MovieChat Forums > The Last Days on Mars (2013) Discussion > In the future propulsion will be advance...

In the future propulsion will be advanced, comms, not so much

posted 11 years ago by Promontorium
6 replies | jump to latest

The computers and propulsion systems seemed great. Badass mothership with suborbital deployment vehicles, nice Mars rovers that are more like RVs. Too bad those communications systems seem to have regressed.

Right at this very moment there's a vehicle smaller than the vehicles in the film driving around Mars being steered by some guy in an office on Earth. There is live 24/7 footage of Mars being fed to Earth from this same vehicle. But apparently in the future the governments of the world won't be able to afford even one redundant communication system. All they will have is one giant comms system that goes out in bad weather because it's the 1950s apparently. In fact their comms are so bad that even when the guy is standing next to the people he's trying to contact they can't hear him. Maybe if they had strings tied to cans things would have worked out better.

I get the horror movie cliche' of people being alone and losing contact with the rest of the world, but there is a level where it gets stupid. This was Jamie Lee Curtis finding out there's no neighbors in her entire city on Halloween night stupid.

Oh and hatch technology is clearly in the toilet. Not a single door seemed capable of securely locking and holding people outside, nor would any of the doors inside lock properly, except to screw over living humans. A modern ship on the sea is in a similar situation to what a Mars station would experience, it's surrounded by what can kill everyone. So modern ships, particularly military ones that may experience hazardous conditions, have watertight doors that can be locked down. Not just the outside doors, but doors all over, so that if there's a breach, it can be contained. In the future, apparently a bacteria commanded human is capable of ripping an airlock open with their bare hands, or whatever magical crap they did, the doors failed miserably in every way. If this were halfway believable none of those zombies would have ever escaped that one pod once they were locked in. And even if they managed to set off some chain reaction and get out, they sure as hell shouldn't have been able to get into the other pod without the people letting them in.

Real operations have redundancy so when things like comms and doors fail, there's more comms and doors, not immediate death.

[–] georgegliddy 11 years ago

WELL I DNT LIKE IT WHEN THEY DO SUCH OK...........WELL Y R THEY SO DUM DUM 2 MAKE A BAD MOVEI ??????? WELL I H8 IT SO MUCH.......

[–] markfilipak 10 years ago

Promontorium,

It's a fantasy.
_____
I don't have a dog. And furthermore, my dog doesn't bite. And furthermore, you provoked him.

[–] laplante-co-672-297856 10 years ago

Loved your post... made me laugh. Totally agree..

[–] cadenbt 10 years ago

Don't comms need radio towers to be more effective? Radio towers they didn't have, because of their minimal supplies on the planet.

Also, ocean faring ships are designed to lockout gallons of water that try to blast through the doors. Space doors shouldn't be designed to keep anything from trying to blast through them. Also, they said in the movie that the zombified humans used explosives to blow the door out, not their bare hands or magic.

Sorry, but I don't agree with your criticism or your engineering expertise.

[–] Alareshu 10 years ago

Well, just

Space doors shouldn't be designed to keep anything from trying to blast through them.

The movie opened with a storm blowing- intense winds, rocks and particles, etc. 'Dust devils' are what tornadoes are called on Mars- which are way more stronger than Earth's most powerful. There is a hella lot dust and wind to keep out, unlike Earth.

So yeah, I'd say there are some things that these space doors should be designed to keep out. They're also supposed to be airtight, so that the airlock can function properly. Gas (air) is thinner than liquid (water). So if anything, these doors should actually be more tighter than the ships' doors.

[–] Promontorium 10 years ago

Radio towers they didn't have, because of their minimal supplies on the planet.

So they had room for a giant comfy RV, but not a metal rod?

Also, ocean faring ships are designed to lockout gallons of water that try to blast through the doors.

The key being, after a breach. There has to be a hole in a ship for watertight doors to even be necessary. This Mars station had no internal breach protection, the doors did nothing. That's terrible design.