Turbulence

I love watching movies where you can get lost in the magic of the story. A film so entertaining, you completely lose sight of whether these events could (or would) actually happen in real life. I sometimes struggle hush the "well... that's not accurate" thoughts in my head during a movie, and to ignore obvious plot holes. I think the more you know about the subject, the harder it is to get lost in the story as you know the subject too well to overlook the unrealistic aspects.

Last night I watched The Hunt For Red October again. It's one of my favorites. Having spent nearly my entire career working for the Navy, and having spent several years working with submarines, I find it to be really easy to get lost in the story. The plot is believable, the dialog is realistic, the uniforms and ranks are correct (it's amazing how many movies mess that up), and the sets seem authentic. I'm sure someone who served aboard submarines would notice more inaccuracies. I mean sure, it's a mystery how the CO of the Dallas is able to communicate to a Russian in Morse Code. I assume Capt Ramias has to not only know english Morse code, but also then be able to translate it to Russian? It also seems odd that the CO of the Dallas would bring his Sonar Tech to board the Red October, but not his Master at Arms? That is pretty hard to explain.

But all of these are small details, and can be overlooked. What can't be overlooked is this scene at the beginning of the film.

Yes, that is Jack Ryan explaining to a flight attendant the concept of turbulence. It clouds the whole movie for me, as I spend the whole rest of the film trying to figure how a flight attendant has never heard of turbulence. Given the realism of the rest of the film, I have to take this to mean that turbulence wasn't generally known of when this film was released in 1990. If I went back in time to 1989, would anyone know what turbulence is? From watching The Hunt for Red October, I have to suspect that they would not.

Now I can only explain how a flight attendant would not know of turbulence with three theories.

1) When the movie was released in 1990 the concept of turbulence was known of, but no one knew the technical name for it (not even flight attendants) and it is understandable that a flight attendant would not have known the technical name for turbulence until the name is explained by Jack Ryan. Through the popularity of the film, the general public came to learn the technical name for turbulence.

2) Prior to 1990 the concept of turbulence was completely unknown by the general public and even those in the aviation industry. Plane turbulence was considered to just be the plane shaking or strong wind.

3) This is something that is unique to the fictional "Ryanverse". The general public has always known of turbulence and the name for it long before 1990, and if I went back in time to 1989 everyone would know what turbulence is. The fictional universe of Jack Ryan is an exact mirror of our universe with two exceptions, a) it contains Jack Ryan and b) no one has heard of turbulence.

Now, I suppose there is another angle to this. The film was released in 1990, but was actually set in 1985, so in theory the concept or name of turbulence could be so new to the general public, that this is a device to give realism the the viewer that the film is actually set back in 1985. It would be similar to a film that released today but set in 2005 referencing that no one knows what a "Bucket List" is, since that term didn't exist prior to the release of the 2008 film The Bucket List. But even if that's the case, I must ask... did no one (including flight attendants) know about turbulence in 1985?