Lockpicking in Motion Pictures? ( Picking in Movies & Film )

[raimundo]

when ya spell fake like that, it looks like what do ya call those IMHO and WTF sort of things. had me confused a bit.

[pin_pusher]

in the movie 'zombie strippers' a doctor in the end of the film tries to pick a lock...which actually was the door from earlier in the movie, where someone breaks a key off inside. weird.

[femurat]

Hey pin_pusher, if you really like jj's movies, I'd suggest you something different than that one

[pin_pusher]

if you really like jj's movies, I'd suggest you something different than that one

ha, thanks, i can think of a few titles myself...it's more or less that zombie movies are a huge cultural meme in the midwest u.s. lots of those movies take place here as well, like we're infected or something.

[Schuyler]

Related to this thread, I'm starting a project to catalog some of these presentations of lockpicking: http://is.gd/tvpicking

[Squelchtone]

This isn't exactly picking, but it's still very cool!

Thomas Crown Affair (art theft movie)

The insurance company investigator lady steals the main suspect's keychain while they're on a date, and then they show a close up of her helpers taking his Medeco Original key off the ring, and hold it up to a Medeco blank, then they put the keys in a very old looking key duplicating machine, and show them copying it with sparks coming off the blank as they trace his key. Not sure how they planned on making the angle cuts on that old machine, but it was just a movie.


Squelchtone

[shokthx]

Magnum PI regularly picked lock with a pick set that seemed to have a few different tools.
Seems like you need to be able to pick locks to be a private detective.

[raimundo]

actually the pi thing is more about using the computer and social engineering, but I do remember one episode, (I havent watched that show in decades) where the british guy ordered a high secuity lock an magnum ordered a special pick for it, thats the only detail that stuck in my mind all these years. I personally liked rockford files much better. that also is where tom selleck first played a pi on tv.

[shokthx]

The Rockford Files were good too. Watched a lot of them with my Grandma. I like the scenery in Magnum PI better though

[OrangePick]

The Unit S4E6 had picking in it, they were opening a padlock with what looked like a SouthOrd hook. No wrench, makes you think about what else is being left out.

Yeah, lots of picking in The Unit. One that stands out is when Jonas picks the lock on the liquor cabinet at the reception where they are later attacked by terrorists ("The Wall" Season 1, Ep 13). He bets the Colonel $500 that he can defeat the lock in less time than it takes to recite the Ranger Creed (28 seconds). The team recites the Creed and Jonas picks it with the bent prong of a dinner fork in 20 seconds!

[raimundo]

bent prong of dinner fork won't do anything of course, cabinet lock are often too thin for any regular picks, I bought a simple chicago brand cabinet lock to install on a drawer yesterday and its too thin for my usual picks, Im making a thinner smaller version of the pick from that kind of flat steel wire that is often sewn into nylon fabric to form somekind of snap out clothes hamper or even some kinds of photographers sunlight fill-in reflectors.

[Legion303]

There is a new show with Christian Slater that is a wholesale ripoff of Tiger Team, and it supposedly has picking in it.

-steve

[OrangePick]

bent prong of dinner fork won't do anything of course, cabinet lock are often too thin for any regular picks, I bought a simple chicago brand cabinet lock to install on a drawer yesterday and its too thin for my usual picks, Im making a thinner smaller version of the pick from that kind of flat steel wire that is often sewn into nylon fabric to form somekind of snap out clothes hamper or even some kinds of photographers sunlight fill-in reflectors.

After going back and looking again, it actually looks like a deadbolt securing a double-door entry to a walk-in closet (or wine cellar?).

Just for humor's sake, I suppose a fork could work if you could 1) bend a tine out clear of the others and 2) get an edge-wise bend into a short hook (so you could insert with the pick profile up and down) and 3) break off another tine and L-bend as a tensor.

[Ezz]

I went to the cinema to see that new Red Riding hood film the other day (ok, I admit that's a bit odd but I have an unlimited pass and the missus really wanted to see it), anyway in the film they need to pick some kind of medieval padlock and the local blacksmith makes some picks and what looks to be a torsion wrench. He uses them later on but you don't really see what he's doing.

[raimundo]

Is the scene in midnight run with diniro, the only use of a snappick in movies?
I was showing one of these things to a group of people and among the comments I got, one person said it was scary... it was being passed around along with one or two locks that basically couldn't resist it.
others got all bright eyed and you could see that a pick that requires very little skill was exactly what they had been waiting for. People who know how to use lockpicks tend to think of snappers as kids toys, that is why there is so little discussion of them here. Its the kind of tool that can get an amatuer in trouble as you have to know what type of lock you are picking, these cannot pick any wafer locks, or any lock that needs more than a separation of pins at the shearline.