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Men In Black

8/25/97 Update
8/18/97 Update
8/11/97 Update
8/7/97 Update
7/28/97 Update
7/21/97 Update
7/14/97 Update

As the movie begins, Immigration and Naturalization Service officers stop a van smuggling illegal aliens into the United States. Unexpectedly, a black car charges up and two men in black suits get out. They are "K" and "D". After examining the illegal aliens, K selects one and tells the rest to be on their way before he escorts the chosen illegal alien into the desert. There K strips the alien of his Mexican disguise and reveal an a real alien--flippers and all. Unfortunately, the alien freaks out when he is seen by an INS agent and must be killed. A "clean-up crew" appears to burn all the evidence as K erases the memories of the INS agents with a device that emits a flash and renders subjects susceptible to suggestion. K also flashes D with the device since the latter "Man In Black" has become too old for the chase. (Since Earth has been declared a galactic apolitical zone, it provides safe haven for approximately 1500 aliens at any given time. The Men In Black license, monitor and police this alien presence.)

Eventually, K recruits James Warren Edwards III, a cocky NYPD cop who earns the moniker, "J" and the remainder of the movie is a delightful romp as K and J attempt to stop a large, super intelligent cockroach (bug) from stealing "the galaxy"--an incredible source for sub-atomic power, hidden on Earth for safekeeping. It's absolute essential that the Men In Black succeed because the owners of the galaxy refuse to allow it to fallen into the bugs' possession and are willing to destroy Earth to prevent that from happening.

Of course, K and J succeed but the mission convinces K that it's time to retire, leaving J to recruit a tough deputy medical examiner named Laura Weaver as his replacement (and set the stage for the sequel ;-).

Brash Reflections

Well, this was fun!! Great, great aliens. Lots of cute gags, too. I've actually seen it twice already. I took my wife to see the movie on the fourth and then returned with my daughter on the fifth. I think Liz said it best when we walked out of the theater. She had commented that the movie wasn't what she expected and I ask why not.

"I just thought is was going to be one laugh after another," she replied, "but it actually had a plot."

Precisely! Kind of refreshing, isn't it! That, along with the fact that there was some genuinely funny moments. Love the bug in the "Edgar suit"!

I'm a bit short on time this morning so I'll just hit some of the funner things I noticed the second time through and leave the rest to you fellow nitpickers.

The "flashy, memory thing" must have different settings for different things because the usage of the device wasn't very consistent. The first time we see it used--on the INS agents--it seems to simply erase the most recent memories base on the settings of three knobs on the back. Later the device is used to implant new memories. Also K identifies the knobs as days, months and years from top to bottom. First question: Does this thing only really specify down to days? The INS agents only seem to loose a few minute. Otherwise, why aren't they looking around saying, "How did we get here? Last I remember we were . . ." Second, just before K flashes the INS agents, he fiddles with the year knob! Is he just resetting the device from a previous usage?!

After the bug pulls back Edgar's face to stretch it taut because Edgar's wife has commented that his skin seems to be hanging loose, the scene cuts to a wide shot and--though Edgar's hand is still in the same position--his face is no longer pulled tight.

Watch the table when J is taking the test with the rest of the applicants. A wide shot puts the table in the center of the room but when J goes to move it, it's suddenly much father away. There is time to move it during the cut-aways but the table makes a grating sound when it's moved and no sound occurs during the cut-aways. (I realize that J isn't J yet but it's easier to refer to him as such.)

When J and K view the human representations of aliens on Earth, one of those show is Newt Gingrich. A cute bit but would the Men In Black really allow an alien to hold such a politically powerful position? (And did you notice Steven Spielburg was included as well?)

When Weaver is kidnapped by the bug, watch the back end of the taxi cab. It's fine until it prepares to turn a corner. Then, the passenger side back fender is bashed in before the first crash.

When J is staring at the painting of the space ships in MIB headquarters, watch K in the background. He's supposedly entering commands on his computer keyboard but his hands are obviously too high. He's just tickling air!

Finally, what happened to J's "little cricket" at the end of the program? Doesn't it seem like J would have kept the weapon in one of his coat pockets?

Reflections from the Guild

[Note from Phil: I have not verified these but they sounded good to me!]

Justin Yeoman: Just got back from a sneak preview of Men In Black, and I have to say it was one of the best films I've seen this summer, unfortunately I wasn't paying to much attention to looking for nits. However, I did notice that the first time we get to see the alien landing port one of the aliens in Mr. Homn, making a side trip to earth! Also at one point J discharges his weapon in public and they supposedly will neuralize everyone who saw it. My question is how, if someone was watching from their apartment they have no way to know. If they seal off all the blocks around the area people will gather to look. If the cut off the roads to the scene people will notice, it just doesn't make sense. I won't spoil the ending, it's got a twist.

David C. Meiers: Just wanted to let you know that I went to see Men In Black at a special preview last night, and I just have to say, this is the movie that jaded nitpickers have been waiting for! I think we've gotten so used to being able to poke holes in movies like "Batman & Robin" and "Independance Day", it's really good to see a quality flick. The previews DO NOT give away ALL the good moments in this flick (although they try 8-{). Tommy Lee Jones and Willl Smith are the perfect team here, hard as nails and streetwise wisecracker. I'm hard pressed to think of any nits right now that can't be explained by IATS (It's Alien Technology, Stupid). Definitely a must-see!

Shane Tourtellotte: K refers to a certain alien as having traveled 17 trillion miles to come to Earth. A light-year is approximately 6 trillion miles, making its journey a bit less than 3 light-years. There are no other stars within 3 light-years of Sol. I suppose it could have emigrated from a planetoid drifting in deep space, but wouldn't Earth then be a little warm for him? (It is possible I misheard 70 as 17. 70 trillion miles would put plenty of stars in range.)

The alien with the cat steps out of a cab to pay his fare. That isn't how they do it in New York. You have to pay through a little hinged compartment set in the transparent, bulletproof shield between the driver and passenger. What a friendly city it is. ;-)

So the whatchamacallit battlecruiser fires a warning shot at Earth that strikes the Arctic icecap. Are there *any* consequences to this? Wouldn't that melt some ice? A lot? Will the world's scientists note the scorched hole in the ice, and the suspiciously rising sea-level -- or will they be 'erased' and just figure it's the greenhouse effect?

On the subject of the 'eraser', what are the odds that nobody else in the government would want to get their hands on this device? (Sample Presidential address: "My fellow Americans, I can explain the scandals currently engulfing my Administration. If you'll just look at this light …" ) Of course, maybe they have …

Oh, how convenient that a Galactic Standard Week equals *exactly* one hour.

Early on, K shows Edwards(not yet J) a tiny disk that will soon replace CDs, and grumbles about having to update his music collection yet again. Why then, if he's so keen on staying current, is his MiB-Mobile outfitted with an eight-track player? (Note from Phil: A joke maybe?)

Wasn't Elvis documentably alive and famous before the aliens supposedly started coming in 1961? Oh, and that big alien influx K tangentially mentions happening in 1968? Why do I have the feeling that explains Woodstock?

Trivia note: the person who played the Mets center fielder who gets conked was Bernard Gilkey, who actually plays for the Mets. Not sure he's the center fielder, though.

J throws a rock at the Big Bug, then waves a large, burning branch at it. Later, when recounting things to J, he refers to a rock and a two-by-four. (Note from Phil: Wasn't there something else he picked up between the rock and the branch. I remember it as being bent and he didn't even get to swing it before bug knocked him away.)

Was it ever explicitly explained to J that the Big Bug gets *really* mad if you squish its cousins? I knew we were shown that, but I missed it if he was.

Uh, where did that second Big Bug come from, the one the mortician waxed? That really confused me. (Note from Phil: That was the top half of Bug. Those cockroaches are hard to kill!)

Lemme get this straight. K retires from MiB so he can be with his One True Love. Then in the last scene, we see said OTL has become J's new partner. Wouldn't the same requirement for becoming a MiB(sorry, WiB) apply to her, that being, having to leave her previous life completely behind? That means K went back to her, only to have her promptly disappear. Gee, this guy can't *buy* a break! (Note from Phil: I think that those were two different women. They did look alike though!)

Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: It is conveinent that sometimes there is absolutely no one around sometimes. When the alien is giving birth to her baby, no one there. When the UFO crashed, no one there.

When the UFO flies over the stadium, are we to believe that the only who saw it was one ball player?

One final thing, the ending shows that females are in this organization. Isn't it a bit sexist to call it Men In Black? (Note from Phil: My guess is that she was the first and from her demeanor in the rest of the film, I'm not sure she would mind being known as a "Man In Black"!)

John Reese: I just saw Men in Black. Fun movie! But how do you nitpick something like this? It didn't take itself seriously at all, with no premise too outrageous. Plenty of things about the plot were nonsensical, but it was consistently nonsensical.

Numerous potential plot holes were closed up by the "memory erasing" device. However, they were a little sloppy in places. Why leave that one trooper dripping with alien entrails? Shouldn't they have cleaned him up before they erased his memory? The same goes with the wreckage of the truck and the crater left by the spaceship on the farm. Shouldn't they get rid of the evidence? Wouldn't it be easier for the woman to believe that her husband had run off with another woman if the smoldering remains of his truck were not in the front yard?

When the "bug" alien let the morgue woman go (I'm terrible with names, although I do remember "K" and "J"), it looked for all the world like he was, for all his bluster, intimidated by her claim that she was royalty. Why would he be? He just killed a member of the royal family of a planet that has warships big enough to destroy the Earth! Maybe he was just annoyed by her. But it so, why not just knock her unconscious and eat her later? (Note from Phil: When I watched it the second time, if looked like she wriggled free.)

