Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

Watched The Towering Inferno last night. 

Steve McQueen played the Fire Chief, when actually, he was originally slated to play the architect. But, he wisely insisted that they let Paul Newman be the architect; he (McQueen) was going to be the fireman, the real hero of the story.

And, you gotta hand it to them; they really tried to make it authentic. McQueen trained with real firemen. And a real major fire broke out across town during the making of the movie. And they let Steve McQueen go along and fight the fire alongside the real firemen. I wonder if they would let you or I do that. Probably not.

And, of course, they had real firemen advising them about the fire every step of the way to make it look real.

But, at the end, you see the charred, skeletal remains of the building through a major part of its form, but there was no collapse. The building did not collapse. 

Of course, this was fiction, but nevertheless, I wonder if the issue of collapse ever came up. I wonder if they ever had this conversation:

"You know, if you really want to do this right, you need to have the building collapse."

"You mean, fall over?"

"No. Collapse. Straight down." 

"You mean, in the part that was burning, right?"

"No. The whole building. Top to bottom. Everything."

"You mean, including the part that wasn't burning?"

"That's right. A complete collapse, where it just falls straight down, into its own footprint; the whole thing; like an elevator going down; a free fall; a complete, symmetrical, gravitational collapse."

"Really? Are you sure? When has that ever happened?"

"Well, I can't tell you when it's happened, per se.

"Per se? It has never happened like that. Steel-framed skyscrapers have never fallen like that... ever. In the history of Man. So, what would make it fall like that?" 

"Office fires, Man! God-damn it, McQueen! You're fuckin' actor! So, stick to memorizing your lines, and in your spare time, you can race your cars and motorcycles, but leave the fire analysis to us."

I wonder if they ever had that conversation. Of course, the only time steel-framed high-rise buildings have ever fallen like that was on 9/11. Not before 9/11 and not since 9/11. Only 9/11. Just 9/11.

I wonder how long the official 9/11 story can stand before it collapses into its own footprint.  And, it's going down, Baby. Straight down.