Many magicians who have been killed while doing this trick have resulted from performing it with live ammo on the weapon, with the idea being that the shooter would “just miss” the performer – since usually they set up some sort of windowpane in between to “prove” a bulet actually travelled in the magician’s direction. But sometimes the assistant twitches, sometimes there is a freak deflection by the windowpane… others may have had the rotten luck of having the blank wadding not disintegrate, but travel forward at full speed.
In Penn-and-Teller style stagings where cartridge-firing weapons are used, it wouldn’t be that hard to conceive a specially rigged cartridge that allows the magician, through sleight-of-hand, to pop the bullet off of the front of the casing and palm it just as it’s being loaded, leaving what now is really a blank to go into the chamber (notice that this way, you can use a round that has been marked on both the bullet and the casing). The windowpane gets shattered by a noise-activated charge.
I seem to recall that one of the early exponants of this trick on the boards in Britain (around the turn of the 20th century ?) was an American (who never spoke and promoted himself as Chinese). He DID use live ammunition and, sure enough, one night was killed on stage.
It appears that he used to wear a primative “bullet proof vest” and, that evening, it being warm, he’d left it off… and forgotten (sounds like an early candidate for a Darwin award).
You’re wrong already. Brace yourself, this won’t be pretty.
First of all, wranglers handle live animals. Armorers handle firearms on a film set. SOMETIMES ( just so my shit doesn’t get jumped here ) a Property Master will handle the gun if there is A) Only one gun, and B) It does NOT involve shooting at all, but is simply a visual prop. Second of all, the actor is to blame. Any adult who is on a film set as an actor and is working with a firearm has only themselves to blame for this kind of accident. It’s CALLED AN ACCIDENT, but the truth is that it’s a preventable incident. Mr. Lee suffered an untimely death because of his own stupidity, as well as the tragic mistake of the Armorer not clearing the gun properly before handing it over. I’ve never read this detailed accounting before, I’d just read that he died of the concussive impact of the blank discharging right against his temple. Thank you for delivering the Straight Dope on THAT point, Mangetout- gotta love Snopes.
That’s only half right these days. Yes, it’s true that a motion picture is a two-dimensional representation of 3-D life. However, with the advent of the time-stopping technique beloved in such films as ** The Matrix, Charlie’s Angels and Spy Kids**, one can now indeed show what is happening at a given moment FROM MORE THAN ONE PERSPECTIVE. Hence, a 3-D point of view is delivered for the same moment in time. Fascinating little trick, and IMHO a bit worn out by now- but it does refute your allegation. Partially.
You show me a camera operator who wants to stage a stunt, and I’ll show you a camera operator who just got fired. Sorry, but that’s not how it really works. The Director has a wish. " I wish they would shoot at Brandon as he flies through the air". Fine. They have on set already ( if it’s an action show, anyway ) a Stunt Co-ordinator. THAT person gets together with the Director, the 1st Assistant Director ( who literally runs the set, moment to moment ), the Actor, the Director of Photography ( D.P.), the Armorer, the keys of each other department and, depending on the size of the stunts, the local Fire Department liasons.
In the case of that stunt ( which I’ve not seen, but that doesn’t matter right now ), a shot fired at an actor is plotted out with the DP, Director and Stunt Coordinator. Period. They design it. THEN, the 1st A.D. is told how it will go down, and she/he brings in the actor to talk it through with the Stunt Coordinator. Will they use a Stunt Double for it? Will the actor do it herself/himself? If so, how will it go down? It gets rehearsed MANY times with pantomimes and people yelling BANG, until it’s a ballet. Well timed and everyone knows how it should-SHOULD-go down. ( Please, dont’ start quoting Twilight Zone:The Movie stories at me, I’ve got the book. As I said, how a gag SHOULD go down). Then, you shoot the shot.
I’ve been shot at quite a few times with full-load blanks. It’s always a very carefully planned event. In the case of a face-on shot of the gun “firing into the lens”, we had the grips build a 2"thick Plexiglas sheet, framed and supported. I knelt behind it with my assistant. A grip stood by with a fire extinguisher. We were draped with Duvatine just in case. We’d already established that two inches was SO much more than was needed for the protection of myself and my assistant. The shot came off fine, and we just moved around the sheet for multiple takes, since each time we did a take, a small area was badly pitted. I wear eye gear, ear gear, face protection and, in the case of a run-by of officers shooting Glocks at me with full loads, my entire body was swathed with Duvatine, a thick black cloth. The only part expose was my hands, essential to operate the Steadicam.