And speaking of the royal alien...why did the "bug" guy stab him in the neck if he knew the body was only a transport, with the real alien in the head? And what made the little alien die, just because his transport module was stabbed in the neck? Were they at all concerned about the other one (played by the guy who did Holm in STNG)? Was he still trapped inside the head, screaming to be let out? I also suspect there was an alien inside the cat, but they never followed through with this. It acted pretty intelligently for a cat.

Obviously, I'm taking this way more seriously than the creators did. I wouldn't mind seeing this movie again! (And it has "sequel" written all over it.)

Charles Sylvia: I think it might be a little hard and difficult to nitpick this movie since even though it is sort of science fiction, it's mainly a comedy. And it's sort of a "just for fun" movie that can't be taken seriously.

For example this secret government organization is located in New York City, how can they prevent the public from seeing aliens if these aliens can be anywhere in the world? And what if an alien died...say...in like, Barcelona Spain or something, and the officials did an autopsy and found out this thing wasn't human....how would the MiB get there fast enough or even have any authority to do anything in a foreign nation? (I realize there was a line somewhere stating that most of the alien population is in New York City.) But I really shouldn't complain about that since the movie is mainly for fun.

One thing that I guess I could complain about is the the scene with the alien posing as an "illegal alien" in the beginning. When the alien begins to run they just kill it. With all their technology you'd think they could wound it or "stun" it somehow. Wouldn't it be dangerous to kill an alien on Earth? What if the alien's homeworld decided to start a war with Earth because of this incident. Of course, the scene was supposed to be funny, they wanted to have blue alien guts explode everywhere. I also wonder why the police officer the alien was charging at just looked and screamed instead of running away or drawing his gun.

It's also weird how the police never seem to arrive whenever the "bug" alien goes romping around the city destroying things and killing people.

With all the alien traffic coming into and leaving Earth, I wonder why nobody ever picks up their spacecrafts on radar, especially the Archallian cruiser that threatened to destroy Earth at the end. (Note from Phil: No doubt, they have stealth technology.)

There's lots of other little nits like how all these aliens are able to breath oxygen, why Will Smith didn't get seriously injured when he got blasted into the windshield of a car from firing his supergun, and other obvious stuff but personally, I think it's useless to point those out because once again, it's a comedy and the movie wouldn't be the same if we didn't take all those little things for granted.

Andy Carroll of Maybee, Michigan: In MiB (great movie) I didn't notice any real nits, but there were several things that bothered me.

First off, the dragonfly thing in the beginning was TO LONG. I mean, come on...I don't like spending 5 minutes watching a bug fly through the air. (Note from Phil: Personally, it didn't bother me that much. Something has to happen during the credits. It would have been nice, however, if it had tied into the movie somehow. Or was the fact that it was a bug supposed to tie into humanity's attitude toward bugs in general, etc., etc.?)

Second, why did the old guy in the beginning go to the ground ON his gun? It would have been simpler to stand up and pull it off (altho that did give him a reason to have to 'retire')

Third, it was fairly upsetting how they rewarded 35 years of giving your life...simply wiping away your memory. Also, did Will Smith really have the training necessary at that point in time to take Tommy Lee Jones place? Do they really expect someone to be able to replace someone with 35 years of expierence with just one week of training?

Beau Landaiche: I just got out of MIB and thought it was great! However, I would not be just in calling myself a nitpicker if I didn't send these nits in. I saw this with a friend of mine who is a gun expert, and he pointed these out to me. First, look at the initial scene with Will Smith chasing the encephalopod into the building. To get in, he shoots out a glass door. First, the gun he was using was a Smith & Wesson Third generation auto .45 cal. The sound it made in the movie is NOT indicative of the real sound made by this weapon. In the same scene, look at the wall behind the now shattered door. There are no bullet holes at all! A .45 cal slug would leave at least a 0.44 inch hole in sheet rock.

Matt Warner: A really great movie, and a welcome break during a period of particularly lousy movies (read: Batman & Robin). The story was well done, and the special effects weren't over-done. Only real complaint was that some of the scenes left the realm of comedy and hit Freddie Krueger (sp?) land, especially when Mr. Bug was offing people.

The only real nit that jumped out at me -- and I bet the whole Guild saw this one -- was during the initial scene at the morgue, when J and K walk in on the sexpot mortician. They interrupt her as she's dictating into a tape recorder, so when K later calls for the clean-up crew (the line was something like, "Boys, we got two aliens and a mortician in there,") I was disappointed when he didn't add, "And make sure you grab that audio tape she was making about the alien when we walked in."

Will Smith has to be laughing all the way to the bank. That's two Fourths in a row that he's made fireworks.

Richie Laskaris of Toronto, Ontario: This isn't really a nit about the movie--which, by the way, is great--as much as it is about its advertising.

There's a magazine ad for "The Ventura: The world's first electric watch", made by Hamilton, which is worn by the Men in Black. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are shown from the waist up, their arms crossed, wearing the standard-issue Ray-Bans. (I also saw this ad on a display at Lenscrafters, where they are selling the same sunglasses).

Both of them are wearing the watch, which can naturally be seen on their wrists. Everything looks normal, at first, until you realize that Tommy Lee Jones is wearing his watch upside-down! The close-up in the foreground offers a look at the face of the watch, where it becomes obvious that the knob should be on the right, and the pointed edge on the left. There are no numbers on the face, so you might think it could conceiveably be worn either way; but the manufacturer's name, Hamilton, is printed squarely above the center, confirming it.

Will Smith is wearing it correctly, with the pointed end pointing to his left. Tommy Lee Jones's is pointing to his right. This is most likely done for symmetry, since it looks a lot better like this. Their arms are crossed oppositely, as well, and Tommy Lee is wearing the watch on his right wrist, Will on his left.

One real nit for the movie: K (Jones) ends up back with his wife after losing his memory as a result of resigning from Division 6. But when Edwards (Smith) joined Division 6, "all identifying marks" were removed, including his fingerprints. Doesn't K wonder why he doesn't have any fingerprints? Or did Division 6 give them back?

Okay, another rantish nit: When K is asking Edwards to join Division 6, he explains that it will be as if he never existed. All traces of him will be removed. How is this possible? Division 6 would have to track down every family member, friend, and casual acquaintance who ever knew Edwards. Not to mention every instance of his name in the world, and every person who ever saw any one of those instances of his name. If you think about how many traces a person leaves around, this is next to impossible to do. I know..."it's a comic book"!

7/14/97 Update

Brian Straight: A GREAT movie! I would like to nominate this one as being the best movie of the summer thus-far. You can't tell me you weren't laughing in the aisles during the sceen where they're taking the test inside those egg shells.

This movie has two of the greatest sceenes in movie history.

The flight of the Dragon Fly (don't know why but I loved it).

And the longest pull back in movie history, up out of New York, out of the solar system, back out of the galaxy, and beyond.

Will Smith is hillarious as Agent "Jay" his responses to the bizarness around him is worth the price of admission "Did any of that seem unusual to you?" Kay asks him, Only to have Jay look back at him with a "i-was-just-tossed-around-by-a-giant-alien-and-had-a-humanoid-baby-squid-spit- up-on-me, unusual, no," look. And Tommy Lee Jone's reaction through not reaction is great! I've only seen the movie once, but I think I caught a couple of nits.

Does anyone know if it would be possible for a Dragon Fly to go through the air system of Semi, and come out of the exhaust pipe? (Note from Phil: I think the dragonfly was supposed to be flying over the truck! ;-)

The Neuralizer poses as a problem. At first when he used it on the border patrol cops I thought it just erased you most recent memories, and you woke up without a clue as to what just happened. Then Kay uses it on his partner, and manages to wipe out his entire knowledge of belonging to MiB. Then even later he uses it on James (Jay) and takes him to a bar, making him think he got drunk, and can't remember what's happening to him. And then he uses it on Edgar's wife and the mourge doctor and replaces their memory with a new one. And finaly when he gives it to Jay he shows him the dials on it (for years, months, weeks, and days). So how would you erase the last five minutes, or something like that? I guess the Neuralizer has Starfleet door and transporter technolgy, in which it reads the script and knows what it is supposed to, or how it's supposed to work.

Those egg shell chairs are another problem. Why, and how, would they expect you to take a test in them? Unless the written test was just a facade for the test which was actually to see how resourceive you can be on making it easy for you to take it. (Note from Phil: I vote for the latter!)

At one point in the movie Jay and Kay pull over an alien on his way OUT of the Manhattan (at least this is what they are supposed to be doing from what I gathered through the dialogue). Except as Kay talks to the alien we see in the background the World Trade's Twin Towers and the rest of the New York skyline, the only problem is the alien's car seems to be pointing toward (not away) New York.

Amazing how white their shirts stay after a dustcloud blasts in their face when the World's Fair Spaceship crashes.

Amazing how "gullable" New Yorkers are. After the incident outside the jewlery store the MiB Swat team (or who ever they're supposed to be) arrives, and simply says "if you would all come here and look right at me, pefect..." Why does every one obey?

Finaly (for now) at the end of the movie we see Agent Jay, is no longer wearing the "standard issue" MiB suit or sunglasses. He isn't even wearing a tie anymore. (Note from Phil: I think that was supposed to show how J had begun his own changes at the agency. He's probably their top investigator now and demanded some loosening of the protocols--including allowing a woman to be a Man In Black!)

Robert Freeman, Boulder, CO: This is a great movie that doesn't deserve to be picked. Nevertheless....

