Why did Spider-Man take a detour to Dorset?

Question

In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man ends up in the Netherlands. He then calls his friend Happy who picks him up in a private jet and they fly to London to fight the bad guy.

However before they reach London there is a scene where the jet flies over the Dorset coast (there is even a caption saying Dorset so there is no dispute there). What were they doing in Dorset? The movie gives no explanation as to why they needed to go there, and Dorset is not on the way to London from the Netherlands (in fact the quickest route to Dorset would involve pretty much flying over London).

The scene depicts the plane flying over the Old Harry Rocks in a south west direction (old harry points North East). Therefore I think the flight path would have looked something similar to this:

I can't remember the name of the dutch town so I have assumed Amsterdam.

My theories so far:

They needed time to print his new superhero costume so they flew to Brittany first just to kill time.

It wasn't actually Dorset, instead it was just one of the Bad Guy's illusions.

During the 5 years of the 'blip' a no deal Brexit has occurred and entry into the country from Europe is now illegal. They have to smuggle themselves in across the quietest bit of coast they could find, even though this substantially lengthens their journey. However this raises the question as to how his class mates were able to get there. — Stacey, Jul 14 '19 at 20:22
this question reminds me of the Robin Hood film with Kevin Costner where Robin Hood lands at the white cliffs of Dover, walks along Hadrian's Wall, and arrives at Sherwood Forest — Aaron F, Jul 15 '19 at 09:26
Because the Dorset coast is lovely! Sod the fate of London, lets go see some fantastic examples of coastal erosion, they were supposed to be on an educational trip after all! — Crazy Dino, Jul 15 '19 at 10:09
The real question is how did Happy get from New York to Europe so quickly? They even established at the beginning of the film that it's an ~8 hour flight (though that was to Venice, not Amsterdam, still probably comparable). Probably a bit less than that in his super fancy Stark Industries plane, but still not a short trip. But the movie made it seem like he made it there, what, maybe an hour later? Quickly enough that the entire incident (starting from the morning after Peter gave up Edith) took place in one day. Seems a bit unlikely. — Darrel Hoffman, Jul 15 '19 at 16:46
@DarrelHoffman: it’s a really fast plane! So fast they overshot London and didn’t realise and turn around until they were over the Atlantic and heading for Mexico! — Paul D. Waite, Jul 15 '19 at 17:29
@CrazyDino: stop trying to shoehorn your science into the school science trip. — Paul D. Waite, Jul 16 '19 at 09:20
Another answer... If Happy took spiderman in a straight line he would fly him over Clacton... no one ever wants to go near Clacton. — Crazy Dino, Jul 16 '19 at 13:04
Because it lets the Brits do a classic joke. "I see Spiderman has been to visit the West Country". "In Dorset?" "Yes, he thoroughly recommends it." badum-tish — Graham, Jul 16 '19 at 16:13
@Graham: OK, you brought this up - now you get to explain why this is funny. ??? — Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні, Jul 16 '19 at 16:34
@BobJarvis If you insist. For the benefit of non-Brits, this is a distinct family of jokes, like "knock-knock" jokes. Typically the joke starts with "My wife went to...", but that can be changed if the result is funny. The joke always involves naming an area, followed by a pun on a place name in that area ("in Dorset" sounds like "endorse it"). Other examples: "My wife went to the Caribbean." "Jamaica?" "No, she wanted to." (Refer to the Led Zep song "D'yer mak'er" for the pun there.) Or "My wife had to rush to the toilet while we were in West London." "Staines?" "I'm afraid so." — Graham, Jul 16 '19 at 17:01
@BobJarvis Would you like me to stop yet, or shall we have some more...? — Graham, Jul 16 '19 at 17:03
Brexit was canceled due to dropping to nearly 0% in the polls. The snap took half of everyone more or less randomly, but not in Britain. Thanos' real goal was always to eliminate Brexit by snapping supporters, snapping the rest of everyone to make the universe better was just a cover story. — Harper - Reinstate Monica, Jul 16 '19 at 20:51
In all likelihood, it's nonsense. But...depending on which London airport they were arriving at, it's not impossible that they might end up in a holding pattern waiting to land that might take them close to coast. See this for example for approaches to Gatwick. — Matt Burland, Jul 16 '19 at 20:54
“depending on which London airport they were arriving at” — they ended up at the famous Tower of London Lawn Airport. — Paul D. Waite, Jul 17 '19 at 09:38

score 39 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 15 '19 at 16:04

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Unclear.

