Today I learned that Keanu Reeves developed a "mag flip" technique for reloading a gun that is now being adopted by competition shooters and actual soldiers.
Basically he just kinda twists the gun hard enough that the magazine flies out on its own so he can put a new one in faster.
I just thought it was crazy that an actor developed a viable combat technique.
The director of John Wick confirmed that Keanu came up with this independently and a popular firearms YouTuber said he saw competition shooters and military friends practicing this. So I would say this is accurate with a medium level of confidence.
A few people are disputing this. Which is fine. I did say medium level of confidence and I am not the biggest gun person, so I will leave it to the experts.
I do think it is entirely possible that Keanu discovered the mag flip on his own, even if he was not the first to do this.
And I think it is possible he brought awareness to the technique and inspired people to practice this so they can look cool like John Wick.
People still think Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, so I'm hoping being mistaken about flipping a magazine out of a gun is not a huge deal as far as sins of historical accuracy.
I'm sorry I did not vet the information better. I didn't think it was a big deal like information about vaccines or climate change, so I posted this from hearsay from two people that seemed like they knew what they were talking about. One being Chad Stahelski who directed John Wick.
This post has gone super viral so I can't really delete it from the internet or anything.
I do try hard to make sure information is accurate, my intent was not to be dishonest.
Not speaking of guns (which, like...ew), but more to how things happen.
I think one of two things are most likely.
Keanu really did invent this gun "flare" because it seemed right for John Wick the character; all of his moves are physically purposeful, but still with some style, and he's known for switching quickly between shooting a gun and physically assaulting someone (my favorite move of his is when he runs out of bullets so he uses the gun as a form of brass knuckles, or he just throws it at someone's face). Letting the empty magazine fall to the ground is a hazard if you might need to suddenly plant your foot, especially if you're going to twist it. Flipping the empty mag away from you reduces that possibility, at least in the immediate sense. Others saw it and started doing it, whether because it's actually faster or because it's "cool" (how many people have you seen hold a gun sideways "like a gangster" even though you're more likely to hurt yourself when you do it, just because it looks cool?) and it became a thing.
Someone showed Keanu the technique and asked if he would do it in the movie and he said
