Lockpicking in Motion Pictures?

[chaos4zap]

Just watched a movie from back in 2003 called "foolproof" (Streaming on netflix) with Ryan Reynolds. The premise is interesting, but very divisive to setup the predictable plot of the movie. A group of friends pick a location such as a jewelry store and go through all the planning that it would take to rob said location. The plot summary describes them as a theoretical heist group, or something along those lines. In the movie, there are a couple of points where Ryan is picking a lock and they show him using a tension wrench and a pick. They don't show much more than that, but I did like that they showed it as taking some time and as a bit of a struggle (as opposed to pick enters lock and lock opens immediately) As you can imagine, they also show them overcoming many other security features you may find in a high security setting. What would a heist movie be without someone finding a way to slip under or around the green light beams that trip an alarm if the beam is broken? All in all, it wasn't a bad movie. They came up with some interesting, all-be-them far-fetched, way's to pull it all off and I found the movie enjoyable with disbelief properly suspended. Check it.

[mattc]

A not-so oblique reference to bump keys here (day 9)

Watch the (fake)zombie apocalypse unfold in screengrabs from the Internet....

[Phrop]

I am watching the pilot for the new "Alcatraz" series and there is a quick lock picking sequence. It is pretty good, she has a pick and a tension wrench, it takes her a semi-realistic amount of time to pick the lock, but the way she was moving the wrench around was kind of goofy.

[cemplon]

nice reading

[Shifty]

....

But back on subject-

While getting ready for work, there was a movie on Comedy Central. Three bank employees were all seperatly planning on robbing the bank (not aware of each other) using different methods. One was simple social hacking (studied what the other employees did during the day *the manager always left at the same time, and spent extra time flirting with a fast food employee*). One used what appeared to be clay in match boxes to impression safe deposit box keys. The other was about to do something as I was leaving. I'm afraid I don't remember the movie name though.

Seemed interesting, although so very extreamly unlikely due to the normal background checks for bank employees, and the fact that every one of them would be caught in broad sight by the cameras.

I believe the movie in question is "Flypaper". I just recently borrowed this movie from a friend (I haven't watched it yet) but i remember him describing that plot.

[cyrano138]

There's a funny scene in the Fright Night remake in which the main character is planning a rescue mission and when he gets to the vampire's house to the room where the girl is being held, he pulls out a lock pick and his phone and looks up "How to pick a lock."


Then he jams a pick and tension wrench in and fumbles with the door for a few seconds...


And then he thinks better of it and goes to the garden where he finds a fake rock with a key in it.


Probably pretty much how it would go in real life. Kudos for a realistic depiction.

[CVScam]

I just saw a movie on Netflix called "The Next Three Days" with Russel Crowe. In the movie I saw him making a bump key.

[Scajaquada87]

I just saw a movie on Netflix called "The Next Three Days" with Russel Crowe. In the movie I saw him making a bump key.

While I thought that the bump key scene was pretty cool it got pretty ridiculous when he used the tennis ball to unlock the door to the van. When I saw that part I said "no...just...no."

[Daggers]

Some random movie i went to a random scene in and guess what? someone lockpicked a cabinet and they had a tension tool and a pick. But they did it really fast. at around 25:30 in this movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&featu ... F_lJW5oq-Q

[YouLuckyFox]

I don't know about realistic, the opening scene of Murder of Crows does some good justice, Midnight Run has Robert DeNiro using a cricket (idk what others call it) to bump the locks. Have any of you seen that opening scene in 3000 Miles to Graceland? Kevin Costner and Kirt Russel in Elvis costumes with electrified screw guns that shock all the locks and opens anything, lol. Or MacGyver picking a lock with lightbulb filaments.
-Fox

[raimundo]

I have never heard of a snap pick or snapper called a cricket.

deniro used a big piece of coat hanger, really crude snapper but that is probably what the film intended to show.

I make them from bike spokes, very easy to make,

beware of all those videos on youtube that you see because most of those snappers are really crude and large.

Im hoping to find someone to post photos of the ones I make, they are smaller and have innovations such as a very short hook at
the tip of the needle that is useful to find the last pin to assure correct depth of insertion and it turns out that the tiny hook is really
a very good pick to assist when the snapper has most of the pins set and you feel for the holdout.
I understand that Matt fiddler may have shown one of them at some of the summer conventions.

[MortimerDuke]

Rai- I'll be happy to post some photos of one of your snapper guns, as long as I can play with it for a little while before sending it back.
Jason66 has posted some very well-done photos here lately, so I'm sure he would be happy to do it also.
Now, if I can just get everyone here who already has one and is just as capable and willing to post the photos to stay quiet, maybe I can have a new toy for a couple of days.

[MortimerDuke]

This is more locksmithing than lockpicking- in the movie "Pacific Heights", a locksmith drills what looks like a cheap Kwikset deadbolt in order to evict Michael Keaton. Would this actually happen? It seems like a lock like that would be quicker to pick than to drill. Of course, the dreaded "Observer Effect" makes drilling the sure thing, even though it may take longer than picking.

[raimundo]

Michal Keaton is really hard to keep out and get rid of.

[YouLuckyFox]

@cricket: thank you for telling me a more accepted name. I should like to see your snappers. Do they look anything like those made by Pyro (viewtopic.php?f=1&t=898&start=30)?
lol@Michael Keaton