Popular Mechanics Debunks Lost Finale
1 year, 5 months ago by WillRead more: ABC, Charlie, Rousseau, Sayid
Yes, it is true, your science professor’s favorite magazine has taken a hard look at the Lost season finale and parlayed it into a quick, humorous read of Sci-Fi Fact vs. Fiction.
What we can offer is a reality check: Writer, filmmaker, military adventurer and former dynamite wrangler Robert Young Pelton weighs in on the good, the bad and the fake from Wednesday’s mind-bending finale. (If you have not seen the two-hour episode, stop reading now!)
Thanks to Matt Sullivan, Online Editor of Popular Mechanics.
Comment 1, posted 1 year, 5 months ago - Quote and reply
Cute little article. In space, no one can hear you scream. And yet we always see and hear flaming explosions in sci-fi depictions of space battles. Aiiieeeee!!!!!
Comment 2, posted 1 year, 5 months ago - Quote and reply
so you can snap people’s necks with your legs.
Comment 3, posted 1 year, 5 months ago - Quote and reply
Cool article. I was hoping they would explain the reasoning behind Charlie closing the door to that room as it was filling up. I heard one explaination that if he didn’t close it, the water from that hole (from which he and Desmond swam up from) would start filling up the whole hatch. I’m not sure about all that but it seems like he still would’ve had enough time to run over and grab the SCUBA equipment and live. Maybe I just miss Charlie but I feel like if he wanted to, he could have avoided death. I think it was just in his head that that is the way he was going to die and so he just did it and didn’t look for another way out. :(
Comment 4, posted 1 year, 5 months ago - Quote and reply
The thing that interests me is that nobody has questioned the room completely filling with water. We assume several things:
1) The station is pressurized with air to the same pressure that exists outside the station with water (this is the only way a moon pool will work without filling the station with water)
2) The window is on the wall, approximately midway between the floor and the ceiling. The room is cylindrical in shape. All of these are observations taken directly from the footage.
I implore anyone reading this to take an empty water or soda bottle, fill a sink with water, hold the bottle completely submersed under the surface of the water sideways, and open the lid. The bottle is a close representation of the room Charlie drowns in, with a window halfway between the floor and ceiling. Just under the surface the pressure of the air in the bottle should be close to the pressure of the water outside the bottle, just as it was in the station. As you will see, the very same principal of buoyancy that allows a moon pool to work also makes the bottle only fill approximately half-way with water. The only way the room would have filled completely with water is if there was no air in the room when the window blew or if the window was the highest point in the room. Charlie might have had to tread water, but the room would still have quite a bit of air left in it after the window was breached.
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