This is most likely a goof or an overlooked detail. The only source on Google that mentions "spiderman far from home dorset" is IMDB, and here's what they have to say,

When the Stark Jet enters the UK, the caption states the Dorset coastline. Flying from Amsterdam to London you would cross the eastern coast of England, entering over the coast of Essex but the Dorset Chalk Cliffs are on the South West coastline which is 160 miles away.

_{Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019) Goofs}

I strongly doubt there's anything more to it because of how tiny a detail it is.

edited Jul 15 '19 at 16:04

Community

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answered Jul 14 '19 at 20:31

Daeron

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The chalk cliffs are fairly well-known, and often used in cinema to present a recognisable "you are now entering England" moment to international audiences (of course, the most famous ones would be the White Cliffs of Dover, which are not in Dorset, but hey, they look very similar). My guess would be that this clip was included for a similar reason. It's similar to how the Eiffel Tower seems to be visible from every window in Paris, according to movies. – anaximander Jul 15 '19 at 08:36
@Anaximander Ironically enough, Dover is almost on the way from Amsterdam to London. If a minor detour was required (e.g. having to pick up or drop off something in Brussels, such as materials or components for the suit) then that would nearly be reasonable... – Chronocidal Jul 15 '19 at 09:48
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@Chronocidal To be fair, to make Dover plausible, all you'd need is "the official flight corridors go this way" or "minor diversion for traffic/noise abatement" or something. Contrary to common belief, most civil flights don't just beeline point-to-point (even after accounting for great circle routing). – anaximander Jul 15 '19 at 09:58
dorset is over almost every east coast path to LGW/LHR, could be that they didn't check at all. alternatively, avengers could have their own flight paths with free aerospace. almost no flights cross the channel from left to right or vice versa. – CptEric Jul 15 '19 at 11:01
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@CptEric First, Dorset is highly unlikely to be "over" any flight path - it features Lilliput, not Laputa. Second, with Dorset being on the South-West coast of Great Britain, it is only slightly less likely to be under any East Coast flight plans. – Chronocidal Jul 15 '19 at 12:23
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Might be a good question for Aviation.SE, but Heathrow is west of London, and you might want to approach it from further west so as to avoid flying over the city, so doing a loop over Dorset might not be all that uncommon. It does mean most of your flight would be over the Channel rather than over land, which is another possible advantage. – Darrel Hoffman Jul 15 '19 at 14:49
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@DarrelHoffman: the plane is aiming for Tower Bridge rather than Heathrow, but they are also trying to avoid being detected by the villain, who has access to a very sophisticated global defence system. – Paul D. Waite Jul 15 '19 at 15:52
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@DarrelHoffman Prevailing winds in the UK are from the west and aircraft typically land into the wind. On most days, most arrivals into Heathrow come in over central London. Even with an easterly wind, one wouldn't need to travel 150-200km beyond the destination just to turn around, which would almost double the distance flown from Amsterdam. As it happens, flights are landing at Heathrow from the west right now, and flights from the east are beginning their 180-degree turn roughly over Marlow, which means they only get about 20km west of Heathrow. – David Richerby Jul 15 '19 at 16:16
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Warning - TV tropes link: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArtisticLicenseGeography – Longshanks Jul 18 '19 at 15:06

Paul D. Waite · Answer 2 · 2019-07-17T13:49:07.697

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Airspace is not a free-for-all. Being a responsible pilot, Happy (or, more likely, the AI that's actually flying the plane) would have made sure to avoid restricted airspace, which could be much more expansive in 2023/4 given the damage caused by multiple alien invasions, and Britain's presumably-implemented-by-then exit from the European Union.

