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If These Fists Could Talk: A Stuntman's Unflinching Take on Violence
Stuntman and indie action film director Eric Jacobus fought for 15 years to make it in the entertainment business. He finally got his big break as the stuntman for Kratos in God of War (2018). With God of War's success, Jacobus, with the help of his brother-in-law Zac Swartout, set out to build an action design and motion capture studio housed in Las Vegas, with the upcoming God of War Ragnarök as his target. But to get such a massive contract, Jacobus had gave the pitch of a lifetime to the game's Jacobus would design the action based on a new science of violence which he had been developing for years. The presentation was a SuperAlloy opened its doors with Ragnarök as the first contract, which was followed by a string of hits like Sifu, Call of Modern Warfare II, Destiny 2, Midnight Fight Express, and Mortal Kombat 1, as well as films like Army of the Dead.
Throughout the company's life, Jacobus honed his hypothesis of violence. With a daily reading regimen of 60-100 pages spanning subjects like anthropology, history, military science, archaeology, primatology, neuroscience, social sciences, psychology, evolutionary science, linguistics, and media studies, Jacobus feverishly sought the mechanism behind the apocalyptic nature of human violence so he could design the best action possible. But to his surprise, theories of human violence were always complex and gradual, vague and indeterminate. It was as though they were written by people who knew nothing about violence. Indeed, no author in history ever mechanically differentiated human and animal combat. He wondered, how great would it be if someone familiar with violence wrote a book on it?
After reading hundreds of books, Jacobus outlined a simple difference between human and animal combat. Animals are limited to their natural weapons which are paired with their defenses; the weapons are therefore known to all parties, and this makes combat safe for forming hierarchies. But because humans use objects in combat, the opponent's weapon can't be anticipated, which incentivizes both sides to escalate to extremes, blowing combat into apocalyptic proportions. He calls this "reciprocal, object-based aggression" (ROBA). The book details how there is no evidence of ROBA in any animal species, even primates.
Violence is often, paradoxically, considered animalistic and inhuman, and yet somehow also uniquely human. Jacobus redefines violence as a mode of exchange. To avoid violence, we must exchange ROBA for other cultural forms like language, religion, art, etc. By formulating violence minimally as ROBA, Jacobus inadvertently flips the script on the human sciences, showing how ROBA is far from animalistic; it might be the best way to understand humans. The ROBA Hypothesis also allowed him to make a cool action design and motion capture company. This book is all about how he did it.
Throughout the company's life, Jacobus honed his hypothesis of violence. With a daily reading regimen of 60-100 pages spanning subjects like anthropology, history, military science, archaeology, primatology, neuroscience, social sciences, psychology, evolutionary science, linguistics, and media studies, Jacobus feverishly sought the mechanism behind the apocalyptic nature of human violence so he could design the best action possible. But to his surprise, theories of human violence were always complex and gradual, vague and indeterminate. It was as though they were written by people who knew nothing about violence. Indeed, no author in history ever mechanically differentiated human and animal combat. He wondered, how great would it be if someone familiar with violence wrote a book on it?
After reading hundreds of books, Jacobus outlined a simple difference between human and animal combat. Animals are limited to their natural weapons which are paired with their defenses; the weapons are therefore known to all parties, and this makes combat safe for forming hierarchies. But because humans use objects in combat, the opponent's weapon can't be anticipated, which incentivizes both sides to escalate to extremes, blowing combat into apocalyptic proportions. He calls this "reciprocal, object-based aggression" (ROBA). The book details how there is no evidence of ROBA in any animal species, even primates.
Violence is often, paradoxically, considered animalistic and inhuman, and yet somehow also uniquely human. Jacobus redefines violence as a mode of exchange. To avoid violence, we must exchange ROBA for other cultural forms like language, religion, art, etc. By formulating violence minimally as ROBA, Jacobus inadvertently flips the script on the human sciences, showing how ROBA is far from animalistic; it might be the best way to understand humans. The ROBA Hypothesis also allowed him to make a cool action design and motion capture company. This book is all about how he did it.
212 pages, Paperback
Published February 3, 2025
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