What do you think is the worst guntrope in media?

[jpruitt]

I stopped watching Walking Dead about two minutes into episode 1. When the main character tells his cop rookie buddy to "make sure the safety is off on that thing". That thing being a Glock 22. I think what really got me was the show was recommended to me for its excellent use and representation of firearm use.

The guy Rick was talking to was kind of a doofus, and it was obvious Rick didn't think highly of him. From Rick's tone and facial expression, I took that "safety" comment as him screwing with the guy.

 

[USAF_Vet]

Not specifically guns, but I love how a hand grenade will clear a city block and a 40mm from an M203 might as well be a WMD.

 

[barnbwt]

Pretty sure a live 40mm in a dude's car here in America would be considered a WMD (legally, speaking )

TCB

 

[230RN]

Jaxondog said,

How about when the main actors can shoot and hit anybody and anything with one shot 200 yds or more away, but when the same movie has a gun battle in the same room they can't hit sh**.

Somehow or another that reminds me of some movie where Tommy Lee Jones shoots at a bad guy about 100 yards away with his .45 auto. His bullet knocks the gun out of the BG's hand and Tommy Lee Jones, surprised, mutters "Dayam."

I'm sure it was a deliberate spoof on all those scenes where The Hero shoots the gun out of the other guy's hand... but this time The Hero does it from 100 yards.

Laughed like hell over that one.

Terry, 230RN

 

[yzguy87]

Sniper Reloaded. The whole move. Also the entire series of Walker Texas Ranger (no offense to the Chuck Norris fans). I watched a part of an episode recently where Walker and his cronies are battling a large group of bad guys equipped with machine guns and a couple RPGs! Walker and friends have pistols! Walker pulls up, opens his tuck door and stands behind it for cover! Who wins? Walker and Company, of course! I forgot to mention the part where Trevett got blown up by one of the RPGs!

Also the news media! Pretty surprised that the news outlets didn't say the woman who tried to drive through the barriers of the white house and the Capitol was driving an AR15 assault vehicle!

 

[Ash]

The Quick and the Dead was a sort of spoof of spaghetti westerns, so the hole was part of the exaggeration. Already you accept the premise of a town holding a dueling contest. Accept the rest of it. It was to westerns that Evil Dead II was to horror movies.

Groovy.

 

[horseman1]

While all this is great stuff, the lack of gun safety on television shows is appalling. I dont watch much TV these days so I cant list the specific movies or shows.

I've seen plenty of shows where the cops/cowboys/soldiers use their gun to point directions out and in the process covering half of their team with the muzzle and usually with their finger in the trigger guard.

This is a public nuisance, similar to showing people smoking on TV, or Rosie O'Donnell eating lunch. People who imitate these things could die or harm others.

An excellent example of incompetence in gun safety is shown here where the actor is outwardly displaying a complete lack of gun safety knowledge or common sense. In this tale of fiction, the person shown is a supposed expert.

This may have been on CSPAN, so it qualifies:

 

[akodo]

One that I don't see mentioned yet is understanding how laser sights work.

I recall a movie...I think it was based on a Tom Clancy novel...where some special forces types with MP5s and laser sights go into a train car and gun down everyone inside. They show the traincar from the outside and beams of lasers flash out through the holes that appear.

In another, some corrupt cops are outside a home shining laser sights in. The star and the lady interest sneak around avoiding the beams, as if allowing the laser to touch them would result in instant death.

Strikeback had a recent episode where the two 'agents' had green lasers mounted on their guns, sometimes they were depicted with a green beam eminating, sometimes not. Then one guy shot and the beam pulsed on and off with each shot as if he was shooting some sort of ray gun

 

[DeadMoneyDrew]

One that I don't see mentioned yet is understanding how laser sights work.

I recall a movie...I think it was based on a Tom Clancy novel...where some special forces types with MP5s and laser sights go into a train car and gun down everyone inside. They show the traincar from the outside and beams of lasers flash out through the holes that appear.

I believe that you are referring to a stinker of a film called The Peacemaker. It came out some time in the 1990s, right before George Clooney finally figured out that he is actually a decent actor and doesn't have to take crap acting jobs just for a paycheck. The train raid scene was patently absurd, although that fact really didn't set it apart from the rest of the film all that much.

 

[stressed]

Dumbest thing I notice is how 1 or 2 good guys with pistols will go up against 10-30 goon with subguns and assault rifles, yet the goons manage to miss every single time with high capacity mags at close distances even though they massively outgun the good guys, only to perish from a couple or one well places round from the good guy's pistol at the same distance...

If these were realistic, I think most movies would end quickly and have unhappy audiences.

 

[Ash]

Hey, Peacemaker had a great shot of a CZ-52 pistol carried by a Czech Army officer...

 

[Sentryau2]

Foam or really light plastic guns.......The movie is shooter. I dont know why it bugged me so bad but it did. Seeing the rifle "float" around it might as well have been made out of papermache :banghead:


Or taking out a heli with a single shot from the .50 (tho provided he did hit the main rotor shaft)


Or the giant exploding propane tank, we tried that. It DOSENT work.