My eye protection as well as the optical flat in front of the lens was badly pitted after just 2 or 3 takes. Both had to be replaced. My hands did get a few very small pitted cuts in them from the gunpowder, none of which required anything more than a rinsing off. My assistant was not permitted to work near me during that shot- NOT our preferred method, but safety before anything.
Shot looked just fine. If someone introduces a stunt or effect, especially one including explosives or guns, I can and will ( and have… ) walk away from it if I’m not 100% comfortable with the safety level on set. I’ve only met a few cowboys, pretty much everyone is very cool about their job, and VERY aware when there is going to be live fire. So much so, that each time I’ve worked around blanks, the Armorer will have the 1st A.D. stop ALL work on set, and the A.D. will announce, " Please listen up we will do a life fire test on set so we can all hear what we are in for, this is a full load blank. FIRE IN THE HOLE !!" Then, the gun is fired into the ground.
I bet you are right. It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that someone died needlessly.
Another technique that is used, for still photography and some videos at least, is to point the gun at a mirror and photograph the reflection.
Make no mistake about it, people have been killed by blanks, even without any projectile already in the barrel.
This is the kind of thing the public ought to know, but how would they find out? Information about fire safety etc. is common, but gun safety isn’t politically correct…
With all due respect, I think you’re mistaking the death of Brandon Lee with the death of Jon-Erik Hexum. Lee was shot in the abdomen and did not fire the weapon himself but was shot at by a stuntman.
I’ve seen the P&T version. I watched it like a hawk. I taped it and watched it in slow motion. I know it was a trick, but it was VERY convincing. Could’nt figure it out. They used a .357.
I’m sure you are right. My apologies. As I said, I wasn’t familiar with the details, and clearly confused the two shootings. Thank you for the correction.
If the shot wasn’t fired by Mr. Lee, then although he might have inspected the weapon first, the MUCH greater responsibility lies with the person who fired that gun.
I watched Penn & Teller’s bullet catching as well, and was quite impressed with the realism. I do recall that they had a laser sight on the gun as well, and I think they demonstrated that the sight was on target, but I can’t remember. One thing they made a big deal of was that there was a line down the center of the stage, and nothing ever crossed the line, keeping Teller from getting the bullet palmed to him after it had been marked. The only thing I can think of was that the people marking the bullet and casing were plants. Even then, it would be impressive.
One TV show I have seen showed a female magician doing a version of this trick, but a bit different: she held a metal cup in her mouth, and there was a pane of glass between the person firing the rifle and the lady. The camera angle showed the gun firer loading the rifle with what appeared to be a .22 LR cartridge, the glass broke when the gun fired, and afterwards they showed the bullet and it appeared to be a somewhat-deformed ordinary lead .22 bullet. She also wore goggles to protect from flying glass, and “fainted” in a dramatically cheesy way immediately after catching the bullet. (-I saw this on Discovery or TLC or something like that)
There was much discussion about how the breaking glass could be faked, but I doubt you’d need to: I’d bet that this particular version of the trick is real. A regular .22 LR bullet fired into a steel cup would result in a flattened, unidentifiable bullet, but there are .22 shorts loaded into full-length cases available. These have about half to two-thirds the power of a regular .22 LR and the bullets they launch generally stay in one piece and recognizable even when fired straight into steel plates. Stopping one by holding a steel plate certainly isn’t impossible, even if the plate is held in your teeth. It is possible that the bullet could have been doctored to be even lower-powered than normal for a .22 short, but if you lowered it to much, the gun would sound suspicious. It certainly is dangerous, maybe even possibly fatal, but the guy as using a scoped rifle from only about twelve feet away and aiming for a quarter-sized target.
~
This is the only version I have ever read or seen that I would suppose is real; every other that involves “catching” the bullet directly in the mouth would have to be fake. If you really try to catch even a “puny” .22 LR bullet from close range in your hand, there’s a pretty good chance it will go in one side and out the other. - MC
Without going into it too much, I do not disagree with what Cartooniverse said… but he said probabbly quite a bit more than what was needed to be said.
