A "South Pacific desert island" would be several thousand miles from Richmond, and to get there would involve crossing the Rockies, higher than a hot air balloon of the day could ever hope to fly, not to mention taking about two forevers and an eternity...
share
Errr, science fiction, eh? If they'd been blown east, they may have come down in Siberia or Thailand?
"We're fighting for this woman's honor, which is more than she ever did."
It was a hydrogen or helium balloon, not a hot air balloon. But yes, it is questionable that it could make it over the Rockies. As for traveling that far, they appeared to have been aloft for about a week. Traveling say, 8000 miles westward would have required an average speed of less than 48 miles per hour, which is quite plausible given the enormity of the storm.
sharethe storm weather can lift air balloon to extreme heights (and likely crash it afterwards). given the time they spent in it the distance covered is plausible.
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If you want horror - tune in the news channel.
You should also keep in the mind the location of the island-- given in the movie as approx. 2,000 miles due east of New Zealand.
I think that many people who see the film see the balloon as traveling due west from Richmond, across the entire U.S. until reaching the Pacific Ocean from somehere above San Francisco (San Francisco being almost due west of Richmond on a latitude line) Sadly, that's probably the extent of the average person's geographical knowledge.
You could argue that the balloon did not travel due west, but more of a south westerly direction. For example, from Virginia, they could have drifted parallel to the eastern seaboard moving southwest, at least initially.
This might mean they didn't have to cross the Rockies. They could have drifted as far west as Missouri before heading southwest over Texas and Mexico and thence in to the South Pacific to the location of the island.
The idea that they drifted some 3,000 miles due west from Virgina, passed over the entire U.S. and entered the Pacific from above San Francisco before then turning almost due south and drifting an additional 6,000 miles to the island is rather hard to phantom, even in this fictional world.
However, it would still be worth it to check out Beth Rogan's legs :)
AE36
Some good points there. Any hurricane storm would likely push them westward and southward at it hits the eastern seaboard. This was a storm of the century, that lifted them higher than a normal storm and throwing them further. I would pick they would be thrown out over the Gulf of Mexico, crossing lower reaches of Rockies or the lower ranges toward Mexico or Guatamala and then pick up the westerlys or tradewinds.
I wouldn't try to over think an adventure movie, even today scientific accuracy and logic often get sacrificed on the altar of poor plots and bad storytelling. Just look at Transformers, Armageddon and similar uses of pseudoscience.
The storm and the ballon trip are just a MacGuffin to get the cast to the location situation central to the movie. Sometime you have to hang your brains on the hook with your coat on the way in and enjoy the ride.