MovieChat Forums > 2012 (2009) Discussion > Carl Anheuser was RIGHT

Carl Anheuser was RIGHT

posted 8 years ago by kuma_lacu
12 replies | jump to latest

I wanna focus on Carl Anheuser for a moment. Its clear from the start that they wanna make him the jerk of the movie... They paint him that way several times throughout the film. However, when the black scientist and the presidents daughter start giving him grief about the passengers of the boats and Carl Anheuser stops and says "so what, life's not fair?" and then he tells them they can give up their seats to Chinese workers if they want. Does that happen? HELL NO! haha

Lets inject some real life here, shall we? We are a selfish and child like race and if this were really happening there would have been blood in the streets. As for the cargo door on the ark being jammed open, well, in real life I highly doubt they would have cleared the obstruction in that gearing mechanism -the ship would have flooded and everyone would've died. Again, Carl Anheuser was RIGHT! Only because it was a movie did the people survive at all. Then again in real life how many times would Cusack and company have 'bought the farm' before they got to China? As I was watching this I wasn't rooting for the scientist and his little guilt speech. I was looking at the reality of this situation and opening that door was suicide! They didn't have enough time to get all those people in there and secured before those waves hit.

We went from a race of billions to probably less than 50,000 in just a few days time. Preserving what was left of us was paramount. Then again, considering all the rich people on board, I would LOVE to see their lives after they landed in Africa. haha To see Queen Elizabeth digging a ditch for her new outhouse behind the 2 room shack she calls home would probably be poetic justice to most Britain's.

R E S I S T A N C E IS F U T I L E !

[–] MadSimian 8 years ago

For the most part, I agree with you. However, you have to ask yourself one question. Did he say to not open the doors because he was thinking of all the people on the ship or was he saying it because he was afraid for his own personal safety?

Now, based on what he does in a deleted scene, I'd have to go with the latter. Which is not to say he is a bad man. For the last 2-3 years before that moment in the movie, he's basically had the responsibility for the survival of the human race resting almost solely on his shoulders and that kind of responsibility can make anyone break(and anyone who says otherwise is straight-up lying).

Here's the deleted scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhgeeEhBzTY

Sorry about the video and audio quality but it was the only online clip of it I could find.

BTW, a clarification: Earlier in the film, Anheuser states(once the disasters start up earlier than predicted) that they can save over 400,000 people because, at that point, they only had four Arks finished. So, educated guess is that each Ark can hold about 100,000 people plus crew which means that they likely saved at least 300,000 people plus whatever amount of the pinned Ark's passengers and Chinese workers made it on board as well.

I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey.

[–] kuma_lacu 8 years ago

No matter his personal motivations, his survival and the survival of the people on that ship were one in the same. They were on that ship, which I'm assuming was the American ark, so it could've been the end of the U.S. when that ship sank. As for the people that survived, half a million or more isn't too shabby given the level of destruction faced by the natural disasters. However, compared to the almost 7 billion people living on Earth now that's pretty bad considering how many died over that time period.. I mean, Humanity is an endangered species at that moment. Makes ya wonder, since people are naturally buoyant in the water, as those ships were sailing around the world how many massive floating body patches do you think they saw? That would haunt me for years to come. Sure he may have been a little selfish but would any of us be any different when faced with our own mortality? I'd be thrilled to be on that ship, knowing I was going to make it.

R E S I S T A N C E IS F U T I L E !

[–] MadSimian 8 years ago

Actually, the survival of the 'American' Ark was not necessary as they still had 2 Arks each with approximately 100,000 passengers plus crew which is way more than enough people to insure genetic diversity in the repopulation process(I've seen numbers ranging from as little as 80 and as much as 5000). Point of fact, we appeared to have gone through a similar genetic bottleneck(we were down to less than a 10,000 person population) around 70,000 years ago and it might have been caused by the eruption of the Toba supervolcano.

Also, if you are worrying about nations disappearing in a world as portrayed in the end of this movie, you are worrying about the wrong things. After all, within the movie world, it was worldwide cooperation that not only made the discovery of the impending disasters possible but the construction of the Arks and all attending infrastructure for such a massive project as well. AND, it would take similar cooperation to insure we could rebuild after. Otherwise, we start the whole infighting mentality all over again and that leads to nothing but trouble if human history has anything to say about it. After all, you know what they say: "Those who ignore the past are condemned to repeat it."

I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey.

[–] wallacesawyer 8 years ago

Actually, the survival of the 'American' Ark was not necessary as they still had 2 Arks each with approximately 100,000 passengers plus crew which is way more than enough people to insure genetic diversity in the repopulation process

Personal or not, wouldn't you agree it's crazy to risk that many people for a couple hundred or so?

