MovieChat Forums > Supernova (2000) Discussion > Plot hole(s)?

Plot hole(s)?

posted 19 years ago by sth128
34 replies | jump to latest

Finally managed to catch this on late night re-run... Got a few questions though.

Beyond the plothole pointed out on the main page, I was wondering: I believe I heard the crew, before jumping to Titan, saying that the jump is roughly 2,500 light years (or more, but 4 digits) in distance. Then, at the end of the film, "sweetie" the computer says the nova shockwave will reach Earth in 51 years...

Now here's the question: considering the shockwave moves at C (which it shouldn't, should be less) that means Titan is about 50 light years from Earth. The distress call took 5 days to reach Nightingale (correct me if wrong), that means they have superlight speed transmission (of some form). Now wouldn't it make more sense to hail other vessals that are closer to Titan than to jump across the galaxy?

Are there no other ships available between the 2,500+ light years between Titan, Earth, and Nightingale? It's like calling LAFD (Los Angelas Fire Department) to rescue a straned cat in Yukon (Canada) and saying it'd take more time to contact the locals...

Other than that, the film is somewhat enjoyable...

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

This had plot holes???????? I am shocked.

[–] sth128 19 years ago

OMG my sarcasticmeter just blew up!

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

Where does one buy a sarcasticmeter? I want one for Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

[–] sth128 19 years ago

You get one free when you sign up for Scientology.

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

Cool! Does one also get a free copy of the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes baby scan?

[–] sth128 19 years ago

Umm no. That's only if you sign up the platinum membership with 3 year pre-paid term deals.

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

I don't think they'll let me sign up for it. I couldn't even get a credit card the last time I applied. I will have to wait for the baby to be born to see what it looks like.

I assume they will parade the infant in front of the press after it is born. It is only fair, after getting so much publicity for the bump.

Returning to fiction, I wonder if there would be intense press interest in Kyla and Nick's baby. After all, not many babies get conceived because their parents were forced to share a dimensional stabilisation unit!!!!!!!!!!

[–] sth128 19 years ago

Mmm... Space travel AND baby making... They should rename it to Damn Sexy Unit... Wait, that doesn't make sense...

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

"Space travel AND baby making".

To quote Parker, a character Spader played in "The Stickup", "saves a lot of time". Have you seen "The Stickup"? I thought it would be ghastly, but I really like it.

[–] sth128 19 years ago

Nope... Never saw "The Stickup"... The only place I saw Spader's "stick up" was in the "Secretary".

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

LOL. Actually, it's strange that he has got such a reputation for being in kinky films when to the very best of my knowledge he refuses to do full frontal nudity.

Are we the only people on the board? Will anyone else ever come along to comment on "Supernova"?

Looked at your profile briefly to see what other boards you had posted on. Noticed "Stargate Atlantis". What did you make of "Stargate" (the original film is the thing that started me watching the other Spader films)? Also noticed "Harry Potter". Have you met Sami (tagline: "I touched the Earth and he loved me back", which is from "Secretary")? I gather she too has a lot to say about Harry P.

[–] sth128 19 years ago

Nope... Nobody else on this board... We're the only two people left. The rest of them all ran off from this disaster film of galactic proportion. Time to share that one last dimentional stabilization pod... LOL

As for Stargate, it's a very different story between the movie and the series. But now that you've mentioned it, yes, Stargate IS quite kinky despite the lack of full frontal nudity from Spader. Notice how Ra (the alien baddie) resembles Michael Jackson? He surrounds himself with young boys (not one single girl!) and when they showed his true face at the end, look! No nose!!!

Not really that much of a Harry Potter fan (what do they call HP fans? Potheads?) so no, I know not of anyone named "Sami", lest one who quotes Secretary...

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

She's very sweet.

Yes, "Stargate" is quite kinky really. I mean, just giving spare virgins to passing strangers! What can one make of that? Did they have Sha'uri just lined up in case someone came by wearing a Ra necklace? What if they had found out that he was not sent by Ra?

I also think it is hilarious the way Daniel is really shocked when Sha'uri reveals her breasts. Did the casting director have a mischievous sense of humour??????

