In the movie Point Break (2015), how could the two men survive near 800 meter drop from Venezuela's Angel Falls?
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3 Answers
Quoting from another answer I posted on surviving big falls:
People can survive really, really big falls. See this Guardian article. It is one of many which cover people who have survived miracle falls. From it:
In 1972, Vesna Vulovic, a cabin attendant, survived a 10,160m fall when the DC-9 she was in exploded over what is now the Czech Republic. Earlier this week, a 102-year-old woman survived after toppling from her fourth-floor balcony in Turin. Fortunately, her fall was broken by a children's playhouse.
According to another section of the article:
Falls can kill by inflicting damage to any number of vital organs, but the most common reason is due to a key artery's route through the body. "Most people who fall from a height die because they fracture their spine near the top and so transect the aorta which carries blood out of the heart," says Sean Hughes, professor of surgery at Imperial College, London.
So in this case, how likely is it they'd survive? Not very.
How realistic is it? Well, people have fallen from even higher and survived, so it is possible.
answered Feb 15, 2016 at 20:10
Thanks for the post. In reality, your chance of surviving a passage down a major warefall (much less one as tall and narrow as Angel Falls where the real risk is exiting the water stream into the air surrounding it) is next to nothing. Less than your chance of surviving a jump off a tall bridge into water like the Golden Gate Bridge. In some ways, the rapid and massive flow of water can cushion you, but only if you're lucky to ride it just right, almost being carried in but not on the "froth" at the top of the water. But at those heights, you could just as easily fall out of the "stream" and have the fall turn into a "splatter". Not to mention the amazingly strong currents and risk of drowning, especially in the notorious whirlpool and "back flow" area usually found at the base of major waterfalls. I don't think many people have even tried Angel Falls but the survival rate of Niagra Falls is less than 2%. Those ain't great odds...I'll pass.
Physics 101: Newtons third law of motion. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Jumping from 150 feet or higher is a 90% guarantee of fatality. Water cannot be moved out of the way fast enough and your body would impact a fluid denser than itself. The world record high dive is 192 feet. However, one suicidal teenager survived jumping off the GOlden Gate bridge, a fall of 245 feet. It is possible to survive if you land feet first like a fast projectile.
