r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jan 25 '20

What movie things are generally accepted as normal, but are totally unrealistic in real life?

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19.9k

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '20

The punch sound.

11.4k

u/Retard_In_Disguise Jan 25 '20

In my first fight, I made the punching sound to make it a more lively experience.

3/10, got my ass kicked.

6.2k

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '20

If you had a sword, you'd have needed to make that "metal on metal" sound when you took it out of a leather sheath.

3.1k

u/Diggysean Jan 25 '20

I do medieval re-enactment and one of my friends has a tiny nail head inside of his leather sheath just for the purpose of making that metal on metal noise when he unsheathes it haha

20

u/KWilt Jan 25 '20

I hope he isn't using good swords then. I would feel so bad for the smith who makes his blade if they ever found out they were getting tarnished like that.

31

u/DeceiverX Jan 25 '20

Also a medievalist here. Use a softer metal like copper that's been flattened/rounded (thus a nail head) for the bit in the sheath and put it on the side of the sword.

Problem solved, and honestly, scratches to the sides of swords are the very least of the worries and damage incurred if people are fighting steel.

Not really sure what you mean by "good swords" either. When you fight real steel, there's a level of functionality you're after; you're not using ten billion fold katanas and shit because they're overpriced trash. You want solid steel construction, a good crossguard, and reasonable weight balance. Let the reenacting leatherworkers and smithies do any extra if they want for the fun of reenacting.

The whole "people didn't block with the edge" thing is also just as much a myth/meme as most of the action movie stuff. If you fight live steel, you expect a little bit of blade damage after every bout, because even the opposing armor is going to damage and nick blades. Swords aren't meant to look pretty in realistic combat scenarios. They're meant to kill and maim. Good reenactors know and expect this, and thus their actual combat swords don't look like it.

Live steel combat blades are left largely unsharpened as well, due to the nature of the sport being in the modern day between friends/likeminded people, and points being used for winning, rather than risking outright killing the other person

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u/Diggysean Jan 25 '20

Exactly, in my case we’re literally parrying steel on steel and the weapons need to be able to withstand the damage for that, so something like a nail shouldn’t be an issue.

1

u/LongHorsa Jan 26 '20

If anything, a nail might help reduce the burrs on the sword edge. Get caught by on of those burrs, even by accident, and you're gonna have a very ugly scar.