Besides the recent Facebook group posting, another person that has influenced my view on the subject matter is Alan Dean Foster, who did the novelization. I think there’s a trivia note somewhere that talks about how Alan Dean Foster went to the Disney execs and pointed out the variety of scientific flaws in the movie. The fact that we still ended up with this mess of a script and movie show just how clueless the people in charge of this movie were as well as the probable not-so-hidden agenda of it attempting to emulate Star Wars the hope for a similar success. And while it’s been documented on how The Black Hole had been in development even before its actual release, the original bent had been altered a few times with various moments of script doctoring. But that merely demonstrates a few known issues just with the development of the script itself. From there, I would like to try and bullet point the various issues from memory about the movie (since it’ll be easier than creating sub headers).

• The Palomino craft – While the basic design of the craft seems plausible, one of the most glaring issues to me is the lack of size for that crew as well as the idea of deep space capabilities. It is unknown how far the Palomino crew travels in their mission but we do know that the black hole that they will encounter was not documented or seemingly known to the crew ahead of time. But that would put the crew very distant from Earth, which means that the craft would require a powerful propulsion system capable of light speeds or greater. Then if we add the fact that the ship is small, one has to wonder how long their supplies including food and air could last. We never see a sleeping quarters, kitchen or anything beyond two levels that were nothing more than instrumentation as well as some odd tunnel that Kate and Holland travel through.
• The black hole itself – Even though much of the idea behind black holes have still to be determined, what is certain is that they would not appear as a random whirlpool in space. Also, I think if a black hole is described as “the most massive” according to Vincent, you would think that humans would have documented its existence way ahead of time before some random craft shows up. I’m sure the various signals that it sends out should be detected way in advance.
• The mission to “find habitable life” – I’m sure Yvette Mimieux had no idea what she was saying. But if she recited the lines then it’s clearly the writers fault for being redundant here. The easy correction would have been for Kate to say, “find habitable planets” or worlds.
• Gravity’s usage – The movie does a rotten job portraying instances of zero gravity. One of the worst cases is during the initial tug by the black hole on the Palomino, Vincent stays at camera eye level while the rest of the ship starts to tumble. Even if the scene is meant to be humorous, it ultimately discredits the movie’s writers and direction in making it seem childish and stupid. Also, one the more infamous behind the scenes stories talks about how the original choice for Kate was Jennifer O’Neill. Jennifer was tasked to cut her hair short because of the way zero gravity would be handled. In turn, she ended up drinking a bottle of wine while having her hair done and ended up drunk, leading to a non fatal car crash and losing the part. Despite that situation, the idea of hair being affected by gravity only occurs in one instance where Reinhardt at the end appears like an old Rob Zombie with wild flaying hair just before his apparent “merge” with Maximilian. So I think the film makers were shoveling poor Jennifer and Yvette a lot of bullshit.
• Sound in space – At this stage, a lot of movies have been horribly offensive in the sci fi genre in allowing sound in space. The Black Hole does not help this cause at all.
• Anti-gravity – Along the way, Reinhardt apparently figures out how to implement anti-gravity for the Cygnus that can even withstand the black hole’s forces. Down the line, Reinhardt does talk about the way the reactor is powered through a new element called Cygnium but all of these things are so brief and contrived that they’re hard to believe. I suppose the idea of how the Cygnus handled anti-gravity before Reinhardt’s discovery alone makes no sense to me just because of the scale of the Cygnus. How would the original crew have dealt with being in space then? I could believe if the ship had limited gravity beforehand with its normal reactors to power the fields because then you could say the tech was developed on Earth. But there’s a massive leap to say that much of the power and tech were discovered later on.
• Laser blasters on the Palomino and the Cygnus. Both ships were meant to be science vessels. Why were lasers on either ship? I can somewhat believe the Cygnus because of the sheer size where one could argue that the crew anticipated hostile forces in the distant reaches of space. If not then I can see a nut like Reinhardt developing a laser on the side (he did come up with the sentries and Maximilian supposedly). The Palomino though is a strange case because it’s a much smaller vessel. In fact, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus was one of the few movies that I can recall that tried to address the idea of a science exploration needing weapons. In that case, you could see the paranoia of Vickers and her father in expecting possible hostile forces, which required a small military contingent. But at least they made an attempt to address the problem.
• Kate’s ESP link with Vincent – This is one of the dumbest ideas in the movie because they never explain how Kate has ESP with a robot. Alan Dean Foster did try to flesh out the details a little more in saying that Kate had an operation which implanted a chip in her brain to communicate with Vincent. Even that would make almost no sense because of how each person had a comm link attached to their jumpsuit. And there’s so many issues with the way the ESP was to be used such as how Kate could communicate through the metal shell of the Palomino against the black hole’s forces, the lack of explaining how far she was able to communicate with Vincent (she could apparently contact Vincent all the way from the command tower to the bow of the Cygnus where Vincent was when she was being taken in the elevator to the hospital). Also, there was a missing subplot that further developed Reinhardt’s intention to use Kate with her ESP to maintain communication with Vincent once the Cygnus entered the black hole. At this point, the idea of her ESP being this limitless two way communications device was too convenient since it gives the writers an easy way out. Also, once Kate sends the message about Alex and her fate after Maximilian’s attack, the entire subject of her ESP vanishes from the plot. The novel does try to utilize this ability at the end in talking about the weird unification effect Kate did in keeping the surviving members of the space probe intact in some metaphysical space but even then I think Alan Dean Foster just said fuck it because of how bad the real ending was.
• The really bizarre elevator platform – This is a technology/design issue that made no sense to me when you dissect it. The elevator from the inside the tower has a nonsensical design. First, there’s a small walkway that a person must cross to get access into the command center. The entire top half of the elevator is able to rotate around like some daytime game show’s prize showcase. Then there’s the matter of the electrified grid opening that eventually (and redundantly) further cauterizes poor Alex’s eviscerated form as he tumbles into the exploding grid. I can’t imagine that Reinhardt suddenly would implement such a wild design after the ship was built because the construction would require parts, time and prevent anyone from entering/leaving the command center, even after he gained control over the ship. That implies the actual designers were psychopaths in creating this safety hazard of a system. I know it’s meant to be used for dramatization (namely to hide the unseen gaping hole that Maximilian drills into Alex’s chest) but it’s such a stupid idea. A simple laser blast would have still been jarring for a Disney movie without the excessive violence that made that scene dumber than dumb.
• Maximilian’s design – Both Bob and Vincent obviously were meant to be The Black Hole’s version of R2D2 as utility type of robots. Maximilian was probably meant to mirror Darth Vader (and by the end of Star Wars, it’s unclear that Vader was human at all). But to make Maximilian be as intimidating or attempt to be scarier than Vader, they gave him a devilish coloring as well as an ominous pair of rotating blades. While we got to see what Maximilian ended up using those blades for, in practice they seem pretty useless. Both Vincent and Bob are armed with lasers that they can charge up on their “arm” extensions. The sentries are given dual wielding laser pistols. But Maximilian has a melee device? It seems quite backwards to design an inefficient weapon into the robot unless Reinhardt also was a sadist and developed the weapon to inflict grievous punishment on the original crew (perhaps how Frank was murdered which we never found out in practice). Again, the drama overshadowed any logic for the design here.
