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Alec Baldwin Kills Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins With Real Gun

ManaByte

ManaByte

Gold Member
variety.com

Alec Baldwin Fired Prop Gun That Killed Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, Injured Director

Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on a set in New Mexico, causing the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
variety.com variety.com

Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on a set in New Mexico on Thursday, accidentally killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

The incident occurred on the set of “Rust,” an independent feature that was filming at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, a popular production location south of Santa Fe.
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Baldwin is a co-producer on the film and plays infamous outlaw Rust, whose 13-year-old grandson is convicted of an accidental murder.
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daveonezero

daveonezero

Banned
that’s sort of awkward. maybe he should have been versed and knowledgeable about firearms and he would have avoided this situation.

Hollywood will use this to say even prop guns should be regulated.

checking a chamber and clearing the barrel of obstructions should be obvious even when shooting blanks.
 
TheFarter

TheFarter

Banned
Donald Trump Water GIF by Election 2016
 
J

jason10mm

Gold Member
Damn, wonder if it was the same basic thing that got Brandon Lee (fragment of fake bullet used for close up of revolver lodges in barrel and is then discharged by blank cartridge). Can't fake western gunshots with CGI as much due to the gunsmoke like they have been with modern gun films for the past decade or more.

Hope he wasn't fucking around with the gun off camera and hit the poor lady with just a blank, at close range they can cause significant injury. Maybe he spooked a horse or something and Variety is just doing their usual shit reporting?
 
Tschumi

Tschumi

Member
daveonezero said:
that’s sort of awkward. maybe he should have been versed and knowledgeable about firearms and he would have avoided this situation.

Hollywood will use this to say even prop guns should be regulated.

checking a chamber and clearing the barrel of obstructions should be obvious even when shooting blanks.
Click to expand...
Search Brandon Lee

Accidents happen, has nothing to do with expertise or regulation, it's just a tragedy, don't have to signal your expertise
 
Yoda

Yoda

Member
Why was it a real gun? Follow up to that is how did real ammunition get in it? Follow up to that was the ammunition FMJ (crap for the range) or hollow point (stuff that is designed for max damage)?
 
zeorhymer

zeorhymer

Member
Oh wow. I read that he fired a gun that had blanks, but shrapnel hit folks and one of them had to be airlifted. Didn't realize that person didn't make it.

Edit: First it was Aquaman 2 and now this.
 
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Chiggs

Chiggs

Gold Member
ManaByte said:
This is Hollywood. You can crush two kids and Vic Marrow with a helicopter and get away with it. Just ask John Landis.
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That won’t fly now, imo.

Side note: that Morrow accident is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.
 
Kagey K

Kagey K

Banned
That's why you aren't supposed to even aim prop guns at people. Always make it look like you are aiming at them, but you are actually slightly off target.

Blanks still pack a bunch of force and anything in the barrel can become deadly.
 
daveonezero

daveonezero

Banned
Tschumi said:
Search Brandon Lee

Accidents happen, has nothing to do with expertise or regulation, it's just a tragedy, don't have to signal your expertise
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I know about it. It was fishy.
It’s not expertise. It is one of the four basic rules for handling any firearm. Even “prop” guns or guns that shoot blanks.

combistable powder creates pressure in a barrel and sends projectiles out of it.

you make sure it is clear.
This like all other firearms negligence this is incorrectly labeled an accident.

someone fucked up. It didn’t accidentally randomly go off.
 
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TransTrender

TransTrender

Gold Member
I have no love for the guy, but imagine if he was drunk and fucking off when this happened. The Master of Arms or safety people would probably never work in the industry again. Alec should be shaken to the core and I wonder how production would go on.
 
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Keihart

Keihart

Member
Again? is this just like Brendon Lee's death? WTF.
Also, the irony doesn't scape the situation with "13-year-old grandson is convicted of an accidental murder." as part of the plot of the movie.

Edit: So i got curious about how it can be possible that something as simple as loading a gun with blanks can be fucked up in a movie and it turns out that semi automatics need modifications to shoot blanks and that is where things get tricky, malfuctions or get shit stuck in the barrel and what not.
 
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MaulerX

MaulerX

Member
Lanrutcon said:
This was most likely not his fault. He's not in charge of the props, or set health & safety, or arms. He's an actor: he's supposed to get handed a gun by the responsible people. The fact that there was even live ammo on set raises several questions.
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I agree but she didn't have an on-screen role. I guess he was just goofing around? Why else would you point the prop at a behind the scenes worker?
 
