Retired Green Beret David Harris rates portrayals of explosions in movies and TV shows.
He looks at how RPGs are employed in "Black Hawk Down," starring Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, and Eric Bana; "Tropic Thunder," starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., and Jack Black; and "White House Down," starring Jamie Foxx, Channing Tatum, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. He discusses the different ways to launch grenades in "Extraction II," starring Chris Hemsworth and Idris Elba; and "RRR," starring Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr. He explains how landmines are activated in "Commando," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; "Nobody," starring Bob Odenkirk, Christopher Lloyd, and RZA; and "Da 5 Bloods," starring Chadwick Boseman, Delroy Lindo, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. He answers whether you can stop a grenade by jumping on one in "Act of Valor." He talks about the effects of stun grenades in "The Town," starring Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, and Jon Hamm. Finally, he breaks down how airstrikes work in "We Were Soldiers," starring Mel Gibson, Sam Elliot, and Greg Kinnear.
David Harris served in the US Army for 20 years, including as a Special Forces weapons sergeant. He is the CEO of Harris Strategic Solutions, which provides tactical training to military and law enforcement members.
Find out more about David Harris and Harris Strategic Solutions here:
https://www.harrisstrategicsolutionsllc.com/about
He looks at how RPGs are employed in "Black Hawk Down," starring Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, and Eric Bana; "Tropic Thunder," starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., and Jack Black; and "White House Down," starring Jamie Foxx, Channing Tatum, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. He discusses the different ways to launch grenades in "Extraction II," starring Chris Hemsworth and Idris Elba; and "RRR," starring Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr. He explains how landmines are activated in "Commando," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; "Nobody," starring Bob Odenkirk, Christopher Lloyd, and RZA; and "Da 5 Bloods," starring Chadwick Boseman, Delroy Lindo, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. He answers whether you can stop a grenade by jumping on one in "Act of Valor." He talks about the effects of stun grenades in "The Town," starring Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, and Jon Hamm. Finally, he breaks down how airstrikes work in "We Were Soldiers," starring Mel Gibson, Sam Elliot, and Greg Kinnear.
David Harris served in the US Army for 20 years, including as a Special Forces weapons sergeant. He is the CEO of Harris Strategic Solutions, which provides tactical training to military and law enforcement members.
Find out more about David Harris and Harris Strategic Solutions here:
https://www.harrisstrategicsolutionsllc.com/about
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FunTranscript
00:00Nope, not at all, Claymores would not do that much damage.
00:12My name is David Harris, I was a special forces weapon sergeant in 3rd special forces group.
00:16I went to sniper school and as well as mortar infantry leaders course.
00:20Today we're going to look at explosions in movies and judge how real they are.
00:32He wasn't at a super high elevation so his back blast was fine.
00:35He didn't have anyone behind him so no one was going to be messed up by the rocket actually
00:39taking off.
00:40For this scenario, most of the rockets everyone's shooting is going to have back blast which
00:44is just the fire or the explosion of the round taking off.
00:48So the more elevation you put, the more that fire is going to come out and burn your legs.
00:53Or if someone's right behind you, they're going to eat all that blast of the rocket
00:56going off.
00:57You can stand directly on the sides and shoot rockets like that.
01:08So the explosion shown in the scene hitting the helicopter is actually what it would look
01:13like.
01:14It wouldn't be some overwhelming like big fireball.
01:17Basically the reason that RPG was able to hit that is because it's point fired.
01:22Which means it doesn't have something it's actually locking on to.
01:25It's just basically like a bullet.
01:27I point it in this direction, I fire at it.
01:29So it's harder to maneuver from.
01:31I would rate Black Hawk Down on a scale of 1 to 10 for realism a 9.
01:35They pulled in a lot of resources from militarily guys that were there.
01:40Like I know they used Rangers to actually do the fast rope scenes.
01:49He pulled the pin and he threw it and then you saw the spool kick off as it was going
01:54and everything else.
01:55Yes, it was accurate.
01:57Is there anything they could have done?
01:59No.
02:00Honestly, you want to stay out of hallways, stairwells, and like you don't really want
02:03to deal with ladders and things that change elevation because it's a harder thing to cover.
02:09And yeah, the guy was watching it, but the dude wasn't even seeing, he just threw it
02:12down.
02:13And that's all they have to do even in a stairwell.
02:17You can't really do anything if he throws a grenade down on you.
02:25So the typical hand grenade time is about 4 to 5 seconds.
02:29Kill radius is about 5 meters and the radius of injury is about 15 to 20.
02:36Fused variants can give an F1 grenade anywhere from 0 to 13 seconds.
02:45And yes, you can protect others by jumping on the hand grenade to save your buddies.
