# Obvious things about a creative work you realize after the millionth time (OPEN SPOILERS POSSIBLE) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117 "2009-07-24T13:20:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 323
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6447 "2025-07-16T19:26:14Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > eta: I’d have loved to have been on the set when they filmed that referenced dance scene. You know how they did it, right? ---
**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:** [July 16, 2025, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6448 "2025-07-16T19:30:02Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Fred Astaire could make upchucking beautiful and graceful. Gene Kelly would make it look a little more athletic. And Ginger Rogers could… No, no, I’m not going to say it! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6449 "2025-07-16T19:35:52Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > You know how they did it, right? I assume so. Like the carousel in 2001. I mean, I’d liked to have seen it for the logistics. Keeping everyone coordinated. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6450 "2025-07-16T19:39:24Z")
Yeah, basically the room was built inside a big rotating drum. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6451 "2025-07-16T20:47:32Z")
> **[How did they walk upside down in “2001: A Space Odyssey”?](https://www.straightdope.com/21341513/how-did-they-walk-upside-down-in-2001-a-space-odyssey)** ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6452 "2025-07-16T22:37:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Certainly, we know that countergrav is cheap and well-developed enough to be ubiquitous in the Star Wars universe․ And yet the Death Star was filled with kilometers-deep vertical shafts without even safety railings, instead of having them be horizontal tunnels. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6453 "2025-07-16T22:46:20Z")
Maybe they were “vertical” so that they could get a convection current flowing. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6454 "2025-07-16T22:50:58Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Or, if you’re Fred Astaire, you do it with style. Billie Eilish one-upped Astaire and did it on a live TV broadcast. ---
**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:** [July 16, 2025, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6455 "2025-07-16T23:03:39Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > And yet the Death Star was filled with kilometers-deep vertical shafts without even safety railings, instead of having them be horizontal tunnels. When the Millennium Falcon lands on the Death Star, it’s clear that it approaches the DS’s equator, and touches down on a flat surface with ‘up’ toward the north pole, as it were. It occurred to me sometime later that that’s a bad design. The Death Star, by virtue of its mass, would have some natural gravity pulling toward the center. Rather than have its levels be like parallel slices, they should have been concentric spheres. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6456 "2025-07-16T23:11:24Z")
Thanks to YouTube, what the [audience saw](https://youtu.be/0iiXUeil5fQ) vs. [what the crew saw](https://youtu.be/lCZPJa2i3jw). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6457 "2025-07-16T23:21:55Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Well, it’ll all be a lot easier once gravitrons are harnessed (no one’s surprised any more when we rangle electrons…). Real-world interjection: We manipulate electromagnetism, basically, by moving charges around. The equivalent operation for gravity would be to move masses around. It’s just that, because of the relative strengths of those two forces, the necessary masses would be very inconveniently large. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6458 "2025-07-16T23:26:09Z")
Or quark-matter dense at any rate. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6459 "2025-07-17T06:40:53Z")
Something something something personal tractor beams to keep you stable within the starship something something something… maybe?? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6460 "2025-07-17T06:46:23Z")
Gravichlorians. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6461 "2025-07-17T12:02:26Z")
But you don’t mention them until thirty years into the franchise history. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6462 "2025-07-17T13:55:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Certainly, we know that countergrav is cheap and well-developed enough to be ubiquitous in the Star Wars universe. So cheap and ubiquitous that some places had antigrav on their couches and ottomans. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6463 "2025-07-17T16:31:16Z")
I’m a little ashamed because it wasn’t me that noticed it, but in the commentary track I finally heard last night. _Men in Black_, Kay and Jay are interviewing Beatrice. She offers lemonade, Jay takes a sip, makes a face, and sets down the glass. There’s no sugar in the house. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6464 "2025-07-17T19:56:00Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > There’s no sugar in the house. I saw that first time i watched on Cable or DVD, but not in the theater, ---
**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:** [July 17, 2025, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6465 "2025-07-17T22:56:59Z")
I always got the impression from the look on Will Smith’s face that the lemonade was too sweet, not the other way around. And this is several days after the bug took off in his brand new Edgar suit, so there was time for her to go out and buy more sugar . ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6466 "2025-07-17T23:27:56Z")
I’m not sure she was in a mind to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=322) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=324)