Sure, the smoke accident could have happened in a different context. But it happened in *this* context — a show about military hardware — because that’s the show that was being produced.
I have watched my share of such shows over the years, but now that I’m a bit older I understand how these things reveal our true interests. As an old fashioned conservative I am wondering about the social costs of a militarized culture and the glamourization of gear designed for governments investing in new ways to push people around. Conservatives used to care about stuff like that.
Oh, please. This sounds like a home-made reality show gone wrong. If you’re so anti-military, aren’t you late for a protest somewhere?
It’s well to wish there was no more war, but also with maturity comes the wisdom that it won’t be banished from the face of the earth until the Savior returns, and that during this period those who beat their swords into plowshares will end up serving those who do not. So if the occasion for war arrives, shall we all go out fighting with long faces, as C. S. Lewis puts his disapproval of semi-pacifism? Empirically, the greater error today is that of appeasement rather than combat.
And anyhow, the scene was designed to be physically harmless to film. This was not a piece of war materiel that did what it was supposed to do.