I just finished watching a made for tv movie, Rapid Fire

It's inspired by a true story of the events of (as wikipedia describes it)

       May 9, 1980. Shootout between police in Norco, California and five heavily armed suspects armed with assault rifles as well as various explosive and incendiary devices. After a shootout with police at a bank in Norco, the suspects became involved in a prolonged chase in which the suspects shot at police, disabled 33 police vehicles, and civilian cars with improvised explosive devices thrown from the back of a truck. The suspects also disabled a police helicopter. Later the suspects lay in wait for police as they chased them and ambushed them resulting in the death of a police officer and injury to others. One of the suspects was killed in the shootout, one during a standoff with Police, and three were later captured. 8 officers were injured.
    Deaths: Suspects: 2; Police: 1


Sheriff's Association account
related news story

The movie I found remarkable for its high degree of realism. Some people who were shot fell down instantly however minor their wounds, while others pressed on. A good number of people were reluctant to kill others. People had physical reactions to coming under fire, and shooting people - they sweat, trembled, threw up, and so on. Not everyone fought to the death.

It just reinforces to me the points of On Killing by Grossman, or Conflict, and a Person's Place in it by me. In roleplayers' focus on suposed issues like whether a 9mm is more or less deadly than a .45, they forget the most important aspect of roleplaying - what the character thinks and feels. We're keen on physical realism, less keen on psychological realism.

It also relates to the character skills issue, rate of improvement - lots of GMs worry about PCs getting high weapons skills, but it doesn't matter if you're a crack shot if you're not willing to hurt anyone. If I had a roleplaying session like this, with players roleplaying these kinds of reactions to things, I'd be well-pleased. I think that a roleplaying game is most interesting because it lets us do things other than Counterstrike without pictures and sound effects - it lets us be real people, with real reactions.

I heartily recommend this movie to all people who enjoy a dramatic and realistic movie, and all roleplayers who'd like some food for thought in terms of psychological and physical realism in their roleplaying.

I've seen the news footage from that event. It was a hellaciously long firefight between the heavily armed and armored bad guys and the police. Heroism was overflowing that day.

I'd love to see the TV movie alongside the actual shootout. The footage from it was very public so I'd be interested in seeing how closely the movie mirrored the actual gunfight. I'm poking around to see if I can find the video online, but my search fu for any nonporn videos is pretty weak, so don't hold your breath.

Quote from: James McMurrayI've seen the news footage from that event. It was a hellaciously long firefight between the heavily armed and armored bad guys and the police. Heroism was overflowing that day.

I'd love to see the TV movie alongside the actual shootout. The footage from it was very public so I'd be interested in seeing how closely the movie mirrored the actual gunfight. I'm poking around to see if I can find the video online, but my search fu for any nonporn videos is pretty weak, so don't hold your breath.

I think this is what you're thinking about, James:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout


Amazing.

Yeah, I got the locations confused. I should have read the wikipedia excerpt closer.

Dosn't make it any less astounding....