how did his dad call 911 after getting shot in the head - Mercury Rising (1998) Discussion

[–] sakura_alley 19 years ago

yeah, i also wondered about that...

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[–] ClarkF1 19 years ago

Getting shot in the head doesn't automatically mean you're dead.

It depends where he was shot.

ClarkF1

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[–] magenta1000 18 years ago

yeah, it's like The Fugitive. His wife had like 30 seconds before she died to call 911. Of course, that's a movie too, but since it's about a doctor, I guess they'd have accurate info...

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[–] floyddsotm077 18 years ago

Well at the very least getting shot in the head takes quite a bit of fight out of you, and I can't imagine after getting capped in the cap, he'd have any kind of presence of mind to do anything other than bleed.
Although, I once heard of a guy who took a 6 foot spike thru the bottom of his jaw and then out thru the top of his skull. He lived for many many years after the accident.

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[–] jahuda 15 years ago

the guy you are thinking of is named phineas gage. the spike was a railroad spike and it destroyed part of his frontal lobes. he did live after the accident, but the reason he is so interesting is because his personality was drastically changed. before the accident, he was a normal, nice guy, and afterward he was abrasive and angry. his family fell apart, it is a relatively sad case. this is because the frontal lobes, among many other things, are associated with managing personality and emotion.

i dont have a point or anything. i just find that stuff interesting.

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[–] TerryThomasPhotos 12 years ago

I'm watching the movie right now. Simon's father was shot in the front of the skull just above his right eye.

Terry Thomas
Character Actor and Film Unit Stills Photographer
Atlanta, Georgia USA
www.TerryThomasPhotos.com

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[–] Devans00 18 years ago

I was wondering why the hot shot police didn't figure out something was wrong when there was a 911 coming out of a murder-suicide house with no-one else home. The police and FBI did all kinds of other fancy stuff with phones, why not notice the 911 call?

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.

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[–] zeggman 18 years ago

Could've been the wife dialing 911 while being chased by the husband, he shoves her away from the phone before she can say anything & hangs up the receiver, then shoots her and himself.

Plus, the detective wasn't all that sharp.

The killer took pains to make sure there was powder on the victim's hands, but if it was really a suicide, there would also have been powder burns on his face, and the gun would have been unlikely to have remained in his hand. There's no way that even a mediocre investigation would have continued to list this as a murder/suicide, though chances are that it would have remained an unsolved murder.

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[–] topclaw 18 years ago

Plenty of people can make rational decisions after being shot in the head, also let's not forget being the father of a kid with autism would have forced the dad to become calmer with situations and being able to tolerate distress and pain in crucial situations.

Insert witty quote

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[–] russelflambuoyans 18 years ago

hah.

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[–] wujou_mao1000 17 years ago

who said he was calling 999. he just happened to buy some time for his son to hide knowing that the operaters were asking if help was needed. also the gunman was freaked to find the call coming from downstairs when he should of been dead right away.

the directors are not saying everyone can lift the receiver and dail 3 numbers after being shot. just a very small %.

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[–] jimmi92 16 years ago

Call 999?

Good luck in getting thorugh to the police in America then.

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[–] marshjes 15 years ago

Maybe he was calling Satan, only upside down for fun?

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[–] imdb-6040 13 years ago

999 is the emergency # in Great Britain. I can see an English poster typing 999, instead of 911, out of habit when replying.

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[–] branstark 10 years ago

999 is the emergency # in Great Britain. I can see an English poster typing 999, instead of 911, out of habit when replying.

Slightly off-topic but I live in the UK and I've always wondered why America's emergency # is 911. When you're in a rush, you have to press 9 and move your hand across the whole face off the keypad to get to 1. Wouldn't it be quicker to have a number like the UKs where it's just three numbers pressed in quick succession?

---
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[–] Critomaton 10 years ago

My guess is somebody figured that extra fraction of a second it takes to reposition your finger is worth the risk in exchange for reduced accidental calls to the emergency services line. Although, in many office buildings you have to dial 9 to get an outside line and 1 to make a long distance call, so that's a setup for an accidental 911 call anyway.

Or maybe it was just a catchy prefix that was available.

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[–] nutsberryfarm 13 years ago

that the police would arrive with sirens on & so quickly just b/c someone called & didn't say anything seems even more odd.

We're not soldiers and he's not the enemy. He's a pizza man.

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[–] RunningRampant 12 years ago

The dispatcher would have attempted to call back. Officers would have been dispatched to check and could have arrived quickly if a patrol car was in the vicinity.

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[–] louis-skipper 12 years ago

"It's only a scratch."

or

"I"m not dead yet."

Your choice.

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