History Headscratchers / TomorrowNeverDies

* Ok, I admit I haven't seen the movie, so it may be explained better... but under IrrevocableOrder it says they fire a Tomahawk cruise missile at a terrorist camp, it gets out of radio range, however far that is, and they have to send James to [[spoiler:remove the nukes]] from the camp before the missile gets there? I got a big WTF in the face on that. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk_(missile) Tomahawk]] has a 1550 mile range, and travels at 550mph. Assuming they fired it from maximum possible range, they have less than three hours (2.8181, [[LeeroyJenkins repeating, of course]]) to get him to an airplane, fly to the camp, talk/fight his way in and [[spoiler:remove the nukes]] somehow, all before the missile gets there? [[FlatWhat What]].
** This is why we watch films before commenting on them. At the beginning of the film, Bond is infiltrated in an Illegal Arm's Fair, feeding info back to HQ. After the generals think they've got all the info they need, they command their ship to shoot the missile at the fair. Right then, Bond notices a parked Jet fighter at the fair which is carrying nuclear missiles. HQ is notified of this and try to abort the missile they've just fired in order to avoid a massive blast and a political catastrophe. However, the missile by then is out of range and impossible to abort. Bond, who, again, is already AT THE LOCATION, promptly pilots the jet carrying the nukes away from the missile's target. The missile does hit and everything goes up in flames, but Bond is already airborne by then (though he still had to deal with an enemy jet fighter and an annoying "backseat driver".

** Chinese uses different alphabets, he might not be familiar with that particular one, and/or given the importance of the messages he prefers to let a native speaker to send them.

* Bond has a First in Oriental Languages from Cambridge, why's he so confused by the Chinese keyboard?

** Most likely he was angry at the death of most of his associates in the camp and hoped that once Bond was out of the picture he could radio the other plane to affirm their enemy was dead so he could work out how to take the plane somewhere safe.

* This always bugged me about the ColdOpen, but when Bond has stolen the plane, with another guy in it, the moment the other guy regains consciousness, he tries to garrote Bond...while another plane is trying to shoot down the plane both of them are in. Does this guy just not have any self-preservation, because the moment Bond dies, the other guy won't be able to pilot the plane, and that doesn't resolve the situation of the pursuing plane still trying to kill the escaping plane. It just doesn't really make much sense for the guy to be trying to kill the person attempting to save BOTH of their lives.

** The European version of Triple A. Basically, he is asking if they called the European version of the guys who get you into your car if you accidentally lock yourself out of it. This is why, when Stamper replies 'Do YOU want to call them?' he sounds kind of exasperated, as it isn't their car and they are obviously villainous. It would basically be like a member of the Mafia or a major gang calling Triple A to help them get into the car of a rival.

* Why didn't the Chinese MiGs report the, to them, inexplicable sinking of the HMS Devonshire? Or, for that matter, the mysterious vessel that was only swimming distance away and yet wasn't visible on radar?
** The obvious assumption is that they DID, and that the British simply didn't believe them. Their ship's last transmission was 'torpedoed by Chinese MiGs, sinking'. And you're surprised that the Chinese response of.... 'well gee whiz guys the ship sank but we're not sure why' didn't convince them?

** He shouldn't even have been able to use the jet's weapons while still on the ground. It and other planes capable of being armed have a 'Weight-on-Wheels' switch, a safety mechanism that stops weapon discharge on the ground. A NL F-16 recently had an incident when its switch was disabled and the gun fired at a group of parked F-16s. Most if not all planes are unable to disable the switch from the cockpit

* What's Kaufman talking about when he asks Stamper, "Did you call the auto club?"

** Carver seems to think he can get away with anything. Before (not) killing Bond, he mentions that the British navy destroying the boat will destroy the evidence, and he'll be in a Carver News helicopter covering the event. Flimsy logic at best as at this point both governments are decidedly wise to his tactics. The man is unstable.

** Carver is a bit of a control freak, and has a bit of an ego. This final attack is the culmination of a plan he's been working towards for years. He'd rather be there to witness his master stroke, rather than leave it to his underlings.

** Exclusive Broadcast rights for an audience of ''one billion'' people. With all the advertising revenue that it would provide...

** Another factor would have been gaining

** The use, or even the threat of use, of nuclear weapons in a conflict is now considered a Crime Against Humanity. Nukes are really for show, or as a last resort. The fact is that two nuclear powers going to war does not mean that said war will be nuclear; the only reason it was ever an issue was due to the United States and Russia having a policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (in the event of war, both sides would immediately resort to nukes, thus war was a very, very bad idea), and that was abandoned under UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan of all people (the feeling being, the fact that war would be insane just wasn't safe enough). Nukes were not brought up because, the simple fact is, in RealLife they wouldn't be.[[note]] There have actually been several occasions where nuclear powers got into armed conflicts .China vs the USSR in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Soviet_border_conflict 1969]]. India vs China in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Sino-Indian_skirmish 1987]], and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_China%E2%80%93India_border_standoff 2017]]. India vs Pakistan in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kargil_War 1999]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001%E2%80%9302_India%E2%80%93Pakistan_standoff 2001-2002]],[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Indo-Pakistani_standoff 2008]], and[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Pakistan_border_skirmishes_(2016%E2%80%932018) 2016-2018]].[[/note]]

** The use, or even the threat of use, of nuclear weapons in a conflict is now considered a Crime Against Humanity. Nukes are really for show, or as a last resort. The fact is that two nuclear powers going to war does not mean that said war will be nuclear; the only reason it was ever an issue was due to the United States and Russia having a policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (in the event of war, both sides would immediately resort to nukes, thus war was a very, very bad idea), and that was abandoned under UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan of all people (the feeling being, the fact that war would be insane just wasn't safe enough). Nukes were not brought up because, the simple fact is, in RealLife they wouldn't be.
*** To add to this, there have been numerous incidence where 2 or more nuclear armed countries have had standoffs or open confrontations [[note]] (China and the USSR in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Soviet_border_conflict 1969]],India and China in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Sino-Indian_skirmish 1987]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_China%E2%80%93India_border_standoff 2017]]. India and Pakistan in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kargil_War 1999]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001%E2%80%9302_India%E2%80%93Pakistan_standoff 2001-2002]],[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Indo-Pakistani_standoff 2008]],[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Pakistan_border_skirmishes_(2016%E2%80%932018) 2016-2018]][[/note]]