TedStixon

12th Nov 2019

The Fifth Element (1997)

Question: Corben and Leeloo fly to Fhloston Paradise planet in spaceship at hyper-speed (around speed of light). And the flight takes long enough for the spaceship crew to put passengers asleep. Let's say the flight at hyper-speed takes 2 hours. That means it would take 2 hours for radio signal originated from Fhloston to reach Earth. But 1) After Corben enters his hotel room on Fhloston he gets call from his mother who is on Earth. And they are talking over the phone in real time with no signal delay! 2) President and his cabinet - who are on Earth - are observing events on Fhloston via radio with no signal delay! How that might be? I realise that movie events take place in the future where new advanced communication technologies might be invented. But the speed of light is a universal constant that can't be changed or exceeded. So it would still take 2 hours (in our example) for the signal to be exchanged between planets. How come Earth and Fhloston communicate each other with no signal delay?

grrench

Answer: I think the issue here is that you are trying to apply real-world logic to an overly fantastical film. There's not necessarily a feasible or realistic explanation... but that's okay, because the film doesn't need one. It's just not that type of movie. And that's part of the fun of this film. It's a wacky, crazy movie. (Not to mention, instantaneous communication when there should be a delay is a pretty common trope in all of sci-fi.) You just gotta go with it. The best possible explanation I could give you is "futuristic sci-fi technology somehow makes it possible." But again, it's just not that type of film where it really matters.

TedStixon

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.