History Fridge / AtlantisTheLostEmpire

* The novelization implies that the circumstances leading to Rourke's death via crystallization may have actually originally been a form of ''capital punishment'' according to Atlantean law, reserved for the most heinous of all crimes committed towards Atlantis and its people, specifically regicide, genocide, and treason. Milo must've learned all about how Atlantis' laws and judicial system works, and since these were the crimes Rourke committed in the movie, Milo, soon to be the new King as a result of Kashekim's murder, during the final battle, essentially ''sentenced Rourke to death.''

* When Rourke throws Helga off his blimp to her death below, she ''barely misses the blimp's propellers'' as she is still falling after Rourke throws her overboard. Later, Rourke himself dies by being turned to crystal and then actually being cut up by those same propeller. Now try to imagine what would probably happen if Rourke ''didn't'' turn to crystal...

** Sweet is also half-Native American. It's possible Rouke (a White man) brutalizing non-White native peoples crossed a personal line for Sweet and also factored into his decision to stay behind to tend to the King.

* Sweet showing Milo a saw was how limbs were amputated back in 1914. In those days the only treatment of infected limbs like gangrene was amputation.

* Sweet showing Milo a saw was how limbs were amputated back in 1914. In those days the only treatment of infected limbs like gangrene was amputation.

[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
* Generally knowledge becomes lost because those who had it die out without passing it on. The Atlanteans are effectively immortal. What, everyone ''forgot how to read''? Why?
** Wrath of the Gods?
** [[HolyIsNotSafe Probably out of fear of the same knowledge and technology that destroyed their civilizations]]. Likely the King suppressed all forms of knowledge for fear that some upstart could discover the secret of the Heart of Atlantis and cause yet ''another'' disaster. Therefore, the Atlantis that we see is losing all knowledge of its own cultural identity, its people are kept blissfully ignorant of their own cultural identity, and very likely have forgotten, or never even learnt, how to read in the nearly 9000 years since the flood.
*** The [[AllThereInTheManual Summer 2001 issue of Disney Adventures]] mentioned that he had the library closed off.
** The ''royal'' Atlanteans are effectively immortal, aging extremely slowly and having extremely long lifespans, presumably because the crystal needs them, but the commoners are never stated or implied to be the same. Besides, Atlantis would be grossly overpopulated if that were the case, since Atlantean children are shown. Also, Kida was very young when Atlantis sank, so it's possible she never learned to read while the rest of Atlantis forgot over generations, and it's no stretch the king made decrees which Kida was too young to remember.
* How could Rourke have known which page of the Shepard's Journal, that contains the exact details of the "Heart of Atlantis", to tear out if Milo's the one that can read Atlantean?
** Illustrations on the page?
*** Agreed. That page had a great big shiny star-diamond thing on it that took up almost half the illustration. It's not hard to figure that's the most important moneymaker in the quest.
** Milo didn't learn Atlantean in a vacuum -- his grandfather, Rourke's old companion from the Iceland expedition, taught it to him. There's every possibility the elder Thatcher inadvertently told Rourke of the importance of that section of the journal.
* When Milo slides off the blackboard at the beginning to take care of the boiler, the chalk stays on. But when he slides off the second time, he indeed does clean it off.
* So the movie needs a group of heroes for the finale, but is it not out of character that the mercenaries are suddenly squeamish about making the biggest payday of their lives? How is killing people not part and parcel of a mercenary expedition like this? Did they not ever expect to kill anyone as mercenaries?
** Probably because it involves mass genocide instead of open combat or grave robbery of a long dead civilization.
*** Especially if the aforementioned civilization is considered by the rest of the world to be pretty much nonexistent and therefore will not be missed.
** Even most mercenary companies, who accept that they will be killing enemy soldiers just to get rich, generally recognize that it's not ''right'' to strand non-combatants in a situation that will inevitably kill them. EvenEvilHasStandards / EveryoneHasStandards is pretty common for a reason.
** Not to mention that when they are received by the Atlanteans, Helga says that there weren't supposed to be people in Atlantis and that that changes everything for the operation. She even looks a bit unpleased when Rourke just says it will all remain the same.
** Given Vinny's KirkSummation to Rourke, and Milo's attitude when he calls Rourke a mercenary, it's entirely possible that's just an insult. The majority of the group seems to be glorified thieves rather than actual guns for hire.
* Kida mentions to her father that the previous kings would weep if they could see how Atlantis has fallen, and later she falls to her knees to pray to their stones around the Crystal. But, Kida's 8500 - 8800 years old and she looks like she's in her late teens - early twenties - how old is her dad? And how old were "the kings of our past" - how long has Atlantis been around?!?!
** King Kashekim is apparently about 27,000 years old, according to official material, and there's eight or so carved faces around the crystal. Assuming they're all previous kings, and lived as long as Kashekim... Something tells me that after Atlantis surfaces in the sequel, the history of the evolution of man is going to need a little reworking...
** There's nothing that says the other kings had the same longevity. Some of them must pre-date the crystal itself at the very least. Others may have died in battle, Atlantis being notoriously belligerent. There's just not enough details to assume that Atlantis itself is hundreds of thousands of years old.
* Why did the Crystal even need a person to fuse with? Especially the second time, when fusing with Kida only made the situation worse by making the Crystal able to be captured (it didn't even fight back or anything). And why did the Crystal give back Kida at the end, when it didn't give back her mother? Why ''didn't'' it give back her mother?
** Her mother was connected to it for too long. The king said that if "Kida remains bonded to the crystal for too long, she will be lost to it... Forever." So presumably her mom was just bonded to it for a bit too long when it sank the city and the crystal just absorbed her.
** That, and with Kida, all it needed to do was turn on the shield. With her mother, it had to turn on the shield, sink the city, create an air bubble in the upper mantle, AND generate an endless supply of fresh, drinkable water. Logically, the latter would require a lot more power than just activating the guardians for the shield.

** Given that they would have also mentioned Rourke's plan and what became of him, Mr. Whitmore likely had ''every'' reason not to divulge the truth to the public. Not only due to the whole adventure being too impossible to believe and wanting the Atlanteans to be left alone, but also due to [[TheWorldIsNotReady the world not being ready]] to uncover their secrets, especially not when there's a Great War on the horizon. Meanwhile, the crew's inexplicable wealth could just be handwaved as Mr. Whitmore's idea of a consolation prize.

** Given that they would have also mentioned Burke's plans and what became of him, Mr. Whitmore likely had ''every'' reason not to divulge the truth to the public. Not only due to the whole adventure being too impossible to believe, but also due to [[TheWorldIsNotReady the world not being ready]] to uncover the secrets of Atlantis. Meanwhile, the crew's inexplicable wealth could just be handwaved as Mr. Whitmore's idea of a consolation prize.

*** That would fit with the original myth, in which the Atlanteans were the villains. So it doubles as a GeniusBonus.