Castaway: One REAL plot hole....
Trent
how easily Hanks recovered from his leg wound (the one he got trying to
escape the first time). Without penicillin or medical attention, a cut
that deep could easily kill you. He didn't have soap, clean water, or
any disinfectant.
Jorge Von Zidek
I remember seeing him use leaves on his feet when they were cut (he put the
leaves on his feet and threw socks overtop of them, I believe), so maybe they
were aloe leaves. That's the only thing I can think of. Good observation.
Justin Iler
hope that does not get infected. I think you said it yourself when you put it
COULD kill him. A gash like that could kill a person if it got infected, but it
could also heal nicely if it wasn't. So obviously it didn't get infected and
Hanks made sure to take care of it. Hey, this is Hanks, he's always lucky.
Justin
John Harkness
wrote:
And if he'd gotten infected and died, they wouldn't have had a movie.
It's a fairly idiotic complaint. (It reminds me of the big storm in
the early scenes of Hawaii, where there building up this big suspense
sequence as the central family is going around Tierra Del Fuego. I'm
thinking "right. the movie's called Hawaii, and we're supposed to
start worrying that we're not going to get there.."
John Harkness
Jeremy H.
"John Harkness" <j...@attcanada.ca> wrote in message
news:3a514efb....@nntp.attcanada.ca...
> And if he'd gotten infected and died, they wouldn't have had a movie.
>
> It's a fairly idiotic complaint. (It reminds me of the big storm in
> the early scenes of Hawaii, where there building up this big suspense
> sequence as the central family is going around Tierra Del Fuego. I'm
> thinking "right. the movie's called Hawaii, and we're supposed to
> start worrying that we're not going to get there.."
Hrrm.. the fact that you thought that pretty much proves the Cast Away
trailer gave away too much by revealing he returns home... I saw the trailer
before the movie too & felt no dramatic tension at all during the island
sequence... This is pretty much the trailer's fault, as there should be no
reason to think death isn't an option on that island when watching the
film... The movie's not called "Coming Home" or something like that.
Jeremy
Aldis Rapsys
I'm actually amazed at how many times in movies ANY cut leads to
infection and death.
Not everything gets infected to the point of no return. It could have
been mildly infected--enough for the body to fight off. OR, cleaning out
in the salt water (saline) could have been sufficient enough until it
healed.
I cut myself the other day while I was wet and you couldn't believe how
bad it looked. Once wiped and dry, it was the cutest little cut I've
seen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE BODY IS NOT A TEMPLE-IT'S AN AMUSEMENT PARK. ENJOY THE RIDE.
Imogen
<j...@attcanada.ca> wrote:
> On Tue, 02 Jan 2001 02:00:51 GMT, Trent <Drumm...@aol.comNOSPAM>
> wrote:
>
> >I liked this movie, but I think the biggest problem with the movie was
> >how easily Hanks recovered from his leg wound (the one he got trying to
> >escape the first time). Without penicillin or medical attention, a cut
> >that deep could easily kill you. He didn't have soap, clean water, or
> >any disinfectant.
Salt water is a natural disinfectant. Doctors often irrigate a deep
wound with saline solution, and there probably weren't a lot of
virulent bacteria on his deserted island, like say you'd find in your
average city hospital.
Imogen
Justin Iler
Justin
Janet Dornhoff, DVM
As a veterinarian, I've seen a lot of untreated wounds. Not all of
them get infected. Sometimes, they heal up just fine.
In Chuck's favor is the fact that it got rinsed out very well with
salt water on his way back to the shore. Also that he kept it
covered, and presumably rinsed it well with salt water in between
bandage changes. (It looked a mess when he took off that first
wrap but was nice and clean when he tied on the second one.)
As someone else pointed out, there are a number of plants with some
degree of antibiotic effect. Aloe was mentioned, but something as
simple and common as the plantain leaves in your lawn have been
shown to fight bacteria. It's possible that the leaves Chuck used
in his makeshift bandages were helping to prevent infection.
And maybe it did get infected, but his immune system fought it off.
Like the tooth root abscess, once all foreign bodies (or rotting
tooth remnants) have been removed, and the infection is allowed to
drain, sometimes they just heal up. My mom's cats back home have
come home with abscesses, and she doesn't always get them in to
her vet and get them on antibiotics. The little furballs are still
running around catching birds to bring home.
I'd say his wound healing as well as it did is well within the
bounds of probability.
-Janet <dorn...@prairienet.org>
Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
The Mgnt
>>escape the first time). Without penicillin or medical attention, a cut
>>that deep could easily kill you.
>And if he'd gotten infected and died, they wouldn't have had a movie.
>
> It's a fairly idiotic complaint.
Granted that the majority of comments such as these are 'idiotic' and they make
me roll my eyes just as much as anyone else, but I think the poster's comments
were more along the lines of the idea that this might have added an additional
layer of conflict -- struggling to care for the wound and being unable to get
around as much to gather rare food and water, etc. Instead they just showed him
looking at it the next morning then nothing more was done about it. It was
something that could have added to the story but instead it was just tossed in
and forgotten about.
Unlike his tooth where they lay the groundwork for that early on and it soon
becomes a fairly serious issue for him a few weeks later.
-paul
Chris
>> that deep could easily kill you. He didn't have soap, clean water, or
>> any disinfectant.
This is actually a pretty good point, while it is certainly true that the salt
water could wash it out, the cut wa made on coral. Coral is mad up of living
bacteria, and almost any cut made by coral will lead to infection, if not cared
for properly. A coral puncture that deep would certainly need some form of
anti-biotic.
Chris
louisa
das...@aol.comspamsux (Chris) wrote:
an unihabited island is less likely than say NYC to contain the kinds of
bacteria that are often fatal -- and coral is not made up of bacteria --
some types of coral are poisonous -- but most are not particularly
dangerous. the most dangerous bacteria were probably those on his own
skin.
Ruth
loui...@homeplc.com (louisa) wrote:
I was wondering this myself. However he was a guy who was in pretty good
health( one would assume) to begin with and Salt water tends to have some
bug killing abilities.....I assume his immune system worked well...People
managed to live fairly long lives before the invention of antibiotics, you
know.
--
" We are made of star stuff" Carl Sagan
lorna...@gmail.com
Aloe is more like a cactus, it doesn't have leaves.
