There is a long standing notion on this subreddit, albeit no links have been provided to support this, that during the SAA 295 investigation Boeing had undeniable evidence that the fire caused the tail section to detach in mid air but coerced the Margo Commission into leaving it open the 747 crashed intact as otherwise it would, quote: "reflect badly on the structure of the plane."
This is said to come from the Preliminary Report but I have not been able to find it nor anything similar to that in the Margo Report. I brought this to Admiral Cloudberg's attention who deemed such a notion to be complete nonsense: at best, warped from the debris fields being too concentrated to say for certain whether a mid air break-up occurred, at worst, completely made up. Honestly, I have to agree with this because why would Boeing be that pessimistic about the airplane breaking up in mid air, especially considering that the fire began at roughly 23:45Z and crashed 22 minutes later when they were 134 miles from the nearest land? And if there was illegal cargo like Ammonium Perchlorate (rocket fuel), yeah good luck on the plane surviving for 45 minutes with that burning let alone it being extinguished before landing.
The reason why the nuclear bomb and by extension fridge scene is so controversial is because at face value to say the least it serves no purpose to the plot. After escaping the Soviets Indy stumbles upon a fake town that is about to be destroyed by a nuclear bomb, and if you took it out of the film you wouldn’t lose anything.
Yes, the franchise has had goofy and unrealistic moments like the raft scene in Temple and Henry summoning birds with an umbrella to take down a German fighter in Crusade. But the reason why those scenes work is because they literally had no other choice so why not give it a go? In other words they followed the common theme of “Ooh, how’s Indy going to escape or get out of this seemingly impossible situation?”
What would make the bomb and fridge scene work is if the Soviets captured Indy and immobilized him with a Houdini-like trap in the basement of a house and set the bomb off to kill him. In the knick of time Indy wrangles himself free but with less than a minute before detonation there is no escaping this… except for the fridge.
I generally liked both adaptations of the novel so I'll list the pros and cons of both.
Pros:
- Follows the events of the book in sequence so you can easily follow along. For instance, events in Chapter 8 don't happen in Chapter 4.
- One doesn't necessarily have to be familiar with the book to understand why some events take place.
- Stays true to William Golding's message.
Cons:
- Acting at times can feel off.
- Scenes where the boys are completely naked were kept in the final cut.
- Given the 90 minute run time, certain events weren't explored: Ralph participates in a game where the boys pretend to hunt Robert and almost kill him; The Lord of the Flies doesn't talk to Simon, and the Naval Officer doesn't speak to Ralph.
Pros:
- Gave Jack and Simon backstories where both have abusive fathers but each go down a very different path.
- Piggy's death is slightly different from the book which leaves a much bigger impact on the viewer than in the book.
- Vibrant visuals and scenery.
- Excellent performances by the cast.
- Explored more from the book with the longer run time: the boys accidentally burning half the island down, the boy with the birthmark gets more screentime, The Lord of the Flies talks to Simon.
- Characters like Maurice, Roger, Samneric, and Bill have more of a role in this adaptation than merely part of an ensemble like in the 1963 movie.
- Faithful to the source material and retains William Golding's message.
- The Naval Officer talks to Ralph and comes off as innocent at first but soon appreciates the horror of what has unfolded on the island. Up until the series came out I never realized when he said, "Nobody killed I hope? Any dead bodies?" he was just being sarcastic.
- Ralph elects to give up his role as Chief to Jack after Simon and Piggy are dead and the whole island has gone to complete chaos and disorder.
Cons (except for the first two the rest can be considered rather minor):
- I never felt the using a fish eye lens was that big of a deal but agree that it can be distracting.
- Several key points aren't explained (or clearly explained) on screen and requires one to be familiar with the book to understand: why they put the pig's head on a stick, it's not made clear why Simon is killed, and Jack is not shown telling the boys the Beast comes in different forms, this fear is why they trust him as their leader.
- Several events happen out of order: although it's implied in the story that there have been many assemblies before Jack let the fire go out, the assembly Ralph calls in Chapter 5 of the story happens much earlier on in the series, and Jack quickly abandons Ralph after letting out the fire when he does so in Chapter 8 after they find the "Beast" and many resentments towards Ralph's authority. However, the last bit isn't too much of a deal since the events of Chapter 8 play out very much the same in the series.
- Much focus is on the Choir yet a lot of them are not named or named quickly in passing; this is true for other characters. Roger and Maurice aren't named until Episode 2. Sure, the credits list some actors as playing Frankie, Lawrence, Robert, William, Phillip, etc. but they're never named on screen so it's not known who's who or who is being referred to. I agree that not everyone has to be named as that can be repetitive but if a considerable focus is on the Choir then it makes sense to know who is who early on.
- Ralph doesn't participate in the killing of Simon nor does the series feature him and the hunters playing a game where they pretend to hunt Robert and nearly kill him.
As many already know the test audience at a screening disliked the scene of Lovejoy going after Rose so he could get the diamond when the chances of the three of them even surviving the sinking were very slim (at this point there were just Collapsibles A and B left). When I first saw this deleted scene and many more tables submerging, I was thinking “Is this guy nuts?!” I would have been more concerned about my own survival of the sinking in that situation than some cherry on top reward if I’m fortunate enough to even survive the sinking.
Lovejoy was a bit of a bully to Jack and Rose and did leave Jack to drown but to kill his master’s (ex) fiancé seems very over the top.
As a kid I often watched Mayday and Seconds From Disaster where I greatly enjoyed both series but now it's time to compare which version of each case was better. Note, the Space Shuttle accidents, Hindenburg and BOAC 781 have not been featured on Mayday so they will not be listed.
Original SFD run
Air France 4590: Mayday
Tenerife: Crash of the Century is the ultimate winner of them all though I admit that Captain van Zanten and First Officer Meurs were greatly mischaracterized; but between SFD and Disaster at Tenerife, the winner goes to SFD (had a decent exposition and went more in detail of the evacuation than in DaT. It doesn't portray Captain van Zanten as a bully, outlines how his time training pilots in the simulator versus flying in the real world played a major role in the crash, and that the KLM crew didn't hear two messages to wait and the Pan Am was still on the runway.)
American 77: Mayday
British Midland 092: Mayday (was pretty close but Mayday addressed the need for a stronger cabin floor, seats and overhead bins)
United 232: Tie
TWA 800: Mayday (hands down)
EL Al 1862: Mayday
ValuJet 592: Mayday
American 587: SFD (by a strand of hair)
Air Florida 90: Mayday
American 191: Mayday
Revival series and versus Mayday remakes
Uberlingen: SFD (I will admit however that Vitaly Kaloyev should NOT have interviewed for this)
Japan Air Lines 123: SFD (hands down. This is what the remake should have aimed for. Note: Patrick Smith who was interviewed for this, also appeared in the SFD Tenerife episode).