Closest I’ve seen to this being done was the movie Black Hawk Down. Meanwhile can you imagine everyone screaming at each other in the John Wick films? Other movies like Aliens would have been a whole different level of horrifying as the sound fades away until its just the sound of the actor’s muffled heart beat and their cluelessness that the xenomorph is crawling up behind them.
Anytime someone in a movie or show fires a weapon in a cave, or in a bunker, or in any enclosed space, and then goes about their day takes me right out of the story.
Anyone who has fired a gun, especially at an indoor firing range, knows you’re not acting normal after that shit.
I’m just picturing Archer MWOP MWOP! Because that’s what everything sounds like. That and the getting knocked out. “That’s like, really bad for you” lol
I want one where the detectives who find the days-old dead body puke their guts out because of the smell.
there’s a recurring gag in Archer about this lol
MAWP… MAWP…
This kind of happened early on in Preacher. One of the characters deliberately put his head in the boot of his car and fired a rifle off to the side so he’d be deaf, and unable to hear Custer’s ‘Word of God’.
What?
The Sopranos did this in one early episode. Dude shoots another dude in a car and is immediately like “FUCK!” and holding his ears. Rest of the series is dudes casually blazing away and “I’m all itchy!”
Elvis Presley owned a 1971 Detomaso Pantera, famous for vapor lock. After arguing with a girlfriend, he tried to peel out but the car wouldn’t start, so he pulled out his .38 and shot the dashboard. No way he didn’t damage his hearing in a small sports car. The car is on display at the Peterson museum in LA with the bullet hole.
Save the realism for the documentaries, I want escapist fun.
My original thought in the actual shower was tilted more toward the absurd. All the elequent monologues and comments being washed out with “what?!” and “did you say something?!”
It has to be called “WHAT?!” and the sequel is “WHAT, MOTHERFUCKER?!” starring Sam Jackson.
SAY WHAT AGAIN!
NO SERIOUSLY, SAY IT AGAIN, I COULDN’T HEAR SHIT!
And the side story has the subtitle “ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER, DO YOU SPEAK IT?!”
My favorite is when someone sets off a grenade indoors and then everyone remains fully conscious and continues having normal conversations immediately after.
Indeed! I know a fair bit about explosives and no one I know likes watching action movies with me. Either I will point out the blue bands on weapons, how everyone will be dead in the next hour or so because of all the perforations in their intestines and other organs after the impulse wave passes over them, or how some of these people should be wheezing through the rest of the movie due to the chemical burns to their esophagus and lungs (I am a blast at parties).
I recently watched the series Falling Skies and there’s a scene where they set off an explosion indoors. The characters black out and wake up with hearing loss, blurred vision and their ears bleeding. They still recover unnaturally fast, but, like, that’s OK were doing a TV show. I was happy to see some realistic consequences play out on screen.
There’s a different scene where one of the characters has to actually deal with being concussed due to being near an explosion. Overall the series does pretty well with the basic concept that the characters get wounded in combat and are not action heroes. If they survive, they’re still wounded in the next episode and it affects their actions in the story.
Just made me think of it. In the movie Atomic Blonde, I appreciated how Charlize Theron’s bruises and cuts accumulated as the movie progressed versus the normal brutal beatdown followed by the immediately following glamour guy/gal scene. Otherwise the movie is over the top but not enough to be detracting.
I would love to have a party with people who have such interesting knowledge. What else are they doing wrong? Or what common mistake would you like to see on screen?
In any film or series where the characters are carrying guns regularly I immediately notice muzzle discipline. If the actors actively keep their weapons pointed away from everyone except enemies, you know they had someone competent on staff who gave them some basic weapon handling training before filming. If the characters are supposed to be professional military or law enforcement and they have bad muzzle discipline it immediately takes me out of the scene. If the character is supposed to be competent but waves their gun around like a moron it’s very immersion-breaking.
In very well produced media, the characters who are supposed to be amateurs show bad muzzle discipline and sometimes it’s even a plot point, and I appreciate that kind of attention to detail.
If the character is supposed to be competent but waves their gun around like a moron
they could be ICE?
I feel like the “supposed to be competent” qualifier excludes that.
