Interstellar with the trip down to the ocean planet. It feels like they really rushed when they all knew that wasn’t necessary due to the time dilation. Saving it for last made the most sense, who cares if it might waste a couple of months they have cryo chambers and this mission can not fail so maybe be super deliberate with your choices?
Leads to a cool reveal though, so it has a movie reason to exist, but after that first viewing it seems dumber and dumber.
The other big problem with the time dilation aspect is the scientist they originally sent to that planet to check it out beforehand couldn’t have been there very long at all. They must have landed, took a quick look around, and been like “hey looks good, thumbs up!”. I though the whole reason they sent a human to do that job is so the human could thoroughly check things out and might notice unusual things like massive planet-wide tidal waves.
To add to that, if you sent me to check out an unknown planet I’d first spend a considerable amount of time in orbit surveying the planet, looking for things like a livable temperature range, a non-poisonous atmosphere, reasonable gravity, and no massive planet-wide tidal waves before attempting a landing. Hell, even if I wanted to get to the landing part as quickly as possible I’d still want to do a quick survey of the planet if only to find a good place to land. Clearly the original scientist did none of that. Nor, for that matter did the crew in the movie, though I suppose I could kind of excuse them as they were in a hurry and they had the “all good” signal.
I though the whole reason they sent a human to do that job is so the human could thoroughly check things out and might notice unusual things like massive planet-wide tidal waves.
How would they do that given the time dilation? Let’s say the waves come every two hours. The scientist would have to stay in orbit for up to 14 years to properly observe them once. Humanity didn’t have that time. They also didn’t have time for him to go onto the planet, wait around for a few hours and then send the signal.
He most likely observed the planet, didn’t see any issues (due to the time dilation), went down, sent a good ping, and then the wave took him. That’s not a massive plot hole.
I would think the instructions to the scientist would be to only send a thumbs up if you’re confident everything is good. Otherwise, send a thumbs down (or send nothing). I mean, the future of humanity is at stake here.
I also kind of assume that the original mission didn’t know about the time dilation thing, but the whole reason to send a human is the human can adapt to a new situation. And in this situation the scientist would realize that thanks to the time dilation problem they either aren’t going to be able to respond in the expected (Earth) time frame or to completely half-ass the job they are supposed to do. And they chose the latter, when the former would be very reasonable (Earth might at first wonder about the lack of a response - but later missions would discover the reason why). Though given the experience at the next planet I suppose you can conclude that when they sent out the original batch of scientists they didn’t send out their best.
Of course there’s also thing with only being able to send out a very basic thumbs up/thumbs down message is a highly contrived thing that’s only there to make the extremely weak plot work.
Aren’t you just ignoring the emotional component? The people on that mission weren’t robots, they were people. Cooper didn’t want his children to die without ever hearing from him again.
Interstellar with the trip down to the ocean planet. It feels like they really rushed when they all knew that wasn’t necessary due to the time dilation. Saving it for last made the most sense, who cares if it might waste a couple of months they have cryo chambers and this mission can not fail so maybe be super deliberate with your choices?
Leads to a cool reveal though, so it has a movie reason to exist, but after that first viewing it seems dumber and dumber.
The other big problem with the time dilation aspect is the scientist they originally sent to that planet to check it out beforehand couldn’t have been there very long at all. They must have landed, took a quick look around, and been like “hey looks good, thumbs up!”. I though the whole reason they sent a human to do that job is so the human could thoroughly check things out and might notice unusual things like massive planet-wide tidal waves.
To add to that, if you sent me to check out an unknown planet I’d first spend a considerable amount of time in orbit surveying the planet, looking for things like a livable temperature range, a non-poisonous atmosphere, reasonable gravity, and no massive planet-wide tidal waves before attempting a landing. Hell, even if I wanted to get to the landing part as quickly as possible I’d still want to do a quick survey of the planet if only to find a good place to land. Clearly the original scientist did none of that. Nor, for that matter did the crew in the movie, though I suppose I could kind of excuse them as they were in a hurry and they had the “all good” signal.
How would they do that given the time dilation? Let’s say the waves come every two hours. The scientist would have to stay in orbit for up to 14 years to properly observe them once. Humanity didn’t have that time. They also didn’t have time for him to go onto the planet, wait around for a few hours and then send the signal.
He most likely observed the planet, didn’t see any issues (due to the time dilation), went down, sent a good ping, and then the wave took him. That’s not a massive plot hole.
I would think the instructions to the scientist would be to only send a thumbs up if you’re confident everything is good. Otherwise, send a thumbs down (or send nothing). I mean, the future of humanity is at stake here.
I also kind of assume that the original mission didn’t know about the time dilation thing, but the whole reason to send a human is the human can adapt to a new situation. And in this situation the scientist would realize that thanks to the time dilation problem they either aren’t going to be able to respond in the expected (Earth) time frame or to completely half-ass the job they are supposed to do. And they chose the latter, when the former would be very reasonable (Earth might at first wonder about the lack of a response - but later missions would discover the reason why). Though given the experience at the next planet I suppose you can conclude that when they sent out the original batch of scientists they didn’t send out their best.
Of course there’s also thing with only being able to send out a very basic thumbs up/thumbs down message is a highly contrived thing that’s only there to make the extremely weak plot work.
That and the fact that the time dilation on that planet vs in orbit around that planet make no sense in the first place.
Aren’t you just ignoring the emotional component? The people on that mission weren’t robots, they were people. Cooper didn’t want his children to die without ever hearing from him again.