Get Out & Get Down

June 9, 2010 9:25 PM

Escape Rescue Systems of New Jersey have built the most exciting evacuation pods for tall buildings.

If you have a tall building and a fear of terrorists (or any other scary thing that hurts people in tall buildings) you probably need this. It goes both 'up' and 'down.'

watch the video!

posted by artof.mulata (35 comments total)

Can they be operated by R2 droids? How resistant are they to Stormtrooper blasts?
posted by GuyZero at 9:35 PM on June 9, 2010 [2 favorites]

Confusing use of slow motion! Is one of those rescued hostages secretly a terrorist or something!?!
posted by grobstein at 9:37 PM on June 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

This would have come in really handy when ... (?)

Help me out here.
posted by mazola at 9:42 PM on June 9, 2010

But yeah as of now I'm angry and insulted that my employer doesn't already have a contract with these guys.
posted by grobstein at 9:42 PM on June 9, 2010

Love the '24' style music they got playing..
posted by ReeMonster at 9:46 PM on June 9, 2010

Terrorist 1: So, is the SWAT team in the elevator pod thingy?

Terrorist 2: Yep

Terrorist 1: Blow up the cables then.

SWAT Team:
posted by sideshow at 9:56 PM on June 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

err, that didn't work., let's try it IRC style:

SWAT Team: /dies
posted by sideshow at 9:57 PM on June 9, 2010

Is their stuff on youtube? Their videos require something called "Microsoft Movie Player". apt doesn't seem to have any package like that, and I can't find it on sourceforge.
posted by Netzapper at 9:57 PM on June 9, 2010 [2 favorites]

netzapper: watch the video!
posted by artof.mulata at 10:09 PM on June 9, 2010

As an acrophobic, that motherfucker looks terrifying.

(Thanks artof.mulata.)
posted by Netzapper at 10:21 PM on June 9, 2010

Here in Korea every apartment building has this bracket screwed into the wall. Next to the bracket is a big box labeled "DESLENDING LIFE LINE". In the event of a fire all the occupants are expected to rappel down the side of the building. I live on the tenth floor.
posted by GilloD at 10:21 PM on June 9, 2010 [8 favorites]

GilloD that is so bad-ass. I am going to petition my condo board to install those post-haste.
posted by selenized at 10:31 PM on June 9, 2010

In the event of a fire all the occupants are expected to rappel down the side of the building.

This is doing nothing to dissolve the stereotype held by young boys that most Asian people are secretly ninjas.
posted by DMan at 10:42 PM on June 9, 2010 [3 favorites]

Here in Korea every apartment building has this bracket screwed into the wall. Next to the bracket is a big box labeled "DESLENDING LIFE LINE". In the event of a fire all the occupants are expected to rappel down the side of the building. I live on the tenth floor.

Do they include a supply of descenders and climbing harnesses? 'Cause otherwise, they're just suicide ropes.
posted by Netzapper at 10:45 PM on June 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

Was the soundtrack provided by the Mad Drummer?
posted by unliteral at 10:50 PM on June 9, 2010

that's what tall buildings need. escape pods!
posted by oonh at 11:04 PM on June 9, 2010

Netzapper- Every apartment comes with a harness. Sometimes I put it on when I drink and threaten to deslend.

Also, the idea that in a fire I'd somehow have the presence of mind to learn to correctly put on a harness and correctly attach etc etc. is hilarious. My plan has always been to run to the roof and jump onto an adjacent building. It's about a 4 story drop, but I think it's better than falling down the front.
posted by GilloD at 11:25 PM on June 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

I love the youtube comment "lol americans relax take it easy"

Indeed.
posted by symbioid at 11:30 PM on June 9, 2010 [2 favorites]

This was invented by Israelis, who know a thing or two about successful hostage rescues. The YouTube video clearly features Israelis, and the phone number at the end is in Israel.

You're welcome.
posted by yiftach at 11:46 PM on June 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

yiftach, how on Earth can you tell anything about the nationality of the actors in the video?
posted by Dysk at 2:56 AM on June 10, 2010

Can't believe they obviously spent so much money on developing the product, and then on the main product page on their website - surely a key way of communicating what this product is and how it works - it says, amongst other things, ";(re) configered windows", "emergancy exits" and "system ,based on unique". Very reassuring.
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 3:08 AM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Great. Descending a burning building packed in a Jiffy Pop container.
posted by hal9k at 3:52 AM on June 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

sideshow: "Terrorist 1: So, is the SWAT team in the elevator pod thingy?

Terrorist 2: Yep

Terrorist 1: Blow up the cables then.

