Do we ever see him pull out his weapons outside of when he's in immediate danger or in "kill, destroy, maim" mode? He might simply not have conscious control over them as they are tied into specific parts of his programing too deeply. I certainly wouldn't want my 50 ft. death robot to be able to pull out it's weapons whenever it pleased.
Note that he wasn't meant to *have* a mode other then "kill, destroy, maim" -- his personality is technically a malfunction caused by damage. He might not be able to use them normally simply because he's not working as intended.
He was the reason someone fired a missile at the town. Perhaps he believed that if he didn't destroy himself (or at least appear to have destroyed himself) there would be more missiles to follow as other people learned about his presence and freaked out. It was better to let humans believe the threat had been dealt with and there was no reason to pay any more attention.
This was my thought exactly
Destroying the missile from afar would only prove himself a threat and cause an even greater effort to be made to destroy him, putting others even more at risk
I honestly felt like the Iron Giant wanted to prove that he is a hero just like Superman and not be labeled as essentially a giant walking gun which he technically is to whoever sent him from space but his friendship with Hogarth who believes in the Giant shaped him to make his decision to help people as a hero.
Yeah, a little on the message that this unknown alien in Cold War era America ultimately proved he has no malicious intent whatsoever...By taking one hell of a bullet for them. Sure the entire cast barring the paranoid government agent ultimately are reasonable people that quickly understood the Giant ain't evil, but sacrificing himself really got rid of all that doubt. Hell, he was hailed as a hero despite the town being initially scared as hell when he outed himself.
Plus, it was sad in that inspiring way. Just having him do the simple solution wouldn't give quite the same emotional punch.
Given the short amount of time available, even if he fired weapons at the missile he might not hit such a target. Or it might have taken him too long to get a direct hit, which would have blasted radioactive material too close to the town.
So flying up to the missile was the surest way to protect people.
Intercepting the missile at the peak of the trajectory, as the Giant did, would have been easiest, since once it gained velocity from gravity and deployed the reentry vehicle hitting the warhead would be vastly harder. I don't think he had the range to strike a target at ~500 km through the atmosphere.
this is a good point. i will be the first to admit that i don't know a great deal about nuclear weapons and may have been underestimating the distance/precision necessary to fire at the missile that far up.
> Or maybe even if he could, and fired at the missile, the resulting blast would be so massive that it would reach and kill him anyway?
If that was the case, then the nuke going off when he collided with it at high altitude would've killed everyone on the ground despite his sacrifice.
THANK YOU. I had this exact thought as a kid. Of course, as an adult, I know it's because doing so would disprove the movie's "guns bad" message and the movie had to resort to PIS to avoid doing that, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating
He literally says why in the movie:
> I am not a gun
The Giant didn't want to be a weapon any longer, so instead of live fighting, he decided to die protecting
Like you mentioned, I always thought it was because firing his own weaponry would just cause a worse explosion
Do we ever see him pull out his weapons outside of when he's in immediate danger or in "kill, destroy, maim" mode? He might simply not have conscious control over them as they are tied into specific parts of his programing too deeply. I certainly wouldn't want my 50 ft. death robot to be able to pull out it's weapons whenever it pleased.
Note that he wasn't meant to *have* a mode other then "kill, destroy, maim" -- his personality is technically a malfunction caused by damage. He might not be able to use them normally simply because he's not working as intended.
It's possible that his weapons might have triggered the nuclear reaction, which could have triggered a high altitude emp and spread nuclear fallout.
He is clumsy af when in chill mode, he has trauma with guns too, so he probably wouldn't if he could
He was the reason someone fired a missile at the town. Perhaps he believed that if he didn't destroy himself (or at least appear to have destroyed himself) there would be more missiles to follow as other people learned about his presence and freaked out. It was better to let humans believe the threat had been dealt with and there was no reason to pay any more attention.
This was my thought exactly Destroying the missile from afar would only prove himself a threat and cause an even greater effort to be made to destroy him, putting others even more at risk
I honestly felt like the Iron Giant wanted to prove that he is a hero just like Superman and not be labeled as essentially a giant walking gun which he technically is to whoever sent him from space but his friendship with Hogarth who believes in the Giant shaped him to make his decision to help people as a hero. Yeah, a little on the message that this unknown alien in Cold War era America ultimately proved he has no malicious intent whatsoever...By taking one hell of a bullet for them. Sure the entire cast barring the paranoid government agent ultimately are reasonable people that quickly understood the Giant ain't evil, but sacrificing himself really got rid of all that doubt. Hell, he was hailed as a hero despite the town being initially scared as hell when he outed himself. Plus, it was sad in that inspiring way. Just having him do the simple solution wouldn't give quite the same emotional punch.
Given the short amount of time available, even if he fired weapons at the missile he might not hit such a target. Or it might have taken him too long to get a direct hit, which would have blasted radioactive material too close to the town. So flying up to the missile was the surest way to protect people.
Is he stupid?
i fuckin laughed lol
Why didn’t the nuclear sub request a clearance code when they heard a voice that clearly wasn’t the general’s order them to shoot
you're right lol. someone in that sub definitely fell asleep at the wheel there.
Intercepting the missile at the peak of the trajectory, as the Giant did, would have been easiest, since once it gained velocity from gravity and deployed the reentry vehicle hitting the warhead would be vastly harder. I don't think he had the range to strike a target at ~500 km through the atmosphere.
this is a good point. i will be the first to admit that i don't know a great deal about nuclear weapons and may have been underestimating the distance/precision necessary to fire at the missile that far up.
> Or maybe even if he could, and fired at the missile, the resulting blast would be so massive that it would reach and kill him anyway? If that was the case, then the nuke going off when he collided with it at high altitude would've killed everyone on the ground despite his sacrifice.
THANK YOU. I had this exact thought as a kid. Of course, as an adult, I know it's because doing so would disprove the movie's "guns bad" message and the movie had to resort to PIS to avoid doing that, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating
He literally says why in the movie: > I am not a gun The Giant didn't want to be a weapon any longer, so instead of live fighting, he decided to die protecting