The Flight that Disappeared (1961)

Film review #525

Director: Reginald LeBorg

SYNOPSIS: A commercial flight to Washington D.C. starts to gain altitude uncontrollably, eventually losing contact with the ground. Among the passengers are three top scientists, who have been summoned to the Pentagon for a meeting, and eventually the only ones who are left conscious as the aircraft continues to ascend...

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: The Flight that Disappeared is a 1961 film. The plot concerns a commercial flight to Washington D.C. that continues to gain altitude as the pilots lose control and radio contact with the surface ceases. The build-up of the mystery is fairly interesting, and it certainly makes you wonder where it is all going: there’s no evidence of any sci-fi or extraordinary influences, so it does keep you guessing as to what is actually happening. The cast is introduced with enough detail to set the scene well, although what turn out to be the three main characters, the scientists, Dr. Carl Morris, Tom Endicott, and Marcia Paxton, aren’t very apparent until a good portion of the film, which again helps with the mystery, but also leaves the film a bit directionless. The three main characters are unknown to each other when they board, but learn that they are all there for the same reason: to attend a secret meeting at the Pentagon for the development of a new “beta bomb,” a weapon more powerful than the atom bomb. There’s a passenger on the plane who tries to talk to them individually, saying that they must use their weapon on enemy countries with a pre-emptive strike, but the scientists are insistent that it is a weapon to only be used in self-defense or retaliation. The plot, as you can probably tell, is rooted firmly in cold war era politics, although it doesn’t contribute to the mystery too much. While the film does a lot to set up the scene and the people aboard the flight, it is let down by the fact that there’s barely any personality between them, and nothing really happens in the first part of the film.

It turns out the three scientists have been summoned to a trial of sorts by the people of the future who have yet to be born, and probably will never be, if their weapon is allowed to be built and used. The film quickly jumps here from nothing happening, to a bit too much happening: we’re not given any set up for this whole trial and having to face people from the future, and it is all a bit sudden. I feel like the message gets increasingly muddled as well in this part, as the future not born people (whatever we are calling them...) accuse the scientists of being guilty because they conceived the idea of these weapons, and despite opposing their use in anything other than self defense. Is the film’s message essentially seems to be that having a bad idea makes you guilty, whereas the person or politician that uses it is simply a bureaucrat following orders and ticking boxes. There’s something about the whole message here that seems a bit off. I appreciate that the film does look at the moral quandaries it raises with a good amount of depth, but the overall conclusion just seems a bit weird; holding oneself morally accountable to people that have not or may never be born just seems a bit misguided to me.

Despite the film being an independent production, it is made quite well: the airplane where most of the film is set is a set, but it is pretty convincing and accurate. Overall, The Flight that Disappeared has an interesting mystery, but is bogged down by dull characters, and slow pacing at the beginning. The resolution and messaging is also muddled, but it does at least explore it’s subject in some depth. It probably would have been at home as an episode of The Twilight Zone, and certainly fits that tradition of 60′s science-fiction.

took a Gander at fr and saw the most recent theme was multi-gaze …. Made me think about my silly guy … so here I am. Posting at a reasonable 1am

he’s still very damp

Commissioned by Rohi for Ladylilitu !

Was icarus's fall so terrible after all? He would've died with a smile on his face, the sun all beautiful on him, setting him ablaze. Golden boy alight in his fall, golden are our kisses which set me ablaze and my wings burn in all their glory as you sweep my ashes 'neath the rug. The wax stuck to my lashes doesn't seem to scald your skin as much as I'd hoped and it seems fair to give it all up, for just a fleeting moment of your rays spreading across my skin, painting my lips, as if all the gold would hide the red underneath. Icarus must've surely died with a smile on his face, for I know I did in your smoldering embrace.

Cahaya and Arum are the oldest dragons in my lair. They're in fact older than my lair. My own progen hitting 9 reminded me that they hit a decade:

Back in April 2015, when I'd just joined and was wanting to dip my toes into the coliseum, I wandered into the Lending Library thread to borrow a pair of level 25s to help me level up my own team.

A user called Ruinia (#234) happily let me take on Cahaya and Arum. After about a couple weeks I was ready to return them, but Ruinia didn't return until August when she was retiring from FR and looking to send off her dragons to adoptees, etc. She replied to my PM to keep them. They've been officially part of my clan ever since, and she doesn't appear to have logged in again after that week.

Ruinia's clan profile has comments up until 2019, some from 2015-2018 wishing her well wherever she is. 2018 was 7 years ago.

It's a bit daunting to think that they were with Ruinia's clan (led by her 1st gen imperial Solastiir) for about a year and a half, and have been with my clan for the nine years since.

They each have a piece of cute art that predates April 2015, and one of the artists (GwenniethePooh #377) appears to still be active on FR! It's just. It's been a long-ass time.

They're still major fixtures of my coli team, along with the team I levelled with them.

🫡

sometimes you just need some OwO dragon in your life. maybe even a bit of :3

Lots of blue

I was a flight attendant for an airline that no longer exists. One of my duties was to try to find my brother, who disappeared in a swimming pool where Bigfoot was often sighted.

AFTERMARE WEEK: day 6- flight or fight

get away from me.

aftermare week is hosted by @bluepallilworld

it fucken WIMDY

Chartreuse/Carrot/Mantis | Honeydew/Grapefruit/Tangerine | Cream/Peach/Mantis

Charcoal/Fire/Coal | Mantis/Banana/Sunset | Shadow/Wine/Fuchsia

Day seven of the @dragonaday-fr challenge! With the disposition of a feral horse and the tenacity of one, Idiom is quick to cause arduous situations and just as quick to escape them. He leaves these problems for any others present to solve, or a particularly unlucky stranger to stumble upon later.

(Juliette Choné, Dénichée, 2020, crayon sur gravure)

présage 

les oiseaux meurent en silence et nous fermons les yeux ; nous croyons encore que nous allons vivre longtemps après eux ; avec ou sans augure leur mort devrait pourtant nous alerter ; notre monde qui ne laisse plus désormais place à leur légèreté ; cette lourde évidence que l’on ne veut pas voir, que l’on ne veut pas lire ; notre légèreté qui bientôt ne pourra plus vivre elle aussi

presage

the birds die in silence and we close our eyes; we still believe that we will live long after them; with or without augur their death should nevertheless alert us; our world which no longer leaves room for their lightness; this heavy evidence that we do not want to see, that we do not want to read; our lightness which soon will no longer be able to live 

© Pierre Cressant

(samedi 28 janvier 2023)

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/environnement/biodiversite/biodiversite-trois-questions-sur-l-etude-participative-qui-alerte-sur-le-declin-des-oiseaux-des-jardins-depuis-10-ans_5622185.html

https://l.instagram.com/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.juliettechone.com%2F&e=AT2TUrebY2br3R8zCAbpuyaX6PT1zIOWZ9fjVLNr6eFaZR61I8qAOHOzRHOvFqRNao4A-LSMsuAiO4jEbFPmvTw9SfbKF2RtoaHE_ES9n80wOwJiEpeNrss

off for an R training course today in statistics and sampling. base level expectations of assumed knowledge is that "you know some R" as "the course will not be of benefit to complete beginners". took me four hours to download R yesterday... safe to say I will be disappointing and dismaying the good people of notts with my unlearned incompetence. guess we'll see if I learn me a thing or two despite my newness to this language.

im sorry to everyone that still follows me . for me getting obsessed with another edgelord asian man* (*exceptions may apply) with huge tits and a priest get up and a guilt complex with black hair and gray streaks. its not my fault okay