MovieChat Forums > Encounters at the End of the World (2008) Discussion > what's up with the sturgeon?

what's up with the sturgeon?

posted 16 years ago by deanowest
5 replies | jump to latest

I loved this film. it was about the beginnings and ends of things. I felt it was dark and humorous. lovely and thought provoking. My wife and I had a huge discussion about the film, making connections within the film and to his other films . the more you give to it, the more it will give to you.

here is my simple question: What's up with the frozen sturgeon in the tunnel below the south pole? he doesnt explain the purpose of the tunnels let alone the sturgeon. a classic herzogian moment. it reminded me of the dead at the begining of Nosferatu. maybe he is just riffing on himself?

I loved when the woman who traveled africa in garbage truck had her story prempted by herzog who implied she was a boring story teller and quickly summarizes it over her monologue. then he does it again with the linguist in the grean house. Herzog cuts him off and says, "To make a long story short...." I almost died laughing when he did that. the nerve of the guy, god bless him. what a smart ass. I love this man. it might be cool to see the entire interviews on a dvd.

[–] ebright99 15 years ago

The sturgeon is a bit weird. It went by pretty fast, but I think Herzog explained that the tunnel was not only a conduit and access tunnel, but also crossed under the true South Pole, which I assume to mean the true magnetic South Pole, but I am only guessing. People had left many different mementos down there and Herzog shows several of them. Caviar comes from sturgeon, and along with the whole fish was a round tin of caviar. You traditionally serve caviar on ice, so it’s a joke on the idea that this must be the coldest place on earth and therefore the best place to have some caviar.

[–] KipWellsFan 15 years ago

yah, I was under the impression that this was put there just to puzzle alien archaelogists if they decided to come look at the exact south pole. But I think it was more of a running joke among the people who've actually visited Antarctica.

"Everybody be cool... you be cool" George Clooney as Seth Gecko in From Dusk Till Dawn

[–] SherlockVonEinstein 12 years ago

It got me thinking a bit about how scientists are just like anybody else. They have senses of humors. The sturgeon could've been an an inside joke or had no meaning at all. Someone could've simply been like, "Wouldn't it be funny if you put a big fish down at the exact spot of where the South Pole is?"

Then I started to wonder if the reason why there are the things we haven't been able to decode from ancient temples/civilizations is because they were nothing more than inside jokes or memes that had no inherent meaning (like LOL-cats, Rick Rolls, or any other running gag on the internet).

[–] annmason24 9 years ago

I should think that scientists in the distant future would be misled by that sturgeon. Whole theories of overlapping temporal migrations of fish non indigenous to the South Pole might evolve when such a stupendous discovery is made! Some
Ph.D. student`s gonna graduate with honors, that`s for sure.

To me, it`s contaminating a future archeological site; our descendants won`t get the joke.

It kind of reminds me of "The Motel of the Mysteries"; projecting erroneous interpretations on mundane current objects.

[–] chris-wulfers 8 years ago

The tunnel is obviously a passageway to the ancient city of Atlantis that was built by aliens, where we have been reverse engineering their technology for decades.