The Magic School Bus: Bustin' Through

How in the world can a big yellow school bus crash through a bank and nobody on the street seems to notice?  Further, after the bak robbery, the bus COINCIDENTALLY pulls out of the bank and into the middle of a line of other school buses in broad daylight, with cops right up the street and no one decides to pull the bus over?

Has wnyone ever seen a school bus line?  They follow each other closer than elephants, they barely give inches of space between them yet somehow The Joker had enough room to pull out of a gaping hole in a building into traffic in the middle of a bus line and everything continues as normal in traffic as if nobody could have possibly noticed.

This was the end of the opening scene of the movie.  It pretty much matches how the rest of the movie goes – “This is supposed to be real – oh wait, now we have something completely unrealistic happen. But, serious, it’s real, don’t suspend your disbelief just yet. Oh, but wait, actually do suspend your disbelief.  No, it’s realistic. OK, it isn’t.”

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19 Responses to “The Magic School Bus: Bustin' Through”

  1. your acting as if you know everything that was going on. how do you know the two buses he pulled inbetween werent in on it too? he has plans for these type of things its not like he just said “well i hope i have a bunch of buses out here behind me” he obviously did it when he knew school would be getting out and, we of course dont know this, but it is a movie and its entirely possible that the buses he pulled inbetween were in on it too. why else would there be that nice big space when the other buses were bumper to bumper?

  2. Cmon….You seriously believe every single thing was planned to the SECOND so that he’d pull out at that exact time? Those buses aren’t in on it and you know it. It is strange how nobody seems to make a big deal over the bus that has already crashed in there….Then when he pulls out, it’s like “oh, a bus just came out of that bank? no problem…”

    It’s an effective scene…Creepy and cool, but unbelievable, like most of the movie. I just wish the damn thing was more real like the first!

  3. So the Gotham City school district was in on the crimes of a nutball? Wow, that’s a pretty big leap of faith.

  4. I never said he got the school in on it, he just used school buses. Something like that is completely plausible in a fictional film.

  5. It’s nothing but lazy writing in an effort to be “cool” and “stylish”, not to mention the fact that the damn bus drives through a brick wall with minimal or no damage to it. Oh, right, The Joker thought of that and had “extra strength armor” put on the bus, I forgot.

  6. I don’t think the other buses are in on it. It’s just one of 1,000 ‘lucky breaks’ for the Joker, who has unlimited resources and henchmen, despite the fact he keeps killing off his henchmen. Yeah, right.

  7. I saw that seen and laughed hysterically. At that point I knew what I was watching was a comedy not a drama (I’d already suspected this from the rottweilers earlier)

    I spend 7 hours a day on a school bus 9 months of the year. We can’t even drive without our lights on without someone else in the fleet getting on the radio and saying “Turn on your lights” SOMEONE would have been on the radio to report that!

  8. Has wnyone ever heard of spell check?

  9. This scene does set the tone for the movie. Massive cognitive dissonance as were treated to blockbuster action setpieces that are blatantly unrealistic while Nolan continues to hammer in his most important thematic undertone as “THIS IS NOT FAKE.”

  10. music video plot and continuity
    but it matters not
    if it had wings it would fly
    it has no wings
    no heart
    no soul
    just an amusement
    woo-wee
    as i said before
    wonder what chan-wook park might’ve done
    maybe nothing based on what’s going on with spike jonze’s
    where the wild things are
    apparently warner brothers is now disney dark
    corporate american at its’ best
    getting rich off an appeal to the lowest common demoninator

  11. I agree that this was one of the biggest jumps of logic in the film. It’s one thing to have a school bus crash through the wall (making bystanders call the police), but it’s quite another to drive that same vehicle out into traffic (into a line of other school buses, no less) and expect that no one will notice the vehicle leaving. The bus still had smoke trailing off it as it pulled in front of the bus behind him. Maybe that bus driver was just stupid.

  12. Even Chief O’Hara from the old 1960s show might have said, ‘Begorrah, that school bus looks a wee bit suspicious.

  13. What gets me is that people keep using the excuse that The Joker was ‘in on it’. Well bloody hell of course he was, but how the hell did a BANK, you know one of those things that keeps all your MONEY, not get the slightest of looks when a huge YELLOW BUS was stiking out of the side after being what could be considered a self projected missile.
    If that bus had taken off in the caravan of buses, but with people looking somewhat disturbed, no issue, but there was no reaction whatso ever. And the excuse that it’s fiction is also bollocks. Stop finding excuses, it was a shit bit of the film.

  14. I’ve seen a truck crash through the side of a brick building (an insurance office ironically enough!) and pull back out ok with minimal damage if that makes any difference to you.

    And the bystanders looked pretty shocked to me.

    But yeah, unless ALL the other bus drivers were on the Joker’s payroll, someone would have called it in and pointed out which bus was the dodgy one, I’ll grant you.

  15. This is the biggest piece of bullshit website I every seen and you sir the maker of it are a asshole Dark Knight is a masterpiece something youll never make so you feel the need to rip anthor one… Heath is god and the Joker two things you will also never be… So stop making up shit you jerk… Ledger took the Oscar because of his acting dumbass the rest of the roles in best supporting actor this year where ones that put you to sleep… I guess you perfer shitty actors over real talent??? I could keep going on like this forever…

  16. it’s because it is based on a fictional comic book, dumbass. its not supposed to be real.

  17. Yeah, but Nolan keeps telling us how ‘realistic’ it is. The author’s point here is that the movie is realistic when the director/writers want it to be, and unrealistic when they want it to be.
    That’s not a coherent movie.

  18. I think everyone (including Nolan) should read the essays on realism in literature by Nabakov (the dude who wrote `Lolita’. He basically concluded that it doesnt matter so much if the world of a story (be it a book, film, comic, folk tale) is `realistic’ in terms of being similar to our understanding of our reality, but only that the story be true to its own inherent `realism’. Very salient.

  19. You guys fail to grasp the use of “realism” in certain context. He may use a realistic setting for a super hero movie, but not one for an action movie.
    I’m just going to mention 2 recent action movie receiving the Academy Awards and their subsequent realistic issues: The Departed and No Country for Old Men.
    First one, the undercover police agent (played by DiCaprio) would never had the chance of joining the ranks of that mob. And the second one – the final scene. He survives a friggin car crash and walks away, albeit very slow and under lots of pain.
    And those two weren’t even showcased as potential blockbusters, especially the second one.
    Heck, even 2001: A space odyssey (one of the most realistic movies in existence, even to the point of showcasing the realistic boringness of human life) portrays humans like a dolls, in a totally unrealistic way.
    If realistic is only portrayed on certain elements, it doesn’t make it less realistic. The stuff from TDK are highly improbable BUT still possible in real life, even if by luck. As compared to being a mutated organism with super-powers.

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