• The sentries themselves – As far a we know, Reinhardt apparently crafted the sentries during the mission, starting with STAR as the prototype. It seems outrageous where the original crew of the Cygnus were unable to detect Reinhardt crafting in some secret section of the ship a small army of robots along with laser pistols. Even if Reinhardt only crafted STAR initially, how could a clumsy, slow robot like that single-handedly manage to overcome the crew? There’s just so many questions left unanswered in terms of how Reinhardt managed to pacify the Cygnus crew because of how incompetently they were unable to beat the tinier Palomino gang. The sentries were worse than Stormtroopers and COBRA infantry combined in terms of sheer lack of ability.
• Cygnium – This new element that Reinhardt “discovers” supposedly is the main thing that powers the reactors. I believe Booth or Reinhardt may have mentioned that the Cygnus’ reactors could power the entire earth, which is ridiculous (especially now that we’re experiencing a power crunch from data centers). Nonetheless, this idea was so tiny in the scheme of things but it leaves a lot to be desired. How was this element discovered? Does the proximity to the black hole have any relevancy for how Reinhardt makes this discovery? How does one farm such an element and deploy it into an existing reactor that is used to power an entire, massive deep space ship? What other properties does it have beyond simple power? Horribly underdeveloped piece that deserved more attention because it could’ve been something to explain a variety of technology and science problems if the makers even bothered.
• The humanoids – I don’t want to go into the transformation process because that deserves a whole line item by itself. But there’s a lot of issues I have in the way the humanoids were handled. For instance, it’s never established whether they (the humans) still require food, water, bathroom breaks, sleep, etc. We do know that the humanoids can breakdown (which actually makes sense) but they’re never given much development outside of being faceless entities we’re supposed to sorrow for. The fact that there is a crews quarters that Holland explores with beds and a massive garden that was known to Booth beforehand (he talks about writing on the subject, even though he randomly discovers it first hand during his solo voyage). To me those things partly imply that the humanoids still required a minimum amount of basic human needs, even though they probably couldn’t express those needs much anymore. Previously, I harped on Holland’s lack of dialog during the crews quarter exploration scene because we don’t know what he’s thinking as he searches one of the rooms. I think a small line during the dinner scene where he could say that the quarters were still in use (like a rumpled up bed) would imply that there were survivors (which I think someone suggest). The fact that there’s no direct connection made about the scale of the garden and the crews quarters make those scenes a little odd and almost useless.
• The entire shooting gallery – Why does this thing even exist on a science exploratory ship? More importantly, why would robots need any kind of recreation, especially robot guards? Because of the rise of AI in the past few years, one could argue that the sentries required target training (and apparently they did in the movie because they barely could hit anything). But at the same time, Hollywood tends to not know much about the technical details of complex science and engineering matters like AI. Since this movie is set into the future, one might think that robots already had accuracy programmed. Nonetheless, the real issue is that the room was presented more for recreation than for training (STAR does his fancy shots). The whole aspect felt like a worthless scene that added absolutely nothing and took away a significant amount of time in distracting the audience from the plot. Then we have Bob who is amongst the sentries. We know that Bob isn’t armed and supposedly is a maintenance robot. Why is he there? He knows that STAR is in the room too. So what function does he serve just sitting around? Why would the sentries even welcome him inside? It’s not like he’s hiding either.
• STAR – The robot makes almost no sense at all. Besides Maximilian, STAR is the only other robot from the Cygnus crew (and Bob) that exhibits any form of emotion. He’s obviously there to serve as a one off joke for the film makers but he adds almost nothing to the plot. We get this great background on him being the #2 and the leader for the rest of the sentries. Then Vincent randomly triangulates a shot that destroys him. It’s so goofy and bad that it’s another thing that frustrates me to no end. On top of that, why didn’t the rest of the sentries respond to Vincent destroying their leader? They merely stand around staring dumbfounded at STAR while he’s in the throes of his last moments. He doesn’t even get repaired for some minor revenge plot against Vincent. So again, this character added absolutely nothing to the plot and wasted essential time.
• The space probe’s silver humanoid suited operator – This is another really bizarre cameo who shows up in two different scenes. We never learn just whom this pilot is beyond how he does a final experiment (which is left unexplained) to confirm that the Cygnus is ready to enter the black hole. All we learn is that Reinhardt intends to “personally” check out his computers, which is an odd line. Now, Reinhardt did stay to inspect the space probe after the pilot and Maximilian leave so Reinhardt might’ve implied that he was going to examine data from the space probe’s computers. But the way Reinhardt stated it made me think the actor had no idea what a computer really was and that he might’ve believed the pilot was a robot himself. Also, I think Reinhardt talks about a debriefing room where Maximilian escorts the pilot but anything dealing with that never is shown. The biggest issue I have with this pilot is that Reinhardt sent a semi-living being to the event horizon of the black hole for a high risk experiment rather than a robot or sentry even. The movie never explains what an event horizon is nor why it’s significant or how it makes any impact to the plot. My theory is that the space pilot’s experiment was to determine the effects of radiation and other particles on a person. Hence, why the pilot required a special silver uniform. The debriefing could’ve hinted that the pilot suffered no ill effects from the proximity of the black hole. Maybe the humanoid shown in the hospital receiving the treatment was the same one used here. Either way, there’s a variety of continuity issues that could’ve been interconnected better if the film makers these things through a little better.
• The hospital – I wouldn’t debate the need for a space hospital but the portrayal in this movie is one of the worst aspects. You have these weird rotating tables with six laser pods that beam who knows what into their patients. In the center, sits some faceless surgeon. We never see how the operator can even get in and out of the center (Holland does show himself leaping over but he’s not in a zombified state). These tables are only shown to administer some sort of brain programming where the lasers themselves have no overt purpose but can penetrate one of those thick reflective face masks yet destroy a sentry’s head. But is the audience expected to, without argument, accept how a futuristic hospital is run? For instance, were these tables here before the take over? If they were, how did an actual patient handle a critical injury like a knee breaking? Did those lasers simply serve a more universal patching? I believe Logan’s Run (which is from 1976) showed a weird surgery with a laser that could repair skin. I wouldn’t doubt that the brain surgeons reprehensible…i mean responsible for this film (mis-)appropriate the idea here to a lesser degree without thinking how it ought to be executed. But the way this hospital and these devices are presented make me think that they were “invented” once Reinhardt overcame the ship’s crew. The rotating aspect (though probably nothing more than a futuristic James Bond style damsel in distress trope with woman tied up on the train tracks with the impending train or saw) could be justified in terms of expediently converting a large number of the crew in batches. Even then, why six body molds per table especially when there’s three tables visible in the room? Just how big was the original crew? And why would someone need to move from one laser endpoint to another? Did each laser per table serve a different purpose? If this whole transformation process wasn’t so critical to the plot (where it’s literally one of the biggest plot devices in the movie), I wouldn’t be as upset for the horrible lack of logic and explanation.
• The lack (or lax) of security on the doors and around the hospital. Reinhardt talks about certain “dangerous experiments” but I feel that the only one he needs to hide is the hospital. Given that, why didn’t the hospital doors have a lock of any sort? How were Vincent and Bob able to enter or Holland later on? Shouldn’t there be more security around that spot especially with the Palomino crew possibly discovering it (which they did)? I mean in both scenes, the sentries do show up gradually but it’s too late for them to be effective. In each situation, they get wasted by Vincent (the ones on the outside). Again, how can security be this bad and manage to take over this massive ship and crew when they can’t handle two minor league robots and two cowboy type of pilots?
