Thanks for that information, Accidental Martyr…there had to be a story reason for Lucy accessing the mythical 10% that the rest of us don’t.
And to what I assume was your point that it’s another “lab accident origin” type of thing…this “drug” thing does fit that bill to an extent. But the fact remains that the Lucy creators are referencing a popular misconception that a lot of humans really do like to believe of themselves. That’s not really the case with Spiderman, The Hulk, The Flash, etc. Readers (and viewers) may like to think that they’d be just as generally heroic as those beneficiaries of accidents, but there’s no specific folk ‘wisdom’ about the average guy being spidery or hulky If He’d Just Try A Bit Harder. Whereas there is a folk belief that one’s own brain could enable one to become a super-sapiens with a bit of will and effort.
It’s always crazy high, and crazy specific, like, “187.” No one has that IQ. The two most commonly used tests have upper limits of either 140, or 150. If you score higher than that, your IQ is simply “above the range of the test.”
My father was one of the smartest people I ever knew. He finished high school at age 16, worked for a year to save money, then went to college, and was in ROTC to help pay for it, so when he finished in four years, he owed the Air Force two years. After that, he still got his MA from Columbia, and then was at the University of Leningrad for two years doing coursework for his Ph.D, which he got before he was 30. He was a full professor by 36. He spoke four languages, and read Hebrew and Latin. His Russian was so good, he was often mistaken for Russian. He published three books in political science, one that was used by many universities as a standard textbook on Soviet politics. He also wrote dozens of articles. He could answer any question I asked him, but he didn’t go around interrupting conversational flow with bits of trivia; if anything, he was underspoken. My grandmother once said his tested IQ from school was 136. I don’t know if my grandmother remembered that correctly in the first place, or what scale was used, but it was probably the 150 scale. He also was a normal guy with normal social skills, who accomplished things not just because everything came easy to him, but also because he was a hard worker.
Also, anyone in the military who gets his discharge papers before the film is half over, isn’t going to make it home.
I’m sick of authorities in charge never believing when something bad is about to happen and only act when the shit hits the fan.
In this day of lawsuits, no mayor who is told there is a killer shark in the water is going to keep the beaches open. They need to stop using the stupid manager whose skepticism leads to tragedy as an easy crutch to create conflict. I’d like to see more people taken seriously about their dire warnings but things still go to hell because some things cannot be prepared for, like Godzilla rampaging through your city
Yup. The “rules” evolve over time in response to crises. You do get rules that are outdated, or that are an over-reaction, and the occasional “one guy shits his pants; everyone wears a diaper,” but in general, there’s a reason for every rule, and following them not only averts crises, but contains them when they do happen. Watch a team of trained firefighters respond to an alarm, or EMTs respond to a bad car accident, and you see how well things go when people do what they are trained to do.
Fer cripes’ sake, think what would happen in a baseball game if no one knew whether to try to field a foul ball after two strikes. Or an infield fly.
Lucy was accidentally dosed with a superhero drug while Captain America volunteered for the exact same treatment (“peak human conditioning” is the phrase used in CA). There is no “We can all be better if we JUST TRY HARDER” plot there.
The Cleveland Indians of Major League were an insanely talented/crafty team with poor executives at the helm. Not quite the same thing as the completely uncoordinated weirdos from Bad News Bears.
Plus, they had a voodoo god and Jesus Christ on their side.
Then why don’t the commercials–which are all-important in drumming up business for that crucial opening weekend–have Morgan Freeman saying something like:
Instead of what he does say in the trailer*:
These ads aren’t created at random. Massive sums of money are at stake. If an element of the movie is emphasized, it’s because it is expected to be intriguing to audiences.
Why mention the “10%” thing if it’s not intended to hook audiences (due to our fascination with our supposed “potential”)? Why not simply go with the “unknown drug leaked into her system and now she has powers” angle–if that, as you seem to believe, is just as compelling a hook?
The 10 to 100% thing is the explanation of what the drug does. It’s the same thing as Captain America’s “peak human conditioning” explanation.
