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jetjordan t1_iz39ke2 wrote

Not about timing so much as creating the illusion of impact and the halting of momentum.

Source: worked closely with stuntmen for years. Fun fact, they HATED doing this.

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D1ddyKon9 t1_iz3a07j wrote

Why do they hate it? It looks terrible to me but most stunts look terrible to me. What makes this in particular horrible compared to, say, a building jump?

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black_nappa t1_iz3aya4 wrote

Not a stunt man or anything but I imagine jumping into a soft inflated airbag is far nicer on the body, then running at full speed with a length of rope tied to your back.

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Kuildeous t1_iz3enxj wrote

Your hypothesis makes sense to me. I imagine the sudden stop would be pretty damn close to falling onto a hard surface.

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mitch8893 t1_iz51fb2 wrote

More like running into a wall at full speed

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stillness_illness t1_iz5b79m wrote

Not really

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mitch8893 t1_iz5r4rl wrote

It is much closer to running into a non moveable object (full stop) than it is to falling on the ground, so yeah.

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bjvonstrat t1_iz6qfei wrote

Hello, stuntman here.

The stunt being performed is called a deadman. And yes, they do suck. You have to commit to the run, and then get whiplashed to the ground when you reach the end point. If you're lucky, depending on what you need for the stunt, sometimes you can add a bit of recoil with a bungee system to take the edge off.

The guy with the stick is doing a good job popping the hit, and not following through as well.

As far as air bags go, they are surprisingly stiff when you first hit them. The moment of impact kicks out the air vents, and then the bag softens significantly. But you still need you land pretty clean, or it'll pack a punch.

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black_nappa t1_iz6xva1 wrote

I would imagine neck injuries are far more likely doing a "Deadman" stunt then doing a fall into a properly inflated airbag. Again not a stunt man just a guess

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bjvonstrat t1_iz87hw5 wrote

I'd agree. With an airbag, if you land clean, it's a pretty safe impact.

With a Deadman, you know that when you reach the end of the line, you're going to get yanked, haha. It's usually a good idea to have a visual marker so that when you reach your end point you can prepare. But yeah, there's no way around the fact that they aren't fun.

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Bodach42 t1_iz57fwd wrote

Yea they need to really commit to the run as well so there must be a part of your mind you need to overcome to do that.

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Pinco_Pallino_R t1_iz43xi1 wrote

Building jump -> You land on a soft airbag which heavily cushion the impact.

This -> At some point your speed is forcibly reduced to 0 in an instant, much faster than what happen in the former case

And since F = dq/dt, you understand that the faster you reduce your momentum (q) to 0, the stronger the impact on your body.

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Trishata96 t1_iz60c64 wrote

Also if the rope fails, you're getting a stick to the face. Which is gonna hurt.

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ki11bunny t1_iz6hn21 wrote

Yeh but it makes the shot look more realistic, so not a complete loss

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Prinzka t1_iz3i75u wrote

Brain damage can be caused by anything that makes your brain hit the skull.
That definitely looks violent enough for it to have an impact.
It's like tackling someone in the NFL without hitting the head can still cause mini concussions.

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eyekill11 t1_iz536l1 wrote

It hurts and potentially damaging. Linda Blair from The Exorcist when she was violently thrashing in her bed was done via rope pull. Supposedly it was rough enough to break her spine which later developed into scoliosis. Ellen Burstyn the mom in The Exorcist had it done to her as well. Here's a clip of her talking about when she got pulled.

https://youtu.be/0E1dV3YovZo

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Scottbarrett15 t1_iz5n92g wrote

That's the scene they used in the film as well, i mean obviously they weren't going to do it more than once. They thought she was doing an amazing job acting until after the scene they realised it was genuine and they'd massively fucked up her back.

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jetjordan t1_iz4hxvz wrote

I think honestly it just hurts. That and if done correctly you dont really know when it's coming. We had a dead man and a stair roll one day and our guys joking fought over the stair roll.

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Parkimedes t1_iz6ssum wrote

It was something like this done in the Exorcist, which broke the child’s back. I think she partially recovered. But these cable stunts can be really dangerous. I bet it’s scary as hell for the stunt person.

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