One piece of advice I never see, perhaps because its not practical for civilians. Immediately after an explosion where you are close to the epicenter, do everything possible to avoid gasping or yelling. Next, quickly but carefully check if you have been hurt or not.
By the end of my time in service the most I might do is have an eye twitch but for normal people, being in proximity to an explosion is an unprecedented experience that’s like opening a hot stove oven, flipping a flood light on in your face, having a party balloon pop behind you, and being hit hard by an ocean wave from an awkward angle, all at the same time. Totally normal reaction is to want to get the fuck away but first you want to make sure everything is still attached, nothing new is now attached to you, and there are no major holes anywhere.
I guess the problem with that advice is that unfortunately its only useful to those expecting to be near an explosion.
Why avoid gasping or yelling?
on my phone so terse response
Chemical residues in the air are super toxic, yelling will cause you to take a deep breath of that. Explosives made to kill don’t have many health & safety restrictions besides what’s on the Geneva convention checklist (joke about Canadian soldiers)
Also you may have injured your lungs but are not aware of that just yet. A lot of extremely injured people will understandably try to get away but are oblivious because of severe shock.
My question also.
I’m bookmarking this so I can quickly check it in the event I’m trapped in an explosion.
(No, I’m not serious. My phone would be on charge at home).
John Wick now sells Babayaga brand hearing aids.
The show Archer is basically based on hearing damage.
“MAWP”
That was such a wonderfully disturbed show.
Seriously… are we not doing phrasing?
Do you want people quoting Archer? Because that’s how you get people quoting Archer.
Reading through these comments, I’m starting to think the military might be bad for your health…
Nah, do your 20 and be able to retire in your early 40’s. I mean sure your back is fucked, probably need a couple knee surgeries, weird things like the Pillsbury doughboy commercials may trigger you into a murderous rage, and there’s a possibility your anus is going to fall out at some point because of the anthrax vaccine… but all so worth it so that you get to retire in your 40’s!
Pillsbury doughboy commercials may trigger you into a murderous rage
What?
It’s well known that males, especially American, are to put it mildly not so great at managing their emotions. after a long period of extreme stress, one sign they are having problems is with something called “cute aggression”
Been over 20 years since I got out but I remember mentioning it in passing to the woman I was dating at the time who was a licensed therapist. She was insistent that a noticeable amount of post service and recently deployed men (and some women) experienced this for a time.
After a year or so it stopped happening without needing treatment which is why I am guessing it doesn’t get much if any attention. Personally I find it funny remembering having this shockingly visceral hate response to seeing the dough boy or that fucking fabric softener animated teddy bear.
You found this more concerning than the detaching anus?
Considering that I’m far more likely to be in the vincinity of a veteran and a Pillsbury doughboy commercial, than having to have an anthrax vaccination? Yes, I absolutely find seemingly unprompted blood rage more concerning.
That being said, I would also like to know about the detaching anus thing, but I reckon that I can find that by googling for it.
Never happened to me but another sadder response are veterans that post deployment find themselves on the verge of tears when presented with totally benign normal locations like being in a grocery store. Only becomes a concern if this response continually happens or increases in severity.
Remembering seeing this happen to other veterans and partially experiencing it with myself is making me a bit more conscious of the people with some level of PTSD that is debilitating and resistant to treatment.
Yeah, shit just happens sometimes.
FUCKING DOUGHBOY…POKE HIM WITH A BAYONETTE.
Protagonist spitting machine gun fire, and giving tactical instructions to his troops between bursts…
Camera cuts to one of the troop’s POV: protagonists mouth is moving, and he’s making important looking hand gestures, but all you hear is:
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
muffled popping
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Protagonist shoots another machine gun burst - louder but still muffled popping
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
…fast forward 15 years, troop is laying in bed awake with his sleeping wife. Camera cuts to wife: silence. To troop: eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. back to wife: silence. back to troop: eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Wife: silence. Troop: eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Pans out to exterior of house.
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
muffled pop
credits roll in silence
As a veteran this is pretty much on brand. A joke at the VA is that half the reason they’re so recalcitrant with declaring tinnitus and hearing loss as a disability is because everyone has some sort of measurable hearing damage from service.
