# Commonly(and frustratingly) misunderstood plot points(spoilers, I guess) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 6, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-and-frustratingly-misunderstood-plot-points-spoilers-i-guess/611920 "2012-02-06T01:56:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-and-frustratingly-misunderstood-plot-points-spoilers-i-guess/611920/241 "2012-02-11T05:20:17Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > almost exactly like the aliens from Abyss Those weren’t aliens either. > [@EllisDee](#): > > of _course_ he’s sweating. The very real clear and present danger to him is a massive PR shitstorm That’s a good reason for him to sweat, but no explanation for why his emergency avatar should sweat. Whether or not they fine tuned all the details perfectly I think it was clearly intended that the ending be ambiguous. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-and-frustratingly-misunderstood-plot-points-spoilers-i-guess/611920/242 "2012-02-11T08:13:34Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > Those weren’t aliens either. > > That’s a good reason for him to sweat, but no explanation for why his emergency avatar should sweat. > > Whether or not they fine tuned all the details perfectly I think it was clearly intended that the ending be ambiguous. It certainly is ambiguous, the director etc intended it to be so. The original story has a slightly different ending. but the dudes here make a good point in that “it was all a dream” is a legit interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-and-frustratingly-misunderstood-plot-points-spoilers-i-guess/611920/243 "2012-02-11T08:33:13Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > I assumed they were aliens because they looked almost exactly like the aliens from Abyss, who were also pretty hip to technology, as well as interfacing with it. > > It makes more sense that they were robots, and I agree they were, but I also think the presentation of them by the filmmakers was a giant fail. Sigggggghhhhhhhh…Okay, so they don’t look the way the majority of people think robots should look. They look the way the majority of people think aliens should look. So Spielberg made one mistake in forty years of filmmaking. Can you forgive him? ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-and-frustratingly-misunderstood-plot-points-spoilers-i-guess/611920/244 "2012-02-11T08:37:59Z")
how would you design them, without resorting to text or speech, so that it would be obvious that they are robots so far evolved as to be alien to us? ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-and-frustratingly-misunderstood-plot-points-spoilers-i-guess/611920/245 "2012-02-11T08:44:44Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Sigggggghhhhhhhh…Okay, so they don’t look the way the majority of people think robots should look. They look the way the majority of people think aliens should look. So Spielberg made one mistake in forty years of filmmaking. Can you forgive him? Stow that attitude. I made exactly one post in this thread, and in that one post I explicitly agreed that they were robots. Jesus Christ, martyr much? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-and-frustratingly-misunderstood-plot-points-spoilers-i-guess/611920/246 "2012-02-11T08:45:40Z")
[QUOTE=Rilchiam] So Spielberg made one mistake in forty years of filmmaking. Can you forgive him? [/QUOTE] _One_ mistake? Dude - _1942._ ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-and-frustratingly-misunderstood-plot-points-spoilers-i-guess/611920/247 "2012-02-11T11:03:34Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Stow that attitude. I made exactly one post in this thread, and in that one post I explicitly agreed that they were robots. Jesus Christ, martyr much? Sorry, **Ellis**. I meant that for everyone who’s been pro-alien in this thread. You just happened to be the most recent poster. **Miller** : And right after I posted I thought, “Walkie-talkies.” Okay, three errors. Still, do **E.T.** and **Raiders** balance things out? (And it was [1941](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078723/).) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-and-frustratingly-misunderstood-plot-points-spoilers-i-guess/611920/248 "2012-02-11T11:52:24Z")
DrDeth writes: \> . . . The original story has a slightly different ending . . . The original story (“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”) has a completely different ending. They tossed out the second half of the story and wrote a completely new one. The new one involves lots of action sequences, on the theory that audiences don’t go to any film without them: > **[We Can Remember It for You Wholesale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Can_Remember_It_for_You_Wholesale)** > > "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in April 1966. It features a melding of reality, false memory, and real memory. The story was adapted into the 1990 film Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger as the story's protagonist; that film was remade in 2012 with Colin Farrell as the protagonist. > Douglas Quail works a menial office job in the "not too distant future." His ... ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-and-frustratingly-misunderstood-plot-points-spoilers-i-guess/611920/249 "2012-02-11T17:57:16Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > _One_ mistake? Dude - _1942._ _Parts_ of 1941 were hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-and-frustratingly-misunderstood-plot-points-spoilers-i-guess/611920/250 "2012-02-11T23:45:07Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Kirk would have found a way to drop the ball and still win. Kirk would’ve reprogrammed the ball to never touch the ground. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-and-frustratingly-misunderstood-plot-points-spoilers-i-guess/611920.md?page=12)