So, I watched the latest Godzilla movie. It’s not bad, but would have been more fun in the theater. There’s lots of science-y nitpicks I have with the movie, but here’s the one that bugs me the most.

A nuclear warhead explodes just off the coast of northern California. I mean, really, just off the coast, in an excursion boat, that happens to have a GPS-controlled autopilot, with only a few minutes to spare before it goes blooey. That boat could not have been more than 5 miles (or knots, if you want to be nautical) at sea when the warhead detonated.

Yet the helicopter that rescued our hero manages to escape. They watch the damn thing go off. There is no shock wave, or resulting tsunami, nor radiation. Just a bright flash and a little, baby mushroom cloud.

Sorry, scriptwriters, that warhead would have blasted the ‘copter out of the sky and toasted most of the Bay Area, with lingering radiation effects. Like, you know, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but worse.

And aren’t those things really heavy? I doubt the handful of soldiers sent to retrieve it could have *run* with the thing so easily.

OK, nitpicking mode off.