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Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-05-19 (Sunday)
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From: BTR1701 <no_email@invalid.invalid>
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Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
> On 5/20/2024 12:39 PM, BTR1701 wrote:
>> In article <v2frkp$2ft0$1@dont-email.me>,
>> Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> Aliens (4K disc) 1986 sequel directed by James Cameron and starring
>>> Sigourney Weaver who must once again battle aliens that prey on people.
>> 
>> I watched ALIEN a couple of nights ago and it occurred to me when Ripley
>> sets the ship to self-destruct...
>> 
> 
> My original plan was to watch Alien, but I thought Predator 2 better fit 
> the theme, since it had both the 1700s gun and Bill Paxton chewing the 
> scenery.  Technically Alien may be the better movie, but I think I made 
> the right call going with Predator 2 instead.
> 
>> Why in the actual hell does a commercial tug have a self-destruct
>> mechanism in the first place?
>> 
>> All through the franchise, we're given reminders that the Company only
>> cares about money, yet they give a crew of uneducated roughnecks the
>> ability to blow up billions of dollars of their equipment and valuable
>> ore?
>> 
>> And for what? Why would a tugboat conceivably have any need for such a
>> feature? This isn't some top-secret ship with cutting edge military tech
>> or something that needs to be kept out of enemy hands at all cost. It's
>> a tugboat for a huge ore barge. What conceivable reason would its
>> designers have to include an elaborate self-destruct system in its
>> design?
>> 
> 
> I can try to fanwank this.  Their faster than light travel is powered by 
> some sort of fission reactor.  If not properly maintained it is 
> susceptible to a meltdown.  You can artificially create a meltdown by 
> removing the cooling rods.  Since the cooling rods are replaceable there 
> is a built in ability to remove them.  But if they are removed while the 
> reactor is active and not replaced this will trigger a meltdown.  All 
> Ripley did was bypass a few safety protocols to remove the cooling rods 
> which triggered a countdown of how long she had to put them back in 
> before a catastrophic meltdown would occur.  It was not designed 
> specifically to be a self-destruct but under the circumstances that is 
> how it functioned.
> 
> Think of it as a truck driver cutting the break line (or equivalent) on 
> their truck.  It's not *designed* to that, and the company does not want 
> the driver to do that, but it's possible to do it.

That would be a good fanwank except for that fact that when Ripley pulls up
the panel to start the process, the screen clearly says:

DANGER
Emergency Destruction System

https://ibb.co/kGCBP34

So it wasn't a case of Ripley sabotaging the ship's normal systems and
causing a catastrophic failure. It's a system purpose built and installed
specifically so that the crew can detonate the ship.