Linnet Ridgeway-Doyle (Gal Gadot) claims that she and her guests have “enough champagne to fill the Nile!” in Death On The Nile, leading one to wonder how much champagne it would actually take. However, a thorough study has since revealed (via Vulture) that they do not–which is a shame, because Linnet sounds so confident, even tossing a filled champagne flute over her shoulder to prove her point. It was a dramatic moment to underscore the glamour of her lifestyle, but not exactly accurate.
Kenneth Branagh’s latest is his second Agatha Christie adaptation; Murder on the Orient Express came out in 2017 to great success. This time, Death on the Nile finds the intrepid investigator Hercule Poirot trying to enjoy some relaxing time away from work on a Nile riverboat cruise on the S.S. Karnak. His intended vacation is upended when one of the guests is murdered, and it’s up to Poirot to deduce who among them is the culprit. As with all Agatha Christie stories, the cast is an eclectic mix of strangers, almost all either wealthy or eccentric in some way. But none are wealthier than Linnet Ridgeway-Doyle, one of the richest heiresses in all of England.
However, despite Linnet’s declaration, it would obviously take far more champagne to fill the Nile than what fits on the Karnak. Linnet and the rest of the Death on the Nile cast should consider that the Nile is one of the longest rivers in the world, and that, unlike the champagne in a champagne flute, it is flowing constantly, eventually rushing into the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately, it is unclear how much water was in the Nile in 1937, which is when Death On The Nile takes place. The modern Nile, however, flows at an average volume of 300 million cubic meters, or 79.2 billion gallons, per day. Because there is no set amount of water, and the Nile is constantly being filled and pouring out into the sources of water that feed it, new champagne would need to be regularly poured in. This definitely complicates Linnet’s task. Presumably, Linnet does not want to be throwing champagne into the Nile continuously and for eternity in order to account for the constant flowing of the river. If she could find a way to turn the Nile into essentially a closed-off, 4,132-mile-long bathtub, though, she’d need about 79.2 billion gallons of champagne to fill it.
Luckily Linnet is fabulously wealthy (Gal Gadot even wore the famed Tiffany Diamond in the movie), but even she would likely balk at building a colossal dam on each side of the Nile. Or many dams, since the geography of the Nile Delta would probably require multiple dams even just on one end. She would then have to drain the river entirely. Because of the barrier of entry caused by the dams, no water would flow in and out of the Nile, solving the problem of constant flow. The river would now be an enormous, still basin, with almost 80 billion gallons of champagne required to fill it.
Of course, none of this would be ethical, and the completion of this experiment would partially depend on how many atrocities Linnet–or some other eccentric person who doesn’t know what to do with their money–would be willing to commit in the name of science. Sadly, Death on the Nile‘s ending renders this question about the champagne somewhat moot. Poirot should have realized that murder wasn’t the only mystery haunting Death On The Nile.
