Black Powder Pool

Black Powder Pool is a 1987 American action sports drama film produced by the infamous Beeple Studio. The film is one of the many spin off of the original Knife Fight City produced during the era. The film tells the story of Bill "Deadeye", an underground black powder pool player trying to make a name for himself by entering the KFC Grand Pool Tournament.

## Plot

In the original Knife Fight City, it was established that all firearms are banned by the UN after the .46 incident. Black powder firearms, due to their antique status, were allowed in sporting contexts and for recreational purposes. Thus, various sports involving black powder firearms were born, the most infamous being black powder pool.

Bill "Deadeye" is a talented black powder pool player that is looking to make a name for himself. Bill's career was cut short however, when he accidentally shoots his childhood friend in a friendly black powder eight ball game. Bill vows to never play pool again, until his sister fell ill. To save his sister, Bill has to resort to what he is best at, black powder pool.

To even have the chance to enter the tournament Bill must first become a sanctioned black powder pool player recognized by the Knife Fight City Pool Association. Usually this takes time, and money, as there is an entry fee to all sanctioned games; alternatively a generous donation. Due to his sister's illness, Bill doesn't have either. Bill resorted to goading pro players to appear in underground games to make a name for himself. After winning against multiple pro players Bill was noticed by the KFC Pool Association as a rising star and is given the chance to enter the KFC Grand Pool Tournament as a wild card.

Bill soon however discovers that the KFCPA is more than just a sports governing body. By chance Bill discovers the vast corruption behind the scenes. Besides the usual rigged games, Bill also learns that the association is in fact sneaking sanctioned firearms out on to the street. During his daring escape from the warehouse Bill was terrified to find out his pursuer is in fact one of the KFC enforcers.

The KFCPA tries to bribe Bill to stay quiet, as they know of his family condition. Bill after some contemplation and encouragement from his sister declined the offer, and decided to do what is right. Unsure how deep the corruption runs, Bill decides he has to get an audience with the man Dirk Steele himself. As it turns out, besides the million dollar cash prize for winning the tournament, the champion also gets to meet the ruler of KFC in person.

The movie's climax was the showdown between the reigning champ of black powder pool and Bill during the final round. During the break shot, Bill luckily dodged the bullet, and realized that the champ is not out to win but in fact out to kill. It is illegal to directly aim one's firearm at another player during a black powder pool game, but accidents do happen. The champ is lining up deflection and trick shots to kill Bill and make it look like an accident. Bill, still suffering the trauma of killing his friend during a pool game, is at first hesitant to try and kill the champ. However, after multiple close calls Bill decided enough was enough and lined up a shot that bounced off multiple cue balls before finally going through the champ's skull.

The movie ends rather ambiguously, fading into black after Bill receives the cash prize and enters the throne room of Dirk Steele.

## Production

Every single black powder firearm seen in the film are genuine, functioning weapons, some of them antiques while others were homemade. The reason for this is attributed to the director who refused to compromise on the matter, as he "wouldn't budge on the authenticity and soul of the movie." The ramifications of this decision would not be apparent until production started when an actor took a flintlock pistol and fired it at his leg, not understanding the danger of the black powder being used for the film, which caused first and second degree burns. There would be a total of nine incidents related to just the powder guns being used on set, including the aforementioned incident.

The projectiles fired from these weapons had a tendency to do one of three things: ricochet wildly off hard surfaces, blast golf ball sized holes in whatever they hit, as well as being rather inaccurate at anything other than point blank range. Of the eight remaining production incidents, five of them were caused by ricochets, two resulting in death, one in paralyzing a audio engineer from the midsection down, and the other two only resulting in minor injuries. The most notable of these is the death that occurred while filming the final scenes where Bill and the champ square off, ultimately ending in Bill killing the champ with a truly masterful shot. Unfortunately for the actor playing the champ, Bill's actor had been practicing the stunt with live rounds for almost the entire production process in preparation for the scene. In the very first attempt at the stunt scene, the producers and director had forgotten to switch the loaded and unloaded weapons Bill's actor was using - the director had been convinced by the effects team that doing the stunt for real would be impossible, and with his blessing had set up a practical effects rig to make the scene work - and the champ's actor had no idea the gun had a real projectile in it. Not wanting to waste time or money to reshoot the scene, especially as late in production as the project was, the scene made it into the final cut of the movie, a chilling ouroboros linking back to the filming incident in the original Knife Fight City (1984) when Jaques Bartholemew had a mental break, the carnage being caught on camera and included in the final film.

Additionally, an entire set was destroyed when studio staff moved large quantities of black powder being used for the guns onto the set temporarily, but tragedy struck when a janitor entered the dark room and lit a cigarette, igniting the powder and causing a significant explosion and a small fire. The janitor was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived, but no other people were injured in the blast. The set and the room it was contained in were completely destroyed and rendered unusable, but thankfully nothing else was critically damaged.