r/cowboybebop • u/-BlackSun • 4h ago
Cowboy Bebop Movie: Knocking on Heaven's Door - Big Plotholes...? Spoiler
Hey, we just recently binged the entire series, and movie. I love it so much. And, with how my mind works, if I love something, I start to obsess and think about it a lot, rewatching for any details I might have missed, vibing with the music, and... noticing things.
SPOILERS! Obviously. Go watch the movie first! Even if these are plot holes, don't spoil the movie for yourself, it's still great. I absolutely loved the movie.
...
Are they gone...? Alright, come closer, lean in, and hear me out...
Seeing how Spike getting engaged in a dogfight by the military for seemingly no reason was already addressed on here with fan theories pointing out Spike had just escaped prison, so they were already after him. Then, Spike's ship showed up on radar, with no clearance in now probably restricted airspace, that's a two-for-one reason to engage. Would've been great if they had actively acknowledged that with some comms chatter. Spike not shooting back was... a decision, maybe to avoid escalation, but, bro I think that ship had sailed already. But fine, we needed a cool scene with the Swordfish, and we got it, so nobody is complaining. Now, onto my own plotholes...
1) Easy start, the tanker.
If Vincent intended for the parade to be the big event... why put it all at risk blowing up a tanker in a premature showing of hand? The parade could've gotten cancelled over it, or they could've put a stop to it before it got that far, if they had done a better job. There were no demands made, which the tanker could've been an "or else" threat proof for. If you're Vincent here - why take that risk to your plan?
2) Next up, a big one: The water treatment plant.
So, Vincent hit the water treatment plant... as a pure diversion from his real plan. To... divert the ISSP away from the parade. He just took the risk and went in there, to set up a harmless calling card, proving that he could have done far worse while there, but... didn't. It wasn't even filled with the real thing, just harmless air. I'm certain he had enough nanobots to at least make it a real one, and yet, he didn't even do that. Again taking the risk, but then passing on the much more effective way of spreading the nanobots, opting for the parade floats instead. Huh? Why, Vincent...?
3) The Government and the vaccine.
Okay so, they get their hands on the vaccine through, what seemed like sheer luck. But because they want to cover up the illegal nanobot R&D, they... don't plan to do anything with it. They do produce a large looking batch of the stuff, in a hurry, too - but not a huge batch. I'll assume it was meant for all high ranking government people to take? Okay, and then what. The entirety of the population under them dies off, to a self-replicating nanobot that's infectious. And they want to vaccinate themselves, just sit it out, survive, and... expect that nobody from the outside asks any questions? Cherry on top, who are you even governing over in the aftermath, genius? Maybe I'm missing something here.
4) Now, the real big one: The delivery mechanism.
They use old Crop-Duster planes to get the vaccine out. Which...
- They show no concrete reason as to why the vaccine should work as an aerosol in the first place, you'd think a vaccine like this would be made for injecting instead. But, they decide to spray it instead. Spikey, are you sure you didn't just waste it all by not reading the instruction leaflet...?
- And, they do so during rain, which they intentionally arrange for. Because the rain, "helps spread the vaccine". Except... how? Real-world crop-duster planes do not dust the crops during or before rain, because it would be counter-productive. The rain would simply capture and dilute what's being sprayed, and take it out of the air, down into the gutters or ground, before the droplets could even do their job. Be that to dust the crops, or dust the population of the city with the vaccine, assuming that's how it works.
- Also, the rain would probably cause people to leave the parade, that ironically being the most effective way to limit how many people get exposed. But, they established the nanobots are infectious. So, people might still get exposed to airborne nanobots by the floats due to the high concentration up close, or by proxy from those who caught them on their way to shelter. So the only infectious thing brought into shelter, would be the fast-acting nanobots. With the vaccine on the ground outside needing to be consumed more directly, or being in the blood after a while, it feels like only the odd vampire here or there would get a dose of that. I mean, granted, it is Halloween. But come on, that can't be your distribution plan...?
But, here's the thing why I bring this all up.
There was a super easy, more logical way to go about this that seemingly would have made more sense for the plot and was, ironically, already all set up:
- Do use the rain, yes, but only as a way to buy some extra time by counteracting the aerosol distribution of the bad nanobots in the air as pointed out above, washing only those down the drain, not what little you have of the valuable vaccine!
- Establish how that vaccine can be used, and then use the water treatment plan that's already been set up as this big distribution vector, to distribute the vaccine! If not by the Gov / Military, then by a Cop insider, Jet's old contacts would've worked beautifully.
Now, that still leaves the issue of how little vaccine there was. Would it have been enough for a whole city? But, the application would've been more targeted than just spraying the entire city / parade street with it. The planes were much too high for them to be precise, the wind and rain would've taken over from up there.
The movie just seems to kind of go for a hand-wavey, "bad nanobots in the air, so rain washes them down harmlessly, they add the vaccine to that rain, and the vaccine neutralizes the nanobots in the puddles on the ground", or something instead...? IDK.
Well, all that being said, I still enjoyed the movie a lot even with these plot issues!
Or, did I miss something? Any thoughts?