• The general inconsistency of communication used for the robots – I presume that the robots communicated on some radio frequency given that the internet wasn’t well established when this movie came out. The most noticeable cases of where the sentries communicate with one another are the scenes when STAR confers with the other sentries before accepting Vincent’s challenge in the shooting gallery and later during the hand off of Kate from the aircar. While Bob does try to establish that the two destroyed sentries outside the hospital might eventually be discovered, Bob mentions that it would happen during a patrol that encounters the area (which does happen). But one would think because these are robots, the system managing these robots would notice an offline blip. Otherwise, how do these sentries actually communicate with one another? Along those lines we have the weirdly loud alarm that resounds after Reinhardt decides to terminate everyone. Just who is this obnoxious klaxon for? Why would the sentries require an audio component except from direct verbal orders from Reinhardt to perform any function?
• Communication’s spying network – Reinhardt admits that he was spying on the Palomino by monitoring their frequencies. So he knew at least that the Palomino made a few attempts to contact the Cygnus. Also, one can infer that Reinhardt was able to monitor all communications within the Cygnus, which is why he questioned how the crew figured out to be recalled without his knowing (until he deduced that Kate’s ESP to Vincent was responsible). But if he had that level of spying capability, how is it that the Palomino manages to avoid notice in various cases?
• Reinhardt keeping his formulas on physical paper – Okay, again this is an old movie so the film makers had almost no clue about the emergence of computing. But why store just a single copy in one mega notebook? Why weren’t his ideas and formulas Xerox’d or stored into some computer? Numerous movies would show tape reels and there were typewriters by that point. Just a terrible scientists.
• Kate’s (invisible) arm restraints while riding in the air car and in the deleted scenes in the hospital. One unseen aspect was what the sentries used to bind Kate’s arms behind her back. Again, this is a poor design for the sentries because of how they’re treated more like an ominous space gestapo police robot force. Even so the idea that the Cygnus would have something like cuffs seem ridiculous. I mean I guess Reinhardt could’ve welded some together given he made the sentries, Maximilian and who knows what else onboard. But we never see the sentries carry anything beyond their holsters that are visible on their uniforms. So I have to question what was used to restrain Kate’s arms.
• Inconsistent placement of video cameras for security. We do see Reinhardt visually monitoring Dan, Kate and the two robots’ escape after the shootout scene. Also, there’s the brief display of the destroyed Sentry’s head. But one would think the entire ship would have monitors for a variety of reasons. How is it that Reinhardt was unable to keep track of Dan and the two droids during the rescue mission? At some point, Reinhardt becomes aware of the Palomino crew’s potential for endangering his goals and he sets up an alert on the ship. But why doesn’t he have the ability to see the various halls Holland sneaks through? Unlike say the alien in Ridley Scott’s Alien, Holland the two robots aren’t using hidden shafts to crawl around in order to avoid the sentries. But that didn’t mean he should have been able to avoid video surveillance. And why wasn’t Bob tracked since he was a Cygnus robot? Why would an untrustworthy maintenance robot deserve autonomy?
• The infamous silver bag and foil cap. Again, I’ve ranted over these things so many times, I could easily do a PhD on them if someone would sponsor me. But I’ve had so many issues about these two devices like how does Kate get put in, why a foil cap is used over Kate’s head, how does Kate not try to roll off the table, etc. For the purpose of this blog, I’m going to simplify all that (since I have written better dedicated posts) and just say that they are major problems that need to be resolved.
• I already devoted a blog to Kate’s rescue and the problems with the hospital. So I don’t want to go through all that again. Instead, I’ll just say read the previous blog and that the whole scene is problematic from start to finish on a variety of levels.
• The hospital escape where Kate and Holland use the humanoid robes for disguise. I have to wonder just where they acquire these spare robes and masks. The movie doesn’t delve into the rest of the hospital beyond the operating tables and anything inside. We don’t get to see where the storage lies (where I assume the silver bag and foil caps are kept) and any robes and masks for recent converts. Also, we don’t get to see Holland freeing Kate from the bag itself, which is highly disappointing.
• I don’t want to get into the next major shootout because the entire scene is stupid. But it just reinforces my view that the sentries were highly incompetent.
• Booth’s attempt at an escape. This part is so deranged. How and why should Booth know what to do with the Palomino? Obviously, he’s not a good pilot and struggles. But not once is it ever established that as a reporter he required any form of training with the ship. It’s about as equally preposterous as having a news reporter taking up a life support spot on a science mission.
• The damage from the Palomino’s crash. I assume that the Palomino’s crash landing into the Cygnus starts the issues with the other failures especially in having a damaged hull to repel the meteor storm. We just see it happen and there’s no mentioned consequence outside of how Booth ironically did the remaining crew a favor.
• The greenhouse fight. Another stupid fight scene. When the roof gets torn off by a meteor, I think the humans should have been killed whether by the depressurization effect, the possibility of radiation from the black hole or other particles that the Cygnus’ failing anti-gravity and shields no longer could withstand. Then you have the weird effect where a few sentries get carried out of the ship into space. Whereas before they were deactivated when they get blasted but manage to stay on their feet. It’s just a big mess.
• Bob “freezing” after the greenhouse scene. Another really corny scene.
• The air car chase scene. Supposedly, the Palomino team was being chased by another group of sentries but that section got eliminated. I’m guessing the intent was to eventually sell a ride at Disneyland but I think the general negative public response killed off any future plans that Disney may have wanted for this franchise. Nonetheless, at one point, the aircar stops before a damaged portion of the track which has been clearly blown off. There’s no air suction like the greenhouse scene and the humans aren’t wearing any space suits to protect them. They merely take a different exit to escape with no consequence.
• The fireball/meteor scene has already been discussed but I’m sure anyone who sees it must think the film makers got fails in astronomy. The less said the better.
• The final run towards the space probe. Just a purely stupid scene. I get that the actors had no desire to wear space suits. But it just convinces me that the film makers had such poor controls over the film and this scene suffers massively once Pizer starts drifting off into space. To a lesser degree, one could argue that Holland and Kate may have survived attempting to board the probe with whatever gravity and atmosphere were left being generated around them. But Pizer spinning away and not imploding was utterly stupid.
• The tiny size of the space probe. I think for the spiraling effect of the survivors spinning uncontrollably, the film makers decided to have a tight quarter for the interior. However, the ship has no known food supply, no bathroom, an unknown amount of oxygen remaining and once it exits the black hole (from a white hole?) it can be seen heading towards a planet that happens to be right outside. But the main issue is that this was a small probe ship not an interstellar thing like the Cygnus. Even if the crew managed to survive the voyage, how could they be expected to survive much longer in the new universe? Would Kate and Holland resort to cannibalism on Pizer? I mean, it’s so stupid and desperate where it reeks of the film makers just saying fuck it we’re out budget let’s just finish this because there’s these bullet points that Disney wants us to handle.
• The Hell/Heaven view. Even though the overall idea is utterly absurd, preachy, self indulgent and almost incomprehensible, I can buy the visual as a hallucinogenic, feverish nightmare that one of the crew members (Kate?) experiences during their voyage inside of the black hole. If my brain was being rattled that badly while my body was being crushed by intense gravitational forces, then why shouldn’t a person experience something like the worst LSD trip known to man?
• The weird bright planet outside of the black hole/white hole’s exit. Oddly, I buy the Hell/Heaven piece more than I do the chances of a nearby planet that the film suggests (or perhaps that thing being a neighboring star in orbit). But the real issue goes back to the remaining fuel and life support available on the space probe to be able to transport three humans to this random system/planet. Even if the black hole’s exit process slingshotted the probe at a high enough velocity through its rear end, how can this piece of serendipity be close enough before the crew perishes for lack of food or oxygen? They never establish if the experience of traveling through a black hole actually extends life as Reinhardt tries to insist. So again the ending just has a “fuck it” feeling that lacks resolution much like a good chunk of the movie in its inability or willingness to sit down and explain anything.

