Movie mistakes

[ftia]

Here are two I have not seen discussed.
What do you think?

1 - the pali and the ikran both understand english ("forward" and "fly").
Neytiri said you may command in your head, but for now, say the words.

2- When the armada leaves to take down Hometree, radio traffic reports heading "030".
That means they are traveling North of Northeast (NNE).
That means they should arrive approximately at the southwest side of Hometree.
Then, they will circle around clockwise (CW) to get to the west side
since they are commanded to take down the west columns.

BUT in the movie, they are shown coming around CCW!
See attached layout as a powerpoint slide.
To come around the tree CCW, they would have to arrive from the N or NE,
then circle to the W side.
There would be no reason for them to circle waaay around to 'sneak up' on the Omatikaya.
thx
Michael

[pbhead]

there are multiple threads like this one out there.

1. ... the pali and ikran dont care about the words, only what goes through the connection... its just easier for a beginner to say what they want, than to think about it... Its like people learning to read... they read out loud before they can read silently.

not a mistake.

2. I would need to pay attention to the movie and do math to figure this out... considering they can do the math on the ISV, i think they can do the math on north south east west.   Edit: remember that display in the control tower, where they show the mine, and then move the camera to hometree? ... assuming up is north... the directions looked quite different from your power point.... idk.

[Fmawnä Plltxeyu]

One thing I noticed is toward the end when Neytiri is holding Jake (the real Jake). After he says "I see you" they give a closeup of her face with her hand covering his on her cheek. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty confident his hand is too large. Hers should be dwarfing his, but they look about the same size.

Note: I searched for other threads about movie mistakes but didn't find any. Sorry if I missed them.

[Tsa'räni]

It's just an illusion based on how she's holding her hand at the time.  If you look closely at a still you can see it's much larger.

[Technowraith]

For 1:

The Tsayhalu connection allows for thought control, but as mentioned, beginners can say what they want to do because it's easier. When you say forward, you mean to go forward. You may not consciously think this way, but it's what happens through Tsayhalu.

For 2:

I don't have a program that reads ppt files, but one thing we can't determine exactly is what direction the armada came in from. You see them coming in at an angle almost, so it's hard to place bearings. One way to find bearings is tio see where the armada is in relation to the waterfalls and the river. There is a river that runs right next to hometree, along with a series of waterfalls. I noticed the armada having to come around hometree and then hover over the river. If i remember right, when the armada leaves, i hear "Tracking left, bearing 030." I do have another screening coming up today or tomorrow. But most likely i may have to postpone till saturday with work being a bit busy. I'll try and keep an eye out for this.

[ftia]

Here is the image as a .jpg file.
I do not believe you need all the river, water info.
Just confirm the radio communication as they approach hometree = "030".
See the drawing to confirm the logical implications.
Additional mistake if they go back from hometree at heading "030".
Irayo (thx)
Michael

[Roiki]

Flying close to the ground is never a straight path, you'll always have to navigate around obstacles, when the dragon pilot says "Stay on heading 030" they are already well under way so we don't know the heading they took when they left or how far from the hometree they were. Additionally when Selfridge demonstrates on the map how much unobtainium there is under the hometree, it shows that the river is between the hometree and the base, if the river flows from the west side of the hometree, then hometree would be east of hell's gate. It does strike a bit odd that they would apparently arrive from the opposite direction and not use the straight route, in the map if the river is on the west side the waterfalls would be on the north side of the hometree so when they arrived between them, they were arriving from north-east. Unless they wanted to sircle around and use the mountains as cover(in the map you can see that the east side of the river is quite flat) and make a surprise attack, but that seems quite unecessary.

Additionally, when they are leaving they don't state a heading, just that they're heading home.

The only mistake that really caught my eye was at the beginning when the shuttles loadmaster puts his exopack on and he has a scarf on his head, everyone who uses gas masks or similiar masks knows that you can't have anything between the masks rubber seals and your skin, otherwise it's not airtight.

[Kätsyín te Zotxekay Tsyal’itan]

Yea, and I did notice, that what ever way they came from is the same way that they left returning to the base, so it was a frontal assualt, we might just be reading into it a little too much.

But we will have our resident movie expert Technowraith take a look at it of course.

[ftia]

Just a little add'l info.
Last viewing, I noticed the distance readout at lower left of screen when Selfridge had the tech move the 3d map to sector 12, it showed 94km, then he backed it up a little.  So, about 90km from Hometree to Hell's Gate?

[Tsa'räni]

Just a little add'l info.
Last viewing, I noticed the distance readout at lower left of screen when Selfridge had the tech move the 3d map to sector 12, it showed 94km, then he backed it up a little.  So, about 90km from Hometree to Hell's Gate?

I believe that readout starts somewhere around 40k and then moves up to 90k or so.  So if you're going by that, I'd say 50k or so, if my memory is correct.

[Tìmuiäyä'itan]

The only mistake I can think of is when the Colonel's robot falls down as he dies... but good for the audience to know he's dead...

Kiyevame!

[omängum fra'uti]

Yeah that AMP falling down is a bit odd.  I think I actually heard somewhere that they are supposed to be programmed to return to base if the driver dies.

But something else that bugs me about that scene...  Jake could EASILY have jumped in and offed Quaritch while he was dallying around ejecting the cockpit window and putting on his exopack.

[Tsu'roen]

Yeah that AMP falling down is a bit odd.  I think I actually heard somewhere that they are supposed to be programmed to return to base if the driver dies.