When J joins the MiB, K erases his birth certificate and other records indicating that J had ever existed. This seems a consistent policy for MiB. Yet after K retires, the Enquirer-rag's headlines state that K had been in a coma for 35 years (conveniently allowing him to return to the one he loved). Did MiB erase J's records because he didn't have anyone to return to (or was it artistic license)?

Also, K's boss states that a galactic standard day is 35 hours, yet later says that a galactic standard week is one hour. Are those standards from different planets? Or maybe there really is a planet that revolves around its sun once every 52 hours and that rotates fewer than two times per year. (Note from Phil: Was it a "galactic standard day" that they referred to? I thought it was some other kind of day.)

Dennis Matheson: I just read your Brash Reflections on the movie Men in Black. I'm glad to see the good reaction it has gotten from you and your fellow nitpickers because I am, in a very small way, part of that movie.

Lowell Cunningham, who wrote the comic book the movie is based on, is a very good friend of mine. Years ago, we were driving somewhere and I was telling him about various bits of UFO lore. (I had followed UFOs for a while, from a highly skeptical point of view). One of the "urban legends" around UFOs involves the "men in black". There are mysterious figures who show up after a UFO has been sighted and harass the witnesses or contactees. Originally, the implication was that they were some type of aliens in disguise, but later the legend changed to imply that they were government agents (the NSA is most often named) who were intimidating the witnesses and covering up the event. (The earliest mention I ever found was a book from around 1960 called "They Knew too Much About Flying Saucers" by somebody Barker (sorry, can't remember the first name right now)).

Anyway, after I told Lowell about the MiB, he commented "that would make a good comic book idea". The rest is history. (He gets a movie, I get a mention on E! and in the "Making of..." book. Oh well...) (Note from Phil: Good to hear from you! And thanks for mentioning the MiB to Lowell Cunningham. We might not have had a great movie if you hadn't!)

But, to the reason I wrote. Corey Hines commented that referring to the organization as the "Men in Black" was sexist. Since the movie is based on an actual urban legend, you have to use the name that they are refered to by from the legend. That's just what they're called. (Note from Phil: I don't think we should worry about this too much. I've never been too big on the whole politically correct movement in the first place. I think you can get yourself so tangled up in trying to figure out why it's someone else's fault that you aren't making the progress that you think you should be making that you expend far too many resources pontificating about victimization as opposed to working toward the goal. You want paranoia? Try getting a novel published! Just about everybody is out to prove that you won't succeed--mostly on the basis of groundless speculation! [Snicker, snicker])

Also, Justin Yeoman wanted to know how they would erase the memories of everyone who saw Jay fire his weapon. In the comic (original source), the MiB's car had large neurolyzers built into it. At one point, they used them along with a loudspeaker to "clean up" an entire subdivision, so I would assume that they would do something similar.

BTW, the neurolyzers also work through your television. Have a nice day...

Jason Liu: Well, most of the nits were already taken. Frankly, I wasn't paying attention for nits. I got lost in the movie, which was very funny and very entertaining. For those of you who read my comments on Batman and Robin and were planning on seeing it, save your money and see this one instead.

Anyway, another member of the Guild wondered how the MiB would be able to get to all aliens in time when they were in New York. Well, there was that scene where Agent Zed was holding a conference with all of the MiB field agents. They appeared on video displays on the wall. I think the idea was to portray various agents around the globe. New York would be the headquarters, since, as mentioned, most of the aliens reside there. But other agents could be stationed all over the world. And remember, the very first scene occured at the U.S.-Mexico border.

As for the nit that it would be nearly impossible for the MiB to erase the memory of every single witness - that might explain why only some people ever report alien encounters/sightings in our world ;) Plus, if they miss one or two or even a handful of people, everyone else will think they're crazy. Remember, deny everything...

Scott Padulsky: No nits to report, it just wasn't that kind of movie, but I thought I would let you know that the Woman in Black was the NYC Morgue worker. You know, the girl who killed the bug at the end. Your response to someones nit implied that you didn't relize that. (And the writer of the nit thought the woman was Tommy Lee Jone's wife. Nope.) (Note from Phil: Sorry if I left the wrong impression. I did recognize her--even with her hair slicked back! ;-)

Also, someone else refers to the MIB as "Division 6." That wasn't *really* what it was called. Tommy Lee Jones made that up for the INS angents in the beginning.

Shane Tourtellotte: Bernard Gilkey, the Mets UFO spotter in "MiB", was playing left field in a recent game, instead of center field, which he played in the movie. This may not be a nit -- outfielders can be interchanged -- but I wanted to fill in that little unknown.

Rabi Whitaker of Cambridge, MA: MiB was definitely one of the better action/sci-fi movies I've seen. It didn't even have all that many nits! (What is this world coming to?)

But - do dragonflies really live in the *desert*? I thought they hovered around ponds and lakes and stuff. Or maybe they're one of those annoying species that are found "everywhere, primarily in the tropics."

That cow must be on Valium or something. It's standing there eating, this big flying saucer streaks down out of the sky, crashes into a truck and sets a tree on fire, creating a big crater not five feet from the cow - and the cow just keeps on eating, and it's not even singed! This is one resiliant cow!

Why did the Bug throw Edgar's skin out of the hole and then snatch it back? Was the "suit" idea an afterthought or did it just want to give the audience a good view of the Edgar suit when it was empty?

J can really run. He got up that spiral building chasing the encephalopod pretty fast.

Speaking of the encephalopod, how did it know the world was going to end?

The MiB headquarters was really . . . retro. Whoever designed it watched "2001" a few too many times. (Note from Phil: I kinda liked it! Reminded me of the Jetsons!)

How exactly do those little flashy memory eraser thingies work? When Mrs. Edgar whatever her name was got stunned, K and J gave her new memories and then left her there, looking comatose. Will she snap out of it on her own? When they flashed mortician-woman, she got the dazed look for a couple seconds, then came around and had to be flashed again. Are some people more resistant to the flash than others? (That could be problematic. ::flash:: "Okay, none of this really happened. It was just a gas ... hey wait" ::flash:: "I said, it was just a weather ballon reflecting ... hey cut that out!" ::flash:: "a reflection of" ::flash::)

I'm confused - was Orion a real cat or was he an alien? Why did the little green prince guy have so many pictures of the cat if it wasn't just a pet?

The New Daddy alien - he's not allowed to leave Manhattan, but his wife is? (Otherwise, she would have come up on their sensor thingies, right?) That seems like an awkward arrangement. Why couldn't they grant him the same license as his wife? (Also, were they still on the New Jersey Turnpike when K and J caught up with them? There was a significant lack of cars.) (Note from Phil: Maybe mommy was human?!)

It's amazing how these aliens can stuff all their tentacles and claws and flippers into their human suits. I would have liked to see Bug getting *in* to the Edgar suit - that must have taken some major flexibility!

Everyone must have been really impressed with J to let him take over K's job after two days. Espescially for someone with such a problem with authority.

Isn't it wonderful to know that no animals *or* aliens were harmed in the making of this motion picture? ;)

Jeffrey Czerniak of Troy, MI: I have to disagree with Phil's point that the credits sequence at the start didn't mean anything. Right after the fly gets, um, air-conditioned on the windshield, the truck driver says "[expletive deleted] bugs!" (Now there's a trivia question--what's the first line of the movie?) Well, did you notice all the trouble the "bugs" got earth in in this movie? Sort of appropiate, doncha think? (Note from Phil: This is what I was referring to why I asked if it was just there to indicate humanity's attitudes toward bugs in general. But, but, but . . . when I spoke of the dragonfly sequence "meaning something," I was thinking more along the lines of the feather from Forest Gump. That was a lovely opening and closing sequence but it also provided a metaphor for Gump's life--tossed through some fairly violent reversals but floating through it all nonetheless.)

I wouldn't want that weapon the Cephaloid had near the start of the flick-- you accidentally drop it, and it vaporizes! Definitely not for creatures with shaky hands.

My nomination for best line: K: "...or i'll shoot you where it don't grow back."

Richie Laskaris: Yesterday, I saw Men In Black for the second time. I was specifically looking for nits :) . Here are one from the beginning and three I found from the interrogation (of Edwards) scene:

Right after "Mikey" the alien knocks down D and K, he turns around and runs towards the cop (to attack him). D is on the ground fumbling for his weapon, and K appears to be farther behind him, standing. K shouts, "D!" and I think he says to shoot the alien. When it becomes apparent that D won't be able to fire his weapon in time to save the cop, K pulls out his own weapon and blows Mikey away. So what was he doing while D was looking for his gun? Shouldn't he have tried to draw his weapon as soon as possible, instead of endangering the cop?

There is some confusion regarding the encephalopod's blinking. During the interrogation, Edwards says he blinked "two sets of eyelids". The cop says, "You mean he blinked both eyes," to which Edwards responds, "No, he blinked one set, then he blinked a completely different set." The first time I saw the movie, it was my impression that he only blinked the funny-looking set. I was watching for this the second time around, and it still looked like he only blinked one set of eyelids.

Then they discuss the gun which the encephalopod pulled on Edwards. The cop, repeating Edwards's report, says the weapon "evaporated into a million pieces". This makes about as much sense as saying it "broke into thin air" :) .

nd then K enters and says "They were gills". He proceeds to unplug something from the wall, then repeats, "They were gills--he was out of breath". While he says this, he holds his hands in front of his eyes and makes blinking motions with his fingertips. The problem is, he "blinks" his fingers the way a normal human blinks his or her eyes (from the top and bottom), and not the way the encephalopod blinked (from left to right).

Lisa Solinas: I think I saw that alien at the beginning in Jabba's Palace.

