Ballistic plates like the ceramic plates the miltiary uses prevent penetration and absorb a good amount of energy from rounds as big as .50 BMG if I’m not mistaken. But if you get shot with a .50 BMG, that concussion damage will kill you. But anything smaller like 7.62×39mm rounds from the AK47, 5.56×45mm rounds from the M16, or even 7.62×51mm and 7.62×54mm rounds can be stopped with those plates, and they will knock you down, but most of the time the person can recover from the impact rather quickly.

Here’s a good video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgLlHj4361M

I’m not 100% sure, but I think that was a shot from a Dragunov style rifle which fires the 7.62×54mm round. From what I hear, that soldier was fine, just had the wind knocked out of him.

If he had been wearing one of those “concealment vests” like the ones some undercover cops use, he would be dead. Rifle round would penetrate kevlar like a hot knife through butter.

He did where a vest in the last movie, it wasn’t full body armor because it was basically a suicide mission for him.

I’ve been a fan of the character for years, and I don’t want the character to be in just another cliched action film.

It’s kinda of like you and the direction The Green Hornet is going in.

Anyway, I do feel there are a lot of other things about both of Nolan’s Batman films that are pretty unrealistic besides the man flying around in a bat suit, but yah, I do agree that he has made the most realistic Batman films so far with a good balance of realism and entertainment. If they were more realistic, a lot of the things essential to moving the plot forward would have never happened. So it’s as realistic as he can get without ruining the intended plot.

It would be nice if Frank Castle would utilize smart tactics like McClane did in Die Hard in the Punisher movie. Like Mike’s point of something that happened in the comics where he didn’t simply go in and kill them all, he went in, and got them to come out (conveniently all out of one single door, good bottleneck) where he had weapons well suited for killing large numbers of people all set up and waiting for them. Things like that, or trying to split the groups up, maybe with a distraction or something, would also be a good idea.

One thing that I do like is that instead of just a shirt with a skull on it like in previous films and in the comics, he’s actually wearing body armor. That does add a sense of realism to the character and the situation. And him getting advice and training from a real military person is also a good thing. Hopefully that’s not where it ends.

“Billy is dead…Call me Jigsaw.” After looking at a jigsaw puzzle piece. Hopefully it was cut though.

And again just look around and you’ll find photos of soldiers who were disfigured in the line of duty and are walking around fine, or as fine as can be expected. A scared face doesn’t = unbelievability.

Vic

Punisher could be done even more realistic. I mean you praised Die Hard so now take out the cop and put in some one as highly trained as Frank Castle put him in that situation. It’s a hell of a lot more believable. So there is a guy named Jigsaw big deal it can easily be done realistically if they wanted to. Lots of criminals have scars all over them selves. Here is a guy with a severly scared face who gets the unfortunate name of Jigsaw. He doesn’t actually have to call him self that could just be a behind his back nick name.

But I would have to disagree that Nolan made Batman realistic. More realistic than the previous movies? Definitely. But realistic in its own right? Not really. They are more gritty, mature, and dramatic but still pretty unrealistic. But he did try to make it much more believable than what you would expect from a movie about a guy dressed as a bat flying around town beating up bad guys.

What irked me is that he was willing to let Ra’s Al Ghul die in the first film, but he wasn’t willing to let the Joker die in TDK when I think Joker definitely should have been KILLED, not just let die if he happen to fall off a building…

So I take her comment to mean no more than that. I mean, really, guys. Jigsaw? C’mon. there is quite a bit of UNreality here.

As far as the original source goes, the comics themselves, how many times, in REALITY, would Frank Castle met his maker if he did in the REAL world what he did in the comics?

Lots of fooking times!

That’s all. I don’t think she meant to imply anything more than that.

The one-man-army idea has NEVER been realistic, nor will it ever be. But there are ways to try to base it in reality so it becomes less Commando and something you can actually believe can happen. For example, look at the original Die Hard.

Realistically you can argue that one NY cop cannot possibly take on an entire group of highly trained and highly fortified terrorists by himself. And you would be right. But what John McTiernan did was make it so you see John McClane doing recon work in the beginning, trying to assess the size and locations of everyone, and try to take on the smallest groups first or wait for them to be split up so he can take them on individually. That makes an unrealistic idea believable. If he would have simply ran in with guns blazing and there are people on all sides of him, and somehow, nobody hits him but he hits everyone, like you see in so many 80’s Arnold or Chuck Norris movies, that is unrealistic AND unbelievable. Die Hard 2 was less well made and did have a lot of completely unbelievable parts on top of the already unrealistic premise.

I hope Lexi didn’t mean that she doesn’t intend it to be believable at all.

Just because it is based on a comic book doesn’t mean it can’t be so much more than that.

I just flat out think she was the wrong person for the job.

An excerpt from TRAILERMANIA (6/15/08)

Yes …don’t expect this Punisher to be set in an ultra-realistic world. Every director has to make a call on the vision and style of a film and putting The Punisher in a realistic and gritty setting would be like having Det. Vic Mackey of THE SHIELD run around with a big ass skull on his chest, or Ray Liotta’s character in NARC suddenly go: “Hey, I think I just saw a guy whose face looks like a Jigsaw puzzle.” Ha, ha.

Real crime stories and comic books are two different worlds for me. It was my first priority to please The Punisher comic book fans and with all the respect to two wonderful actors, I wasn’t trying to become a member of the Dolph Lundgren or Thomas Jane fan club. This film is about the mythology of FRANK CASTLE, – Lexi Alexander
********************

Frankly, she was right on. Does anybody here think the comics are meant to be “real?” The entire POINT of the comics is fantasy to some extent, with varying degrees of “reality.” Is there anything “real” about a guy flying around in a batsuit and cape? I mean, come ON!

It’s the EMOTIONAL reality that counts here, neh?

Nomad

“Couple of seconds of shock.”
“Couple of seconds to get pissed.”
“A little bit longer to get everyone out the door.”
“That’s all I’m going to need.”

The goons start pouring out in the courtyard and he just starts mowing them down. That scene is infinitely better than what is going to be in the film. Jonathan Hensleigh had pretty much verbatim in his first draft, it dumbfounds me why they couldn’t at least keep that scene from his script.