# Movie WTF moments **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2006, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954 "2006-03-19T02:04:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/121 "2006-03-22T23:47:47Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Did she have it as carry-on? Because I’ve taken a sword on an airplane before with no problem. I had to check it in with the rest of my luggage, of course, but the only hassle involved was trying to wrap the damn thing so it would impale somebody’s Samsonite in the cargo hold. > > This was within a week of 9/11, too. Carry on, there was even a special sword holder by the seat. I’d have to check again, but I thought there were sword holders by every seat that you got to see in the airplane. I thought it was quite a good joke that the Japanese airline would provide special places so that the Yakuza and Samurai could keep their swords with them at all times. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/122 "2006-03-23T00:14:25Z")
I think it was a charter flight, so there would be no problem with the sword. ---
**Author:** ![quietriot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7cd45c/32.png) [@quietriot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quietriot)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/123 "2006-03-23T00:57:57Z")
I saw NightWatch recently – the entirety of that film’s “resolution” was a WTF moment for me. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/124 "2006-03-23T01:16:02Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > Remake of Planet of the Apes, the end scene was the greates WTF moment I´ve experienced in my life, I could have slapped the screen writer upside the head if he would have been nearby. THat’s an homage to the end of the book. Except in the book, there was context in which it made sense, unlike the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Kaboodle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Kaboodle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaboodle)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/125 "2006-03-23T03:29:19Z")
My WTF moment comes from Pirates of the Caribbean. I loved the movie. It didn’t detract from my enjoyment but, then again, I didn’t realize it until long after I had seen the movie. [spoiler]In the scene towards the end of the movie where the pirates have walked under water to try and take over the British Man-o-War. There’s a huge swordfight all over the ship. The pirates, as skeletons, are fighting the British troops. At this point, the pirates are still ‘undead’ and _might_ be hurt but can’t be killed. When people swordfight, the clang and clash of blades is to prevent your opponents blade from striking you. Why didn’t any of the pirates just let themselves be ‘stabbed’? It _might_ hurt but it won’t kill. While your opponents blade is in you, kill him and go on to the next. When the curse is lifted and the pirates realize then can be hurt or killed, they stop fighting and surrender. The penalty for piracy is hanging. Now that the curse is lifted, surrendering is certain death. If they keep fighting they just might have a slim chance.[/spoiler] Can anyone offer an explanation for that? ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/126 "2006-03-23T04:27:30Z")
Am I being seriously wooshed here? Did we watch the same movie? The fifth element was love. Leeluu or whatever the hell her name was, was on the pedestal. The stones had been activated. But, nothing happened until what’s his same told her he loved her and needed her. Or am I just being particularly dense? As for the chocolate, I have always assumed that it was either blood or sweat. I was under the impression that he wasn’t human. Why should his blood/sweat look like ours? ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/127 "2006-03-23T07:31:56Z")
> [@Kaboodle](#): > > My WTF moment comes from Pirates of the Caribbean. I loved the movie. It didn’t detract from my enjoyment but, then again, I didn’t realize it until long after I had seen the movie. > > [spoiler]When people swordfight, the clang and clash of blades is to prevent your opponents blade from striking you. Why didn’t any of the pirates just let themselves be ‘stabbed’? It _might_ hurt but it won’t kill. While your opponents blade is in you, kill him and go on to the next. > > When the curse is lifted and the pirates realize then can be hurt or killed, they stop fighting and surrender. The penalty for piracy is hanging. Now that the curse is lifted, surrendering is certain death. If they keep fighting they just might have a slim chance.[/spoiler] > > Can anyone offer an explanation for that? Well… [SPOILER]It’s possible that much of it was just reflex; they had always had to defend themselves in a sword fight, so they probably just continued to do so becaues it was easier than it would be to retrain themselves _not_ to defend themselves. Plus, if it hurts to get a sword stuck in them, they probably try to avoid it when they can. That’s the only thing I can think of. Dunno about the surrendering thing, they were probably just thinking in terms of short-term “Let’s do what I have to do to not die in the next 30 seconds”[/SPOILER] ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/128 "2006-03-23T08:45:17Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Well… > > [SPOILER]It’s possible that much of it was just reflex; they had always had to defend themselves in a sword fight, so they probably just continued to do so becaues it was easier than it would be to retrain themselves _not_ to defend themselves. Plus, if it hurts to get a sword stuck in them, they probably try to avoid it when they can. That’s the only thing I can think of. > > Dunno about the surrendering thing, they were probably just thinking in terms of short-term “Let’s do what I have to do to not die in the next 30 seconds”[/SPOILER] I always thought they surrendered because they wanted to die. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/129 "2006-03-23T09:07:25Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > Carry on, there was even a special sword holder by the seat. I’d have to check again, but I thought there were sword holders by every seat that you got to see in the airplane. I thought it was quite a good joke that the Japanese airline would provide special places so that the Yakuza and Samurai could keep their swords with them at all times. Not only that, but other passengers were also traveling with swords. I like the idea of it - a mirror-universe samurai-oriented airline, where passengers have the right to behead surly flight attendants, and ailrine reps commit sepukko over delays. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/130 "2006-03-23T10:11:38Z")
