MovieChat Forums > Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Discussion > In reality, a bullet isn't a magical dea...

In reality, a bullet isn't a magical death ray


Gunshot wounds to the head 'are no longer fatal': Victims have a 42% chance of survival, study reveals


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3879522/Gunshot-wounds-head-no-longer-fatal-Victims-42-chance-survival-study-reveals.html

Most of the time, Cage was shot by Rita in the head at a military facility, where immediate medical attention would have been available. Within 5 minutes, she would have been arrested, and he would have been receiving emergency medical treatment. It isn't even remotely plausible that, out of hundreds or thousands of loops, they wouldn't have been able to keep him alive even once. Statistically, he would have survived a fair percentage of the time. Even self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head, which are inherently at point-blank range, are survived 20% of the time.

Keep in mind that she always used a handgun, and military cartridges use full metal jacket/case bullets, as per the Hague Convention of 1899. This type of bullet does the least amount of tissue damage, all else being equal. Granted, the Hague Convention may have been set aside given that the enemies weren't human, but it is still a handgun, and a particularly weak one at that (SIG-Sauer P226R [9mm NATO]); far less powerful than a military rifle.

Also, she was far too nonchalant about shooting him in the head; acting as though she'd done it countless times before, even though from her perspective, she was always doing it for the first time ever. Just because you think you know that there will be no consequences (there's no way you can be 100% sure; she lost the "reset" ability; he could have lost it too), doesn't mean that shooting your new friend in the head is as trivial as checking the mail, unless her character was intended to be a raging psychopath.

reply

One could argue perhaps she always put a few more in him to make sure, but on the occasions we witness it it only took the first one.

Agreed on the nonchalance, they could have made her just a little more emotional about it without detriment to the movie.

reply

about gunshots : Yes indeed. But in defense of the movie, nearly all movies get the power of guns completely wrong. Ridiculously wrong. Not only in power, but force and even sounds (silencers for example, sounds NOWHERE near how Hollywoood think they sound).

about nonchalant : Fair point, though I would add that it depends on experience. We do not really know for how long she had lived in the inferno of killing... lets say she had for a hundred years all together? Longer? Shorter? At one point, you would become indifferent to it - and this is where we enter the story.

And beside she knows (or think she knows) that it is not only that there is no consequence she herself will never know if she killed him as she too is reset, just without any knowledge of this time... so she knows she will never really experience putting a cap in his ass.

reply

But since the loop is reset every time she shoots him in the head, we know that he didn't survive. So I'm not exactly sure what your criticism is. If it's that you don't think it's realistic, I don't know why you'd focus on that detail in a movie about a guy who is able to relive the day over and over because he made contact with alien blood.

She's nonchalant in the same way that he goes from being terrified of death to being completely fearless. She died over and over, and saw her friends die hundreds of times. She realizes that when you have his power, dying/resetting is almost like pushing a button. She would have no reason to think he lost the ability based on what he's told her.

reply

>So I'm not exactly sure what your criticism is.

Yes, you do, given that I've already typed it out. Once again:

It isn't even remotely plausible that, out of hundreds or thousands of loops, they wouldn't have been able to keep him alive even once.

>If it's that you don't think it's realistic

It isn't realistic; it is implausible.

>I don't know why you'd focus on that detail in a movie about a guy who is able to relive the day over and over because he made contact with alien blood.

I suggest you familiarize yourself with the concept of "like reality unless noted". The sci-fi elements are noted departures from reality, but things unrelated to noted departures from reality are supposed to behave like reality. For example, gravity is still in effect, people require food, water, and oxygen to survive, and ordinary bullets should behave like ordinary bullets rather than like magical death rays.

>She's nonchalant in the same way that he goes from being terrified of death to being completely fearless.

That's because he's been doing it over and over; familiarity breeds contempt. She has no familiarity with shooting a friend in the head, and all sane people have an intense aversion to doing such a thing, regardless of what they think they know. As an example of human nature being portrayed correctly, consider the scene in The Matrix where Keanu Reeves' character jumps off the building in training mode. He thinks he knows that it can't harm him, but he's hesitant to do it nonetheless.

>She would have no reason to think he lost the ability based on what he's told her.

First, she has no way of knowing how it all works, including all of the potential hows, whens, and whys regarding loss of the "power", thus no reason to be so cocksure of herself. Second, either way, it's a case of shooting a friend in the head for the first time; not a casual thing to do for any sane person, regardless of what they think they know.

reply

[deleted]

Your post is a non sequitur, and as such, consider it dismissed out of hand.

reply

[deleted]

Your non sequitur is dismissed, simple fellow.

reply