Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-05-19 (Sunday)

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 5/20/2024 12:39 PM, BTR1701 wrote:

In article <v2frkp$2ft0$1@dont-email.me>,
Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
 

Aliens (4K disc) 1986 sequel directed by James Cameron and starring
Sigourney Weaver who must once again battle aliens that prey on people.

 
I watched ALIEN a couple of nights ago and it occurred to me when Ripley
sets the ship to self-destruct...
 

 
My original plan was to watch Alien, but I thought Predator 2 better fit
the theme, since it had both the 1700s gun and Bill Paxton chewing the
scenery.  Technically Alien may be the better movie, but I think I made
the right call going with Predator 2 instead.
 

Why in the actual hell does a commercial tug have a self-destruct
mechanism in the first place?
 
All through the franchise, we're given reminders that the Company only
cares about money, yet they give a crew of uneducated roughnecks the
ability to blow up billions of dollars of their equipment and valuable
ore?
 
And for what? Why would a tugboat conceivably have any need for such a
feature? This isn't some top-secret ship with cutting edge military tech
or something that needs to be kept out of enemy hands at all cost. It's
a tugboat for a huge ore barge. What conceivable reason would its
designers have to include an elaborate self-destruct system in its
design?
 

 
I can try to fanwank this.  Their faster than light travel is powered by
some sort of fission reactor.  If not properly maintained it is
susceptible to a meltdown.  You can artificially create a meltdown by
removing the cooling rods.  Since the cooling rods are replaceable there
is a built in ability to remove them.  But if they are removed while the
reactor is active and not replaced this will trigger a meltdown.  All
Ripley did was bypass a few safety protocols to remove the cooling rods
which triggered a countdown of how long she had to put them back in
before a catastrophic meltdown would occur.  It was not designed
specifically to be a self-destruct but under the circumstances that is
how it functioned.
 
Think of it as a truck driver cutting the break line (or equivalent) on
their truck.  It's not *designed* to that, and the company does not want
the driver to do that, but it's possible to do it.

That would be a good fanwank except for that fact that when Ripley pulls up
the panel to start the process, the screen clearly says:

DANGER
Emergency Destruction System

https://ibb.co/kGCBP34

So it wasn't a case of Ripley sabotaging the ship's normal systems and
causing a catastrophic failure. It's a system purpose built and installed
specifically so that the crew can detonate the ship.