# 70's eco-friendly space movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 7, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-eco-friendly-space-movie/193602 "2003-08-07T15:34:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-eco-friendly-space-movie/193602/21 "2003-08-08T13:25:07Z")
The robots in the movie (called “drones”) were operated from inside by people with no legs, walking on their hands. Even though it was a silly movie, it had some good points: the spaceship didn’t look like a gleaming rocket, but like a huge industrial structure. I read that it was built using parts from hundreds of tank model kits. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-eco-friendly-space-movie/193602/22 "2003-08-08T14:14:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Doghouse Reilly \* > \*\*Were their names Gypsy, Crow, and Tom Servo? \*\* They were Huey, Dewy and Louie. The things I have occupying brain cells that could otherwise be storing something useful. :rolleyes: _Silent Running_ always bugged me. It always bothered me that Bruce Dern’s character (supposedly a biologist) had trouble remembering that no sunlight = no plants. Of course, the whole premise of “lets save plants by putting them on spaceships and sending them into orbit around Jupiter” never made sense to me either. (If you have the technology to create the “domes” that could support plant life in space, why not simply build the domes on the ground somewhere and avoid having to build the entire spaceship? If you can protect them from vacuum, surely you can protect them from any sort of pollution in the atmosphere?) Did anyone ever notice that the ships from _Silent Running_ were part of the “rag-tag fugitive fleet” in _Battlestar Galactica_? I think they called them the “agro-ships” there. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-eco-friendly-space-movie/193602/23 "2003-08-08T14:34:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tanstaafl \* > They were Huey, Dewy and Louie. Major nitpick coming. There was no Louie. They were originally just Drone 1, Drone 2 and Drone 3. Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) renames them later, but by that time Drone 3 (or most of him, anyway) was gone. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-eco-friendly-space-movie/193602/24 "2003-08-08T14:51:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Robot Arm \* > \*\*Major nitpick coming. > > There was no Louie. They were originally just Drone 1, Drone 2 and Drone 3. Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) renames them later, but by that time Drone 3 (or most of him, anyway) was gone. \*\* Actually, if I remember the scene correctly, he names Huey and Dewy then looks at the display screen showing static and says something like “we lost Louie” so he sort of names him posthumously. At any rate, it seems that he intended for the third drone to be named Louie. I wouldn’t call it a “major” nitpick but you are correct in that the third drone did not receive the name Louie while it was still “alive”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-eco-friendly-space-movie/193602.md?page=1)