Myths & Facts: Action Movies

Hello everybody, and this is yer another wiki page about Myths & Facts about some interesting subjects.

This Myth & Fact page will cover Action Movies, this is in conjunction with a blog page I have recently made on my Movie wiki, click here to read it.

Without a doubt, some of the top-grossing movies of all time, are action movies. They excite us, they thrill us, they're fun to watch, and they inspire. But, there are some things in action movies that you may think is true, but are not. Here are some "Myths & Facts" about Action Movies.

## Myth #1~Pistols can shoot off locks

In a lot of action movies, there's a character chasing another (such as a henchman) and the character is chasing the henchman until the character comes across a door that has a huge lock on it. What does the character do, he/she uses his/her pistol to shoot it off, and continue the pursuit.

### Fact

Now, this isn't a myth, just an oversimplification that's exaggerated as it's not completely false. This depends on not just the gun, but also the lock. Now, if it's a $10 lock that you can find at your local hardware store, then yes the pistol can destroy the $10 lock. But if it's a different lock, say a padlock made of iron? A pistol won't cut it. But a rifle of some kind that shoots a heavy caliber bullet could certainly break any lock, even an iron padlock.

Now, we're going to stick to guns for a while.

## Myth #2~Guns kill instantly

A firefight happens with guns, and if a certain character (unless he/she is the hero) gets shot, that character is as dead as a doornail, no matter if it's one shot or multiple.

### Fact

Just like with shooting a door lock, a human getting shot and falling on the ground dead is an "exaggerated oversimplification". Because (again) it depends on the gun, and also where you get shot. A lot of US Soldiers can even tell stories where during a firefight in their tour of duty overseas they have shot the same person a half a dozen times (even with a heavy-caliber rifle) and they can come back up fighting. Many people know that shots to the head, neck, and heart are real-world "kill shots", it depends on if the bullet damages (or ruptures) something vital like a huge blood vessel (e.g., the jugular, the aorta) or a vital organ in the human body.

## Myth #3~Amnesiac people forget everything

There are in some action movies, especially ones that involve a spy (e.g., Total Recall, The Bourne Identity) whereas "super-spy" has lost his memory and can not remember anything, not even their names, nor can they remember what he/she had done in the past, and he/she goes on a journey to try to find his/her memories........................................................while everybody in the world tries to kill him/her.

### Fact

This is yet another myth movies exaggerate and oversimplify. According to a lot of brain doctors, amnesia isn't the "total" loss of memory, just the loss of short term memory, meaning they can't retain the new memories they have just stored in their brain. This type of amnesia that is usually portrayed in movies is what brain doctors call "Retrograde Amnesia" which they can't recall anything before they developed amnesia.

Additionally, if a person suffers the misfortune of developing some kind of head injury, they only would suffer a minor case of confusion and some memory loss, but not full-blown amnesia in the real-world.

## Myth #4~Water can soften your fall

In some action movies (e.g., Face/Off, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) we see the hero jump into the water, sometimes from a very high place, and they land into the water, virtually unharmed. Because water a softer than dry land, and it can soften your fall.

### Fact

Once again, this is an "exaggerated oversimplification". This depends on not just how fast you're falling but also how far you're falling too. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier when Captain America was free-falling into the water, he was traveling at or near......what skydiving experts call "Terminal Velocity". In reality, if you were to land in water at that type of speed, it's like landing on dry land. You'll either break most (if not all) of your bones in your body if not die instantly, and more than likely you'll be rendered unconscious, and because you landed in the water, you'll drown.

## Myth #5~Space Wars are fun

In futuristic space stories (e.g., Star Wars) you'll know that the space wars are as dynamic and fun as those old World War 2 footage of the dogfights in the Pacific. Yeah, fun.

### Fact

Now, we all know that wars in space are fun in the movies, but what about in real life. Since a war in space has yet to be fought, it's speculative at best. But what is known is that ballistic weapons won't work in space due to no oxygen and no gravity which is what the bullet needs to travel. So too does any vessel we have ever sent into space (and that's the problem with space wars in movies as most are like the old "WW2 Dogfights" which are also powered by gravity), so the space fighters would have to use some powerful gravity diffusers to pull off these "Dogfights".

Additionally, and as mentioned before, no ballistic weapons since they won't work in space. So, something else needs to be used, and lasers (as of right now) would be the way to go. But unlike in the movies, lasers are just coherent light, and thus invisible, so targeting them is a challenge in itself, and as of right now, lasers take a long time to damage their target since it can only gradually heat the target. So, if a space war were to be fought with the technology available today, it wouldn't be as exciting nor would they be as fun as they are in the movies.

Now, we get to the most exciting element of action movies, the explosions.

## Explosion Myths

You can't have an action movie without explosions (the bigger the better), and it seems that everything can just explode into an enormous fireball, even small explosives such as hand grenades and dynamite.

### Fact

Again, this is more of an "exaggerated oversimplification". Small explosives such as hand grenades and sticks of dynamite don't explode into gigantic fireballs as they do in the movies but do have some powerful concussive explosions which can still kill if used effectively. But if a small explosive were to go off near, say, some metal drums of gasoline, then yes it can turn into that eye-popping explosive fireball action movie fans crave.

Additionally, shooting a container full of gasoline won't make the container explode. Despite that Gasoline has an ignition point of around 535°F, but no caliber bullet can deliver that spark needed to ignite the Gasoline, even if it does, more than likely it'll just set on fire as the vapors are what make gasoline flammable and not the liquid.

Additionally, explosions create shockwaves, the bigger the explosion, the bigger the shockwave. In a lot of action movies, we see several hero characters just casually walking away from an explosion. But if it's a big enough explosion and a big enough shockwave, it can still do some damage. Some movie explosions can create a shockwave that can go at Mach 1.3 (that's more than an EF5 Tornado), which can destroy anything.

Well, that will do for our wiki page here. Don't forget to check out my Movies and Games wikis too. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.