[HN Gopher] The Rock VX Gas Canister Build (2022)
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       The Rock VX Gas Canister Build (2022)
        
       Author : 882542F3884314B
       Score  : 91 points
       Date   : 2024-12-02 03:44 UTC (19 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.therpf.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.therpf.com)
        
       | unsnap_biceps wrote:
       | Amazing work! Thanks for sharing the link.
        
       | mrweasel wrote:
       | This is dumb and extremely dangerous. People should not be
       | messing with nerve gas in their home labs.
        
         | ethbr1 wrote:
         | * Note: props may not contain actual nerve agent
        
           | ale42 wrote:
           | It's some colored aloe gel (written in the next). And actual
           | VX is probably not fluorescent green...
        
             | ethbr1 wrote:
             | Because you made me curious
             | 
             | >> _The nerve agent VX is an oily liquid that is clear,
             | odorless, and tasteless, and looks similar to motor oil._
             | [0]
             | 
             | "Clear" and "motor oil" seem mutually-exclusive though.
             | 
             | Apparently what they meant was translucent, brown-tinted
             | fresh motor oil. [1]
             | 
             | [0] https://www.webmd.com/men/commonly-known-chemical-
             | weapons-ag...
             | 
             | [1] https://spectrumnews1.com/ky/louisville/news/2022/06/08
             | /chem...
        
               | TeMPOraL wrote:
               | > _" Clear" and "motor oil" seem mutually-exclusive
               | though._
               | 
               | Perhaps they mean that it makes this fun "holo" effect
               | when mixed with water and spilled on flat surface?
        
               | nradov wrote:
               | How do they know it's tasteless???
               | 
               | Or maybe they mean that it's tasteless (as in uncultured
               | or gauche) to kill your enemies with nerve gas instead of
               | a more elegant weapon.
        
               | jsheard wrote:
               | They do mean it doesn't taste (or smell) of anything, and
               | they probably know because of human experiments.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgewood_Arsenal_human_expe
               | rim...
               | 
               |  _The chemical agents tested on volunteers included
               | chemical warfare agents and other related agents:
               | 
               | Anticholinesterase nerve agents (VX, sarin) and common
               | organophosphorus (OP) and carbamate pesticides_
        
               | water-data-dude wrote:
               | I'm guessing they're referring to the 2 inert precursor
               | chemicals that are mixed together right before the weapon
               | goes off?
        
             | Cthulhu_ wrote:
             | I'm still not going to eat it on rub it in my eyes though!
        
         | prokopton wrote:
         | Agreed. Definitely feels like a workplace-only project.
        
       | whalesalad wrote:
       | Imagine trying to take this thru TSA.
        
         | MisterTea wrote:
         | "Well you see officer its a rather elaborate hand gel
         | dispenser. If youll just give me a moment I'll show you how
         | harmless this stuff [ampule of "hand gel" falls on floor and
         | shatters] OH GOD WERE ALL GONNA DIE!"
        
           | strictnein wrote:
           | Obligatory scene from 12 Monkeys:
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok9tswBa-ZI
        
       | neilv wrote:
       | My first thought was why would someone want to do this, like
       | they're glamorizing a weapon that causes mass horrors and misery.
       | 
       | But I did just spend hours of the holiday weekend playing a
       | typical video game that's pretty much entirely about shooting
       | people. (And in this case with a sprinkling of sometimes running
       | them through with a machete instead.)
       | 
       | So maybe we already society-wide glamorize weapons and killing,
       | but the nerve gas variety of that is... only unfamiliar?
       | 
       | Or it is innately less-appealing somehow?
        
         | jsheard wrote:
         | If it's any consolation, the way VX is portrayed in The Rock
         | has almost nothing in common with the real thing.
        
           | ethbr1 wrote:
           | In that it doesn't aerosolize at room temperature? (from a
           | couple decades-ago memory of the film)
        
             | jsheard wrote:
             | In that it doesn't melt your skin off or melt through
             | protective gear, isn't neon green, isn't stored in silly
             | glass beads, and usually isn't stored in active form at all
             | but rather binary agents that are combined as late as
             | possible. It's nasty stuff no doubt but the movie version
             | that OP recreated is a made up weapon that just happens to
             | use the same name, and they probably recreated it because
             | it's an intentionally cool looking prop, not because they
             | think actual chemical weapons are cool.
        
           | zardo wrote:
           | MI6 didn't know that.
           | 
           | https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/rock-
           | scr...
        
         | onlypassingthru wrote:
         | You're only supposed to shoot, explode, burn or crush someone
         | in war. Gassing them is barbaric.
        
         | XorNot wrote:
         | It's a post from a propmaker community of replicating an iconic
         | prop?
         | 
         | Movies are all about how they make the audience feel, and
         | _everyone_ remembers the creepiness of this particular prop in
         | The Rock. It 's awesome that someone replicated it because yeah
         | - it's a very impressive prop because of _exactly_ that reason
         | - it was basically a character itself in them movie, and was an
         | impressively constructed visual piece which was meant to exude
         | menace.
         | 
         | You're doing a weird thing of saying "obviously this is about
         | nerve gas"...no it is first and foremost about a movie, a
         | story, and the emotional narrative it told.
        