So there you have it. All the absurdities I could think of from a variety of scientific, technological and technical viewpoints. I think if someone (beyond myself) ever attempted to salvage this movie, they ought to examine my two latest blogs to see the various discrepancies and massive leaps in logic or need of further expatiation before doing a proper re-write.

The post The Black Hole: Science, Technology and Possibly Technical Failures in the Movie appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Platoon is mostly shown through the eyes of one Chris Taylor. In a way, he represents director’s Oliver Stone’s experiences as a Vietnam veteran. The movie starts off with a plane landing in an air field where a bright eyed, naive Taylor steps off the plane with other presumably new recruits. Immediately, as he disembarks, he along with Gardner, another fresh recruit, spot several body bags being carted off, indicating the grimness of the situation. As a higher ranking official grab the new recruits, several soldiers who had been serving in ‘Nam greet the new recruits with sarcasm, “You’re going to love the ‘Nam.” There are no happy faces there, only a harsh reality that barely registers for Taylor as he watches a scarred up soldier passing him by.

From there the scenery changes to the lust but harsh jungle near the Cambodia border where the platoon make their way towards a point. Despite the greenery, the scene remains a tough environment as the vegetation is thick and hazardous while insects and other wild life threaten the soldiers at each turn. At this point, Taylor already is finding the conditions terrible and he’s beaten by red ants, face and arms red with rash and his physical endurance is tested. The other soldiers don’t really care about his situation because he’s new except for Sgt. Elias as Taylor is sickened from his first sight of the enemy: a corpse. As the group pauses, Elias and Doc inspect Taylor where Elias tells Taylor that he’s carrying too much but offers to help burden some of his load. In one of the few genuine moments of comedy in the movie though, despite being asked if he’s alright, Taylor lies about his condition and passes out cross eyed.

Gradually, the platoon make it to a rendezvous point that allows some choppers to drop off some supplies. Taylor gives some narration of their situation and his predicament where it’s clear that he’s way over his head and that fresh people like himself are more cannon fodder. We get a small peak at the various personalities and non-combat military life of this group as they setup camp, eat, piss, etc. As the group rests, the leaders gather to plan for the evening where Sgt. O’Neill reveals how another platoon had got his by claymore traps. Their Lt. Wolfe is an inexperienced, incompetent figure with a title in name only. The soldiers mostly report to Staff Sgt. Barnes, who is a scarred veteran and hardened tactician. The other two Sgts. in the group are the aforementioned Elias, a more compassionate, easy going leader and Warren, who apparently is (was) a heroin addict.

