Alec Baldwin accidentally kills crew member with prop gun
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I heard about this earlier today, but I hadn't heard that Alec Baldwin was the person who shot the prop gun, or who was killed and injured.
This is so sad.
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I heard about this earlier today, but I hadn't heard that Alec Baldwin was the person who shot the prop gun, or who was killed and injured.
This is so sad.
This is so sad.
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I woke up to this too. Not sure what the point of a “prop” gun is if it can kill a person.
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I'm also confused, and waiting for some technical clarification. I understood Brandon Lee's accident as something lodged in the barrel, and propelled (like a regular bullet) by the blank's explosion. I suppose people don't clean prop guns with the same care as guns where each part is used. But here... two people were hit ? By a same projectile ? Or did the prop gun propel several ?
@Flicker BBC article just out:
“Despite sounding innocuous, both prop guns and blanks can be dangerous. Here's what we know about them.
What is a prop gun?
Blanks are used in the film industry to imitate live ammunition.
The reason they are so convincing is that blanks are essentially modified real bullets.
Modern bullets are made of a cartridge, consisting of a shell holding a propellant powder. When a gun fires, it ignites the propellant, firing the bullet attached to the front of the shell forward.
Rather than using a metal projectile, blanks have material such as cotton or paper attached to the front.
While prop guns could mean non-functioning weapons, such as cap guns, the term also applies to real guns used on film sets.
Together they add authenticity to productions - fire a blank using a prop gun and you'll get a loud bang, a recoil and what's known as a muzzle flash, the visible light created by the combustion of the powder.
Has this kind of incident happened before?
Yes. You may remember Brandon Lee, the actor son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee.
Brandon Lee died aged just 28 in 1993 while filming The Crow, when a prop gun which mistakenly had a dummy bullet loaded in it was fired at him.
Dummy bullets are used for close-ups and should have been removed when the blank was loaded.
After Lee was shot, the cameras kept rolling. It was only when he did not get up at the end of the scene that those on set realised something was wrong.
In another incident, in 1984, US actor Jon-Erik Hexum started joking around on the set of a television show after being frustrated by delays in filming.
He loaded a revolver with a blank, spun the chamber, put the gun to his temple and fired.
Unlike in Lee's case, he was not killed by a projectile, but rather the force of the blast was strong enough to fracture his skull. He died days later in hospital.
Others working in film wondered why, at a time when gun effects can be cheaply added using computers, blanks are still being used at all.
"There's no reason to have guns loaded with blanks or anything on set anymore. Should just be fully outlawed," tweeted Craig Zobel, an actor and director whose credits include Westworld and Mare of Easttown.
"Prop guns are guns," TV writer David Slack tweeted. "Blanks have real gunpowder in them. They can injure or kill - and they have. If you're ever on a set where prop guns are treated without proper caution and safe handling, walk away.”
Last edited by AgrippinaX; 10-22-21 at 07:55 AM.
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I woke up to this too. Not sure what the point of a “prop” gun is if it can kill a person.
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Rest in peace Halyna Hutchins. Am unfamiliar with any of the films she worked on, but it doesn't make it any less terrible or tragic. Staggering to think that in this age that safety measures were either not in place or were inadequate regarding any handling of firearms on a set.
Some prop guns are fake, but most are real guns, whihc some productions prefer, as, well for one, they look real because they are real, and secondly, even though they are using blanks, they still capable of producing the recoil and muzzleflash etc, all of which adds to the realism, and is why they often get used instead of fake prop guns.
If I recall correctly, that incident wasnt to do with a faulty blank cartridge, but because it ws being held close to his head, virtually at point blank and the force of the impact from the recoil of the weopon itself is what fatally cracked his skull.
EDIT - My mistake about the Brandon Lee incident. Apparently there was a discharged blank cap still in the barrel and when the next shot was fired, the impact triggered it like it was with enough force to cause the fatal skull fracture.
I woke up to this too. Not sure what the point of a “prop” gun is if it can kill a person.
thats so sad cause it happen on the set of the crow aswell in 1994 🥺
EDIT - My mistake about the Brandon Lee incident. Apparently there was a discharged blank cap still in the barrel and when the next shot was fired, the impact triggered it like it was with enough force to cause the fatal skull fracture.
Last edited by Taz; 10-22-21 at 09:26 AM.
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For what it's worth, I'm all for practical effects, pyrotechnics and stunts on set, dangerous if careless but simply demanding some professionalism. That's the job. Indeed, don't shoot blanks at point blank, check the props, don't jump off the cliff without checking where you'll land, make sure that's truly Joe in a bear costume, etc. Of course Buster Keaton would have taken fewer risks and Jackie Chan fewer wounds with pure CGI. But there's a value in live action (and, in my eyes, even in bad practical effects). So I disagree with Craig Zobel here. How many on set accidents with how many items would/should/could justify "let's make it illegal and go CGI instead" ?
Anyway. What i can imagine is that this is probably the worst thing that can happen to an actor or an actress on a set. Killing someone while laying pretend.
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Just read about this. Terrible stuff.
