Current Events > Why do movie people still pull back the hammer of their gun?

(+) Yeah! (+)

You know what I mean. They pull back the hammer in the scene to let everyone know that they're serious.

More often than not, the gun that they're using was ready to fire without needing to cock the gun.
---

Because without it there's no tension.

That's the dumb thing about guns, you need to force tension with them like that.
---

Rule of cool
---

Pulling the hammer back makes it much easier to pull the trigger, but I'm going to go with increasing the tension.
---

It is necessary for single action revolvers.
---

DragonGirlYuki posted...

It is necessary for single action revolvers.

Yes, but not for an M9 Beretta.
---

Some guns have a hammer-drop safety and in some trains of thought it's ideal to avoid using double action because it has a longer and heavier trigger pull which can mess with your shot.

Although movies are made by idiot liberals that have no idea how guns work, so that's probably the real reason.
---

cause it's a movie.

Same reason the bad guy "allows" themself to get caught, gives a long speech rather than just kill the hero, etc

There's a scene in the books for The Expanse about this. A character is holding people at gun point making demands when he cocks the gun to let them know he's serious, and they all instantly pull theirs and it starts a shoot out, despite everything being relatively calm until that moment.

Afterwards, he asks why everything went sideways and states that he thought he was supposed to do that to let everyone know he wasn't kidding. One of the main characters responds with something like "When you did that, everyone realized you were an idiot. Nobody trusts an idiot with a gun."

To answer the question, they do it because stupid people think you're supposed to.
---

3_1_1_FTW posted...

They pull back the hammer in the scene to let everyone know that they're serious.

You answered your own question. It's a movie. There are certain visual queues that are staples of cinema and that's one of them. Like it was serious before, but now it's even more serious. Just like you said.
---

TheDarkCircle posted...

cause it's a movie.

Same reason the bad guy "allows" themself to get caught, gives a long speech rather than just kill the hero, etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTcBgs2huRo
---

It's clearly for dramatic effect, though pulling the hammer back can help with accuracy since it's easier to pull the trigger.
---

WaterLink posted...

TheDarkCircle posted...

cause it's a movie.

Same reason the bad guy "allows" themself to get caught, gives a long speech rather than just kill the hero, etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTcBgs2huRo

Lmaooo love that scene

I suppose the same reason people will pump a shotgun, normally expending a perfectly good shell. They think it looks good for the movie.
---