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Just as a note, real chemical weapons are not like this at all. Basically, VX (in the US and basically all other countries) is stored in binary form(1), two sep

Just as a note, real chemical weapons are not like this at all. Basically, VX (in the US and basically all other countries) is stored in binary form(1), two separate, basically clear chemicals with a glass wall that separates them, and the wall breaks from the force of the blast and the chemicals mix and you have VX, but it doesn't look cool. So Michael Bay had them make this instead, because it looked better on film. There was a famous bit from the Iraq Inquiry Committee (aka the Chilcot Report) where they found that MI6 reported a bit of intelligence to Tony Blair that a source in Iraq claimed that they produced VX at the Al-Yarmuk plant- but described what was in the movie, not real life. After it was reported to Blair that they had sources who had seen VX in Iraq, they showed the raw intelligence to someone who knew something about chemical weapons and they said "Whatever your source saw, it wasn't VX" and MI6 realized that the source was lying. (I think that this source is different from the more famous liar Curveball.) 1: Besides being bad for humans, VX is also bad for metal, and will destroy any case if kept in long term storage. Basically if you load a normal chemical weapon shell with mixed, ready to go VX it will be unusable- more of a threat to the crew firing the howitzer than the enemy- within a few days.

rl3 2y ago
It's also worth noting that in the film, it's depicted as a blistering agent as well—just for gruesome effect. By Michael Bay logic, injecting atropine also prevents one's skin from falling off.
- deleted 2y ago
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- lazide 2y ago
  He really, really knows how to make giant fireballs explode in time with a rocking soundtrack though. I had forgotten about The Rock, but recently rewatched it - and halfway through I had to check, and sure enough. Michael Bay. Also, for a more recent cheesy movie (with Nicholas Cage), Drive Angry is surprisingly good. In a bad way.
  - dylan604 2y ago
    Even before the exploding cars for no reason or other of the fireballs you mention, you'll probably have seen the classic Michael Bay camera moves. The easy one to recognize is the one that starts out low pointing up at the hero then raises up as the camera circles around. It's in pretty much everything he does. I've never seen his Victoria Secret stuff, but I would not be surprised to see it there too
    - lazide 2y ago
      I was definitely getting suspicious early on. Lots of folks have copied it since then though, so I wasn’t super sure.
    - Two4 2y ago
      For one of the recent Bad Boys movies (one he didn't direct) they had Michael Bay make a cameo appearance where they shot him with one of his signature telephoto orbit techniques (orbit the subject with a long lens for a very dramatic effect). I had a good lol at that, and my SO was very confused as to what was so amusing. He also has a tendency to use low, wide shots with lots of movement and action, part of a technique affectionately known as "Bayhem"
trainfromkansas 2y ago
Playing devil's advocate: why assume Iraq would (attempt to) store VX in the same way? It actually has a thin ring of plausibility around it in the same the way you sometimes hear stories that Kim Jong Il would watch American movies and demand "I want us to build that".
- Analemma_ 2y ago
  Because Iraq used real chemical weapons in the war with Iran. It would be sort of ridiculous to pivot to fake ones after that.
  - mandevil 2y ago
    Interestingly, it might be true that Saddam Hussein did pivot to fake ones. After the complete destruction of his conventional military in 1991, it seems he decided that the only way to keep Iran or some other unfriendly neighbor from invading him (1) was to convince everyone that he had chemical weapons. This might have applied even to his own generals. I have heard that when US forces were interrogating Iraqi generals after the fall of Baghdad International Airport, they would ask them where were the chemical weapons and General A said that he didn't have any of them, but he was told that General B had them, and General B was sure that General C had them because he knew that he didn't, and General C thought that General A had them. At least, this was a story I heard verbally from someone involved, I've never tracked down the documentation to see if that was real (I was an intern working on non-proliferation before the invasion of Iraq, so I so I knew some people in that world, but pursued a different path and don't know how true this story is). 1: In roughly the same way that he had invaded Iran in 1980 when that country was in disarray after the fall of the Shah. Note that he doesn't seem to have noticed that his invasion was a huge disaster for Iraq, killing huge numbers of people, destroying massive quantities of stuff, going deeply into debt- so much debt that he decided to try and seize Kuwait, bringing the wrath of the United Nations down upon him- and gaining him exactly nothing. The idea that other leaders might be smart enough NOT to do that never seems to have crossed his mind.
    - psd1 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
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rl3 2y ago

It's also worth noting that in the film, it's depicted as a blistering agent as well—just for gruesome effect. By Michael Bay logic, injecting atropine also prevents one's skin from falling off.

deleted 2y ago
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lazide 2y ago
He really, really knows how to make giant fireballs explode in time with a rocking soundtrack though. I had forgotten about The Rock, but recently rewatched it - and halfway through I had to check, and sure enough. Michael Bay. Also, for a more recent cheesy movie (with Nicholas Cage), Drive Angry is surprisingly good. In a bad way.
- dylan604 2y ago
  Even before the exploding cars for no reason or other of the fireballs you mention, you'll probably have seen the classic Michael Bay camera moves. The easy one to recognize is the one that starts out low pointing up at the hero then raises up as the camera circles around. It's in pretty much everything he does. I've never seen his Victoria Secret stuff, but I would not be surprised to see it there too
  - lazide 2y ago
    I was definitely getting suspicious early on. Lots of folks have copied it since then though, so I wasn’t super sure.
  - Two4 2y ago
    For one of the recent Bad Boys movies (one he didn't direct) they had Michael Bay make a cameo appearance where they shot him with one of his signature telephoto orbit techniques (orbit the subject with a long lens for a very dramatic effect). I had a good lol at that, and my SO was very confused as to what was so amusing. He also has a tendency to use low, wide shots with lots of movement and action, part of a technique affectionately known as "Bayhem"

trainfromkansas 2y ago

Playing devil's advocate: why assume Iraq would (attempt to) store VX in the same way? It actually has a thin ring of plausibility around it in the same the way you sometimes hear stories that Kim Jong Il would watch American movies and demand "I want us to build that".

Analemma_ 2y ago
Because Iraq used real chemical weapons in the war with Iran. It would be sort of ridiculous to pivot to fake ones after that.
- mandevil 2y ago
  Interestingly, it might be true that Saddam Hussein did pivot to fake ones. After the complete destruction of his conventional military in 1991, it seems he decided that the only way to keep Iran or some other unfriendly neighbor from invading him (1) was to convince everyone that he had chemical weapons. This might have applied even to his own generals. I have heard that when US forces were interrogating Iraqi generals after the fall of Baghdad International Airport, they would ask them where were the chemical weapons and General A said that he didn't have any of them, but he was told that General B had them, and General B was sure that General C had them because he knew that he didn't, and General C thought that General A had them. At least, this was a story I heard verbally from someone involved, I've never tracked down the documentation to see if that was real (I was an intern working on non-proliferation before the invasion of Iraq, so I so I knew some people in that world, but pursued a different path and don't know how true this story is). 1: In roughly the same way that he had invaded Iran in 1980 when that country was in disarray after the fall of the Shah. Note that he doesn't seem to have noticed that his invasion was a huge disaster for Iraq, killing huge numbers of people, destroying massive quantities of stuff, going deeply into debt- so much debt that he decided to try and seize Kuwait, bringing the wrath of the United Nations down upon him- and gaining him exactly nothing. The idea that other leaders might be smart enough NOT to do that never seems to have crossed his mind.
  - psd1 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

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