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It’s the self-preservation society

Posted by putsimply on 30th October 2008

My heart was lifted this week by the news a competition that has been launched to answer a question that has long puzzled me…

Did Charlie Croker, Michael Caine’s character in the original Italian Job, manage to save the gold and his gang’s lives?

To mark the 40th anniversary of the film the Royal Society of Chemistry has launched a challenge to scientists to work out whether such a feat was possible within a 30 minute period of the back end of the bus swinging over the precipice.

His classic line which ended the film “Hang on a minute lads, I’ve got a great idea” provided one of the greatest film cliffhangers and it would be wonderful to find out whether they could have got away with it. I think this is a great use of science and I wonder if there are any other such cinematic conundrums that could be addressed in this way?

putsimply