Is it really THAT easy to snap someone's neck?

Factual Questions
1

In a weird bit of coincidence, the concept of snapping someone’s neck to kill them has come up in some media I consume all at the same time. Whether it was doing it to someone who’s already unconscious (Hitman Video Game), someone who the character wanted to murder (Stephen King’s Under the Dome) or even to themselves (Westworld), the media makes it seem like it’s a super-easy way to kill someone.

But is it?

Is it really as simple as just turning someone’s neck way to the left or right? I do that every other day to crack my neck, do I suddenly have to worry about dying because of it?

2

Need answer fast?

Snapping a neck requires about 1000 ft-lbs of torque. Not sure about the rotation method.

3

I’m probably not qualified to answer this, since I was absent that day from the Professional Assassins’ School, but I will mention that most fairly fit individuals can exert at least a hundred pounds of pressure when doing isometric exercises with the neck. IOW, a conscious individual can provide significant resistance to neck rotation when it is anticipated. Breaking the neck of an unconscious individual is a whole different matter.

Leverage is the key. Grab the head of a buck (deer) using the antlers and you have an advantage. But most people can place their foreheads on the floor and arch their backs fairly well, proving that they can resist significant torque to the neck.

OK…now I’ll wait for the ninja-trained assassins who will tell me how easy it is…

4

I eagerly await the factual answer.

But when (if) it turns out to be, no, you can’t snap someone’s neck like that, another movie truism will be shown to be totally bogus.

First it was silencers that aren’t silent. Karate chops (or a bonk bonk on the head) don’t knock you unconscious, and especially with no after effects. Taking a shotgun blast to the chest won’t blow you ten feet backwards. Not only is one shot one kill (anywhere in the body) not true, you can actually survive being shot in the head at close range.

Man, is nothing in the movies true?

5

You always look fabulous post sex; at least the women seem to.

6

Getting a study past the ethics board will be a pain in the neck

7

Obviously it is not as easy to do as it is in the movies.

In the movies, an actor half-heartedly grasps another actors head, the actor quickly twists his own head, and doesn’t really die.

If you move somebody else’s head as quickly and forcefully as the actor moved their own head, they would not die.

People would be breaking their own necks all the time.

8

Yeah, I don’t think a twist is all that easy or effective. I think that jerking part of the head in one direction and the neck in another direction may dislocate a vertebrae and cause the intended results.

9

I think the point of that part of the film is that the person is so bad-ass, as to possibly be otherworldly, or that the scene isn’t even really happening. Like emptying a Desert Eagle’s clip of .50 caliber bullets without flinching as seen in the Matrix. Or when Walter White burned up a car by shorting out the battery with a wet windshield squeegee. Aka … this person is Batman, able to stand up to Superman without flinching.

10

Or this, cervical artery dissection.

CMC fnord!

11

Still true: if you turn a handgun on its side while firing, its much more accurate, and destructive.

12

i used to snap my neck frequently … reason was it seemed to offer relief from the onslaught of perpetual migraine headaches … 35-40 years later, i ended up paying a couple visits to the local acupuncturist (awoke one morning and couldn’t move my neck) … at the end of the half-hour session, neck felt the way it used to feel when i was a child (no discomfort/pain … full movement).

13

You can kill yourself doing that. The brother of a high school classmate did it many years ago (can’t find a site) but others have done it.

14

Question that may lead to the answer: Are the nerves connected to the bones in the spine or are they free floating?

If they’re free floating then it seems like you’re effectively trying to break a rope by twisting it. To the extent that that’s possible, you’d really need to twist it a full circle several times to achieve something, I would expect. A 90 or 180 degree turn is pretty clearly not going to do it.

If they’re connected to the bones then I supposed you could tear some nerves at the point where one vertebrae becomes significantly out of alignment with the one below it, but unless one of those goes to the heart, my expectation would be that you would paralyze the person more often than you would kill them.

15

It’s not that difficult to do serious damage in the right circumstances. The reason a non-incidental face masking penalty in football is harsh because you can break a players neck if you grab his mask while he’s running. The mask adds some leverage and something easy to grip, but if you can get a headlock on someone and put your weight into a spin on his head while he falls forward you could paralyze someone, maybe they die without emergency treatment if nerves are damaged in just the right places.

16

That sounds really high. In what direction - twisting head off or bending the head backwards? You mean I need a race tuned big block to snap your neck, I can’t do it with a small block Chevy?

Dennis

17

This is true. I used to work for a guy named Doug. You didn’t want to get called in for a ‘meeting’ with Doug. I’ve seen grown men pull their own heads off rather than see Doug.