02:50It's the ultimate sacrifice, honestly.
02:51It's actually a guy did that when I was in Iraq in 2007, a Marine did that.
02:56Came in his Humvee, dropped it off a bridge, and he dove down on it.
02:59I would rate this movie a 9.
03:01Jumping on the grenade and how the explosion went, it was very realistic.
03:06Nope.
03:10Not at all.
03:11Them claymores would not do that much damage.
03:16Basically what a claymore is, it's a one and a half pound of C4 with about 700 to 800 ball
03:22bearings on it.
03:23And you blow it up and it scatters and can go out.
03:26And the kill radius is about 50 meters.
03:29They use them to go defensive.
03:32You were designed to actually get in your patrol base and put those out so guys couldn't
03:36sneak up on you.
03:37And then the other way of using them was in ambushes.
03:40You open up with those because they're going to produce a mass casualty.
03:43That's not blowing up, taking out two buildings.
03:45Pellets aren't going to do that.
03:51When we were in the old days of wars, we used flamethrowers to go after bunkers.
03:57So the standoff of that was like 75 meters.
04:00From what I know of the Quad 2 rocket launcher, that weapon system was designed so that we
04:05could get more standoff from the bunkers themselves.
04:09They were designed to be bunker busters.
04:11Where you could get more standoff, that was up to about 150 to 200 meters.
04:16So now the guy didn't have to run up there with a flamethrower and gas on his back on
04:20a bunker where they were getting shot at.
04:28The rocket launchers weren't designed to shoot at moving targets.
04:31They were designed for bunkers, a stationary target.
04:34But if you were in a pinch, let them rip.
04:36They weren't heat seeking.
04:38So they didn't have to pick up a heat signature, just like we said with the RPGs, it's a point
04:42and fire weapon.
04:44So if anything's point and fire, it could be used in any way I need it to be used.
04:55A blast from a grenade would not send two dudes doing somersaults into the air.
05:00They're not designed for that.
05:03It's an area fire weapon.
05:04And honestly, those two dudes, because it's about a five to 15 meter kill zone, those
05:10dudes would be dead on impact.
05:13They're going to go up and out.
05:14And then that's why that five meters kill zone, if they're right on top of it within
05:18that zone, they're going to get hit with a lot of fragmentation, which is just the pellets
05:23and everything flying in different directions.
05:24I would rate this a three.
05:33I wouldn't do that, but OK, when you're attaching explosives to other objects, you have a couple
05:39of options.
05:40You have double sided sticky tape.
05:41You put the tape on here and then it's another piece of tape on the other side.
05:45So it's double sided.
05:46So I can stick it.
05:47And then you have the claymore itself actually has two legs prongs that you pull down and
05:54then they split like this.
05:55So you can actually have two legs and put it in and move it like a little bit up and
05:59down.
06:00Claymore is way less than six pounds.
06:02You can put as much tape as you want, as long as it holds right, as long as it holds
06:06it up, it's going to work.
06:07I would not use duct tape to attach any explosive to anything unless I was in a pinch and I
06:14had no other choices.
06:22It does look like an accurate explosion on the size and force.
06:25The guy who blew it up got messed up, too, because it says you have front toward enemy,
06:30but you're going to eat some of that, too.
06:31You've got a cone where it's 180 going to come back towards you.
06:34So that's why you have to have the standoff that you want so you don't eat that overpressure
06:39and the actual concussion of the explosion.
06:41So him being jacked up, too.
06:43Yeah, I agree.
06:45I would rate this a six.
06:48And the reason why is because I honestly don't think that tape would have held up from the
06:51rounds impacting nonstop.
06:52I think he had two pieces of tape on there.
06:55You need a whole lot of that duct tape.
06:57This is the root of all this.
07:03So the M-14 mine, it's called the tow popper.
07:05A tow popper wasn't designed to blow a dude in half.
07:08It was designed to maim.
07:10Claymores, I'm trying to kill as many people as possible as quick as possible.
07:15This is designed to maim one dude.
07:18David.
07:19David.
07:20Don't move, don't move.
07:23The tow popper was designed for when the pressure is applied, not released.
07:28So we all walk heel to toe and roll our feet, right?
07:30So you hit your heel, you roll, and boom.
07:33So as soon as you put the weight onto the tow popper, it's designed to go off.
07:37Because if it was as simple as you know you stepped on it, well then the weapon system
07:41wouldn't work.
07:42When I was in Afghanistan, if we found something that we thought was a mine, the Charlie would
07:46come up and then I would be out there with my security and he would look to see if it
07:50was command detonated, which means someone's actually calling to set it off.
07:55Or if it was actually self-initiated, basically.
07:58You roll over it.