And Jesus, did you even watch that trailer? Before Morgan Freeman’s voice is ever heard, there is one minute and 10 seconds (more than half the trailer’s runtime) of Lucy getting dosed with the superhero drug and doing superhero shit. Are you purposely ignoring everything related to Lucy that doesn’t support your dumb theory? Because that’s what it looks like you’re doing.
Wow. I’d need proof (in the form of a sentence or two of paraphrase) before I could possibly believe that you understood what “my dumb theory” happens to be. It would appear that you are thoroughly confused about it.
Until you indicate that you actually do understand it–and based on what you’ve said so far, that seems unlikely in the extreme–then what point is there in my trying to communicate with you on this topic?
So, there’s your challenge, Justin Bailey: prove that you actually do understand what you’re posting about, by providing a couple (or more) sentences of paraphrase that expresses your understanding of my theory. Until that happens, we can safely assume that you have no idea.
I got to thinking about the way the types of contrivances mentioned in this thread seem to be of differing types. A preliminary sorting of those on JUST the first four pages (!) might place them in three categories: those that advance the plot; those that are there because audiences enjoy them so much; and those that are just “standard” even if they are not accurate or likely to happen in real life:
CONTRIVANCES:
Mechanical (to advance the plot, fill time, or escape censorship):
[ul]
[li]High speed chase taxi cabs[/li][li]Strategically-placed sheets in bed scenes[/li][li]Giant, clean, weight-supporting air ducts[/li][li]Fruit cart obstacles that provide variety to the chase[/li][li]Annoyingly-useless Dying Utterances[/li][li]Synchronized time (to the millisecond for bombs and poisons, and across time zones, etc.)[/li][li]Dislocated location shoots[/li][li]Failing to ask dying person useful questions[/li][li]Suspiciously-easy hacking and password-guessing; also suspiciously-specific graphics on ‘websites’ and suspiciously-fast search engine, etc.[/li][li]Overly-stereotypical scene-setting: mooing cows, whinnying horses, meowing cats, etc.[/li][li]“Let’s split up”[/li][li]Arbitrary argument between leads in the third act[/li][li]Interruption after Character A says to Character B ‘there’s something I have to tell you….’[/li][li]Screen-less windows[/li][li]Telling someone (often female) “stay here”…then that person provides a last-minute save when Hero runs into trouble[/li][li]Convenient escape-windows in public bathrooms[/li][li]Carrying bodies; burying bodies with surprisingly little effort[/li][li]Two cops question suspect; phone rings and one leaves; comes back with “we’ve got to leave, NOW”[/li][li]Picture enhancing to a ridiculous degree (given real-world resolution issues)[/li][li]Car doesn’t start[/li][li]Failing to incapacitate the bad guy (setting up a few more Jump Scares)[/li][li]People holed up in fleabag hotel turn on news: it’s about them. One member of party switches it off to make a dramatic speech to the others. Similarly, when anyone turns on radio or TV for news, the relevant story is always beginning at that very instant.[/li][li]In-public sensitive conversations[/li][li]Only ONE scientist or doctor can help the protagonist/solve the problem[/li][li]Meetings in famous locations (such as Washington DC monuments)[/li][li]Convenient bop on head (renders unconscious instantly; recovery is just as instant)[/li][li]Parking space right in front of the place the protagonist is hurrying to[/li][li]Character realizes something crucial, phones partner, and leaves annoyingly uninformative message when partner fails to answer.[/li][/ul]
Crowd-pleasers (or at least the filmmakers think they are crowd-pleasers):
[ul]
[li]No-hit fire fight[/li][li]Twelve-on-one combat[/li][li]Outrunning explosions[/li][li]“Bob! Bob! Bob!” as Bob walks away[/li][li]Sporting events that build to suspense predictably (no knockouts in the first five seconds)[/li][li]Announcing retirement/engagement/wedding/new baby = DEATH[/li][li]Character walks backward while interacting with protagonist(s) and is hit by bus[/li][li]Rag-tag team does better than does the rich-guys team[/li][li]Walking off serious injuries[/li][li]Awkward dialogue that sets up cool one-liner[/li][li]Characters must go to a strip club to get information/meet the witness/observe a suspect. (NOT as crowd pleasing: nudity or Dancing in Bikinis happens according to the rating of the film.)[/li][/ul]
