MovieChat Forums > Short Circuit (1986) Discussion > The Ending makes no sense

The Ending makes no sense

posted 21 days ago by avortac4 (3665)
4 replies | jump to latest

This movie has a wonderful 1980s vibe/feeling/atmosphere/etc. It's one of those things you just can't plan, design and fabricate by a cold, corporate committee in the modern times.

It's a very silly movie, where not a whole lot makes any sense, it also doesn't dare take the more interesting path of 'soul incarnation' and 'Creator of the Universe told me', but instead opts for the materialistic-nihilistic cliché of 'a mysterious lightning bolt' and 'I told me'. Sigh. Why would YOU tell you, if you have no soul and don't get morals from the divine?

In any case, it's a charming movie with only some amount of misandry, a fun romp not to be taken too seriously.

However, when you start thinking about the details, many things fall apart.

For example, the ending.

There are numerous things that make no sense about the whole 'I built a replica of myself from spare parts'-idea.

First, you can't build a new, functional car from just 'spare parts of a car', can you? I don't think the best mechanics in the world could just build a functional car from some loose spare parts. You need factory robots (yeah, the irony is staggering here) to build the chassis, weld things together in a very precise manner, build the engines/motors/etc. and to even think about the electronics.. yeah, humans don't build microchips, processors, computers, motherboards, etc. from scratch. They may assist at some point, but basically you need robots and computers to build those things.

There's no auto garage that would have even close to not only the amount of parts you'd need to build even a simple car, but to have any kind of manufacturing process... let's just say it's impossible.

I know a robot is not a car, but it's the 'relatable equivalency' anyone can understand. An expensive, experimental, well-engineered robot like that would not be buildable from spare parts, there's no way that van vould hold ALL the pieces needed for a 'replica' like that.

Second, these robots are expensive. SUPER expensive! Eleven (groan, another masonic number.. it's never ten or twelve, it's always eleven, thirteen or thirty-three. Just watch movies with those numbers in mind, and you'll be surprised to notice how pretty much EVERYTHING is always 11 minutes, 11 years, 11 people, or 33 bottles of beer.. just be warned, it is a bit shocking in the long run, and annoying how predictable it is) million dollars per robot.

If spare parts are that plentiful and every Nova van is full of them, then why are they counted as 0 dollars? The nerdy boss talks about 22 million dollars, referring to Number 5 and another robot they are taking with them - but he never mentions how the van itself is full of 'spare parts' that can be used to build a WHOLE REPLICA of another robot! This would mean it's YET another 11 million dollars!

So why doesn't he say 33 million dollars? (Would've been even more masonic that way..)

Then again, we don't even know how MANY of those spare parts those vans have - does every Nova van have those? How many million dollars are we talking about, how many replicas COULD be built from those parts?

Third, these robots are expensive - had to mention that once more - so every expensive, experimental, unique, painstakingly engineered and manufactured part would he super valuable to Nova, and they would have catalogued them and they would track where every single part is... RIGHT?

RIGHT?!

I mean, how could it be otherwise? What corporation would just manufacture super expensive spare parts of an experimental robot line and then just let those expensive spare parts (that can be used to build a whole robot, so maybe even more than one, so how much money would that entail? 44 million? And this is just ONE van!) roam free without any kind of tracking of who is using them, where they are stored and so on?

This means, Nova would know exactly how many robot parts they have manufactured, how many are in each van, which parts are in which van - heck, each 'spare part' has a serial number most likely!

This means Nova would soon figure it out - they blew up a bunch of spare parts arranged to a robot form, and they are still missing one whole robot! The catalogue of 'spare parts' and vans do not match with the surprisingly small amount of spare parts in that one van, so something is seriously wrong, and they must know they have millions upon millions of dollars worth of 'spare parts' OR robots (what's the difference at this point..?) MISSING.

