Precognition in Television

FOX television had a short lived comedy/drama called "The Lone Gunmen" (a spin off from X-files) which aired from March 4, 2001, to June 1, 2001. The characters were comic foils in the X-files, because they are conspiracy obsessed. The principal joke is the government really is out to get them.

In the pilot episode a commercial jet is used in a government conspiracy to fly a commercial aircraft into the World Trade Center. The goal of the terrorist act is increased arms sales for the United States as an intended result.



This cartoon aired a few weeks later.

I think the web filter at work is blocking that image...

There's a Tom Clancy book, I forget the title, published in the 90s which involves a very unlikely war between Japan and the US (pretty much a group of Japanese industrialists hijack the government and invade a few US-held islands in the Pacific; they also build some nukes and mount them on ICBMs).

One of the characters is a JAL captain who gets to fly troops to some of the islands. He loses family in the war and grows angry and resentful. Near the end, with the war won by America, he contrives to fly an empty 747, save for the first officer, with plenty of fuel, departing from Washington. After killing the first officer, he fakes an inflight emergency, claiming to be a KLM charter, and crashes his plane into the Capitol, where the President was addressing a joint session of Congress. All but two Representatives and the VP dies.

Quote: Nareed

I think the web filter at work is blocking that image...

To be fair the image is only of a skyscraper on fire. It could be a reference to the disaster movie from the 1970s.





You might remember The Wizard and I got into a discussion a few years ago about how to statistically treat these "coincidences". Like "what are the odds" that a movie would show someone hijacking a plane to fly into the World Trade Center only 6 months before it really happened.

Quote: Pacomartin

To be fair the image is only of a skyscraper on fire. It could be a reference to the disaster movie from the 1970s."

I never cared much for Johnny Bravo (though I liked Dexter's Lab). I do recall enjoying The Towering Inferno when it was released, and greatly disliking it some years later when I caught a piece of it in cable.

Quote:

You might remember The Wizard and I got into a discussion a few years ago about how to statistically treat these "coincidences". Like "what are the odds" that a movie would show someone hijacking a plane to fly into the World Trade Center only 6 months before it really happened.

How about describing something very much like an A-bomb a few months before Hiroshima? I can't vouch for this, as I don't have the details nor have read the story.

In any case, I channel Sheldon Cooper and say "It's one of those instances which people unfamiliar with the law of large numbers call a coincidence." :)

Quote: Nareed

In any case, I channel Sheldon Cooper and say "It's one of those instances which people unfamiliar with the law of large numbers call a coincidence." :)

As you may know, the 7 US presidents elected in 1840, 1860, 1880, 1900, 1920, 1940, and 1960 died in office. In fact there was only one POTUS who died in office that was not elected in a year ending with zero. Keep in mind that not all these men died in the same term that started with the zero year election. Abraham Lincoln was re-elected in 1864 and was assassinated in that term.

This cycle is often called the "Curse of Tecumseh". The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought on November 7, 1811, near present-day Lafayette, Indiana between United States forces led by Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and Native American warriors associated with the Shawnee leader Tecumseh. The Presidential election of 1840 was the first where a true election campaign. Harrison's victory over Tecumseh was the subject of a popular campaign song. Harrison won the election, and caught a cold at his inauguration speech which killed him 31 days later.


But people often say what is the probability of that happening by chance? Many people feel that President Reagan should be included since he would certainly have died from being shot if he lived in Tecumseh's time.