In "Stargate SG1", they had a funny bit (well, I laughed) where Major Carter asked how Daniel had met Sha'uri and O'Neill mischievously said she was a gift, and Carter (the token woman) exclaims, "And you accepted!!!!!!!" Something explodes, so Daniel does not have to answer.

Thank you for giving me the Ra thing to think about. And I thought those kids were just human shields! Even though I didn't like the fighting bit of "Stargate", Jaye Davidson was good. AND he isn't afraid of doing frontal nudity (as in "The Crying Game")!!!!!!

[–] sth128 19 years ago

Was it established that Sha'uri is a virgin when she wed Daniel (or maybe Daniel was the virgin)? Eitherway, of course Daniel should be shocked... He was being seduced by what is technically, an alien. Imagine what was coursing through his mind at that moment: "Damn, this Axe deodorant thing really works!"

The fighting bit in Stargate? I haven't seen the film in ages so not sure which bit that'd be. I only remember the original encounter. Those Jaffa were like super soldiers and actually exhibited some signs of high-tech fighting and tactics. The Jaffa on SG1 are more or less, targeting drones running aimlessly at their enemy (sometimes not even)... Except of course Teal'C, who can hit the bad guys with his eyes closed... Ahh classics...

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

They seemed quite patriarchal, although I notice that Sha'uri is obviously a bit of a tomboy, as she seemed quite happy to carry a gun. I assume that either she was a virgin or everyone was assuming she was.
Daniel looks very virginal when he sees her, but he seems a lot more confident in the scene where she's all, "You didn't want me" and he decides that he did want her after all. So, perhaps not a virgin.
When I first saw it, I was vaguely aware Spader had been in a film called "sex, lies and videotape", which I had not then seen. But I didn't know of his reputation, so the irony passed me by that time.
Sha'uri does rather look like they really went somewhere exotic and looked around for desert-dwelling maidens and said to one of them, "Do you want to be in our film?" Which of course they did not do, as it was filmed in the USA and Mili Avital is an Israeli actress who subsequently dated one of the cast of "Friends".
I thought the film was interesting just in terms of a culture clash, but obviously there had to be a bad guy and a fight. It is, after all, from the team that brought the world "Independence Day".

[–] sth128 19 years ago

Err... Culture clash... Yeah... I think you're reading too much into the film.

The real irony behind all these alien invasion movies is that no matter how advanced the aliens are or how smart or powerful compared to humans, we always get them back with minimalistic forces...

Stargate aliens were taken down by a few villagers and one team of US army guys, Independece Day aliens was destroyed by a pilot and a hacker, and War of the World? It only took Tom Cruise...

No wonder no ET is visiting Earth...

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

Me? Reading too much into "Stargate"? Well, it inspired the novel I am writing, so I will always be happy about that.

"Independence Day" was silly, no female pilots and the token non-Americans were so token as to be really funny. But the aliens were destroyed by a computer virus, as hom(m)age to the real virus in H G Wells's "War of the Worlds". My stepmum insisted on playing Jeff Wayne's "War of the Worlds" LP very loudly after we (her, my Dad, my sister and I) saw "Independence Day" and then went out for a rather alcohol-fuelled evening meal. Humans outwitted them and did not outfight them.

PS Merry Xmas/Solstice/Hannukah/Chrismukkah, sth 128.

[–] sth128 19 years ago

Alas, the humans in ID4 DID both outwit and out-fought the aliesn. The "virus" (tsk, enough technology to build giant spaceships, no antivirus...) only disabled their shield and communication. The humans won by sheer tactical means since a) the aliens have more ships and b) the aliens have much better ships.

Although to be fair, it's tough to come up with a reasonable "happy ending" when one pits humans against foes of much greater power. Frankly I found the "then the aliens all died, the end" resolution in Spielberg's War of the Worlds even more ridiculus... It's pretty much about as silly as the "then the aliens realized they're afraid of water" ending in "Signs". Speaking of which, what is M. Night Shyamalan's obssession with water? In "Unbreakable", the hero is afraid of water, in "Signs", the aliens are afraid of water, and the new film he's making, gasp, "Lady in the Water"... What's next? "Water World"?

Oh yeah merry xmas / etc. to you too. In the country where I came from, we celebrate the enactment of the constitution on Dec. 25... Though I suspect it's just an excuse to not work on xmas... LOL

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

Maybe "Water World 2"? Has to be better than the original, not that I've seen it, but I assume it is as terrible as they say. Still, I liked "Tuff Turf" (one of Spader's early films) and that's supposed to be bad.

