Can it get faster?

Nurse Dave,
I just saw Fast Five with Paul Walker and Vin Diesel. At one point in the movie they ride a car off a two hundred foot cliff and at some point in the fall they both jump out of the car to dive into water. Could someone actually survive a fall like that?
Karl, Oslo, Norway

Interesting thought Karl. I recently learned that it was popular for men to try to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge when it was first constructed. Survival from this jump was pretty dicey. Some guys made it and some didn't. The first guy to try it died when he hit the water 135 feet below. Others were knocked unconscious and had to be saved by boats in the water. One guy claimed to do it without anyone seeing him and then opened up a successful restaurant based on the fact that he jumped. So really with falls of that height it is going to be pretty much up to the individual.

Now with a 200 foot fall the likelihood of survival becomes even less but that's when you have to factor in who is falling. You're talking about Paul Walker and Vin Diesel. Obviously they can handle it. Vin Diesel is a guy that can jump a motorcycle 40 feet into the air without even trying. Paul Walker is a determined man that won't let countless obstacles stop him from finding his dogs, you think a two hundred foot fall is going to stop him? Come on get serious.

The thing is Karl you've got to watch the rest of Fast Five and then you can begin to understand that surviving a 200 hundred foot fall is pretty pedestrian for these guys. These guys steal police cars and then drag race them for fun. These guys not only hook a massive safe to the back of two sports cars but are able to use that safe to destroy any police cars trying to stop them. These guys rob the worse drug dealer in Brazil because of some kind of grudge I didn't really understand. These guys can escape being chained to a ceiling by making sure that any bullet shot at them won't hit them but will instead break the chains they are bound with. These guys live life a 1/4 mile at a time. Survival isn't going to be an issue for Paul and Vin. The issue is going to be where can they find a higher cliff.

In conclusion Fast Five is an amazing film. You'd think that you'd get bored with the movie after it gets past the 2 hour mark but they just keep reeling you in. You've got the action scenes (using a dune buggy to rob cars from a speeding train). You've got the emotional scenes (Vin and Paul discussing their fathers on a balcony). You've got the surprises (SPOILER ALERT - Paul's girlfriend throws up within the first ten minutes of the movie and in hollywood that can only mean one thing, she's pregnant). All that plus you throw in the Rock who happens to have some of the funniest lines in movie (although I don't think the humor was intentional). Plus they bring the whole gang back together (I will spend money on anything with Ludacris in it). I'm glad you saw the movie Karl and I would encourage everyone else to see it as well. Oh and a hint to everybody, if you stay for all the credits you might get a secret scene indicating what the plot of Fast Six will be about (its going to involve fast cars, hot women and a drug kingpin).