not the physics boff's then . I would assume a backpack and rope would be my workable plan not too sure about any chemistry angle.

A builders van laden with bricks arrives. The gang tell the two brickies that for a share in the gold they should load up the front of the bus with bricks. The gang then transfer the gold to the van and hot foot it away but not before pushing the bus off the cliff 29 or so minutes later.

Of course the moto of the film being that crime does not actually pay they convert the lot to stocks and lose it the next time some banker sneezes.

The RSC? Haven't they got anything better to waste money on?

...or not ?

Everyone rushes to the front of the bus, and one by one they climb out the front door, staying on the vehicle, and hanging off the front bumper. All but the lightest one - he slithers along the floor throwing the bars back the way. Job done.

... a hydrogen bomb, an armada of spacefaring DC-8's, an E-meter, and a carefully guarded secret knowledge of a vast psychiatric conspiracy.

Oh... They want a scientIFIC solution?

"Science just has a way of trampling over the unexplained" - yeah, that's sort of the whole point of science. Otherwise it would be no better than a collection of people sitting round going "dunno, god probably did it".

I vote for having some crooks come along and steal the gold, followed by the minibus falling off the 'cliff' and being submerged in icy water, with (most of) the occupants using their diving gear to survive.

Wait... I've seen that one!

One of VERY few films where the yank remake was actually better than the original!

If the people who were at the end of the coach had picked up a bar each and taken it with them to the 'safe' end then the CoG would be in their favour.

Similarly if they had formed a line of people to pass the gold from the door end to the 'safe' end, same result.

The next step would be to get people (one at a time) to leave the coach and stand on the front bumper, so changing the CoG and allowing the last person/people to hopefully secure/move the gold.

Or they could all leave the coach and then go on a scavenger hunt after it's done it's falling down the cliff/ mountain stuff.

ttfn

a helicopter would be useful though

Surely this is a physics problem?

Other than getting back some of their more precious chemical element (which if Caine and Co could do, they wouldn't see any of it anyway), what interest do the RSC have in this?

Need a "Where's the Chemistry Angle?" icon now. Bugger. Oh well plan B

Mine's the lab coat

Now I know how it ends there's just NO point watching it!

*Sigh* Mine's the one with the heavily stuffed pockets hanging to the knees.

Love it. Love the movie. I'm in.

And just to let you wannabee Brunel types what you are up against my plan involves using a derivative of the engine implemented by Diades of Pella (Mr.) at Tyre, 7000 kerats of Thailands finest hemp yarn and an ineffible ability to look on the bright side.

See you in Turin - I'll be the one in the armour plated Land Rover.

Couldn't they just blow the bloody doors off?

Charlie jumps out. The coach crashes to it's doom, killing everyone in it. Then Charlie comes back with salvage equipment.

...what?

OK how about this?

1/ all the people go to the extreme front of the coach (and stay still) - counterbalancing it.

2/ They make a rope of belts ties clothes etc

3/ The lightest one slithers forward (alone) and attached the rope to the gold.

4/ The people pull the gold back to the front.

5/ One person (fully clothed) goes to find a farmer with a tractor to pull the coach back.

6/ Resume journey.

Plan B

Let the gold fall out.

Rush off the coach and recover the gold before the caribineri turn up.

Scarper!

or Plan C

Learn to fly...fast!

Surely an applied mechanics rather than a chemistry problem, or do they acknowledge Rutherford's stamp collecting remark ;)

They've already shown that they can get a bloke almost to the gold before it gets close to toppling. Just make everyone gets really far back, then the lightest person jumps out and fetches rocks from the nearby road (there are plenty). Pile these up in the drivers' cab to stabilise the coach. Then the light bloke gets back in, fetches the gold and they have enough weight now to get everyone and at least 90% of the gold out in shifts. Leave the rocks in the coach as they're not worth that much...

"Difficulty: No helicopters allowed. "

Not even black helicopters?? :(

I'll get me coat....

The coach teeters on the cliff. The gold slides towards the rear.

Since the mass of that much gold would somewhat exceed the mass of anything available to counterbalance it, the fact that the bloody thing didn't plunge over the edge when it moved rearwards indicates one of two things. 1) The thing's nowhere near as unstable as it appears to be, so getting the stuff should just be a matter of walking down the other end, ignoring the unsettling swinging motion or 2) it's all artistic license so the whole thing's a pointless load of cobblers anyway.

What's the point of trying to come up with a scientific solution to a problem which has already caused the laws of physics to bugger off in disgust.?

No helicopters allowed? A classic "where's my flying car?" moment, if ever there was.

The Benny Hill character turns up with a bus load of fat women. Next, they .... Oh, hell, you get the idea.

(And if that made no sense to you, you've forgotten the movie!)

nuff' said.

Step 1. Get stuck teetering on the edge of a cliff with the gold

Step 2. ???

Step 3. Profit!

Surely, if it's a "half descent" engineer, he'll never make it to the bottom to collect the gold.

Maybe in the spirit of Percy, they are trying to get the gold to transmutate into a newer and lighter material called Green. Purely by alchemical means dontcha know. Now I know where all my dues went!

Efros MRSC C.Chem.

Just ask the aliens flying past in their UFO to hold up the end of the bus!

...that they should let the gold take the plunge, at which point the bus would become a lot more stable. If the road in question is the Stelvio pass as it appears to be then it shouldn't be too hard to access the gold from further down the hill. Quite how they do that without a vehicle I don't know.

Having said that the ending is one of the many things that makes it such a good film and something that wouldn't happen in any American financed film today (yes it was) even if it did only cost £4m to make. Actually resolving the issue would ruin the film, collapsing, as it would the wave form (could we introduce a cat in a box to the plot?). Which is why true fans of the film were always against a rumoured sequel.

Shoot out the back windows of the bus.

That's exactly what I always hated about the film:

your bus is unstable and leaning backwards, so the gold slides merrily further, moving the centre of gravity even further, yet not toppling. Very weird.

But it's not necessarily that false, the feeling of instability; with each rocking, the bus may slide a half-inch towards doom. Thus giving you indeed a different situation each minute, and disaster in 30.

I'm slightly worried about the original plan: burning up so much fuel in 30minutes (well, 28 + 2min for getting the gold out) while in idle?? (If you rev hard it will vibrate you off the cliff.) How's that jalopy going to get across the alps, or even across Torino, on a regular day? What mileage.

First, assume a 90 tonne crane...

First define gold.

Paris, cos even philosophers have a libido.

Yes, clearly this should be handled by the Royal Society for Self-Preservation.

UK readers are free to suggest which agency comes closest to being that...

"The Benny Hill character turns up with a bus load of fat women. Next, they .... Oh, hell, you get the idea."

"Yes, clearly this should be handled by the Royal Society for Self-Preservation."

Excellent, both of you.

Wondering what's next - perhaps the Royal Forest and Bird Society will come up with a prize for an answer to what happens to the shotguns from "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"...

Three days in Torino? So second prize is four days then?

One night in Paris would have been better.

The Royal Society says that you can't use a helicopter. In that case, why don't they just use either an autogyro or a blimp?

Use the Force, Charlie!

Yeah, I know... Mines the one with "The Prequels SUCK!" emblazoned on the back of it.