ALL SCI-FI

[Gord Green]

I remember going on the ride back in the day. The "views" were kind of lame, but it was just so super cool being on the Nautilus !

If the mini-subs ever came up for sale I would have loved to get one set up in my back yard and "retro-fitted" to be like the movie version!

Dreams....
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[scotpens]

[Pow]

Currently watching this wonderful "mightiest motion picture of them all!" on Youtube. Something I had never paid attention to before struck me now with this viewing.

We see Captain Nemo & 8 or 9 men performing a burial underwater. We later see 14 or 15 men attacking Professor Aronnax, Conseil, and Ned Land. It made me curious as to just how many crewmen Captain Nemo had under his command who were operating the Nautilus? My best guess is that there wasn't more than 20 crew, including Nemo. The submarine doesn't appear to have been able to hold many more humans than that. If so, it makes the Nautilus an even more remarkable vessel technologically, if it only required that many men. The average crew for today's US Navy submarine is 134: 120 are crew, 14 are officers.

[mach7]

I miss the 20,000 leagues ride in DisneyWorld. Corny as it was, it worked.

In 2011, when I went to DisneyLand for the 1st time, I was dismayed and disappointed to find the submarines were the US Navy Nautilus not the Jules Vern ship.

[Bud Brewster]

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Ah-ha! So THAT'S what those gaudy yellow submarines are in the images I've seen when I Googled the Disney ride's current status!

Yuck . . .
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[scotpens]

[Pow]

The scene where Captain Nemo displays the working of the Nautilus's engines to Professor Aronnax reminded me of the similar scene where Professor Morbius shows the power core of the Krell city to Commander Adams & Dr. Ostrow in Forbidden Planet.

Nemo instructs Aronnax to don a specialized helmet for safety in order to stare into the intensely bright opening of the engine. Morbius has Adams & Ostrow stare into a reflection of the powerful core's searing lights.

[Bud Brewster]

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Interesting observation, Mike!

Of course, screenwriter Cyril Hume used the term figuratively when Morbius said, "Be sure and look only in the mirror. Man cannot behold the face of the Gorgon and live."

I looked up the word Gorgon and got this.

"The Gorgons were three female monsters in Greek mythology who could killed people just by looking at them."

We know, of course, that if it was actually a mirror, the three men standing directly in front of it would be looking at reflections of themselves . . . . not at the screen located 45° to the left, which displayed the reactor.core!





I'm sure screenwriter Cyril Hume puzzled over what to call the "safe" display on the right.

Having Morbius call it a "mirror" and then say, "Man cannot behold the face of the Gorgon and live," made it plain to the audience that the display on the right was a way to avoid the harm caused by the brighter display on the left.

Notice in the screen shot above that the brighter of two displays (whose image and its counterpart were both matted into the shot) actually appears to be lighting up the men from behind.

That, of course, was done with an out-of-frame light source to the left. And yet, that light source created no shadows on the floor or the right wall! How did they do that: )

God, I love this movie!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)