07:59Us, we bring our trucks up because we had jammers.
08:01So just because you don't see a wire doesn't mean the dude can't call in on his cell phone.
08:05Twice around your body.
08:08Boom.
08:09Like that.
08:10Freeze!
08:11Come on, man.
08:14So director Spike Lee actually pulled this account from a real life Vietnam veteran that
08:20claimed this happened, but the events are disputed.
08:23That's not going to work in real life.
08:25The tow popper was designed as soon as pressure went on.
08:28Let's throw that away.
08:29I'm going to give you a rope and expect you to tie it around yourself without shifting
08:33any weight in any direction.
08:35That's probably unfeasible because you're moving.
08:37So once you start moving, weight's going to shift a little bit.
08:40It should go off.
08:41So the first guy that stepped on a mine blew him in half.
08:45That's a big explosion, we would think.
08:47Couldn't have been a tow popper then.
08:49But the second explosion, shouldn't you get some of that?
08:51We didn't pull you that far off.
08:53It had to be two different types of mines because it's not enough.
08:55A tow popper wasn't designed to blow a dude in half.
08:58I would rate this a four because I don't believe that you could be yanked off the tow popper
09:01because it wasn't designed to go off when the weight was removed.
09:04The size of that explosion, yes, it was the right size.
09:07Hold it with two hands, president.
09:10Here it goes.
09:14The depiction of the explosion itself, I would say, yeah, that was realistic.
09:18The direction he held it in was probably the best because anything else, it would have
09:21hit the car more.
09:22It may not set you on fire, but you're going to feel it.
09:24I would stop the vehicle for a split second, fire the rocket, like I would have everything
09:28ready.
09:29And then as soon as I'd be like, okay, stop, fire, and then we'd drive.
09:32That would make me the most accurate at that point.
09:35I lost the rocket launcher.
09:38You lost, how do you lose a rocket launcher?
09:41Because the heat was on his neck.
09:43So he dropped it.
09:45I would tell you if I fired it and then I felt the heat coming up on me and I'm not
09:49used to it, like I wasn't expecting it, I probably would let it go too.
09:53I would rate this a four.
09:56Aim.
09:57Shoot.
09:58Would that work in real life?
10:04Actually yes.
10:05As long as that grenade is on that arrow and it holds onto it the whole time in flight,
10:09you're good.
10:10The issue would be how good you're shooting with the arrows, how fast, the time in flight
10:15of how far you need to shoot that arrow.
10:17The effect you would have with an arrow is probably distance.
10:20The biggest thing would be distance, how far I could throw it.
10:24Because the arrow, a bow is going to get my arrow, go further, faster than my arm is going
10:29to get it.
10:33The grenade is not designed to set fires everywhere and it's burning.
10:37Now it's secondary explosions maybe, but not like that, no.
10:40He threw the grenade, the grenade blew up, and it set his gas tank up, and then his gas
10:45tank blew up, like I would need all these things to happen.
10:50Which we could be extremely lucky, but I doubt it.
10:56A grenade cannot flip a motorcycle over like that.
10:59They're not designed for that, they're fragmentation, so it probably won't stop the vehicle.
11:04If at best you'll injure the people on the vehicle, and if it doesn't kill them, they'll
11:10just drive the vehicle off.
11:12So it's not designed for stopping the vehicles.
11:15I would rate this a 3, because all the explosions and all that stuff, it wouldn't happen.
11:27I've used 40 Mike Mike grenade launchers with the Mark 19 and the Mark 47, which are basically
11:33machine guns, but they're designed for 40 Mike Mike grenades.
11:37I've used those on top of trucks a lot, and those are made because of area fire weapons
11:41in mountains, you want to cover more ground.
11:49It's not designed to have that kind of impact on explosion.
11:52It's 40 Mike Mike, it's not a huge round.
11:56Like you would need a bigger round, like you're talking Gustav, AT runner carrying way more
12:00punch than make it blow up.
12:03Or you're going to hit that thing with like 12 rounds straight, a 40 Mike Mike.
12:11I've seen guys use them for breaking contact, you get shot at and you're trying to get away,
12:16so you may have it.
12:17So actually they use that as that kind of grenade launcher, the six shooter, that you
12:21actually crank it, and he went, shot six rounds, and took off.
12:25So he could get some kind of cover fire down.
12:2740 Mike Mike's not really designed to use up close.
12:31But he didn't just point shoot it at people.
12:34When it was time for that, he, hey, that went away, he grabbed his rifle.
12:37His weapon manipulation was very smooth, very fluid.
12:41The reloading of the weapon system, he was on point with.
12:44I rated a six.
12:46I don't think the explosion would have did that to the plane, like, unless it was like
12:51we talked earlier, secondary explosion.
