MovieChat Forums > The Man in the High Castle (2015) Discussion > Sound traveling very fast is so convenie...

Sound traveling very fast is so convenient

posted 8 years ago by colemarc
9 replies | jump to latest

In the first scene of "Fallout" John and Helen are having a conversation in a room. Suddenly a nuclear detonation is seen through the window. An uproar is heard at the same time of the initial flash, then we hear a big thunder. Even if we consider the first noise as being not the direct noise from the explosion but some local secondary effect of the radiation wave (which travels at the speed of light), the main thunder comes 6 seconds after the flash, therefore the detonation is about 2 Km (1.24 miles) away: they would have been killed almost instantly. Given the apparent distance of the mushroom, the thunder would have been delayed by 60 seconds.

[–] kstrumpf 8 years ago

I also wondered why John didn't immediately force Helen to the ground and shield her body.

[–] DiscGolfer 8 years ago

"I also wondered why John didn't immediately force Helen to the ground and shield her body."
Because atomic bombs were unknown at that time and the bomb was obviously in the distance

[–] wormholeboy 8 years ago

Film and television virtually never accurately depict the delay in sound from something arriving at the viewer's location, so I can't really get worked up about this....

[–] Ctrl-Opt-Del 8 years ago

Sound travels faster through denser media; the boom would've come through the ground.

That said, they were well within the fallout zone, so they should've been killed by that.

[–] InfiniteMonkeysTyping 8 years ago

That said, they were well within the fallout zone, so they should've been killed by that.

They didn't seem to be extremely close, plus the bomb might have been relatively small (in today's standards), maybe similar to the size of the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Secondly, maybe the were upwind of the blast, with the winds pushing much of the fallout in the other direction.

Both of these factors would mean that they could have time to escapes to safety before being badly affected.

[–] captlupin 8 years ago

They flash should of blinded them as well.

[–] Blu765 8 years ago

They flash should of blinded them as well.

They weren't looking out the window in that direction when the original flash occurred. All they were watching was the fireball afterward.

[–] TheTerminatorsky 8 years ago

That's like arguing why The Terminator's Sarah Connor, and all those who fought with John Connor, survived the nuclear attack on LA. How, why, is not important.
Watch T3, the T-X sets out to kill all JC's future soldiers because they arent killed on Judgment Day.
Makes sense? No.
Neither does this movie. Just go with it.

[–] [email protected] 8 years ago

Great discussion. Always learned a lot here on IMDB. Am really going to miss these boards :(