MovieChat Forums > The Untouchables (1987) Discussion > Question for firearm experts

Question for firearm experts

posted 11 years ago by fountaincap
3 replies | jump to latest

This question applies to more movies than just The Untouchables, but this just happens to be the last instance I saw of the thing I'm curious about. When Nitti is trying to crawl down the rope and Ness is about to pull the trigger and shoot him, the camera zooms in on his gun. You can see that the trigger is already pulled before he changes his mind and flicks the hammer back in.

Wouldn't the gun already fire when you have the trigger pulled back like that? Is this some kind of safety precaution they take when filming with firearms? This isn't the first time I've seen a pulled trigger like this in a movie so I was wondering. Haven't fired a gun myself so maybe it's just something I'm missing.

[–] the-g-man-x 11 years ago

In the scene, Ness used a Colt Official Police, which is a double action revolver. A double action revolver can be fired in one of two ways: (1) squeeze the trigger all the way, or (2) cock the hammer first and then squeeze the trigger.

Ness cocked the hammer first, which shortened the trigger pull. But the revolver won't fire unless the trigger is squeezed all the way, and the hammer can be uncocked, as shown in this video:

http://youtu.be/QtIMLHOwy6s?t=5m43s

[–] fountaincap 11 years ago

I see. I guess to a layman it just appears that the trigger is all the way back but it really isn't. Thanks for the info!

[–] the-g-man-x 11 years ago

No problem.