Questions about Noah (spoilers, if you haven't seen the movie)

[Scarface32]

I finally got around to seeing Noah, and I have a few questions about it. The movie itself seems to have plot holes and other oddities that just don't make sense.


1) The movie mentions that Adam and Eve had three sons. No mention of daughters, so where do the other women in the movie come from?

2) If the Fallen Angels are made out of light, why do they need skeletons? They are shown to have them in the movie.

3) When they become the Watchers, how come their stone bodies are thrice the size of their angel bodies?

4) Why does Emma Watson have such a big scar on her stomach? I don't recall her being wounded that badly in her youth.

5) Why was the task of building an ark dependent on the interpretation of a dream? What if Noah interpreted the dream incorrectly, and doesn't build the ark and everything dies? Isn't that kind of a foolish thing to risk, why didn't the Creator just tell Noah in a straightforward way? This is the dumbest plot hole of the movie.

6) How the heck did that mob of people throw the calf so high up in the air?

7) If Anthony Hopkins has healing powers, how come the only one he heals is Watson?

8) Why is Noah a dick to that girl, he pulls his son away but lets her die via the mob trampling all over her body. Isn't he supposed to be the "good guy" in this movie?

9) If the Angels aren't supposed to return home, why are they disobeying half way through the movie? They're all like "screw you guy, I'm going home" — I guess they've seen one too many episodes of South Park or something...

10) Why didn't Hopkins board the ark? He cared more about finding and eating berries, than he did his own life.

11) How come after the ark sets sail, there's another hour of this movie? Isn't the whole point of the movie to set sail, they did that, wrap it up already.

12) Why is Noah so stupid as to think that when back on dry land, he and his family must die but the animals get to live? He build the ark, why wouldn't he thinks that entitles him to life? Noah is such a dimwit in this movie.

13) How did Noah know how to make wine if he never had grapes before the new island, and why did he get naked when drunk?

14) Again, Noah is stupid. Emma Watson had to explain his true task, why couldn't Noah figure this stuff out on his own? His dumbass thought his task was to kill all the humans, she knew his task was to make a choice. This all goes back to #5, why wasn't he just told straightforward what to do? Noah is such an idiot.

15) The snake skin has no magic powers, it's just symbolic, so why is it so important to the movie? It's really not. Just because it came from Eden, doesn't make it special.

[Tony208]

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by Tony208

I felt just like that gif, watching this movie. I expected better from the guy that directed Requiem for a Dream.

[AaronJ]

Oh boy.

Where's the popcorn GIF?

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

Oh boy.

Where's the popcorn GIF?

And the movie made even less sense than Jupiter Ascending.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

And the movie made even less sense than Jupiter Ascending.

Honestly, two simple ideas could answer most, if not all of your questions.

1) Noah is NOT "the good guy." He is the protagonist, yes. But he is as far from a "good guy" as you could get.

2) It's a representational story. It's not meant to be taken literally. Once you begin to question things like, "How did this happen?" the ENTIRE THING comes apart. It's a metaphorical expression of aspects of the human experience, and how humanity relates not only to the Universe he inhabits, but to the concept of a deity, and man's relationship with this deity.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

1) The movie mentions that Adam and Eve had three sons. No mention of daughters, so where do the other women in the movie come from?

Cain, Abel, and Seth are the three children listed by name in Genesis. However, the Bible does say that they had "other sons and daughters." The movie just didn't explain that. Do'h.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

2) If the Fallen Angels are made out of light, why do they need skeletons? They are shown to have them in the movie.

I don't remember them having skeletons in their "light" form, but once they were banished, they became corporeal and were bound to the natural laws of physics. Hence, they needed skeletons and a mortal body, and couldn't return to their light form until they find redemption in some way.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

3) When they become the Watchers, how come their stone bodies are thrice the size of their angel bodies?

Dunno. I guess they hulked out.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

4) Why does Emma Watson have such a big scar on her stomach? I don't recall her being wounded that badly in her youth.

I don't remember now. Didn't she have a problem with her reproductive system or something? The film might not have shown her getting stabbed, but she must have sometime in her youth (off-screen). I just don't remember right now.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

5) Why was the task of building an ark dependent on the interpretation of a dream? What if Noah interpreted the dream incorrectly, and doesn't build the ark and everything dies? Isn't that kind of a foolish thing to risk, why didn't the Creator just tell Noah in a straightforward way? This is the dumbest plot hole of the movie.

