The Wages of Fear : physics error

This is a great film, but there is a silly error nobody seems to have noticed.
When Luigi and Bimba's truck explodes, either Mario or Jo is rolling a cigarette
in their truck. We first see the tobacco blown away, and then the flash of the
explosion. Of course, this doesn't make sense, the flash has to preceed the
shock wave. (I'm new to IMDb and didn't find where to start a new goof section
for a film that doesn't have one.)

Jrgen

Welcome to IMDb! I am not expert at this, but: Towards the bottom of each Title Page there is an "Update" button. Clicking it will take you to the "Updating Information" page for that title. In this case, you would go down to "Fun Stuff" and select "Add 1 Item" under "Goofs", then click "Continue" at the bottom of the page. Then continue with the process. There is also a Contributors Help Forum @ http://imdb.com/board/bd0000042/threads/. hth

Juregen! Remember to use the SPOILER checkbox next time!

GAH!!! I'm in the middle of watching this move right now. I'm at the part where they almost fell through the rotten wood.

Yes! PLEASE use the SPOILER warning! Now I am stuck with having to keep this knowledge from my wife

oh well

excellent!

Why were you even on the site in the middle of watching the movie?

What's the spanish for drunken bum?

To the OP:

It depends on which version you're watching. I watched the 147 minute director's cut and there is no flash at all; just an explosion (as the tobacco flies away) and, after they look up, a mushroom cloud.

According to IMDb, the original is missing 17 minutes, the French version has an extra 9 minutes, and the German version has an extra 2 minutes. Any of these versions could have flashes, but just know that Clouzot's cut is physically correct. :)

http://alteredeagle.com

Besides the obvious physics questions about the Internationl truck exploding with Luigi there are some other odd things film makers just ignore. When Mario and Jo go through the crude oil from the broken pipeling and get stuck is an obvious one to anyone whose done any off-roading, especially in a Duece and a half (2 1/2 ton Military truck)..First its ten wheel drive and they certainly could have used the traction. Second you can pound that crowbar/steel barstock into the ground as far as you want a 20,000lb truck will pull two of those out in a second. Hooking a 3/8 (guessing 15,000lb rated) cable to the wheels of a truck then letting them wind up the cable as a winch does work but when the tires spun as they did in the film the cable wasn't hooked to anything and it just would have been one huge mess wrapped around both rear drive axles. Worst of all you can see a 20,000 Braden winch behind the front bumper of Mario's truck and the shifter for it on the floor of the truck. They didnt bother to use that at all. Of course both the transfer case and the winch could have been broken, but they make no mention of that at all. Typical of most movies they have to manufacture some drama.

why were you on here halfway thru the movie anyway?? wouldn't you wait to go on the message board till after it was over?

You can't expect everybody to put Spoiler warnings up.

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Juregen! Remember to use the SPOILER checkbox next time!

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I'm getting tired of seeing this on every board. This is a forum for discussing the movie. If you go to a forum where people are discussing a movie they've already seen, and you haven't seen it yet, it's your own damn fault if you get it spoiled for you. And I say this as someone who used to be one of those people. It's one thing if you're just going to the forum to ask where to find the DVD or which DVD version to get or something, but it's just plain dumb to click on a thread that's discussing an event in the movie and then get mad when you see a spoiler.

Sig under construction

I don't own a copy so I can't look at it to double check, but is there in fact a flash? I remember the tobacco being blown out of the paper and them looking up to see the smoke rising from the blast. I don't recall a flash, if there was one , the scene is definately backwards.
As far as the windows being up or down, the winshield on the truck was cranked open, a feature on a lot of trucks and cars made in the thirties and forties.

I don't believe there was a flash, I think after it blows away they just look up and see the smoke cloud.

No, there were flashes, about 3. I just watched the movie last night, and checked that sequence out because it was so weird. I watched it in slow mo, so yes there are flashes. And they come after the tobacco is blown off.


"What Did you Say About my Mother"?- Every bad gangster movie ever

Strange thing

I'm not sure, but did the blast that wiped the tobacco away come from the exploding truck??? Actually, the truck exploded a few miles away and the shockwave should be very seriously smoothed by the distance The shockwave from the truck should also have effect on the whole second truck and the drivers while they seem not to notice it.

IMO the blast that wiped the tobacco away was just a wind blast, and at the same moment the first truck exploded.

This is not a signature.

