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| From Engrish & Hanzi Smatter |
The characters on the left of the circular thing is "latitude" and "longitude" on the right. I don't know why the movie people decided to break two characters into three. It is not like they are saving any flesh space.
The characters inside of the circular part is longitude & latitude's actual coordinates.
Latitude = 27° 59' N
Longitude = 86° 56' E
Spoiler alert: it is the location of Mount Everest.
Hah! Costner only spent $150 million on the movie. You would think they could at least get a proper Chinese/Japanese tattoo as an important plot element.
ReplyDeleteBut wait a second. If you look closely, the tattoo gives the lattitude and longitude of Mt. Everest, but not the directions (N, E), so these same coordinates could match four different points on the earth!
They could be looking for a looong time, even if someone managed to read the characters!
-Alan
Alan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the tattoo lacked direction.
However the movie's plot is based on the premise that earth's sea level raised significantly due to climate change.
Since Mount Everest is the highest point on earth, therefore it would still protruding out of water.
Tian,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the tattoo lacked direction.
Tee-hee! Very clever.
I think I get the premise, but you see, if they would guess the wrong directions (S, W) instead of the right ones (N, E), they would end up at a point on the exact opposite side of the earth! There is no way they could see Everest sticking out of the water from there.
I guess they would have a one in four chance of getting to the right place.
Alan
Dances with Wolves and The Untouchables were very watchable. You just have to keep the guy away from "postapocalyptic vision of society" themes and you're largely safe.
ReplyDeletewe used to call him "Kevin Kotser" (it's a Dutch language pun... penny for the one to figure it out) ^^
ReplyDeleteanyways, considering that it be the only land, they'd just have to sail to four locations to eventually find it. Though the botched characters might be an obstacle.
we used to call him "Kevin Kotser" (it's a Dutch language pun... penny for the one to figure it out) ^^
ReplyDeleteIs kotsen the Dutch equivalent of kotzen "to vomit; to barf" in German?
If so, Kevin Kotser would be "Kevin Barfer."
-Alan
You can find out your latitude with a simple navigational tool - the sextant, and only if you know the exact day of the year/season, but finding your exact longitude is MUCH more difficult. It requires first, either a solid point of reference on the earth (the nearly-all-ocean earth provides no solid point of reference), and a very accurate clock.
ReplyDeleteWhen you're constantly floating about, how can you keep your days and time straight, because there will be "drift".
So the only useful data is the latitude, and that gives you two "bands" to search around the entire planet - one in the northern hemisphere, one in the south. And how do you know you've exhausted the search of each band? You don't because you have no idea how far you've travelled around the planet.
Despite the wackiness, I love post-apoc movies (waterworld & the postman included). Best genre ever.
Stephen has most of it right. Searching two bands of Latitude is all you could do. But, with a crappy but mostly accurate watch and the occasional chance to sight the stars at night you could easily verify that you'd gone around the globe once.
ReplyDeleteStill, not having the directions isn't nearly as dumb as having longitude and latitude coordinates tattooed on your child.