The law of guns in movies
 

Most of the time in movies, a gun would miss even when in real life it shouldn't. In the classic 80s action flick you can have hordes of goon shooting at Arnold and none of them would touch him.

So, can you list some of the laws of the gun in action movies?

example, a gunshot wound is fatal only when it serves the plot, like when a main character doesn't die from it despite that many other nonfactor villains have died from things less than a gun shot.

Good guys have the infinite ammo cheat active, bad guys only ever carry 2 mags

James Bond never, ever carries extra ammo for anything and always runs dry when he really needs to use his gun

If the main character has a clear shot on the main antagonist, his gun will always be empty despite the fact he just fired 300+ rounds from a revolver

No matter how skilled a fighter the protagonists mentor is, he will be killed by 2-3 street punks

(if you want to see a few examples of this, watch "I'm Gonna Get You Sucka")

Good guys have supernatural aiming abilities or computerized targeting systems, so aiming down the sights is completely optional.

OK, to be fair, this started winding down about the mid-90s. But still, watch pretty much any Schwarzenegger action flick until about 1999 and you'll see this rule run rampant.

The bigger the gun, the more badass you are.

Explains all of those Desert Eagles.

Fire discipline? PSSSSH!

Of course, the situations where this can become ridiculously apparent vary wildly, but have you ever noticed that when it gets right down to it, many a bad guy and good guy alike forgo even short, controlled bursts in favor of dumping a few mags downrange?

We always see Glocks, and Berettas

Shotguns can throw someone five or six feet and blow clean holes through walls.

Grenade launchers can be used from any distance, and always fire on a straight arc.

Submachine guns and assault rifles have one major purpose: to be wildly sprayed at a room or object by the bad guys, leading to a moment of confusion afterwards that allows the hero to suddenly appear and gun them down.

SMGs and ARs are sprayed by people who are about to get killed, but when wield by the main hero, it is deadly accurate.

People always put their finger on the trigger, hold the magazine when shooting,

Drop a shotgun on the floor and it goes off.

If a gun gets shot off the hand of an actor, NOTHING happens to his hand or the gun itself.

Shooting akimbo makes the main actor awesome and accurate. And if the director is John Woo, he'll have unlimited ammo.

Spinning the chamber of a revolver, despite having no cylinder lock to ratchet against, it makes the ratcheting sound.

Oh, all guns when pointed at someone's head from behind makes a clicking or locking sound before the camera moves to reveal that a gun is being held to the head despite that a Glock much less any gun wouldnt make such a loud sound

Actors always pull the hammer back down to show "they mean business" despite the fact that if the gun is single action like a 1911, wont fire if the hammer is up.

Sometimes in movies and shows, we see them needlessly rack the slide when doing mid mag reload. We also seem them chambering a round when they are about to go into combat when in reality, it should already be chambered

Wearing a bullet proof vest will guarantee you won't get shot in the head, limbs or testicles.

Rocket propelled grenades fly slow enough for you to leap out of their way.

Getting shot in the shoulder sometimes stings a little, but won't slow you down.

Shooting someone in a car will splatter blood on the windscreen, but the bullet won't break the glass.

Only ever use the safety catch if you know your enemy will turn your own gun on you.

Every firearm is capable of blowing up a car, provided you aim at the gas tank.

Optical sights, forward grips and flashlight attachments are just there to look cool.

If you miss the target, your bullet will invariably hit a vase.

Bullet impact on walls or the ground will cause sparks

in video games you can aim at a tire, door, etc, and as long as enough rounds hit it will blow up.

You usually don't see them being chambered; you just hear the sound of the weapon being cocked. That's entirely the fault of the folly editors who think that it sounds cool to hear guns being cocked all the time.

I mean like you see a cop drawing his gun and then racking the slide to chamber a gun. It would have been tactically sound to have already chambered a round.

drawing a handgun from a leather holster and hearing the pump action shotgun noise.....

Hmmm, I really haven't seen that very much. Not enough to be a "law" anyway. Again, though, I know it's common to hear the sound of rounds being chambered or hammers being cocked when cops draw their weapons. But I don't recall too many movies where I can see it happening on-screen.

"guns are full of ball bearings that rattle around when the gun is even slightly moved"

Drawing a gun from a holster always makes a loud WHOSH sound.

They always pull the hammer down to mean business and ride the hammer back down when they are being nice

The main antagonist has extra lives

The main bad guy is always last to fall, they never have them die and then just mop up the thugs, you mop up the thugs and then go into a final confrontation....

The Villain never knows the difference in weight between a loaded and an unloaded gun.

When the main characters tells a villain that the safety is on, the guy will always look at the gun on reflex just long enough for the main character to grab and disarm.

A revolver doesn't have a safety, but when you tell someone the safety is on, he'll look.

