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.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS