YMMV / The Phantom Empire

• Fridge Logic: Mr. Baxter gets shot during a scene where the Radio Ranch crew are having a play-gunfight for their radio show. At first they think that this was due to some sort of accident, which leads one to wonder: even if they were firing blanks, why would they ever aim at each other if they're just making sound effects for radio?
  • It Makes Sense in Context: Cowboys, while not as bad as Westerns made them out to be, were still a rowdy bunch who learned by hard knocks and rarely had things like formal firearm safety training (after all, a lot of early cowboy actors like Autry actually were cowboys and their use of firearms, no matter how dangerous to modern eyes—especially in terms of using them as pointing props—was how they naturally used them in the day). Knowing that ".22 tag" is a real-life thing in particularly backwards parts of Kentucky, it's not outside of the realm of reason for ranch hands to blow off some steam with what they think are just noisemakers. They were also far enough apart that the wadding in the blanks weren't going to hit anyone.
• Nightmare Fuel: The "disintegrating atom-smashing ray." The special effect used is a film-based 'melting' that resembles a painting streaking and sliding off a surface on getting wet. This actually looks rather cool for the time (and the serial's low production values). However, it's explicitly stated to be extremely painful. It gets its Nightmare Fuel aspect from the last episode where it destroys all of Murania: city paintings, civilian extras, robots, and Queen Tika on her throne. When applied to the human form it's a pretty intense effect for 1935.