Discounting the Matrix and its panning view (which was a trick of computer imagery-did you happen to notice that you never actually see the agent pointing his gun DIRECTLY at Keanu? The camera hovers ABOVE Keanu during that shot, and that scene was mostly filmed indoors with Keanu only. IIRC, The b/g and Agent were put in later. Chuck’s Angels was also an entirely computer-generated image which never showed the gun pointing directly at Drew, but from the side. The direct-on shot was also ‘cheated’ slightly and shadowed by the shattering glass), all action films only see in 2D, and because the viewer doesn’t percieve depth, she can’t tell wether the gun is being directly aimed at the actor.
As for the way stunts are planned and played out; yes, that’s pretty much how I’ve experienced it as well (with a few exceptions, but nothing to get into a serious discussion over). I was told that the one handling the weapons was the “Gun Wrangler”… but I may have misheard or perhaps was told wrong. Whatever you call him, we are talking about the same person.
But you mention that it was Mr. Lee’s fault, and I cannot entirely agree with that.
I’m not going to get into a silly argument over this because we both agree that, in the end, the person at fault was the one aiming and firing the weapon. And that was the main point I was trying to make.
hmm… That goes against stuff I’ve witnessed, though.
Mainly, firing a .22 pistol about 20-30 yards and having it easily destroy whatever was in it’s path (save, perhaps a bulletproof vest).
Targets?
Nice little holes.
Cans?
PING! Off the stand, bullet straight through.
Jugs of water (remember than the human body is mostly water)?
Exploded.
Clay bricks?
They just keep on going and going and going…
Seeing as the cop that was overlooking the festivities told us the story of having to use his backup once (a small .22. IIRC, it was an AMT Backup), and states that it does the job just fine in putting someone down.
Must not forget the .22 BB cap, either. Ballistically similar to a .22 short, but even lower powered. Intended specifically for pest control and indoor target practice, it’s so low powered that it might not break window glass if it struck at a sufficiently shallow angle. The one type I’m familiar with fires a 17grain bullet at 750fps. Not a whole lotta ‘oomph’ there.
All of that is true. And the .22 round kills more people each year than all other calibers combined. But there’s a big difference between the standard .22 (properly called the .22 Long Rifle or .22LR) and a .22 short. I’m about 100% certain that your cop friend did not carry a .22 short for his backup gun.
I did exaggerate a little bit about the .22 short. The Remington .22 short does have a whopping 77 joules of energy, of which 62 are left at 50 yards. Less than that of a soft, underhand softball pitch like you would use if you were pitching to a little kid.
Given the small cross-sectional area, it would probably break skin and maybe cause an infection. However, I know from experience that it will not penetrate 3/4" drywall from more than about 15 feet away, whereas my fist can. So the .22 short is not an especially menacing round. And probably could be stopped easily by a metal cup that could be held in the teeth with no injury to the holder.
Provided the shooter doesn’t miss.
And yes, I did forget about the bb cap. Which is probably what was used, if the trick was not a trick.
A .22 short does not have very much power at all, and this is why the trick still works: many people think a gun is a gun, and don’t ever get to see the differences in damage that a .30-06 can do as opposed to a .22 short.
During the show, they showed the guy loading what appeared to be a .22 LR into the gun. (Sorry, I am not expert enough to ID the gun used…) Yes, anything could have happened between cut scenes, but she did this trick in live shows and my point is that using .22 shorts, this could probably work for real. I know that you can get .22 shorts in long cases retail, and I know from playing with guns that .22 shorts do not hit very hard at all and that the bullets usually stay in one piece no matter what they hit.
If the lady had faked it, she wouldn’t need the metal cup in her mouth, but since there’s no way to really catch a bullet in your teeth, the people who perform an obviously fake trick don’t bother with the cup—and in fact, it would probably interfere.
I also am familiar with CB and BB caps, but I have never seen CB and BB loads in regular-length cases.
Well judging my the number of similar posts I’ve seen like mine EVERY day in ALL forums, it looks like this is an absolute haven for people to make funny comments on oddly-worded sentences. I’ve seen entire threads of almost nothing but silly one-liners, and even the mods join in sometimes too. Don’t make me post even a day’s worth of them man!, you’ll be reading for hours!!:D. Realistically, comparing firing a bullet at drywall from any distance and hitting it with a hand is comparing apples and oranges as far as power and damage goes. Would you rather take a fist or a bullet to the forehead? - yup, thought so. A more appropriate cliche would be “nobody likes someone with no sense of humor”;).
