# The Book of Eli...MASSIVE unboxed spoiler **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712 "2010-01-20T16:30:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/21 "2010-01-24T16:59:37Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > And if since Fallout 3 was Fallout lite, that means that this must be as if Fallout went on a crash starvation diet. That’s just crazy talk. Fallout 3 is the best game in the series…by far. ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/22 "2010-01-24T17:09:39Z")
This movie reminded me alot of “A Canticle for Leibowitz”. I liked it. I didn’t LOVE it but I liked it. I wish they wouldn’t have revealed what the book was so early and let us keep guessing. I also thought Mila Kunis’s character was a bit forced down my throat. But, other than that, I’m ok with the film. ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/23 "2010-01-25T05:41:37Z")
Now that I think about it though, I don’t think [spoiler] he was completely blind. When he was in the house, he opened up the closet and freaked out when he saw the guy standing there. I would freak out less if I smelled a dead body than if I saw one. He also did too many things that required sight with no indication that he was sensing things. His sight may have been going which explains the cataracts but I don’t think he was blind. Perhaps he could only read braille. Maybe that’s why the bible was in braille. IDK. [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/24 "2010-01-25T14:22:02Z")
I’m going to actually retract that complete last statement. I think he was blind the whole time. After going over it in my head several times, the biggest clue I can see is that he kept hitting the “Play” button on his Ipod even though it said low battery. He just kept hitting it and at the time I thought “wtf?” but threw the notion away. Now it makes sense, he couldn’t see the low battery so he didn’t know what was going on at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_Lurker)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/25 "2010-01-25T20:55:11Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > Please don’t do something like this again. The spoiler boxes really aren’t so hard. I had the movie spoiled by an innocent mouseover of your thread. I’d argue that you had the movie improved. It wasn’t good enough, in my opinion, to watch again, and I’d rather have known from the beginning. I think it would have been more enjoyable to pick out the numerous “no way he could be blind” inconsistencies. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/26 "2010-01-27T07:05:32Z")
I kept expecting a giant scorpion to jump out at him, or one of those big fucked up bear things…perhaps a Death Claw. There were so many questions and places the movie didn’t make sense that I won’t ask them all here, but what was the deal with the shaking hands? In the movie they said something about ‘your hands start to shake when you eat human flesh’, but do they? I thought it would only occur if you ate human brains, and that it took years or decades to come out. -XT ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/27 "2010-01-27T08:23:46Z")
There seemed to be some unexplained subplot thread regarding the cannibals; my take was that cannibals became addicted to human flesh and would get the shakes if they went without (presumably an effect of whatever ended the world). I’m guessing there was a cut scene that added a few clues. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_Lurker)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/28 "2010-01-27T15:52:04Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > In the movie they said something about ‘your hands start to shake when you eat human flesh’, but do they? I thought it would only occur if you ate human brains, and that it took years or decades to come out. Yes, I assumed they were eating the brains and had [kuru](https://health.google.com/health/ref/Kuru). Whether the timing worked out, or if they took some literary liberties, I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/29 "2010-01-27T16:21:41Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > In the movie they said something about ‘your hands start to shake when you eat human flesh’, but do they? I thought it would only occur if you ate human brains, and that it took years or decades to come out. It was mentioned in the movie that it had been about 30 years since the “flash,” wasn’t it? I might think that’s enough time to develop the disorder, or maybe that for those people, human flesh was ALL they were eating, and the concentration of consumption was the issue? Was the woman who helped the bandits, the one that Eli ran into early in the film and then tricked Solara, blind? Looking back on her earlier behavior (the first time we see her), some of her weird mannerisms made more sense if she was, and then when she took off her glasses while talking to Solara, I think it was to telegraph the blindness there, too. Am I wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/30 "2010-01-27T16:30:30Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > Not to mention he was beyond a crack shot. > > His “I have about 500 bullets” pistol was pretty much one shot kill in the city shootout If the movie is Fallout 3, he must have been using a unique pistol and VATS…probably had that perk where you get all your action points back after you kill someone. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/31 "2010-01-27T16:32:43Z")
