Oh, yeah, the New Testament–that’s a classic cop-out/reset button. The old “kill off the main character but then he comes back to life” trick.
To be fair, accelerating to faster than lightspeed in an atmosphere is bound to be pretty nasty even on Superman…and I doubt the Earth would enjoy it much, either.
As for “If Superman can travel backward in time blah blah etc”, well, the character IS a walking deus ex machina, already.
-Joe
No, but…
(Spoiler for those who read much Steven King, dealing with a certain character whose initials are RF…)
He does have Susanah’s child become very spider-like and, although he shows no reason to be so powerful AT ALL other than some very thin prophecy, the child kills Randal Flag. Permenantly. In the first quarter of the last book. To me, it was done to make the child seem scary and dangerous. He wasn’t. He was just a stupid way to kill off a great character.
It made me hulk-smash-level angry.
Principal Tanzarian
please don’t torture me
Superman going backwards in time by flying around the Earth really really fast is no worse than (and it pains me to write this) Kirk & Co. going back in time by flying really really fast AND close to a star. Pure showbiz.
Chinese guy with a mustache?
Except if Indy stayed home the US government wouldn’t get the Ark and put it safely in a warehouse. Maybe the Nazi’s keep it and find someway to use it’s power. Maybe a lot of other people die when they open it. Anyway you look at it the outcome would not remain the same.
And if Indy just stayed home, the Ark may never have been found since they were digging in the wrong spot.
Well, the only reason they were digging in the wrong spot was because they didn’t have the whole amulet thing. If Indy had stayed home, the Nazis would have been able to get the whole amulet.
The “Armin Tamzarian” episode of the Simpsons is a horrible reset - the whole town decides they like the fake Skinner more than the true Skinner, and a judge declares that no one may ever speak of this again - but I think that’s more of a spoof of the whole reset mechanism than anything else.
ROTK Army of the Dead is a terrible cop-out. I don’t care if it’s in the book, in the mive it is a complete out clause for the our doomed band of heroes.
Except Lisa did speak of it again in the “I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot” episode.
I’ve rarely been so let down by a book’s ending as I was with this one.
I was at my parent’s house (in Texas) and one night, after everyone else was asleep, I happened upon this book. I got into it rapidly. I was thoroughly wrapped up–but it was a library book, and I had to go back home to Alabama before I finished it. Oh, the agony!!
Well, I never seemed to get time to go to the library, but lo, and behold, one day, I see the book at my sister’s house and asked if I could borrow it. I was so happy!! NOW, at last, I would find out how they defeat the evil germies!!
Have you ever watched one of those big ass firecrackers, it’s fuse sparking and hissing, with your whole body tense with anticipation–all eager to see it explode–and when the moment arrives…phhhttt!!! it fizzles? That’s how I felt when I got to the end–all let down and disappointed.
Did I say let down and disappointed? Sorry, that was a slip of the tongue. What I meant to say was that I was fuckin’ pissed off!!! All that build up and tension and it went nowhere! :mad:
If Crichton had been in the room that day, I’d have brained him with his own book!
If Indy had stayed home, Marian Ravenwood would have been tortured to death by Toht for the location of the amulet.
Nope. Toht followed Indy to Marion’s bar. There’s no indication that Toht knew where Marion was or that she had the medallian before Indy tracked her down.
Stranger
-Snerk- Yeah. Well, here’s what you said in that thread !!
Who are you, Willy Wonka? 
Might I introduce you to one Herbert George ( H.G.) Wells, noted and famous British author whose novels include the 1898 classic The War of the Worlds, in which the plot you wish to lay at the feet of poor overpaid underskilled Mr. Crichton was first introduced?
Cartooniverse
In 1900 century, this was cutting edge. In 1980, this is crap.
IIRC, Marion is shown to be taking off the medallion before Indy enters her bar. Still, I’ll have to re-watch the movie to see if Toht found Marion only by following Indy. Which scenes should I pay attention to?
If you’re right, Stranger, and I think you are, then yes, Indy’s adventuring made the whole mess possible.
I agree, and while i can see and understand Jacksons point about having the army of the dead scare off the corsairs of umbar attacking south gondor so Aragorn could bring real human reinforcements to the fight would have been too confusing and pointless in a movie i don’t see why the ghosts had to be as powerful as they where shown. Whats wrong with just being scary, by the time Aragorn and company got to the fight its basically just the Rohirrim vs the giant elephants and their very human (and presumably scared of human ghosts) handlers. Scary ghosts would have done as well a job at routing them as an inmortal unstoppable army of the dead.
Nah. What got Indy involved was Army Intelligence telling him about a mysterious reference to “Ravenwood” in an intercepted NAZI communiqué. Indy didn’t even know Abner Ravenwood was dead until Marion told him, and I seem to recall Toht addressed her as “Fraulein Ravenwood”. Toht did follow Indy (as evidenced by his presence on the the trans-Pacific seaplane) but after they got to Nepal, he must have done some local research and discovered the proprietor of a local tavern and regional drinking-contest champion had the same name as someone they were already keeping an eye out for.
Then again, it’s a remake of a 1930s serial with slicker production but an equally nonsensical plot, so make of it what you will.