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[Roe]

Yeah, the army guy calls Hammerdown a protocal in the movie when he tells Rob about it--I went to see it again.

The Army guy says something along the lines of they are willing to let Manhattan go, and institute the Hammerdown protocal if whatever they are doing at that time doesn't work. Then in response to something Rob says, the guy says they would level all of Manhattan.

I have no clue if it was a nuke or not, but obviously the director wanted us to think it was something really bad for Rob and Beth. On the open mic they say God Help US all, after its said Hammerdown was being put into action.

Artistic license, I guess. I don't know. I get to into this stuff too much at times. It's more fun than the actual movie is.

[tsua hx]

[skizzott]

One point I brought up on another board (I apoligize if it's been brought up here, haven't read the whole thread), is that if it were a nuke, wouldn't there only need to be one? If I recall, there were multiple bombs at the end. You hear bombs and see rubble, hear Rob/Beth, more bombs, then black.

My personal thought is that there would be way too much fallout for them to use any nuclear weapons and that "Hammerdown" was just a protocol to level the city using whatever non nuclear method they could. Whatever they did, it obviously didn't work:)

[rose]

My favorite reason to they didn't use nukes:

We all know that radiation creates monsters. Why make more of them?

[Zaggs]

[Capitan_Barbossa]

I know I am jumping on after 8 pages of posts, but maybe it was other ordanance?

Cruise missiles?

Bunker buster bombs?

Napalm?

Ordenance from battle ships?

[tsua hx]

[gigantis2001]

[Angstfild]

[Nighthawk]

Do you all seriously think that the government would drop a high yield nuclear device on the largest metropolitan area in the country with less than 24 hours notice?

Secondly, you think the military is thinking "gee, small arms fire doesn't work... let's nuke it." Uh, NO. They would take the next logical step up: get something BIGGER, but not go all the way up to the top.

Also, think about it... they need an Executive order in order to do that. I can just picture some guy walking up to the President of the United States saying "sir, we need you to blow up New York because we need to kill a 300' tall monster".

It wasn't nuclear, guys. My guess, at most, was a fuel air explosive or MOAB. Wouldn't flatten the entire island, but theoretically should be enough. But, even then, I seriously doubt they'd go that far.

My first thought was Napalm; it's the next logical step ordinance-wise.

[Roe]

[Roe]

About the sound you can hear at the end, and whether it was a nuke or not, how do we know that was the sound of Hammerdown?

As I recall the sirens started blowing when Rob is speaking into the camera and continues upto the point the tape ends.

During that whole time Rob and Beth are speaking into the camera you can hear bombing, and half of it you can hear the creature doing it's bellowing thing and the heavy walking sound. The monster sounded pretty close to them near the very end.

I can easily believe the bridge at the end simply got hit by the B2 bombs, or whatever was doing all the exploding, as the Monster came by. Leaving no clues about what Hammerdown was.

[Nighthawk]

What I was trying to say that, although someone would have to tell him, he's not simply going to say "OK then", grab the football, turn a key and nuke New York. He would need to see some serious evidence and talk with everyone he knows before making that decision.

If nuking something was as quick, effortless and thoughtless as that, Afghanistan and Iraq would be glass parking lots by now.

A nuclear detonation is a "last resort" weapon, and will be used after all possiblities have been exhausted. And I refuse to believe that "all possibilities" would be refuted in a day's time.

NON-NUCLEAR ordinance, however, can pretty much be used by anyone. A field commander can drop a MOAB or a FAD if he felt like it.

Finally, although the monster might be tear-assing through New York, he hasn't flattened the entire city yet. One has to assume there are still a considerable amount of survivors, especially considering you can't just evacuate 8 million inhabitants off an island on a whim (especially with a monster that will swat anything out of the sky). So you think the government is going to write off eight million citizens just to nuke a creature they know nothing about?

I'm surprised they didn't try to capture the thing to use it in their bio weapons division.

[tsua hx]

[Roe]