A Glock doesn't have any external hammer or safety, yet when pointed at someone off camera, it always makes a hammer or safety sound before the camera brings it into view.

It's spelled "Foley" not "Folly" but then I could call it "Folly" hahahahaha

But people are too hard on the sound effects editors. They have to accede to the wishes of the director, who wants 'dramatic effect' and many times the audience themselves expect certain things even though they are not accurate. What I don't like is people with asperger's syndrome blaming the production and post production crew for stuff that's the decision of the director. Many times the lame stuff is forced upon the crew........ ;)

Haha, good call. Freud was right.

I think it's a more a matter of ignorance, not Asperger's Syndrome. ;) Being a non-Aspie means that it's hard for me to fathom directors micro-managing the foley editors to that extent.

Actually, screw that, I'm lying to myself. If I were directing a movie with guns, I'd probably tell the foley editor specifically NOT to insert the sound of guns being cocked so frequently.

There's got to be other ways to tell on screen that the character realizes someone is pointing a gun at their head from behind. In real life, you wouldn't hear the gun point at you.

The hero always has hundreds of extra rounds on his person with no apparent means of actually carrying them...

Or the hero who in a scene before seemed to have an endless supply of ammo, is OUT of ammo when confronting the main villain, triggering a fist fight of needless bad assery

Whenever you have a gang of bad guys, the leader will always carry a fancier handgun than his henchmen. Usually, that means that his gun will have a stainless or nickel finish, while his thugs all carry standard blued pistols.

And it seems as though nickel or two-tone Jericho 941s are the standard pistol for the head bad guy (think "Live Free or Die Hard", "Casino Royale", "Under Siege 2", "Tomb Raider 2", etc.), while the others will always have standard 9mm Berettas, Glocks, SIGs, etc.

El Hefe's sidearm is always either chambered in a puny caliber or unpractically overpowered

The diminishing law of ninja states that when the hero is confronted by more than 2 baddies, he will either never get hit by a bullet and all his shots are kills.


The bigger the gun that his held in one hand, the more bad ass, like Desert Eagle, .44 Magnum, sawed off double barrel shotgun

Are you a poorly-funded terrorist cell, with barely enough money to finance a visit to Pizza Hut, never mind your own nefarious plans? Well, don't look now, but I think the shipping container full of Heckler & Koch G36s and SIG SG552s, magazines and ammunition for them might have something to do with it...

I'm looking at you, 24.

Snipers can and will use laser sights wherever necessary to ensure the shot goes where it needs to...even if said laser sight ruins the shot to begin with.

I can see why movies do this ("Hey, that dot wasn't there a second ago--HOLY--"), but...yeah.

The more exotic the gun, the more ridiculous any mentioned stats for it will be.

War. The Walther P99 that somehow fired 5.7x28mm rounds. I could stop there, but I'd be remiss in not mentioning that said rounds were depleted uranium with titanium shell casings. All that was missing was the "Double-Whammy" option. (Bonus points to whomever gets that one.)

speaking of double whammy.

Any shotgun fired at point blank range will either blow a large and clear hole through a door or wall and also send a man flying several feet back.

Gunfire is quiet enough for others to talk to each other casually without repeating.

A mag is called a clip and an Assault Rifle is a Machine gun

You almost never see a gun jam

No one ever gets shot in the shin.

I do believe you're referring to Judge Dredd's Lawgiver II. :D

Getting shot in the arm, leg and shoulder are not serious wounds

2 men + 2 shotguns = 3 rounds total. Anyone remember the movie that's from?

I forgot actually, but I know what you are talking about. Christan Slater is in that.

Also in movies, most of the time, the main characters wouldn't pick up guns dropped by enemies even when it's safer to take the AK or Uzi than keeping their pistols. Except for the movie The Kingdom, that ending battle had them all using guns they've picked up

the femoral artery will bleed out just as quick as the jungular, the shoulder has a lot of small bones and nerves and will take a while to heal. Also, people dont get hit by a bullet, stop all forward motion, and go down like a rock isnstantly. The human body can hold in there a while. Especially with adrenaline blocking out pain.

I think most of us know that. That's the point, in gun movies, none of that ever happens to the human body

Rule:

Main character will do a raid with just a pistol and sometimes body armor worn over clothes, while the rest of their team wears tacgear, mp5s, m4s, etc.

Too many shows to count, 24, numb3rs, etc are the violators i can think of right now

When in full gear, a main character would take off his helmet and that would be the signal for "it's on now."

The best way to fire a pistol is to hold it sideways,or upside down,than spray and pray.
Handguns always make the cocking sound whenever they are drawn or pointed at someone.This is most amusing when it's done with a Glock or other hammerless weapons.
After firing about 400 rounds from an SMG or an assault rifle(from a single magazine of course), the next time they are aimed at the main villain/hero it will make a loud click sound,preferably multiple times(this does not count for DA/DAO handguns :()