alien air lock explained

I always wondered this myself good explanation

I always wondered this myself good explanation

James Cameron knows science. Either he has a scientific explanation behind it, or he didn't care because it served the story.

The Sulaco was a huge ship with an equally vast volume of air. Or some advanced device to compensate for a hull breach by quickly replacing the lost air volume. Or just Hollywood BS.

If I designed a ship, i would have all adjacent areas seal off in the event of explosive decompression, and the repressurize after the source of the decompression was rectified.

Also, the scene as the drop ship disengages from the Sulaco. It's as if the drop ship is affected by gravity yet the Sulaco isn't. I think both are cases where we need to suspend our disbelief. After all, it's a movie about spaceships and aliens.

@Myrddin365: i'm with you on that one.

no, its because the sulaco was half hovering half in orbit and the drop ship just fell out.

Why wouldn't the artificial gravity seen in the movie and many other sci fi movies be weaponized or used for many other purposes? Surely the technology to pull things without physically touching them would be used literally fucking everywhere. Why don't we see people walking on ceilings and on walls, why are there no telekinetic weapons or tools? Why would the loader Ripley drives even need legs or arms???! Movies always seem to ignore the full potential of their fictional technology.

Gravity has nothing to do with atmosphere. Gravity holds you in your seat on a plane, but guess what happens if you pop a window at 35,000 feet? Explosive decompression- gravity or not. Difference in ambient pressure, nothing more. The vacuum of space is many times more of a difference in potential than just a pressurized cabin. What you saw in Aliens is completely plausible. Probable Hollywood drama and action, but the effect is completely realistic. Now how the heck they made gravity, is something I can't explain. If I could, I would be as rich as Weyland.

I don't think that works aintnozeno... In the vacuum of space, especially with an opening of that size, you'd be dealing with explosive decompression as in instant and total loss of pressure....nothing to breathe at all...[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncontrolled_decompression]Wikipedia[/url] "Decompression can occur due to structural failure of the pressure vessel, or failure of the compression system itself. The speed and violence of the decompression is affected by the size of the pressure vessel, the differential pressure between the inside and outside of the vessel and the size of the leak hole.....Explosive decompression occurs at a rate swifter than that at which air can escape from the lungs, typically in less than 0.1 to 0.5 seconds. The risk of lung trauma is very high, as is the danger from any unsecured objects that can become projectiles because of the explosive force, which may be likened to a bomb detonation. After an explosive decompression within an aircraft, a heavy fog may immediately fill the interior as the relative humidity of cabin air rapidly changes as the air cools and condenses. Military pilots with oxygen masks have to pressure-breathe, whereby the lungs fill with air when relaxed, and effort has to be exerted to expel the air again." The conditions described there are in high altitudes where oxygen levels are low, but still existent...In the vacuum of space, you would have instantaneous total and explosive decompression from an opening as massive as that airlock.

Its a movie, the air gets sucked out as its dramatic, to read anything else into it is insane

@Grindolf.....Not if it affects the real world of physical logic the film is asking you to follow................the following if from another thread in which this point was argued...[url=http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/1901&page=3]Alien vs Aliens[/url] The moment a film allows its audience to break its suspension of disbelief it loses credibilty. This is even more dangerous in science fiction, where audiencies are being asked to take a leap to begin with. This is no minor oversight. It is so ridiculous as to cheapen the entire film.....as in any other action film when a stunt or explosion appears stupidly over the top or impossible, it gives the audience an excuse to break suspension of that disbelief and it [b]should[/b] lose self respecting movie goers at that point. For it to happen in an Alien film is pathetic, especially considering the first film takes the time and effort for its lead to put on a suit so that she won't die in the process of blowing the airlock. Movies don't have to follow accepted reality. They establish their own, but when the reality they establish requires an acceptance of the basic laws of physics, then it must adhere to the rules it establishes, both intentionally and unintentionally, or else it it loses its credibility. That's an immoveable foundation of sound writing. Writing establishes a story's rules in the course of it being written. The act of writing forces a writer to intentionally formalize the world in which he or she is telling their story. The process of writing also results in the rules being established unintentionally. Good writers are aware of both circumstances; they know when it is appropriate to bend them and that he or she should never break them. The Alien saga assumes in its story telling that its physical universe applies and is bound to the laws of physics as far as they are known to this point. No one can fly, no one can breath in space and no one has magical powers. It is accepted and understood that human beings are as fragile and susceptable in that universe as they are in our own. It also follows that the laws governing matter in it's various forms and their relation to the forces of the vacuum of space are accepted in that universe as in ours. Again, breaking that basic level of understanding about something as simple as the dangers of an open airlock in space is INSULTING and OFFENSIVE to intelligent viewership of the moviegoing public. No, "movies do not need to follow reality to be good," but only in as far as it applies to a movie such as 'Alice In Wonderland' where the point is to defy accepted physical reality rather than to operate within it as the Alien franchise asks us to do at a basic, substantive level.

That's why they call it science FICTION..

hmmmm i did not see a lot of these comments, and i am still confused, its true that in an airplane that would happen, but in that case its still the earths gravity, in aliens case its a completely different force, so idk, can someone explain it better?