# Movie deaths vs. reality **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2018, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114 "2018-12-14T12:40:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/61 "2018-12-20T16:00:54Z")
When I saw [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9yBZd8Icdc) scene in the Jim Carrey _Grinch_, I remember thinking, “Whatever that car’s running on, it ain’t gasoline.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/62 "2018-12-20T18:49:31Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > Perhaps there are grenades designed to push people through the air. FWIW, in _ **Up Front** _ Bill Mauldin describes an eccentric GI who hung hand grenades on his web gear by their cotter pins, so he could pluck them off and throw them without wasting any time. A grenade once fell off his belt as he was sneaking up behind some Germans and exploded between his feet, tossing him into the air but leaving him otherwise unharmed. I guess some people just lead a charmed life. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/63 "2018-12-20T21:32:45Z")
I’ve never had occasion to link to this before: [Ask A Gut-Shot Policeman](https://www.theonion.com/ask-a-gut-shot-policeman-1819583433). ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/64 "2018-12-21T13:22:04Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > FWIW, in _ **Up Front** _ Bill Mauldin describes an eccentric GI who hung hand grenades on his web gear by their cotter pins, so he could pluck them off and throw them without wasting any time. A grenade once fell off his belt as he was sneaking up behind some Germans and exploded between his feet, tossing him into the air but leaving him otherwise unharmed. > > I guess some people just lead a charmed life. In a similar vein I read of an army lieutenant who was in the South Pacific theater. He was invited by a PT boat buddy to go on a patrol. They got into a dust-up with a Japanese patrol boat squadron and it turned onto a real furball with craft on both sides zooming around each other using small arms to cause harm. Having nothing better to do, the lieutenant was standing on the bow with grenades, plucking the pin and holding the spoon down with one in each hand so he could instantly try to chuck them into an enemy boat if it passed close enough. “What the hell are you doing?” cried the skipper, his buddy. “What happens to us if you get hit?” He changed to just one grenade, plucking the pin and throwing it immediately afterward.\* Sure enough, a few minutes later he was hit in the shoulder and dropped the gredade – with the pin still in. \*Once you have pulled the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your [friend](https://imgflip.com/i/1lam21). ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/65 "2018-12-21T20:05:54Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Real grenades are not very impressive. I little flash, a little smoke, a boom. Sounds like you’re talking about flash bang grenades. Not fragmentation grenades which are designed to throw shrapnel in every direction. The grooves and ridges on the old ‘pineapple’ grenades were to make it easier for the grenade to fragment. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/66 "2018-12-21T20:23:23Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > \*Once you have pulled the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your [friend](https://imgflip.com/i/1lam21). ARRGHH! I _hate_ this Trope! Pulling the pin\* doesn’t arm the grenade; it’s releasing the spoon/lever _after_ pulling the pin that does so. You can pull the pin and hold the grenade in your hand (preventing the spoon from releasing) as long as you want; 5 seconds, 5 minutes, or even (God knows why) 5 hours. I was a tanker, and only handled grenades in Basic, and even I know this. \*Wehrmacht M24s are a different kettle of fish altogether, though. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/67 "2018-12-21T20:35:44Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > ARRGHH! I _hate_ this Trope! Pulling the pin\* doesn’t arm the grenade; it’s releasing the spoon/lever _after_ pulling the pin that does so. You can pull the pin and hold the grenade in your hand (preventing the spoon from releasing) as long as you want; 5 seconds, 5 minutes, or even (God knows why) 5 hours. > > I was a tanker, and only handled grenades in Basic, and even I know this… Perhaps you should read the post you were responding to a little more carefully? It was clear to me that Desert Dog, and the people in his and terentii’s anecdotes, understood how a grenade works perfectly well. The point of the story was that once the pin is removed, the spoon becomes a “dead man’s switch” that will arm the grenade if the person holding it is incapacitated and/or drops it. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/68 "2018-12-21T20:38:41Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > ARRGHH! I _hate_ this Trope! Pulling the pin\* doesn’t arm the grenade; it’s releasing the spoon/lever _after_ pulling the pin that does so. You can pull the pin and hold the grenade in your hand (preventing the spoon from releasing) as long as you want; 5 seconds, 5 minutes, or even (God knows why) 5 hours. This is true. However, once that pin is pulled, you’d better make damned sure you don’t lose your grip on the grenade! :eek: **EDIT:** See post above. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/69 "2018-12-21T23:21:34Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Plus I never saw the combat utility of killing somebody a few days from now as opposed to, say, right now. > > Regards, > Shodan [Neuromancer] So they get to think about it. [/Neuromancer] ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/70 "2018-12-22T00:07:26Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > This is true. However, once that pin is pulled, you’d better make damned sure you don’t lose your grip on the grenade! :eek: > > **EDIT:** See post above. 