Captain America Falling

[Flyndaran]

That's obviously a rule of action realism, the basis of Gurps, rather than real realism. Which is perfect for C.A. and the more human comic book characters.

[NineDaysDead]

All supers come with Catfall (Cosmic: No Roll Required, +100%; Feather Fall, +20%) [22].


"We never found the body, but no one could have survived that fall!"

[martin_rook]

It gets worse. Because Cap's unique adamantium-vibranium alloy shield has been described as being indestructible because it absorbs (or maybe negates?) kinetic energy I've seen at least one instance of Cap standing on it before hitting THE GROUND from a similar height with no ill effects.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by martin_rook

It gets worse. Because Cap's unique adamantium-vibranium alloy shield has been described as being indestructible because it absorbs (or maybe negates?) kinetic energy I've seen at least one instance of Cap standing on it before hitting THE GROUND from a similar height with no ill effects.

The movie shield is pure vibranium (as described in Captain America - The First Avenger). Cap's shield in the comics is a unique unobtanium item made from trying to alloy vibranium with iron (adamantium was developed by the same guy later in an attempt to duplicate the indestructible properties of the shield). (The "adamantium/vibranium alloy" bit has never been reconciled with the account that adamantium was developed after the shield was created....)

Essentially, the comics shield is a handwave: "Okay, the shield absorbs the impact, transferring none of the damage to Cap. No, don't ask about physics, the shield is superscience."

As we're dealing with movie!Cap in this thread, based off the new movie due out, let's not muddy the waters when trying to deal with the inconsistencies of the comics, 'k?

From an earlier post, Cap is said to be doing a spread eagle for most of the fall, then twisting to land feet-first in the water. That's a standard sky-diving trick to attempt to slow the fall by providing as much body as possible. The real questions now are: How high up was the plane when he jumped out of it, and how high was he when he shifted to a naval frog-man's dive? Also, was he wearing his uniform or his civvies?

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by munin

In GURPS, a successful (DX-based?) Swimming roll negates all damage from falling into water (p. B431), so it's not necessary for Cap to have more HP or IT:DR. The diving roll is at a penalty for velocity, which will be either -9 for a spread-eagled fall at terminal velocity or -10 for a terminal velocity swan dive. The Swimming roll for a 55 mph dive is -7, so either seems likely to be within Cap's capabilities (though to do it that confidently implies a DX-based Swimming skill in the high 20s).

Basically as above, people have survived tremendous unintentional falls into water. You don't tend to do it on purpose because if it goes wrong you'll probably die. Capt America basically being super solider plus with athletics etc, would be a great candidate for making this work with skill rather than brute force bricky-ness.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

The real questions now are: How high up was the plane when he jumped out of it

In the extended trailer, he's falling for at least 13 seconds. There's a cut from inside the plane to outside, so it's possibly longer. But the scene feels continuous.

how high was he when he shifted to a naval frog-man's dive?

He goes head-first from the spread-eagle at 1:05, and switches to feet-first some fraction of a second before entering the water at 1:09.

Also, was he wearing his uniform or his civvies?

Uniform (a new subdued one).

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That's obviously a rule of action realism, the basis of Gurps, rather than real realism. Which is perfect for C.A. and the more human comic book characters.

Yeah. He succeeds because that's what cinematic action heroes are supposed to do. Don't try this yourself!

Falling for at least 13 seconds indicates an altitude of at least several hundred meters.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Falling for at least 13 seconds indicates an altitude of at least several hundred meters.

Though falling time is a frequent liberty taken by action directors, with jumpers carrying on several minutes worth of combat (or even conversation) during a jump, or catching up despite jumping a couple of minutes apart.

[Peter Knutsen]

Based on the "Iron Man" movies, which take place in the same universe, the world physics clearly differ from ours, when it comes to people colliding with walls or the ground. Tony Stark does that repeatedly, without taking any damage at all.

I'm not saying they're bad movies (which would be silly, because I'm a huge RDJ-as-Stark fanboy), but it certainly makes sene that what they're based on is called "comics" in American English.

[Miles]

I'd call it reasonable to let Catfall halve the penalty for diving from a great height. With that in mind, we're talking about -4 or -5 penalty to a DX-Based Swimming roll. Given that Cap's DX is probably around 20, he can pull this off without a sweat. Add in some Luck or other form of script protection, and it's no more dangerous than using a parachute.