SWAT Team: /dies>"

Possibly, but if were a Michael Bay movie, the bad guys would have anticipated this device as part of their cunning plot, and either disabled it to make the good guys look inept, or rigged it to blow to smithereens the moment it is loaded with SWAT guys.

All to ensure that someone in the audience will say, "No, don't go in there!"
posted by bwg at 5:06 AM on June 10, 2010

I think the problem with this is that people who are late for meetings will use them to avoid elevator crunches, then they will be all in the wrong places when the terrorists attack.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:09 AM on June 10, 2010

I was just in a meeting the other day where we discussed the overwhelming lack of workable products to help people with disabilities evacuate a highrise in an emergency.

Code requires an evacuation point...a fire rated waiting area where wheelchair users or whomever can sit and wait for rescue...good times! It's also a requirement that these businesses/buildings have a person or team dedicated to assisting these people exfil, but in an "OMG teh building is on fire!" situation, people tend to sprint past the dude or lady in the wheelchair and run down the stairs screaming. Roops.

There are some pretty nifty electric stair walking machines and whatnot, self evacuators and such, but they're slooooow and expensive, $10k+ each.
posted by TomMelee at 5:43 AM on June 10, 2010

"In an "OMG teh building is on fire!" situation, people tend to sprint past the dude or lady in the wheelchair and run down the stairs screaming"

I wonder if that's true? People _love_ to play hero and nothing gets you hero status like rescuing an old lady in a wheelchair. I'd risk my life to save someone in a wheelchair, if only for the chance to get a reality TV show and a chance to meet Anderson Cooper.
posted by pjaust at 6:02 AM on June 10, 2010

Christ, can you imagine how grisly it would be if the top wires snapped and the entire thing came crashing down?
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:11 AM on June 10, 2010

I hope they someday rebrand this as "The Human Centipede".
posted by munchingzombie at 6:41 AM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

At least this appears to solve the massive problem of high building hijacking.

Beats a parachute, at least.
posted by warbaby at 8:02 AM on June 10, 2010

pjaust, there's a big difference between how your hero scenario plays out in your head and in real life.

There are examples of people just grabbing folks out of wheelchairs and running down stairs, only to 1, hurt them really badly (better than death, I guess), drop them, get exhausted and leave them in the stairs, etc.

But yes, it's an issue. Happens all the time, in fact.
posted by TomMelee at 8:18 AM on June 10, 2010

If I was a terrorist I'd just station one or two people with guns at the entrances and pick off the SWAT team members as they come into the building. I mean, it's not exactly like that thing is a stealth operation - it's huge and obvious. Awesome video, though!
posted by mygothlaundry at 9:46 AM on June 10, 2010

Well presumably it's harder to control the entrances when intruders are using this ad hoc entry system and could come in a bunch of different ways. Staffing and discipline problem.
posted by grobstein at 9:50 AM on June 10, 2010

Yeah, I looked at it again and it could more or less go anywhere, assuming, that is, that there are windows that conveniently open soundlessly from the outside anywhere on the building. So put one terrorist on the roof to take out the SWAT guy rescue forkift driver. How did the SWAT team get to the roof in the first place so they could deploy the giant collapsing freight elevator thingie anyway? And is learning to push the right buttons to deploy it standard training? It had better be or that thing is going straight up to the sky instead of down over the building, which would work because then the terrorists would probably fall over laughing, thus allowing the inexplicable children in that one shot to quickly eliminate them with rubber bands.

I showed this to my teenage son and we got way too into analyzing it, I confess.
posted by mygothlaundry at 11:24 AM on June 10, 2010

Brother Dysk: "yiftach, how on Earth can you tell anything about the nationality of the actors in the video?"

1. The guys playing the baddies carry themselves in a way and have haircuts that are standard issue IDF (not sure if you can pick up the ability to spot things like this without being a veteran; I am, so I can). Also some of the "hostages" - the guy at 0:54 stands out for me, but there are others.

2. The few words of dialogue that are audible are (to my ears) Hebrew-accented English. The "Go!" at 0:37 stands out for me.

All that said, I already knew this was an Israeli invention when I watched the video artof.mulata linked to (I'd seen a demo video - not the YouTube one - when it originally hit the market around '04 or so), so maybe that influenced my viewing/hearing. But I don't think so.
posted by yiftach at 12:26 PM on June 10, 2010

Also, to back up yiftach's explanation, check out the meta tags in the code view. One of them is "Israeli Engineered". FWIW.
posted by stagewhisper at 3:53 PM on June 10, 2010