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This context comes from the movie "The Passengers". It's a sci-fi movie in which a couple of people travel on a giant spaceship to colonize a planet. It's an enormous ship that is more of a flying city than a ship. During the course of the journey it malfunctions and different amenities are starting to fail. They are trying to determine the cause of the problem and reach a conclusion that a major power surge in the past was causing all the subsequent failures over time.

"A major system went down somewhere. Everything else is trying to pick up the load, but the load's too heavy."

I know that "load" means:

the amount of work to be done by a person or machine. "Arthur has a light teaching load"

I can't find any relevant definition for the phrase "pick up" that would fit this context.

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  • I’m surprised I can’t easily find definitions to reference either. Take it as comparable to “take up]”: “ to accept or adopt for the purpose of assisting”
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Aug 12 at 15:34
  • Does "load" in this context mean "the amount of work to be done? In the beginning of the movie "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" there is a scene in which Brad Pitt who's a stunt double of a character played by Leo Dicaprio says that he "carries his load". Is this similar? That would mean doing some amout of work that the other person or machine would do?
    – Static Bounce
    Commented Aug 12 at 15:42
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    Standard electrical power supply language. Let's say there are a certain number of generation plants supplying a 'load' (a town, a street, a factory, a spaceship, whatever) and one stops working, either totally or partly, the others will pick up the load, assuming they are not already at maximum output, and power systems are usually designed to allow for some failures and transfers of load.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Aug 12 at 15:43
  • Load is measured in (kilo/mega) Watts.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Aug 12 at 15:44
  • @MichaelHarvey So the "load" in this context is actually the amount of electricity supplied by a generating system at any given time. Is that right?
    – Static Bounce
    Commented Aug 12 at 15:51

2 Answers 2

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I. Electrical load and redundancy explanation.
Most of us are aware that a jet has two engines, so that if one engine fails the pilot can land safely with the help of the other engine. (The jet is allowed to fly only if both the engines are in working condition.) The same concept is applied for various systems in a spacecraft or spaceship (called redundancy explained below)
The explanation is technical as one has to understand how safety is designed in a spacecraft or spaceship.
Here the meaning of load is Electrical load.

An electrical load refers to the measure of the total amount of electricity required to operate an appliance, the lights or outlets.
Redundancy in design.
One of the most common ways to prevent spacecraft system failures is to design for redundancy. This means having backup components, subsystems, or systems that can take over the function of the primary ones in case of a malfunction. For example, most spacecraft have multiple power sources, such as solar panels, batteries, and fuel cells, that can provide electricity in different scenarios. Redundancy can also be achieved by having different modes of operation, such as low-power or safe mode, that can reduce the demand on the system and preserve its functionality. https://www.linkedin.com/advice/3/how-do-you-prevent-spacecraft-system-failures?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&utm_campaign=share_via

II. Dialogue from sci-fi movie "The Passengers"

A major system went down somewhere. Everything else is trying to pick up the load, but the load's too heavy."

It means that a major system has failed and other systems are trying to share the load but they are unable to do it. In such a case everything would collapse unless some emergency measures were taken.

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    My father was an electrical engineer, in charge of the supply to a large part of London. In winter, when home heating loads went up, if there was a combination of events, e.g. a power plant going down, and a big cable fault on the grid, the power company did something called 'load shedding' which was to disconnect whole areas for an hour at a time, in rotation. The alternative was dim lights and power trips.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Aug 12 at 19:22
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    @MichaelHarvey We had regular load shedding and low voltage problems before .The latter damages the equipment. A voltage stabilizer is a must for a refrigerator. Thankfully the situation has improved now.
    – James Mathai
    Commented Aug 13 at 1:58
  • Indeed and doesn't that seem far too specific? Have you not been distracted by the example co-incidentally being an electrical load. It could be any kind of work; as bradimus says below, it could be a weight.
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Aug 17 at 18:44
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Think of the load being a large weight that needs to be moved. Everything else is trying to lift (pick up) the weight, but it is too heavy.

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  • Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.
    – Community Bot
    Commented Aug 12 at 21:01
  • @Community Bot Undoubtedly, but why would bradimus' Answer need any improvement? Was it not complete and quite sufficient in itself?
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Aug 17 at 18:42

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