Yeah. That’s always a problem in superhero movies, or sci fi movies where the ship grabs them or they fall and are caught by the giant robot/monster hand whatever. I USUALLY give it a pass for a simple reason. You could easily avoid the problem by catching them from below and matching the speed of their fall, then gradually slowing to a stop: you could even change the angle to a diagonal and then horizontal if done right. But- it just wouldn’t look as cool usually.
That and audiences tend to be a bit daft or checked out- just there for the ride. We want close calls. That space epic- having your ship narrowly avoid another ship by 200 Miles would be a real butt pucker moment- but it doesn’t translate that way on screen. Dude sees two ships that look super far apart and is just like “what’s the big deal?” Being in the same building as an explosion would be intense and dangerous- but it doesn’t impress the way have the flames of the explosion wash over the ditch as you jump in does. Having Luke Skywalker train for the months it would take to be a novice in a regular martial art- barely knowing anything and just practicing basic techniques- you now have to fill in what everyone else is doing for those months and a single film becomes a whole trilogy and we have 9 Star Wars movies in the original series.
So I go have to give movies a pass. They could dump exposition on us- explain some type of technology or aspect of super powers or whatever that allows this. “Oh- well he’s bullet proof but that’s only partially his tough skin- his body actually had a passive field that dissipates kinetic energy of momentum beyond a threshold that would cause harm when he contacts mater...” or whatever. But do I need that? Do I need to sit through exposition I only need to understand one or two quick action scenes, and itself might open all manner of holes or mind numbing internal inconsistencies in how these rules work? Do I need to watch a procedural rescue where we make sure to cite newton at every corner? Some times I want to yes. But sometimes we just are on a ride.
I think of it two ways to ease the scientist screaming in my head. Tarantino once said there aren’t plot holes, just poor imaginations. So I mean- how do I know this hero doesn’t have a power or something that allows this? As far as unbelievable things in a film like that- ignoring inertia isn’t even the most prominent. How do we even know this universe has the same physics or biology or technology as ours? It may be so similar it looks almost exactly the same- but if there’s a super hero there we know it isn’t our reality because we don’t have those. The other thought I use is: editing. The same as you seldom see characters use the bathroom or grab some food unless it’s a plot point or being used to set tone or give exposition- the same as we don’t see every mundane moment and are expected to go “well- he had enough time to change clothes between the conversation and the cut to him flying to the rescue...” or whatever else-
I often just pretend that some inaccuracies or what not get chalked up to editing. Often we think we are too “smart” for a film, and some films admittedly are just... hard to watch with your brain turned on at all. But I like to flip it around on myself and say that it isn’t the film being dumb- it’s me. Use my brain. Challenge myself to come up with how the thing I saw makes any sense. How did this person know this convenient fact, or how could the hero pull off this rescue without the person they saved being liquified by g force? Maybe I’m not too smart for the film- maybe the film just assumed I was smarter than I was? Interstellar is one of my favorite films. Some people think of it as a “smarter space adventure” and put it up with “smart” movies like Inception. I say these movies may be smart- but they spell 99.9% of everything out for you.
You don’t have to be smart to watch them because everything you need to know is on the screen. They walk you through everything and how it all works. But take a film that doesn’t have such comprehensive exposition and set up, that doesn’t give you all the answers and just throws crap at a screen and you’re expected to connect the dots- some say that’s a “dumb movie” for people who don’t want to think- and sure- it can be an escape from thought if you consume passively. But take the analysis that made you realize that person would die from the force of the rescue and go deeper- ask how could they possibly not? If you can’t come up with a good answer- maybe the movie is “dumb” or maybe you aren’t smart enough to understand the answers.
I read a theory once that Superman doesn’t have super strength he just has the ability to temporarily lower the mass of objects with which he come into contact. That is supposedly why he can lift a plane by its nose and it doesn’t tear in half even though it shouldn’t have that level of tensile strength. With that assumption you could theorize that catching someone at moving at terminal velocity while simultaneously reducing their mass could counteract the G force they could expect experience with the abrupt velocity change.
I’d never heard that theory- but it is a workable theory from the sound of it. It isn’t without its questions or challenges or possible inconsistencies- but in principal it passes a quick glance. As you say- it explains planes not ripping in half or being able to stand in front of a train without effecting it as though he were the worlds sturdiest bollard. It could explain the as fast or seemingly at times faster than light speed- and it seems to fit better with powers like heat and cold beams and X-ray vision which are themselves forms of matter/energy manipulation. So perhaps his powers aren’t so much the result of physics manipulations but the manifestation of his inherent ability to manipulate certain aspects of physics.
In other words he doesn’t just have a grab bag of “cool and useful powers” but an actual coherent array of powers stemming from certain manipulations of matter and or physics.
the real canon in the comics reason that superman doesnt just break everything is that he basically has a bio-electric immunity field around him that he can control to envelope something or someone he touches to protect it from everything.
Spider-Man has the most overpowered ability in all of comics basically. The spidey-sense is super fucking ambiguous. It warns him of anything dangerous. This has taken many forms from a gun being pointed at him to hot dogs being bad for him to knowing which wires on a bomb would kill him if he cut it. He could be knocked out and still dodge a bullet. Hell its warned him not to take off his mask because a dude 4 stories up from him in a room that can see him kinda halfway owned camera he wasn't even using yet.
It makes it so he can literally always avoid every dangerous thing ever because it will warn him adequately with enough time to avoid it
ye, it also lets venom sneak up on him because of the symbiotic stuff. Venom uses it to scare spiderman for fun quite a few times and its one of the only things that can genuinely startle him.
Thank you.
It makes it so he can literally always avoid every dangerous thing ever because it will warn him adequately with enough time to avoid it