History Headscratchers / TheBookOfEli

** Firstly, nuclear armageddon probably went a long way towards destroying a lot of copies of the Bible, and most books (which are pretty rare). Second, it could just be that its not to be taken literally, and others do exist that just haven't been found yet. How organized the purge of bibles was might be a factor too, and the lack of modern communications might have made it harder for believers to get the [[IncrediblyLamePun Word]] out that their books needed saving, or more likely the believers might just have hid them better. And those not got by the purge might have decomposed; ''all'' books are rare, after all, not just this one.

*** Whoa, thanks Wiki/TVTropes. I seriously just thought they were doing that for RuleOfDrama.

** The large refinery WAS hidden behind the bar. It's called an ALCOHOL STILL. Haven't you heard of ethanol? You can run a car engine on high-grade booze (95% alcohol/5% water is possible even with a homemade still), though the water content will eventually cause corrosion problems in the fuel system.

** The large refinery WAS hidden behind the bar. It's called an ALCOHOL STILL. Haven't you heard of ethanol? You can run a car engine on high-grade booze, though the water content will eventually cause corrosion problems.

** Not only that, but gasoline 'goes bad' (actually, the volatiles evaporate, leaving behind a liquid that doesn't have enough octane to run an engine) after 6 months; up to 2 years if a stabilizer is added and it's properly stored in an airtight container. However, there are alternate fuels he could be using. Biodiesel is relatively easy to brew from biomatter (vegetable oil, animal fat, restaurant grease, etc.), so that's one viable alternative. Another is ethanol; it's very difficult to homebrew alcohol above 95% purity, but an appropriately-equipped car could burn a 95% alcohol/5% water blend. Of course, the water would eventually cause corrosion problems. Heating certain materials in the absence of oxygen–plastics or organics like coal–releases flammable gases that can then be burned for fuel. The Lane Motor Museum’s collection includes a 1938 Citroën converted to run on methane gas derived from heated coal. It can travel about 30 miles on a load of coal. Or how about methane? Remember what Bartertown did in Mad Max? They collected pig shit. When it ferments, it releases methane. If you can collect it and pressurize it, you can run a car on it. TL;DR: They weren't running the cars on gas, they were probably running them on alcohol or biodiesel.

* Where the heck does the gasoline come from? It has been 30 years since a refinery has been up and running, yet Carnegie has several "road gangs" out searching for a book, which to them is absolutely useless. How is he getting the gasoline, that is not being used to run a generator, but to fuel a search for something none of the gangs has any use for? This troper must have missed the large refinery hidden behind the bar...

** No, no, no. This twist gets a whole new level if you have even smallest experience with blind people. I'm kind of therapist, I have trained blind peaople. Thing that Denzel pulled in this film are fantastic. I could say it's a instance of Viewers are Geniuses trope. By the time Eli & Sollara arrived at the old couple house I realized that Eli is blind. Why? Because he made that clicky echolocation sound with tongue and because he kicked a step. Kicking step in such manner is one of the first thing you tech to blind people, to indicate if there is a step. It's those little thing: head position, tongue clicking, little moves and things like retreating under the bridge to get a advance of lack of light, and sound reflection. Truly superb acting. Yet it took me 5 years of training to notice it halfway through the film.

** We really ''don't'' know if the Bible was completely absent from the entire continent, only that it was missing at the Alcatraz repository and in the area that Carnegie was searching. And, given the twist that [[spoiler: it's a ''Braille'' Bible carried by a blind man who's maybe the only one alive who can read the thing]], it's conceivable that the reason why the Voice of God - assuming it really ''was'' that - led Eli all the way across the continent because he was the '''only''' person who could be ''guaranteed'' to get it past Carnegie's territory without giving up its secrets. In which case, Eli's mission wasn't about preserving the Bible from ''global'' extinction, but about bringing it to that particular Bible-deprived region ''without'' letting a petty warlord with a grudge against his abusive Fundamentalist daddy corrupt the shit out of it.

** The simple fact that he took so long to shoot the cat in the opening scene, despite it being only a few yards away, and had to attract it into coming closer and mewing first, suggests [[spoiler: he's either ''totally'' blind or so very short-sighted as to be effectively-so in a fight]].

** The simple fact that he took so long to shoot the cat in the opening scene, despite it being only a few yards away, and had to attract it into coming closer and mewing first, suggests he's either ''totally'' blind or so very short-sighted as to be effectively-so in a fight.

* Are there no Korans, Torahs, Books of Mormon, [[LordOfTheRings LOTR]] books, or [[Literature/TheOdyssey Odysseys]] in the town? It seemed like a fairly big town, and the library should contain other religious/cultural books.

*** Not to mention, the film takes place in the post-apocalyptic United States. Christianity is (at least currently) the most popular religion in America. Carnegie's desire for TheBible specifically isn't so much to do with how "true" or "peaceful" it is but rather simply because it would probably be the easiest religion to control his town with, considering how familiar most of them probably would have already been with it. It's easier to tell desperate and scared former Americans "Jesus wants you to follow me" than it is to tell them "Allah wants you to follow me". If this story took place in, say, Afghanistan, then the book would probably be a Quran.

*** Whoa, thanks TVTropes. I seriously just thought they were doing that for RuleOfDrama.

* Is it just me, or was GaryOldman doing his best [[{{Series/Deadwood}} Ian]] [[Series/{{Kings}} McShane]] impression for this movie? Not much of a complaint as I like both actors, but when I look back on any given scene, I keep picturing [=McShane=] in Oldman's place.