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

[Lockules]

Hate to dig up an old thread, but, having read through 29 pages of posts, and seeing more than a few references to 70's detective TV shows (I think *every* TV detective had picks in the 70's , I saw no mention of the man who, in my mind, is still the the best there's ever been:
I watched Frank Cannon stand in a semi-darkened office building corridor, *with his back to the door he was about to enter*, and he picked that KIK *one handed* while keeping a watch for the security guard (I think, was a looooong time ago).
And he got it open and backed into the office just as the guard walked around the corner.
One hand. Behind his back. Long live the king.

[knowspicker537]

lol everytime it seems they just put the pick in he door and it magically unlocks it in no time at all. gotta love hollywood though id fast forward through some guy sweating taking 20 minutes anyway so im not complaining haha

[MatrixBlackRock]

lol everytime it seems they just put the pick in he door and it magically unlocks it in no time at all.

If they had just turned the knob the door being unlocked would have opened without being picked.

But that's not as dramatic as picking an unlocked lock.

Hollywood, pffft.

Wayne

[C locked]

Sense8 has a manipulation scene in the 1st episode around 41:00.

Looks like a LaGard dial.

(True to Hollywood form, every digit makes a loud crunching noise.)

Not sure what the internals are, but they show them briefly in action. I don't think I've ever seen a wheel pack in film/tv before.


Around 50:15, the nose drops in and he pushes a button in the center of the dial...


...which mechanically activates the cam and boltwork?

Looks like a s&g wheelpack
Don't know what model has that droparm thou

[C locked]

Who has seen mission impossible rogue nation
In it they have a digital lockpick for pin tumbler(think its a digital controlled sputnik or similar)

And a dialing assistant bluetooth linked to the phone
Which is a hand held version of what i assume is supposed to be
The softdrill

I don't know how realistically feasible to build one or both
But

Looks like the kinda tech that'd be used by agencies who don't care the how(ie don't want to pick just want it open)

Pretty awesome

[GuB]

Indeed it did. It really bugs me that an art which takes much practice and patience to master is merely reduced to a neat trick in movies/shows. Nothing we can really do about it though.

That happens with everything though. Anything which is not common knowledge is represented in a stupid way:

* Firearms in films
* Computers/hackers in films
* Human anatomy in films
* Explosions in films
* Lava and molten metal in films
* Legal procedures and court room activity
* Anything which involves "paperwork" in reality
* Autism, and other disorders
* Anything to do with historical detail

Lockpicking is just another detail Hollywood and company do not understand, therefore, it must not be important.

That happens with everything though. Anything which is not common knowledge is represented in a stupid way.[/quote]
The thing is : filmmakers tell a story, everything that doesn't help the story is a detail and should not get the viewer's attention.
In a lockpicking scene the important thing is that the picker gains entry. It also has to reflect the character's personality : a brute is more likely to use force, a more refined character will use picks, experts may use a pick gun, etc... Entry has to be quick as not to waste screen time, unless the goal is to create suspense. Which mean that skilled characters will get in in seconds just to show how badass they are while others will simply fail : there is no middle ground.
Realism has its place but only as a way not to break suspension of disbelief. So they only need to match their viewer's expectations, even if they are wrong. For example, most people expect silenced guns to go pfiit, so that's what the sound director will choose, even if he knows it is not real. Because otherwise, it will grab the attention of the viewer and the director would rather have him focus on the action rather than on gunshot sounds.

[GWiens2001]

Who has seen mission impossible rogue nation
In it they have a digital lockpick for pin tumbler(think its a digital controlled sputnik or similar)

And a dialing assistant bluetooth linked to the phone
Which is a hand held version of what i assume is supposed to be
The softdrill

I don't know how realistically feasible to build one or both
But

Looks like the kinda tech that'd be used by agencies who don't care the how(ie don't want to pick just want it open)

Pretty awesome

Have seen the movie, and tried to find a pic of that 'lockpick'. The graphics are great and could show how picking works if it were to be slowed down.

Gordon

[GWiens2001]

Was watching an episode from season two of "Grimm" last night, and in the episode, the lead character picked open a lock to get into a private home. He did use two tools, though they do not show what tools they were. But was surprised how easily and quickly he picked open a BEST SFIC mortise on a private home.

Gordon

[MatrixBlackRock]

But was surprised how easily and quickly he picked open a BEST SFIC mortise on a private home.

Gordon

Well there goes my sense of security.

Wayne

[DangerDane]

lol everytime it seems they just put the pick in he door and it magically unlocks it in no time at all.

If they had just turned the knob the door being unlocked would have opened without being picked.

But that's not as dramatic as picking an unlocked lock.

Hollywood, pffft.

Wayne

Would have been funnier if he actually managed to lock the door instead

[Jacob Morgan]

Most realistic lock picking was in Thief with James Caan. Realistic in that several locks were defeated and none of them by picking. Why bother with picking if the goal is to do some serious destructive entry on safes or shoot up the bad guy?

The first scene where the safe is drilled and the camera zoomed in and showed the wheel pack (with the gates lined up?) I'm not real sure what that was supposed to mean because it was not opened with manipulation. They had a retired jewel thief as a consultant for the film (he played the main crooked cop), and supposedly in the opening scenes they really did open real safes. There is a continuity error in the opening of the film where safety chains for the magnetic drill suddenly shows up.

