Some of the Britain’s brightest minds have resolved one of the country’s biggest cinematic cliffhangers: How the robbers could have got away with the gold at the end of The Italian Job.
The 1969 film ends with the robbers’ bus teetering over the edge of an Alpine road, with their loot — and their lives — in doubt.
On Friday the Royal Society of Chemistry offered fans a little closure, announcing the winner of a competition to find a scientific solution to their predicament.
“Like many people, I watched the film from when I was a young boy,” said John Godwin, the winner. “It’s one of those classic British films, with great actors — Michael Caine, Noel Coward, Benny Hill — and a great car chase, and at the end of the day they’ve done all the hard work and it seemed a waste to leave them hanging on that mountainside.”
The Italian Job follows Charlie Croker, played by Caine, as he assembles a team of crooks to steal a stash of gold in Turin, Italy. The ensuing car chase, which cuts across the rooftop test track of Fiat’s Lingotto building and down the steps of the Gran Madre di Dio church, ranks among the most gripping in movie history.
But things end badly when the gang’s getaway bus slides halfway off a mountain road on its way to Switzerland. The bus seesaws precariously, with the men gathered at the front and the gold weighing down the back, which is hanging over the cliff. A wrong move could send the bus tumbling into the chasm below, but Croker says: “Hang on a minute lads — I’ve got a great idea.” Then the credits roll.
Royal Society of Chemistry chief executive Richard Pike said the competition was aimed at “promoting science and chemistry to a wider audience in an entertaining way,” adding that some 2,000 people had tried their hand at extricating Croker’s gang.
Godwin said his fix took him an afternoon to work out: Break the windows at the back to reduce weight. Then break two windows at the front, hold one man upside down out of the window to deflate the front tires and stabilize the vehicle. Drain the fuel tank through an access panel at the bottom of the bus. The gang leaves one by one from the front, collecting stones to replace their weight. Then keep adding stones until someone can safely go to the rear to retrieve the gold.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS