Film Theory: Willy Wonka and the Golden Ticket SCAM! (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)

Warning This episode of

film

theory

is not safe for work. Oh wait, you thought I meant it was full of naked people or violence or bad language, right? No, no, no, I mean, today we're talking about Willy Wonka and his

chocolate

factory

. And no, when I say

chocolate

factory

, I don't mean it as some kind of weird insinuation. Get your minds out of the gutter, people! Hello Internet, welcome to Film Theory Your

golden

ticket

to a ruined childhood Today's video hits close to home for me, because we are talking about one of my favorite children's movies of all time;

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Sure, when I was a kid, I thought Wonka's Factory was the coolest place to visit. I mean, there are mushrooms you can make whipped cream and eat in the main building. Knock down some of the candy on that tree. Nom nom nom. But now that I'm an adult and have people working for me, I see it as the horribly unsafe sweatshop that it is. In fact, it's so unsafe that it would be literally illegal to produce a single chocolate bar from it. So get ready to melt those childhood dreams and send them into the chocolate river of disappointment.

Because not only does Mr. William Wonka have one of the most illegal factories on the entire planet, but even worse, I can prove to you that he really knows it. 'There's no earthly way to know' Yes, there's Wonka You've been fooling us for too long, my friend And today I'm exposing the grand conspiracy of your

golden

ticket

giveaway Like nougat inside a scrumdiddlyumptious bar So loyal theorists are prepare to come with me And you'll be In a world of OSHA violations In case you're not up to date with a super gooey factory That's Wonka's Chocolate Factory Here's the quick summary: (*Deep breath*) The eccentric genius manufacturer of candy Willy Wonka Runs a chocolate factory with SpaceX security levels 'Nobody ever gets in, 'Nobody ever gets out'.

To protect your candy-making secrets from your sticky-fingered competitors who, for some reason, don't seem to realize that all you have to do is mix cocoa powder with butter, sugar and vanilla. Seriously, Slugworth. There just aren't that many ingredients in chocolate. Maybe sprinkle on some nuts or caramel if you're feeling dangerous. In both versions of the movie The Modern, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as well as the much superior original version, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which is the one I'm going to focus on for this

theory

, Wonka opens his doors until five. lucky children who have begged, borrowed and stolen to get one of their five golden tickets as they tour the factory We, as the movie-going public, observe firsthand the incredible wonders and dangers that Wonka has plagued everywhere And these don't They are just some small problems that make life in the factory uncomfortable.

These are either Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations or OSHA violations. They are illegal. They endanger life. And they are everywhere. And here's the interesting thing about OSHA violations. They don't just come with a pinky finger and a couple of demerits on your business owner's report card. They come with fines. Huge fines. And enough of them will be able to go out of business forever. So, let's find out how big the legal bill Willy Wonka racked up for himself. 'The suspense is terrible...' 'I hope it lasts.' The first violation seemed pretty small, but it will give you an idea of ​​what business owners face in the real world when trying to create a safe work environment for their employees.

See if you can see it in this clip 'Hey, the room is getting smaller!' 'No it's not, it's getting bigger!' Did you catch that one? 'Inside this room', 'All my dreams come true'. Do you know what else will come true for you? A huge fine. Code of Regulations 29 Part. 1910 Subpart E Item 37i OSHA says all ceilings must be seven feet six inches or higher. This is specifically for fire safety, in case the exit must be used as an emergency exit. But think. This is where we are starting. If Wonka gets a ticket for the height of a measly hallway, then you know old Willy's in for a long night.

Or a long episode of

film

theory. Next, the chocolate room. The centerpiece of my childhood dreams and my current dreams. And the horrible nightmares of an OSHA agent. In this scene you will see Veruca Salt cut herself by a rock in the room. Well, it turns out that that was real blood and the actress who played her, Julie Dawn Cole, still has a scar from that on-set injury she got. one of the jagged rocks that were used as a prop on the set. A work accident in the movies As well as a work accident in the factory.

That's good number two. There are some other pedantic things here to find, including the stairs the Oompa-Loompas walked up. Those are below the 22-inch minimum width required by building codes and have no vertical railing. So that's the fine number. three and four. But hey, I hear you, A small cut A small railing A small hallway Come on, that kind of thing can be fixed in a day. So who cares? Well, first of all, who should care is the business owner. Because all those things may be small for you but result in big fines. Thousands of dollars for small infractions like that.

And we're just getting started. Let's go to the big ones Like the chocolate river. First, there is food circulating in an open-air factory. That's a big strike there. The workers around her are also not wearing protective or sterile clothing. And literally anyone who touches chocolate contaminates the entire supply, as Augustus so kindly shows us. 'Do not do that!' 'You're polluting my entire river!' Pollute the whole river, says Wonka How can he not close his factory to clean up The sweaty boy floating in the chocolate So here we have no guardrails No protective clothing Working with contaminated food And not cleaning up those contaminations All of this is OSHA violations for basic safety With the problem of contamination Getting some nice extra scrutiny from the Food and Drug Administration And as a fun fact, if Augustus' germ-ridden body actually made someone sick with a chocolate bar on the other end, Wonka would be responsible for the fines. about $350,000 at the time of the film's release Or about $1.5 million in today's terms, per sick person Since we have no way of knowing the consequences of Augustus' chocolate bath We can't really count them But they would be literally enough to close the factory if they happen to send those contaminated chocolate bars.

