# Spitting in supercharger intake in Mad Max Fury Road **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 3, 2016, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-in-supercharger-intake-in-mad-max-fury-road/761616 "2016-08-03T07:25:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![stanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@stanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stanger)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-in-supercharger-intake-in-mad-max-fury-road/761616/41 "2016-08-05T11:22:08Z")
> [@fstbk1968](#): > > Sorry I must disagree with you here. A blower builds pressure by counter-rotating blades. If enough air leaked past the rotors for an engine to run, the blower would be virtually ineffective at building pressure. In freewheeling mode the throttle response would so sluggish (due to a relatively weak vacuum signal trying to accelerate the mass of the rotors) that it would render acceleration almost non-existent. Stomping on the gas would create a massive bog/stumble as the fuel increases but not the incoming air. Some years back, I built a 1965 Mustang for a customer and installed a smaller version of the Roots style blower used in the movie on his 289 engine. It was stated in the instructions that if you lost a blower belt that the car would start and run without the drive working, although it would be very sluggish on acceleration. I did fire the engine up and run it a bit before finishing up the blower drive system, though I didn’t take it out on the road, and it would run okay but was slow to build up RPM due to the restriction. I would imagine that the unit depicted in the movie was an old unit with worn rotor seals due to age and abrasion from the inevitable dust and grit that would find its way into the drive. It would probably pass a fair amount of air through compared to when it was new. For a wild and sensationalized movie premise, I call it plausible. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-in-supercharger-intake-in-mad-max-fury-road/761616/42 "2016-08-05T11:38:43Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > The problem there is that it’s more wasteful to turn farmed/gathered food into milk for people to drink than it is to just give them the food directly ;). The Fanwank is that Immortan Joe drinks it for whatever reason and that it’s highly prized as a trade good with other settlements. “Mothers Milk” is also given to war boys as a special reward when they please immortan joe, so it has symbolic / ritual value. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-in-supercharger-intake-in-mad-max-fury-road/761616/43 "2016-08-05T11:39:01Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > The problem there is that it’s more wasteful to turn farmed/gathered food into milk for people to drink than it is to just give them the food directly ;). > > Kind of like the \*Matrix \*idea of using humans as batteries (yes, yes, I know, it’s the studio execs’ stupid fault and the Wachowskis really wanted it to be about distributed computing) : it costs more energy than it produces, because keeping the cows/batteries alive has a large cost of its own (and of course the lactating process itself is hardly optimized either). Pretty much every single food people eat is wasteful from that perspective. Doesn’t stop 7 billion people every day. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-in-supercharger-intake-in-mad-max-fury-road/761616/44 "2016-08-05T13:50:34Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > No one ever said there was no CGI. There was over 2000 digital VFX shots. See here: > [https://www.fxguide.com/featured/a-graphic-tale-the-visual-effects-of-mad-max-fury-road/](https://www.fxguide.com/featured/a-graphic-tale-the-visual-effects-of-mad-max-fury-road/) > > The difference is that most modern action block busters like the transformers series, or marvel films, they do the cars and explosions completely CGI for massive action sequences. Or rather they use real cars for some of the shots leading up, then use CGI cars when stuff starts flying around, then they composite in real explosions shot on black, using many layers. > > In Fury Road, they just did the cars and the explosions in reality and then used CGI to enhance parts of it that didn’t turn out right. True, but someone above said there was “little CGI”, which is incorrect. But your explanation is spot on - the things we’ve gotten used to being done in CGI were actually done with practical effects. > [@Kobal2](#): > > The problem there is that it’s more wasteful to turn farmed/gathered food into milk for people to drink than it is to just give them the food directly ;). > > Kind of like the \*Matrix \*idea of using humans as batteries (yes, yes, I know, it’s the studio execs’ stupid fault and the Wachowskis really wanted it to be about distributed computing) : it costs more energy than it produces, because keeping the cows/batteries alive has a large cost of its own (and of course the lactating process itself is hardly optimized either). But Immortan Joe doesn’t care about keeping as many peasants alive as possible. He cares about keeping himself in power. So if keeping the mystique going with mothers milk requires some peasants starve to death, that’s not a problem. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-in-supercharger-intake-in-mad-max-fury-road/761616/45 "2016-08-05T13:58:49Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Huh? What? :eek: Did those people watch the same movie I did? > > It’s not even a whole movie, just a three-hour chase scene. Sure, but they’re the best chase scenes ever filmed. The movie was a marvelous success at what it meant to be. I thought it was one of the best movies of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-in-supercharger-intake-in-mad-max-fury-road/761616/46 "2016-08-05T14:09:45Z")
