Didn't he just blow up the control room? How would that stop the nuclear reaction?

Normally, if there's a control room problem the damping rods would ease into place, absorbing the radiation and reducing the reaction. But the critters destroyed the damping rods so there really isn't much of anything one could do from the control room. You would end up with a positive feed back situation and the reactor would melt down . . . theoretically. These days there are so many fail-safes the reactor would probably shut down if you spilled a cup of coffee.

Bog knows what this reactor was supposed to do, but what a nuclear generating plant today does is to create tremendous heat to run steam-driven turbine generators. Or they did when I worked for a short time in the nuclear industry thirty years ago.

Ken V.

I haven't seen the movie, but I suspect the authors didn't allow reality to intrude on the story. I guess it would make as much sense for 4 sticks of dynamite to blow up a control room and simultaneously shut down a nuclear reactor as it does for spinal cords/brains to crawl and JUMP! and try to attack people in the most fiendish way.

I gotta see this movie!

I can just imagine these jelly filled brain/spinal cord critters bouncing along like they're on pogo sticks . . . BOING . . . BOING . . . BOING . . . BOING . . . BOING . . .

It boogers the mind. Or something like that.

Ken V.

That reminds me of back in high school. A friend and I used to go around after school and talk with our favorite teachers. We were talking to the Algebra teacher, and he accused the Chemistry teacher of putting his lunch in the freezer. We then went to confront the Chem teacher who immediately burst out laughing and said "Somebody put his lunch in the freezer?!?! That's hilarious! I wish I HAD thought of that."

That would be funny. But dipping it in liquid Nitrogen would make his peenabudder samich shatter like glass. Not to mention his Hostess Twinkies.

Ken V.

That would be funny. But dipping it in liquid Nitrogen would make his peenabudder samich shatter like glass. Not to mention his Hostess Twinkies.Ken V.

Blasphemy!! Freezing a Twinkie?!?! My God man, have you gone over the edge?!?! And Maggers says that I'm demented. Tsk, tsk.

I don't know if anyone here ever had a dynamite shack but we have old ammunition igloos in the McClintic Wildlife Management Area (aptly named the TNT area) outside of town. Before the EPA showed up years ago and started a major clean up, that place was straight out of a horror movie. Would've been a great place for a film. Considering how that place looked, I doubt that it was just ammo stored in those igloos. Now it looks like a good place for a family picnic. Kind of disappointed in that.

Blasphemy!! Freezing a Twinkie?!?! My God man, have you gone over the edge?!?! And Maggers says that I'm demented. Tsk, tsk.

Man . . . I'm so far over the edge I've come full circle.

Twinkies as weapons.

Ken V.

I don't know if anyone here ever had a dynamite shack but we have old ammunition igloos in the McClintic Wildlife Management Area (aptly named the TNT area) outside of town. Before the EPA showed up years ago and started a major clean up, that place was straight out of a horror movie. Would've been a great place for a film. Considering how that place looked, I doubt that it was just ammo stored in those igloos. Now it looks like a good place for a family picnic. Kind of disappointed in that.

Some of that stuff you have to be really careful about. Ever see crystallized dynamite? A light breeze or sudden drop in temperature can set it off.

So if you ever see dynamite that looks like it has had salt sprinkled on it, back away slowly and keep everybody else away from it. It's extremely unstable.

Ken V.

I thought of another one I once saw someone do. This guy fastened a 2' length of pipe to the top of a post with a few of those nails that are shaped like a U. He then stuck a shotgun shell in the end of the pipe -- which just fit nicely with only the end sticking out. Next he taped something (I think it was a BB) to the end of the shell and smacked it with a hammer. He was trying to shoot it at a street sign but what actually happened was that it blew the hammer out of his hand and mostly destroyed the pipe. I'm not sure if that guy is still alive these days. I did hear that he blew off his foot shooting tree stumps/roots out of the ground.

RIK

I thought of another one I once saw someone do. This guy fastened a 2' length of pipe to the top of a post with a few of those nails that are shaped like a U. He then stuck a shotgun shell in the end of the pipe -- which just fit nicely with only the end sticking out. Next he taped something (I think it was a BB) to the end of the shell and smacked it with a hammer. He was trying to shoot it at a street sign but what actually happened was that it blew the hammer out of his hand and mostly destroyed the pipe. I'm not sure if that guy is still alive these days. I did hear that he blew off his foot shooting tree stumps/roots out of the ground.

RIK

Maybe he was in training for a bizarre American version of the Kakureta Kao. Loss of limbs by explosives...

I don't know if anyone here ever had a dynamite shack but we have old ammunition igloos in the McClintic Wildlife Management Area (aptly named the TNT area) outside of town. Before the EPA showed up years ago and started a major clean up, that place was straight out of a horror movie. Would've been a great place for a film. Considering how that place looked, I doubt that it was just ammo stored in those igloos. Now it looks like a good place for a family picnic. Kind of disappointed in that.

A lot of the book "The Mothman Prophecies" by John A. Keel was set around those igloos and the Point Pleasant area, if memory serves (I never saw the movie adaptation and don't know if it was set there.) A lot of the early "Mothman" sightings were reported in that area.