Michelle Vu's PHYS 23 Blog

Clip A Clip B Clip C Clip D

Eraser (1996) Commando (1985) John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) Do you ever think about the magic behind movies? We go into the theater and are awed by the harrowing stunts, crazy explosions, and death-defying action. Behind the scenes of every movie, there is a team making sure things run smoothly, look consistent, and look at least somewhat believable. One of the keys to a believable movie is to make sure the physics of the movie are correct. However, nothing is ever perfect and movies are no exception. Many action movies have unrealistic physics when it comes to firing guns because there is often little or no recoil, which violates the action/reaction principle of physics. In this paper, I will analyze three movies that have incorrect physics when it comes to recoil: Commando , Eraser , and John Wick: Chapter 2 . I will also explain how recoil works. Lastly, I will go over why there is no recoil in some action movies. Although it is a small detail, more attention to recoil wo...

Intro/Thesis: Many action movies have unrealistic physics when it comes to firing guns because there is often little or no recoil, which violates the action/reaction principle of physics. Movies: Eraser (1996) John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) Commando (1985) Body: Guns in real life, how they work Why they recoil/ every action must have an equal and opposite reaction In these scenes, the gun does not recoil, or does not recoil as much as it should for the devastating force it fires Describing why movie guns do not recoil (because often firing blanks, or using a prop gun and sound, flash, and sometimes shell casings are added in post-production) Conclusion: If the movies wanted to be more realistic, there would be recoil, but sometimes it's just cooler to have a tough guy unaffected by gun recoil.