MovieChat Forums > The Stand (1994) Discussion > The SECOND Goofs Thread

The SECOND Goofs Thread

posted 5 years ago by Gary O. (1009)
8 replies | jump to latest

The first thread on goofs has become to long, so I'll start a second one to make it easier to navigate.

If something is posted here that is already in the first thread, don't worry about it.

Something else that should have concerned Stu and Frannie on their trio back to New England, and that is security. On this trip, they'd be all by their lonesome selves and that, plus the other dangers mentioned, was another thing that should have given them pause.

I believe I said in that long thread that I could perhaps see moving away from Boulder if it became too crowded, but 150-200 miles away should give them sufficient elbow room.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 5 years ago

> Something else that should have concerned Stu and Frannie on their trio back to New England, and that is security.

Especially since they had been attacked on their way to Boulder; the firefight when Dayna and others were being held captive by the band of thugs. That experience should have made security anything but a mere hypothetical consideration.

> I believe I said in that long thread that I could perhaps see moving away from Boulder if it became too crowded, but 150-200 miles away should give them sufficient elbow room.

I said something similar near the end of that thread, that if they along with some others and formed a small village at that kind of distance from Boulder it would make more sense.

I think what really makes that part ring untrue for me isn't the distance itself, but the desire to be all alone. Neither Stu nor Fran ever seemed like the types who wanted that kind of solitude before that scene. Instead, even apart from the influence of the Mother Abigail dreams, much of their early actions were motivated by a simple desire to escape solitude and find a community of people again; and nothing they did afterward in Boulder seemed to contradict that. And now they suddenly want to become the Hermit Family? Doesn't make sense. (Although to be fair to Stu, it could be argued that it's all the same to him one way or the other and he's just going along with Fran because it's what she wants.)

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

[deleted]

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 5 years ago

> I can only speak for myself, but if a deadly plague came and went and wiped out all my friends and loved ones, you can bet I'd want to go and search out other folks

I think your view is by far the majority one. Heck, even in prisons, where being around other inmates carries a constant danger of being assaulted or killed, inmates generally consider solitary confinement to be something to be avoided. We're primates, social animals, with millions of years of instinct telling us to herd up with our own kind.

> it's discovered by the media that the military have been dumping bodies into the ocean in huge metal vaults....wouldn't it be more sensible to just cremate the bodies?

I dunno. It takes a lot of heat to cremate a body. I just looked at a funeral home's web site, and they say cremation takes 1-1/2 to 2 hours at 1400 to 2000 degrees. That's to get all the soft tissue from being charred meat to ash; and then the bones still have to be ground up. And that's just for one corpse. Imagine what it would take for hundreds. Thousands. Even millions. And then what do you do with all the ashes?

Admittedly, it would be a complex operation to haul massive numbers of corpses to a safe distance offshore -- you wouldn't want them washing back onto the beach, and you'd want to keep any nasty bacteria from washing back to land.

This brings up another point. By the time they began their journey back to Maine, most of the bodies would have completely skeletonized, but not all. There would still be a fair number lying around that were biohazards. So they're going to journey through that, and when they arrived at wherever they wanted to be, become a two person Burial Committee? Eww.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 5 years ago

> The first thread on goofs has become to long, so I'll start a second one

Well, the first thread was for goofs and "things you wonder about," so moving along in that vein ... Here's something I posted about way back when on the IMDB boards.

Why did Flagg send people out to look for Judge Farris when he was content to let Dayna come to him?

Sure, there are some things Flagg can't see. He can't find Tom because of Tom's mental handicap. And there are others with their own special attributes, e.g., Joe/Leo and his psychic flashes. Of course, Flagg isn't searching for Joe, but if he were his powers might be "blocked" in the same way as with Tom.

Problem is, Farris has no such special attributes. And Flagg clearly knows who he is, what his vehicle looks like, etc. So why the difference between his tactics with Farris and Dayna?

I can think of one possible reason. The point was made, when Farris was selected as a spy, that he was old and not in the best of health. Maybe, if left to his own efforts, Farris would not have made it but instead have died -- heart attack, accident, or whatever -- and maybe Flagg had some knowledge of this "alternate timeline," and so knew with certainty that he'd never have Farris unless he sent people out to get him.

That seems to make sense. Problem is, it's never even hinted at, and King just isn't that subtle.

OTOH, maybe it doesn't have to be supernatural at all; maybe Flagg just thought it was a prudent idea, for ordinary and rational reasons, to go grab Farris because he was old and *might* have an accident. But that's never hinted at either.

Thoughts? Reactions?

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

[deleted]

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 5 years ago

> [various things] proved he wasn't as all powerful and knowing as he thought he was.

Yeah, and some of these things are maddeningly confusing. Flagg knows what sort of vehicle Farris is driving ... but doesn't know what route he's taking ... but does know enough to narrow down the possibilities and cover only a few roads ... and yet, despite this merely approximate knowledge, somehow knows exactly where to go to punish Bobby Terry for his screwup (shooting Farris in the head) ... and later, when it comes time to intercept Stu, Glen, etc on their way to Vegas, he has no trouble knowing exactly where they'll be (there's no indication that Flagg sent out multiple teams to find them).

I'd bet some of Flagg's insights are sudden flashes, and that he doesn't know where they come from ... and that this battle isn't God vs. Satan, it's God playing both sides of the chessboard. IIRC, at one point Mother Abigail said that Flagg serves God's purpose too. Unfortunately I'm not sufficiently familiar with the Theology Of Randall Flagg to judge the merits of that idea -- he appears in several King novels, but The Stand is the only one of those which I've read.

[–] Gary O. (1009) 5 years ago

Makes sense to me but like you say, there's no hint of it in the book.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 5 years ago

> Makes sense to me but like you say, there's no hint of it in the book.

Yeah. There are limits to how far this sort of questioning, nitpicking, etc can be taken, and I do tend to step over those limits sometimes, but that's part of the fun of it.

BTW, I posted a couple of things in a thread in the "General Discussion" section. The thread has nothing to do with King, The Stand, etc, but you might find it of interest: https://moviechat.org/general/General-Discussion/5e9df2c0ee346205ae92e423/Garys