This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Deleted the National Treasure entry. Sean Bean's character did indeed have to kill Nick Cage's character — the odds of him persuading Cage's character that the US government had been 'persuaded' to give him the original copy of the Declaration were nigh-zero, as the US government wouldn't give that copy to anyone, and Cage's character knew it. And, of course, if/when the Declaration turned up later, Cage's character would be the first guy to tip the FBI off as to suspect #1. And where better to leave an inconvenient corpse than above the Arctic Circle?
((Jordan}}: While I can see how his use of multiple drugs (as well as syphilis} explains Hitler's irrational behavior, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the statement that Hitler was "not evil". Seems more like evil and crazy to me.
Elihu: Took out a bunch of WW 2 stuff for being interesting but irrelevant natter.
- Well, the volunteers who joined the French notwithstanding, America didn't really do much in WW 1 - the war was practically over by the time they arrived, although part of this was probably the morale effect of the Germans knowing they were going to be swamped by Americans if the war was still going when 1919 rolled around. (Some historians I've come across have argued that America entering the war actually hurt the Allies in the short term, since resources that were being sold to the Allied war effort by the US were going to their own buildup instead.) To return to the point above, the competent strategists among the Axis powers had a pretty good idea that they were awakening the sleeping giant - I'd guess the German administration basically decided that once the US entered the war they'd enter in both theatres and that it wasn't worth staying quiet and hoping they didn't notice. It may even have been a deliberate ploy to split American attention while both Germany and Japan tried to knock out all the bases they could potentially attack from before the US could fully mobilise (that was essentially Yamamoto's strategy, and in 1941 it still looked like Germany had a decent chance of knocking Britain and Russia both out of the war, which would have left the US trying to wage war across the Atlantic or maybe out of Africa.
- Further, the Führer just HAD to kick the puppy.
- Dude was on so many drugs its impressive he lasted as long as he did. And don't diss the USSR campaign, he woulda won if he'd gone in early enough to finish before winter- he was just too busy bailing out Mussolini in Greece, and it's not his fault his mentor figure was a total nincompoop.
- Hitler was stopped because Zhukov's master plan was in action. Russia would be toast if not for Zhukov.
- The point about Italy was actually true. If Hitler didn't need to spend few weeks in Greece, Moscow would have already fell, since the city was nearly totally encircled just when winter arrived. Few weeks earlier, and that's a big difference. Still, some historians argued that it may not make big difference, since the government already evacuvated the city.
Earnest: ... is that Evil Christmas sphere (sorry, speech center of brain going through reboot) strangling a cherub?! Awesomeness.
Boobah: Pulled:
- Another Bond example is Goldeneye, and again it's not the Big Bad - Orumov, after killing Mishkin, removes all the bullets from Bond's gun so as to frame Bond for Mishkin's murder under the pretense that Bond was killed trying to escape. However, he fails to realise that Bond's gun, being a semi-automatic, automatically loads a bullet into the first chamber. Therefore, Bond could have killed Orumov on the spot. He gets away with it though, because Bond himself fails to realise this. Oops!
because a semi-auto has a closed breech unless you move the slide back (which prevents a bullet from entering the firing chamber) because burning gas leaving the bottom of the firing chamber A) results in a much lower muzzle velocity and B) cooks off your remaining ammo. It's basic safety to not put a round in the barrel unless A) you plan on firing shortly afterward or B) you're too Bad Ass to care about things like not shooting yourself on accident.
If our hero (or especially idiotic villain) did, in fact, chamber a round before the clip was removed, then feel free to fix the description and throw it back in the main entry.