Expected, even if ridiculously stereotypical or inaccurate:
[ul]
[li]Offering water (universal panacea in all situations)[/li][li]“Are you okay? Bob, ARE YOU OKAY???”[/li][li]Gruff police captain (often African-American)[/li][li]“Police: FREEZE!!!”[/li][li]Sonar ping sound in all submarine scenes[/li][li]Sirens blaring when already at (or near) the location of trouble[/li][li]One sprinkler on (when lighter held up, etc.) sets off ALL sprinklers[/li][li]Showing the Vest after surviving gunshot[/li][li]Bundling kid into car–MUST say “we’re going to be late!”[/li][li]“Zing” sound when sword is pulled out (even from leather scabbard)[/li][li]Long looks by driver at passenger while driving[/li][li]High-tech camera makes noise when shooting pic[/li][li]Winning draw in a poker game always results in highest possible hand (instead of just in a winning hand)[/li][li]Shoulder wounds are minor! Likewise most explosions.[/li][li]Woman breaks a heel when running[/li][li]Being around lava is no problem unless you actually touch it[/li][li]Car drives off pier or road into lake or ocean–sinks instantly because it’s 50 feet deep right at the water’s edge.[/li][li]Screeching tires on all vehicles–even when stopping on sand.[/li][li]Deep thought and profound emotions indicated by splashing water on the face at the bathroom sink.[/li][/ul]
You believe that Lucy is being sold on the back of some “Everyone Can Be Special!” marketing campaign because people respond to that because they want to believe they can be special. Again, I think this is dumb because…
Lucy’s specialness is nothing more than a riff on Captain America’s origin (knowing Luc Besson, this might even be intentional).
She does not become special through her own hard work and determination. She was dosed with some superhero drug. Which the trailer (that you yourself linked to) uses half of its running time to explain. You have misunderstood the plot of the film (as much as we can know what the plot is from a bunch of trailers), the intent of the marketing team, and possibly the director himself.
[QUOTE=Sherrod] Beginning of a compilation:
I got to thinking about the way the types of contrivances mentioned in this thread seem to be of differing types. A preliminary sorting of those on JUST the first four pages (!) might place them in three categories: those that advance the plot; those that are there because audiences enjoy them so much; and those that are just “standard” even if they are not accurate or likely to happen in real life:
CONTRIVANCES:
Mechanical (to advance the plot, fill time, or escape censorship):
.
.
.
[/QUOTE]
Before you get too far into this effort, you should know that it’s been done.
Had a class on ducts as part of my HVAC class in college. Ducts start out huge because of the volume of air that must be moved to support a large office building/skyscraper. As air flows along a tube/pipe/duct, it is subject to pressure loss, such that the outlet pressure is lower than the inlet pressure. Couple this with having outlets along the duct to put air into rooms, which results in pressure falling in the ducts more.
The solution is that the ducts periodically transition to smaller passages. So the giant tube and the giant fan narrows down as it flows along, branches off, etc, until the final end is a small shoe-box sized tube.
Since all of this ductwork is interconnected, it has to be supported somehow, and if is run overhead, it will be suspended from the ceiling. But that much metal will add up to significant weight, such that 1 person or 2 people may be a small variance.
That said, the ducts themselves may not be that sturdy.
Amen. This looks like an interesting movie except for that premise being such an integrated element of the plot. At least when Limitless used that line, it was spouted by a dumb character who didn’t really know anything, it was just his folk explanation and could be dismissed. But this seems to actually be the explanation and integral to the plot.
Defibrillators stop the heart. The heart’s internal pacemaker then kicks in as the heart restarts. If the heart isn’t beating, then stopping the heart won’t cause the heart to start beating again.
Many elevators do have a hatch in the roof, used by service crews. I’ve seen them on office buildings that have glass elevator shafts. You can see the roof from the outside and see the hatch. However, it may be covered on the interior by paneling and whatnot.