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[–] lemner (222) a month ago

If each Arc held 100 k people, there were nearly that many there to board Arc 3, which was damaged by roof collapse. Probably not the whole 100 k, because the notice was shorter than expected. However, a lot more than 100 or so people. There were all the Chinese workers as well.

[–] ActionJunkie007 8 years ago

I also agree he was in the right for most of the film, especially in the scene on Air Force One. However, once we get closer to the end, there was time to save all those people, they had a concrete time frame and they were already by the loading dock. So choosing not to in that instance was NOT the right thing to do.

You can't save everyone, but as we saw on the ark, it was designed as an almost high luxury hotel, which while that has it's merits, is not what should have been the "vision" behind saving as much as the human race as possible. So they had room, yes, and time, yes, and he was choosing to not risk HIS ARK for those people. And that;s really the only scene in which he is truly villainized.

I watched it again last night(absolutely love this movie!)and I really enjoy the overall message, especially in regards to the "new world" and the religious connections to the bible. It has such a rich story and metaphor , among the amazing disaster sequences, and it really shows the lengths different people will go to survive.

Who's strangling the cat?

[–] kuma_lacu 8 years ago

Honestly, I would hope that people would love their organized religious BS behind. Having faith is one thing, albeit a bit ignorant and blind, but organized religion can only end badly. The Middle East has shown that for centuries. A new world means a new start and it would be Humanities chance to do it right from the start. It wouldnt be easy, but it would be worth the effort. Ya know?

R E S I S T A N C E IS F U T I L E !

[–] ActionJunkie007 8 years ago

"It wouldnt be easy, but it would be worth the effort. Ya know? "

Totally, and I think the film purposely paints religions in that way. What happens when people stay back and trust in prayer? What happened to Sosha when he prays right before the plane goes off the cliff??

And the whole premise of a book, written by a guy who's initials are JC, who turned into another "savior" of the human race?? Brilliantly executed!! What are the chances of some no name author having one of the few books that survived the end of the world?? Wonder what others might see in his writings and story of survival...

SO many great things buried in this script and nothing beats the line about "who knew the wackos with the cardboard signs got it right??" HAHA indeed! Remember folks, You heard it first from Charlllliiiieeee!!!!!!!!!!

Who's strangling the cat?

[–] atticusfinch70 8 years ago

You are so right! Anheuser is the only reasonable person in this movie!

[–] graham-167 8 years ago

One of the most weird things about this movie is that Anheuser is so obviously meant to be the jerk that we all hate, and Adrian Helmsley is supposed to be the one we all agree with. But virtually every single thing Adrian says is flat out stupid, and would probably get then all killed - whilst Anheuser comes across as nothing but a reasonable guy making tough decisions in almost impossible circumstances throughout.

Hell, Adrian was railing against them for not sitting in Air Force one waiting for the President! If they'd done that, the whole lot of them would have died right there.

Actually I like to imagine how the next few months after this movie would go, as the arks all rapidly run out of food and clean water since they have ten times their designed passenger capacity on board. Starvation, cannibalism, disease... they'll be lucky if anybody is alive in a couple of months, and all thanks to Adrian.

--
Christianity : A god who loves you so much that he'll set fire to you if you don't love him back

[–] lemner (222) a month ago

It wouldn't have been 10 times the passenger capacity. They had only one Arc worth of passengers needing a ride, about 100 k, assuming everyone had made it there on time (not too likely), plus the Chinese workers, probably not as many as 100 k. At most, they would be triple capacity. However, they were able to open up for fresh air and reunite with the other 2 Arcs, so they could have shared resources at that point.

[–] quartz (441) a month ago

I....there was a lot wrong with the film. Doesn't mean I didn't think it was nice eye candy. Personally I thought Anheuser was one of the sane people in the 'admin' department. The black dude (not sure of his name) was getting all cutesy 'ollywood emotional, and CA was trying to stick to protocol, and say things to President like 'prayer is lovely but you need to move your ass'. 'We monitored all communications' - well, they would need to. 'When he called a press conference, he was'. again, government procedure.

Black dude: "no we need to get as many people on as possible"
CA: "we have a procedure. Do you want to sink the entire project?"

At the end....having a mechanical background the only thing I could think of was "they would never use a mechanism like that for closing the door". They'd use some sort of hydraulic jack (think of the pneumatic actuator that makes the boot of your car go down smoothly). It wouldn't be "big gears". And also the boarding platform. No guard rails?

ah. Chiwetel Ejiofor is his name. He was in Serenity. I've never been able to figure out if he was a Brit doing a terrible American accent or an American doing a terrible Brit accent. I guess he's in the Rey Skywalker group. "Brit doing a bad Brit accent"