Or even The Night of the Following Day.
Let’s remember, the library doesn’t have a chimney. Otherwise, all that smoke would’ve made it too easy for them to find the library at the end 
And I think there would’ve been wood in there that wasn’t treated. It’s the New York Public Library!
Actually, you will struggle to find wood that has not been treated. Like most fine woodwork that is used in a public setting, the furniture is varnished or sealed in some way. Nobody would burn it.
My parents have had a home with a fireplace since about 1976. The chimney and flue are carefully maintained. There is always a scent of smoke when the fireplace is going. They not only keep the aforementioned areas well maintained and cleaned, but they leave a window open somewhere in a room nearby just a crack, to provide positive flow of fresh air since the updraft does suck up air from the room ( including of course oxygen ! ).
I have never seen it as a signal that there is something wrong with the flow of smokey air, that the house has a faint whiff of burning wood to it when the fireplace is going. Any other Dopers with fireplaces gonna chime in here?
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YouGoBigRedFireEngine, you’re wrong. Not only is there clearly a flue area up top as there should/would be, but a portion of the roof that was not covered in ice is visible in the aerial shots of the dad and pal approaching the Library.
There is at least one chimney visible. I must admit I saw no smoke, and in a bitterly cold environment ( s.i.c. ), you would have seen a trail of smoke rising, even from very very dry old volumes of books…
There’s only 1 fireplace. I didn’t look for the chimney. I was looking for the smoke, since I saw no smoke, I assumed there was no chimney. Also, someone stated earlier that they could also not see any chimney.
I understand how the first 3 sentences realate to my post Cartooniverse, but as to the rest, I fail to see how it applies.
Maybe they coulda pulled untreated wood from the same place they pulled all those clothes. Either way, they did not even discuss burning wood, they wetnt straight to the books which was a major oversight on the smart kids’ part.
Cheers.
Engine
Forgive my ignorance (I don’t have a fireplace), but don’t all fireplaces have a chimney? Otherwise, where does the smoke go?
If this is true, then there was definitely a chimney. The fact that we don’t see one (at least I didn’t) at the end might just have been an oversight on the part of the filmmakers. (I know, how unlikely!)
Exactly
But onto more important things, why the hell didn’t they close the curtains?
Possibly to allow as much sunlight as possible into the room. Cold as they were, it would have made no sense to make it colder.
If it’s cold, the first thing I do is close the curtains. It’s insulation. What’s the point of lighting a fire then having all the heat escape through the window?
Of course, all the windows had recently been replaced by Pacesetter with energy effecient, double pane, gas filled, low-E glass windows. Riddle solved. With no power, they wanted the light.
I don’t think closing the curtains would have enough of an insulating effect. More heat would enter via the sun’s rays than would exit. Besides, as NCB says, they needed the light.
Let’s not forget that they were covered by cloud from the biggest m-f*ing storm in history here.
They had a fireplace for warmth and light. They should’ve tried to insulate the room more.
Even on an overcast day, plenty of solar energy can getthrough.
But, we’re all missing one very important point. Without the windows being open, I mean, the curtains, not the windows, opening the windows would be silly, but anyways, without them being open, the kid wouldn’t have suddenly noticed the tanker again, reminding him of saving the girl’s leg (who wants a one-legged girl friend?) by climbing around (and not getting his bare flesh stuck to super cooled metal) on the tanker looking for drugs (kids these days!) and setting up the fantastically important dancing with wolves scene.
Reread it. It does make some form of sense.
I may have been confused, but didn’t the tidal surge come from the west - NJ side of the Hudson, as opposed from the south NY harbor, Atlantic Ocean? Did it head North and decide to turn to stop at Goldberg’s Pizza? And that Russian tanker - drifts up Fifth Avenue from where exactly? You can’t drive straight up Fifth Avenue from Battery in a car. Unless it came up 34th Street and made a left onto Fifth.
And the frozen New York reminded me of when Lindsey was mayor.
I especially liked the idea that the public phones were still working even though underwater. Finally - a pro public utility movie.
Well, the phone company’s been complaining about unfair movie portrayals ever since WarGames, so it was time to throw them a bone.
Just curious but I live out in the Monterey/Salinas area. I went to Salinas to watch this film. It was a very hot day.
But after the movie I was freezing, I was so cold that regardless of how hot it was outside I drove with my windows up. I talked to other friends about it, and they too experience the same thing…
I experienced it during the film, but not after.
[hijack] My mom says that when Lawrence of Arabia first came out, people dashed out to the concession stand during the intermission (!) to buy drinks, and lots of them. That’s the effect of a long, desert-set movie.[/h]
I was freezing! I think they turned the A/C way down for added special effects. FWIW - I liked the movie, but I agree with some of the blatant cheesy stuff. The wolves were soooo stupid…
I dunno about that. If you think about an aerial view of the real New York Harbor, you’re presented with a pretty large body of water. I sort of think of it as a stomache. ( I know. I’m weird. ). The gullet is the Hudson River, meandering its way down from upper New York State. Then the stomache takes a stately curve, the bottom of that curve off to one side is the Arthur Kill. Ellis Island would be the ulcerous lesions on the side of the stomache and of course- given this scenario- the gall bladder would be Brooklyn. Only fitting that all bile originates from Brooklyn. 
Seriously, that shape works for N.Y. Harbor. A tidal surge would make its way under the Verazzano-Narrows Bridge, as shown in this convenient aerial map of … The New York Harbor Area. It would flow past the Lady With The Lamp, pushing upwards into The Battery and South Street Seaport. Despite the overwhelming bullshit levels in the movie, if you look at the map, you can see how - IF you were hovering where the camera was just above and behind Ms. Liberty- ( this means you have New Jersey directly behind you, Staten island to your right and lower Manhattan to your left and Brooklyn in front of you ) the tidal surge would appear as it did. It felt right to me- coming from the south/southeast from the mouth of the Harbor.
Not for nothing, but it would have hit the New York Public Library at Bryant Park on 42nd street long before it demolished Goldberg’s Pizza. ( Unless there’s another Goldberg’s branch besides the one on the Upper East Side. ).
As for the Russian Tanker, we all know it couldn’t have come down 34th Street from the Hudson River. It’s illegal to turn left onto 5th Avenue from 34th Street.
5th Avenue runs downtown.
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