Movie Guns XIX

On time and chock full of 1911 goodness is this weeks Movie Guns covering the film Way of the Gun. I was going to save this one for another week because I knew it would take some work, but I took it on anyways considering the sheer awesomeness that this movie is made of.

There are very few mistakes in this one, if any. Some of the tactics used were not very sound, but overall this movie has great gunhandling with realistic tactical, strong-hand, and weak-hand reloads; revolver reloads; shotgun reloads, as well as gratuitous gunfights. You will find snubby revolver and 1911 porn throughout the whole flick. Let's go:

We start out in a hospital where two bodyguards, Jeffers (Taye Diggs) and Obecks (Nicky Katt), are protecting the principle, Robin (Juliette Lewis), when the two main characters, Parker (Ryan Phillippe) and Longbaugh (Benicio del Toro), kidnap her. During the initial ambush Parker has a blued Colt Series 70 and blued Colt Combat Commander on Jeffers and Obecks who both have H&K USP .45s that they draw from Inside the Waist Band (IWB) holsters:




A gunfight breaks out once everyone is outside, and Longbaugh is blasting away with this Remington 870 Express when it stovepipes. Longbaugh quickly clears the jam and starts shooting again:


It's refreshing to see some actual realism when a gun jams on film and the actor knows how to quickly fix it and start shooting again, instead of ignoring it and acting like he's firing. Look closely (click on the picture to expand) and you can see the quad magazine pouch on his weakside hip. Parker and Jeffers both have these as well, but Jeffers' mag pouch holds two double stack .45 mags for his USP, while Parker's holds four 1911 magazines.

Parker and Longbaugh get away, and while driving Longbaugh reloads the Remington 870 the way it should be done; by dropping a shell into the open breech and jacking the bolt closed, then pushing the rest of the shells into the magazine tube:


Jeffers is seen in an alleyway with this Mossberg 590 Mariner while hunting for Parker and Longbough:


Next we have Robin's doctor, Dr. Allen Painter (Dylan Kussman), who is brought in to treat her while she's a hostage. Parker finds this stainless steel Walther PPK in his bag:


Longbaugh later takes it apart (while it's loaded!!) to give it back, and I caught this frame where it looks like the trigger guard is broken:


Here's a scene where Mercer (Geoffrey Lewis) is playing an improved version of Russian Roulette by loading these six revolvers with one round, sticking them in a pillow case, spinning the pillow case, and then removing a random gun and sticking it to his head before pulling the trigger:

This is the closest I can get. I see what looks like a S&W Model 360, and a Taurus 65 with a 3" barrel. One of them looks like a Ruger SP101, but I can't be certain.

The next scene has Robin, Parker, and Longbaugh holed up in a hotel. Longbaugh has a Colt Series 70 in this leather IWB holster that looks like a Milt Sparks Summer Special:



The door to their hotel is rigged with this double barrel shotgun which will go off when opened:


At one point Parker puts his 1911 to Longbaugh's chin when Longbaugh saves him from getting blown away by the double barrel shotgun, which is now being held by Robin:


Robin shoots a huge hole through the door, and here Parker and Longbaugh are figuring out how to get the gun away from her:


A few minutes later Jeffers, Obecks, Mercer, Robin, and these two Mexican police officers with Ruger GP100 revolvers are all standing outside:


A firefight breaks out and Jeffers manages to miss everyone many times at distances of about ten feet. Longbaugh is sniping at everyone from a distant ridge with a scoped IMI Galil AR, with Parker spotting for him:


Both Mexican cops, Obecks, and Mercer get hit. Mercer manages to survive and get away for the time being, and Jeffers fires at the ridge with his H&K USP:


Sarno meets with the mortally wounded Mercer, and flashes his sidearm of choice: this S&W Model 640 in a IWB holster:


Now we're gearing up for the final firefight at a brothel somewhere in Mexico. The owner of said brothel is carrying this Browning High Power:


Parker shows up with his holstered Colt Series 70 and the Remington 870, and he has a shotshell pouch hanging on his hip. Longbough has the same pistol, and has taken the scope off his Galil AR. Both are wearing soft body armor:


Longbaugh cuts loose with the Galil in the initial contact with Jeffers, Sarno, and his buddies:


He basically walks the gun down the wall while trying to hit Jeffers, who is on the other side. Notice the 23 holes which are way too close together and do not account for shot angle. The magazine only holds 25 rounds, and Longbaugh is firing on semi-auto as can be seen when you watch closely:


The fight spills out into the hallway and Parkers 1911 can be seen in this leather IWB holster which also looks like a Milt Sparks Summer Special:


This guy has a Taurus 85, but gets shot in the foot by Longbaugh before getting finished off:


Longbaugh then does a tactical reload on his Colt 1911:


Things really get heated when everyone shoots it out in the pavilion outside. Here is Parker shooting the Remington 870, which amazingly doesn't blow the bad guy down:


Both Parker and Longbaugh take care to not sweep each other with their muzzles, and work together to clear rooms. They were trained pretty well on their tactics, with the exception that they miss their targets alot and keep shooting long after the target disappears, but they get other things right like stacking on a door and giving a tap on the shoulder to let one another know that they're ready to go.

Getting back into the fight, Sarno's guys are seen firing Mossberg 500s:



And this revolver which looks like a S&W 360, but I could be wrong:


Sarno is shooting his S&W 640 from the high ground, which he reloads with loose rounds from his jacket pocket:



Longbaugh fires his 1911 from all kinds of difficult possitions, like here where he is on the ground:



Parker does a one handed reload with his 1911, at one point even using his teeth, and gets back into the fight:





And later Longbaugh does the same thing:


Now don't kill the messenger, but I have to tell you that both of the Colt 1911s that Parker and Longbaugh have are not chambered in .45 ACP. Notice from both pictures of the one handed reloads that the magazines have a crimp that runs the entire length. That would make them 9mm, or perhaps .38 Super, but I doubt it. Here's a better picture of the magazines, and they have eight witness holes making them nine rounders, and there's also a shell casing which is obviously a blank in the top left corner:


Also if you look at the pictures of the 1911s at slide lock you can see that the barrels are larger at the muzzle than in the middle of the barrel, but they don't have a bull barrel. Oh well! This movie still rocks. There's a ton of rounds fired, and I can only imagine the fun that everyone had making the shootout scenes. This film is a must see and must have for anyone who likes snubby revolvers or 1911s.

That's it for this week folks. Tune in next week.

Update: DaveP in comments notes . . .

"the trigger guard on a [Walther] PPK is hinged at the back bottom; you pull the front down to disassemble the slide from the frame. That's why it looks "broken".

And:

Caliber of the Colt ".45"'s: Most movie guns are converted to use blanks only; what you see is a spent blank cartridge. This also explains the magazines looking different, as they may actually be 9mm or 10mm magazines used to feed the (differently shaped and a different size than .45ACP) blanks correctly.

I should have known about the Walther as I have one, but it sits in the safe so I have'nt had to take it apart in a while.