> [@Kaboodle](#): > > Can anyone offer an explanation for that? Certainly, but I’m not going to bother putting it in spoilers. Wait, this is the first chance I’ve had to use the spoiler tag! Even though the pirates were undead many of them probably retain the habits they had while they were living. They had not been dead for very long so the reflex to dodge or deflect a blow that would be fatal is still ingrained. Also, pirates weren’t really all that brave and would surrender even knowing that the penalty for piracy was death. If they were facing certain death by continuing to fight they might get luck and receive a pardon or a suspended sentence of something. Israel Hands, Blackbeard’s quartermaster, was tried along with the rest of the crew after Teach’s death and the crew’s surrender. Most of the rest of the crew were hanged but Israel and one another was pardoned. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/131 "2006-03-23T11:04:03Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > Nope > > Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Berylium, Boron, Carbon … > > Wonder what the fifth element discovered to be an element was? The fifth element is, quite literally, the Quintessence: if you posit, as the Ionian Greeks did, that everything is composed of four elements - Earth, Air, Fire and Water - then the mystical _fifth_ element - the quintessential one - must be what animates the more prosaic quartet. Well, it was a start. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/132 "2006-03-23T11:21:19Z")
> [@Tapioca Dextrin](#): > > There’s a classic WTF moment in the Wesley Snipes vampire flick _Blade_. When he first sees the big bad vapmpire (Mothra? Magrathea?) at the end of the film > > you can see him silently mouth the phrase WTF > > 😃 Ah, _Blade_! I had a WTF moment while watching this movie. However, it is not in the spirit of the OP, as this was obviously not intended to be left on the film. So this is more of a blooper: It’s been many years since I saw it last, but I remember a scene in _Blade_ where it shows a shot of the buildings of the city, as time passes quickly from day to night (what’s that called? Stop motion?) Anyway, something appears on one of the buildings for a second, causing me to pause and rewind, muttering “WTF?” It’s a fly! GODZILLA FLY! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/133 "2006-03-23T12:19:58Z")
> [@Anastasaeon](#): > > time passes quickly from day to night (what’s that called? Stop motion?) [Time-lapse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelapse) ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/134 "2006-03-23T13:21:01Z")
There was a couple of WTFs moment that have been burnt into my brain cells. The most memorable got to be Obi-wan shouting “Don’t do this Anakin. I have the higher ground” (or something along that line), incidentally getting a +2 bonus to his To-Hit roll and…well, you know the rest. Then there’s Doom. It was _okay_ for most of the show, a rather chessy and choppy monster flick, until… Reaper woke up and everything became a pesudo-first-person-shooter. The show’s entire horror and suspense motiff broke and became nothing but pure cheese. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/135 "2006-03-23T15:17:27Z")
At the end of _Space Odyssey: 2010,_ the obelisks planted in the Solar System by ETs cause the gas-giant planet Jupiter to ignite a fusion reaction and become a second sun. On Earth, there is no more night – one sun or the other is always in the sky. This is supposed to be a **good** thing, a gift to humanity. WTF?! It’s just going to screw up our ecosystem! What about all the organisms adapted for nocturnal living?! And if the second sun is bright enough to increase Earth’s average temperature – I mean, we don’t have enough warming problems just from CO2?! ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/136 "2006-03-23T15:35:34Z")
A slight WTF, Lowell Freeman in [Silent Running](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067756/)… Realises only after quite some time that the plants and trees he is tending are dying from a lack of sunlight. I mean, isn’t knowledge of photosynthesis a bit of a no brainer for a gardner? Especially one looking after the last trees _ever_? Still, easily forgiven as its a rather touching film. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/137 "2006-03-23T15:40:53Z")
. . . . . . … **BrainGlutton** IIRC That was not done for Terran benefit. The monolith building aliens had detected the beginnings of life on Europa. They crunched some numbers and did an environmental impact study. They decided to make Jupiter into a sun so that the organisms on Europa would survive and eventually evolve into a sentient species. They explicitly tell humans not to disturb the Europan lifeforms “All these worlds are yours, except Europa.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/138 "2006-03-23T15:55:03Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > . > . > . > . > . > . > … > **BrainGlutton** IIRC That was not done for Terran benefit. The monolith building aliens had detected the beginnings of life on Europa. They crunched some numbers and did an environmental impact study. They decided to make Jupiter into a sun so that the organisms on Europa would survive and eventually evolve into a sentient species. They explicitly tell humans not to disturb the Europan lifeforms “All these worlds are yours, except Europa.” But, wouldn’t such an abrupt change be even **worse** for the existing lifeforms on Europa, adapted for a cold environment? The moon might be completely lifeless within a week! ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/139 "2006-03-23T16:00:37Z")
Considering that these are the same monolith builders who guided ramapithecus (or was it an austalopithecus? maybe a hominid?) to become homo sapien, I think they knew what they were doing. I’m sure that some explanation was given. I just can’t remember it as I haven’t seen the movie in many years. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954/140 "2006-03-23T16:25:07Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I think Ebert pointed this out in his review of the film how he had a WTF moment when Connery just happened to have not 1 lemon in his fridge, but a whole bowl full of lemons. Who keeps a bowl of lemons on hand besides a restaurant? Well, you knew this would happen… My wife drinks iced tea. A LOT of iced tea. We have an iced tea brewer. And so we always have at least 3 lemons on hand at my house. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-wtf-moments/348954.md?page=8)