I think it was just a film director's way of showing something has gone wrong. Clouzot isn't just going to show a big bang happen; he makes the audience figure it out for themselves. I'm sure if you asked Clouzot whether the laws of physics or suspense were more important in the film, he'd tell you to go suck a lemon.

It is a physics error, no doubt. The blast of air reaches the inside
of the cab because the windshield was down/off/whatever. This is followed
by several flashes reflecting off the blank faces of the two men. Cut to POV
of the cab looking out and we see the cloud arising. So it is an error.

What I think others have missed is this was the "Atom Age" and the spectre
of rising mushroom clouds was becoming the new "Fear". The first H-Bomb test
was, IIRC, in '52 or '53. Clouzot needed to legitmize the power of the nitro.
I think he consciously copied the most powerful explosion known; The H-bomb
which is often shown as Flash !, Wind !, Blast!, Mushroom Cloud!. Taking it
out of sequence for the movie just works better as the two are in a truck
cab gabbing at the time. It is terrifically done, IMHO.

Nice Board BTW,

Andrew

Absolutely not. There is a lingering close of the cigarette paper and tobaco, then Whoosh!

A friend related that an explosion of similar magnitude, 10 miles away, knocked a plant off the windsill, long before the sound. It wasn't siesmic either. He said the plant just moved horizontally off the wide sill!

There is one thing no one of you seems to have noticed.

Look at the moment when the tobacco is wiped away. If it were wiped away by the explosion, the blast would come from the front and cover Jo's chest with tobacco. But the blast undoubtedly comes from the right and the tobacco is wiped towards Mario. (Checked it twice on my old VHS.)

It is clear to me that jeetyet96 is right. The blast has nothing to do with the explosion, it is simply used to show that at the moment something goes deadly wrong.

I'll write it again. The explosion was a few miles away from Mario's truck. Its power was partially absorbed by jungle trees and seriously smoothened by the distance, so the shockwave that hit the truck was rather light and undoubtedly came a few seconds after the flashes. The blast that wiped tobacco was rather strong, but it affected only the tobacco, and it was supposedly the wind.

This is not a signature.

I didn't even see any flashes, just the tobacco blowing away, they look up, see the cloud of dust, and then the boom arrives.

I wouldn't consider it a goof, because it's never mentioned that the blowing tobacco was a result of the blast. But if Jo had turned and said "the explosion was so strong it blew my tabac away", then yes, it would be a legit goof.

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Look at the moment when the tobacco is wiped away. If it were wiped away by the explosion, the blast would come from the front and cover Jo's chest with tobacco. But the blast undoubtedly comes from the right and the tobacco is wiped towards Mario.

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The blast couldn't have come from the front because of the windshield. So right/left is the only way the blast would have worked.

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The blast has nothing to do with the explosion, it is simply used to show that at the moment something goes deadly wrong.

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The blast is shown together with a thundering echo sound, an indication that this was the shock wave from the explosion. The flashes arrive only afterwards which is bad physics.

__________
Last movie watched: Nymphomaniac: Vol. II (6/10) - theatrical cut

Just watched it, and I'm still reeling from the experience. I think that it's a really great touch that the tobacco blows away first. I believe you're experiencing it as Jo does, so the first thing he notices is the tobacco since that's his focus at the time, and then when he realizes an instant later what has happened, you see the flash, even though it would have already occurred, as you said. At least that's my interpretation.

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I think that it's a really great touch that the tobacco blows away first. I believe you're experiencing it as Jo does, so the first thing he notices is the tobacco since that's his focus at the time

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Good point.

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Why problem make? When you no problem have, you don't want to make

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I agree with you, I think that's a good explanation for it.

Sig under construction

Here's another likely physics error. Driving a truck with a super hot engine and exhaust system into a pool of oil should ignite the oil, burn the truck and it's occupants then ignite the nitroglycerine, ending the movie right there.

You could hold a blow torch to crude oil and it won't ignite, it'll smoke and the smoke may burn, but as soon as you remove the flame it would go out.


Man without relatives is man without troubles. Charlie Chan

Check out the WW2 battleship doing a hand-brake turn courtesy of a dropped anchor in the recent movie 'Battleship' and you won't worry about the physics in Wages of Fear any more.

Dude, in 1955 the light wasn't as fast as it is today. The cars and aircrafts weren't as fast either. It's totally okay that the shock occurs first. Remember, even in 1977 the light was so slow that you can see the beams wandering around, and you can outrun it. Gorge Lucas knew that in 'A New Hope'.