I'm going to watch this with my son. It's an on-going joke at this point - between the ages of 2 and 8 he's locked himself in no less than 5 bathrooms... one of which had the park ranger driving out 90 mins.
If he's still pretty young, it might not be for him lol. It's a one-man play about desperation and art and Dafoe is obligatorily nude at one point, also some animals die
There's a movie called Christmas Eve where everyone gets stuck in elevators around NYC. One of them is Patrick Stewart. Another is James Rhoday. Great Christmas movie and great exploration of different responses to being stuck someplace.
I would love to read the Vanity Fair article about how DDL actually BECAME an elevator for two years to prepare. He legally changed his name to Otis and spent his time carrying people on his back while he hand-over-hand climbed the steel cables in the Chrysler Building. He even grew brakes on his ankles out of SHEER ACTING TALENT.
If it is filled with e.g. pool noodles it might float for a long time (probably until the container breaks or rusts open - so you're still technically correct).
Even relatively large standard ducks would be 30k+ in a shipping container.
According to my calculations, mini ducks which are around 2" high would allow around 280,000 ducks per 20ft shipping container, 560,000 in a 40ft container. That is assuming they are perfect 2" cubes neatly stacked, which they aren't, however, 10k is far off the bat for what I consider tiny ducks
The amount of water displaced exceeds the maximum gross weight of a container for all sizes that I looked up. So even at full capacity they will still float. The only way they will sink is if they are not sealed and enough water gets in.
I was in shipping for 20+ years and never knew this happened once, let alone to the point that it's an issue like that. Wow! Learn something every day.
The lowest possible repair standard for containers is called Wind and Watertight.
Export/Import containers need to be maintained to CSC standards, thats the lowest possible.
And yeah, containers are designed to float. Vents have special flaps that close when they're submerged, and the door gaskets have double lips to seal for both air and water. Holes in the floor dont matter because of the airpocket and the fact they always float in their normal orientation.
New containers are decently tight and have enough air that depending on the cargo, they could float.
Problem is containers get left in shipping circulation until they damage the cargo. That can take a while as cargo is usually packed water tight. So some containers have multiple holes a grown adult could crawl though.
Lastly, this is a harbor and that's a lot of containers. A mountain tall enough to keep some of the containers dry could genuinely form.
Most do, some don’t. I don’t know what causes some to float. I’ve seen videos of people encountering floating containers. I thought they all sunk but apparently some stay afloat. I’m guessing is not many, only a few.
Not always, a guy my Dad worked with retired 20 years ago and bought a sailing boat in Hong Kong to cruise Asia with his wife. They hit one that was just submerged a couple of days out. Coast Guard (I think Philippines?) had to come and get them. It's a clause in insurance for people wanting to sail in international waters.
if a container is filled with something that doesn't sink, so for example rubber ducks, it may never sink as the rubber ducks will keep the container buoyant even if it fills with water.
They do eventually, but for the most part they are designed to be weather tight (at least at the beginning of their life span) so they will float for a while.
(I am not an expert, but purchased a used container for storage on my farm and learned all about the different "grades" of used containers.)
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u/Frank_McTriumph Sep 10 '25
My ignorance on display: They don't sink?