MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night
- Thread starter JD
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Excellent question--he did ask for a call. Was that just his natural leaning on knowing his rights, or did he have someone in mind that would represent a man thought to be dead?
I think so, which means that the first group of Stormtroopers should have made a thorough search of the ship just based on it being the possession of a man who killed and/or wounded a trooper unit on Tattooine.
Presumably he intended to call a lawyer, though I guess he would've had to find one in the phone book. And it wouldn't have been necessary anyway, presuming that the cops hadn't been corrupt, since he would've gotten a court-appointed attorney.
Strictly speaking, there is no "one phone call" right; that's a conceit of fiction. What you have is the right to an attorney, and at worst, the police will arrange that on your behalf rather than letting you call them yourself. Although well-behaved arrestees are generally allowed to make as many phone calls as they need to, provided they don't abuse the privilege.
He'd naturally be wary of even the risk of discovery. It's not just the risk of people finding out that David Banner is alive -- it's the risk of finding out that he's the Hulk, and sticking him in a lab for the rest of his life, or at least putting him on trial for the murder he's suspected of (and all the damage he's done since).
Isn't this a bit selfish on his part? He is a walking bomb and every moment that he isn't in a controlled environment someone out there is in danger.
^But we've seen that a "controlled environment" can't contain him and would probably just make the Hulk madder. And by this point, he should be reasonably reassured that the Hulk is not a killer.
Ferrigno's Hulk is a big, green teddy bear. Who's in danger?
Everybody love Ferrigno
. But my point is that in the first episodes Banner couldn't be sure that the Hulk wasn't a menace. And running away like that he allowed that the person that was in part responsable for the dead of Dr. Marks (McGee) did away with it. Yes, probably it was just an accident, but you must let the Law decide about that.
Not only was it an accident, neither one of them would have had any idea what caused the explosion. Besides, that's a complete goal-post shift from your previous post:
And I'm someone who has argued here in the past that Banner's adoption of a Fugitive lifestyle was part of a pattern of recklessly impulsive behavior.
And I'm someone who has argued here in the past that Banner's adoption of a Fugitive lifestyle was part of a pattern of recklessly impulsive behavior.
It's a thing that came to my mind later, and the two points are not mutally exclusive
And from Wikipedia:
So he snuck into the lab and wandered into a place full of dangerous chemicals and caused a fire that killed a person. I'm quite sure that in some jurisdiction he could be guilty of culpable homicide.
Perhaps, but would anyone other than the viewers be able to discover that fact? Neither David nor McGee noticed the chemical spill, or they would've stopped it. And the evidence was presumably burned up in the fire. The fire was evidently assumed to be hot enough to vaporize Dr. Banner's body completely, so it must've been hot enough to destroy the rest of the forensic evidence inside the lab. So there's no way for the authorities to know that it was McGee, rather than the Hulk, who triggered the explosion.
It's a thing that came to my mind later, and the two points are not mutally exclusive
And from Wikipedia:
So he snuck into the lab and wandered into a place full of dangerous chemicals and caused a fire that killed a person. I'm quite sure that in some jurisdiction he could be guilty of culpable homicide.
Well, the police thought there was enough evidence from McGee's "Hulk kills two" eyewitness account to issue a warrant for the Hulk's capture, not to mention the father and daughter encountering the Hulk earlier added more credibility to blame the Hulk.
^Thanks everyone. It's a long time since I've seen the pilot, so I relied on wikipedia synopsis.
I don't know why, but I always had the impression that Banner felt partially responsible for the death of Dr. Marks. But for all he knew, she just died for an Hulk-unrelated accident...
I don't know why, but I always had the impression that Banner felt partially responsible for the death of Dr. Marks. But for all he knew, she just died for an Hulk-unrelated accident...
Well, he and McGee were outside the building when the fire started (just after the famous "Don't make me angry" scene). So David didn't know what caused it, but he had no reason to believe he was directly responsible for it. If David felt any culpability, it would be because they wouldn't have been at the annex lab in the first place if not for his "condition."
He might have reasonably assumed that whatever caused the explosion was the result of damage he'd done as the Hulk, but this was never established.
So why is he pretending to be dead? (I know, because otherwise we didn't have the show ) Thanks to McGee, Hulk is the scapegoat for the lab fire. Surely for Banner it would be easier to look for a cure as a legit doctor. And probably there would be fewer opportunities to hulking out doing lab work than wandering around like a drifter. Indeed, in the TV movie "The Incredible Hulk Returns" he found a quiet job as a laboratory assistant and he has not changed into the Hulk for two years (then Thor arrives, but this is another story...)
) Thanks to McGee, Hulk is the scapegoat for the lab fire. Surely for Banner it would be easier to look for a cure as a legit doctor. And probably there would be fewer opportunities to hulking out doing lab work than wandering around like a drifter. Indeed, in the TV movie "The Incredible Hulk Returns" he found a quiet job as a laboratory assistant and he has not changed into the Hulk for two years (then Thor arrives, but this is another story...)
Not established, but as you say, reasonable. Banner & Marks never performed a thorough assessment of the damage to the chamber, so for all anyone knew,, the Hulk might have created a "time bomb" of sorts with any of the damaged power lines running from the chamber to other systems in the lab.
So why is he pretending to be dead? (I know, because otherwise we didn't have the show
Remember, at the time of the pilot's events, Banner retained no memory of his actions as the Hulk, so he does not know if he had any direct responsibility in the death of Elaina Marks. In fact, in episodes to follow, David says he cannot prove he was not responsible for her death. That places him in a dangerous position; if he "returns from the dead," with no evidence conclusively proving the cause of the explosion, he likely fears he could face charges (whether or not that happened did not matter--he felt that was a serious problem).
Moreover, there's the McGee problem: as you say, he's successfully convinced the world that the Hulk is responsible for the deaths, but if Banner returned--a man McGee suspected was responsible for the Hulk's existence, he could add fuel to the fire with his other eyewitness account, as he explained to Banner & Marks' colleague Ben:
McGee: "Look..doctor. I saw what that creature did to a steel chamber. And I heard your friends talking--they were scared to death it was coming back."
So, McGee was not just suspicious of Banner's involvement, but he overheard the two key people discussing the unwelcome possibility of the Hulk returning. The same Hulk that ended up "murdering" at least one person. No one has to believe McGee (considering his "unreliable source by association" of being a National Register reporter), and with Banner himself being a living witness, Jack's account may not go anywhere. Who knows, but we do know Banner was concerned about his actions as the Hulk that night, and for that reason, he feels he cannot "return from the dead."
Not to mention that if David had revealed himself to be alive, he would've been questioned about the circumstances of the explosion and wouldn't have been able to give an answer without revealing the whole story. And then, not only would he potentially have been deemed culpable for Elaina's death as TREK_GOD_1 says, but he probably would've been whisked off to the kind of black-ops government lab that's the bugaboo of any fictional character with unusual abilities.