Plus he had like a thousand points to small arms. I know that my maxed out character can’t make shots like that with a pistol. With the Gauss rifle, yeah…I can do that. But with a pistol, even one of the named ones? Not a chance. -XT ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/32 "2010-01-27T16:44:41Z")
I’m curious about the so-called Braille Bible. Did it look like [this?](http://www.goodshepherdyucaipa.com/images/brailleBible.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/33 "2010-01-27T16:50:18Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > If the movie is Fallout 3, he must have been using a unique pistol and VATS…probably had that perk where you get all your action points back after you kill someone. Yeah, that’s how he seemingly had so many rounds in that pistol. He got to reload that pistol in VATS, which looks like one can do in like a millisecond, then continue firing. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_Lurker)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/34 "2010-01-27T17:38:31Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I’m curious about the so-called Braille Bible. Did it look like [this?](http://www.goodshepherdyucaipa.com/images/brailleBible.jpg) You can see it closed [here](http://beginwithsoftware.com/free-ipod-sony-psp-mp4-downloads/images/The_Book_of_Eli_iPod_iPhone_PSP_Trailer_beginwithsoftware.com.mp4.jpg). It’s the top middle picture marked 00:00:23. A few more literary liberties, no doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/35 "2010-01-30T21:18:02Z")
I was underwhelmed. I was aware of the “is he/isn’t he blind” question and so from the beginning was watching closely. In my opinion he did not move in a way a blind person would - where-as Jennifer Beals clearly did. If he was meant to be totally blind he portrayed it poorly - unless of course he was meant to have been guided by the hand of god. In any case, in the end it wasn’t so much of a: “wow, that is cool moment” (like in say, the Sixth Sense) but instead a: “Hey, you (the directors) really cheated” moment. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/36 "2010-01-30T21:29:42Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > It was mentioned in the movie that it had been about 30 years since the “flash,” wasn’t it? I might think that’s enough time to develop the disorder, or maybe that for those people, human flesh was ALL they were eating, and the concentration of consumption was the issue? > > Was the woman who helped the bandits, the one that Eli ran into early in the film and then tricked Solara, blind? Looking back on her earlier behavior (the first time we see her), some of her weird mannerisms made more sense if she was, and then when she took off her glasses while talking to Solara, I think it was to telegraph the blindness there, too. Am I wrong? I assumed she was blind from the beginning, so…you may be wrong, but then so am I! ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/37 "2010-01-30T21:32:03Z")
> [@Surbey](#): > > I’m going to actually retract that complete last statement. I think > > he was blind the whole time. After going over it in my head several times, the biggest clue I can see is that he kept hitting the “Play” button on his Ipod even though it said low battery. He just kept hitting it and at the time I thought “wtf?” but threw the notion away. Now it makes sense, he couldn’t see the low battery so he didn’t know what was going on at the time. 😛 Good point! At that part, I was thinking ‘Huh, the Ipod must get stuck like my Zune does’, and I didn’t think twice about it. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/38 "2010-01-30T21:50:01Z")
I just saw it last night and I really liked it. One of the things I liked most was that director didn’t use he shakey cam during the fights. II don’t get sick like some people, but I liked being able to see the complete fight and the skill that Eli used to dispatch the bad guys. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/39 "2010-01-31T03:45:06Z")
Most confusing part for me was the beginning. How did it magically go from nuclear winter to blazing sun? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712/40 "2010-01-31T05:06:58Z")
I wonder if ANYONE involved in the making of this movie has any idea how much space a Braille Bible would actually take up? It would be ENORMOUS! A Braille Bible is so big that NOBODY could possibly mistake it for a regular Bible. It’s precisely because Braille texts are so big and awkward that even blind people with other options usually prefer NOT to use them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-of-eli-massive-unboxed-spoiler/525712.md?page=3)