2012 (spoilers)

[Terralthra]

The deal with Africa was that it didn't FLOOD, which means it had the most immediately useable terrain.

Were only 3 of the 8 arks done? I got the feeling 7 of them were set out and launched.

The President (or maybe Anheuser?) states that four were done, when Dr. Helmsley reports that the apocalypse is arriving ahead of schedule: 3, 4, 6, and 7. 3 was damaged during the earthquakes, leaving only 4, 6, and 7 seaworthy when the tsunami struck. The Chinese built the arks, financed by the G8.

As far as surviving the super-wave? It was fairly ridiculous that a wave like that capsized anything in the deeper sea (like the cruise ship). At anything approaching oceanic depth, a wave like that would be a very long-wave phenomenon. No curler, and definitely no cavitation at the foot of the wave (as was clearly visible during the cruise ship's capsizing). These features of a wave only appear when the water column's height significantly exceeds the depth of the ocean it moves through, and in order for that to happen at oceanic depths, well, we're talking "a chunk of the ocean just boiled off from direct magma contact" levels of fault uplift. The short version here is that the wave as depicted in the deep ocean would simply not occur as such, and any ship (including submarines) a reasonable distance away from the continental shelf would survive easily.

As previously noted, this is far from the only thing scientifically disastrously wrong.

Good news, though! Roland Emmerich is going to make a TV series taking place after the movie!

[Darmalus]

Was it just me, or did the film quality just drop during the flooding scenes? It was like they were filmed with a camcorder at a water park.

Otherwise, I liked watching things explode, and they missed an opportunity by never playing "It's only just begun..." on the radio, somewhere. I mean, he's a writer estranged from his wife who lives at the beach. I guess this is why I'm not a film director, I'd be terrible.

[Shroom Man 777]

I loved the fact that the movie was purely OBSCENE in throwing all sorts of objects at the protagonists. It starts off with earthquakes, fractures on the Earth, buildings, trains, pyroclastic flows, exploding volcanos, entire cities being upheavaled, an aircraft carrier into the White House, and then Air Force One into the Ark, and when you think you've seen everything, they throw MOUNT EVEREST AT YOU! Hahaha!

[FSTargetDrone]

As far as surviving the super-wave? It was fairly ridiculous that a wave like that capsized anything in the deeper sea (like the cruise ship). At anything approaching oceanic depth, a wave like that would be a very long-wave phenomenon. No curler, and definitely no cavitation at the foot of the wave (as was clearly visible during the cruise ship's capsizing). These features of a wave only appear when the water column's height significantly exceeds the depth of the ocean it moves through, and in order for that to happen at oceanic depths, well, we're talking "a chunk of the ocean just boiled off from direct magma contact" levels of fault uplift. The short version here is that the wave as depicted in the deep ocean would simply not occur as such, and any ship (including submarines) a reasonable distance away from the continental shelf would survive easily.

This is part of what I was curious about when I asked how long the destructive events took. I was wondering about the survival possibility of the people aircraft in the air and ships at sea. No aircraft I'm aware of can stay aloft for days un-refueled but I figured that surely people on ships in the deep oceans would be okay, assuming they had supplies. Many submarines, at least, are provisioned to be away from land for months, so those crew members would have a chance if they could find land somewhere, presumably Africa from the discussion here.

[Bedlam]

Anyone care to make a suggestion as to what level of civilisation the survivors are going to stabalise at? They have ~300K humans (I think), a number of animals although this isn't thought about is depth (we see elephents and graffes, which seem stupid animals to try and save, I assume they also have cows and horses and other more useful animals, they may have sperm samples and only female animals to bump up genetic veriability without taking up to much space. From the size of the catatraphy I would guess that most land and air animals are gone for good along with almost all signes of human civilisation. Obviously there not going to just pick up where they left off, do you think they would fall back to industrial revolution tech in a few years, medival? Hunter gatherer?

[CaptainChewbacca]

Given they've got at least 3, and maybe 4 ships and a LOT of heavy equipment, I think they'll be back at 20th century standard of living in a hundred years. Those ships are so big they HAVE to be nuclear powered, and there's undoubtedly some prefab industrial equipment in the holds waiting to be unpacked.

I think they'll do just fine.

