MovieChat Forums > The Day of the Triffids (1963) Discussion > Who else would still be able to see?

Who else would still be able to see?

posted 9 years ago by steven-87
2 replies | jump to latest

I was trying to think of a few categories of people in the UK who would have been unaffected by the "meteor shower" and still be able to see.

Be interested in any others anyone may care to add.

1) The worst of the criminal class - shut away in a windowless cell and in solitary confinement. Being unable to get out of the cell, though, they face a lingering death from starvation...

2) Babies - as long as they are not facing a window. Survival chances not good, though, without anyone to feed them.

3) Miners - well, those who might have been doing a very long shift underground. Few and far between, probably, but perhaps several dozen of them.

4) Patients unconscious in hospital - their chances of survival depend very much on their state of health once they waken up.

5) The lucky few whose genetic makeup may preclude them from being affected - also few and far between (if any).

6) Those with a contrary nature - there'll always be some who refuse to join in with what everyone else is doing. A lucky few may have shut their curtains and said "I'm not bothering with it"

7) A submarine crew - probably best suited to survive.

Any others?

[–] VVolfySnackrib 8 years ago

For you to get blinded, would you have to see it for more than a few seconds? Cause I'd probably be holed up gaming. I'd glance out the window for a few seconds. "Neat! ... okay I'm bored." And then resume what I was doing.

[–] hobnob53 8 years ago

Well, some people probably just slept through it.

Young children -- not babies, but maybe 5 or 6 -- might also have gone to bed and escaped blindness, but how well they might survive is a big question.

Your #7, submarine crews, is actually stated in the film -- it's crews from several subs that had been submerged who help organize rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

One real long shot -- if there had been any astronauts in orbit, they shouldn't have been affected by the showers (since the light flashes occur in the atmosphere and they'd be above it in space). But you're talking about maybe five or six people at most. If it was on the space station, they might have no way of getting back down. On the other hand, a crew on the space shuttle could have escaped the meteor glare and returned, with some difficulty without ground support, but possible. Most far-fetched would be if the event happened during a moon landing; an Apollo crew would have escaped but they too would have difficulty getting back to Earth without mission control's help, though it would have been possible.

But another question: how long does it take for blindness to manifest itself? A few hours at most, it appears. So wouldn't there be news reports from the first parts of the world to experience the meteor showers (where night had already fallen) about the onset of mass blindness, in time for at least part of the planet to be forewarned and have people avoid looking at the meteors? A complete worldwide disaster could have been averted, though billions would still have been afflicted.