That said, we're still not done with the violations we can count in this room, which includes the fact that someone once falls into the chocolate river. They are sucked into a huge pipe without a filter. 'That's it,' 'Now, the suction channel.' Possibly leading to drowning and suffocation. And if you survive all that, there's still a good chance you'll be boiled alive. "Look carefully," "Or your little boy might be thrown into the cauldron." So strike down the unfiltered pipe. An additional strike due to lack of safety protocol. Moving further into the film, we survive a traumatizing boat trip which, surprisingly, is one of the safest things in this entire film.

In some ways, it's really good. But don't worry, we're about to reach Wonka's secret invention room. The place where sweets and demands are made. First of all, all those steaming tubs are violations of OSHA's rules on hot dishes in the workplace. Reference Number 1910.261(k)(11) "All exposed steam and hot water pipes within 7 feet of the floor must be covered with an insulating material or protected" And you guessed it Every tub or pipe counts as a separate violation So, Uh, let's see here. We have eight of those. Oh, and there are no railings again. Do you think you're clever, Willy?

This is simply laziness. Oh, and there are live bees in this room. So yes. That counts too. And lastly, there also seems to be a complete lack of safety equipment everywhere. Unless, of course, you count the Mickey Mouse-style oompa-loompa cloth gloves. 'Shouldn't you wear rubber gloves?' "You love that the Eltons came here." "You know that, oh yeah." You're right, Mr. Salt. He would have been a good film theorist. OSHA code 1910.132(a) requires that “protective equipment, including personal protective equipment for the eyes, face, head, and extremities, be provided for use and maintenance” in any situation involving food or chemicals.

And we know that many chemicals used in this room are well, to put it mildly, 'dangerous' 'Violet!' 'You're turning purple, Violet!' The next workplace hazard is in the soda room where Charlie and Grandpa Joe float away and are nearly cut to pieces by the fan blades at the top of the room. As you just said Now here's the thing A fan on top of a room that high is not a violation But OSHA could still book Wonka for negligence in making the room with the deadly ceiling the same room with the soda that makes you float If you read the book, the movie is based on Wonka he even mentions that some untied Oompa-Loompas made him float in the blue But we'll just let them slide Because we're focused on the on-screen versions But you're still a person horrible, Willy Wonka Moving on We get to see Veruca's shining moment with the golden geese Where she ruins a ticket jackpot See all those boxes collapsing on the Oompa-Loompas?

Well, that's right, OSHA has regulations against stacking boxes too high. In fact, anything stacked higher than five feet has to be secured so it doesn't fall. As you see here in the scene. So we got a strike for each height. stack you see in the room conservatively. Conservatively, I'm going to say it's about 13. Then, of course, we have the famous moment where Veruca steps on the egg gauge and falls down the garbage chute into the oven. Yes, that's another handful of security breaches. No railings An open chute to the oven And again, one rape for each egg indicator So, that's at least four separate strikes But hey, now we're down to two kids So, how many rapes could there be left in this movie, right?

Oh, so many. Let's start with what happens when you cover people in soap and send them to a car wash. Exposing people to chemicals. Including most soaps, such as dishwashing detergent, is an OSHA violation at the highest amounts. And they are also in a moving vehicle. no seat belts So that's a strike for everyone Also on a fun note These violations also happened in real life During the filming of this same scene where they covered everyone in soap The entire cast swelled up from all that irritation from the detergent. It took days of medical treatment to get the cast back to normal AND back on set So yes, there are actually reasons for all these stupid rules to exist Imagine Last on our tour We started mixing food violations with electricity What could go wrong over there?

Well, even though they have safety equipment and are not exposed to chemicals. Unfortunately, Wonka is still committing a violation for violating occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals in the laboratory standard Reference 29 CFR 1910.1450, which specifically covers laboratories where This type of research and development is carried out. that a small child can operate a huge ray gun without any safety protocols in place. That's a blow. And seriously, Wonka GUARD RAILS. Railings will help a lot here. So are we done with this death trap yet? Almost. Although our factory tour ends, we get one more extra strike for good measure with our visit to the big 'It's an Elevator' glass elevator. "It's a Wonkavator." Which has nothing to stop him from crashing into the glass ceiling of the factory.

So let's just impose an extra violation or three for everyone on that 'WoNkAvAtOr' elevator. And with that our grand total reaches 60 OSHA violations. And that's just what you can see in the movie. 60 is very conservative. Now, like I said at the beginning of this episode, Wonka better sell those chocolate bars. Because each of those violations comes with a fine. But now, of course, we come to the real question: How much will those fines cost? Well, according to OSHA "Any employer who intentionally or repeatedly violates the requirements of this Act may be assessed a civil penalty of not more than $70,000 for each violation, but not less than $5,000 for each willful violation." And it's important to mention that these are the guidelines from 1971, when the original Wonka movie was released and set.

In current figures, that equates to between $31,000 and $436,000 per violation.individual. At the lowest level, Wonka faces a price tag of $1.86 million. And at the highest level, he is shelling out a whopping 26.1. millions in today's dollars Again, just from the 60 OSHA violations that we see in the 6, 7, 8 rooms that we go through. Now obviously a range of $5,000 to $70,000 is huge. What determines which end of the spectrum you are on is your past history and whether it seems like you, as a business owner, just made a mistake or whether you really don't care about the safety of your workplace.

So, would OSHA have mercy on Willy Wonka? ? *MatPat laughs hysterically* The short answer is DEFINITELY NO. They take into account things like the severity of the violation, which in our case includes violations like child-sized pipes to a boiler room in the furnace, as well as the exposure of children and workers to chemicals that turn them into blueberries. It's also a small company. It's likely to get off the hook much easier than a multinational mega chocolate factory. So Wonka has no case to make here because he ships to literally every continent. We see it in the coverage of the golden ticket.

And when it comes to showing a good faith effort to keep things going. sure Well, let's just say Wonka has a bad track record there too. He's not even good at pretending 'Stop, don't do it, come back.' 'Helen. please, ???' In conclusion. Mr. Wonka We, film theorists, OSHA investigators, find you guilty on all charges. And let's be realistic. Probably dozens more that we don't see in his 90 minute movie. You, sir, are looking right into the eyes of that $26.1 million fine or $4.2 million in 1971 terms. And if all of you watching at home right now think it's bad, don't even I've finished.

You see, the thing about safety inspectors is that they don't just show up once they fine you and then leave When they fine you They also give you an order to fix any problems the inspector has discovered When the inspector returns If they discover that you still Yes you have not solved the problems, they will fine you again. This is called failure to reduce and that results in its own fine. You pay the same fines again for each day your factory did not comply. So $4.2 million, adjusted for inflation, isn't just a one-time fee. Here's how much Mr.

Wonka would pay per day while all those problems remain unsolved. That's $182 million a week adjusted for inflation and $9.5 billion for one year of default. In comparison, Hershey's current revenue is approximately $7.421 billion per year. Which would put the Willy Wonka factory in complete bankruptcy in a matter of months. But and here is the biggest butt of all my friends. This is no surprise to Willy Wonka. No, in fact, He knows all of these violations better than anyone. You see the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The legislation that created OSHA in the first place. It was passed in 1970.

It came into effect in 1971. The exact same year as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. is established And the year it hit theaters with the establishment of OSHA laws in 1970, Willy Wonka realized pretty quickly that his factory wouldn't be long for this world given the way he runs it and how dangerous it is. for everyone inside. Such is Wonka's decision to open his factory to five lucky children. A decision that seems to come out of nowhere in the movie 'Willy Wonka opens his factory. He's going to let people in!' 'Sure?' In reality, he is not motivated by a desire to do good or even to pass on his love for the secrets of making chocolate and sweets as if it were a legacy.

No, it's to unleash a business dumpster fire on a poor, vulnerable, unsuspecting child before Wonka himself gets hit. all these fines Charlie, who comes out of poverty And thinks he has won the lottery with his golden ticket He thinks he is inheriting Wonka's fortune But the truth is that he is actually inheriting Willy Wonka's enormous legal problems And billions of dollars in debt. He's not the purest of heart or the kindest or whatever. He's just the biggest fool and kid in the most desperate situation that Wonka can take advantage of to escape OSHA and a lifetime of corporate debt.

But hey, that's just a theory; A movie theory And I know it's a little disappointing That all our candy-covered dreams have been destroyed by this episode But if you're looking for a much sweeter deal than just five golden tickets Well, then check out our partner for the episode today Dollar Shave Club Yeah, I already use razors You've heard me talk about them And you know those things are cool But they'll keep your body from stinking in the big glass elevator Or they won't reach your mouth clean After eating too many delicious bars And that's why Dollar Shave Club is no longer just the shaving club.

They have expanded into everything from toothpaste to hair styling products. So, you know you'll look and feel better, whether you're being popped like a blueberry or sucked into a boiler room. They should be renamed after the dollar. Looking good. Feel good. Club. Anyway. Imagine if these kids had used one of your fantastic products. If only Augustus had used that buttery smooth shave. then shoom He won't get stuck in that pipe He's shooting through that thing like a rocket Smooth as butter like a baby's butt And I'll tell you what Veruca is going to have a mess down there After her brush with a boiler room of death Well she can take care of that mess in one wipe With a Dollar Shave Club A white Charlie Butt wipe And here's the best part You don't need to be a spoiled rich kid to afford it So don't be Veruca Join the club for just $5 at DollarShaveClub.com/FilmTheory F I L M T E O R Y O you know Simply save yourself the hassle and click the link in the top line of the description New members will receive your first month of the Essential Daily Starter Kit For just $5 So you can Try many of the new products I just mentioned See how great they are and decide which ones you want to keep conveniently showing up on your doorstep every month If only everything in life were so sweet Remember, that's DollarShaveClub.com/ FilmTheory Click the link Below you will get a golden ticket to personal hygiene.

Click on it.