MovieChat Forums > Serena (2015) Discussion > Strange to use the expression "crosshair...

Strange to use the expression "crosshairs" (spoilers)


George Pemberton: "We were set up on the same line and a bear had come inbetween us and by the time it had crossed through he was in my crosshairs"


His gun didn't have a telescopic sight with 'crosshairs', just regular iron sights. Would 'crosshairs' have been a common expression then? It seems out of place to me.

Not that this is the biggest problem with this movie, but I thought it was an example of how lazily written the whole thing is.

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[deleted]

A quick search of Google n-grams shows up one use of the expression in 1862, one in 1945, a few more in the '60s, and then it really took off in the '80s: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=in+_PRON_+crosshairs%2Ci n+my+crosshairs%2Cin+his+crosshairs%2Cin+its+crosshairs&year_start =1800&smoothing=0

I could understand someone today saying "in my crosshairs" when using iron sights, because it is now a common expression, but it seems like a weird thing for someone to say then, when not using telescopic sights.

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