Dwayne Johnson will no longer use real guns on set in response to Rust shooting
The actor spoke about the safety measures being taken by his production company following the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins
Film News Dwayne Johnson
The accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding of director Joel Souza has prompted investigations into working conditions on the set of Rust as well as broader discussions on ensuring adequate production safety across the film industry.
Speaking to Variety about the use of prop firearms at the premiere of his new film, Red Notice, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has said that, for his part, none of his film productions going forward will make use of real guns.
Johnson said that he “was heartbroken” to learn of Hutchins’ death and in disbelief that the accident could have taken place at all. After stating that his “heart goes out to [Hutchins’] family and everybody on set,” Johnson said that he wants the film industry to learn from the incident and promised that any film he’s involved with will no longer use real firearms.
“I can’t speak for anyone else,” he said, “but I can tell you, without an absence of clarity here, that any movie that we have moving forward with [his production company] Seven Bucks Productions—any movie, any television show, or anything we do or produce—we won’t use real guns at all. We’re going to switch over to rubber guns.
“We’ll take care of it in post,” Johnson continued. “We’re not going to worry about the dollars. We won’t worry about what it costs.
“When something like this happens—of this magnitude, this heartbreaking—I think the most prudent thing and the smartest thing to do is just pause for a second and really re-examine how you’re going to move forward and how we’re going to work together,” he concluded.
Johnson’s point was echoed by Hiram Garcia, president of production at Seven Bucks, who said that “for us, going forward, we’re never going to deal with live guns on-set at all, even for blanks—it’s just not necessary.”
117 Comments
I was hoping for a film where everyone had Nerf guns. But I guess rubber guns will be o.k. too.
Surprised they don’t move to gas-blowback airsoft guns. You can get pretty good looking models these days and it means you get a realistic “action” out of them with aspects like a flash and case ejection able to be added in post.
I think its less about the gun looking less realistic and more the actor.Even the best airsoft gun will pale in comparison to blanks being fired from a real gun, you just don’t get the same raw visceral reaction when firing an airsoft gun. It puts a lot of onus on the actor to sell they are using a “real” gun.
Well, that’s why they call it acting. These guys didn’t have too hard a time with it.I also would imagine that one could engineer an airsoft platform to have more reciprocating mass internally to at least give it more “feel.” It’ll make it easier for the SFX team to insert flashes in post.
Next thing you’ll be trying to tell me Bill Duke wasn’t firing off live rounds in Predator…
Yet, they will still look better than rubber guns so I’m not sure what your point is? It’s easier to sell an airsoft gun over a rubber gun when it functions similarly to the real thing.
It puts a lot of onus on the actor to sell they are using a “real” gun.“Try acting, my dear boy…”
I suspect that’s what he meant.Cause, honestly a purely rubber gun would look like complete ass.
These guys were ahead of their time!
No need to use an airsoft if all the projectile-related effects are added in post. If they want something that merely replicates recoil but is otherwise inert, I’m sure some prop house will invent some new kind of fake gun. The action of a slide or ejection port should be simple enough to replicate, and then I’m imagining something like a supersized rumble motor from a game controller that spins once for every trigger pull. With the proper weight/geometry/speed/etc. you could have something that jerks the gun back in a realistic enough manner.
You can dry fire airsoft guns, literally the same thing.
Sure, but why spend thousands custom fabricating a prop gun when you could just buy an airsoft gun from a company that already has the “realistic slide and recoil action”? And usually has as close to realistic parts as they can get away with. Seriously, some dudes a few years back were able to take airsoft guns and replace a few parts to turn them into real guns. When we’re talking about literal parts interchangeability, that’s about as good as you are ever gonna get.And I mean, it’s airsoft. If someone on set manages to get killed by an airsoft gun, well it was just their day to die.
I applaud him for retiring the use of live guns as props. And while I know rubber guns are common, especially in stunts, uh… isn’t there something in between a rubber gun and an honest-to-God killing machine?
You can render real guns un-fireable, I suppose.