They plan to enter the zone later in the evening and a small argument breaks out on which group will be responsible, which falls onto Elias. However, Elias’ team is composed of new recruits and he instinctively knows that they’ll probably have an encounter later. O’Neill though is a politician and argues that his team are close to the end of their tour, which means that their morale would be low should they ship. In turn, Barnes has Elias go out and in compensation O’Neill accompanies since they need veterans while Warren’s group stays back.

The remainder of the night turns ugly for the patrol as heavy rain pours upon them. When they make camp, Taylor provides more narration about the general backgrounds of the soldiers to his unseen grandmother. He talks about the notion of a grunt and how they’re the backbone of the war. Unlike Taylor who was a willing recruit, the bulk of the men there come from bottom of the barrel backgrounds with little hope after their service finishes. It’s clear in a few cases why some belonged out there but in general the idea is that these people were expendable.

Eventually, Taylor gets a shift as he’s partnered with an unfriendly soldier called Tex. Taylor is given brief instructions on how to operate their own claymore traps and is warned by Tex effectively not to fall asleep. Eventually, Taylor’s shift is over and he swaps with another soldier, Junior. Junior is like that constant failure in class that gets straight D’s or worse. His main attributes besides failure are complaining and having a rotten attitude towards everything. When Taylor wakes Junior up, Junior does not take his duty seriously and almost falls back asleep, which allows the first ambush/combat to start.

The fire fight is brief with Taylor having problems operating the claymore. During the fight, O’Neill badly throws a grenade which lands near Tex (and Gardner I think), blowing off Tex’s hand and causing him to scream in agony. Taylor also gets nicked in the neck as Barnes goes to shut Tex up while Doc is called to attend Gardner, who is mortally wounded. Big Harold, a friendly soldier, looks after Taylor to prevent him from going into shock as Doc tries to bandage up Gardner. However, Gardner passes which marks the first death in this group. Many of the soldiers are given a moment to process the situation with Taylor dealing with his own pain and the fact that the person he chatted with earlier has passed. The last person to react is Junior who seems mostly apathetic (probably because Gardner was white)

But Barnes gets up and scolds the platoon for letting this happen. In particular, he calls out Taylor, who protests that it was Junior that fell back asleep. Bunny and O’Neill gang up on Taylor before Elias cools them down. Barnes did confront Junior though before Taylor mentioned Junior’s failure but does not directly acknowledge that Junior had anything to do with the situation. However, as a fitting punishment, Elias gets Junior (along with another guy named Tony) to carry out the dead body of Gardner, telling Barnes that if Gardner had been given a few extra days, he could’ve learned something and lived.

With the first mission complete, we see Taylor returning from the hospital/medical back to the main base. He is greeted by King, who is one of the wiser men in the platoon. King has procured some beers but O’Neill charges King and Taylor with latrine duty (as well as recovering the beers for themselves). That allows Taylor to spend some time with King and another soldier named Crawford, who is from California and talks like a typical surfer. Both reveal the number of days left with Crawford acknowledging that O’Neill is a brown noser.

That moment provides a small bonding moment between Chris and the other two and he’s invited into a private den called the “Underworld” where Elias’ men hang out, listen to soul tunes and smoke pot. Chris is more accepted by this group who behave more like a family rather than callous soldiers in opposition to Barnes’ group, who hang out in the other barracks. Over there, Barnes’ men drink and smoke but distance themselves away from pot. We get some character background from Bunny, a more redneck, low IQ but brutal character and Junior, who despises Bunny’s “red neck noise” in favor of Motown jams. They discuss the effects of pot where Junior looks at pot as a way for white men to control African Americans while Bunny reveals a silly conspiracy about the enemy doing something with the pot to turn the Americans into pacifists. However, Junior does recognize that Bunny is a homicidal maniac regardless.

In turn, Lt. Wolfe shows up to hang out with Barnes’ group and he’s treated coldly. Once Wolfe leaves, O’Neill reveals his real thoughts to Barnes about Wolfe, knowing that he’s too inexperienced to be in that position. Then back in Elias’ barracks, the men there continue to sing, smoke and dance as one of the few actual happy moments of bonding occurs. Taylor is fully welcomed by the group as he starts becoming a pot head too.

That moment of happiness turns into a new mission for the following day. The group set out once again where they encounter an empty setting that is trapped. Two men are blown up by a map attached to a trap while Elias shoots an enemy in a hole. Elias figures that there’s more traps and they need engineers to disarm them but Lt. Wolfe tells them that they need to hit/investigate a nearby village. However, one other soldier has gone missing in Manny. The group goes to look for Manny and King finds him mutilated, strung up with his neck slit on a tree by the river. The cruelty sets the group off especially Sgt Barnes as Taylor mentions that they wanted to seek revenge for their fallen comrade.

The group show little mercy towards the farming village once they arrive. One villager attempted to run off with Barnes coldly shooting him in the back. With no real reason, Bunny shoots a random pig dead. Then the group search through the village, concluding that the excess rice and some weapons were most likely for NVAs. Barnes interrogates the village leader, who says that they hate the VCs but can do little about the situation. In the meantime, Taylor finds two more hiding villagers in a hut and goes ballistic on one of them, who is a cripple with one leg and an obvious mental disposition. The mother tries to beg off Taylor and gradually he relents, despite being egged on by Bunny. In turn, Bunny finishes the job in smashing the cripple’s head in which disgusts the other witnesses to his act.

Back outside Barnes loses his patience with the village leader where the leader’s wife attempts to intervene. Despite the wife’s pleas to get Barnes off her husband, Barnes shoots the woman in the head, which incites their young daughter who witnesses the murder nearby. But that only encourages Barnes to use the daughter to force the leader to admit something that probably isn’t true. Eventually, Elias breaks up the scene and starts a fight with Barnes. Both men are pulled apart by their respective squads with Wolfe finally coming in to order them to burn the village down. However, Elias accuses Wolfe of not doing anything about Barnes’ behavior, which Wolfe flat out denies.

