Action/Adventure Aficionados discussion

I love flare guns. Any movie plot which features an edge-of-the-seat crisis which is solved by a character ingeniously reaching for a flare gun hanging-on-the-wall (a flare gun which the villain, probably not a seaman) has thoughtlessly overlooked-- is A-OKAY in my book. More than okay! It rocks!

Nothing better than hearing that whuuuump! and seeing that blast of orange flame emit from the business end of that bad-ass marine safety device and WHAM!!!! the villain is TOAST. Right over the side! Aim for his chest!

Best to douse him with kerosene first so that he just goes up right like a torch, right before his own disbelieving eyes. Yeah! You dummy! You disarmed the hero but you forgot about the flare gun, dingbat--hello, standard ship's equipment!

Love it

Best example? How about Sean Connery as James Bond in 'FRWL'?...in that flick's flame-tinted climax? Bond and Bond girl pursued across the Black Sea by a fleet of SMERSH gunboats; so James spreads a huge oil slick behind his own craft and sets it off with--you guessed it--a flare gun! Whuuump! Bye Bye, you scum!

Other which come to mind? 'Desperate Voyage' with Christopher Plummer?

How about the use of flares in 'Apocalypse Now'? Dung Long bridge scene, yeah!

Yes, it's rather the modern equivalent of the swordsman cutting the rope that hangs the chandelier which then drops on the enemy's head. But flare guns are so much more incendiary!

They add ignition to action and turn up the heat.

In my book a grenade placed beside a fuel tank does the same trick.

I think they use one in 'The Thing' movies, right? Both versions?

Yes, "Platoon" used a lot of visual tension techniques, but the most suspenseful part was when Charlie's character falls asleep on point and the VC approach in the jungle. Nothing lights up a jungle like an RPG in the dark before your first cup of coffee!

The boat chase and flare gun in FRWL--the best!

Yeah! puh puh puh puh puh pah pow! They sure knew how to do great stunts in those early Bond flicks. It was what helped build the franchise.

"24" Day 2. Jack Bauer and his backstabbing prisoner Nina Meyers got trapped in the Californian wilderness at one point by a hit-squad armed with M4 Carbines. He only had a SIG-Sauer P228 and a flare gun. He used the latter to surprise one of the gunmen and blow the poor sod's chest open so he could grab himself an assault rifle.

ps. flare pistols are legal to own and use without a license

Someone should use a slapflare in a movie, just to shake things up a bit.

Feliks wrote: "I love flare guns. Any movie plot which features an edge-of-the-seat crisis which is solved by a character ingeniously reaching for a flare gun hanging-on-the-wall (a flare gun which the villain, probably not a seaman) has thoughtlessly overlooked-- is A-OKAY in my book. More than okay! It rocks!..."

I've written a vignette with a flare gun in it - used for good effect too.