Difference between revisions of "The Wrecking Crew"

Revision as of 21:09, 17 February 2012

This film was copydated as 1999.

Death and sleaze index

Death and sleaze notes

Reference	Time	Notes
	~03:30	Death by gun (x11), gun, headshot (x1), gun (x4), shotgun (x2), shotgun, headshot (x1). As much as I love action movies, they're annoying to index for death and sleaze. There's usually very little sleaze and the deaths are bullet after bullet after bullet, often with innumerable foes, extras coming back to die a second and third time (or simply to repeat the same scene), and the only indication of a mortal wound is the jerk of an "I've been hit!". The Wrecking Crew is no different and the pre-credit massacre perfectly establishes the expectations for the rest of the film. This sequence lasts from 03:35 to about 6:25, with these specific fatalities recorded: gun (x2/03:45), gun (x2/03:47), gun (03:48), gun (03:49), gun (x2/03:57), gun (03:59), gun (x2/04:00), gun, headshot (04:00), gun (x3/04:17), gun (04:26), shotgun (x2/04:47), shotgun, headshot (06:21).
	~10:15	Just bodies. If we didn't see the characters die or start to be killed, they're "just bodies" and aren't counted.
	~14:05	Death by gun.
	~26:30	Death by spike. Sometimes there's just no discernible "name" to give the instrument of death, especially when they're partially obscured by being deep in human flesh. After some consideration, we've decided that unidentifiable long and pointy metal things are "spikes", and unidentifiable wooden thingies (even those with a pointy metal tip) are "spears". Of course, if we know it's an arrow, spear, halberd, pipe, etc., we'll label it as such. This is just for those times when we have to guess.
	~28:00	Death by shotgun, headshot. We're not gun experts. We can't identify models or types on sight and we really don't want to. Our method of labeling firearms is simplistic and sure to upset the gun-obsessed: if a single-shot one-hander, it's a "gun". If it's two-handed and long barrelled, it's a "shotgun" (never a rifle). If it's a one or two handed automatic thingy, it's a "machine gun". We'll occasionally deviate for specialty cases (like "sawed-off shotgun"), but those are more about concessions to the genre and cliché than any actual expertise.
	~28:50	Death by shotgun.
	~33:50	Death by shotgun.
	~39:00	Death by shotgun.
	~39:15	Death by shotgun.
	~39:45	Death by gun (x2).
	~40:10	Death by shotgun (x2).
	~40:20	Just bodies. Another batch of "just bodies". Unindexed.
	~41:00	Death by shotgun (x23), gun (x1), shotgun (x3) Like the start of the film, another indeterminate massacre. Hilarity ensues around 41:40 when five or six people in different parts of the group all fall over and "die" after only one or two gunshots are heard. A healthy amount of shotguns are pointed upwards, spewing out impressive smoke, but the implications and bodies are clear: everyone dies. This particular set of deaths runs from 41:00 to about 42:00 with these recordings: shotgun (41:20), shotgun (x4/41:25), shotgun (x18/41:40), gun (41:53), shotgun (x3/41:58).
	~42:05	Death by gun (x3). It's unclear whether these deaths were by Ice-T (gun) or his lackeys (shotgun), so we default to the generic.
	~42:30	Death by shotgun (x3), shotgun, headshot (x2). The same scene is immediately replayed at a different camera angle.
	~42:50	Death by shotgun (x4).
	~43:00	Heart punch! In wrestling, a heart punch purportedly causes the heart to temporarily stop, rendering the combatant unconscious. That certainly looks like what happened here, but when the gang leader looks at the crumbled mass of his friend, he does so with an exaggerated bit of remorse that suggests his friend has moved on. Still, I don't feel right about counting this as a real death, and with plenty of other deaths afoot, the final count won't be harmed by my denial.
	~45:10	Death by neck sliced (offscreen).
	~47:05	Death by shotgun (offscreen) (x2), shotgun (x9), gun (x4). This bunch of brutality runs from 47:10 to about 48:10: shotgun (offscreen) (x2/47:14), shotgun (x3/47:20), shotgun (x3/47:22), shotgun (x3/47:30), gun (x4/47:35). There's some shadow fighting that starts at about 48:00 but with no details present, nothing is recordable.
	~48:20	Death by pipe, beating. We originally weren't going to classify this as a death. You can hear the victim grunting every time he's hit and then silence with no clear death rattle or gurgle. What really solidifies the kill is the following discussion, where our gang leader heroes debate how they're going to "take these motherfuckers out" "using this [metal pipe]" ("if we have to!"). It all seems to imply that the guy in front of them is dead and they're prepared to beat others senseless too.
	~51:10	Death by hanging. We don't "know" who they were, nor did we see them die. Just bodies.
	~53:45	Death by gun.
	~56:40	Death by shotgun.
	~57:05	Death by neck snapped.
	~58:05	Death by shotgun (offscreen).
	~1:01:15	Quick and dirty pipe beatings. It's just hard for me to accept these as "proper" deaths.
	~1:01:40	Death by gun (x2).
	~1:03:05	Death by gun, fire (insurance). "Insurance" details "after death" inflictions; here, the dying-by-bullet gang leader catches on fire as part of the next death.
	~1:05:50	Death by fire.