# Professor Falken dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 9, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139 "2011-08-09T23:28:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/21 "2011-08-11T22:07:55Z")
I thought his evil Archbishop in Ladyhawke far outshown his role as Falken. ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/22 "2011-08-11T22:12:35Z")
"Are either of you paleontologists? I’m in desperate need of a paleontologist. " I laughed so hard I fell out of my seat. I was the only one in the theater laughing, though. That seems to happen a lot. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/23 "2011-08-12T03:02:49Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > The scene where they’re rushing to catch the last ferry to go see Professor Falken was shot just a few miles from where I grew up. > [@ftg](#): > > So you were as puzzled as I about why they thought they were on an island? The Canby Ferry just goes from one side of the Willamette to the other. No island. > [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Hmm, I thought that scene was supposed to take place out on the Oregon coast somewhere. It was filmed at the Steilacoom ferry terminal on Puget Sound, between Tacoma and Olympia. Ferries there go to McNeil Island, site of a recently closed federal penitentiary. That scene took me out of the movie somewhat because they were actually running down a boat ramp (the ferry dock is on the far side of the tracks). Guess they found themselves short of money and decided to swim. ---
**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:** [August 12, 2011, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/24 "2011-08-12T04:00:10Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > That scene took me out of the movie somewhat because they were actually running down a boat ramp (the ferry dock is on the far side of the tracks). Guess they found themselves short of money and decided to swim. You’re familiar with Steilacoom? I wonder if we went to the same schools or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/25 "2011-08-12T04:05:15Z")
Just going from memory here, but I seem to recall that the scenes with Falken and the dinosaurs were mostly removed from the movie after audience tests showed the concept was too dark. That explains several songs in the soundtrack album that weren’t in the movie. The concept was that after a nuclear war, dinosaurs would regain their rightful place in the ecosystem and replace humans. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/26 "2011-08-12T05:31:28Z")
_WarGames_ had one of my favorite lines in it from when I was a kid: > [@General Beringer](#): > > Mr. McKittrick, after very careful consideration, sir, I’ve come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks. I love that movie, and I always really liked John Wood’s portrayal of a brilliant, yet isolated, scientist who never stopped mourning the death of his young son. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/27 "2011-08-12T13:58:53Z")
Ignorance fought. I don’t know how I got the Canby ferry thing in my head. Some sort of (Goose Island) Oregon+ferry =\> a Willamette ferry =\> Canby. In any case, no regular ferry to an island in Oregon. And the real Goose Island is a tiny thing in the Columbia River near Astoria. (I wonder if Falken knew the Goonies.) And the only ferry remotely near there is one across the Columbia (the last OR-WA one). ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/28 "2011-08-12T14:51:15Z")
Sorry to hear that. I guess his message got cancelled. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/29 "2011-08-12T15:13:27Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Just going from memory here, but I seem to recall that the scenes with Falken and the dinosaurs were mostly removed from the movie after audience tests showed the concept was too dark. Is there an alternate version of WarGames around? The one I saw in the cinema, and the replays I’ve seen on TV, all have the “dinosaurs/futility” scene. > [@](#): > > The concept was that after a nuclear war, dinosaurs would regain their rightful place in the ecosystem and replace humans. I’m not sure I follow. The dinosaurs are already long extinct (except for those that became modern birds), so they can’t rise again. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/30 "2011-08-12T15:13:32Z")
General Beringer has my favorite line, too. > [@](#): > > I’d piss on a spark plug if I thought it’d do any good! ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/31 "2011-08-12T15:40:30Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > Is there an alternate version of WarGames around? The one I saw in the cinema, and the replays I’ve seen on TV, all have the “dinosaurs/futility” scene. I haven’t seen the movie since the first release, but I had access to the official soundtrack immediately before, and when some of the songs weren’t in the movie, I investigated. It’s been a long time, so my own memory may be faulty. > [@](#): > > I’m not sure I follow. The dinosaurs are already long extinct (except for those that became modern birds), so they can’t rise again. I don’t think Falken’s logic was all that logical. It’s possible he was imagining an “ideal” environment not spoiled by man, and the dinosaur era was an example of that. Maybe he didn’t expect them to come back, but he expected things to return to “normal” after a nuclear war where man was wiped out. I think he looked upon mankind as an aberration on the planet that he could correct. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/32 "2011-08-12T15:55:40Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I don’t think Falken’s logic was all that logical. It’s possible he was imagining an “ideal” environment not spoiled by man, and the dinosaur era was an example of that. Maybe he didn’t expect them to come back, but he expected things to return to “normal” after a nuclear war where man was wiped out. I think he looked upon mankind as an aberration on the planet that he could correct. That’s not what I got out of it. I thought he was talking about how the dinosaurs ruled the world for millions of years before being wiped out in the blink of an eye. While that was a natural event, he thought that nuclear war would do the same thing to humans and that nature would start again. > [@Stephen Falken](#): > > Now, children, come on over here. I’m going to tell you a bedtime story. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. Once upon a time, there lived a magnificent race of animals that dominated the world through age after age. They ran, they swam, and they fought and they flew, until suddenly, quite recently, they disappeared. Nature just gave up and started again. We weren’t even apes then. We were just these smart little rodents hiding in the rocks. And when we go, nature will start over. With the bees, probably. Nature knows when to give up, David. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/33 "2011-08-12T16:07:50Z")
Of course my teengeek hormones appreciated Ally Sheedy in the movie, too: [http://www.retro-gaming.it/videogiochi\_img/movie\_wargames/wargames7.jpg](http://www.retro-gaming.it/videogiochi_img/movie_wargames/wargames7.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139/34 "2011-08-12T16:15:48Z")
"It might help to beef up security around the W.O.P.R. " It took me a long to get this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professor-falken-dead/592139.md?page=1)