In the Bible, God told Noah directly to build the ark. The movie translates this direct communication to the form of dreams and visions. I'm sure it jives with Aronofsky's view of things - the man is an atheist, as I recall - and is thus the artist's interpretation. It's a far less literal view of the Bible and far more naturalist. Aronofsky took the stance that God is not some guy in white who beams down and has a dialogue with Noah; the dreams and visions express the message in a more subtle, natural way.

I hope I don't ignite a religious debate, but I personally find this interpretation more agreeable. I don't believe God speaks to anyone with an actual voice; I'm more willing to believe that He gives subtle signs, and possibly visions, in a more abstract matter that we have to make sense of on our own. Even Jesus couldn't get a straight answer from God sometimes; for all the prophets and holy men, it boiled down to their faith.

Noah's devotion to God was strong, but he lost faith in humanity, and became blind to any idea that God actually loved His children. It warped him and perverted his purpose. Just like any number of other people - including some people today - think it's okay to kill and hurt others in God's name, even though they're blatantly misinterpreting scripture.

Please keep in mind that those are only my personal thoughts and beliefs; there are likely others who think the movie is pure crap because of the non-literal interpretation of God.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

6) How the heck did that mob of people throw the calf so high up in the air?

Their combined strength added up to a super-duper throw.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

7) If Anthony Hopkins has healing powers, how come the only one he heals is Watson?

Who else needed healing?

The one girl was trampled by a mob; Noah wasn't going back for her, and he wouldn't let Ham. It's not like Methuselah could have helped her in spite of all that. Umm...who else was hurt?

Originally Posted by Scarface32

8) Why is Noah a dick to that girl, he pulls his son away but lets her die via the mob trampling all over her body. Isn't he supposed to be the "good guy" in this movie?

He sure as heck isn't a good guy in this movie.

For the whole duration, Noah is of the belief that God's vengeance is upon mankind, and all men (including him and his family) must die in order for Earth and all other forms of creation to be reborn. He was willing to sacrifice his own family for what he deeply believed was God's will. It basically turned him into a fanatic, like so many other people in history trying to figure out what God wants from them...

Originally Posted by Scarface32

9) If the Angels aren't supposed to return home, why are they disobeying half way through the movie? They're all like "screw you guy, I'm going home" — I guess they've seen one too many episodes of South Park or something...

What do you mean? They built and defended the ark, and proved their worth to heaven. God plucked them up out of the battle because they were worthy to return home. It probably could have happened when the battle ended, but then the watchers might have died/drowned before being saved.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

10) Why didn't Hopkins board the ark? He cared more about finding and eating berries, than he did his own life.

I believe he was willing to die. Dude was like 900 years old or something; he embraced his fate willingly and thrust his life into God's hands, instead of suffering the flood further.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

11) How come after the ark sets sail, there's another hour of this movie? Isn't the whole point of the movie to set sail, they did that, wrap it up already.

It's starting to sound like you made up this list of questions while you were watching the thing. Just keep watching, you'll see.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

12) Why is Noah so stupid as to think that when back on dry land, he and his family must die but the animals get to live? He build the ark, why wouldn't he thinks that entitles him to life? Noah is such a dimwit in this movie.

See answer above: he was under the belief that God wanted him and all other human beings dead. He believed that God wanted him to build the ark and save other creatures, but not mankind. How was the man to know otherwise, given his experiences with warring tribes and such?

Originally Posted by Scarface32

13) How did Noah know how to make wine if he never had grapes before the new island, and why did he get naked when drunk?

See Genesis, Chapter 9, Verse 20.

In the original book, Noah built himself a vineyard and got wasted. Like everything else in the Good Book, no further details are disclosed.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

14) Again, Noah is stupid. Emma Watson had to explain his true task, why couldn't Noah figure this stuff out on his own?

Like I said, misinterpretation.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

His dumbass thought his task was to kill all the humans, she knew his task was to make a choice. This all goes back to #5, why wasn't he just told straightforward what to do? Noah is such an idiot.

Because God has given us all free will, and part of the responsibility of having free will is to look at the signs God gives us and take action the way we interpret them. Thus, they become tests, and everybody gets tested by God one way or another. In the film, Noah was so willing to sacrifice in God's name (in a manner not too dissimilar to Abraham), but his love won out in the end, he passed his tests of faith in his own way and was rewarded with rainbows.

In Genesis, Noah pretty much just did what God told him to do and was rewarded all the same. Wouldn't make for much of a dramatic movie.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

15) The snake skin has no magic powers, it's just symbolic, so why is it so important to the movie?

