On Counting Car Crashes
Harvey was wondering how many car crashes there really were in the Blues Brothers movie. While I can recite most of the movie lines from memory, I know the answer to the question is "a lot."
Mr. Google doesn't appear to have a definitive answer, so I'm thinking I need to sit down with the remote and starting counting -- but I'm not entirely sure how to count. I don't want to attempt to count the number of cars crashed, but the number of times one car crashes into another on the film (which will be a much larger number). But what counts as a "crash?" In one scene, the state trooper cars are piling on top of one another. When the top car hits the pile, does it only count for each car it individually hits? Or should a car that lands on top of 2 other cars count as two crashes? What about when a car flies through the air, hits one car, then rolls onto 2 more cars? Is that 1 or 3 crashes? Gee, this is going to be harder than I thought...
Comments
1
Whether the car in motion hits 1 or 12 cars it is one crash. If it all stems from one single incident, it is one crash. Ie if car A spins out, it causes car b to hit car c, Car d to hit car e, car f to hit car g. Since it all stemmed from Car a spining out, it is one accident.
I hope this helps.
I hope this helps.
Posted by: Contagion at February 14, 2006 09:10 PM (Q5WxB)
2
You got the catagory right, silliness. If you can believe it, I was attending an in-service police week and one class was cancelled because the main speaker had a conflict of schedules. We were instead shown the Blues Brother Movie to fill in the time and given credit for having been instructed in the mandated state required unit...Must have been Public Relations or something.
Posted by: TF Stern at February 14, 2006 10:42 PM (dz3wA)
3
I'll take crashed cars for $500 please. Reviewing the original post(s) I noticed the question asked was "how many cars were wrecked"? So if Car 1 hits car 2, car 2 hits car 3, yada, yada, yada. You have to count each car not each crash. So if mulitple angles are shown of one car crashing is it actually the same car from each angle?
Posted by: Tige at February 14, 2006 11:29 PM (QgCnE)
4
Don't forget the folks on the bridge wearing their NAZI uniforms, the ones who had to jump in the water to avoid getting hit, they each count as one accident...
Posted by: TF Stern at February 15, 2006 12:42 AM (dz3wA)
5
Contagion, if I count that way, there's going to be a pretty small number...
TF? I want to get paid to watch the Blues Brothers!
Tige -- counting the actual number of cars is going to be very difficult because of the various different camera angles of the same car, that's why I'm thinking of counting crashes.
TF? I want to get paid to watch the Blues Brothers!
Tige -- counting the actual number of cars is going to be very difficult because of the various different camera angles of the same car, that's why I'm thinking of counting crashes.
Posted by: Ogre at February 15, 2006 10:38 AM (2IrwV)
6
This IS a toughie.
After considerable thought, I think you should have two different categories
1) Vehicle halted by impact - the RV in the river, the cop cars involved in the Chicago pile-up, the cop cars that don't make it across the median on the chase toward Chicago.
2) Vehicle damaged from hitting another car, but remaining operable - I believe that in the Chicago chase scene, some cop cars hit stalled cop cars, but keep going.
Hitting a non-vehicle object wouldn't count if the car remains mobile, so the mall scene gives us only one VHBI, and the Bluesmobile getting the speaker sheared off coming out of the tunnel after the concert wouldn't count at all.
The cop car landing in the truck's trailer gives one VHBI, and one VDBO (vehicle damaged but operable)
I'm thinking that the pile-up and/or median crossing scenes might require several viewings and a sketched diagram to count the cars properly. Hopefully there'll be good continuity between separate shots in these scenes.
Does that help?
After considerable thought, I think you should have two different categories
1) Vehicle halted by impact - the RV in the river, the cop cars involved in the Chicago pile-up, the cop cars that don't make it across the median on the chase toward Chicago.
2) Vehicle damaged from hitting another car, but remaining operable - I believe that in the Chicago chase scene, some cop cars hit stalled cop cars, but keep going.
Hitting a non-vehicle object wouldn't count if the car remains mobile, so the mall scene gives us only one VHBI, and the Bluesmobile getting the speaker sheared off coming out of the tunnel after the concert wouldn't count at all.
The cop car landing in the truck's trailer gives one VHBI, and one VDBO (vehicle damaged but operable)
I'm thinking that the pile-up and/or median crossing scenes might require several viewings and a sketched diagram to count the cars properly. Hopefully there'll be good continuity between separate shots in these scenes.
Does that help?
Posted by: Harvey at February 15, 2006 02:25 PM (ubhj8)
7
I'm thinking there might need to be about 12 categories. After all, when a motor vehicle sustains damage, it's considered a collison for insurance purposes. And when the insurance industry looks at repairing a car, they want to know how many separate incidents caused the damages...
Posted by: Ogre at February 15, 2006 02:36 PM (/k+l4)
8
Fortunately the Bluesmobile doesn't actually take damage until they arrive at the Cook County Assessor's office and it falls apart :-)
Anyway, it might be better to just take copious notes about each scene involving vehicle damage, and see if any obvious categories present themselves.
You're really jumping into a snakepit on this one :-)
Anyway, it might be better to just take copious notes about each scene involving vehicle damage, and see if any obvious categories present themselves.
You're really jumping into a snakepit on this one :-)
Posted by: Harvey at February 16, 2006 03:32 AM (ubhj8)
9
I say let the 911 Commission do an offical investigation into the number of crashes in the movie, it would make as much difference as their detailed investigation of that mess.
Posted by: TF Stern at February 16, 2006 05:04 AM (dz3wA)
10
I think I'm going to have to schedule a whole weekend of watching and rewinding...
And TF -- they commission would agree there were crashes, but would decline to state the exact number of them, instead focusing on the idea that the crashes could have been prevented.
And TF -- they commission would agree there were crashes, but would decline to state the exact number of them, instead focusing on the idea that the crashes could have been prevented.
Posted by: Ogre at February 16, 2006 10:56 AM (2IrwV)
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