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5 Ways Movies Get Gunfights Wrong (Based on Experience)
Cracked.com ^ | September 07, 2014 | Robert Evans, Greg Spyridis

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 ...


TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Music/Entertainment; Society
KEYWORDS: banglist; movies; napl
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To: Zeppo
I like the way that whenever someone in a movie or on TV points a gun at someone else, the gun goes “click”.

One of my favorite "OH SH*T!" movie moments.

41 posted on 09/07/2014 1:17:46 PM PDT by Hugin ("Do yourself a favor--first thing, get a firearm!")
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To: dainbramaged

The film Red2 is the most recent example of the ol’ silencer on a revolver gag.

Love The Walking Dead, but when Hershel Greene defends his farm from hoards of invading zombies on the ‘alamo’ night, he breaks out his trusty Hollywood twelve gauge - the one that never needs reloading.

Despite the fact that he’s forbidden everyone else from possessing guns on the ranch.

And at the traffic stop in the initial installment - the one in which Rick is wounded - Rick tells his deputy to be sure he has ‘a round in the chamber and the safety off.’

The pistol is a Glock, and has no external safety.

TWD characters are constantly racking their slides for dramatic effect in situations in which they already have a round in the chamber.

And, of course, when they raid The Governor’s little town to get back Glenn and Maggie, several of the cast members use weapons on full auto - and keep firing away without ever running dry.

Then, again, when the prison falls to a resurgent Governor, now named Brian, there is constant fire, both on full automatic and single fire, with cast members not even bothering to take cover and lead flying like summer rain, and yet, for the longest time, nobody even suffers a scratch.

Many are familiar with the island drama Lost. Those who observe closely will notice Sawyer negotiating with an Australian for a revolver that quite obviously switches from a Smith & Wesson to a Colt and back again.

Several handguns are recovered from the Marshall taking Kate back to the US for trial, and all of them 9mm caliber, but when when the young musician, Charlie Pace, from Drive Shaft, guns down Ethan at the confrontation in the interior forest, he’s clearly using a Walther PPK-PPK/S.

Oh, well - movies is movies.


42 posted on 09/07/2014 1:18:24 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: SkyDancer

*WHO!*.. *WHO!*.. the SPOTTED OWL gun?


43 posted on 09/07/2014 1:19:58 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics in always to pick up a weapon...eh? "Bathhouse" 0'Mullah? d8^)
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To: SkyDancer

44 posted on 09/07/2014 1:20:33 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Country Songs Don't Have Happy Endings" - http://youtu.be/W93nc95j1KY)
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To: Jack Hammer
And, of course, when they raid The Governor’s little town to get back Glenn and Maggie, several of the cast members use weapons on full auto - and keep firing away without ever running dry.

That right there is the biggest Hollywood error. In real life you'd run dry in about two seconds. And nobody ever uses the three shot option on their M16.

45 posted on 09/07/2014 1:24:44 PM PDT by Hugin ("Do yourself a favor--first thing, get a firearm!")
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To: Slings and Arrows

Pretentious little article but some points are correct - combat’s deafening, machine guns can overheat and do bad things quickly, people aren’t predictable when they’re hit, etc.

The junk about bullets “sounding like bees” is horsehockey: bullets make a loud bang when they go by or if they hit somebody. Sounds like a breaking pine board. If the incoming sounds like bees, they’re shooting at somebody else a long way off, I would guess.

The stupid part about eating MREs during a firefight is idiotic. During a real firefight you have no idea if you’re going to be alive in the next second or so. Tends to concentrate the mind.

It is true that you haven’t any idea how the guy you hit’s going to react. That’s why you always shoot a couple more times to make sure he stays down.

The authors of this piece makes fun of hand signs - as you experienced guys know, you use hand signs on patrol because making noise on patrol is incredibly stupid. We used hand signs all the time, so we stayed alive.

No mention of grenades, but grenades are used all the time and often. Work great but nobody on earth can throw them far enough to prevent getting hit by your own frags. All of us have little bits of our own steel in us from grenades. And no, we didn’t get Purple Hearts from getting hit by our own frags - we weren’t John Kerry.


