Talk:Mercury Rising

Untitled
This film was awful, but if someone were to expand this entry, they should talk about the unrealistic portrayal of autism in the film. The child was autistic, and while some autistic individuals are capable of basic math (add, subtract, multiply, divide, square roots and exponents) they are not capable of high level mathematical operations that would be used in encryption.


 * The film was great. There are autistic people who have shown amazing mathematical abilities.  It could have shown more with Simon (Mike Hughes) but the portrayal was wonderful.


 * Perhaps they were thinking along the lines of Asperger's Syndrome?-- The  i  kiro  id  ( talk/parler/hablar/paroli/说/話 ) 22:24, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

I just heard the term in the computer game Red Alert 2, where a toxin unit called Desolator says it. Has this something to do with the film or does the term have a more general meaning? My mother tongue is not English, so I can't tell.

It refers to rising temperatures (or pressures), since mercury is used on thermometers.

Plot question
Why would the boy be considered a threat rather than an asset? Surely if he can crack a government supercode, he should be recruited immediately, put into protective custody or something, and used to crack everyone else's codes. Surely that would make more sense.--80.43.60.43 20:39, 14 December 2006 (UTC)


 * That's a great point. It almost seems obvious if you know anything about intelligence. But I liked the movie for different reasons. The FBI and the NSA are creepy bedfellows anyway. They have a long history of squabbles. I liked the scene where Bruce Willis was demoted at his new job "listening in" with that old school reel to reel tape player while the NSA was using mainframe computers and an underground base. There's also one point of the movie where the bad Alec Baldwin NSA guy says, "I only want to rescue the boy, from a delusional kidnapper". I'm thinking, "That's kind of not your job!" Why didn't anyone in the room say WTF?


 * The code is a McGuffin. - Kittybrewster 00:33, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

The boy is a threat to the officials at NSA who approved the supposedly unbreakable code for use (there is a scene near the beginning where they give assurances that it is secure) and whose careers are at risk if it is discovered that the code can be broken. More responsible employees of NSA would have admitted the error and possibly recruited the boy, as you suggest, though the Bruce Willis character might have found that fate objectionable as well. --agr 01:17, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Plot essential ingredients
The film touches strongly on how unprotected kids are when "grown-ups" start to have political battles. There are, of course, many unrealistic plot-details. Revision of plot description should isolate the presumptions and regard them as inevitable "necessities" for the story to unfold in the commercial film universe. Some of the scenes, especially where Bruce Willis character shows love, are unprecedentedly strong, reminding of the sixth sense where Bruce plays a child-psychologist.

The story's child character being "socially disabled" is of course of immense interest for those who have such a child in their environment, but the child is more a symbol of childrens position in our society. Exaggeration of the autistic abilities serve to emphasize the point, the message of the drama.

--d-axel (talk) 09:28, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Tell me this.
I have an autistic friend with Aspegers syndrome. He hasn't got very good intelligence and can be violent and frustrating. So how would anyone like this figure out a difficult code? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.76.52.69 (talk) 19:02, 21 January 2007 (UTC).


 * Re...I question how much you actually know about your friend's condition. I myself am 'high-functioning' Asperger's--among the luckier, if you will. First, to the best of my knowledge autism and Asperger's don't occur in the same person; however I am not a doctor and may be wrong on this count. Second, autistics and Aspergers are actually very intelligent people, at least equal to the average human; my own IQ measured at 136-plus.


 * The issue is not intellectual ability, but rather 'street smarts' - our ability to communicate with others what we are thinking or feeling. Often this a frustrating process for us, thus the violent tendencies and your own frustration. Being high-functioning I had a much easier time with this than, say, Simon would have. It's also possible to reverse or overcome the drawbacks of these conditions, as I have thanks to a loving family and accomodating educational system.


 * Now to answer your question: there is such a thing as an "autistic savant"--Wikipedia has an article by this title you can read for yourself; I found the piece on interrupting brainwaves to induce savant skill especially interesting. Conditions like those named here can actually be conducive to incredible skill in particular fields; to cite the movie, Simon was always focused on patterns such as sounds, navigation, and numeric sequences, as well as the seemingly minute routines that got him through the day. In theory, he didn't deliberately decipher the code; the patterns involved jumped out to his mind and he followed them to the solution. (Even the most complicated math is based on fundamentals.)


 * I hope this helped to answer some of your questions. Say hi to your friend for me. -Signed, D. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)
 * Hear, hear. I too am "high-functioning AS". Also, AS is an Autistic Spectrum Disorder, so it is a kind of autism, just a mild one. I, luckily, have no violent tendencies. This morning I received some astoundingly good exam results - and the special AS schools said they wouldn't dream of trying to put their pupils through public exams! Certainly, it is unfair to write off someone with enormous problems as being unintelligent. Look at Stephen Hawking - OK, so his disability is very different, but so what? He is practically crippled, yet has one of the greatest minds in the world. Don't write us 'problematic' people off! --Voxpuppet 06:58, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Question BTW
Agent Jordan has ASAC as a title (seen at his desk). What's the meaning? -- Scriberius 20:08, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Just some things I noticed
-The name Simon: Could it have been derived from the pattern game "Simon" (intentionally or otherwise)?

-The movie title: "Mercury Rising" could refer to temperatures, but I don't think this is common terminology. A more likely candidate might be astrology, referring to the planet Mercury in ascension; Mercury is associated with "communication, intellect, and awareness" (Astrology.com) and would befit the story in general.

Signed, D. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)

ANENT THE NAME: "MERCURY RISING"

Indeed, the herein articles needs to go into the filmname's background or lack thereof, beyond the following qoute:

"A cryptographic code called "Mercury" was created by the National Security Agency and is allegedly so complex that its creators believe no computer on Earth can decipher it. Originally it was created during the Reagan Administration as a test to keep the United States' highest priority secrets under wraps" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.5.237.140 (talk) 02:22, 21 March 2018 (UTC)