The problem with a modified real gun is that it can easily be confused with a non-modified one. For film props, you want something that looks like a real gun on-screen, but if anyone picks it up – even someone with no knowledge of guns – they will immediately know that it isn’t a real one. Hence, rubber.
There are real guns that have been modified so they can’t be fired, and they’re used in movies all the time.
So kinda weird The Rock said, “We’re going to switch over to rubber guns,” innit?
It’s not weird, it’s stupid. The safety protocols have worked fine for over 20 years. If protocols are ignored, then of course something’s gonna go wrong.Stunts have caused far more injuries on sets than guns have, but nobody’s talking about getting rid of stunts, because that’s a stupid idea.Avoiding another Rust situation is easy. Don’t hire an AD with a reputation for cutting corners & ignoring safety. Don’t hire a young, inexperienced person as your head armourer, especially when they only got their job because of who their father is. If there’s a misfire on set, then it must be investigated, not ignored. The shooting on the Rust set was the third misfire on that set.This misfire/shooting was caused by the producers cutting corners and the head armourer being grossly incompetent and criminally negligent. If guns on sets were an actual problem, we’d hear about situations like this far more.
You’re not wrong. But “stupid” may be a bit harsh when his sentiment is obviously in the right place. At worst, I’d say The Rock is just overreacting.
It does strike me as a bit of an overreaction since the Rust situation only happened because multiple people were extremely careless and the whole production was deliberately unsafe in the name of doing things quickly and cheaply, but on the other hand, special effects have reached the point it’s not necessary to take any chance whatsoever. No matter how careless you are, it’s impossible to shoot someone with a rubber gun. And it’s the Rock’s choice for his production company, he’s not passing a law that affects all of Hollywood.
I mean, it’s a movie FFS, just about everything is fake. Why care if the guns are too?
Yeah, I don’t blame Johnson for wanting to take the risk down from “minimal if everyone is doing their job right” to “literally zero”.
I mean, it’s a movie FFS, just about everything is fake. Why care if the guns are too?
Because “just about everything is fake” isn’t true.
It’s not weird, it’s stupid. The safety protocols have worked fine for over 20 years. If protocols are ignored, then of course something’s gonna go wrong.Even Baldwin himself said as much. The protocols work. Yes, they can always be improved, but at the same time, whenever something like this happens it’s because someone didn’t follow the protocols.
I was just watching Titanic with my daughter & explained to her that the shock of the tragedy is what inspired international laws about having enough lifeboats for every person on a ship from that time on. It’s really sad that it takes a tragedy for people to take totally easy, reasonable steps to ensure safety.
Sadder that even tragedy won’t get some to do it.Now to check Facebook and see who’s griping about masks in schools today.
Tell her about the Plimsoll line! In the old days cargo ships were regularly and deliberately overladen so they’d sink and net the owner a nice insurance payout. It only changed when the insurers were sick about all the payouts and lobbied government to introduce a water line (known as the Plimsoll line) on all ships’ hulls. This became an international standard and saved countless lives but it was never about safety , only money.
So true. And that safety measures are called gOVeRNmeNT OveREAch by a really obnoxious set of humans who are more worried about muh civul liburties!
And so often, real tragedies don’t even do that.
Thoughts and Prayers!
In this case, it was Brandon Lee getting killed on the set of The Crow, and given the number of people killed by accidental gunfire on the sets of movies and TV over the past 30 years, I’d say it worked pretty well.It just tends not to when there’s a complete breakdown in following protocol.
Wasn’t that already a law and White Star just said fuck it, we want the deck space and this boat isn’t going to freaking sink anyway?
Nope. The regulations required a vessel of 10,000 tons or more to carry 16 lifeboats with a total capacity of 9,625 cubic feet (272.5 m3), sufficient for 960 people. Titanic actually carried four more lifeboats than was needed under the regulations.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeboats_of_the_Titanic#:~:text=The%20regulations%20required%20a%20vessel,was%20needed%20under%20the%20regulations.
Well I hope someone drowned for that blunder.
This is good, I think. Of course, he’ll have to mimic the recoil and make all the “pew pew” noises himself, but if you ask me, that’s half the fun!