12:53I like the movie though.
13:02You're not outrunning that explosion.
13:03Like, the explosion itself would be semi, almost simultaneous.
13:07Unless you set every single different explosion on a different piece of time.
13:12So you have time fuse and det cord, well, chances are you're going to set everything
13:15on det cord because you want it all to go.
13:18Time fuse, that doesn't make any sense to do it that way, unless you plan on someone
13:21trying to outrun the explosion.
13:23So, if your helicopter is in the line of sight of a RPG, if you're 200 meters, it's coming
13:34hot.
13:35Chances of dodging it as a full helicopter, probably going to be slim.
13:38But if you can get on it early, yeah, depending on where he was aiming, you might be able
13:42to get out of the way.
13:43They'll know to do maneuvers.
13:44Like, they'll slow down, speed up.
13:46Then they also have flares they'll drop, because if it's heat they're looking for, dropping
13:50flares will hopefully get it off of you.
13:59If someone threw something in the middle, like that, in between the rocket and the helicopter,
14:04probably blow up, but all the shrap metal and everything and all the overpressure still
14:08is going to go into that helicopter.
14:09So you're not going to get away unscathed.
14:12I would rate this clip a two.
14:15The chances of that helicopter not receiving anything, or not even rocking from the explosion,
14:20not even like losing itself a little bit, that ain't going to happen.
14:29Flash Bang Grenade is designed to get momentum or get the guys back on their feet.
14:34Like they know we're out there, they're pulling defense, we're about to go in, what can we
14:38do to get them to be like, what is that?
14:41Like look over and be like, what is going on?
14:43Say we're using a three banger, a five banger, not a single banger, right?
14:47Well, he's hiding behind a dresser.
14:49Okay, we know he's behind a dresser, we want to flush him out from behind it.
14:54Throw that flash bang over the top of there.
14:56And let it pop on him a couple of times.
14:59He may come out of that corner, because there's no point of us going in if we can get him
15:02to come out.
15:04It went under the vehicle, which was going to stop some of the light, but the explosion
15:09was pretty intense.
15:11We wouldn't go in there if it was doing that.
15:13We always wore eye and ear protection, ours was more like a flash, like pop, pop, pop,
15:17because we could be in the room with it.
15:19Like this one, it seemed like it was an aggressive explosion to make them be more disoriented.
15:23Because you're not wearing ear protection or anything, you're ringing at the ears, your
15:27head would be more exposed.
15:30No!
15:34When I was doing a lot of stuff in the CRIF, like when we trained there, we used nine bangers,
15:39which meant it went off nine times.
15:41So it went pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
15:43So we don't want to just throw it, let it go off nine times, and then sit outside.
15:47Because now he gets back on his feet.
15:49So we had to be very careful.
15:51We had to be very careful.
15:53We had to be very careful.
15:55It went off nine times, and then sit outside.
15:57Because now he gets back on his feet.
15:59Like he's not stunned no more.
16:01As soon as he gets stunned, we need to be on top of him.
16:03I rate this an 8.
16:07Broken arrow!
16:09I'll save you!
16:11Broken arrow!
16:13This scene portrays the battle of Ia Drang during the Vietnam War, and the Americans
16:17were so overrun, they had to call broken arrow for air support.
16:20When a soldier calls in a broken arrow, that basically means you're being overrun in your
16:23position and you need as much air support as possible.
16:33We have planes stacked up at every thousand feet!
16:36Because they actually told the commander where to stack, how much he had, what he had.
16:40Those are real messages you would tell your guy.
16:43You don't want to send two planes at the same elevation.
16:45So you stack them.
16:47So that way they're flying in their own...
16:49They have their own lane that they don't have to worry about hitting other planes.
16:53You may stack them because of the weapon systems they have.
16:55Like, hey, I need this to drop before this.
16:58If you are being overrun, I've seen planes go offensive once.
17:02Ever.
17:04As much as it takes.
17:06Get down!
17:12You also have a thing with mortars and this called danger close.
17:15If I'm being overrun, at some point I may tell you, hey, I need you to drop this close.
17:20And usually when you're going to drop this danger close, they're going to ask for the commander's initials.
17:25We need someone that is in charge saying, okay.
17:29I rate this as about a nine.
17:31I thought these explosions were realistic because from what I've seen of drops.
17:36With the grass and everything like that, depending on what you were dropping,
17:39I'm pretty sure this is how it probably looked real life.
17:43My favorite explosion I watched today was commando.
17:46Just because I think it was over the top.
17:49The most realistic explosion I watched today was the Black Hawk down.
17:53When they hit it with the rocket.
17:55It seemed the most realistic from what I've seen on combat rotations.
18:13.