Somewhere, law enforcement people have been told that balloons are deadly. It's the only explanation I could see for the behavior of the cops around the balloon when it landed. Somebody might have mentioned the Hindenberg to them.

You look at the films, and the balloon plops down in an open field. Obviously, the mission here is to make sure it doesn't take off again, or blow away.

The cops surround it. They touch it like it's some kind of bomb, if they touch it at all. It almost looks like each of them wants the other guy to be the one to deal with The Deadly Balloon.

I was yelling at the screen. "Good Lord, grab the damn thing in your hands and tear a hole in it to let the helium out. Worst thing that can happen to you is you're going to squeak in front of all your macho pals."

Somebody starts hitting it with shovels, and what looked like a pitchfork(!) at one point. This is when they still think there's a kid in there! You'd think they were dealing with The Blob.

Of course, this was the first chance I'd had to see the actual size of the balloon, and it was at this point that I began to realize that it was pretty small to carry off a kid.