For myself, I’ve had tinnitus for so long I don’t remember life without it always being there.
yeah thanks 3m. foam fucking plug bullshit. I knew it was gonna be a problem, too, when I realized half the nco ranks were obviously hearing impaired already just from range and field training.
I can’t remember if it was at psab or what but I was in a smaller detail (20) wedged between two Army company’s (I think that’s the right name, like ~150 or people?) in the same chalk. The group rotating back in were way fucking louder then the other and I pointed that out to someone with me who also noticed the same thing. At the time our guess was the quieter group were national guard going in for the first time while the others were active duty/permanent party and dealing with the funk differently.
Now I am starting to wonder if the one group’s hearing was just collectively fucked?
Now I am starting to wonder if the one group’s hearing was just collectively fucked?
can certainly happen to units coming home from IED’s and shit. I can’t wait until they figure out how to cure tinnitus. I just wish the VA was realistic about hearing loss being a much wider problem than they’re acknowledging going back to the 70s and 80s even.
I am sorry to be a bummer but it is pretty obvious the VA and DoD will never willingly acknowledge it because the least cases of hearing damage might only be with the medical people in the Navy and USAF.
eh, valid.
Ironically I know navy vets who got it working in crowded hulls (they have a name for it, machine spaces lol!) where the cacophony and vibration never stopped, and lots of chairforce vets who worked the flight line.
and lots of chairforce vets who worked the flight line.
Reminds me of a time where I was stuck in one of the extra shitty versions of the humvee for about half an hour because I parked just outside of a command post that was directly adjacent to the flight line where half a squadron of F-22’s were just spooling up to leave. All of these fucking things were parked with their jets pointed in my direction, so absolute maximum noise levels. I had no hearing protection because I didn’t know I was going to this spot until someone told me to “just stop by” over the radio and grab something for my squadron’s commander (LtC). If I tried opening the door it was just pure auditory pain and I couldn’t just cover my ears because I had been issued a shotgun (I was a tech and this was a punishment prank) plus a satchel of stuff I was given strict orders to keep 100% control over. Tried to go park somewhere quieter but then the airmen on the flight line were signalling I couldn’t leave.
Anyway, I was told the reason the USAF’s slogan is “Aim high!” is to make sure they don’t shoot themselves in the feet.
yep. the only movie I recall that paid it any attention was Saving Private Ryan.
Baby Driver uses it as a plot point, and in the cinema the simulated tinnitus was borderline painful at the start.
I have very mild tinnitus (too much time working nightclubs), anyone with it badly has my sympathy :-(
They use it in Children of Men too if I recall correctly. I need to rewatch that movie, it’s been decades.
There’s a moment in Fury Road, but it fades very quickly … that’s one of the very few niggles I have with that movie
simulated tinnitus was borderline painful
ooh fuck. I do my best to try not to think about it but it’s like a good friend, always there.
Does anyone’s tinnitus actually sound like eeeeeeeee? Because my various layers (caused by three different things) don’t.
Mine is currently doing an eeeeeeeeeee sound, but it varies at different times
Yep. High pitched eeeeee right now. I feel inferior as to its cause, given military servicepeople above were mentioning what caused theirs. I just stupidly stood next to a very large speaker at a concert when I was much younger. You figure I’d have gotten used to it by my 50’s.
If it makes anyone feel better, I get Exploding Head Syndrome!
I wouldn’t say it’s a vowel. But it’s closer to E than anything else.
Agreed. It’s a raw pitch, with no articulation. For me it’s a very high pitch, kind of a digital hum like when you turn a computer monitor on in otherwise complete silence, just louder.
Not everyone will experience the same pitch either. It’s caused by the micro hairs in your inner ear dieing, which for some reason causes the pitch they were responsible for detecting to be stuck permanently on.
Closest thing to silencing tinnitus is distracting yourself from it with other, louder sound - I tend to have music or something on as often as possible, but that constant loudness is slowly killing more micro hairs and expanding the range of the tinnitus over time.
Old man me is gonna be deaf as fuck. 🤘
I got tinnitus for free. I have had that ringing sound nonstop since I was 4 or 5, and I’m now almost 70. You do get used to it. But you will experience hearing loss as you get older.
Mines more of an nngg sound but I could see sometime describing it as eeee. It’s a more or less solid constant tone but it’s more nasal for me, if that makes sense?