       | recycledmatt wrote:
       | Long after you are gone, you are going to give some Junk Removal
       | person a heart attack.
        
       | zackangelo wrote:
       | Interestingly, the actual prop was auctioned off in 2022 for more
       | than $18K! [0]
       | 
       | [0] https://propstoreauction.com/lot-
       | details/index/catalog/319/l...
        
         | robocat wrote:
         | Contains closeup photos of the original prop for comparison -
         | Thanks.
        
       | perdomon wrote:
       | This build unlocked the memory of watching this movie as a child
       | and being terrified that nerve gas was something I could
       | encounter in my day-to-day life.
        
         | graypegg wrote:
         | I'm glad I'm not the only one with that specific memory! My dad
         | loved this movie, it was in the regular rotation of his choice
         | for our movie nights.
         | 
         | The scene with the needle you have to jab in your heart
         | reminded me of defibrillators (nothing deeper than medical
         | heart thing = defibrillator) so as a kid I always assumed those
         | defibrillator cabinets in public areas was nerve agent
         | antidote! Just in case!
        
         | actionfromafar wrote:
         | Well, in the UK, sometimes you can!
        
           | krisoft wrote:
           | Or in Malaysia:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Kim_Jong-nam
        
         | hermitcrab wrote:
         | It unlocked the memory of me watching this as an adult and
         | remembering what an awful film it was.
        
         | IncreasePosts wrote:
         | Weird - I remember watching the movie as a child and mostly
         | thinking "Boy, I wish I could bite into one of those green goo
         | balls"
        
           | aeonik wrote:
           | According to this chemist, those balls should be Amber
           | colored.
           | 
           | https://youtu.be/asAd-E5_HPo?t=1270&si=EmU4rOGHF_XLNSSX
        
         | Cthulhu_ wrote:
         | In my head I'm still thinking nerve gas would be used en masse
         | in war and terrorism, but other than WW1 (mustard gas) it
         | doesn't seem like a common tactic. And it's banned under the
         | Geneva Convention, insofar as anyone follows that.
        
         | XorNot wrote:
         | It's sort of like how growing up how to escape quicksand seemed
         | like a very important bit of knowledge to have.
        
       | gattr wrote:
       | On a related note: for a more realistic portrayal of VX-like-
       | agent-in-a-terror-plot, see Michael Crichton's novel "Binary".
        
         | cbanek wrote:
         | Yeah just watched the Rock a few nights ago (on my new giant
         | TV) and the movie holds up, but the VX gas does not make you
         | blister up like they show in the movie, nor does it just
         | naturally vaporize into a deadly gas. One of its strong points
         | is actually that it is sticky and is hard to get off of you
         | once it makes contact. It will still kill you though.
        
       | mandevil wrote:
       | Just as a note, real chemical weapons are not like this at all.
       | Basically, VX (in the US and basically all other countries) is
       | stored in binary form(1), two separate, basically clear chemicals
       | with a glass wall that separates them, and the wall breaks from
       | the force of the blast and the chemicals mix and you have VX, but
       | it doesn't look cool. So Michael Bay had them make this instead,
       | because it looked better on film.
       | 
       | There was a famous bit from the Iraq Inquiry Committee (aka the
       | Chilcot Report) where they found that MI6 reported a bit of
       | intelligence to Tony Blair that a source in Iraq claimed that
       | they produced VX at the Al-Yarmuk plant- but described what was
       | in the movie, not real life. After it was reported to Blair that
       | they had sources who had seen VX in Iraq, they showed the raw
       | intelligence to someone who knew something about chemical weapons
       | and they said "Whatever your source saw, it wasn't VX" and MI6
       | realized that the source was lying. (I think that this source is
       | different from the more famous liar Curveball.)
       | 
       | 1: Besides being bad for humans, VX is also bad for metal, and
       | will destroy any case if kept in long term storage. Basically if
       | you load a normal chemical weapon shell with mixed, ready to go
       | VX it will be unusable- more of a threat to the crew firing the
       | howitzer than the enemy- within a few days.
        
         | rl3 wrote:
         | It's also worth noting that in the film, it's depicted as a
         | blistering agent as well--just for gruesome effect.
         | 
         | By Michael Bay logic, injecting atropine also prevents one's
         | skin from falling off.
        
         | trainfromkansas wrote:
         | Playing devil's advocate: why assume Iraq would (attempt to)
         | store VX in the same way? It actually has a thin ring of
         | plausibility around it in the same the way you sometimes hear
         | stories that Kim Jong Il would watch American movies and demand
         | "I want us to build that".
        
           | Analemma_ wrote:
           | Because Iraq used real chemical weapons in the war with Iran.
           | It would be sort of ridiculous to pivot to fake ones after
           | that.
        
       | cluckindan wrote:
       | The screen-used "guidance chip" has Uranus brand capacitors on
       | it. That may or may not be a real brand.
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-02 23:01 UTC)