inFAMOUSCowZ said:
you got this from cracked
Got what from Cracked? They have mentioned the 'gratuitous cocking' and 'bullets explode everything' in an article called "Gun Myths that people believe are true", yes, but I am referring to things that irk me/make no sense in movies in general- not just gun related goofs.
And for the record I knew about both gun myths before even reading the article. Sadly though I did think silencers would actually work..turns out it doesn't :/
Lilani said:
I think you're forgetting the fact that they have a gun. I imagine if you turned around right now and somebody was standing there with a gun and they begin to threaten you, you would probably listen to what they have to say. And if you don't and they cock the gun to make their point, the knowledge that the gun wasn't prepared before does absolutely nothing for you at that point.
Well firstly, I never forget; especially if someone has a gun to my head. You are right though - that from person to person the reaction to being threatened by a man with a gun can differ, BUT, as said by someone else in this thread the people portrayed in these kinds of movies who find themselves in such life-threatening situations, are made out to be bad-ass maternal coitus indulging machines of death and often eat chaos for breakfast. These are no ordinary people, they are usually trained to feck shit up, so much so that at the end of the day shit looks like origami. My point is that if you threaten these kind of people (the generic action mold character in, oh, 99.99% of action movies) then you'll find that they will be paying very little attention to what the person with the gun is saying and more on the different ways to dislocate your distal humerus and insert it firmly in your gluteus maximus. Ergo the whole act of taunting the deceptively pacified protagonist with a lengthy speech to be puncutated by the cocking of the gun..is in the end..pointless. And frankly, suicidal or Hollywood would have you believe.
Additionally, as was mentioned before an article from Cracked also points to the futility in scenes where the gun is cocked in the last second for dramatic effect. The reason? Certain guns, such as the Beretta 92F are designed
"so that pulling the trigger also cocks the hammer for you, to save you the extra step and the extra two seconds during which you could get shot". As well as
"it's made so that it leaves the hammer cocked back in between shots (the reason is it makes the trigger a little easier to pull)". So that leads one to believe that cocking a gun that was fired seconds before..just de-cocks it. Fantastic news, if you were in the firing line.
Lilani said:
Personally I have never witnessed somebody getting their head bashed over, and nor have I done any research on the plausibility of it, but if something as petty as that can ruin your moviegoing experience, then you have my pity. Because if that bothers you, it means one of two things: either you don't care about enjoying the movie and are and are looking for any possible stretch of reality (because everything in every action movie MUST be 100% accurate), or you are just incapable of analyzing something as the sum of its parts.
And to answer your last question about things in movies irking me...I can't really think of any right now. I guess one, if it counts, would be major, MAJOR actors who...well, still get roles. See, since Tom Cruise is such a household name nowadays, I can't see one of his movies and think of him as whatever character he is trying to play. I think of him as Tom Cruise. His public life is so overbearing that I avoid films with him in it just because I know I'll never get taken in.
First things first, don't feel pity for me. People often start a counter-argument with that phrase so much so that it's beginning to loose it's meaning. Give pity to things that matter. This, this doesn't matter!
As for your argument:
I am glad that you haven't seen someone getting their head bashed over - being hit on the head can have fatal consequences at times but there is never a 100% certainty that you'll knock someone uncoincious. It is entirely possible that you'll either kill them, cause irreparable brain damage, or they'll walk away with a concussion while having other unpleasant symptoms gnaw at them till they get to a hospital.
Even if the impact falls in the 'Goldilocks zone' where you can render a person unconscious there is no guarantee how long they will be incapacitated - it could be 5 minutes to 5 days.
Unfortunately this silly trope is portrayed quite often as an instant non-lethal alternative of taking care of someone in almost every genre of movies. I swear even Mr. Bean has knocked people unconscious.
The source of my irritation is not that I can't suspend my disbelief/turn part of my brain off. No, what annoys me is the cavalier attitude in which Hollywood depicts this trope. The implication here is that when someone wants someone "alive" or "taken out quietly for further interrogation" they resort to the trusty 'whack to the back of the head' routine..somehow as if we have an off-switch that can be be hit with precision all the fecking time, where there is no ill effects other than a headache and confusion. That they have the nerve to depict such a fatal act as harmless is the main sore point for me.
That's not how it works! Knocking someone unconscious with the assumption that it's safe (or a safer alternative) is not only wrong but what kind of message are you sending to the audience? It's dangerous and should not be attempted attempted under any circumstance! I wouldn't be upset with this trope at all if it didn't try to disguise itself as being a "non-lethal" take down option but that's exactly what they portray it as..all the bloody time.
The point if this is a petty complaint is a matter of opinion. Finding that the inclusion of polyester blend clothing in a period piece about the Civil War can ruin someone's movie experience to me is petty but perhaps not to you or someone who is passionate about said things. Finding that movies keep masquerading a potentially lethal tactic as a child's play maneuver somehow just irks me. I don't expect you to understand it nor do I need pity from the people who can't. I don't need movies to be 100% accurate, like I said in the OP I can suspend my disbelief if I chose to. However, movies in my book are not going to get away with trying to insult commonsense all the time. I can only find forgiveness in my heart so many times. Sure the sum is greater than all it's parts and I can appreciate that. However, must you always insult the intellect of your audience to do that? Especially if you are paying money to have your intelligence insulted?
