What does “Cocking the gun” actually do in movie scenes. Why wouldn’t you just pull the trigger?
In: Engineering
This is a trope that resulted from the function of one of the earliest popular guns, and works really well as a storytelling device so it’s preserved for modern guns where it makes no sense.
The Colt Single Action Army or Peacemaker was as the first name states a single action gun. Single action means pulling the trigger does one action, which is releasing the hammer to strike the firing pin and fire a round. Because in the original design, the hammer strikes the firing pin directly, if the hammer is struck hard enough it can fire a bullet even when the trigger isn’t pulled (modern replicas often eliminate this with a more complex firing pin).
This mean that the gun was often carried with the hammer “down” or uncocked over an empty chamber.
So to fire, the user would draw the gun then pull the hammer back, then pull the trigger. Often they’d have ways to do this very quickly.
Moviemakers adopted this method of drawing and pulling the hammer back, but in dramatic scenes began to separate the two actions so they could increase the tension in the scene twice (once when the gun was drawn and once when the hammer was cocked).
That ability to further raise the drama is such a useful storytelling device, they very regularly use it in movie making today. Even though modern guns are usually designed to cock the hammer when the trigger is pulled, or be safely carried with the hammer cocked. So in most movies the cocking of the hammer is purely there for storytelling reasons.
Latest Answers