Question: Does anyone know what the NASA employee says to Lev the cosmonaut the first time we see him? It sounds like "stasveecha"
Question: Would someone please explain why they need a huge Gatling gun on the asteroid? Are they scared of aliens or what?
Answer: If you look at the deleted scenes on the special edition DVD, you will see a deleted scene in which A.J. asks what they needed a gun for, and Max explains that it's for debris elimination, in order to take out small rocks in the way.
Question: Is there a reason why Halsey wasn't given any lines in the movie?
Chosen answer: Because there was no real need for him to talk.
Question: When asked if he had any family, Colonel Sharp replies that he has "2 girls" although there is no mention of a wife. Are there any clues to what happened to his wife in the rest of the film?
Chosen answer: No.
As an addition to there being no mention, stating he has two girls could imply he also has a wife.
Not necessarily. He could be a widower.
Question: Why is Colonel Sharp so intent on following the President's order to remote detonate the nuke? He knows the mission won't be successful unless they drill the hole first. Does he really think being court martialed for defying an executive order will be worse than an extinction-level event?
Answer: Given his choices, what he views as certain failure of the drilling or trying to detonate the bomb on the surface, he decides to follow orders rather than wait for the drilling to fail.
Question: Why did the drillers have to go through all the rigorous medical tests if the NASA doctors were going to pass them anyway, after most of them failed? According to the movie, Harry and his team were the best drillers on the planet, so it didn't seem like NASA had any other option considering the time constraints.
Answer: True, they failed to meet NASA's strict requirements. But the tests would at least determine if they could concievably survive the journey, if not maintian optimal health, etc. None of them lost consciousness for any extended periods in the course of the examinations, so they were passed.
Question: In one scene of an overhead view of the White House, we can see that the flag on the roof is at half-mast. Why was the flag lowered?
Answer: Because at the beginning of the movie, the asteroid fragments attacked New York and killed lots of civilians. When a natural disaster hits America,the President, as well as many businesses will lower the flag out of respect.
Not to mention the astronauts lost in the same meteor shower.
Question: It wasn't addressed in the movie, but did NASA intend for Lev Andropov to go on the mission, assuming the RSS didn't blow up? It seems odd that later on, he has his own pressure suit and spacesuit without any explanation.
Question: When the asteroid starts breaking up, collisions of rocks make large fiery explosions. What is exploding when rock meets rock - and where does the oxygen for the explosions come from?
Question: Is this a continuity problem or something I am missing. I was wondering where Lev (the cosmonaut) would sit after leaving the RSS? After reading some questions I know that Lev would use one of the spare spacesuits, but where would he have been sitting during the 12G ride? For the ride home there was a seat for everyone. 3 members of Freedom died and 3 members from Independence survived, meaning there should be no spare seat for Lev.
Answer: Remember that the shuttles weren't built for this mission, they were built to land on Mars. They probably had extra seats because there were going to be many astronauts on that mission.
Question: Why would the armadillos be equipped with machine guns?
Question: Why would NASA spend weight and expenses on making the cabin of the armadillo pressurised?
Chosen answer: The cabin of the armadillo was always going to be pressurized. A person really can't perform the work needed in a space suit. Therefore, they presurize the cabin.
Question: How did they change the Freedom's landing gear from skids to wheels after taking off from the asteroid and landing on Earth?
Question: Who plays the cab driver at the beginning of the movie? He looks familiar but I can't put a name to the face.
Answer: According to IMDb, his name is Mark Curry. Check his filmography at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0193104/.
Answer: He had a TV show in the 90s called Hanging with Mr. Cooper.
Question: When NASA turns on the personnel locators during the fire on the Russian Space Station, how is it they have one for Lev?
Answer: Given that Lev is alone on the station, he would probably be wearing one full time in case something happened to him or he didn't answer when hailed.
Question: Why is it Lev has his own life support system (space suit)? Did they have extras on the shuttle? Or was he wearing one of the pilot's suits (when they locked themselves in the cargo bay before crashing)?
Answer: He would have at least one suit on Mir. They would also have several extras on the shuttles.
Question: What are the military ranks of Tucker, Watts, and Halsey? It's stated that Sharpe & Davis are Colonels, and Lev is a Colonel in the Russian military. Gruber is referred to as Sergeant, but so far, the ranks of the last 3 weren't mentioned.
Chosen answer: It is not mentioned in the movie. However, we can assume that Tucker and Watts are mid-grade officers. They would be below the commanding colonels, but above ensigns because of their flight status. Likely they are lieutenants or captains.
Answer: They're introduced as "Nasa Pilot Watts" and "Nasa Pilot Tucker", they're likely civilians. There are civilian Astronauts in the Space program. There's even wings for a civilian pilot.
Question: Which shuttle takes off first and which one is the one that is usually farther ahead than the other?
Answer: Freedom takes off first, closely followed by the Independence. This is why when the Independence crashes on the asteroid it first overtakes Freedom on the way down.
Chosen answer: It's close to "zdrasveetsya" phonetically, which is a colloquial greeting like: "how are you doing".
rswarrior