Comments on: THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM

By: Steve Stirling

Steve Stirling — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 03:05:53 +0000

The Bourne fight scenes were actually pretty good, apart from making people more damage-resistant than they actually are. And even there, you get some amazing exceptions.

At least Bourne doesn’t always win — he was losing the one in Morocco until the woman operative intervened, and even then he got badly beaten up in the process of winning.

By: Ty

Ty — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:25:57 +0000

That’s usually true. If people only took a realistic amount of damage, then the fight scenes would be very short. In almost any fight where one of the two participants actually knows how to fight, it’s rare for it to last more than a few seconds.

I remember watching Die Hard with my wife (the original). The fight scene between Karl and McLane is awesome, but I kept saying to Jayne, “Ok, that puts you in the hospital for a month. Oh, that hit kills you. Oh, those hits cause brain damage…”

By: Steve Stirling

Steve Stirling — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 04:12:06 +0000

“but I kept saying to Jayne, “Ok, that puts you in the hospital for a month. Oh, that hit kills you. Oh, those hits cause brain damage…”

– ditto.

I mean, if only Hollywood types would do the following simple experiment:

Make a knuckle. Now tap yourself on the temple just above and forward of the ear.

Now continue tapping, just a little bit harder each time.

See how soon you have to stop? Feel how much it hurts?

Now imagine someone very _strong_, hitting you right there very _hard_.

You can repeat this experiment in various sensitive spots. Or hell, haven’t they ever walked into a door in the dark?

The only reason actual fights go on for any length of time is that the participants are a) totally gormless b) totally drunk or c) both.

In reality if they actually know what they’re doing it’s:

hit-block
hit-block (continue, but not long, until)
hit-gets-through
hit-hit-hit (flurry)
death/disablement.

That’s certainly been my experience.

By: Steve Stirling

Steve Stirling — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 04:22:06 +0000

Personal example: I was sparring once with a woman about Melinda’s size. This was when I was about 22, so I was around 175 lbs. and, to tell the truth, extremely strong. And I have a fairly high pain tolerance. At this time I was doing 15 hours a week or more in the dojo, and running and stuff as well.

I did something dumb — moved forward without keeping my guard up, and happened to do so at exactly the wrong time, just as she was coming down and using the motion to torque into a spinning back-kick.

She caught me with her heel at full extension; it landed right on my side, about five inches down from the armpit.

OK, so at the time I’m a strong young guy, with thick muscle over fairly thick bone right there. And a woman weighing about 100 lbs has just kicked me in the ribs — admittedly, it’s a very strong technique.

Result? I got two cracked ribs, nearly lost consciousness because the pain was so intense, and fell over on my back.

I couldn’t _breathe_ properly — it was fairly unpleasant, since the choice was to stop breathing or endure a lot of pain. I was sure broken bone was driving into my lungs; it wasn’t, but it would have been if she’d kicked me just a little harder — she pulled it a bit at the last instant.

I just lay there until they carried me away. I was off my feet for weeks.

Now imagine the same kick connecting on the _head_.