In my shop class the teacher screened the film Don't Push Your Luck. It was pretty gruesome- perhaps today's school officials are worried that it might traumatize the little darlings.
Most guys who were in military aviation back in the Seventies are likely familiar with “The Man From LOX”, a safety film on handling of liquid oxygen (LOX)
It was hokey, and they tried to make it amusing (I thought to catch your attention span) but later came to believe that they did it as a lighthearted contrast to the hideous ending, to make it more powerful.
The video shows a young gorky guy driving a LOX tractor around, and people are trying to sidetrack and distract him. (This is from memory) I remember they have his buddies trying to get him to leave the tractor to go party with them, his parents try to get him to come home, and his girlfriend tries to seduce him, but he grinds on saying something like “Well, that would be fun, but I have to make sure I take care of this LOX” as he drives onward towards his goal.
As the lighthearted, silly teaching film ends, without any warning, the camera skips to a video, looking down a guy lying on his back in a hospital bed.
He is alive, his breathing fighting with or against a respirator through a tracheotomy in his neck. His skin is charred black. his eyes are open, staring at the camera with white eyes rimmed by blood red borders.
Even someone with no medical training who views this video of guy immediately knows that his death is imminent within minutes, if not seconds.
I have no idea how long they show that segment. I cannot recall as I write this, whether it was for five seconds or less, or for a full minute But what I recall with absolute clarity was the fare and eyes of nearly every guy in that room watching: Eyes wide and mouth open.
Someone later told me they heard the guy had been working somewhere down in Texas or Florida, and it had been a hot, uncomfortable day, so to cool off, he put the venting nozzle from a LOX trailer down his coveralls to let it cool him off.
He then proceeded to walk away and light a cigarette, becoming engulfed in flames as he did so. I don’t know if that is true, but it seems plausible.
And nobody I knew ever messed around with LOX, so the film must have worked brilliantly.