The village is burnt asunder and the villagers are taken prisoner. Back at the camp, Captain Harris, who leads the overall group, talks to Elias about the incident and tells Wolfe and a nearby Barnes that a court marshal will happen if he uncovers that an illegal killing was conducted. Wolfe tries to placate the situation but Harris focuses on defusing the tension between Barnes and Elias for the moment. As Barnes walks away, Wolfe accompanies him and tries to assure the staff sgt. that Elias has no evidence. In truth, Barnes doesn’t care what Wolfe has to say as his two main enablers in Bunny and O’Neill try to get the lowdown. Once Wolfe is gone, Bunny tells them that someone should frag Elias because Elias could get the rest of the platoon into trouble. A deadly look from Barnes as he smokes a cigarette shows that the idea isn’t lost on him.

The men set out for another mission. The night before Elias and Taylor spend a moment talking philosophy of the war. Elias admits that his views has changed over time where he’s come to realize that America can’t win this one. Once the next day comes about, the group get ambushed again with Lerner and Warren hit while on point. Taylor scrambles to help out Lerner while Elias finds Wolfe to discuss a plan to assault the enemy from a different direction to prevent a cross fire. Barnes has another argument with Elias over how they should handle the situation while Wolfe watches helplessly.

As the Taylor nails an NVA in a hole with a grenade, he pulls Lerner back. Wolfe, desperate calls in an air strike with bad coordinates and toasts some of his regiment. Big Harold tries to retreat as bombs land around him but gets his leg blown off from setting off a trap. Barnes’ radio guy is struck by shrapnel too. In turn, Barnes locates Wolfe to denigrate him and calls off the air strike. Before then, Elias takes Crawford and Rhah then Taylor to perform his mission by the river. Crawford, Taylor and Rhah setup a small defense perimeter so that Elias can rush solo. Rhah and Taylor manage to eliminate a few NVA but Crawford is injured during the fire fight. Barnes had gone searching for Elias after calling off the air strike so that Wolfe can order a tactical retreat. Barnes finds the three tending to Crawford and orders them back to the blasted church. However, Taylor tells Barnes that Elias is still in the jungle but Barnes says that he’ll find Elias.

Eventually, both soldiers convene with Elias smiling at Barnes. Barnes reciprocates Elias’ grin but his mouth droops as he takes aim and fires. Thinking Elias is dead, Barnes returns encountering Taylor and telling him that he found Elias dead by the river. Shocked, Taylor has no choice but to return to the retreat point where the wounded and dead are brought aboard the choppers to be lifted to safety. As the choppers take off, Taylor sees Elias being chased by NVAs with Wolfe trying to get the chopper to turn around and rescue their companion. Barnes though is mystified that Elias made it and takes a glance for himself. We get one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history with Elias getting gunned down by the NVAs and the choppers not providing enough cover in time for him to reach safety. He reaches towards the sky as the choppers fly overhead and leave him to die. Taylor though sees Barnes with a guilty though impassive expression and immediately knows what happened.

Back at the camp, Taylor talks to his remaining group of Elias followers on getting retribution as well as Barnes’ complicity. Rhah tries to talk Taylor out of it but Barnes sits by the door, drunk and listening for the right moment to interrupt their discussion. He knows that they all know he did it and effectively dares any of them to take him on. He provides one of the best lines in the movie as he looks at the camera with his scared up, hardened face and admits, “I am reality.” Since none of the soldiers take him up on his offer to attack him, Barnes disrespects the group. But that provokes Taylor into attack Barnes. The veteran soldier flips the tables on Taylor and overpowers him, taking his knife to his face. Once again Rhah intervenes on Taylor’s behalf this time but not before Barnes gives Taylor a swift reminder with a cut under his eye.

Despite the incident, the group is called out to perform another mission. They return near the village in preparation for a large encounter. Morale is very low with their numbers dwindling and reports of another group getting cut to shreds. With their remaining forces, they setup a perimeter and foxholes. King though gets relief and gets aboard a chopper while Taylor sees him off. On the other hand, Junior tries to pull a stunt by spraying repellent on his foot to pretend he’s injured to get on the chopper too. But the wily Barnes detects Junior’s falsehood and tries to pull a prank by having O’Neill almost fetch a centipede to shove down Junior’s crotch. It’s enough to force Junior to accept his duties as he’s almost completely broken down and forced to endure the night with Bunny. O’Neill makes his own appeal privately with Barnes to get out of the incoming firefight but Barnes merely tells him, “Everybody’s gotta die sometime, Red.”

From there, the soldiers merely wait as dusk approaches. Captain Harris tries to contact another platoon but finds the line cut as the NVA overrun that group. It’s clear to him that the night is going to be a long one. We return to Taylor who sits in a foxhole with Francis while the NVA quietly march towards the encampment. However, one NVA trips a flare which starts the first part of a firefight near Rodriguez’s hole. A blast dusts Rodriguez’s hole which brings Rhah down to Taylor and Francis. A brilliant flare is launched into the sky to try to scope out the hidden American troops in their dug outs where Rhah tells them to keep in their hole since an airstrike will be arriving. Then he leaves and promises to return soon.

In the meantime, more explosions go off as a single American soldier hobbles his way towards Taylor and Francis. They signal him to their hole as the soldier reveals the fate of his group along with the impending NVA forces. It’s clear by his disheveled appearance and tone that things are going to get ugly quickly. The street smart Francis tries to encourage Taylor to ditch but Taylor is more confident at this point so they both stay put. Then it’s their turn to meet the enemy as more fire rages. But a blast temporarily knocks Taylor down. As Francis continues to fire blindly into the dark forest, Taylor hears whistles and the NVA shouting. He realizes that their foxhole is the next one to be blown apart and he gets Francis to escape before an RPG takes the hole out.

They find another spot to hide while more NVA penetrate the perimeter. Taylor waits a moment before running off to take down a few of the invaders. As Taylor smashes in one soldier’s head, Francis finds his courage to cover Taylor’s back. Both men now engage with the enemy with Taylor’s slowly losing his mental faculties in the orgy of war, telling Francis, “It’s fucking beautiful!” before running out of the hole to hunt down more of the enemy. Futilely, Francis calls for his friend to no avail.

