Can someone explain the "dogfight" scene?

Question

The way I understood the "dogfight" scene in Green Lantern was that Ferris wanted to "put on a show" in order to get a contract with the military. Carl decided to use his two best pilots to then, basically lose against the drones on purpose? If this is the case, I would assume Carol (specifically), and Hal would both be aware that they are to lose, and Hal being Hal (egocentric, etc) decides to demolish the drones. I assume that he does this in order to show off, or to show that the drones' "ceilings" need to be raised.

So, why does Carol warn him ahead of time that the drones are impossible to beat, and that she has been "smoked" by them all week? Wouldn't it have made more sense to have her say, "Look, put on a good show. Make it look believable." (Or something along those lines) instead, they have her give Hal this warning as if he's actually supposed to try and destroy them.

Answer 1

The purpose of the exercise is to show the capabilities of the drones against the fighter jets of modern technology. So the two pilots are brought in to showcase the capabilities of the drones. The purpose is evasion - how well the drones can evade any competent attack formation. The pilots were to team up and try to take down the drones. It was not just putting on a show but a real and live demonstration of how the drones were superior. They were not asked to lose - they were asked to demonstrate a superior technology.

So when Carol and Hal were practicing with the drones, they pretty much knew how superior the drone technology was. They knew what features of the drones they had to present, what actions to follow. So when Hal deviates from the plan and actually tries again to take down the drones, Carol reminds him that during the practice she had tried too - and had been consistently unsuccessful.

Hal wasn't supposed to destroy them for certain, he was merely supposed to demonstrate their ability and advanced technology.

Answer 2

While I understand the answer given, I also totally agree with your question. The movie suffers from a severe consistency problem. It seems that the writing of the screenplay was full of points that constantly contradict themselves. (The Guardians agreeing to make the yellow ring when they should know full well what could possibly happen. Ferris using his own test pilots for this demonstration. Those are just a couple.)

Carol doesn't warn Hal about how unbeatable the drones are during or after practice. She warns him right before the demonstration even begins, which does give a person watching the film the idea that they are actually supposed to try and beat the drones... which she then nails Hal for afterwards. Why tell him how difficult they are to beat if she doesn't really expect him to try and beat them? Ferris wanted to show the military what his drones could do... at the same time, he would be making his own pilots fight against their own company. I'm not sure that a company like Ferris would really do something like that. Maybe they would. Either way, it certainly makes this scene very confusing.