The recent tragic death of Halyna Hutchins,42 year old Director of Photography on the New Mexico set of the Western 'RUST' was a horrific accident when a prop gun handled by Alec Baldwin was fired during the rehearsal and shot set up for a scene inside a church where Baldwin draws the pistol across his body and points it. The gun prop mortally injured Hutchins and injured writer and director Joel Souza who was also in close proximity behind Hutchins at the time.
Details from the investigation allege that Baldwin had been handed the prop gun which appears to have had a live round in the cylinder despite the fact the words "Cold Gun" had been called out as the AD, Dave Halls handed him the gun, indicating that the gun was safe to handle. The death of Bruce Lee's son Brandon Lee on the set of the Crow in March1993 was the last previous major incident involving a film star killed with a prop hand held weapon.
Halyna Hutchins on the set of RUST.
A thorough investigation is likely to reveal if the prop gun on the set of RUST was being handled incorrectly or that any gross negligence is at fault by any of the crew. The fact that some union crew had walked off the RUST set citing poor working conditions prior to the incident, as well as incidents also involving the use of prop weapons may also raise more questions on what procedures were being followed with the films props, since Baldwin is also the exec Producer, at least part of that responsibility falls to him.
While movie sets can be dangerous places to work, studios place a huge amount of importance on health and safety for the entire crew during the production of TV and film shows. There have of course been high profile incidents of actors being injured on set, Harrison Ford was injured by a falling door on the set of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Tom Cruise broke his ankle doing his own stunt when he jumped between buildings filming a Mission Impossible movie in London. Both incidents were freak occurrences and its extremely rare for negligence, lack of safety enforcement or oversight to result in an actor or crew member being injured or even killed on modern films but accidents do and can happen.
in 1982, Actor Vic Morrow and a child actor were decapitated by rotating helicopter blades on the set of the Twighlight Zone when a pyrotechnic exploded near the rear rotor of the hovering helicopter in a scene being filmed, causing the helicopter to spin out of control and crash onto the actors killing them. Stuntmen have also been killed on the sets of Rambo First Blood: Part II and on the Expendables 2, both due to pyrotechnic incidents.
In light of the Balwdin incident, the US cop show, The Rookie, starring Nathan Fillion was one of the first TV productions to announce it will no longer use real life prop weapons or blank firing weapons on its set. Instead, the production will move to using gas blowback airsoft replicas and adding VFX for sound and muzzle flash. Live blank firing props had previously been used on large outdoor sets of the TV show.
Weapons on set are always a risk, its primarily why only highly trained armourers, stunt professionals and stunt co-ordinators under strictly controlled conditions are the ones who handle and organise their use on set. Actors are usually given full safety briefings prior to shooting any scene using a blank firing weapon and the scene is discussed at length.
Brandon Lee was killed by the improper handling and procedure of dummy rounds and blank rounds, dummy rounds, particularly for revolvers provide a realistic look for close up shots, With Lee however, real 44 bullets were pulled from live rounds in an effort to save time and money since proper dummy rounds were not on set at the time and these were made on set and were not proper dummy rounds, the powder in the dummy cartridges was dumped out and the bullets were then inserted into the dummy cartridges to make them look like real bullets, this was done by an inexperienced prop assistant since the firearms specialist was sent home early by the film production. Unbeknown to the assistant one of these bullets had lodged inside the barrel when the gun was fired in another scene weeks earlier which was caused by the live primer at the rear of the cartridge which had given the bullet in the dummy cartridge just enough force to lodge itself inside the barrel of the gun.
When the dummy rounds were swapped for blanks which contain a charge, the 44 calibre bullet remained in the barrel and the procedure to check the gun was not followed, the fact that nobody had checked the barrel for a blockage before the weapon was used again is baffling. In the Crow incident, actor Michael Massee shot Lee's character, Eric from about 15 feet, the scene called for Massee to fire the gun and Lee would activate a squib to shred through the grocery bag he was holding in front of him to simulate the bullet strike. The squib in the grocery bag detonated on cue, and Lee fell to the ground as scripted, except that Lee didn't get back up. The bullet that was lodged in the barrel was forced out from the blank discharge with practically the same force as a real bullet and Lee was mortally wounded in the abdomen. Despite surgeons best efforts to save his life for 6 hours, Lee died. In their bid to save his life they used a transfusion of 60 pints of blood doing what they could to repair the damage. The bullet had entered Lee's body just above his navel and had lodged against his spine, but not before it had practically severed his abdominal aorta causing massive vascular and intestinal trauma to his body. His cause of death was unstoppable internal hemorrhaging due to the fact his blood would not clot.
Brandon Lee, The Crow 1993. Lee had shed 20lbs for the role as Eric Draven in the Crow.
Two months following Lee’s death, the films producer, Edward Pressman managed to secure a further $8 million to re-write the script and finish the production of The Crow, using stunt men Chad Stahelski and Jeff Cadiente to fill in for Lee's character Eric Draven, with Lee’s face digitally super imposed in post production. Michael Massee, the actor who shot Lee was deeply affected by the incident and never saw the finished film, he died of stomach Cancer in 2016 aged 64.
