# Can I use a whip like Indiana Jones? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 2, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152 "2003-09-02T15:46:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/1 "2003-09-02T15:46:55Z")
Something that’s always puzzled me, since the first time I saw Raiders when I was 8: how does his whip wrap around stuff and stay there for him to swing on? I’ve been searching on google and there’s a few pages on whip cracking – they have bits about wrapping a whip around objects but they don’t say whether it’ll stay there. So my question is: Can I whip a branch or something and then swing on it, and if I can how does the whip wrap and stay rather than just fall off as soon as any pressure is applied? And I guess as a followup, if it doesn’t work in real life how did they do the effect in the Indy movies? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/2 "2003-09-02T16:05:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Silentgoldfish \* > \*\*Something that’s always puzzled me, since the first time I saw Raiders when I was 8: how does his whip wrap around stuff and stay there for him to swing on? \*\* Because that’s what the script said. The same technique explains how demons were able to escape the confines of the the Ark. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/3 "2003-09-02T16:13:56Z")
Gosh, you mean it’s only a movie!? I never would have guessed! Read the rest of the post, Krusty. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/4 "2003-09-02T16:16:32Z")
Anecdotal: When I was a little kid I had a whip and could make it hang on a branch and swing. It was hard to do, but possible. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/5 "2003-09-02T16:57:56Z")
Anecdotal: My friend, who was about thirteen at the time, was delivering newspapers door to door when he was jumped by a couple of hoods. I still laugh to this day when he tells me how fast the guys ran when he pulled a bull-whip out of his paper carrier and cracked it in their general direction. We played with that thing from time to time and it would wrap around things but not to the point I would feel comfortable hanging from it. I guess if the whip had some kind of artificial texturing on it it could “grab” branches. His smooth leather whip wasn`t up to the task though. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/6 "2003-09-02T21:21:40Z")
You got a problem with Nazis in your neighborhood, there, **Silentgoldfish**? You might try sprinkling some borax first… ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/7 "2003-09-02T22:14:53Z")
- - - It does work, if you have a long whip and it’s soft leather. The downside is, soft-leather whips wear out real fast, if you go around cracking them a lot. - Funny story/warning: when I was a teenager, a friend’s older brother was standing in the street once playing with a HUGE 12 or 14-foot whip he bad bought on a recent trip to Silver Dollar City. He would swing it around his head in circles, and then snap it forward over his head, cracking it. His (smaller) little brother insisted on trying it too, so after a couple minutes of begging, his older bro handed it over to my buddy. He swung it around about three times and then snapped it forward, and the end came forward too low and connected _perfectly_ with the back of his head. It raised a big seven-inch long welt you could see swell through his crew cut that split open and bled a little, but mostly just ran clear fluid. The classic tough guy, he walked around wincing and gritting his teeth for a half hour, insisting that “it didn’t hurt that much” while the rest of us insensitive males rolled on the ground in laughter. He turned in early that night. ~ ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/8 "2003-09-03T01:44:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cervaise \* > \*\*You got a problem with Nazis in your neighborhood, there, **Silentgoldfish**? You might try sprinkling some borax first… \*\* Nazis? Nah, just a little Thugee cult in the basement. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/9 "2003-09-03T04:03:49Z")
The secret to keeping the whip wrapped, once the branch, or what ever is wrapped, is to immediately pull tensio;. Of course if you whip a branch 5 feet away and 4 feet off the ground, there’ll be that bothersome trench you have to dig to swing on it… 🙂 I was quite good with the long whip in my younger days. A hint, practice either handed, my traps got to be a little asymetrical. Your muscles will speak harshly to you, if you’re doing it correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Fire\_Fox\_40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b2d939/32.png) [@Fire\_Fox\_40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fire_Fox_40)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/10 "2003-09-03T04:25:45Z")
I had a friend one time who made a bet with me that a whip could not be used as a weapon and that it was only something used to make noise. Well to settle the bet he let me pop him with it on his stomach. The problem that arose was that my aim was not all that great and it hit a little low. He never would bet with me on anything after that one. ---
**Author:** ![Scarf-Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Scarf-Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarf-Ace)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/11 "2003-09-03T13:47:17Z")
As an Indie-wannabee me and my chums (aged 8-9) all went down to the local head/mild bondage shop to purchase a soft-leather whip. I remember you had a good chance of getting a swing if it was wet but you had to be very careful! The biggest problem was getting them wrapped round washing lines in wet weather - bye bye whip! No actually the biggest problem was using a whip that was meant for lovemaking as a swing… We went through about 3 each before the fad wore off. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/12 "2003-09-03T13:54:41Z")
Well, now I’ve got another problem. Justifying the 800 dollars to get a 12 foot bullwhip. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/13 "2003-09-03T16:08:10Z")
Wear safety glasses until you are proficient!!! I have a neat little scar over my left eye from my younger, “Indianna Jones” days. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/14 "2003-09-03T19:05:13Z")
> [@](#): > > …As an Indie-wannabee me and my chums (aged 8-9) all went down to the local head/mild bondage shop to purchase a soft-leather whip… - - - A girl I dated in her earlier more-innocent days got into this stuff. She said that the bondage-type whips are almost always deerskin, because cowhide is too thick and heavy and it splits the (human) skin open far too easily, and many bondage clubs don’t even allow them at all. Deerskin whips are thinner and lighter to begin with and “fluff” as they work out, so the person doing the whipping ends up taking pretty fearsome-looking swings at the person getting whipped, but little or no damage is really being done. It can hurt of course, and _can_ do damage, but it gets to be almost like a whip made out of frayed nylon rope. ~ ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/15 "2003-09-03T19:13:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Silentgoldfish \* > \*\*Well, now I’ve got another problem. > > Justifying the 800 dollars to get a 12 foot bullwhip. \*\* [Behold! $420-$510!](http://www.em-brand-whips.com/bullwhips.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-a-whip-like-indiana-jones/199152/16 "2003-09-03T20:54:13Z")
In my day, we used ropes with grappling hooks and we _liked_ it!