In another foxhole, Bunny and Junior make their stand. It’s mostly Bunny with his shotgun while Junior cowers underneath. Junior loses his cool though and decides to take off which distracts Bunny. As Junior runs in desperation, he blindly knocks himself out cold in colliding with a tree. But the incident is enough for Bunny to take his eyes off the fight and he gets shot by one soldier, falling into the hole before the soldier takes the barrel of his rifle, shoves it in Bunny’s mouth and presumably blows his brains out. Following that, Junior meets his end too in the other comedic moment where he gets stabbed while cross eyed. Then Barnes tries to fight through his section and gets blasted in the leg, losing his weapon but ends up picking up a shovel to bludgeon his opponents on a rampage. O’Neill uses a corpse to pretend he’s dead and evades a patrol.

By that point, the perimeter is penetrated and the camp is slowly being overrun. Sappers take out the forward command (with a cameo from the director himself) Captain Harris witnesses the destruction with grimness while the camp is taken apart. Over by Lt. Wolfe’s section, he tries to contact others but can only reach the Captain. He wants to pull back but the Captain realizes that there’s no place they can pull back to and is ordered to stand his ground. Thereafter, his section is taken down as the NVAs make their way through the camp. I believe Doc is blinded by a shot and drops dead while Wolfe too tries to fight but gets blinded by shrapnel before another NVA takes him out. Now, things are bleak which forces Captain Harris to have an airstrike drop all remaining ammo within their perimeter since their camp would be taken down regardless.

Taylor finds Barnes pummeling an NVA to death and calls him out (I assume to warn Barnes about the air strike) but Barnes in blind rage knocks Taylor to the ground. It’s clear Barnes has lost his sanity as he’s about to bludgeon Taylor with his shovel. At that time, the strike occurs, causing for a brief second Barnes’ eyes to glow red with hatred but the world is lit up around them while napalm is dropped.

Eventually, Taylor wakes up but badly wounded and burnt. He manages to stumble to his feet and procure an enemy AK-47. He finds Barnes crawling nearby and aims the rifle towards Barnes with conviction even though Barnes orders Taylor to find a doc. But the killer glance Taylor gives Barnes is something Barnes is familiar with and accepts as he permits Taylor to end his life. Taylor then waits as a crew of soldiers come in to survey for survivors. Taylor is hurt and can’t walk so they call a doctor. From there Francis leaves a foxhole and stabs himself in the leg while O’Neill exits his hiding hole when a soldier with a punk style hair cut asks what happened.

Several other soldiers like Rhah take souvenirs from the massacre as the bodies are hauled off, tossed into holes to be buried in mass graves while bulldozers come in to help clean up the catastrophe of a battle. Taylor is carried on a stretcher and sees Francis who is smiling in knowing he is leaving ‘Nam with his injury. There’s very few survivors remaining from Taylor’s original platoon, including Rhah who gives Taylor a barbarian’s cry while Harris charges O’Neill with taking 2nd platoon since the others are dead. Slowly, Taylor is carried off on his chopper as he surveys the carnage, now seeing from the proverbial 10k feet in the sky the horror of war that he got caught up in. He talks about the real war, which was of themselves where Taylor was internally struggling between Elias and Barnes, the two fathers who groomed him in this event. He cries seeing the tragedy and understanding more fully what the duty of the survivors ought to be coming out of this.

Obviously, Platoon is Oliver Stone’s magnum opus and it’s considered one of the best war movies ever. But if you think plot-wise, there’s very little that goes on. It’s more of a series of events that Taylor goes through in experiencing the war. The story is more of the growth of Taylor from someone who volunteers and comes in ignorant to a hardened survivor, injured both externally and internally by what he has witnessed and participated in. His viewpoint changes over time where the turning point occurs during the village raid. That moment was where the real war of his soul had peaked as he went from a vengeful soldier to someone who realizes that what they might be doing is wrong especially once Barnes terminates the village leader’s wife and threatens the daughter.

A lot of understanding Platoon is through examining the various characters and their relationships to one another. In that, I want to talk about the significant ones in the story (besides Taylor):

• Sgt Elias – Elias is probably one of the more likeable characters in the movie as he shows compassion and sense to his men and others. He is a polar opposite character to Barnes in that Elias has managed to retain his humanity despite seeing and participating in the horrors. The signature moment of his pose symbolizes what I think is not just Elias acting as a martyr but one who had been abandoned in ‘Nam. But it’s not just a physical abandonment; it’s also a soulful and emotional one.
• Staff Sgt Barnes – Probably, the most complex character in the movie. Barnes doesn’t really show what he’s truly thinking in many cases. Instead, his subordinates tend to speak what Barnes probably is considering. And while Barnes comes off as callous most of the time, some people may interpret his character as evil. Instead, I see Barnes as a victim of circumstances where the scars on his face mirror how he probably feels internally. For instance, when Taylor discovers Barnes smoking by himself, it’s clear that Barnes is processing the two deaths from earlier that day with the booby traps. Then upon seeing Manny’s mutilation, it’s clear that the visual sends Barnes over the edge where his only thought is to retaliate without mercy. But Barnes also is a survivor type and he keeps going until he’s out of options, which is where he submits to Taylor’s wish to kill him. In a way, that death is a mercy killing because Barnes probably has little left beyond the war.
• King – Another very likeable character. Like Elias, King is a bit of a mentor especially towards Taylor. While Elias teaches Taylor how to have a heart in the war, King teaches Taylor how to survive. Taylor is not academically smart (as indicated by a letter he miserably fails to write in proper spelling to his girlfriend) but he’s street smart. When the chopper arrives to take him away, he doesn’t hesitate to leave the situation, even if it means abandoning the friends he made. But he knows what the real situation is because the war itself is worse than anything that they can throw at them back home.
• Big Harold – One more likeable person. Harold doesn’t have a whole lot of scenes but he does have heart. He’s one of the first to treat Taylor with some dignity after Taylor gets injured in the first battle. Ironically, after Harold suffers a major injury from the booby trap, it is Taylor is there to see him safely aboard the chopper.
• Rhah – Another hard edged veteran. He’s also street smart and understands the practicality of the system. Not surprisingly, he gets promoted to take over the platoon after Elias’ demise and is witness to Wolfe’s complete shutdown by the end.
• Sgt. O’Neill – A cunning coward who knows how to play the political game by being a brown noser. He realizes that Sgt Barnes is the real power in the group in terms of making the key decisions. So he hangs around Barnes, lighting his cigarettes and feeding him information so that his group can stay out of harms way. Of course, all this later comes back to bite him in a very karmic sense.
•  Bunny – A war like the Vietnam War is well suited for a person like Bunny. In the real world, Bunny would be considered a sociopath at best and most likely a murderer and potentially a rapist. The war serves to contain a person like Bunny where civilization really has no place for him which is probably why he joined in the first place. In a way, I see Bunny as a foil to Taylor where they are almost opposites. And serves as a reminder of Taylor’s own humanity.
• Junior – Another coward in the group but he’s more of a failure than anything who doesn’t take responsibility. As far as I can tell, no one likes him as he mostly just complains. It’s no wonder why they pair him up with Bunny as they both are suited for one another. The way I describe Junior is like that guy you knew in elementary school that grew up alongside you. Maybe he got D-‘s all the way through or just enough to pass but eventually was either forced to repeat a grade or two or just dropped out.
• Francis – If Bunny is Taylor’s foil, then Francis and Junior are foils to one another. Francis probably is one of the smarter African Americans in the group (partly indicated by him correcting King when King writes a letter to his girlfriend). But Francis shows his street smarts in a few key instances, especially when he stabs himself to get out of serving any longer. However, Francis does show empathy too as he tries to get Taylor to back down when they discover the two hiding villagers in the hut. In pairing Taylor with Francis, you can see how they manage to survive to the end where Francis regains his courage to fight alongside Taylor in comparison to when Junior abandons Bunny and the pair get slaughtered.
• Lt Wolfe – A completely inept leader with no courage, no sense and no useful skills. He’s almost comparable to Aliens’ Gorman which came out in the same year. However, Gorman redeems himself at the end by returning to aid Vasquez and sacrificing himself to allow Ripley, Newt and Hicks safe passage. Lt Wolfe has no redeeming qualities and there isn’t a single instant where one can praise Lt Wolfe (except possibly for trying to get the chopper to return for Elias). I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Wolfe is blinded by shrapnel and shot to death thereafter.