[tim31]

I'm looking forward to seeing how the series addresses this, if it goes ahead. Chewie's right; the arks would have been packing the goods for large scale construction(can't have half a million people living in tents for the long term). However, the show will obviously be a drama, so I wouldn't be surprised if we got hit with a First Fleet situation where everything goes wrong, the supplies are inadequate, and the climate is a harsh mistress. Conversely, there's going to be a lot of politics bullshit going around.

[Oskuro]

Sorry to quote this from the aforementioned article about the TV series, but:

I think it will focus on a group of people who survived but not on the boats … maybe they were on a piece of land that was spared or one that became an island in the process of the crust moving.

[tim31]

Ohhhh.

Thanks Osk I missed that on the first round.

So it's going to be Lost but with no hope of rescue whatsoever.

Great.

[Raesene]

Given they've got at least 3, and maybe 4 ships and a LOT of heavy equipment, I think they'll be back at 20th century standard of living in a hundred years. Those ships are so big they HAVE to be nuclear powered, and there's undoubtedly some prefab industrial equipment in the holds waiting to be unpacked.

I think they'll do just fine.

My first thought was that they have to be nuclear powered too - who would be so stupid to rely on fossil fuel for a doomsday scenario, with >99.99% of all mining/drilling equipment destroyed ?
But after closing the doors and staritng the engines exhaust fumes emerge from the american ark. But at the same time, they run a lot of computers before.

Has someone found out the dimensions of the Ark ? Going by the briefly shown computer-generated map before it Spoiler

rammed the Mount Everest

, I'd estimate them at about 500m in length.

Friends of mine were at first a bit shockend when I told them I wouldn't put any art onboard, but my replacing it with food, spare parts, machines and even raw materials convinced them. "You can't eat a painting, even if it's a Da Vinci', was a consensus line.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I'm betting the arks had nuclear AND petroleum fuel. Maybe the engines are gas-driven, I don't know, but there's no way you could power a ship that size for 30 days, let alone the 90 days that (I believe) they were designed for on oil. I mean, how often does a navy destroyer need refueling?

Anyone who watched the movie count how many arks were 'launched'? As I recall only the one that was damaged by the roof wasn't put out, but all the rest were rolled out into their rockers.

[Terralthra]

I'm betting the arks had nuclear AND petroleum fuel. Maybe the engines are gas-driven, I don't know, but there's no way you could power a ship that size for 30 days, let alone the 90 days that (I believe) they were designed for on oil. I mean, how often does a navy destroyer need refueling?

Anyone who watched the movie count how many arks were 'launched'? As I recall only the one that was damaged by the roof wasn't put out, but all the rest were rolled out into their rockers.

Do you have me on ignore or something?

The deal with Africa was that it didn't FLOOD, which means it had the most immediately useable terrain.

Were only 3 of the 8 arks done? I got the feeling 7 of them were set out and launched.

The President (or maybe Anheuser?) states that four were done, when Dr. Helmsley reports that the apocalypse is arriving ahead of schedule: 3, 4, 6, and 7. 3 was damaged during the earthquakes, leaving only 4, 6, and 7 seaworthy when the tsunami struck. The Chinese built the arks, financed by the G8.

[Dargos]

Edited because the point I brought up has already been made. Stupid me.

[tim31]

Just watched the trailer clip again; the wave can be seen breaking over only three arks. This doesn't discount any more from being off-screen, but that seems unlikely.

[CJvR]

Well this sounds even worse than Day After, and I thought that could never be beaten...

[Grif]

Just watched the trailer clip again; the wave can be seen breaking over only three arks. This doesn't discount any more from being off-screen, but that seems unlikely.

Terralthra already answered this... twice. There was originally four completed arks, but one was damaged in an earthquake, leaving only 3 sea-worthy ones.

Friends of mine were at first a bit shockend when I told them I wouldn't put any art onboard, but my replacing it with food, spare parts, machines and even raw materials convinced them. "You can't eat a painting, even if it's a Da Vinci', was a consensus line.

I think the people in the movie were also rather concerned about preserving some remnant of humanity's culture for future generations.

Speaking of which, do you think it is feasible to grow crops on ships? That might reduce space consumption somewhat, and probably more sustainable than relying on pre-stored supplies.

[tim31]

Terralthra already answered this... twice. There was originally four completed arks, but one was damaged in an earthquake, leaving only 3 sea-worthy ones.

Yeah, and I was confirming it. Thanks for coming to the party, help yourself to some cake.