Yeah, out of all the things about guns that movies play loosey-goosey with, the authentic recoil is something you just can’t leave out.
I hope they’re prepared to break the immersion of the most insufferable fraction of the audience.
Exactly. Six shooters that fire ten bullets? Fine. Characters that get shot multiple times but keep fighting on rather than curling up screaming? Also fine, But if the recoil of the six-shooters are off. well, that spoils the whole movie!
Also fine: the recoil being a small jerking motion backwards, while the force of the bullet hitting the target throws them back fifteen feet.
And just like that, Laura Dern has a second career as an action choreographer.
long as she’s not the hair coordinator
There was a lot that I disliked about The Last Jedi, but Laura Dern saying ‘pew’ as she mimicked firing a blaster was not on that list.(Not particularly good for conveying suspension of disbelief, but I’ll take my enjoyment where I get it.)
Despite my dislike for Last Jedi in general, I will never dislike Laura Dern. She’s a national treasure and she can say pew and have a laser gun recoil as much as she wants.
Why would something that shoots light recoil anyway?
How many action coordinators can say they’ve got Oscars?
They had me right up until the firestorm blowing up the cardboard tank — that was Wakaliwood levels of cheesy!And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you really need to spend a US$3.99 – $10.00 to see the utterly amazing movies of Nabwana I.G.G…..
https://supastore.wakaliwood.com/collections/stuff-to-watch
I wonder if you can make some kind of spring-loaded internal device that jerks the fake gun so that you get at least the timing if not the full effect of recoil. Anyone know if that exists already?
Gamers have been using lightguns with recoil for years. I’m certain that if someone put effort/resources into it, they could make existing ones mimic the kick of real guns.
Well up his nose with a rubber gun!They could switch all the guns for walkie-talkies.
i do love that he can’t possibly make a movie that doesn’t have guns in it**yes i know that’s not what he’s saying but i’m just having a little fun on the world wide web.
Fun on the worldwide web?! GET HIM!
make him SQUEAL!
A Critic reference will ALWAYS get a star!
Action stars like the Rock should rely more on their God-given “guns” anyway.
God(and a heaping helping of PEDs)-given, sure.
God, an insane workout regimen, and a ton of human growth horm… er, um, I mean whey protein powder!
One of the best lines in Central Intelligence was when Kevin Hart says “How do you end up like that?” and The Rock answers “It’s easy. Just work out every day for six hours for the rest of your life”
One of the best lines in Central Intelligence was when Kevin Hart says “How do you end up like that?” and The Rock answers “It’s easy. Just work out every day for six hours for the rest of your life” Years ago, Jack LaLanne said something on a talk show about how anyone could be in as good shape as he was. His advantage was, being in shape was his job.
I mean all the typical person needs is a trainer, full-time chef and stylist and they can look great all the time too!
Depending on your belief system, all those could be gifts from God.
I worked with a guy who was a NFL lineman in the 80s and apparently the shit the teams fed those guys was insane.
My goodness! The sun’s not even out!
Those are clearly made of rubber.
Could we write more movies and TV shows that don’t require the use of firearms in the first place? Or is that way too crazy to even consider?
It’s not really about using real guns vs fake ones. It’s about hiring union prop masters and armorers with the experience to do the job right. And spending the money and time to make sure things are done safely. If you’re not worried about cost spend your money on that.
I have a very cynical take, but I’m certain that he’ll quietly backtrack on this the moment it affects the productions’ bottom line. I bet he won’t even follow through with one film.
Additional cynical take: since armorers are unionized and VFX workers are not, it may in fact BE cheaper.
I’m not sure the Rock is worried too much at this point about where his next 36 ounces of cod are coming from.
This is a very minor change, from a studio’s perspective. They’re not going to meaningfully push back on it.
https://www.theroot.com/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-was-adamant-about-filming-black-1847335005He was worried enough to not have any principles about voter rights.
Unfortunately, there could be other things motivating that decision other than love of money.
Of course there are. Like Dwayne Johnson being a Republican.