Still, "Water World 2" could be worse than the original if Madonna starred in it.

I must have missed the details of the fighting in "Independence Day", as I find fighting bits not very interesting. I could just about put up with the fights in "Buffy", but they were generally my least favourite bits.

Happy New Year.

[–] mistermorcus 19 years ago

I saw Supernova and Unbreakable at about the same time when I was working at a local movie theater. I really didn't like either of them then.

Looking back they really aren't all that bad. I am watching Supernova on tv right now and I am mildly entertained.

The girl just got sucked into space. Shouldn't she have exploded rather than her floating away and being able to see moisture from her breathing?

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

I think that is a good question, but not as major as the whole "why did Sweetie permit Danika and Yerzy to be sucked out in the first place when Sweetie is not allowed to harm humans?" one. I mean, she found it hard enough to defend Benji, despite her computer-love for him. With D and Y, she didn't have to kill a human to defend them.
And why would they not programme Sweetie to defend her crew? The people on Earth obviously have some kind of army or Nick wouldn't be able to have an ex-military background.

[–] mistermorcus 19 years ago

I agree with you completely. I hope you weren't expecting me to defend this movie by making up a way for that answer to work .

Alright here goes. I wasn't paying that close of attention to this movie as I was flipping between this and "Rumble in the Bronx" but I believe Benj had snuck a few lines of code passed some officials into Sweetie's programming. This programming obviously gave Sweety an illogical thinking pattern and the code probably wasn't perfect as he was continuing to program her/it.

As for the other part of that question I'm assuming Sweety isn't in the habit of going out of the way to do somebody a favor.

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

Well done! Benji's programming error is as near to a logical explanation as we are ever likely to get!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You seem like a good multi-tasker. There's someone on the "sex, lies and videotape" board who can watch a film and cook and listen to Christmas music and type at the same time!

[–] mistermorcus 19 years ago

Is this person a female by any chance? I'm not asking to be sexist or anything but I remember from psychology that females naturally have more connectors in their brains so they are able to multi-task more efficiently. I am just curious because I don't know if I believe this to be true or not ;)

For me it kinda depends. If I am studying and watching TV it takes me about 3 times as long to get my work done. It would be difficult for me to listen to two different things at the same time depending on how much concentration is needed, but if its TV I'm okay as long as I don't forget to flip it back.

[–] Radiant_Rose 19 years ago

I have no definite evidence of the multi-tasker being female, in fact, she or he recently made some rather sweeping generalisations about women. That does not, however, rule out the possibility of the person being female.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mistermorcus 19 years ago

I think it should've been filmed like "Total Recall" when Arnold met the cruel Mars atmosphere. ;)

[–] dsheff 17 years ago

I've actually read studies that state that you don't actually explode, particularly if you expel all the air from your lungs when you hit the vacuum. That doesn't mean that vacuum exposure won't still seriously damage a human body, and you wouldn't be able to survive unprotected from extreme cold, radiation, and lack of air for more than a few minutes at best, but no explody. That was a dramatic convention cooked up by sci-fi that's gotten mixed up with reality.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mortimerj190 17 years ago

It amaizes me the amount of thinking you people do lol, I just sit back and try and switch off, it's a sci-fi ffs, of course not everything is gonna match up, otherwise it wouldn't be fiction lol.

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[–] AreYouWetYet 17 years ago

> the jump is roughly 2,500 light years or more, but "sweetie" the
> computer says the nova shockwave will reach Earth in 51 years...

the Bomb WAS from the 9th Dimension...so it was a SUPERHARD explosion!
So the Shockwave burning up the stars was moving at Tachyon;
(Faster than Light) speeds.

It has been awhile...I mean, I'm sure I can still recite the words,
but I think they said they were the CLOSEST Medical ship. ALSO

What Secret Number did you give SUPERNOVA with James Spader
In YOUR rating ?

[–] JaffaCakes 16 years ago

Who said they were anywhere near earth?

[–] kralvarez1987 16 years ago

Sweetie did, she told the to be parents Spader and Basset "Welcome home."

And the last shots were of earth.

[–] 16 years ago

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