Magnolia - Rain of Frogs
A rain of animals is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which flightless animals fall from the sky. Such occurrences have been reported in many countries throughout history. One hypothesis is that tornadic waterspouts sometimes pick up creatures such as fish or frogs, and carry them for up to several miles. Rain of flightless animals and things has been reported throughout history. In the first century AD, Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder documented storms of frogs and fish. In 1794, French soldiers saw toads fall from the sky during heavy rain at Lalain, near the French city of Lille. Rural inhabitants in Yoro, Honduras claim ‘fish rain’ happens there every summer, a phenomenon they call Lluvia de Peces.
The cause of frog rain in general is less mysterious, although still a bit of a brow-furrower at times. It’s also just as gross as many of us imagine. That final scene in the 1999 film “Magnolia,” which left most movie goers jaw-droppingly disgusted and a little impressed, is apparently a pretty accurate portrayal of the phenomenon, according to newspaper accounts. The climactic moment of Magnolia is evidently a nod to the Bible passage, and Anderson leaves Easter eggs that allude to it throughout the film. A billboard reads “Exodus 8:2” on the side of the road after the first frog falls, a poster referencing the same verse is held up by an audience member at a quiz show, and even little nods to the number 82 are present in weather broadcasts, phone numbers, and many more spots noticeable only to the careful. The ultimate intention in casting a storm of frogs upon Egypt in Exodus is to express the total power of God, and emphasize the complete surrender required to be a successful person and a person of faith. The threat of frogs in Exodus explicitly invades every element of a person’s life: their community, their family, their bedroom, their kitchen, and, of course, their psyche. And, in the end, the burden of the storm is so traumatic to the Pharaoh that he ends up yielding to the Lord and obeying his command. For now, Exodus’s frog storm has restored divine order in Egypt.
Frogs can travel tremendous distances in the vortex of a waterspout. Waterspouts can move across hundreds or thousands of miles, although that’s extremely rare. It’s more common for frogs to travel just a few miles before they fall to the ground. But it’s when the frogs, fish and other water animals hit the ground that things really get gross. It’s unlikely they survive the journey, what with the speeding low-pressure vortex and the impact once that vortex dissolves. Usually, the frogs die, although it’s unclear when exactly that happens during the trip or as a result of the fall. However, sometimes the frogs luck out. When it rained frogs in a small town in Serbia in 2005, people walked outside after the storm to see their streets blanketed in frogs trying to hop their way back to water.
