Scuba Bloopers in Books and Movies

So I've been working my way through a new book the last couple 'o days. Eden's Gate by David Hagberg. I hit on a section where the main character was diving. This section was difficult, if not painful, to fight through.

Now don't get me wrong, the book is great, but talk about mis-informed...

Let's see. It was a dive to 100 meters [fresh], into an old Nazi bunker. It was a mix gas dive. No travel bottles. As he worked his way through the bunker he realized that he was 48 minutes into his dive. He found the 100 lb box he was looking for, and inflated his BC extra to help offset the weight.

Carrying the box out of the bunker, he almost got lost due to the zero vis [but he had memoried the blueprints so he was able to figure it out]. Upon reaching the ascent point he needed to put down the box. He forgot to dump the extra air out of his BC.

He got his ascent under control about half way up, and surfaced "A little over an hour". He then grabbed a rope and descended to tie it to the box so the guys on the surface could haul it up. The rope was all slack, so he tied the rope to himself, surfaced, shot a couple bad guys, and went on his way.

Hmm... No line. No lift bag. 60+ minutes @ 100 meters w/ no deco obligation. Followed by a bounce dive to 100....

jees!

[It's a good book though!]

Its a shame that people don't do more research when writing books or scripts. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but since becoming a diver i have noticed many errors in anything about scuba diving from none scuba sources. Even reporters get things wrong a lot. The real problem is the inacurate image that is created.

cstreu1026 once bubbled...
Even reporters get things wrong a lot.

Click to expand...

Let's not turn the thread in the direction of reporters... I don't think I've seen an accident report in the paper that didn't talk about the 'oxygen' in the tank.

type I DCS / AGE / type II DCS in a baywatch episode... The tratment procedure was great to, of course the patient got an O2 hit while breathing 100% O2 at 165 fsw... (suprise!!! about 6.00 PP O2!!!)

Navy seal movie with Rob Lowe AGE / who knows from being within 15 feet of an underwater explosion!!!


Good research -- without remorse by Tom Clancy

I know there are more but they do not come rushing to mind... How about good dive movies also!!

I love these threads!!!

Jeff Lane

OOOHHHHH- Second on Without Remorse. That was well researched AND well written. Can you imagine how horrible THAT would be?

didn't Jaws 3 have a scene where a guy was down for like 20 min. while breathing a spare air?

I am a big Dirk Pitt fan but the time him and his buddy drove thier deep underwater mining vehicles half way across the Pacific ocean floor was pushing the limits just a bit. I'm going to go read that one again and note all the suspect items.

There is a site called "The Bad Astronomer" by a top notch guy and he points out all the bad astronomy in movies and books, it's quite good.

Spectre, you could start your own site, "The bad diver" and like the Bad Astronomer, you could write a book about dive bloopers and become a celibrated and rich diving author.

Another Edit because I am a poor speller.

We have a physics professor that used to teach a class "Science and the Movies". They would watch SF and point out all of the bad stuff. It must have been a hoot. It sure wasn't there when I went to school!

In fact, I had to study only greek six hours a day and walk to school through 4 feet of blowing snow, uphill, both ways.

I once had a Materials Science lecturer that stated that if you were diving and went too deep, you could be crushed by the pressure.

I watched "For Your Eyes Only" last night. Egress from a submersible in 550+ fsw in some weird type of dry suit (it looked like a pair of coveralls with buttons) with a helmet and what appeared to be rebreathers, except that there were bubbles everywhere. I don't know rebreathers from anything, so maybe that's right.

No fins because they ran along the bottom, which was easy because they didn't have any weight.

One of the hoses on the rebreather got ripped partially loose, but the seawater didn't form a caustic cocktail when it hit the scrubber. Instead, our heroine continued breathing.

After blowing up the bad guy in the JIM suit, James and his little friend drag themseves back to the submersible, where they immediately lock through to 1 atm.

Hmmmm. at least 15 minutes at 500+ fsw and no deco during the equivalent of a ballistic ascent. Yeah. That works.