You haven’t seen Kobra Kai, have you?
Given your in-depth knowledge of Karate Kid you’d probably like it… I’m pretty sure that was a joke.
I thought it might be, but “fighting ignorance” and all…
I think that was just supposed to be a joke for the audience.
I’ve felt the same way about Rendezvous with Rama. It would be visually stunning – and a complete snooze-fest.
Apparently, I really need to re-read the book. I think it has been nearly 20 years and I’m clearly misremembering certain things.
I still stand by my analysis of the poison cup scene though. 
Speaking of Princess Bride, the True Love wasn’t Wesley for Buttercup. It was Inigo for his father.
When Wesley is subjected to conventional torture, he’s able to withstand it, by thinking of Buttercup. Wesley’s love is indeed strong, and is stronger than conventional torture. But then comes The Machine. He can’t withstand that, even on the lowest setting. The Machine is stronger than Wesley’s love.
But when Inigo hears the sound of Wesley being tortured by The Machine, he recognizes it instantly, because that’s the sound that his heart has been making every day since his father’s death. Inigo’s love is stronger than The Machine.
He wanted to. And probably could have done it. He does his own riding (and that of one of the pursuers, as well), but the studio had a hard NO to the jump. His buddy Bud Ekins does the jump.
For some viewers, the fact that McQueen and Ekins rode 1961 Brit motorcycles lightly disguised as WWII-era German bikes detracts a bit from the sequence.
https://www.bikebound.com/2015/11/20/the-motorcycle-from-the-great-escape/
He can “track a hawk on a cloudy day!”
But rings now a common enough trope in video games (Halo series) and even TV (Book of Boba Fett) that there’s no impetus for a boring-story take.
Sure, the Halos aren’t as big as Ringworld, but the action that happens on them is more exciting than the “Grand Tour with rish” of that book.
Nitpick: falcon. Or maybe that’s just the film.
Addressing the subject of the thread, there’s a long-standing rumor that a stuntman was killed during the chariot race in the 1959 version of Ben Hur, and his death is left in the film. Any time you see someone getting creamed during the race, it’s a dummy and clever photography.
But Mr. brown repeats the death rumor every time we see the film. But it never happened, and I’m done with pointing out to him that it’s an urban legend.
They got to you!
Not killed but nearly so. Yakima Canutt’s son, Joe, was the stunt double for Heston in the race. At one point his chariot ran over a wrecked one and he flew into the air nearly onto the horses, but did not. That unplanned stunt was left in the film.
In another scene one of the mook drivers loses his chariot and is trying to cross the track to safety when he is run down by a following chariot. That might be the source of the rumor but it was a planned stunt that did not go bad.
Cite.
I love Yak Canutt’s advice to Heston, who did a lot of his own chariot-driving and was worried about it: “Chuck, just stay in the chariot. I guarantee you’ll win the damn race!”
It doesn’t exactly drive me crazy but there was a persistent rumor back in the day that Godzilla won the battle in the Japanese version of King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). I don’t know if anyone still believes that though.
It’s a variation of Plot Armor.
Best in Show, is a Chris Guest mockumentary following four entries before and during a thinly disguised Westminster dog show. There were a lot of extras with their dogs, along with judges and professional handlers, to go through the motions of a dog show behind the actors. Some of them were miffed when their clearly superior dogs – mostly Canadian Champions – did not win.
You may be right.
I only remember it because of the way Robin Wright says “Fahlcon.”
True, but I’d watch The Ringworld Murders.
(With a car chase around the light/shadow ring…)