MovieChat Forums > Apocalypse Now (1979) Discussion > Question about the napalm

Question about the napalm

posted 4 years ago by MovieChatUser497 (18943)
1 reply | jump to latest

So in the Redux and Final Cuts there is a scene where it's revealed that the Napalm strike altered the wind conditions and the wind died meaning there was no more surfing. But since it was daytime and there definitely would have been a sea breeze wouldn't the Napalm strike have improved the wind conditions making it better for surfing? The air was blowing from the water (high pressure) to the land (low pressure) but since the Napalm strike certainly would have heated up the air on land that would have lowered the air pressure even more causing the wind to blow harder. Is there something I'm missing?

[–] mobocracy (894) 3 years ago

Incendiary bombing can create its own localized weather effects, but this mostly results from large-scale bombing and the ignition of a massive firestorm. You're not going to get this from maybe 2000 pounds of napalm dropped on a green jungle, and not at the nearly kilometer distance from the bomb site and the shore.

That scene is basically just Kilgore making shit up, trying to explain why he wasn't able to provide this epic surfing environment.