Last Jedi Minute 32: Dogs in Vacuums

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Date

March 16th, 2021

Summary

Reports of the death of Leia have been exaggerated, so guest commentators Suzen Tekla Kruglnska & Joe Dator are here to correct matters.

Guests

Suzen Tekla Kruglnska and Joe Dator

Notes

Film

• Starts with Hux wondering why they can't blow up three tiny cruisers. Ends with Leia's icy hand reaching out.
• Faint strains of the Princess Leia theme.
• Little nitpicky thing: Leia's bracelet hangs from wrist like it's in a gravitational field, not like it would in open space.

Podcast

• Referenced: "From my cold, dead hands".

 Digression into Charlton Heston.
  Referenced: Planet of the Apes. Also: the music video for "The Heat Is On" by Glenn Frey.
   Compare Glenn Frey to Charlton Heston in agony from Planet of the Apes. Or Jack Mack (from Jack Mack and the Heart Attack) on talk shows doing his "rock and roll face" with little to no provocation.

• Hux's lampshading that they can't catch one tiny Cruiser when they have all of this firepower does not solve the issue of why they can't catch them; the first iconic shot from Star Wars is a giant ship capturing a tiny cruiser.
  • Alex proposes other ways this could have gone down to fix this plot hole.
  • It's an obvious setup but it's needed to make the story happen.
    • Every movie ever is riddled with plot holes, it's just a matter of what you notice and what you accept.
  • Normally it is bad writing to have the heroes succeed because the bad guys are incompetent, but here Hux's incompetence is all part of Snoke's plan.
    • Much like Palpatine who had ridiculously and unnecessarily elaborate schemes to grab power. It's on brand.
  • The "slow car chase in space" is in imitation of the asteroid field sequence in Empire.
    • "America's slowest police chases".
• Opinions of the visible energy shields.
• What is the purpose of mouse droids???

Vivian and Adrien Anderson from "The Young Ones".

Expand

Leia in the vacuum of space

• Maybe it is not a "hard vacuum", but a soft vacuum since the energy shield does extend beyond the ship.
• Suzen gives us the real science of what happens when you're exposed to vacuum.
  • The dogs (and chimps) in vacuums experiments.
  • Humans who have accidentally been exposed to vacuum.

Things the movie got right	Things the movie got wrong
Leia is exposed to vacuum for less than 2 minutes which is totally survivable.	She maintains consciousness for longer than 15 seconds.
Even though space is very cold, because there's no air, there's no conduction or convection so it takes a long time for you to cool off so you could maintain your body temperature and would not freeze solid	She should be blown up like a balloon to twice her size from all the gasses in her blood and organs boiling (but held together by the tensile strength of skin).
Frost on her skin from moisture boiling off and freezing.	She probably shouldn't have opened her eyes as that would be very damaging.

• Compare to the scene from 2001 when David is exposed to vacuum. It's very accurate except that you shouldn't take a big breath before you go into space, that's very damaging to your lungs as the air forces its way out.
• At this point we're still recovering from seeing Leia get sucked out into space, so the movie gives you a minute to get your bearings and realize that that figure in the wreckage is her. Referenced: the "Bigger Luke" theory.
• Pete's parental emotional disease.

Other notes

• Snoke is suspiciously silent during this part of the plot.
• Follow SWM on social media
  • Pete has made a hesitant return to the SWMLS on Facebook. Mentioned: Long time. Long time.
    • He came back just before the season started but is limiting his presence to Star Wars Minute and a handful of other groups.

Meta Minute

• 30:31 podcast episode length.
• Pete frequently watches shows with the sound off, either because he is editing or napping a baby/toddler.
• For further discussion on the effects of being exposed to vacuum (using Guardians of the Galaxy as an example), checK out this truly excellent video by Kyle Hill on YouTube.
  • Kyle also has a video on what happens when you are blown out into space and how it is very different from a physics standpoint than is usually portrayed in science fiction.

Quotes

• Pete: "The heat is on" but the sound was off.
• Joe: (paraphrasing Bruce Banner in The Avengers) That's my secret, Cap, I'm always ready to rock and roll.

Links

Audio only

https://art19.com/shows/star-wars-minute/episodes/2434d712-98d7-47bd-ae0c-08fee1768ff8

Video

https://youtube.com/watch?v=DVmAYEyfwUA

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