While it’s hard to say just how accurate this movie is (I’ve read that actual veterans had flashbacks watching this movie and others said this was realistic), I did read some criticisms on how certain things were dramatized like fragging or the violence against the Vietnamese (whereas the opposite probably was truer or on equally violent footing). However, I think the real issue is seeing what war does to people and what the Vietnam War meant to Americans.

With Taylor, part of his motive for volunteering was that his family were involved in both WWI and WWII. Up until the Vietnam War, America had great success on the world stage. The Vietnam War was a horrible embarrassment from a variety of angles. Yet there was this perception up until the Vietnam War that being part of the military was glorious. WWII veterans were proud of their victory whereas Vietnam War veterans were made to feel ashamed upon returning.

However, on an individual level it’s interesting to see how certain characters responded positively. Barnes and Bunny in particular were made for this where Bunny was a natural killer (Junior mentions this). In the case of Barnes, we get little of his actual background besides how he’s been shot 7 times and obviously survived. But you can see that there’s been a hidden turmoil brewing inside of him where the war is more within him. So he has lost most of his humanism over time especially after seeing the atrocities directly done to his own men. By the end, he becomes raw rage which is why he loses control against Taylor.

But abstracting Barnes further, the senseless crimes he performs against the village is meant to highlight how far a human might forget what they once were. Compare him to Elias who sees something else and somehow still preserves with his humanity. It’s that fine line that Stone is trying to get people to see about how this level of violence turns people back into animals or has the potential to as in the case of Barnes and Bunny as well as Taylor who sways both ways. That’s why Taylor only recognizes what’s going on once he’s in the chopper, surveying the damage and death because he realizes the true cost.

The village part is particularly powerful as a scene because any sane person should be able to extrapolate that the people there are mostly farmers. There is an elderly person who barely can do much but the troops treat him like a prisoner. And Bunny, who has little to no intelligence, blames the elderly woman whose son Bunny brutally murders that she might be the one responsible for Manny’s murder. I read some reviewers on imdb rejecting the movie for having liberal motives. But the point of a scene like that is to force one to question their own inner demons rather than praise the idea of violence and war itself by creating a ridiculous scene and humanize what looks through one lens as the enemy.

Then when you pull out of the lens of the movie and look at the Vietnam War as a whole, one has to think what real benefit occurred. I did some reading on the history and it’s quite obvious that the original purpose for instigating the war ended up being futile (where America wanted to fight the Red Tide) Instead, America was forced to pull out and the country gradually was overrun. Americans only celebrate WW1 and 2 because we won on the surface. But who really wins in these situations is the core question to ask?

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I suppose unlike many of Murakami’s novels, Norwegian Wood probably is the closest that I felt very personal. Obviously, the main character’s name is Watanabe, just like myself. However, there are so many aspects of his character that I strongly feel resemble my own life. For instance, Watanabe studies literature much like myself. Also, he’s very concise and straight forward, maybe to a fault. He presents himself more of an introspective observer and at times hesitates in making the correct move at the proper time.

While I do not have the tragic best male friend who commits suicide, I feel as though I had my Naoko in the past. My Naoko was someone I prefer to call “Crazy” because she used to drive me insane and broke my heart on numerous occasions. I think this book was somewhat therapeutic for me as it made me realize that holding on to someone who was hopelessly lost only would continue to hurt me. Eventually, I had to let go.

Right now, I am seeking my Reiko and Midori.  For Watanabe-kun, Reiko represented a cathartic point in their sexual intercourse. Each orgasm with her symbolized the various relationship failures Watanabe-kun had in the novel. However, his release might’ve helped clear his mind in helping him to recognize Midori as the one true positive element in his life.

For myself, Midori seems like she’s everywhere. There are many women I would like to call my Midori, but pinpointing the exact person is something I’m having trouble dealing with. The character of Midori is described as energetic, positive and aggressive. Her character represents progress for both Watanabe-kun and Murakami in suggesting to Japan to “move forward.” In my case, I know two people in particular that resemble Midori’s attitude. Hopefully, when I approach either of them, they’ll reciprocate my sentiments.

Beyond that, I think the clear message for myself that Murakami’s novel attempted to state was “Take the world!” There’s too much baggage from my past that I must slowly let go. Or maybe let go faster because there’s too many opportunities right in front of my eyes that I’m missing. I’m certain other people have their own interpretations, but I feel that this is what he was attempting to convey.

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