😃 Mythbusters is your friend. Adam held on to a “grenade” with the pin pulled for two hours and said he could have gone a repeated the times if he switched hands. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrhwwK0vAPI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrhwwK0vAPI) Also, on page one I posted the story about Senator Daniel Inouye who pulled the primed grenade from his blown off arm and hand, and threw it in to a machine gun nest! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/71 "2018-12-22T00:42:37Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Mythbusters is your friend. Adam held on to a “grenade” with the pin pulled for two hours and said he could have gone a repeated the times if he switched hands. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrhwwK0vAPI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrhwwK0vAPI) Again, why would anyone want to do that? 😕 You pull the pin, you throw the grenade. It ain’t rocket science. > [@](#): > > Also, on page one I posted the story about Senator Daniel Inouye who pulled the primed grenade from his blown off arm and hand, and threw it in to a machine gun nest! I’ll go out on a limb\* here and guess the hand holding the grenade hadn’t yet released the spoon. :dubious: \*No pun intended. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/72 "2018-12-22T04:07:50Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I’ll go out on a limb\* here and guess the hand holding the grenade hadn’t yet released the spoon. :dubious: > > \*No pun intended. 😃 Hey, that hand’s not stupid. If I were there, I would’ve yelled “Hey, Danny Boy, looks like that grenade’s not ARMED yet!. Get it…armed? Har har…” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/73 "2018-12-22T04:17:19Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > **Again, why would anyone want to do that?** 😕 You pull the pin, you throw the grenade. It ain’t rocket science. > > I’ll go out on a limb\* here and guess the hand holding the grenade hadn’t yet released the spoon. :dubious: > > \*No pun intended. 😃 They were testing a “torture” from a TV show. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/74 "2018-12-22T11:36:57Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Mythbusters is your friend. Adam held on to a “grenade” with the pin pulled for two hours and said he could have gone a repeated the times if he switched hands. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrhwwK0vAPI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrhwwK0vAPI) Right up until he sneezed, or fumbled the change over, or got jostled, or … I’m a [del]bit[/del] lot dubious but I read a (fiction) story where a soldier took a grenade from a reluctant child-soldier and replaced the pin. Unfortunately, during the hand-off, the spoon had been raised enough to release the striker without either of them noticing it and seconds later death ensued. I’m pretty sure the spoon has to be a fair distance up before the striker can do its thing, and I would think that someone who has handled grenades\* would hear the snap and perhaps see smoke coming out of the grenade. \*The closest I’ve come to ordinance like that were the thermite grenades in the kit for emergency classified document destruction. Four inches of document would be put into a 55-gallon drum, a packet containing a couple pounds sodium nitrate would be sprinkled on it, then keep adding layers until the drum was reasonable full. On top was the grenade with the almost proverbial ten-foot cord tied through the ring. The cord would be threaded through a mesh top, the top clamped over the open barrel end, and the cord given a good yank. Makes your science fair potassium nitrate [volcano](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6SfsUrMyic) look like nuthin’. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/75 "2018-12-22T12:44:36Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > They were testing a “torture” from a TV show. Again, I’ll “hazard” a guess that the torturee didn’t have the option of switching hands. (“Hazard,” geddit? 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/76 "2018-12-23T01:26:53Z")
In what _should_ have resulted in death, the realism of [this TV death](https://youtu.be/K8hU39U4-Dw?t=1364) is possibly questionable. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/77 "2018-12-23T04:32:12Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Again, why would anyone want to do that? 😕 You pull the pin, you throw the grenade. It ain’t rocket science. > > I’ll go out on a limb\* here and guess the hand holding the grenade hadn’t yet released the spoon. :dubious: > > \*No pun intended. 😃 Here’s a quote from the Wikipedia page I linked to earlier: "As his squad distracted the third machine gunner, Lt. Inouye crawled toward the final bunker, coming within 10 yards. As he raised himself on his left elbow and cocked his right arm to throw his last hand grenade, a German soldier saw Inouye and fired a 30mm Schiessbecher antipersonnel rifle grenade from inside the bunker, which struck Inouye directly on his right elbow. The high explosive grenade failed to detonate, saving Lt. Inouye from instant death but amputating most of his right arm at the elbow (except for a few tendons and a flap of skin) via blunt force trauma. Despite this gruesome injury, Lt. Inouye was again saved from likely death due to the blunt, low-velocity grenade tearing the nerves in his arm unevenly and incompletely, which involuntarily squeezed the grenade tightly via a reflex arc instead of going limp and dropping it at Inouye’s feet. However, this still left him crippled, in terrible pain, under fire with minimal cover and staring at a live grenade “clenched in a fist that suddenly didn’t belong to me anymore.” Inouye’s horrified soldiers moved to his aid, but he shouted for them to keep back out of fear his severed fist would involuntarily relax and drop the grenade. As the German inside the bunker began hastily reloading his rifle with regular full metal jacket ammunition (replacing the wood-tipped rounds used to propel rifle grenades), Inouye quickly pried the live hand grenade from his useless right hand and transferred it to his left. The German soldier had just finished reloading and was aiming his rifle to finish him off when Lt. Inouye threw his grenade through the narrow firing slit, killing the German. Stumbling to his feet with the remnants of his right arm hanging grotesquely at his side and his Thompson in his off-hand, braced against his hip, Lt. Inouye continued forward, killing at least one more German before suffering his fifth and final wound of the day (in his left leg), which finally halted his one-man assault for good and sent him tumbling unconscious to the bottom of the ridge. He awoke to see the worried men of his platoon hovering over him. His only comment before being carried away was to gruffly order them back to their positions, saying “Nobody called off the war!”[14] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel\_Inouye](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Inouye) BTW, yep, this was the third machine gun nest he and his men took down that day! ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/78 "2018-12-23T04:56:06Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Right up until he sneezed, or fumbled the change over, or got jostled, or … > > I’m a [del]bit[/del] lot dubious but I read a (fiction) story where a soldier took a grenade from a reluctant child-soldier and replaced the pin. Unfortunately, during the hand-off, the spoon had been raised enough to release the striker without either of them noticing it and seconds later death ensued. I’m pretty sure the spoon has to be a fair distance up before the striker can do its thing, and I would think that someone who has handled grenades\* would hear the snap and perhaps see smoke coming out of the grenade. > > \*The closest I’ve come to ordinance like that were the thermite grenades in the kit for emergency classified document destruction. Four inches of document would be put into a 55-gallon drum, a packet containing a couple pounds sodium nitrate would be sprinkled on it, then keep adding layers until the drum was reasonable full. On top was the grenade with the almost proverbial ten-foot cord tied through the ring. The cord would be threaded through a mesh top, the top clamped over the open barrel end, and the cord given a good yank. Makes your science fair potassium nitrate [volcano](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6SfsUrMyic) look like nuthin’. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe grenades (especially modern ones) don’t “snap or smoke” or fizz when the pin in released. These are effects that the movies add for enhancement. Here’s a video of Marines tossing live grenades. No ping or smoke. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvBYjCmLQig](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvBYjCmLQig) Makes sense, since you don’t want to alert the enemy of your location/direction when tossing a grenade. Even if the person in the story knew the spoon wasn’t properly secured, the few seconds left before it went off wouldn’t have given him or the child any chance of escaping the shrapnel. I’ve heard or read that towards the end of WWII, the quality control of the German ‘potato mashers’ were so poor, that sometimes they’d go off immediately after the pin was pulled. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/79 "2018-12-23T05:06:54Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Again, I’ll “hazard” a guess that the torturee didn’t have the option of switching hands. > > (“Hazard,” geddit? 😉 ) You’re handed a grenade or something else deadly and told if you release your grip, it will go off. Does switching hands or even changing your grip come to your mind? I told the story about how in grade school, my friend suddenly freaked out and started attacking me. I grabbed him from behind in a bear hug and my only thought was if I loosened or tried to change my grip he’d get loose and I may not have a chance to restrain him again. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114/80 "2018-12-23T12:57:39Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe grenades (especially modern ones) don’t “snap or smoke” or fizz when the pin in released. These are effects that the movies add for enhancement. Here’s a video of Marines tossing live grenades. No ping or smoke. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvBYjCmLQig](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvBYjCmLQig) Well, snap for sure as the in-use M67 grenade uses the [M213](http://www.inetres.com/gp/military/infantry/grenade/hand.html) fuse in which the “delay element is a powder train”. Smoke might be a bit of drama. While I was perusing the net I came across an article that mentioned an electronic fuse (no link because the site had a bazillion ads that took five minutes to load; it was the Popular Science site) for the next generation grenade. It had an advantage because it would detonate on impact or go off some seconds later if it hit something too soft to trigger. [quote] Makes sense, since you don’t want to alert the enemy of your location/direction when tossing a grenade. I’m thinking if you’re close enough to hear the snap you’ve already detected someone who wishes you harm in other ways, especially since it doesn’t happen until the package is on its way already. > [@](#): > > Even if the person in the story knew the spoon wasn’t properly secured, the few seconds left before it went off wouldn’t have given him or the child any chance of escaping the shrapnel. I would imagine so. It was a poignant moment in any event. > [@](#): > > I’ve heard or read that towards the end of WWII, the quality control of the German ‘potato mashers’ were so poor, that sometimes they’d go off immediately after the pin was pulled. I have read it was sabotage by the slave workers producing them. Seems awfully risky but maybe they figured they were slowly dying anyway and might as well take a few with them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-deaths-vs-reality/826114.md?page=5)