Best line: "It's a squid."--K, at the birth of the baby Redgick.

One thing that bothered me was the fact that after his galaxy collar was stolen, Orion is never seen again. Me, I think that he hid in a locker, popping little cat Prozac pills.

How much more effort would it take to say: "Galaxy.... on.... cat's.... collar...." (Note from Phil: Well . . . the guy *was* *dying*!)

If the body of the tiny bald alien is just a transport, shouldn't we see blinking lights like Data's. He doesn't need any organs; what he needs is an android's body. (Note from Phil: Maybe the aliens make a better android?!)

The cockroach ship lands directly on Edgar's truck. Parts fly in all directions. Yet when K comes over, it appears to be neatly cut in half.

At one point in the alien lobby, a voice over the loudspeaker calls "Phone call for Q".

Ruminations: I was very happy about Orion's actions in this movie. Cats are mostly portrayed as cold-blooded, not caring at all about their owners. It was very refreshing to see Orion try to kill the cockroach.

Directly after being thrown at J, the baby Redgick [squid] spits up. I don't know all that much about babies, but I do think that thirty- second-olds cannot spit up yet. (Note from Phil: I think it's awfully tough to nitpick the physiology of an alien we know very little about. Maybe that's the way the alien baby clears its lungs to it can breathe?!)

The cockroach eats K. Fine and well, but what about stomach acid? (Note from Phil: See my note above!)

Are the hissing cockroaches [although they don't hiss in this movie] the offspring of the big cockroach?

That alien with the extra eyelids; those didn't look like gills. Gills are slits. Those were membranes. Go figure. (Note from Phil: ditto)

Why does the cockroach's stolen skin get progressively worse-looking? By the end he looks like Frankenstein's monster warmed-over. (Note from Phil: Maybe Bug-Dude didn't have time to have it dry-cleaned regularly?!)

They wipe Edgar's wife's memory [I think her name is Beatrice]. Well, um, how will they deal with the tableaus saying "Aliens stole my husband's skin!"

David Hensley of Macomb, MI: Just saw MiB - really cool, very funny, and surprisingly plot-filled movie. Saw it twice in 3 days.

Anyway, the only nit I did not see covered in the Brash Reflections is, IMHO, a pretty glaring one. So J, K, and the mortician just finished fighting the Bug. All of them are covered in yellowish alien goo. But when they get out of the car (just before J erases K's memory) the mortician still seems nice and dirty, while the MiB are both spiffy clean. (Oh, but it's actually some alien self-cleaning garment technology ;-) ).

Schuyler Hauser: I may be the only person in the world who was very disappointed in this movie. Not that it didn't have its bright spots, but at the end I felt like I'd been expecting a roller coaster and got a carousel. I guess I was expecting something very zany like "Mars Attacks" (yes, I'm also one of only four people who liked that). (Note from Phil: It's *just* the movies! Everyone has a right to their own opinions! ;-)

Someone mentioned the clean-up team on the NY street. How about all the folks in the Holland Tunnel who saw this rocket-car zoom over their heads?

Nice to know that K's love remained single all these years and was willing to let in this guy who she hasn't seen for all that time.

Among the aliens I noticed in the display screen: Sylvester Stallone, Newt Gingrich, Tony Robbins, Richard Simmons, the "wild child" known as Genie, and others that I seem to have forgotten.

Not a nit, but a note: the alien with the pregnant wife is named Redjak (sp?) - the same name of the alien force that was Jack the Ripper in the original Star Trek series.

I wonder how they talked the animal welfare people into letting them shake the dog alien and squash the roaches (There have been stories about on-set SPCA reps protesting the abuse of maggots) (Note from Phil: No doubt, there was some clever camera work in the dog scene. As for the cockroaches, I would imagine that not one of them was actually squashed. The official guide to the X-Files for the episode "War of the Coprophages" mentions the fact that only one cockroach died during the filming of the episode and that was only because of old age. Sometimes, I just shake my head. I can tell you this. If a cockroach decides to make himself a star at my house, the final line of the credits *does not* read, "no insects were harmed during the making of this movie.")

Just checked the IMDB, and they already have a Men In Black 2 listing (subject to the vaguaries of Hollywood, of course).

Eric Brasure: Great movie, easily the best I've seen this summer. I didn't pay too much attention to nits; I was having too much fun! But one did jump out at me: in the beginning, the Tommy Lee Jones character states that he and his partner are from "INS, Division 6". Later, as he is showing Will Smith's character around the MIB headquarters, someone states that the MIB program is non-governmental. Well, then why are the MIBs running around saying that they're from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which is a governmental agency? Cover story, perhaps? (Note from Phil: My guess would be cover story!)

Jean Bogart: I recently went and saw "Men In Black". It was really a fun little romp in the grass. I agree, I too was surprised that there actually was a plot! Now, on to the nits:

Isn't it very convenient that the alien that resembled a miniature E.T. (you know, the royalty one) just happened to say "Orion's belt" instead of "Orion's collar"? He seemed to have a pretty good grasp of English, and there is a substantial difference between the two. But then we wouldn't have that much confusion over J's delivered message :)

Actually, it doesn't seem like K knew that the cat's name was Orion and that the "galaxy" thing hung on his collar. It's never explictly (sic) revealed to him, he never looked at the collar, and even if he did I doubt he activated the charm. The charm could've just been a bell to warn birds and mice. So how does he know that it's what the aliens were looking for all along? Psychic abilities? Or did he want to get a few bucks for it at a pawnshop?

Todd Felton of Victoria, BC: I saw Men In Black on Tuesday and I have one nit that hasn't been provided yet: my friend tells me that dragonflies do NOT fly at night! I can't confirm this, but if it's true, that's a nit right at the opening of the movie! (Note from Phil: Unless, of course, it was some kind of alien-sniffing, bio-robotic device that was programmed to mark the vehicle carrying the alien after detection by slamming into the vehicle's windshield! See . . . now that would have been a way to tie the dragonfly into the rest of the movie!)

Murray Leeder: This was a great movie. I only wish it were longer! Makes a sequel! (that's an order..)

So they remove J's fingerprints, because they don't want him to be suspicious. Wouldn't the absence of fingerprints on a man be just the teeniest bit suspicious?

Oh, one more thing, I think it's Laurel, not Laura.

This blinky thing must be a new toy. If the MIBs had that all the time, today they wouldn't be part of UFO lore! (don't forget Alex Trebek in "Josie Chung's From Outer Space"!)

Robert Exel of Barrie Ontario: Great movie!!!!!! Lot's of fx & sci fi to boot! Only saw it once so far, so it's hard to nitpick when you are swallowing all the eye candy. I guess the part when K mentions the inventions that keep the MIB financed bothered me a little,the microwave oven for example.I tried to search for the invention date but even if it's after 1961, microwave technology has been around a very long time. Also the part with the Bug in the Edward suit was cute but are we supposed to believe that the bug shrunk himself to fit into the Edward skin? (Note from Phil: No doubt the bug was double-jointed!)

Bob Sabatini: This is the third best movie ever made (in my opinion) Lots of great lines, my favorite being "He's not dead, he just went home ." There are also great moments, such as the flaming saucer hitting the man's truck, just after stating to his wife, "The only thing I can count on is the [expletive deleted] truck."

On to The nits.

Of all the experts at MiB headquarers, some who had almost fourty years of expierience, why was J the only one who thought that the "BUG" would go to the world's fair to try to escape? (Note from Phil: He's just that good!)

When K hands Edwards the card that has MiB on the front, The back looks blank, but after K leaves, Edwards turns the card over, and the adress is cleary written on the back.

Next time My cat telles me there's a galaxay on her collar, I'll take her sereriosly.

Charles Sylvia: I'm sure everybody is aware of this already....but anyway, the first time I saw the preview for Men In Black, which I believe was when I went to see Return of the Jedi Special Edition, I distinctly recall a bit of dialouge in the scene where the bug in the Edgar suit crash lands his ship and K and J are standing there ready with really sophisticated looking, powerful guns. The dialouge goes like "Do you have any idea how to use these things?" says J. "Not a clue." says K. For one thing, in the actual movie, K and J fire their guns BEFORE this line of dialouge would take place, but the line of dialouge never happens in the actual movie. Then...while I was recently watching a "behind the shades" in-look at the making of Men in Black on the sci-fi channel they showed that same missing scene, except this time it went "Do you have any idea how to use these things? No idea."

7/21/97 Update

Trevor Ruppe: Just finished reading everyone's brash reflections on "MIB." I, too, thought it was an amazingly great film (seen it three times already) and relatively nit-free (being a comedy).

But a note about the dragonfly at the beginning that someone commented on. You said *something* had to happen during the opening credits and maybe it was supposed to tie in with the whole bugs-vs-people thing. Close: think about it. The movie ended with J stomping bugs. The movie started with a bug splatting a windshield. Geddit? (Note from Phil: Yeeeeeah, I got that part . . . but . . . I don't know . . . seem like . . . ah . . . never mind ;-)

There are lots of other little neat things you may have missed:

The name of the pawn shop tells us that Jeebs is the "Universal Pawnbroker." Wink, wink.

Several lines of Edgar's dialogue weren't very clear in the film (I only really caught them because I read the script before seeing the movie for the first time). For example, when he asks the morgue nerd about the cat, he says "It means *worlds* to me" (because of the Galaxy around its neck, see?). And at the end, when his UFO is shot down as Earth counts down to the death-ray, he comes out complaining but then says it "doesn't matter--and in a few minutes you won't even *BE* matter!"