It's not just any snake, man, it's the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve and brought original sin on all of us. In one respect, the film could be saying that original sin will continue to be passed on through all people until the end of time. Or, it could be saying that a part of Eden and the potential for good exists in everybody.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

It's really not. Just because it came from Eden, doesn't make it special.

I take it you've never played Assassin's Creed before...

Originally Posted by Scarface32

So it's kinda like the "Fast & Furious" movies... don't figure it out, just enjoy it?

Gotcha.

Hahahahahahaaaaa......no. There's nothing metaphorical or interpretive about F&F, they're just plain stupid. If it's meditative expressions and metaphors you crave, you'd want to look for movies like The Fountain, Tree of Life, or my personal favorite, Koyaanisqatsi. Noah is most comparable to The Fountain, at best.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

True, but in every movie version I've seen; from the Tony Danza one to the Evan Almighty movie, Noah is always told what to do. He doesn't have to interpret a dream (and get it WAY wrong). That's the huge plot hole this movie had.

Wouldn't call it a plot hole if it's done on purpose to hinge all the movie's pathology on it.

But I do think just having it is the big issue that makes Noah unlikable as a person and as a film overall.

[jscoggins]

All of Al's answers should've been obvious to an adult.

[Scarface32]

You can see a spine and ribcage. This is the scene right before they descend to Earth, when they are floating above it.

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

You can see a spine and ribcage.

As Al just explained, Aronofsky is not a literalist. You're being way too literal, applying a human understanding of biology to beings prior to assuming corporeal form.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by jscoggins

As Al just explained, Aronofsky is not a literalist. You're being way too literal, applying a human understanding of biology to beings prior to assuming corporeal form.

Exactly.

And with that, I'm outta here. I can't go through all this again.

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by jscoggins

As Al just explained, Aronofsky is not a literalist. You're being way too literal, applying a human understanding of biology to beings prior to assuming corporeal form.

I swear it's a spine and ribcage. Trace the white areas within the yellow glow.

Anyway, I've been up too late as it is, I'm going to bed.

[Randall Flagg]

The movie lost me when Noah let the girl died.

[unsung122212]

I think that main to understand is that this story isn't the Noah story from the Christian Bible. There was more scriptures to look besides what is found in the old testament. Different interpretations from thousands of years of the event that had occurred.

The Noah in this film is more conflicted on his task. His morality was tested by God by the dreams and the not so definitive messages of God's will. God gave us free will, and we need to make our choice on what we do. For God to just tell us would, in a way, take away some of our free will. Also, the task that God gave Noah was our humanities test of whether or not they would live past the cleansing of evil in the world. If God just told Noah what to do, then that would defeat the purpose of the test that God was giving Noah.

Throughout the film, we see Noah's conflict of the knowing the great flood was coming, that innocent people/children lives would be killed. Noah's ability to see the evil in man made Noah see humans as not being worthy to live by the time the flood happens and his family was there to make sure the animals survived the flood. He probably already feels guilty for letting innocent people/children die when he could have probably saved some of them, but didn't. It wasn't until Emma's character reminds him that he still has the choice to be good and show mercy. That she being able to have a child when she was stabbed and left to die when her family was killed by raiders and Noah found her was a miracle and another sign, even it if came from his father (or grandfather). Which is why he is drunk on the beach from the guilt of what he did. I don't think there is much on what happened on the arc in the bible, and an explanation to why Noah was drunk after the events of flood. The scenes of what happen on the arc was Aronofsky version that also was meant to give more drama as well.

This may not be the black/white version people are used to, but it is important since God doesn't give us clear messages even today. Everything is still left to interpretation and why would that have been different for Noah when he was tasked with the test that would decided humanities fate.

[jscoggins]

Excellent post!

[JamesBenjamin]

When they first find Emma Watson (as a girl when she's played by a little kid) she's clearly injured in her belly. Thats why they save her, she's the last of the village and was going to die. They nurse her back to life and then when she's Emma Watson again there are at least two references to her being barren. Thor's dad doesn't "heal" her per say, he makes her not barren anymore (and by that I mean she wasn't "sick" or "injured" as her injuries had healed up 10 years prior, he repaired the internal damage that kept her from making babies).

As to why Thor's dad didn't come on the boat: he's old, like 600 years old. He doesn't want to. He's nearly dead by the time the Ark is complete. He was laying there weak when Noah's wife came to see him.

Also: I thought the snakeskin was magical, I assumed it kept the person using it alive for longer than normal.

