say you wouldn't until you are in that situation. It's like cannibalism. Most people who it's been discussed with say they wouldn't, but I've read a lot of true stories of people resorting to cannibalism in survival situations, and never once have I read one where someone refused to join in.

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