Revealing mistake: When Marsten's men are forcing Aborigines off a cliff, Quigley shoots one man who falls over the edge with his horse. Just as the horse and rider fall over, you can briefly see the rigging used to flip the mechanical horse over the edge.
Quigley Down Under (1990)
1 revealing mistake
Directed by: Simon Wincer
Starring: Alan Rickman, Tom Selleck, Laura San Giacomo, Chris Haywood
Character mistake: In the scene where Quigley engages Marsten's men who are attacking the Aborigines, we see a man hit by a bullet and fall from his horse, then we hear the report of Quigley's rifle. When the man who gets away reports to Marsten, he estimates the range at three-quarters of a mile maybe. Marsten asks him how long after the bullet struck before he heard the report of the rifle. He answers two maybe three seconds. While this scenario would be plausible for a more modern high-powered cartridge like the .30-06, it is not accurate for the .45 2-7/8 Sharps Quigley is using. That cartridge loaded with 110 grains of black powder will propel a 540-grain bullet (best case) at around 1475 feet per second. Since the bullet is supersonic when it leaves the muzzle it will indeed precede the sound of the weapon's discharge for short distance. But not by very much and not for very long. The bullet goes transonic in about 400 yards and the the sound waves catch up to the bullet a little beyond 600 yards. After that, the rifle's report, travelling at a constant speed, gets progressively further AHEAD of the bullet which is gradually slowing. At three-quarters of a mile (1320 yards) the bullet's time of flight is about four seconds, while sound waves travel that same distance in three-and-a-half seconds. The man should have been struck at nearly the same time as, or up to half-second AFTER the report, depending on the actual range.
Matthew Quigley: Lady, you're about a half a bubble off plumb, and that's fer sure and fer certain.
Trivia: The scene where Quigley triggers a booby trap by swinging his rifle from horseback, at full gallop, whilst holding it by the tip of the barrel with one hand, was only possible because an alternate aluminum barrel was created for that scene.
Question: Why did the Aboriginal manservant hit Matthew Quigley on the head when he threw Marston out of his own house, after telling Quigley he wanted him to kill aborigines?
Answer: In fact, it was more likely that in the beginning of the film he was in more of an "Uncle Tom" (for lack of a better term) and hits him because he feels he should help his "master." He later feels bad and by the end he has come to his senses which is why he doesn't make the same mistake twice.
More like he was emboldened because his master is dead. If not Quigley would have got a second thrashing from the aborigines.
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Answer: He felt that if Quigley fought Marston he might have been killed. He hit him to save his life.
SantaJim