And the wine: Wine existed before the flood! Why wouldn't Noah know how to make it? Hell I know the basics: squish fruit, put in open air container in dark, cool place, wait. That's like seeing a movie that's set in the 1960s that starts in a park and then they walk to their car and they drive home and you go "OMG WHERE DID THEY GET A CAR! THE MOVIE WAS IN A PARK! THAT'S NOT REAL!"

I can't believe you didn't pull the biggest one: Ham and the little brother are going to have to bone their nieces to make more humans! At least in the Noah story he sends each of the sons out in a different direction to find women they'll marry.

I mean, its an arty movie about a story that's 6,000 years old and has been told in many ways by many cultures, almost always including a guy who's been chosen by a god to save himself and all the critters of the world by building a giant boat. Also a movie can't include all the details that a book might. I would assume during the ten year flash forward god gave Noah more detailed instructions as time went on.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

You can see a spine and ribcage. This is the scene right before they descend to Earth, when they are floating above it.

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

I swear it's a spine and ribcage. Trace the white areas within the yellow glow.

Anyway, I've been up too late as it is, I'm going to bed.

At this point, we're just going to have to chalk it up to artistic/aesthetic choice. Filmmakers illustrated the nephilim this way because it looks cool and viewers will look at them and immediately recognize them as some kind of heavenly being.

If they made them to be pure beings of spirit/energy, they'd probably look like balls of light or something, like so many entities from Star Trek, but that wouldn't have much of an impact on the big screen. The science geek in me would say that the beings have a photonic structure that only looks like a skeleton.

As it is though, I'm pretty sure they're shown this way simply to give us something to show. No different than any number of other entities shown in movies; you might as well be asking why the passover was shown as a giant shadow in Exodus, or as a weird green blob in The Ten Commandments, or why everybody looked like freaks in The Passion of the Christ, or why people had painted faces in The Last Temptation of Christ. Really, you could ask these "why" questions in anything. Why was the whale glowing in Life of Pi? Why does Jar Jar Binks have big floppy ears? Why do Batman's eyes glow when he uses his cellphone radar thing? They're all for looks, for our benefit. Not sure what else needs to be said about it.

Originally Posted by unsung122212

I think that main to understand is...

[Show spoiler]that this story isn't the Noah story from the Christian Bible. There was more scriptures to look besides what is found in the old testament. Different interpretations from thousands of years of the event that had occurred.

The Noah in this film is more conflicted on his task. His morality was tested by God by the dreams and the not so definitive messages of God's will. God gave us free will, and we need to make our choice on what we do. For God to just tell us would, in a way, take away some of our free will. Also, the task that God gave Noah was our humanities test of whether or not they would live past the cleansing of evil in the world. If God just told Noah what to do, then that would defeat the purpose of the test that God was giving Noah.

Throughout the film, we see Noah's conflict of the knowing the great flood was coming, that innocent people/children lives would be killed. Noah's ability to see the evil in man made Noah see humans as not being worthy to live by the time the flood happens and his family was there to make sure the animals survived the flood. He probably already feels guilty for letting innocent people/children die when he could have probably saved some of them, but didn't. It wasn't until Emma's character reminds him that he still has the choice to be good and show mercy. That she being able to have a child when she was stabbed and left to die when her family was killed by raiders and Noah found her was a miracle and another sign, even it if came from his father (or grandfather). Which is why he is drunk on the beach from the guilt of what he did. I don't think there is much on what happened on the arc in the bible, and an explanation to why Noah was drunk after the events of flood. The scenes of what happen on the arc was Aronofsky version that also was meant to give more drama as well.

This may not be the black/white version people are used to, but it is important since God doesn't give us clear messages even today. Everything is still left to interpretation and why would that have been different for Noah when he was tasked with the test that would decided humanities fate.

This is exactly what I was thinking.

Originally Posted by JamesBenjamin

When they first find Emma Watson (as a girl when she's played by a little kid) she's clearly injured in her belly. Thats why they save her, she's the last of the village and was going to die. They nurse her back to life and then when she's Emma Watson again there are at least two references to her being barren. Thor's dad doesn't "heal" her per say, he makes her not barren anymore (and by that I mean she wasn't "sick" or "injured" as her injuries had healed up 10 years prior, he repaired the internal damage that kept her from making babies).

As to why Thor's dad didn't come on the boat: he's old, like 600 years old. He doesn't want to. He's nearly dead by the time the Ark is complete. He was laying there weak when Noah's wife came to see him.

Sounds right. Thank you for refreshing my memory.

Originally Posted by JamesBenjamin

Also: I thought the snakeskin was magical, I assumed it kept the person using it alive for longer than normal. .

That would actually explain some things.