Closest I’ve seen to this being done was the movie Black Hawk Down. Meanwhile can you imagine everyone screaming at each other in the John Wick films? Other movies like Aliens would have been a whole different level of horrifying as the sound fades away until its just the sound of the actor’s muffled heart beat and their cluelessness that the xenomorph is crawling up behind them.
My favorite is when someone sets off a grenade indoors and then everyone remains fully conscious and continues having normal conversations immediately after.
Indeed! I know a fair bit about explosives and no one I know likes watching action movies with me. Either I will point out the blue bands on weapons, how everyone will be dead in the next hour or so because of all the perforations in their intestines and other organs after the impulse wave passes over them, or how some of these people should be wheezing through the rest of the movie due to the chemical burns to their esophagus and lungs (I am a blast at parties).
I recently watched the series Falling Skies and there’s a scene where they set off an explosion indoors. The characters black out and wake up with hearing loss, blurred vision and their ears bleeding. They still recover unnaturally fast, but, like, that’s OK were doing a TV show. I was happy to see some realistic consequences play out on screen.
There’s a different scene where one of the characters has to actually deal with being concussed due to being near an explosion. Overall the series does pretty well with the basic concept that the characters get wounded in combat and are not action heroes. If they survive, they’re still wounded in the next episode and it affects their actions in the story.
Just made me think of it. In the movie Atomic Blonde, I appreciated how Charlize Theron’s bruises and cuts accumulated as the movie progressed versus the normal brutal beatdown followed by the immediately following glamour guy/gal scene. Otherwise the movie is over the top but not enough to be detracting.
I would love to have a party with people who have such interesting knowledge. What else are they doing wrong? Or what common mistake would you like to see on screen?
In any film or series where the characters are carrying guns regularly I immediately notice muzzle discipline. If the actors actively keep their weapons pointed away from everyone except enemies, you know they had someone competent on staff who gave them some basic weapon handling training before filming. If the characters are supposed to be professional military or law enforcement and they have bad muzzle discipline it immediately takes me out of the scene. If the character is supposed to be competent but waves their gun around like a moron it’s very immersion-breaking.
In very well produced media, the characters who are supposed to be amateurs show bad muzzle discipline and sometimes it’s even a plot point, and I appreciate that kind of attention to detail.
they could be ICE?
I feel like the “supposed to be competent” qualifier excludes that.
One piece of advice I never see, perhaps because its not practical for civilians. Immediately after an explosion where you are close to the epicenter, do everything possible to avoid gasping or yelling. Next, quickly but carefully check if you have been hurt or not.
By the end of my time in service the most I might do is have an eye twitch but for normal people, being in proximity to an explosion is an unprecedented experience that’s like opening a hot stove oven, flipping a flood light on in your face, having a party balloon pop behind you, and being hit hard by an ocean wave from an awkward angle, all at the same time. Totally normal reaction is to want to get the fuck away but first you want to make sure everything is still attached, nothing new is now attached to you, and there are no major holes anywhere.
I guess the problem with that advice is that unfortunately its only useful to those expecting to be near an explosion.
Why avoid gasping or yelling?
on my phone so terse response
Chemical residues in the air are super toxic, yelling will cause you to take a deep breath of that. Explosives made to kill don’t have many health & safety restrictions besides what’s on the Geneva convention checklist (joke about Canadian soldiers)
Also you may have injured your lungs but are not aware of that just yet. A lot of extremely injured people will understandably try to get away but are oblivious because of severe shock.
My question also.
I’m bookmarking this so I can quickly check it in the event I’m trapped in an explosion.
(No, I’m not serious. My phone would be on charge at home).