You know what's stupid?

[Zero]

When someone falls out of a plane, or off a building or they're in a falling elevator or something, and they miraculously get saved by the hero about three feet off the ground, or he catches the elevator at the bottom of the shaft. How the fuck does that extra five feet help dispel 5 stories or 10,000 ft of velocity build up? Explain that to me. Because I'm a robot from the future and it makes no sense to me.

[Diabolical]

Yeah, or when Spidey swoops down or Superman flies down at super speed and yanks some jackhole out of dangers way. These people should be dead (like being hit by a bus) or very seriously hurt (from a whiplash type of injury) also.

[vynsane]

it's all about how fast the change in direction is. a sudden impact will be fatal, whereas a slowed down impact will lessen the amount of force exerted on the person.

in the case of an elevator failure, if emergency brakes come on it slows the car down as opposed to a dead sudden stop like hitting the bottom of the shaft. a person inside might exhibit a broken leg or something, but would be a lot better off than in the alternative scenario. in the same vein, superman should either slow down the descent from above or somehow cushion the blow from below by exerting a force that is less than fatal. whether the occupant can walk out with minor bumps and bruises or breaks a leg or something is determined by how little time superman has to slow down the elevator car. the more time, the more gradual the deceleration, and vice versa.

with spider-man swinging, once again, it's all about how fast or gradual the change in direction is. if he swings in a wide arc toward the falling victim, lets go of his web to match the velocity of the faller, grabs him and then shoots a web in to finish his arc, it shouldn't disrupt the momentum of the faller enough to cause more than broken ribs, if that.

[Diabolical]

Spidey is typically swinging fast enough to grab and save someone from being squished from a large falling object, so I'd assume he'd have to be moving pretty damn fast.