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In Agent Carter Season 2 Episode 8: The Edge of Mystery, as Sousa is trying to aim the gamma ray cannon at the rift Whitney Frost has created, Samberly comments that the ray cannot be aimed directly at the target, because it shoots in a "parabolic arc." Sousa grumpily replies that he is aware of this, and seemingly adjusts the aim of the cannon for this.

However, seconds later, they fire the cannon and it fires in a completely straight line, right from the cannon to the rift.

What was the point of all that if the cannon fires straight? Why would Samberly claim that it shoots in a parabolic arc, and why did Sousa adjusting for that not make the aim miss?

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  • It's hard to say from the few glimpses we get of the beam that it's not a parabola...albeit just a flatish one. The rift is only about 30 feet off the ground. – Paulie_D Dec 17 '16 at 13:20
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Distance is important aiming a weapon that's affected by gravity. Most common weapons have a parabolic arc to it, if aimed to compensate for gravity. Guns, mortars, rockets, rocks, Baseballs, etc.

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Shooting something 30 feet away likely does not require much correction.

Shooting something 100 feet away would. Also something that has an object blocking it. Mortars are great at avoiding middle man walls.

While mortars are intended to be shot up and around, that can be used to fire directly too.

That said, it's also obviously a goof by the special effects team, making it look like a flat laser beam. Since SFX is added in after scripting, storyboarding, filming and voice recording, that's the only obvious source of the mistake.

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