RIP
RIP
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Yeah, that article doesn't really give any specifics about this accident. It reiterates what we know about Brandon Lee's death, and Hexum's which I didn't know about but damn that facepalm (but to be fair, that's how blanks are depicted in cartoons and, ironically, cinema). What baffles me is how two people were hit on the Rust set, which could not have happened in the circumstances of the accidents referred to by this article. Did the projectile pierce someone in a close group ? Or was it spread ? Or were there two mistakes ?... I simply can't picture the events...
For what it's worth, I'm all for practical effects, pyrotechnics and stunts on set, dangerous if careless but simply demanding some professionalism. That's the job. Indeed, don't shoot blanks at point blank, check the props, don't jump off the cliff without checking where you'll land, make sure that's truly Joe in a bear costume, etc. Of course Buster Keaton would have taken fewer risks and Jackie Chan fewer wounds with pure CGI. But there's a value in live action (and, in my eyes, even in bad practical effects). So I disagree with Craig Zobel here. How many on set accidents with how many items would/should/could justify "let's make it illegal and go CGI instead" ?
Anyway. What i can imagine is that this is probably the worst thing that can happen to an actor or an actress on a set. Killing someone while laying pretend.
For what it's worth, I'm all for practical effects, pyrotechnics and stunts on set, dangerous if careless but simply demanding some professionalism. That's the job. Indeed, don't shoot blanks at point blank, check the props, don't jump off the cliff without checking where you'll land, make sure that's truly Joe in a bear costume, etc. Of course Buster Keaton would have taken fewer risks and Jackie Chan fewer wounds with pure CGI. But there's a value in live action (and, in my eyes, even in bad practical effects). So I disagree with Craig Zobel here. How many on set accidents with how many items would/should/could justify "let's make it illegal and go CGI instead" ?
Anyway. What i can imagine is that this is probably the worst thing that can happen to an actor or an actress on a set. Killing someone while laying pretend.
“The publication has also reported that only one bullet hit Hutchins and went through to Souza.”
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Syndication of a Conversation piece:
“The publication has also reported that only one bullet hit Hutchins and went through to Souza.”
“The publication has also reported that only one bullet hit Hutchins and went through to Souza.”
There's few things as terrible as small causes huge consequences ratios, fractions of instants that suddenly change everything (all the "what if I had", all the "yet one second ago"), and our mind seeking meaning, seeking to pin proportionate guilt on something, someone or ourselves.
The hell it must currently be for so many people.
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Rest in peace Halyna Hutchins. Am unfamiliar with any of the films she worked on, but it doesn't make it any less terrible or tragic. Staggering to think that in this age that safety measures were either not in place or were inadequate regarding any handling of firearms on a set.
Some prop guns are fake, but most are real guns, whihc some productions prefer, as, well for one, they look real because they are real, and secondly, even though they are using blanks, they still capable of producing the recoil and muzzleflash etc, all of which adds to the realism, and is why they often get used instead of fake prop guns.
If I recall correctly, that incident wasnt to do with a faulty blank cartridge, but because it ws being held close to his head, virtually at point blank and the force of the impact from the recoil of the weopon itself is what fatally cracked his skull.
EDIT - My mistake about the Brandon Lee incident. Apparently there was a discharged blank cap still in the barrel and when the next shot was fired, the impact triggered it like it was with enough force to cause the fatal skull fracture.
Some prop guns are fake, but most are real guns, whihc some productions prefer, as, well for one, they look real because they are real, and secondly, even though they are using blanks, they still capable of producing the recoil and muzzleflash etc, all of which adds to the realism, and is why they often get used instead of fake prop guns.
If I recall correctly, that incident wasnt to do with a faulty blank cartridge, but because it ws being held close to his head, virtually at point blank and the force of the impact from the recoil of the weopon itself is what fatally cracked his skull.
EDIT - My mistake about the Brandon Lee incident. Apparently there was a discharged blank cap still in the barrel and when the next shot was fired, the impact triggered it like it was with enough force to cause the fatal skull fracture.
Lee and John Erik-Hexum
Last edited by Gideon58; 10-23-21 at 03:13 PM.
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Today's news adds that there was one live bullet in the gun, for some as-yet unknown reason.
Also, whether or not this matters, the prop manager(s) on the set were not part of the union but were independents. Not sure if that means they weren't as well trained or...
Baldwin has come out on Twitter with his heartfelt grief over what happened. Such an awful thing to have to go through, for all of them.
Also, whether or not this matters, the prop manager(s) on the set were not part of the union but were independents. Not sure if that means they weren't as well trained or...
Baldwin has come out on Twitter with his heartfelt grief over what happened. Such an awful thing to have to go through, for all of them.
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I never liked Alec Baldwin for a variety of reasons. Now, before you write me off as a heartless bastard, let me finish.
I wouldn't wish anything like this on my worst enemy. There are only victims here and this is something that those involved who are still living may never recover from.
So I pray for Alec, his family, along with those injured and the families of the deceased.
I wouldn't wish anything like this on my worst enemy. There are only victims here and this is something that those involved who are still living may never recover from.
So I pray for Alec, his family, along with those injured and the families of the deceased.
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