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I noticed something the other night as my kids were watching Thor. Every time they show the crystal bridge leading to the Bifrost chamber, it's got flowing water underneath it. The water flows right up to the edge of where the chamber is and then falls off into the void of stars beneath Asgard. There is no part of the bridge that ISN'T over water.

At the end of the film, Thor and Loki are fighting on the crystal bridge, and it appears that they're a good distance from the Bifrost chamber - probably 30, 40 feet or more. However, when Thor starts smashing the bridge and Loki falls off one side, he's suddenly hanging above the starry void and NOT flowing water.

Is this a continuity snafu within the film or did I miss something? How did that portion of bridge get the void under it and not water?

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  • 49
    You were supposed to be watching the fight.
    – Valorum
    Dec 11, 2014 at 22:07
  • 3
    I don't have access to the movie right now, but I think the implication was that the Bifrost explosion blew away a portion of the cliffside.
    – Nerrolken
    Dec 11, 2014 at 22:18
  • 1
    Loki's secret hideout!
    – Möoz
    Dec 12, 2014 at 0:14
  • 3
    @Richard - true, but after a dozen viewings or more you start to notice other things.
    – Omegacron
    Dec 12, 2014 at 14:58

2 Answers 2

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Loki fell off into the Sea of Space, an area off the edge of the city of Asgard. That region lies between the Nine Worlds.

enter image description here

  • Asgard is surrounded by water. Multiple shots establish this. It is magical water because it flows off of the surface of the realm in a grand waterfall. Since the Asgardians do not worry about running out of water, it must be magically or technologically restored somehow. You can see the Bifrost running through the center of Asgard, below.

enter image description here

  • We do know that the Bifrost Projector sits at the very edge of the realm where the waterfall gives way to the Sea of Space (as it is called on early Marvel Maps of Asgard).

enter image description here

  • A more up to date map used in the development of the 3D imagery for the Thor movies, places Heimdall's observatory at the very edge of the water surrounding Asgard.

enter image description here

When Thor breaks the Bifrost, they are right outside of the observatory already effectively at the edge of Asgard. The loss of the bridge which sustained the observatory cause the observatory and the ground beneath it to tumble into the Sea of Space (the void around Asgard). It isn't a vary great distance and external shots of the Observatory show the edge of the realm is right underneath it.

enter image description here

  • This final shot confirms what we suspect, that the area Loki fell off of was over the Sea of Space.

enter image description here

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    Wow. Hard choice between this answer and Keen's. But then... maps.
    – Omegacron
    Dec 12, 2014 at 14:59
63

What's under the crystal bridge in Asgard?

Water, until you reach the edge of Asgard, and then there's space or void or some sort of nothing.

Is this a continuity snafu within the film or did I miss something? How did that portion of bridge get the void under it and not water?

The Bifrost device was built on a little artificial island on the edge of Asgard. When the bridge was broken, this resulted in a massive explosion:

exploding Rainbow Bridge

A good chunk of land then falls into the void, including the Bifrost device and the island it was on. This moved the edge of the 'land' beneath the water to be further inland, which then set things up so Loki could fall from that spot into the void.

You can see this by looking at the area from above. The water falls away in a concave arc, instead of the convex arc you'd expect from the rim of Asgard.

Edge of Asgard where Bifrost was

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    I upvoted - your answer is correct and it has that awesome GIF of the explosion. But Thaddeus edged you out with those beautiful maps.
    – Omegacron
    Dec 12, 2014 at 15:00
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    It seems the bridge must be made of much stronger stuff than the land: the explosion is centred on the bridge yet it destroys a larger area of the land below allowing the bridge to extend over the void.
    – wunth
    Nov 5, 2015 at 3:19

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