4 Action Movie Clichés Vs. Reality

By: Keith Mitchell w/Chestpoundfilms

Action movies are fun. They bring out our inner child, allowing us to escape into a world of explosions, fights, abs and cleavage. But there are patterns in most action movies, clichés that continuously appear. What would happen if these stunts were pulled in the real world?

This week at Chestpound’s film blog, for entertainment purposes, we put 4 Action Movie Clichés vs. Reality.

1. Infinite Ammo

Cammando (1985)

The video above is a classic example of endless ammo or what TV Tropes calls, “bottomless magazines.” Now in this cliché, the character’s ammo only runs out when the plot calls for it to add drama or suspension.

In Reality:

The quick rundown of the basics are:

• Most revolvers hold about 5-8 shots.

• Semi-auto handguns can carry about 10-15 shots.

• Longarms including rifles and shotguns get 5-8 rounds.

• Semi-auto and automatic rifles can hold 20-30 rounds.

So in the real world, it would be impossible to spray an entire army of men with an assault rifle. Arnold’s kill streak would really have lasted about 4 seconds. But this movie is pretty old now; the infinite ammo clichè has probably improved since then right?

The Walking Dead

Oh wait...

Speaking of Commando's shoot first, think later strategy, that brings us to cliché number two.

2. Ain't Got Time To Bleed

The Boondock Saints (1999, great movie)

This section examines the hero’s lack of cover (the video above) or taking cover behind things that would not stop bullets from hitting them. This is a pretty broad entry with all kinds of variations but to put it simply-

In reality:

Bullets penetrate. They go through doors, walls, sofas, tables and much more. A 9mm is capable of penetrating a car door despite the thin sheet of metal, the steel frames inside and the window motor/door latch.

In a house shootout, a 9mm can easily pierce through the two-by-fours and drywall the protagonist is hiding behind. A .38 or .45 hand gun is also perfectly capable of doing the same. If it’s a rifle? It’s like taking cover behind the curtains. So in the real world, hiding behind the wall, table, car door or couch during a shootout really just obstructs the shooters view more than anything. In this cliché, bullets only penetrate objects when the plot allows it.

But seriously, who needs to take cover anyway? You’ve got guns! Besides with the accuracy issues in the video above, cover really isn’t necessary. This is the mindset of most Call of Duty players all day. But if they gave Daryl a crossbow, this would have been an entirely different fire fight.

3. Too Cool For Explosions

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

What better way to demonstrate how awesome the hero is than to have them walk nonchalantly in front of an explosion. In all honesty, it pretty awesome.

In reality:

When a bomb explodes, energy radiates from the explosion in all directions. This energy expands, compressing and accelerating the surrounding airspace with overwhelming pressure. This creates a supersonic blast.

Or in other words, a ridiculous amount of force that blows everything nearby away including our hero.

How about out-running the blast like in most action movies? Nope. The hot gases released, travel at about 26,400 ft per second (8,050 meters per second). Unless you were pretty much already in the safe zone. The effects of an explosion are almost instant.

4. Superman Catch

The Avengers (2012)

There’s that moment in action movies where a character is falling. Screaming and flailing as they nearly plunge to the ground from an extreme height, guaranteeing certain death when—

Instantly, they are saved as their fall is interrupted from our hero, swooping in and catching them before they hit.

In Reality:

Now it is possible to survive a fall from an extreme distance. In 2009, James Boole, a skydiver, survived a free fall of 6,000 ft. In 1972, a flight attendant, Vesna Vulovic, went down in a plane at 33,000 ft and survived. But that’s incredibly lucky.

See the fall isn’t what kills the victim; it’s the abrupt change in velocity. In more usual cases, when a person is falling at 120 mph (the terminal velocity of a human during free fall) unless there is some way to slow them down, the sudden stop becomes the cause of death.

If the person doesn’t hit the ground, but instead some substitute such as, a dumpster, haystack, water, or the arms of a super hero- death is still the case.

The best way to think of it is like a car. Intercepting a high speeding car with another high speeding car isn’t the best solution. So in the real world, a heroic catch would likely result in decapitation.

"Louis Lane is falling, accelerating at an initial rate of thirty-two feet per second per second. Superman swoops down to save her by reaching out two arms of steel. Miss Lane, who is now traveling at approximately one hundred twenty miles an hour, hits them, and is immediately sliced into three equal pieces." – Sheldon The Big Bang Theory.

Overall, storytelling involves the principle of ‘suspension of disbelief’. It makes for entertaining movies and allows people to escape. If films were complete reflections of reality, they’d be pretty boring (see reality TV). But every now and then, it’s interesting to see how things would fair in the real world.