MovieChat Forums > La habitación de Fermat (2007) Discussion > Enigma About the Movie

Enigma About the Movie

posted 16 years ago by gudoleboy2
9 replies | jump to latest

I might be missing something here. I do not speak Spanish so I have to read the subtitles, and so it is possible the subtitles could have left something out.

My question is, if there were 4 hydraulics, how is it possible to compress all four walls simultaneously? If you use 4 hydraulics to shrink the room, the walls would immediately break apart because each width of the wall would stop it's adjacent wall from closing in. The only way to shrink a room is by keeping two opposite walls stationary, while compressing the other opposite walls together.

Now maybe I missed something or the translation is wrong, but I think they did say 4 hydraulics. Also, I think the wallpaper's patterns were supposed to represent the position of the hydraulics on each wall.

Now unless someone can explain to me how shrinking a room with 4 hydraulics is possible, I do believe this is a major plot hole.

[–] childbirthmcgraw 16 years ago

here you go

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o292/childbirth/fermat.gif

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] King_Jeremy_the_Wicked 16 years ago

The four walls are not connected to one another. Instead, the ends of each wall slide along the adjacent ones. There is no "compression" of the room, but rather, the area of the square that the four walls make up is decreased as each wall slides along the other. Eventually, the square would disappear completely, the end result being one end of each wall touching at a central point, making, essentially, a "plus" (+) sign shape.

Narcissism - claiming that you were created in the image of an all knowing all powerful god.

[–] gudoleboy2 16 years ago

here you go

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o292/childbirth/fermat.gif

Thanks for going through the effort of making that. I had to actually act it out with pencils just to be sure it works. I didn't know the walls were set up like that. I thought the extending lines I saw from the wallpaper's pattern, were the positions of the hydraulics. But the way you have shown it, it does work.

I feel similar to how I felt when I found out the moon rotates (even though we only see one side of it).

Thanks again!

[–] alan_partridge_is_my_god 15 years ago

The poster and one of the shots in the film basically answers this, it was something that troubled me too until the scene occured where the master villain is crushed in the room of his own creation. Firstly take a look at the poster and the shot I'm describing before, well, I describe it.

The hyrdaulic machines are pushing at diagonal angles (45 degrees to the walls they are pushing) so basically, every wall gets narrower with four machines pushing at four you walls. Techinally you still only need two, as the pressure from one would still press on both, but I guess the writer was nowhere near as smart as the characters he created!

On a side note, this film was nowhere near as smart as it should've been. Those so-called enigmas are childs play compared to what actually could've played out. Imagine if Christopher and Johnathan Nolan remade this. It would be awesome!

[–] past_tyme 14 years ago

It really isn't. Those riddles I have seen in books since I was a kid. It's very common, and they should have gone with more obscure riddles. It just looked so silly watching these geniuses solve puzzles you tell with your friends.

[–] djsnafu23 13 years ago

I agree, its liek they bought the mindtrap game and picked all 4 outta there. I'd heard them ALL but one before, and I'm not even a massive riddles fan. That was the weakest apsect of the movie I feel

myspace.com/bankrupteuropeans

Coz lifes too short to listen to Madlib

[–] twelvepointnine 15 years ago

Check the closing titles, you can see the principle nicely animated.

Chaos reigns

[–] ray3-2 15 years ago

Durin one scene we actually see the room from above where you can clearly see the layout of the walls as in the sketch someone else posted.