Posted on 09/07/2014 12:25:41 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows
Everybody knows action movies are fake, but that doesn't change the fact that they're responsible for approximately 100 percent of our education on the subject of guns and combat. That's why the average person's knowledge of those things is hilariously, sometimes fatally, wrong.
To sort out fact from fiction, we interviewed two decorated combat veterans who also have experience working in Hollywood. Matt Wagner is a former Army Ranger who saw combat all over the world, including Africa, South America, and Afghanistan, then was a technical consultant for a number of Hollywood productions, including Stargate SG-1 and The Colt. Jerry McFakename (not his real name) was a private military and security contractor who worked throughout Central and South America and spent time as a stuntman and fight choreographer. They told us ...
(Excerpt) Read more at cracked.com ...
Bullets going through leaves on trees is an interesting sound, at least if there is a lot of them.
Yes, bullets make noise passing by and you hear that noise before you hear the report from the shell. I haven’t been in combat, but have been downrange in the middle of nowhere when someone else lit off.
That was scary as hell, but not near as bad as when an A-10 snuck up and that minigun went off within a 1/4 mile—serious brown pants day! And yes, an area the size of a football field is swiss cheese before your mind catches up to your ears.
Pilots think it’s funny as hell to mess with range personnel. Ba$tardz!
Explosions do the same thing—shrapnel can travel far ahead of the sound wave. A half casing from a 2000 pounder makes a distinctive sound when headed toward you. The worst part is you know that by the time you hear something, it’s too late to do anything—you automatically run and try to hide, but there’s no way to outrun it or get behind something quickly enough. Lol
I also count the variation which isn't exactly this stupid, but still pretty bad, where the cops gather right outside the apartment door of a bad guy, and then cock the gun, once again for dramatic effect. But everyone inside can probably hear it, and think, "hey is that a bunch of police about to come bursting in here? Maybe I'd better get my own gun and be ready to shoot." How about getting ready earlier, like right after they leave their car, or in the elevator up to the bad guys? They never really know where the shooting may start.
“A six-gun fired and ten men fell without a single flaw, but the darndest thing I ever saw was when they all rode up the draw.” :)
The shock wave around the bullet is what makes that bang when it goes by. The bullet also makes a loud bang when it hits something or someone. There are actually three bangs: one at the muzzle, one from the shock wave, one from the impact. I’ll never forget the first time I heard a machinegun firing some distance away and being puzzled by the “echoes” which were there three noises from each shot fired. I had only the impression from movies - and they use blanks in movies.
On the other hand, boxes of office paper work pretty well.
There are others. Mythbusters did a pretty good job debunking the shoot-the-hat-off thing, but I saw another example. My late brother wanted to have a cool bullet hole in his hat one time, so he put it on a fencepost and had at it with a 7x57. The problem with that was that it caught a bit of fencepost on the way out and it blew the back of the hat away. Oh, and it didn't fly anywhere.
What else? George Plimpton was an extra in, I believe, El Dorado, and wrote about what they had to do to get him blown into a wall by a shotgun. Body harness and a cable jerk from a hidden winch. I shall insist on all of my opponents being so equipped.
Then, for pure realism, there's this one from The Matrix Trilogy. I'm still working on the shoot-the-automatic-weapon-while-doing-a-cartwheel thing. I can shoot, I just have a hard time with the cartwheel.
Weapons iz funneh!
Ah, thanks.
I’m a knife guy, and along with all the chambering of rounds and gun nonsense, when did knives start making sounds in the movies?
If you watch knife action in the movies there are lots of metallic sounds made by drawing them from the sheath and sometimes, just moving them a little while they are in your hand, I know that the whooshing air noises were the first knife noises hollywood adopted, but now the knives are making soft gun like clicks and metal on metal noises.
I’ve carried enough of the stuff to know that it’s actually pretty dense.
You’d almost think that they were more concerned about spectacle than realism.
*snicker* Shades of *Space Mutiny*.
Dang it.
Keanu Reeves is an animatronic construct. That’s why he doesn’t age.
Sonic Boom: Papua New Guinea's Tavurvur Volcano Eruption [watch in HD]
My favorite is the Bruthas all shooting their guns gangsta style and able to pop off several rounds without any recoil.
One thing I keep wishing they would check is if hitting explosives like TNT or gunpowder causes them to explode. I can think of a few westerns and war movies where people are held up in a room full of TNT, gunpowder, grenades, etc and nobody takes a shot because they’re afraid of it going off.
While hunting I heard a couple of 7mm mag rounds go past me. You could hear a weird sound go past you, which I thought was the air closing behind the bullet, followed by the report from the rifle. Bullet first, bang second.
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