It reminds me of when Clooney said he wouldn’t be doing any more press after Princess Di was killed by paparazzi. That lasted just about as long as his promo obligations for Batman and Robin…
Good on him.The biggest surprise of all this to me was that people were using real guns for filming. Like, fuck off! lol. That’s nuts.
They also use real helicopters. Which didn’t turn out so well for Victor Morrow and a couple of child extras.
After a quick google, that’s the kind of accident that, while horrific, I can expect within the realms of movie making. Helicopters are not devices that directly kill people when their originally intended purpose is used. So it’s a lot more understandable to use them as props. Same with cars and horse-drawn carriages and any form of transport really.
Maybe they accidentally used an attack helicopter?(I know, too soon)
I don’t know why they bother, considering almost all helicopter stunts in movies are hilariously implausible anyway. Just use radio-controlled miniatures and CGI like everything else.
It’s all lovely for him to say this, but I call absolute horseshit on it.
This tracks with his previous commitment that his production company wouldn’t use real effort in making good movies.
The new Jumanji movies are far better than anyone could have expected. And Johnson (and Jack Black!) do real legit acting in them.
Until the insurance companies start requiring this of movie productions — and we’ll see how expensive the “Rust” lawsuits end up being for that insurance company — this is probably the most effective way to get things to change.
If you can’t get a mega-star on your film unless you’ve got enhanced gun safety, movie studios will fall in line pretty quickly.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the New Mexico legislature requiring more serious restrictions on film sets is going to do much, since most of the films in this country are filmed elsewhere, specifically California and Georgia. So barring federal legislation —good luck with that — it’s going to have to a non-legislative solution.
It could also be that the unions make the change, and therefore government mandates won’t be necessary.
Yeah, if you really want to use functioning weapons in your shoot there are plenty of places you can film
“Rust” used non-labor staff, which was one of the many problems here.
I think there’s clearly a way to use real guns in movies safely, it’s been done in thousands upon thousands of movies, and the accidents that have occurred have been rare, and entirely avoidable if the safeguards that were supposed to be in place had been followed. Certainly it’s better to eliminate a risk of people being injured or killed in making a movie, if that risk is completely unnecessary. But people take necessary risks quite routinely in making movies with stunts and things like that, it’s a sacrifice for the art, which can be made like 99.999% safe if you have the right training and safeguards in place. That’s not a 0% risk of injury, but there’s not a 0% risk of injury getting in the car to drive to set, either, that’s life.I think the real problem here is people being cavalier with the danger that guns pose, and if you don’t have the time, money or willpower to be appropriately careful around guns, then you can’t use them in your movie, that’s plain and simple (nor should you own them in real life). But if we’re making a John Wick sequel that rests on a foundation of gunfights, and everyone involved takes the choreography and safety measures very seriously, then I don’t see why we can’t have that, in situations where it’s necessary to what you’re trying to capture on film.
I don’t disagree but I think more and more actors and crew are going to refuse to be around real guns if they have any say in the matter. You can run the numbers about safety but we should all know by now that emotion overrules numbers and reason ever time.For one thing a lot of actors will be less willing to trust the process and I don’t blame them because the actor is who will be forever associated with any accident even if it’s entirely the armorer’s fault.
Also, the basic argument here is “people should have deadly weapons on a film set, as long as there’s a process to make them less deadly, all because a fraction of the audience cares about recoil.” It’s less about people being irrational and more that this incident is an invitation to look at the current system and recognize a widespread issue with people’s thinking.
I’m honestly not going to care one way or the other about what kind of prop guns are used in movies but if it’s true that the crew on Rust were using these pistols for shooting cans during down time then we’re talking a whole ‘nother level of stupidity and carelessness.
That’s true, but consider that this whole situation only became news once someone got killed. The camera crew walkout, the safety complaints against the AD during prior productions, the bad experience another production had with the armorer, and the earlier accidental discharges that occurred on this set – none of those things were news until someone got killed. So is this actually next-level carelessness, or is this level of carelessness fairly common, and most of us have no idea because it hasn’t led to this particular outcome? I suspect there are a lot of people in Hollywood asking themselves that question right now.
