Corrected entry: The comet entity can make weaponry operate/shoot like the machine gun and electric knife. The arsenal of guns in the basement and rocket launcher doesn't work, however.
Corrected entry: It becomes obvious that some degree of electricity needs to be present for the comet-entity to activate machinery, and we see evidence of comparatively large physical objects moving telekinetically - the large switches moving to raise the bridge, the floating hair dryer that used its own cord to strangle the girl hanging out the window. Anything from a domestic appliance to a truck is affected, even the lawn mower was turning all by itself and it doesn't have a steering wheel! How come standard motor cars, trains, or boats weren't?
Correction: If you remember that as Deke rode through the neighborhood, there was a VW Beetle crashed into a tree with the dead driver hanging out the window, as the Ice Cream truck was going by itself. So, regular cars were affected, just Curt and Connie's car wasn't as part of the story. Also, the kid's bike on the ball field malfunctioned to toss the kid into the roller to kill him.
Corrected entry: When the drawbridge is raised at the beginning of the movie, the comet should have changed the traffic light to red and lowered the gates.
Correction: If the comet changed the lights to red and lowered the bars, there would have been no damage or threat. The movie's plot is that the effect of the comet causes machinery and equipment to act independently, out of human control, and that allows them to kill and maim without warning.
Corrected entry: When the truck is straddling the gap of the halves of the drawbridge in the beginning, the rear axle falls off and rolls down the slope. While funny, this is mechanically impossible.
Correction: This is an absolutely possible mechanical failure. When the momentum of the rotating mass of the wheels is suddenly stopped by coming into contact with the bridge it sheers the bolts off the springs and the continued rotating energy backed by the momentum of the weight of the axle could easily break the universal joint in turn separating the axle from the truck body. Failures like this can also be seen in drag racing where sudden changes in directional motion are extremely prevalent.
I stand corrected. I should have remembered from High School Auto Mech class. Thank you.
Corrected entry: When Connie says "I think that truck..." there is snow on the ground and on the car, but in the scene of the road (after the scene when Deke is blowing bubbles), the snow is gone. This movie takes place in June, so there should have not been snow in the first place.
Correction: It is dirt on the ground not snow.
Corrected entry: Before the steamroller crashes into the billboard, you can see that the game is tied and the red team won for no reason. Also the visiting team's score is above the home team's score, not below it like a real baseball scoreboard.
Correction: First, while the scoreboard does show a tie game (3 to 3), there's no score posted for the bottom of the 9th inning for the home team (which is the red team). Second, earlier in the scene we saw a player for the red team safely slide into home plate, which is when and how the red team won. The kid in charge of the manual scoreboard simply didn't bother to add a "1" to the bottom of the 9th spot or change the score from "3" to "4". The red team player scored what is called a "walk off run", meaning the game is over right then. And finally, the home team score is always on the bottom (with the visitor score being on top), as is correctly done so in the film. The home team always bats in the bottom of the innings.
Corrected entry: If the vehicles are turning on humans, why didn't Curtis and Connie's car try to kill them? The only answer is that them making it to the truck stop serves the story line.
Correction: SPOILER ALERT: At the end of the movie it states the Russians blew up a UFO, implying perhaps it was aliens who controlled everything and everything that happened was just the Aliens playing or experimenting with us. So letting humans have control over some mechanical things was part of their plan, not a plot hole.
Corrected entry: When the remaining survivors were escaping the Dixie Boy through the sewers, the guy in the cowboy hat was the last one to go in, but when the camera cuts to the other end of the pipe, he's already out on the other end before some of the others.
Correction: Yes but when Bill and Curtis crawl through them its shown the tunnels are big enough that he could have crawled past the others to get out first if necessary.
Corrected entry: When they are pumping gas for the trucks, the pump's gallon readings are wrong for the price of gas being charged.
Correction: They'd be pumping diesel into the trucks, not gas (otherwise the trucks wouldn't run for long) but at any rate, with the comet affecting all kinds of mechanical and electrical devices, it's not that surprising that the gallon readings would be wrong. Look what happened in the game room with the pinball machines, video games, and money changer, as well as the soda machine at the ballpark.
Corrected entry: When the truck stops big bossman fires the rocket launcher at the trucks, the rockets are never seen going towards the trucks at all. The only thing we see is them exploding.
Correction: Having fired the weapon in question, I can say that there is the occasional time you can see a trail from the rocket. However, this is not always the case. The L.A.W. (Light Anti-tank Weapon) rockets travel at such a rate as to be difficult to track with camera or eyesight.
Correction: The machine gun was mounted on a mobile platform, and the knife was the first sign that electric appliances were affected at the truck stop. The cache of weapons did work, as evidenced by Bill and company using them to get to the sailboat.
Movie Nut