Movie Nitpick Number: 30712
Submitted by Registered Nitpicker Number: 4461 Movie Title: Army of Darkness - 1993 Nitpick Category: Weaponry Approximate time of nitpick: first 10 minutes Summary: Curious way to load a crossbow!
Details:
When Henry the Red's men (and Ash along with them) are about to be thrown into the Pit, one of Henry's men makes a run for it. One of Arthur's men hands him a crossbow, and Arthur shoots him down. However, the crossbow was loaded with an arrow!
Crossbows don't shoot the same type of arrows that bows shoot; they shoot a special short arrow called a bolt or quarrel. Standard arrows aren't designed to handle the stress from firing a crossbow (the force is more concentrated because the bow on a crossbow is so small). Bolts have to be short and thick, and the fletching is different: instead of three feathers spaced equally around the shaft, a quarrel has two across from one another, and maybe a third sticking straight out the top. That way the fletching doesn't interfere with its movement along the crossbow. If you did fire an arrow from a crossbow, assuming the shaft didn't break, it would probably fly wild, and without too much force. It certainly wouldn't fly just where you aimed, with enough force to pierce a backplate and kill a man.