Valid. Some of the comments on earlier versions of this story made it sound like “plinking” during downtimes is very common. I seriously doubt that this death was the result of the single poorly managed production. At the very least hopefully this leads to some heavy-duty changes in attention to safety protocols.
This news popped into my (site that shall not be named) feed this morning, and commenters of a certain political affiliation were Losing Their Shit. One man went so far to say he would not be seeing Saving Private Ryan sans realistic guns. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that Dwayne Johnson’s decree would not be retroactive, nor applied to films he didn’t star in.
SPR starring Johnson would’ve been a very different film.
I wouldn’t not watch it.
There’s something to be said for the image of a giant Samoan tearing off robo-Hitler’s head while spouting one-liners. A certain artistic merit. But the choice to cast Jesse Eisenberg in the comic relief Private Ryan role may be a bit much.
My feeble brain read that as Saruman, which is also not something I’m opposed to. Wizards vs. Nazis! CGI Christopher Lee’s finest role!
This is a bad decision. The safety measures in place have worked fine for years. They only failed now because of gross incompetence and negligence by several parties.Far more people have been injured by stunts on sets than guns.
On the other hand moving from an occasional preventable death to zero (from filmed firearms), at relatively little expense, seems like it might be worthwhile.
This is a solution for something that isn’t a problem. It’s been almost 30 years since a gun misfiring on set killed someone. The safety protocols work when they’re followed properly.But stuntmen get injured all the time, sometimes seriously. But nobody’s suggesting we get rid of stunts, because that would be stupid.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_and_television_accidents
Best I can tell it’s a total of three. I don’t know how many movies and TV shows have been filmed where a gun is fired but this would have to put the likelihood of death at about 0.0000000000000000000001%.Don’t check my math, it’s good.
Or you could just ensure that you have competent armourers on set enforcing strict gun-handling protocols.
Rubber guns and CGI blood from here to eternity. Everything gets slowly worse.
There’s a real goldmine out there for the propmaker who can create a more realistic non-functioning gun to pacify all the authenticity weirdos
This is good, but is he gonna stop having his crews working ungodly hours too? The Rock is notorious for directing productions to “just work through lunch” because he’s cool with it himself.
This is fine, but I’d probably go with airsoft guns instead as you can at least interact with them in a more realistic way, and gas powered handguns mimic recoil fairly well.
Stuntmen get hurt, let’s stop making real stunts, let’s stop filming on location because crew members might get some disease, no more animals, no more movie sets because they might catch fire, the workers might fall from scaffolding just put it all on CGI.For fuck sake people how often did this happen? Did that stuntman dying from Deadpool 2 forced this much backlash? Or the one getting her face “degloved” in Resident Evil? Is like you have americans who either care about getting guns or care about removing guns for whatever reason, but sure this case where you have all these red flags about people not following proper pre-existing procedures means we need to take a dump on Micheal Mann movies, reminds me when in the middle of the Pandemic in 2020 the Italian government thought the most important thing to do was busy both chambers with a law to give a device that would alert parents when they left their kid in a car because 3 kids had died after being left in a car, in 3 separate occasion in the span of 20 years.
Maybe this will be bridge the gulf between the NRA lobby and gun law advocates. If there are no guns, nobody dies from a gunshot. Unless you can throw a bullet real fast, in which case you’d be able to flex your arms and say, “look at these guns.”
If it’s ok with everybody, I’m going to continue using finger guns.
I’m not a gun person, so I don’t know, but surely there is a way to craft a fake gun that fires like a real gun but cannot shoot a projectile. I mean, there’s gotta be something that can exist between real guns and “rubber guns.”
Anyone who’s shot a gun a few times would be able to fake the recoil when pretending to fire a fake gun. Even an actor could do it!
Johnson also went on to say that his production company will no longer make films with the real Vin Diesel, opting to use a rubber Vin Diesel instead.
Iironically, I’m still trying to figure out what “without an absence of clarity” means.
It’s getting less attention, but Spielberg will no longer use real walkie-talkies.
Over time, The Rock has become my third favorite Republican behind Mr. Rogers and Alice Cooper.