But something else that bugs me about that scene...  Jake could EASILY have jumped in and offed Quaritch while he was dallying around ejecting the cockpit window and putting on his exopack.

Yes that was kind of a break with the quiet plausible ASG facts for a typical Hollywood effect. Same for your second point.
Also in a real fight Jake's final knife attack would most likely have been successful.


Not really an error in the common sense but rather a weak spot in the final story:
What bothers me a lot is the whole thing with the "we know these mountains, we fly these mountains - you fly these mountains - they don't" speech that Jake gives Trudy and Norm. And then the whole attack was pretty much an utter failure and the whole Na'vi air force was annihilated by the RDA forces in no time. So where was the superior strategy?
Without the more or less deus ex machina solution of Eywa sending in the animals as backup the battle would have been lost.

The Na'vi are aerial hunters/warriors from fairly young age on so they should have the necessary skills and strategic knowledge how to attack something with an Ikran and get out of the danger zone fast. Also the Ikran should be much more nimble in a dogfight than a Samson or Scorpion - faster in a dive attack/retreat anyway. Not to talk about that they should have had the superior numbers. So they should have shoot down pretty much all the Samsons and Scorpions in the first dive attack. The RDA shouldn't even have seen it coming and only the Dragon and the Valkyrie should have been left after the first wave ...

And don't get me started about that dilettantish ground attack ...

[omängum fra'uti]

The deus ex machina comment is actually interesting, because I think that was almost an intentional invocation of the plot device...  To the point that the battle was soured just SO it could be invoked.  I agree, the way the battle played out (Quite stupidly on the part of the RDA IMO - perhaps a bit of cockiness at superior technology) the Na'vi should have had the upper hand in the air battle.  The only part that really would go to the RDA would be air vs ground battle, but that shouldn't have happened.  But the god from the machine in this case was not something from left field that came in at the last minute of "Oops, they are losing, throw this in now!"  I mean, the timing was very convenient, but it was already well established before then that Eywa existed, and that Eywa's help had been asked for ahead of time.  So from that sense, I think the issue is less of "OMG where did that help suddenly come from?" as it usually would be, but more of "Why did they even NEED that help?"

[Txonyä'ite]

Cameron actually mentioned that dues ex machina was actuallyin his mind when he wrote the script in his interview with the writers guild of america. It's posted here somewhere and it's worth the hour it takes to listen to it.

[archaic]

Something I spotted second time I watched, is Trudy's attack on the Dragon assault ship, she shoots out the pilots view screen, but the windshield remains air tight.
Also, but not actually a mistake as such, after her first strafeing pass she lines up face to face, but doesn't open fire on the dragon.
Trudy is no fighter pilot, was her background military transport? Commercial? Or was she a rich kid with a private aircraft back home?
I wonder, if she'd survived the battle would the have sequel given more of her back story?

Actually if she was a rich kid, and her family were influential in RDA, that could be why she wasn't locked up after refusing to fire on hometree.

(I should so try writing a script for 2)

[Roiki]

The cabins of their aircraft are run at an overpressure to prevent leaks in cases where the cockpit fractures, if the hole is small enough the internal overpressure can keep the outside air out. Trudy also had his cockpit shot with a few holes and didn't seem to mind.

The final setting was pretty much a lost cause, like using horses against a tank. They had numbers, terrain and maybe agility on their side, pretty much everything else was against them. They only had that one chance to shoot down as much of the RDA crafts as possible(which they apparently had some confusion of the methods) and after that, it was pretty much a turkey shoot for the RDA. Using animals against a well armed, armored and agile crafts that you have pretty much nil chances of shooting down has obvious consequences. So the deus ex machina approach was pretty foreseeable.

[Nìwotxkrr Tìyawn]

Something I spotted second time I watched, is Trudy's attack on the Dragon assault ship, she shoots out the pilots view screen, but the windshield remains air tight.
Also, but not actually a mistake as such, after her first strafeing pass she lines up face to face, but doesn't open fire on the dragon.
Trudy is no fighter pilot, was her background military transport? Commercial? Or was she a rich kid with a private aircraft back home?
I wonder, if she'd survived the battle would the have sequel given more of her back story?

Actually if she was a rich kid, and her family were influential in RDA, that could be why she wasn't locked up after refusing to fire on hometree.

(I should so try writing a script for 2)

I don't see any reason to think why she wouldn't have been a fighter pilot.

As far as getting locked up, she could have made up any number of engine or technical problems as an excuse.

[archaic]

Something I spotted second time I watched, is Trudy's attack on the Dragon assault ship, she shoots out the pilots view screen, but the windshield remains air tight.
Also, but not actually a mistake as such, after her first strafeing pass she lines up face to face, but doesn't open fire on the dragon.
Trudy is no fighter pilot, was her background military transport? Commercial? Or was she a rich kid with a private aircraft back home?
I wonder, if she'd survived the battle would the have sequel given more of her back story?

Actually if she was a rich kid, and her family were influential in RDA, that could be why she wasn't locked up after refusing to fire on hometree.

(I should so try writing a script for 2)

I don't see any reason to think why she wouldn't have been a fighter pilot.

As far as getting locked up, she could have made up any number of engine or technical problems as an excuse.

Fighter pilot would not have hesitated, just opened fire, which would have probably taken it out too.
Also no fighter pilot would line up face to face like that.
IMO

[Tsa'räni]

I really doubt any pilot would line up face to face like she did.  That was just a cinema device to create dramatic effect, nothing more.  This type of thing is getting a little too deep with reading into what the movie presents.