D

Derekloffin

Member
This makes no F'ing sense. Why did they have live ammunition on the set at all, much less loaded into a gun? The only reasonable answer I can think of is the movie SFX was using live fire guns in movie shots which is hella irresponsible.

As to Baldwin himself, I feel for the guy, as I'm sure this was not his primary fault, but he does bear some blame as you should consider all firearms deadly until proven otherwise and never be pointing them at anyone.
 
Lanrutcon

Lanrutcon

Member
MaulerX said:
I agree but she didn't have an on-screen role. I guess he was just goofing around? Why else would you point the prop at a behind the scenes worker?
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They might have needed some footage of him firing a gun? Remember it's a movie: not all shots show the shooter and the target at once. The people who got hit weren't necessarily being aimed at, they were just in the path of the bullets. Hell, she might have been behind a set piece, green screen, etc and still gotten hit. Bullets can go through props quite easily as they're made cheaply, especially on cheap (indie) film sets. I imagine that also explains why there was no proper gun control in place.
 
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MaulerX

MaulerX

Member
Lanrutcon said:
They might have needed some footage of him firing a gun? Remember it's a movie: not all shots show the shooter and the target at once. The people who got hit weren't necessarily being aimed at, they were just in the path of the bullets. Hell, she might have been behind a set piece, green screen, etc and still gotten hit. Bullets can go through props quite easily as they're made cheaply, especially on cheap (indie) film sets. I imagine that also explains why there was no proper gun control in place.
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If they just needed footage of him firing a gun it doesn't make sense that it was being pointed at somebody. She was a cinematographer. Isn't she supposed to be behind the cameras? Can't imagine her having to be in the path of the "bullet" even if it was supposed to be a blank.
 
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Lanrutcon

Lanrutcon

Member
MaulerX said:
If they just needed footage of him firing a gun it doesn't make sense that it was being pointed at somebody. She was a cinematographer. Isn't she supposed to be behind the cameras? Can't imagine her having to be in the path of the "bullet" even if it was supposed to be a blank.
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Why not? It was a prop gun and he wasn't told otherwise. I've pointed toy guns at people before even if I didn't have to. He could have been acting like he was shooting at someone and needed a target, and just chose her because of whatever. Why be careful where you point a harmless prop? Plus if they needed a shot of an actor firing towards the camera then a whole host of people would potentially be in the line of fire. It's a set, not a gun range.

I've seen behind the scenes shots of movies like the Matrix, where the actors where being shown how they should move in a scene and the person doing the instructing had 2 guns in his hands and wasn't particularly worried about where he was pointing them. Same deal.
 
sankt-Antonio

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
Why even use guns that can be loaded with live rounds? Most mussel flashes are CGI anyway, just make it go poof like a toy gun and chi the rest later.

Just dump. Has anything like this happened on sets in Europe or Asia?
 
MaulerX

MaulerX

Member
Lanrutcon said:
Why not? It was a prop gun and he wasn't told otherwise. I've pointed toy guns at people before even if I didn't have to. He could have been acting like he was shooting at someone and needed a target, and just chose her because of whatever. Why be careful where you point a harmless prop? Plus if they needed a shot of an actor firing towards the camera then a whole host of people would potentially be in the line of fire. It's a set, not a gun range.

I've seen behind the scenes shots of movies like the Matrix, where the actors where being shown how they should move in a scene and the person doing the instructing had 2 guns in his hands and wasn't particularly worried about where he was pointing them. Same deal.
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A harmless prop? Given the history of prior accidents and the fact that your "harmless" prop is actually a real (albeit modified) gun I can't believe you actually equated that with a toy gun.

Look, it's not his fault the thing was loaded. But you can't deny the possibility that some on set baffonery was going on.
 
Lanrutcon

Lanrutcon

Member
MaulerX said:
A harmless prop? Given the history of prior accidents and the fact that your "harmless" prop is actually a real (albeit modified) gun I can't believe you actually equated that with a toy gun.

Look, it's not his fault the thing was loaded. But you can't deny the possibility that some on set baffonery was going on.
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Oh no, I absolutely believe on set baffoonery was going on, but guns get pointed at folks on sets every day.

It's worth noting that the history of prior accidents make up maybe 0.00000000001% of all gun use on movie/TV sets. It's the job of the people controlling the arms and looking after set safety to make sure everyone acts appropriately, because some distant accident on one set in a sea of thousands isn't going to make people wary. If this was a union gig there should have been actor gun training, safety meetings, a weapon expert/handler and an armourer (and more I probably don't know about). I think people got lazy and weren't doing their due diligence.

In any case, Mr Baldwin ain't gonna go down for this. It'll probably get settled quietly out of court by whoever funded the movie.
 
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