Question: How is it Sil managed to cut off the woman's thumb since garden shears are not strong enough to cut bones?
Species (1995)
1 question since 19 Apr '25, 20:15
Directed by: Roger Donaldson
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Forest Whitaker, Alfred Molina, Michael Madsen, Natasha Henstridge, Marg Helgenberger
Character mistake: Fitch, who professes qualifications in biology, genetics and biochemistry, says that they made Sil female because she's a natural predator and so she'd be more docile. In almost every species of predator on earth the females are the hunters, aggressors and killers. The males may be socially dominant but they are the 'docile' ones. There are exceptions but Fitch speaks as if female and docile are the same thing - and they definitely are not.
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Suggested correction: This entry is so wrong, I don't quite know where to begin. The idea that all species, without exception, have the females as the aggressors and the males as docile is absolutely one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read. It is not backed up by fact in the slightest. They also did use human DNA; they added the sample of alien DNA to it to create Sil.
The posting states that there are exceptions to the rule and specifically states "almost every species." The mistake is not that a female must be "docile". It is that a scientist professing qualifications in biology, genetics, and biochemistry would make such a stupid statement, believing it to be invariably true.
Suggested correction: They never said Sil was a natural predator when they created her. She was half human and half alien and it was their belief that human females are more docile (i.e. more motherly, more gentle, more empathetic, and less aggressive than human males). Although the reply to "more docile and controllable" was "you guys don't get out much", meaning that girls aren't that docile and controllable.
Preston Lennox: No one ever asked me to find anything they didn't want dead.
Dan Smithson, Empath: I feel sorry for you.
Preston Lennox: Yeah? That's great. I feel sorry for her.
Trivia: Creature designer H.R. Giger personally financed the "nightmare train" sequence after the studio refused to fund it due to its high cost and short length. It reportedly cost him nearly $100,000 between paying for the props, the filmstock, the effects and the camera crew.
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Answer: You could probably make a compelling argument that, as an alien-hybrid, Sil is stronger than a normal person and thus was just able to forcibly cut through the finger with the pruners by "crushing" it. Also, this is where good old suspension of disbelief comes in. The pruners might realistically have broken at some point, but it's a movie, so we can "forgive" this bit of unrealism because it creates a compelling scene.
TedStixon