In a summer of truly wretched films (Batman, Speed 2, Lost World) MEN IN BLACK is a Godsend!

Michel Albert, Moncton, NB: Cool cool movie, but I`m surprised this particular nit got by everyone in the guild.

It's about the twist at the end, the extended zoom-out. I loved it. I really did. Goes back to the "what if the universe is just one molecule in God's fishbowl?" discussions of my youth. BUT. If the galaxy really IS in a marble as shown, how can we be aware of other galaxies around us? (Note from Phil: Good point!)

Simon Crowley: Whoooeee!!! What a great movie. My mom thought it was disgusting (which probably is one of the reasons why I liked it so much. *big grin*) And as a matter of fact, I'm going to see it AGAIN in about twenty minutes! But, there were some nits (you show me a perfect movie, I'll show you a blind nitpicker):

OK, at the end, when K is showing J how to use the neuralizer, there are some dials on the back, for days, months, and years. But at the beginning, when K is erasing the memories of the police, there are 3 red seven-segment LED's on the back, for hours, minutes, and seconds! (Advantages to sitting in the front row).

As for the "INS, Division 6" cover story, that is for sure a cover. From what I've heard about the MiB (in urban legend, etc.), they usually use non-existent agencies as a cover, not to mention phony license plate numbers and artficial ID.

I too, noticed that Laurel's suit was icky at the end, while K and J are spic-and-span.

Observations: Did anyone see the "Just Married" cans tied to the back of J and Laurel's black MiB car in the final zoom-out? (Note from Phil: Have to watch for that next time!)

And of course, a bunch of great lines/scenes: "He's not dead, he just went home." "Congratulations, it's a. . . squid." "Agent Z: 'He seems to have a problem with authority.' Agent K: 'So do I.'" Plus, The Car Driving on the Roof, The Flight of the Dragonfly, and The Birth of the Baby are great scenes.

P.S.: I too, think the baby was pretty cute. I dunno, I have a weakness for little squid-like babies. :-)

Joe Griffin: A terrific movie. Took the top of my head off. Luckily, it grew back. As usual, I spend most of my time here responding to existing nits. Enjoy...

Beau Landaiche comments that Will Smith's gun doesn't sound like it really sounds. Take it from a sound designer: Nothing sounds like it really sounds in the movies. We make trucks bigger, guns bigger, explosions bigger. We make it possible for people to be heard shouting in burning buildings, and starships to be heard exploding in the vacuum of space, where sound does not travel. When the director wants a gun to sound more dramatic, we accentuate the sound of the gunshot with other gunshot sounds and other "sweeteners," such as explosions. Part of the action film industry is the whole "bigger than life" element.

Yes, Tommy Lee Jones' "girl left behind" was someone other than Linda Fiorentino's coroner character.

I'm sure plenty of government agencies would love to have the "flashy-thing" for memory erasures, but part of the point is that no one, especially not any other gov't agency, knows the MiB exist!

RE: Elvis joke: just because he was famous prior to the First Contact between man and alien in this film doesn't mean he can't be an alien.

If you look carefully, Tommy Lee Jones does plant new memories in the minds of the INS agents--by scolding them for discharging their weapons so close to a gas main, he's suggesting an alternate experience to them rather than stating it outright as he does in the rest of the film. It seems to work, although part of the joke in the movie (and this explains the sloppy matter of the blue entrails) is that Jones' stories just aren't very good.

Loved the cameo by Riff Raff from Rocky Horror! (sitting next to the Pug-dog alien.)

Morticians and audio tape--another part of the joke is that this particular mortician has been "flashy-thinged" many times, so doubtless all the MiBs know to erase the tape by now. Or if they hadn't, we can make some allowance for common sense.

Richie Laskaris:>>>: K (Jones) ends up back with his wife after losing his memory as a result of resigning from Division 6. But when Edwards (Smith) joined Division 6, "all identifying marks" were removed, including his fingerprints. Doesn't K wonder why he doesn't have any fingerprints?>>>

How often do you fingerprint yourself, I wonder? (Note from Phil: True, but I do look at my fingertips occasionally and I would think it odd if my were perfectly smooth! ;-)

I'm actually getting really really tired of these cinematic special-effects pullbacks from a flea on a fire hydrant out to beyond the Milky Way. Or from Picard's eye out the door of the Borg ship, or away from Sly Stallone hanging on the cliff face to reveal the whole mountain range...enough already. (hey, my first actual nit!)

[Concerning the destruction of K's records and his returning to his old life at the end of the movie,] Let's just assume the MiBs returned him to his lady friend, and then created a cover story to explain why no one had seen or heard from him in 35 years--if they can do all that other stuff, faking hospital records for a "coma" shouldn't be that tough. Sort of a Witness Protection Program in reverse.

The Cow on Valium--come on. Cows are stupid. You can hunt a cow with a hammer. (Note from Phil: Um . . . wait a minute: It just so happens that the course I run near my house takes me by a herd of cows from time to time. It all depends on which field the farmer is using to feed them. At least the cows in that herd spook easy. In fact, they spook so easy that I sometime end up jogging beside all the cows as they "stampede" away from me. That's why I've adopted the Indian name, "Runs With Cows." ;-)

Orion was not not not an alien. Some people just really like their cats.

[Concerning K's slow response while D fumble for his weapon,] Actually, one possible explanation to this leads me to another nit--if we assume that D had the weapon which would only stun Mikey. Remember, K and J carried different weapons during the film as well. Does it make sense for one agent to have the "stun" gun and the other to have the "vaporize" gun?

"You know how to use these things?" "No idea." That exchange is in the exact same place as the scene in "Twister" where the tractor tire bounces across the road and into the truck's windshield, or the scene from Star Trek 6 where the Romulan ambassador looks menacingly into the camera and says, "there will never be a better time." It was shot, handed to the trailer editors, and then cut from the film. Or perhaps it was never intended to be used in the movie, but made the trailer work better.

Anne Magee of Fredericton, NB: I enjoyed this movie too much to do any serious nitpicking, at least the first time through. If I see it again, I'll notice more.

Only one thing struck me that hasn't already been mentioned. K got himself swallowed by Bug so he could recover the gun. Makes sense. But he spent an awful long time inside there. Since he emerged covered in goo, he probably was swimming in goo. Lucky he can breathe goo.

I'd like to UN-pick a few nits, if I may.

I think the reason J was the one who realized Bug would go to the World's Fair is *because* he was new. The others took those old ships for granted and never thought of them any more.

I also think it's very obvious why Bug's Edgar-suit grew more and more Frankenstein-esque. Decomposition, my dear Watson. Bug probably should have Scotch-guarded it.

That reminds me of a nit -- when Bug was looking for the galaxy, he kept getting stuck and pounding on himself. I assumed his Edgar-suit was developing rigor mortis. But the Edgar-suit was skin only. So does rigor mortis affect skin too? (In all my years of mystery-reading, I've never come across this particular point.)

At the end, K and J were clean, while morgue-doctor person is still dirty. I figure these guys are so used to getting yucky dealing with aliens that they carry around several spare suits and a whole lot of wetnaps.

The great-big-Bug inside the not-quite-so-big Edgar-suit struck me as just part of the joke. Not really any more impossible than any of the rest.

Finally, that spiral building that J chased the thingummy-pod up -- who designed that? Does that really exist? I'd really hate to have an office on the top floor; what a walk! (Note from Phil: I believe that's an Art Museum called--and I'm about to slaughter the spelling on this--The Gugenheim. But, don't quote me! ;-)

I saw something on Broadcast News about the dog-shaking scene. It said that special harnesses were used and none of the three (!) dogs used in the scene where harmed or even upset.

John Reese, Austin, TX: I just saw MIB a second time, and noticed something that bothered me the first time I saw it. It concerned K's grasp of history that reflects a common misconception. He said, "500 years ago, everyone KNEW the earth was flat." I assumed he was refering to the time of Columbus, who, as most of us learned in school, was warned not to attempt his Western passage to the Indies because the world was flat, and he would sail off the edge. Unfortunately, this is wrong. Just about every educated person 500 years ago knew the earth was round. Columbus' naysayers did not think he was mistaken about the earth's shape, they thought he was mistaken about its SIZE. Columbus' estimates on the size of the globe were too small, and he was told that if he attempted his journey, he would run out of provisions. He would have, too, if it weren't for the fact that an unknown continent blocked his way. Therefore, I think it would have been more accurate for K to have said, "1500 years ago everyone knew the earth was flat, 500 years ago everyone knew the earth was the center of the universe." It's possible that's what the script said, and he just delivered the line wrong. Probably, though, the scriptwriters just read the same books I did as a kid.

Note to Phil: I watched carefully when the morgue lady (I STILL didn't catch her name) fell out of the bug's grasp and into the tree. It still looks to me like he deliberately unloaded her. His arm was fully extended, like he was throwing her. I guess this is just another moment of confusing editing in an otherwise tight movie. (Note from Phil: Good enough! ;-)

Shane Tourtellotte: Brian Straight wondered why a car leaving Manhattan in "Men in Black" would be facing the city when pulled over by J and K. I can testify that the roads heading into and out of New York are twisting, looping, and convoluted for several miles into New Jersey. It would be no trouble to be facing the city at one point. Being stopped with no traffic around, however, is flat-out unbelievable.

Trevor Ruppe: I just finished seeing "MIB" for the FOURTH time. I wanted to go back and check the nit I missed (the one where TLJ "wiggles" his fingers over the keyboard instead of actually touching it). This nit is confirmed.

I also saw a *NEW* *NIT* that isn't on your Brash Reflections page yet! When Will Smith and TLJ are aiming their guns to shoot the UFO down at the climax of the film, Will is to the LEFT of TLJ. Then there is a clip of just a few seconds' duration as the UFO banks around and comes in to crash. When we next see the MIB, Will is to the RIGHT of TLJ. True, there is *just* *enough* time for Will to move around to the other side of TLJ, but 1) there isn't any evidence that he deliberately did so, and 2) why would he? This is obviously a continuity error.

Kevin Loughlin: I agree with everybody that this was an awesome film. Just for the record.

As for the "Any idea how to use these things?" line, it was a shot made purely to get laughs when the trailer runs. They first started doing this on Diry Rotten Scoundrels, and more notably in Twister when the shot of an incoming tractor wheel wasn't in the film either.

Also, I hate to give away the very ending, but I have to pick it! As the giant pull-back reveals, our galaxy is really just the toy of yet another alien. He tosses his milky-way-marble into a whole sackful, and cinches it closed. How is it that we regularly see other galaxies, a whole universe full, in our sky? If it's just our galaxy being tossed around, we should see the alien's play yard, not the outside universe.

Mike Leinoff: This was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time! First off, in response to Bob Sabatini's comment about the great lines: Yes, the line about Elvis ("He's not dead, he just went home.") was funny. Everyone in the theater with me broke out laughing at this. But my favorite line was K saying to the alien father, "Congratulations, [whatever his name is], it's a...squid."

I just have one nit: Are there really only 26 Men in Black? If each one uses a letter of the alphabet as his name, there can only be 26 agents. Yes, I suppose some of them could use doubled letters, but J was a fairly new addition. I would think someone would already have been named J before him. (Note from Phil: [Eerie music plays] Maybe there was. Maybe he's not there any longer. Aaaaaah!)

Joseph Allen from Providence RI: At one point in the movie, J gets put through a machine that erases his fingerprints. The fingerprints are not only a sign of identification, which they wanted to get rid of, but also serve as a friction producer. Without them he wouldn't be able to grap things with his fingers very easily.

Sean Healy: Somebody else already mentioned this, and I didn't catch it, but why, if K wanted to go back to his girlfriend, didn't he just have them erase his memory when they first got the neuralyzer from their 'friends from out of town'? Wouldn't that have been easier? That's all I have for now, but, hey, I've only seen it twice so far, and everybody already beat me to the best nits. (Note from Phil: I think K enjoyed the job for a time.)

Charles Sylvia: I asked before if it was really believable that the Men in Black could possibly get to every alien incident in the world to cover it up. Another guild member responded by saying that the Men In Black have contacts all over the world so there's always an MiB agent somewhere ready to jump into action. This makes sense...except, if there are MiB all over the world, why do they need K, who of course is stationed in New York City, to go down to the Mexican border? Why don't they get special agent Senor Gonzalez of the MiB who is probably much closer to go after this incident? Why send K all the way down to Mexico if they really have contacts everywhere?

Schuyler Hauser: "Buzz Weekly" lists several more of the aliens shown on the screen in MIB: Isaac Mizrahi, Dionne Warwick, and Al Roker. Apparently, they needed permission from all the celebrities shown except Newt Gingrich, whose image is part of the public archives. Of course, that hasn't stopped people from going on about Clinton's appearance in "Contact"...

7/28/97 Update

Mike Konczewski of Havertown, PA: After reading the postings on this movie, I feel the urge to "pick the nitpicks." The reason being: my fellow nitpickers seemed to have gotten so caught up in the joy of nitpicking that they forgot to sit back and relax.

First off, we need a new acronym: TAJS--That's a Joke, Son (Foghorn Leghorn's immortal line). Remember, jokes don't always make sense.

The opening scene did have a point. It's a dramatic form known as "foreshadowing." We're not only being shown our attitude towards bugs, we get an explanation of why the big bug is so mean to earthpeople AND a premonition of his untimely end. TAJS! (Note from Phil: Actually . . . my comment about the opening sequence weren't really nitpicking, just a reflection. It *was* cute and I do understand that it was a joke!)

The "curvy building" that James/Agent J was running around is the Guggenheim Museum in NYC, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I mention this because MiB HQ was very reminiscent of the Johnson Wax Co. HQ, also designed by F.L. Wright.

Speaking of design, most of the MiB equipment, furniture, etc. was in the style of the early 60's--the egg chairs, RayBans, black suits, the Ford car, and 8-track tapes. Nice job, Mr. Production Designer.

Several nitpickers questioned the effectiveness of the MiB's attempt to coverup, pointing out that not all information could be erased, they used conflicting cover stories, etc. The best explanation for this behaivor comes from Agent Mulder, who said that the MiB's appearance and behaivor is deliberately bizarre, in order to make the witness's story seem unbelievable. The best way to perpetrate a coverup is not to erase all evidence, but to make the evidence self-contridictory. Disinformation, not lack of information, is more confusing.

As to how someone could be erased from all human knowledge, it's probably not as hard as you think. The electrical and paper records are the easiest. Potential MiB's would come from small families, be unattached, and young. A person, unless he or she is very popular, doesn't interact with a large number of people on a regular basis. A convenient coverstory (moved, died, arrested) would take care of the distant relations, and a neurolyzer for the rest.

Someone asked why the Big Bug's human skin looked worse and worse as the movie progressed. Well, remember, the skin belonged to a DEAD GUY! No doubt the skin was starting to decompose. I'll bet the Big Bug liked the smell....... (Note from Phil: I'm pretty sure this has been mentioned before but several have written about it again so I thought I'd hit it one more time! ;-)

Brian Straight of Shawnee, Kansas: [Concerning the zoom-out on the end and the observation that we wouldn't see other galaxies in that case,] Actualy as I understood it those marble galaxies exsisted simulatnously with the real thing.

Someone nited that K should've said "1500 years a go veryone knew the world was flat..." This may not be long enough either! 1500 years ago would only take us abck to around the year 500. People knew the Earth was flat in Ancient Greece! Look at the statue of Atlas (according to legend Atlas was somehow tricked into having to support the entire world on his shoulders ) he's holding a sphere, not a slab.

Several nitpickers asked why K dosen't realize he dosen't have fingerprints when he gets his life back. Well, maybe they gave them back to him?

Do finger prints really act as friction provider. I cna easily pick things up without using my finger tips, they may help some, but under the fingerprints your fingers have plenty of wrinkles, and millions of little cells to grab onto things. Of course maybe this is why D at the begining couldn't work his gun (he couldn't grab onto it!).

For being a super secret agency the MIB surely aren't discrete.

It appears they go speeding around everwhere.

K "flys" the Ford in plain view.

They just destroyed the World's Fair park place.

They left several Alien Entrails around in the beging.

And I'm sure there's more.

About the INS incident at the beging. Did this happen on the same night that Jay chased down the gilled alien? If so how did K make up to New York, and findout about it so fast? Maybe those weren't Mexicans? Maybe they where the all too dangerous Mexican-Canadians? (Note from Phil: It's pretty difficult to establish the time frame between these events. They could have been months apart!)

Jeffrey M. Muscato: great lines "We at the FBI do not have a sense of humor that we're aware of." The exact words may be wrong but its close enough :-)

Also isn't this supposed to be MEN in Black? Didn't they choose Will Smith because he could chase down that alien on foot and was an excellent detective? (More about the foot chase later, though.) The other candidates were all military special forces officers, graduated from the United States military acadamies with honors, and were there because the MIB were looking for the best of the best of the best. Does this pathologist really fit the bill?

Now about the foot chase -- while I realize that he was only on it for a few seconds, to be technical, Will Smith *did* hop on a bus to chase the alien. (Note from Phil: True, but I think the point was that he figured out--on the fly--how to appropriate the resources necessary to catch the guy!)

Also, I'm not an expert on lasers or anything, so you should ask one of your guild members who is, but do weapons that release only energy and no matter really have "kick?" Phasers don't seem to because in "The Game" Wes set one on a ledge at full power and it didn't move when it fired. (I realize that ST isn't always right but...) Also if that thing was so powerful, and there was no barrel to speak of, and no kind of shield in front of your hand, wouldn't it heat up the air enough to burn your hand (off)? Also when the aliens in the morgue open up, it appears to be a sophisticated robot controlled not by any kind of neural attatchment but simply by levers and controls. So was the farmer who was taken over taken over in a different way? It seems that the alien quite literally *took over* his body. (Note from Phil: Actually, I believe that Edgar the Farmer wasn't taken over, he was skinned! and the alien was simply wearing him lik a suit!)

Don't you think Will Smith would have been just a tad more injured when he got smashed all around inside and on the top of the car? When he lands he's just like "uh!" like when you trip and fall on your knees.

Not only the problem of tracking down every tiny little piece of evidence of someone, but on the computer Tommy Lee JOnes deletes his birth certificate and social security stuff or something similar. A lot of stuff like that is still kept on paper, and in hospitals its usually transferred to microfilm after a certain amount of time. This stuff can't be erased in a few seconds on a computer.

Regarding "Amazing how white their shirts stay after a dustcloud blasts in their face when the World's Fair Spaceship crashes. " -- yeah well it's pretty amazing how their Ray-Bans block the neuralizer and everything else -- maybe some special shirts? Tommy Lee Jones did say that they *have* to wear issue clothing.

If Will SMith is such a good cop, he's probably been on undercover assignments. He would make sure to remember their aliases as doctors.

Regarding: "He proceeds to unplug something from the wall, then repeats" He unplugged the power cord to the serveilence camera -- BTW, this really works. If you wanna get fancy and show them a false image instead of just a blank screen, you can get one of those little Sony 8mm VCR/TVs and record the empty room, and then connect it back to the wall's coax cable and hit pause and it shows the still image of the empty room on the monitor.

Regarding: "Well, then why are the MIBs running around saying that they're from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which is a governmental agency? Cover story, perhaps? (Note from Phil: My guess would be cover story!)" More than just a guess, combine this with their cover story of being doctors and being FBI agents at the farm house, and I think it pretty much proves that they use cover stories all the time.

What's the point of the MIB cards? Any information they really want to convey must be written by hand, and if an agent were ever arrested by local cops or something, it would only raise suspicion.

Concerning the amount of time that can be adjusted on a neuralizer, it makes sense that the field units would only need seconds, minutes and hours. The only time when you'd need to wipe a long amount of time would usually be retiring agents, would could be done with a less commonly used and less portable, device.

I realize that the aliens could have supplied a comatose version of Tommy Lee Jones for his wife, but unless they did, wouldn't she have wanted to visit her comatose husband during that time?

Regarding: "(Note from Phil: [Eerie music plays] Maybe there was. Maybe he's not there any longer. Aaaaaah!) " maybe he just retired? Or maybe it's like "Get Smart" -- the chief ID was "Q" because he joined the agency back before they used numbers. Maybe most newbies are numbers in the MIB now, but J happened to be free so they gave it to him.

Kevin Loughlin: Just a couple [comments].

Yes, that is NYC's famous Guggenheim Museum, designed by the preeminent Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the greatest architects of this century. I doubt there are many offices on the top end of the spiral.

If the fingerprint-removing-machine can erase fingerprints, it could probably also change the skin's chemistry to a higher coefficient of friction, so he can grasp objects.

Gilles Duchesne: I don't have any new nits concerning MIB, but I have a few comments about other nitpicker's reflections...

About Edgar's "Rigor Mortis": I'm no expert, but if you peel some of your skin and let it "dry" for a few days, it will become quite hard. Hard as leather, actually... ;-)

About that nice lil' flashy thing: Once again, I must say I'm not an expert on that field, but it definitly looks like the flashy thing works on the same principles than hypnosis. I heard about people who got "false memories" after an hypnosis treatment with a bad psychiastrist.

After all, it's the way our brain works, isn't it? By "patching" things. Haven't you ever woke up from a dream, unsure about what was false and what really happened on the previous day? The flashy thing will erase your previous memories, just like a bad dream, and leave you especially open to suggestion. Whatever the guy says to you, your brain will accept it as a fact, and will then "wrap" memories around it. (Maybe even using some old memories.)

About the MIB agency in general: I think the reason about the looks and ways of the bureau is very simple: they were created in the 60's! It explains the classical looks of the agents, the "Jetsons" look of the headquarters, everything!

I also explains why there is (WAS) no female MIB. All the agents were probably "hired" in the 60's. (Well, I don't remember how old the other agents looked, but K, D and Z were surely there from the beginning.) Now that the agents are getting old, they begin too hire, and I'm convinced they now will consider women.

Douglas Bruzzone: I have to agree with everyone that MIB is one of the best movies ever. And this isn't a nit, but I was waiting for the subheadline under "Man emerges from 35 year coma" to say "Coma triggered by swamp gas refratcting the light from Venus..."

Jeff Carpenter of Springfield, VA: As for all the [comments] about the length of the bug footage during the opening credits of the film. I think everyone should check out such classics as "My Fair Lady" and "Mr. Roberts." These movies included lengthy amounts of introduction credits without anything as interesting to watch. I think some people are so used to the new Hollywood style of quickness, they can't sit through any amount of non-action without fidgeting. (Batman & Robin is the pinnacle of this, you may have noticed they wasted no time in getting into the action.) (Note from Phil: Several weeks ago, my family and I watched "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison." The opening credits for that simply had shots of a rolling ocean. After about five minute, my daughter asked, "Is this going to be the entire movie?" We all started laughing thinking about it but I have to say that even I was saying, "Okay, okay, move it along" after a while!)

Said..."Whoever designed the Hedquarters was really retro..." I think the point is that is was designed in the 60's when they met the aliens. (50's? Whatever...)

Also, I'm not sure I'm the first to submit this one, but there is a case of a fly killing itself in the film. Right after the guy thanks the bug for "making sure the bell works," he swats a fly. After lifting the swatter, you can see the insect is a plastic fly and he looks just fine to me. After he slaps another insect, you can see the original plastic bug has somehow squashed himself into a little smear. What could drive a poor bug to do this to himself? I'm sure it's a tragic point of the plot that was killed during the editing, so we'll never know the truth about this suicidal insect. (Note from Phil: Fun stuff!)

Avery Vincent: OK, first off, I'd like to say that this was a funny movie. I love Tommy Lee Jones' stoic expression, and it is genius when combined with crazy ol' Will Smith. Now, on to the nits:

After the alien "Mikey" gets blown away and splatters all over that poor state patrolman, K (Jones) has some of the MiB do a burn of the surrounding desert. Trouble is, they don't seem to get rid of much of Mikey's entrails and blue guts. Send one scientist over to analyze the stuff that is *everywhere,* and the whole alien cover-up thing is screwed.

When we first see Edwards (Will Smith, later becomes J,) he is chasing a Cephalopoid. I can swear that I heard him yell, "LAPD! Freeze!" (Los Angeles Police Department.) However, he later gets it right, and says he's from the NYPD.(New York Police Department.) Big difference. 3000 miles is nothing to sneeze at.

How do Ray-Bans (MiB sunglasses) protect from a Neuralyzer (Flashy memory thing?) All they would do is make the light dimmer while getting one's memory wiped! (Note from Phil: No doubt they are special Ray-Bans)

When Smith goes to the MiB training session, he pushes a button on the inside of the elevator. How did he know which button to push? All the card said was, "504 Battery Drive." (Note from Phil: Maybe it didn't matter which button he pushed!)

I know it was a cute moment, but all Smith had to do to get the table near him in the testing session was to ask one of the soldiers for help in lifting the thing, instead of making that horrible screeching noise.

After the shooting gallery session, Smith explains why he only shot little Tiffany, instead of two particular monsters. What about the other half-dozen attacking aliens? Why didn't he squeeze off a few rounds at them? He had plenty of time before he saw little Tiffany.

How does Smith's character get deleted from the minds of his family & friends? I doubt even a neuralyzer can delete only one person from years of memories with no further disruptions. One person can change entire lifetimes!

How in tarnation did the Bug fit in his ship, or that little "Edgar Suit?" He's huge! (Note from Phil: He's probably also double-jointed! ;-)

When giving Beatrice (Edgar's wife) a new memory, Jones neglects to explain why there is a crater in the front yard, with Edgar's truck in it, blown in half. Why couldn't he just say that it was a meteorite or a fallen satellite part? I mean, "Swamp gas, thermal pockets, and lights from Venus?" Gimme a break!

When the Arquilian prince and his bodyguard are killed, they were going to eat some Pirogi. (Italian food.) However, Dr. Weaver, the mortician that examined their human shells, noted that they had absolutely no digestive systems! How could such a little alien expect to eat so much?

When the Arquilians send a message to the MiB, why don't they just use the "illegal" universal translator and save some time? Why bother asking the twins, Weeyuwah and Bob, to translate?

Shira T. Karp of Wilmette, IL: First, I would like to agree with everybody that this movie [was great].

Second, talking about the Edgar suit. Anne Magee brought up the very good point that the Bug had trouble moving because his suit was getting rigor mortis. As I grumbled in my nits for ST: V'ger's "Faces", muscles and bone structure define a person's face. For the bug to look (reasonably) like Edgar, his suit must have contained muscles and bones from the original Edgar--which makes the running gag even funnier because the giant bug would have REALLy had to scrunch into that suit.

Third, a note on the cryptic message from the dying alien. The message was so cryptic because the alien was having word trouble. He was going through synonyms and J was suggesting words! Check on this, ye who will be seeing it again, but I think that "belt" was one of the words J suggested. Had the word "collar" come to J's mind, this would have simplified matters.

Shane Tourtellotte: After seeing "Men in Black" for the second time, I hereby withdraw my mistaken impression of the New York mortician and K's long-lost love being the same person. The names, for one, are entirely different.

My favorite bit in the closing credits: a line for "Bug Wrangler". (Mark Jackson, if you were curious.)

8/7/97 Update

(Note from Phil: This message ended up at the bottom of my message cue somehow and I don't think I ever uploaded it! Sorry, David!)

David Conrad: I thought that MIB was a good film over all. There were some very predictable parts (such as Agent K going back to his wife at the end). One thing that I was thinking about is this: The giant bug alien that took over the farmer's body I thought was just too big to fit inside of him. On the other hand it may be able to compress itself into a more small form. Although, if this is so, then I would have to think that there was just too much that came out of it once shot. Also, at the end of the show, it appears to possess "bioluminescence" since its stomache was lit up when Agent K was retrieving his gun from within the bug alien, or maybe Agent K was carrying a flashlight!

Joe Griffin: [Concerning the closing credit "bug wrangler,"] Not a bit or a nit, but an actual job. "Wrangler" is what the movie industry names anyone whose job it is to make sure animals on the set do what they're supposed to once the cameras roll. This can include teaching the actors which commands the animal responds to, or planting food somewhere on the set so the animal will move in the desired direction. Generally these people specialize; i.e. bug wranglers, snake wranglers, scorpion wranglers, dog wranglers, Keanu Reeves wranglers...

Michael Henley of Broomall, PA: This was a great movie! I loved it! Only problem, I can't think of many nits right now, as most of them have been reported already!

