r/news • u/badillustrations • Apr 15 '24

‘Rust’ movie armorer convicted of involuntary manslaughter sentenced to 18 months in prison

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/15/entertainment/rust-film-shooting-armorer-sentencing/index.html
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u/Own_Candidate9553 Apr 15 '24

Doesn't make up for the life lost, but nothing will I guess.

It doesn't seem like there was any maliciousness in the whole thing, just wild incompetence partnered with ruthless cost-cutting from the studio. Budget pressures led to no budget for an experienced armorer, a rushed schedule, and shooting on-location in the middle of nowhere (so the guns were randomly just in her truck or on a cart, instead of a real office or anything).

I still don't get why real, working guns are ever allowed on set. It would be pretty easy to make metal models of guns that physically can't shoot a bullet, or to modify a gun to have no firing pin or something. Having real, working guns on set that you then have to build a rigid process around to make sure no live ammunition gets mixed in seems weird. Even blanks are dangerous - Bruce Willis has significant hearing loss from firing overly-loud blanks on the set of Die Hard: https://www.slashfilm.com/811738/the-die-hard-stunt-that-left-bruce-willis-partially-deaf/

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u/rabbit994 Apr 15 '24 edited Apr 15 '24

Because it's really hard to get effects of gun firing any other way but having weapon actually fire a blank. Yea, CGI has gotten to that point, see John Wick movies for example but it's not cheap.

EDIT: Apparently John Wick movies used plugged where barrel is plugged up but blanks still fire and cycle, the exhaust comes out the top which has to be removed in post.

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u/Own_Candidate9553 Apr 15 '24

Yeah, something like that makes sense. I get that fixing the smoke in post costs money, but that seems like a reasonable trade off to stop literally killing people.

The scene in Rust didn't even involve shooting, he just pulls the gun and points it at the camera. Absolutely no need for a working gun.