I think that the alarm bypassing was accurate for the time, but obsolete now.

The shooting was too good. Caan was sent to Gunsite in Arizona to learn the "modern technique." The owner said that it would be impossible for a recent ex-con (on the film) to know the new method and walked away. One of the other instructors taught him and in the film he followed the training perfectly, which was cool but not that realistic.

Great movie.

[YouLuckyFox]

@Jacob Morgan: Thief is one of my favorite movies, has anyone else read the book its extremely loosely based on? It was a good.

[Jacob Morgan]

has anyone else read the book its extremely loosely based on? It was a good.

Never read it, on Amazon right now used copies are for sale from $65 - 100. I'll keep an eye out for it if prices ever drop.

If anyone is interested, the original script is here http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/thief.pdf The director mainly took elements out of the script to streamline the movie, but it does clarify some points (like that Frank was wearing a bullet proof vest in the final scene), and I do like the way the script had the movie end. It was hilarious how the director had the real-life retired thief consultants playing the cops and the cops were cast as the thugs. Turns out that some of them knew each other from their previous lives.

First saw the movie years ago on Encore and sort of half watched it. Then watched it again and started noticing a lot of details. The film explains very little, you have to really watch it. And it really does have some good acting in it, some parts of the story are slightly ridiculous (like Tuesday Weld's character decided to cast her lot with James Caan's character), but the actors and the direction made it work. It is odd in that if you read the reviews on Amazon and such, a lot of people like it but don't fully "get it." Used to play the sound track in the car all the times and the kids liked it. That first scene never gets old.

[YouLuckyFox]

Very interesting, I do like the script ending. Yeah, I had to pay a lot for the book myself but I feel it was worth it. Of course it is going to be different than the movie, but more than you'd think. Frank Hohimer was mainly a home invader and the book discusses it in detail.

Most realistic lock picking was in Thief with James Caan. Realistic in that several locks were defeated and none of them by picking.

This above quote is even more true in the book, as Frank (pen name for John Seybold) is able to pick open any lock but always resorts to a bypass or silent DE of some sort anyway. In the past I've thought about starting a topic on books like these in Advanced because there really are a lot of techniques I've only heard of in these books. Anyway let me know if you read it, it'd be good to see what you think.

[Jacob Morgan]

Very interesting, I do like the script ending. Yeah, I had to pay a lot for the book myself but I feel it was worth it. Of course it is going to be different than the movie, but more than you'd think. Frank Hohimer was mainly a home invader and the book discusses it in detail.
...in the book, as Frank (pen name for John Seybold) is able to pick open any lock but always resorts to a bypass or silent DE of some sort anyway. In the past I've thought about starting a topic on books like these in Advanced because there really are a lot of techniques I've only heard of in these books. Anyway let me know if you read it, it'd be good to see what you think.

Could not find the book for any sort of reasonable price but the local library got it through inter-library loan. Finished it up today. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

I can see where Michael Mann picked this character and that character (Okla, Barry, Leo, Joe Gags...) and even a good amount of dialogue from the book, and things like the bar, the car lot, work cars, the bus to Des Moines, etc., were there, but like you said it was more different than I thought it would be. I don't think that a movie truer to the book would have gone over very well, the Frank in the book is not really a character very many people this side of bars would sympathize with. He really was a vile person, albeit with an occasional glimpse of humanity. In the movie Frank made it clear to Leo that he did not do home invasions, whereas the Frank in the book specialized in them. He was even, so he wrote, once sent by the mob to rob Elvis (but gave up on it seeing too many guards and too many people at Graceland). That is different from the movie where the MO was breaking into businesses and opening safes, something that was never done in the book. In the book he claimed to know how to break open safes, but never wrote about actually doing it. In the book he wrote about some crooked Chicago cops, and even paying one of them off. But he thought the feds (the US Attorneys in particular) were honest, but then he was trying to work out a deal with the US Attorneys. He turned state's evidence against Leo and tried to make a deal with the feds if they could get states to drop charges. May have worked better if Leo had not died before coming to trial.

In the book Okla was a master thief behind bars and he bribed guards to bring in locks that he then taught Frank how to open them. When Frank got out (in the book) he went on a cat burglary / home invasion spree that lasted several years. He had to dispose of jewels so he met with the fence / mob early on, and then went to work for them early in his life of crime (different from the movie). Anyway, the book only mentioned picking locks one time. Every other time, as you said, he did some sort of bypassing instead. He was sometimes light on details, but someone familiar with security would recognize what some of the burglar tools were for. There was one or two new bypass methods I had never heard of, but I suppose that can not be discussed here. He did claim to have ditched $1,000 of locksmith tools in a leather pouch when he was arrested--that would have to be some expensive tools indeed unless he was making stuff up. When he later broke of of jail once he claimed to have made a key out of a spoon with a hacksaw blade.

I wonder if the case of John Seybold had something to do with the inspiration of Joseph Pistone's undercover identity as Johnny Brasco a few years later. Not that Frank / Seybold was anyone important in the mob, but getting into the mob through fencing jewels was common to both stories.

It was an interesting read, but I am glad that Michael Mann made the changes he made for the movie. What a rare thing: a movie that was better than the book.