The only one thing I was disappointed in was given that 1) this year is the 50th anniversery and 2) the aliens in the pictures K shows J looked so much like the typical, gray, big-eyed aliens from Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind and other UFO abduction stories, would it have been too much to ask for some type of Roswell reference? Oh well. Wonderful movie!

[Concerning a line cut from Star Trek VI,] the Romulan ambassador does say this line. I forget who says what before it, but during the scene (in the video version, with extra footage) where Operation Retrieve is described. The Romulan says "Mr. President, they are vulnerable. There will never be a better time." After this Admiral Cartright says something like "The longer we wait, the less accesible the hostages will be." But don't quote me on that one.

Jason Liu: On Avery Vincent's comments on MIB - pieriogi (sp?) is Polish food, not Italian (yes, yes, I know this has nothing really to do with the movie, but we are Nitpickers, right? We are a retailing-funded, highly vocal, and elite agency. We are your best, last, and only line of defense against errors everywhere. We are the Nitpickers' Guild. Protecting the Earth from the technicalities of Hollywood.) (Note from Phil: Amen to that! ;-)

Roni Choudhury: [Concerning the line "Not a clue" versus "No idea",] Believe it or not, my friends and I decided we were going to see this movie just because we saw that line in a trailer. I missed it in the movie, but my friends saw it!

I wonder why K *explains* what the neuralizer does and how it works to the first group of people we see it used on?!.......(I suddenly feel like eating a cabbage........)

Roni Choudhury: Someone mentioned rigor mortis (I dunno, do a word search for it!)

Rigor mortis develops as soon as the body dies, because blood no longer flows to carry away lactic acid from the muscles. You will notice after a workout, that your muscles feel stiff. This is the effect of lactic acid acting on muscle tissue. Normally, the constant flow of blood dissolves lactic acid, directs it away from muscles, and helps it be excreted (ewww...). If you die, your heart is not beating and so this process doesn't take place. But, after a few hours in the deathly stage, the lactic acid breaks down by itself, as the physical changes to the body that occur with death make the acid molecule unstable. Now, of course, rigor mortis wears off. (Which, incidentally, makes the X-files scene (the one where Skinner kills a hooker or something) where Scully moves the "stiff"'s head from side to side perfectly nit-free, contrary to what my Dad said). Okay, enough biology for today.....

Great lines:

"It be rainin' black people in New York..." -J, as he jumps from an overhead pass onto a moving tour bus.

"Dennis Rodman's from their planet" -J, commenting that Rodman would make a good associate for some aliens

"He...he's just workin' out!" -J, sarcastically justifying why he left the alien target alone while shooting the 8-year-old-Ph.D.-in-Quantum-Physics-girl target through the head

To Jeff Muscato, who asked if Energy weapons would have a kick. I don't know if they would, but I can think of a way that they might. If the gun shoots a small piece of mass which is converted into pure energy (or a mixture of the two), then the gun would definitely have kick. Of course, then they would go "BANG" like ordinary guns, except for the sound of whatever explodes in *front* of the gun! Just a thought.....

Jeffrey M. Muscato: That little "pocket" pistol that Tommy Lee Jones gives Will Smith makes no sense. In addition the problem of it heating up the air that I mentioned above, guns that small are hard to draw quickly because they have such a small handgrip. They are also harder to control because there's not as much to hold on to when the gun kicks. I understand that for the comedic effect, Tommy Lee Jones has a rifle and gave Will Smith that little pistol, but he could have given him a regular size pistol like the one that he usually carries in a shoulder rig.

I may be wrong, but I don't remember the MIB candidates using any kind of ear protection. The pistols they used (I saw the movie a while ago but I believe they were SIG 9mm or .40's -- either way combat caliber and therefor pretty loud) didn't have silencers but they were inside. Gunshots inside are almost deafening. Technically, they *are* deafening, depending on the circumstancs. I read somewhere that a 9mm discharged outside was approximately 120 db a few feet away (like the distance from your outstretched arm and your ear), and inside that would raise to approximately 130 db.

Shane Tourtellotte: During the squid-birth scene, the woman in labor is, er, 'facing' left as viewed in the scene where J gets so abused. However, the squid-baby gets born in the opposite direction. I'm sure there are explanations -- "The mother got turned around", "It's alien anatomy; you wouldn't understand", etc. -- but I thought I'd note it.

8/11/97 Update

Jason Liu: In regards to Roni Choudhury's comments on rigor mortis - actually, rigor mortis has very little to do with lactic acid. To reduce it to simple terms, rigor mortis is caused by a lack of what is known as adenosine triphosphate (or ATP, for short) in the muscle tissue. ATP is a source of energy for cells. Muscle cells contain two proteins known as actin and myosin, which form filaments and can bind to each other. Normal muscle contraction is due to the binding of the two types of proteins along with movement to pull the ends of a cell together. ATP is necessary for actin and myosin to break apart again to allow for relaxation or further contraction. Without ATP, actin and myosin are stuck together, causing an inability to move (contract or relax), known as the rigor complex. Rigor mortis occurs after death because blood flow is stopped, and the supply of ATP is not replenished. You often hear about deducing the time of death by whether rigor mortis has set in. That's because it takes time for the muscle tissue to use up the ATP that is already there. After awhile (and NOT immediately after death), the ATP is used up, and then the muscles become "stuck".

Lactic acid is responsible for the burning and sore sensation you feel after your muscles have been exerted for awhile. Normal metabolism requires oxygen, which is supplied by the blood. However, during sustained physical exertion, the blood cannot supply enough oxygen to nourish the muscle tissue. The result is that the muscle begins to use anaerobic ("without air") metabolism that does not require oxygen. This results in the build up of lactic acid, which takes time to break down/carry away. The buildup of lactic acid in your muscles after prolonged exercise results in the "burn" of a good workout. After you stop, the cells switch back to regular aerobic metabolism, and the lactic acid can be broken down slowly.

Murray Leeder: If I remember the movie correctly, the Men In Black started up in the early 60s. However, the Men In Black myth began in 1953 with a man named Albert K. Bender, who headed a group of UFOlogists named the International Flying Saucer Bureau. In the bureau's newsletter he speculated that the saucer mystery had been solved, but was being withheld by the government. Soon, he dissolved the IFSB and discontinued the newsletter.

A few weeks later, he gave an interview to a local newspaper where he explained that he had been warned to stop by three men in dark suits. Perhaps this story is total fiction, and the MiB decided to base themselves around an existing bit of lore? (Note from Phil: Could be! ;-)

Danny Wiese of El Cajon CA: I thought this was a very good movie it was very funny, I really like the scene in the NYPD intergation room when K asks Edwards if he said anything to him and Edward replyed: "yea, he said something about the world coming to an end" then K said: "Did he say when?" And the test scene was priceless. I read the book and they had an extra scene that I thought was very funny, when J got his finger prints erased he looked at his hands and his said: "Hey, you shorted my life line." the K replied: "That's not all, don't be suprised next time you take a leak." "WHAT?!" "Just kidding."

Is it just me or did that HUGH speaker thing in the hallway of MiB headquarters give anybody else a headache.

In the locker room at MiB headquarters the lockers have name plates with just one letter, yet in the credits they have name of Jay and Kay.

8/18/97 Update

Philip McGachey of Scotland, UK: Only just seen the film now in the UK, and I think I may have picked up on something you have missed. When K is spying on his One True Love, there are three radio buttons below the image. One of these is darkened, the one marked "infra red". Infra red radiation is heat, but the picture was definately NOT the type of picture taken by an IR cammera. It should be made up of different colours for different levels of heat.

8/25/97 Update

Brad Higgins: Just saw it last night and what a lot of fun! hard to nitpcik, and all the ones I had are already taken. I do have a few observations though. The "Galaxy" device reminded me alot of the Tox Uthat device in the TNG episode "Captain's Holiday". Also, the little alien in the one guy's head reminded me of a book called "Bill the Galactic Hero" (I think it was written by Harry Harrison) that featured a race of aliens called Chingers who used human robots controlled by a tiny Chinger inside the robot's head.

Brent Kolitz of Tampa, Florida: I must be one of the last people to see this great movie, and after poring over 30+ pages of nits, I was surprised that no one beat me to mine: When K drives the Ford upside down through the tunnel, J is comically shown struggling to get back in his seat because he was not seatbelted in. As I've seen on the Discovery channel, superfast race cars (Formula 1? -- whatever) are engineered to produce enough downforce to keep them planted on the ground, rather than taking off like a plane. At fast speeds, these cars actually can travel on the roof of a tunnel. This downforce, of course, would keep J firmly planted in his seat, and there's no way he would fall into the ceiling of the car. But that wouldn't be nearly as funny.

(Note from Phil: Um . . . I think we're talking about two different forces here. Race cars are aerodynamically designed to keep the tires on the pavement due to the force of the air rushing over the car. Even if the car is held to the roof aerodynamically, gravity will still be in effect. Since Jay is inside the car and not being shoved around by the air, he would fall to the ceiling.

If you would like to add some comments, drop me a note at chief@nitcentral.com. Please put "Men In Black" in the Subject line and include your real name, city and state (or province and county as the case may be) in the body of the e-mail so I can give you credit if you are the first person to bring up a particular nit. (Remember the legalese: Everything you submit becomes mine and you grant me the right to use your name in any future publication by me. I will do my best to give you credit if you are the first person to submit a particular nit but I make no guarantees. And finally, due to the volume of mail received at Nitpicker Central, your submission may or may not be acknowledged. However, your submission will earn you a membership in the Nitpickers Guild if you are not already a member!)

Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All Rights Reserved.