MovieChat Forums > The Road (2009) Discussion > Impressive that the family survived so l...

Impressive that the family survived so long....what happened the horses?

posted 8 years ago by charlesadams1
4 replies | jump to latest

I think it's amazing the husband, wife and child lived as long as they did considering the boy wasn't born before the event occurred and he was something like 5 or 6 by the time we see them on the road so somehow they found enough food to live all those years.

Since nobody knew or planned for these disasters it is unlikely they had huge stockpiles of food stored up. Most people don't have more than a few MONTHS worth of food in their homes at any time let alone several YEARS.

I did wonder what happened to those horses we saw in the opening scene though. Anybody think they butchered and ate them? I don't believe there was anything about that in the book.

I know some people say they think the disaster was an asteroid hitting the Earth but how would that explain the EMP? The Electro Magnetic Pulse which destroyed all the computers and electronics? Remember all the clocks stopped working at the same time. Unless there was some kind of pulse weapon there would still be some machines on batteries or backup generators still operating if it was just a crashing of the power grid, if an asteroid could even cause that to happen.

[–] TerraFirma69 8 years ago

I'd guess the horses went into their tummies, shortly after any cattle and other livestock available.

As for the clock(s) stopping, did he mention they all stopped or did he just mean one ('the clock stopped' and 'the clocks stopped' are easily confused), perhaps meaning their clock radio or something when the power went out, just his way of telling us what time it happened? Letting us know that it happened in the wee hours felt like a way of conveying what an unexpected and unprepared for event it was.

As an aside on EMP, I'm sure I've heard and read about it also being caused by impacts like meteor strikes, you can imagine the amount of energies involved in a big one.

...then whoa, differences...

[–] greg-233 8 years ago

In the novel of The Road it said:

The clocks stopped at 1:17. A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions. He got up and went to the window. What is it? she said. He didn't answer. He went into the bathroom and threw the lightswitch but the power was already gone. A dull rose glow in the window-glass.

The Man then fills the bathtub with water.

[–] TerraFirma69 8 years ago

Ah right fair enough.

...then whoa, differences...

[–] cfell-46970 7 years ago

The event that triggered the end of civilization is the only part of the story that left me unsatisfied. It is depicted in both the movie and the book and seems to arrive as a complete surprise. I found that a bit unbelievable. If it was a nuclear war, surely the couple would have had some advance idea it was possible and made preparations. A nuclear war on a scale to destroy most life on Earth would have to be between Russia and the US. And since the Cold War those two countries have been in the same sphere. They may not be allies, but nor are they enemies. More like rivals. The political situation between them would have to had deteriorated quickly for it to come to war. The whole world would have seen that coming.

And if it was an impact with an asteroid or other celestial body, everybody would have known it was coming. (Read the Last Policeman series by Ben Winters for this exact scenario)