<Morbo>Pistols do not work that way!</Morbo>

[MacTech]

I had just popped in my copy of Planet Terror (the Paul Rodriguez "zombie" film) and noticed an incredibly bad example of Firearms Do Not Work That Way syndrome in the film

near the end, where the hero is stuck in an elevator with the infected military officer, the hero's holding him at gunpoint, the officer tries to force him to hand over his pistol (a 1911)

the hero spins the gun around so the grip is facing up towards the sky, and he's holding the slide, the hammer is back, finger through the trigger guard, hand wrapped around the slide, the grip is pointed straight up, the grip safety is not depressed....

yet the gun still "fires" (CGI muzzleblast was obviously added in POST), yet the hammer does not fall, and the slide does not move

Obviously, given the gun being an arms length away from the actor playing the infected officer, even blanks would be potentially lethal, so it was a safety reason to add the firing effect after the fact, but the fact remains, the gun would not have fired in real life, as the grip safety was not held down

What are some other glaringly bad examples of handgunnery in the entertainment industry?
(aside from the "Infinite Ammo" and the "blows the target off their feet/through a wall" tropes?)

 

[bangkok]

I'll bite, yesterday I was watching Halloween 5, Michael Myers and the Dr. (Donald Pleasence) were in a standoff and the Dr. pulled out a revolver and fired three quick rounds, then three more quick rounds and then another two! That might fall into the "Infinite Ammo" catagory.

 

[wilkersk]

In the movie"predator", I think it was Jesse Ventura who, in 1 scene, carried a GAU-2B with a huge badolier of ammo. The only problem is, that the GAU-2B requires 24vdc power to operate, and the current draw is such that the batteries alone would require a couple of guys to carry them. The magazines we used in Hueys had to be installed empty then, loaded with the belted ammo by hand. The whole set up was heavy enough to limit the mission capability of the helicopter.

 

[wilkersk]

I always like it when the martial arts experts pop the slide stop completely out and, in 1 motion, pull the slides off the frames of 1911 type pistols being aimed at them by the bad guys.

I've tried this and can never get the slide stop all the way out. Not to mention, with the the grip safety depressed, I think the disconnector sticks up enough to prevent the slide from coming off.

 

[gc70]

Street Kings starts with Keanu Reeves waking up, picking up a 1911 from beside his pillow, picking up a magazine from a nightstand and inserting it in the gun (the slide is down), clicking off the safety and doing a press-check to peek at the round in the chamber, and carefully lowering the hammer before holstering the gun. The motions and sounds are probably impressive to someone who does not appreciate how silly the actions are.

 

[ichiban]

Innumerable scenes of 1911s in condition 2 (hammer down) and yet working like a DA.

 

[Claymore1500]

I'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned the enormous entry holes, and he ragged edge around the hole being blown out, towards the shooter.

 

[gbelleh]

It really bothers me when someone has shot their entire magazine, then they keep pulling the trigger, producing a click each time, even though the slide is locked back.

The most ridiculous variation of this is when a fully automatic runs empty and then goes click, click, click, click, click, click, click really fast!

 

[General Geoff]

I'll bite, yesterday I was watching Halloween 5, Michael Myers and the Dr. (Donald Pleasence) were in a standoff and the Dr. pulled out a revolver and fired three quick rounds, then three more quick rounds and then another two! That might fall into the "Infinite Ammo" catagory.

Could have been an 8 shot revolver; they do exist you know.

 

[Dimis]

ive always loved the fact that bullet tooth tony (vinny jones) in snatch can fire a 50AE Desert Eagle one handed without any recoil lol

really that goes for alot of movies tho because no matter what they are fireing it always stays on target

 

[wheelgunslinger]

Speaking of Bullet Tooth Tony, how about the girl with the Bren gun blowing through 50+ rounds?

That was a cool scene, but the mag fed Bren runs out pretty fast.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

I like the clicking sound the cylinder of a swing-out-cylinder double-action revolver makes when it is out of the frame and spun rapidly.

I always like it when the martial arts experts pop the slide stop completely out and, in 1 motion, pull the slides off the frames of 1911 type pistols being aimed at them by the bad guys.

Somebody did do this with a Beretta 92 in some movie (Lethal Weapon 3 or 4?) It could be done if the takedown lever was already unlocked, I suppose, but I'm not going to just stand there and let you do that to me - you're going to get shot.

 

[alistaire]

1) People who having just fired their 1911, pause at a doorway and rack the slide to prove how ready they are for the coming action. --And no catridge is ejected.