Nova would KNOW that van is missing a whole robotful of 'spare parts', and as I mentioned, these robots (and thus, the 'spare parts') are super expensive, so the corporation would DEFINITELY be interested and want to track down where every single part is.

So why would they let Stephanie and Newton (really, as in Isaac Newton?) just drive away with all those spare parts and the van?

[–] avortac4 (3665) 21 days ago

Furthermore, if he 'quit Nova' (you don't really quit a job 'in the field', you have to be in an office of some kind, so things can be marked down, applications can be filled, notes can be taken, computers can be used to change your status, security can be notified, keys and badges can be returned AND SO ON!)..

..WHY would Nova let them just freely drive around in their van?

I suppose they could arrange for Stephanie and Johnny Five to be dropped off at her house or something, and then Newton would do the whole 'office part' of quitting, but it's just very weird they would let a begrudged employee drive a van with MILLIONS OF DOLLARS worth of equipment and 'spare parts' and just trust that they will return it all - AFTER he has already quit!

How much will Newton have to pay for the damages to the vans, by the way? It was the robot of his design that ripped off seats and threw off things out of the window. Then there's cutting down trees, all the work required to clear the road after Number Five cut the poor tree (it entails a lot of hard work to cut it and move it, someone has to pay for that)...

What about the damage to the restaurant?

Then there's the assault Number Five did - in self-defence, but still. Taking apart someone's car (in an impossibly short time, I might add) is basically destroying someone's property - who pays for that?

But sure, Nova and all the other 'entities' just let Newton and Stephanie flee to Montana and have no further quesions, business, or demands upon them..

Then there's the whole thing about 'building a replica robot' - now, why would a robot know how to manufacture a robot? This robot barely knew english words before it read all those dictionaries, doesn't understand basics of even mixing dough, making food, etc.. (somehow those pancakes look good even though we saw how he 'made them', and somehow he understands the 'importance' of food 'not getting cold', but not that you have to take the food out of the packaging..)

[–] avortac4 (3665) 21 days ago

How would it know how to build a robot like itself (well, the body anyway), and do it super fast, too? (This robot defies laws of physics with its off-camera manufacturing and component separation ability - not only that, he even found some perfectly-sized pieces of wood to perfectly balance and display the car parts on in the earlier scene)

I mean, that's like learning what 'programming' means, and then being able to program a whole operating system from scratch, and that operating system is compatible with all Windows software. It's a bit hard to swallow.

If it's that easy and fast to build a robot from the 'spare parts', then why are there only a handful of those robots, and why are they so expensive? Why even build more than one robot in a more traditional way, when these robots can obviously build more robots in mere seconds? Just build one robot, then let that robot build the next robot, then two of them build some more from those ABUNDANT 'spare parts', and soon you'll have dozens of them!

What exactly costs so much money about those robots anyway? Those parts look cheap and plasticky, not like they are made out of some newly-developed super alloy or anything. Why couldn't those 'spare parts' be replaced with very cheaply produced ones, the result would look and function exactly the same (it's not like those robots move in a smooth, fluid, humanlike way - so what's the difference? Their movements are clunky and clumsy)

There are too many things that make no sense about that ending scene, but Nova being so careless about money, robots and robot parts is awarded the cake.

[–] mariomonsieur (233) 21 days ago

I would add the love story built into the soul thing, so while he became animatronic at the lightning strike, they use their relationship building up to a gradual sentience. I don't know, didn't see the ending.

[–] cv1cv (458) 18 days ago

BEWARE! Avortac4 is a troll trying to waste everyone's time with such idiotic comments. Look at his posts. He doesn't think anything in any film makes sense. His post may seem like it makes sense in the first sentence or two. But he always quickly wanders off into a completely idiotic idea, and then writes a wall of text that makes no sense. And his sole purpose is to waste your time, thinking he's cute for doing so. Don't feed the troll. If you write a comment, you're giving this troll EXACTLY what he wants. Don't comment after my comment.