46 posted on 09/07/2014 1:28:25 PM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: skinkinthegrass

Owl guns just shoot pellets


47 posted on 09/07/2014 1:29:45 PM PDT by digger48
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To: Slings and Arrows; All

http://youtu.be/3a5Qth5BPRk


48 posted on 09/07/2014 1:33:38 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not a Matter of Opinion)
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To: Slings and Arrows
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.

I'd sure be interested in knowing how many years this Matt Wagner spent in the military, what rank he held and what unit/s he was assigned to that saw all that action...

Especially Africa and South America........

I just don't trust the alleged credentials of these hollywood dudes..........As a side note, the only info I could find on this guy was associated with Stargate and "The Colt", which was aired in 2005 and likely filmed in 2004........which now brings to question his involvement in Afghanistan.

If anyone wants to join the hunt on this guy, ping me on what you find.......

49 posted on 09/07/2014 1:35:29 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Is there such a thing as a vegan zombie?)
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To: Slings and Arrows

I killed my wife and a waiter? Surely you can’t be serious.

Sincerely,
Orenthal

I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.

Sincerely,
Leslie


50 posted on 09/07/2014 1:35:29 PM PDT by RichInOC ("In the name of Allah, The Inexorable, The Irresistible...Sincerely, Orenthal.")
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To: RichInOC
Applause photo applause.gif
51 posted on 09/07/2014 1:36:56 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Country Songs Don't Have Happy Endings" - http://youtu.be/W93nc95j1KY)
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To: Chainmail

I figured that if there was any BS in the article someone would detect it.

BTW, from a physics point of view, if a bullet is traveling at supersonic velocity any sound made by its passing would be heard by those the bullet passes by closely before the bang reaches them. (Whether a bullet makes a sound as it passes by I don’t know; never been on that end of a gun.)


52 posted on 09/07/2014 1:42:19 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Country Songs Don't Have Happy Endings" - http://youtu.be/W93nc95j1KY)
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To: Hot Tabasco

I didn’t run a background check before posting the article, but if he’s stealing valor...good hunting.


53 posted on 09/07/2014 1:44:03 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Country Songs Don't Have Happy Endings" - http://youtu.be/W93nc95j1KY)
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To: Slings and Arrows

My pet peeve in Hollywood gunfights is cocking a gun. First, whoever has the gun waits until they are actually confronting someone else before they cock the gun. Second, they always seem to cock the gun multiple times, for dramatic effect. Just do it once, it is ready to fire from that point on.


54 posted on 09/07/2014 1:44:45 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: morphing libertarian

That is one my favorite scenes too!


55 posted on 09/07/2014 1:46:41 PM PDT by Enterprise ("Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

56 posted on 09/07/2014 1:48:07 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Country Songs Don't Have Happy Endings" - http://youtu.be/W93nc95j1KY)
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To: Vince Ferrer

Sometimes it gets really ridiculous. In *Demolition Man*, at one point Sly Stallone racks the slide on his semi-auto, and you can see the already-chambered round fly out.


57 posted on 09/07/2014 1:50:08 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Country Songs Don't Have Happy Endings" - http://youtu.be/W93nc95j1KY)
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To: Brother Cracker

Word


58 posted on 09/07/2014 1:52:33 PM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: Slings and Arrows
Even better was the character using the revolver complaining that he didn’t realize that he was out of ammo because of the silencer.

I have a movie script of a movie that was made, where, while in a shootout in a hospital emergency room, the hero tapes together a bad guy's revolver and his own automatic, to increase his fire power.

59 posted on 09/07/2014 1:59:15 PM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: Vince Ferrer
My pet peeve in Hollywood gunfights is cocking a gun. First, whoever has the gun waits until they are actually confronting someone else before they cock the gun.

Especially when they have been moving through the house for 2 or 3 minutes already, clearing it with all that high tension pointing of the shotgun, and then when they finally see the monster or the bad guy, they chamber a round, and you just go 'wait a minute, during all that tension filled dramatic searching through the rooms and up the stair case where only your supercool quick reflexes could save you, your chamber was empty?'

60 posted on 09/07/2014 2:05:34 PM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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