2) People who hold others at gun point using a 1911 with the hammer down.

3) SILENCED REVOLVERS!

4) Bullets that throw the target back fifty feet (Basic Instinct).

5) British TV shows that show guns. The whole country is now so gun ignorant that they should be banned from showing guns on TV. The classic example is Primeval. They know they are facing dinosaurs, so they use M16s. Do they REALLY think that .223 will penetrate the skull of a T-Rex? Why not just use .22 short? As for Life On Mars, British coppers don't normally have guns, but this lot have bushel baskets of them, but no holsters.

 

[rcmodel]

Flashes of light / small explosions every time a handgun bullet hits a fleeing car, sheet-rock wall, or fiberglass boat hull.

rc

 

[JAV8000]

They did ok in T2, though the Beretta 92 sounded rediculous.

 

[Doogle]

Whole cartridges flying through the air...>

I recall seeing this in cartoons on TV and in comics. Clearly the illustrators had little understanding of how firearms & ammunition work. So, you'd see the whole cartridge, bullet and casing, flying out of the muzzle in one piece.

Just the other night I was watching the film, "Behind Enemy Lines" starring Owen Wilson & Gene Hackman. Every time it broke for ads there was a promo shot showing a .223 or similar bottleneck cartridge, complete - yes - flying through the air. Now, with a straight walled pistol-type round with no rim I can see how someone with little or no firearms knowledge might just think the whole thing goes down the barrel, but how the heck do they think that fat bottleneck cartridge case is going to follow that teeny bullet down the barrel? Of course they don't think, and they don't have the knowledge to know it's wrong. They are artists with, apparently, no-one around to tell them any different.

My memories of such things from comics, etc, lead me to shoot this image which I very imaginatively call, "BLAM !!!"

​

 

[m2steven]

Willersk: Jesse Venture generates enough current by himself to have operated that weapon. . Not enough that he didn't get killed in the movie however.

 

[m2steven]

Doogle: Your example is very common , I hate to say. I never really thought about it before, but that happens all the time..

 

[cchris]

Alpha Dog. It looks like they added the gunblasts in Microsoft Paint. Zero recoiling fully auto pistols are apparently a common thing in Hollyweird.

 

[HippieMagic]

In Skinwalkers none of the guns had any form of recoil. Granted they were supposed to be werewolves they DEs and S&W .500 had no recoil. I believe the old lady had a S&W .500 anyway... Anyone remember this?

 

[pale horse]

"Street Kings starts with Keanu Reeves waking up, picking up a 1911 from beside his pillow, picking up a magazine from a nightstand and inserting it in the gun (the slide is down), clicking off the safety and doing a press-check to peek at the round in the chamber, and carefully lowering the hammer before holstering the gun. The motions and sounds are probably impressive to someone who does not appreciate how silly the actions are."

I just watched that scene and he; took the safety off, dropped the mag that was in the weapon, checked the ammo, reinserted the mag, and did a press check, and put the safety back on. Thats 6 clicks or clacks to my counting so the movie was right on.

 

[HammerBite]

Doogle ---

"Blam!!!" now graces my PC as wallpaper. Thank you.

 

[DougDubya]

ive always loved the fact that bullet tooth tony (vinny jones) in snatch can fire a 50AE Desert Eagle one handed without any recoil lol

really that goes for alot of movies tho because no matter what they are fireing it always stays on target

In Vinnie Jones' defense, he's a) the scary bad guy and b) he's hella huge in real life.

 

[HardShell]

The one that always stands out in my memory is Manhunter, the lesser known Mann film with Hannibal Lechter years before Silence of the Lambs came out. William Peterson's character made a point of explaining his carry gun and ammo (a .44 CA Bulldog loaded with Glaser Safety Slugs) to another character earlier in movie or it wouldn't have been as egregious as it was. At the climactic confrontation at the end, Peterson's character shoots the bad guy 6 times in rapid succession, complete with through-and-through wounds leaving nice round blood splatters on the wall behind him...

... except that the Bulldog only held five rounds, and Glasers wouldn't have acted in that way.

(It only bothered me so much at the time and sticks with me so vividly today because I saw it in the theater and, at the time, my CCW was a CA .44 Bulldog... yes, with Glasers. I came out of the theater like )

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

Flashes of light / small explosions every time a handgun bullet hits a fleeing car, sheet-rock wall, or fiberglass boat hull.

I watched The Marine recently and every impact of pistol and submachine gun bullets on a car would produce showers of sparks. Even off the windshield glass. It looked as if someone were arc welding on the car.