How do prop guns work?
Depending on the film in question a production crew can utilise different prop guns depending on their required use in a scene. For example, shots of discarded guns on a beach for a war movie might use solid composite, resin or hard rubber props painted to look real so that the production doesn't have to risk damaging real vintage or expensive historical weapons. These are typically made of resin or hard rubber in pouring moulds and then painted and aged to look like their real life counterpart.
In scenes where guns need to be carried but not fired or simulated fired by extras, these are also typically solid resin or rubber with no working parts if no closeup is required.
In some cases stunt guns, inert guns with no firing pin or working parts might be used for scenes where a working version of the same gun could potentially be damaged. For example, this could be a seen where the gun is thrown across a room or dropped to the ground from height.
Silicon moulds are often used by armourers to create replica guns which are then painted and finished to look like the real item for scenes where a real gun is not necessary or may be damaged in a complex stunt scene.
For scenes that require closeups but no firing of the weapon, highly detailed replicas, typically ones which are prevented from firing or discharging any kind of ammunition are sometimes used. In most cases for scenes where the firing of the gun is a requirement real guns are also used with the primary difference being that blanks are used rather than real bullets, blanks typically have a crimped end to the cartridge when used in filming.
On the Keanu Reeves John Wick series of films, Airsoft gas blowback pistols are the favoured props of choice with sound and VFX doing the rest of the work in post production, given the close proximity to the stunts involved, even blanks would pose a danger at these distances, the guns are realistic looking Airsoft guns that functional like a real gun with the hammer, trigger and slide all operated by a gas bottle stored in the guns grip inside a mock magazine.
Automatic prop guns / real guns firing blanks will still eject a cartridge, it works exactly the same way as its live ammo counterpart. Two types of blank rounds are available, loud and fire+loud. One creates noise and little to no muzzle flare, the other gives a big bang and lots of muzzle flare giving directors a choice of variables on set. When I shot mo-cap scenes for Wheelman, the Midway Games video game, I handled an M4 assault rifle with a 30 round blank firing magazine, the armourer brought both types of these blank rounds to simulate weapon firing for the intro sequence.
Blank rounds are distinctive with their 'crimped' end, they contain primarily a powder charge to make noise and in some cases still discharge flame.
All guns are managed by an 'Armourer' a specialist firearms expert, film production companies also employ a safety officer and stunt co-ordinator for scenes involving firearms. Scenes where the camera is in front of a blank firing weapon sometimes shoot the sequence with a perspex, ballistic proof shield to protect crew. Additionally actors will aim at what is called a 'dummy point', a safe area that is not directly in the firing line of the person behind the camera, even though the audience sees the weapon appearing to be aimed directly at the camera.
Some actors are more familiar and aware of weapon safety based on their movie roles, typically actors who make regular TV shows or films featuring props or weapons are used to their presence on set and familiar with the rules of gun safety. Highly trained weapon specialists with years of experience in safe weapon handling would be training and supervising actors on any set using firearms or firing props. Any actor coming in direct contact with a prop gun is always supervised and trained on the proper use and how to handle the prop safely before a scene is shot.
In a 2020 famous Instagram clip on actor Will Smiths feed, the actor disarmed and weapon checked a prop gun being mishandled close to the actor with the barrel pointed at Smiths face, Smith was visibly agitated by the individuals lack of weapon safety, the actor slapped the muzzle downward, grabbed the weapon, ejected and checked the mag for rounds and cleared the weapon by racking back the slide several times to ensure the chamber was clear before sliding the empty mag back in and handing it back to the individual. If anything, it shows how well weapon safety has been drummed into Will Smith on the set of his films.
The Alec Baldwin, Rust tragedy has brought fresh focus to the on set deaths by prop weapons of Brandon Lee and Jon-Erik Hexum, a young actor who was playing with a 44 Magnum loaded with a blank round between scenes when he placed the barrel of the gun to his head and pulled the trigger in a game of mock Russian Roulette. The wadding from the blank cartridge drove a bone fragment the size of a quarter into his brain, he died 6 days later after being pronounced brain dead. The age old rule of handling any kind of gun is never pull the trigger unless you intend to destroy what you're aiming at.
John-Erik Hexum was a young actor killed by a blank firing prop weapon
There are still so many questions that need to be answered with the Alec Baldwin, RUST incident but three of the most pressing I can think of would be...
1. Were proper training and safety procedures provided to crew handling set props, specifically in the loading, unloading and safe operation of blank firing weapons and props?
2.Why did the production of RUST allegedly have live ammunition on a film set?
3. Why didn't Baldwin check the weapon personally and why was the prop aimed directly at another person in close proximity?
The likely outcome of this incident will perhaps encourage more stricter use for weapons and blank firing weapons on film sets, more films and TV shows may even resort to VFX to avoid the risk of injury and to enforce more training for actors before handling weapons, even replicas.
For now though, the film industry has lost a promising talent and a family is left to mourn a terrible loss, and questions need answers, starting with - How did this go so wrong and how could it happen?
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