Out-of-universe, it might have been be an intentional joke about tourists mis-identifying landmarks (like when Flash temporarily confuses Happy by referring to Tower Bridge as London Bridge in a livestream). The location captions are used for comic effect previously, when they appear as a subtitle to the Dutch gentleman telling Happy which town Peter is in.

However, I think the coastline shown is indeed Dorset, rather than Dover, so it's probably not a joke.

edited Jul 17 '19 at 13:49

answered Jul 15 '19 at 10:00

Paul D. Waite

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So the entire south east and east anglia coasts are restricted but not Dorset? – Stacey Jul 15 '19 at 12:02
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@Stacey yeah we've probably got a defence system built right into the chalk. – Paul D. Waite Jul 15 '19 at 12:40
Happy lands his jet in the middle of London, so he either got permission to do so, or he doesn't care. – Oliver_C Jul 15 '19 at 18:53
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@Oliver_C his goal is to safely reach London while no attack is happening. If he were to fly in restricted airspace he would be “attacking” England and would be the biggest threat at the time. However, a little plane isn’t going to do much damage when you have a giant monster over London about to destroy everything. After the monster attacked, he was able to land in London without worrying about the military. – gsquaredxc Jul 15 '19 at 21:24
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@PaulD.Waite - Why would east of London be restricted airspace, but not London itself? If there are heightened security concerns, why leave the south border open? And one would think that during an attack on London, the authorities would tighten security, making it even harder to enter London airspace without permission. – Oliver_C Jul 16 '19 at 07:16
@Oliver_C “ If there are heightened security concerns, why leave the south border open?” — You have to have somewhere for planes to come in. “Why would east of London be restricted airspace, but not London itself?” — Who says it isn't? If Happy gets shot down at the Essex border, Peter never makes it to London. If Happy gets shot down in London, he's at least got Peter there. “One would think that during an attack on London, the authorities would tighten security” — one might think that, but the only authorities we see in London in the movie are two Beefeaters with machine guns. – Paul D. Waite Jul 16 '19 at 09:19
"Beefeaters with machine guns" - incongruous, to say the least. – Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні Jul 16 '19 at 16:38
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It might've still been a joke on people confusing Dorset and Dover - i.e. they got so confused that they flew hundreds of miles out of their way just to get the wrong white cliffs. – Martha Jul 16 '19 at 16:46
@PaulD.Waite - "You have to have somewhere for planes to come in" But if you are free to fly into the UK through the south, then the no-fly zone in the east is merely a nuisance, it's useless as a border protection measure. - And how do alien invasions and Brexit play into this? Alien invaders aren't going to care about human no-fly zones, and Brexit doesn't make the UK and the EU mortal enemies. – Oliver_C Jul 17 '19 at 17:21
@Oliver_C: who says you're “free” to do so? Flight plans are a thing, and they say “Hey, I'm going to fly here”. Having most planes go through one small area makes them easier to track and manage, and means you can be more confident about immediately shooting down anything (like an alien invader) outside of that area. And while I'm personally delighted that you think “Brexit doesn't make the UK and the EU mortal enemies”, some of our leaders don't seem to share your view. – Paul D. Waite Jul 18 '19 at 08:56
@Oliver_C But please: do some more slapdash nitpicking of my not-particularly-serious head canon suggestion. It's not tiresome in the slightest. – Paul D. Waite Jul 18 '19 at 08:57
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@Oliver_C A no deal brexit wouldn't necessarily mean we would be enemies but we would have left the eu aviation market. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-45019603 – Stacey Jul 19 '19 at 06:05

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 04 '21 at 13:23

They took a D-Tour (or Happy did in his plane) to go and have a look, I mean the camera did fly over the top, so that wouldn’t be too much of a crazy explication! Also, the Tower of London is made out of Portland Stone (which is from an island just a little further along the Dorset Coast), so if they truly wanted to visit the place properly a trip down there wouldn’t be a bad idea...not to mention you could easily do a D-Tour to Stone Henge and Bath that way too...but that would probably make the film too long for the producers liking to show!

Why did Spider-Man take a detour to Dorset?

3 Answers3

Unclear.