 

[stressed]

Foam or really light plastic guns.......The movie is shooter. I dont know why it bugged me so bad but it did. Seeing the rifle "float" around it might as well have been made out of papermache :banghead:


Or taking out a heli with a single shot from the .50 (tho provided he did hit the main rotor shaft)


Or the giant exploding propane tank, we tried that. It DOSENT work.

Speaking of such, I've fired into numerous cars gas tanks with gas in them (from a distance) before they get scrapped, none of them blew up like in the movies, they just leaked the gas out everywhere.

 

[Ash]

I could live with a gas tank going boom - it can happen if it sparks and the tank is mostly empty and vaporized gas is explosive. But how is it the passenger compartment erupts in flames? How is it grenades explode in a billowing ball of fire? How is it bullets spark off the hood of a car without leaving a dent? How is it Martin Riggs fired pistol rounds through the blade of a bulldozer? How is it two Scorpion SMG's dropped 223 cases upon firing?

Because Hollywood is make believe. I cut the cable ten years ago because it is so much crap that it isn't worth my money. I can escape in shows like Firefly or Briscoe County Jr. or movies like Avengers or Independence Day because they aren't meant to be taken seriously or in movies like Letters from Iwo Jima because they try to get it right, or in the original Gung Ho because they tried to lift up American spirits in the dark days of WWII. I can buy them on DVD from time to time (usually from the $5 bin). I can better spend my time elsewhere - which I do.

Hollywood today is a cynical business that seeks to liberate me from my money while telling me how stupid I am. I choose not to participate.

 

[Tejicano Loco]

In the movie "Sneakers" there is a scene where the protagonist is fighting/wrestling with a BG and the GG's girl picks up the gun which one of them dropped and fires a round into the ceiling (floor? I don't remember) after which the gun clearly has stovepiped. The fight stops and the good guys take control. I was waiting for whatever happens when the gun either doesn't fire again or whatever the plot was supposed to go when the clearly obvious jammed gun becomes a problem. It took me a couple minutes to realize that - even though the gun jamming was in a close up - it was un-intended and nobody in the production of the film even noticed it.

I have to say that through my military reserve unit I have met some people - including one guy who makes Jack Bauer look like a wannabee - who have spoiled my interest in the entire genre of spy/counterinsurgency books and movies. For instance - high tech gizmos. One guy told about how he dumped a satelite phone out the back of the plane into the ocean before a drop into some unnamed country. He already knew how to do his job without it and there was no way he was going to risk his mission and his life to be the beta tester.

 

[David E]

Tango and Cash, anti-gunner Stallone ejects the "regular" ammo from his .38 J-frame and loads "Super Duper" ammo in it which he uses to shoot a speeding Semi truck that blows up, etc.

The CSI or similar episode where they're after an "unlicensed gun dealer" or another one where the dealer IS licensed in NYC and apparently sells his legally obtained guns out of his trunk. They know he's the guy and lament that all the handguns found in his apartment (dresser drawers, etc) are legal so they can't touch him.

 

[btown]

Recoil

I always look for recoil or lack of it. Even the big .45 Matt Dillon carried .

 

[Tommygunn]

Tango and Cash, anti-gunner Stallone ejects the "regular" ammonia from his .38 J-frame and loads "Super Duper" ammo in it which he uses to shoot a speeding Semi truck that blows up, etc.

What was he using -- a squirt gun? Not sure I'd like to be squirted with ammonia -- but it beats a .38SP!!!!!!!

 

[woodweasel58]

I've read a bunch of these and yet to see mention of every guy with a semi auto pistol firing one shot and the camera goes to him holding that once fired auto with the slide locked open. Really small capacity magazines, I guess.

 

[Fleetman]

I've always admired the endless magazines for AK's and then the shooter grabs it barehanded by the barrel and runs off

 

[David E]

What was he using -- a squirt gun? Not sure I'd like to be squirted with ammonia -- but it beats a .38SP!!!!!!!

Auto correct does peculiar things sometimes!

About lack of recoil: I'd rather they not attempt it at all if they can't do it right. Beginning of Charlie's Angels shows one of them on the gunrange, recoiling at least a 1/2 second after the shot.

Or the Glock with the slide locked back goes "clickety click, clickety click" as they keep pulling the trigger, as in "Daredevil."

 

[JRWhit]

Don't know if it's true but I've heard many claim that Clint Eastwood is the reason why the 44 mag won out over the 41 mag." You Feeling Lucky Punk."
Probably from all that serious knock down power that had people flying out windows and such.

 

[theotherwaldo]

Silencers that are practically silent, instead of just knocking thirty or so decibels off of what comes out of a full-powered firearm.

 

[Atom Smasher]

Tango and Cash, anti-gunner Stallone ejects the "regular" ammo from his .38 J-frame and loads "Super Duper" ammo in it which he uses to shoot a speeding Semi truck that blows up, etc.

Really though, when we take genres into effect, are we really expecting a goofy buddy-cop movie from the 80's to be 100% accurate?

I agree that sometimes gun tropes can take me out of a movie, but once I've suspended disbelief I can usually ignore just about everything. Admittedly, I'm not an LEO or anything so when I watch military/police films I miss many of those inaccuracies. Blessing of ignorance, I suppose!

 

[rtz]

Here's a great classic. I think that was Arnold's prime.