Talking about\* Fury Road\* with anyone who hasn’t seen it is a bit weird, at least for me. The movie is a three-hour chase scene, with a fairly basic plot, and lots of over-the-top cartoony action. All true. And all that sounds like a description of a movie I should hate. Just another crappy action movie, right? But I absolutely love _Fury Road_. I want to marry it and have its babies. It’s a very, very good movie. And strangely, certain things that would make any other movie horrible are all part of what makes this particular movie awesome. Which doesn’t really seem to make sense, but there you go. I suppose it goes to show that it’s not about what you do, but how you do it. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-in-supercharger-intake-in-mad-max-fury-road/761616/47 "2016-08-05T16:35:57Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > You forgot to mention her CGI robot-arm\*!\* > > In terms of the silliness of the film overall, the main villain looked ridiculous. It looked like they came up with him by having a cosplay contest at Comic-Con and the most enthusiastic/pathetic fanboy kit-bash wank won. I wouldn’t say that Immortan Joe was any worse than Wez, the Humongous, Master-Blaster, Ironbar Bassey or for that matter, Byrne’s prior Mad Max role of the Toecutter. Mad Max villains look outlandish; that’s part of their charm/menace. At any rate, it seems kind of silly to say Fury Road is dumb and silly, and hold up the other 3 movies as paragons of tight plotting and realism. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-in-supercharger-intake-in-mad-max-fury-road/761616/48 "2016-08-05T16:44:10Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Pretty much every single food people eat is wasteful from that perspective. Doesn’t stop 7 billion people every day. Sure, but we don’t live in post-apocalyptia :). The people who live in _real_ hard-scrabble country (Greenland, the Sahara, the Kalahari, the badlands of Australia etc…) don’t typically herd cattle for food for example. I like the religious theory more, along with the fact that it _is_ a dispendious, decadent luxury. Also the whole tumors and disease every one of his folk seem to struggle with, and his obsession with having healthy sons - he or they might superstitiously believe that Mother’s Milk has healthy properties worth every effort. And that’s the point, really : Immortan Joe’s tribe is powerful enough that he can, in fact, do that kind of stuff in the middle of the desert. Look on his works, ye mighty, and despair. He is awaited. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2016, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-in-supercharger-intake-in-mad-max-fury-road/761616/49 "2016-08-06T08:02:54Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Sure, but we don’t live in post-apocalyptia :). The people who live in _real_ hard-scrabble country (Greenland, the Sahara, the Kalahari, the badlands of Australia etc…) don’t typically herd cattle for food for example. People in marginal areas often do keep pigs, goats or chickens, because they can live off the inedible stuff that humans can’t eat and turn it into stuff we can eat. Chickens will scavenge for insects on their own and can live on refuse that humans can’t eat. As an example the Changpa nomads in ladakh (a high altitude desert, much of which is bare rock) keep goats and yaks: [https://www.google.co.th/search?q=changpa&espv=2&biw=1912&bih=1216&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwja-uahp6zOAhUlSY8KHRI6CvEQ\_AUIBigB](https://www.google.co.th/search?q=changpa&espv=2&biw=1912&bih=1216&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwja-uahp6zOAhUlSY8KHRI6CvEQ_AUIBigB) The reasons Australian aboriginals never domesticated animals was because there wasn’t any suitable animals for domestication in Australia pre European colonisation, same goes for Greenland. Although when settled by the Vikings they did raise cattle there that they brought with them. Kalahari, it seems to be cultural why the san people don’t keep domestic animals, you certainly could there, this is the Kalahari, plenty of vegetation to raise goats nomadically: > **[Kalahari Desert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalahari_Desert#/media/File:Kalahari_E02_00.jpg)** > > The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for 900,000 square kilometres (350,000 sq mi), covering much of Botswana, as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa. > It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal desert, whose name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". > Kalahari is derived from the Tswana word Kgala, meaning "the great thirst", or Kgalagadi, meaning "a waterless place"; the Kalahari has va... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-in-supercharger-intake-in-mad-max-fury-road/761616.md?page=2)