MovieChat Forums > Magnum Force (1973) Discussion > The entire 'Bomb in the Mailbox' scenari...

The entire 'Bomb in the Mailbox' scenario is ABSURD

posted 12 years ago by censorshipsucks06
8 replies | jump to latest

Okay - what's easier? Plunking Harry with a rifle with a silencer from a rooftop - or having to plant a bomb in a public mailbox???

Think about it. These ROOKIE cops would have to have a pretty vast understanding of plastic explosives. That's not something taught to traffic cops in the Academy. Plus, each mailbox (Early and Harry's) are in public areas - Early's is right on the street for crying out loud. They would have to dismantle the mailbox, pull out their bomb, carefully attach the bomb, then reattach the mailbox - all with no witnesses noticing them.

Yeah - I know it's a movie - and the bomb sets up a neat ending - but when you think about it - there's much more efficient ways to kill a single person.

Plus - there's the obvious issue - what happens if the mailman delivers the mail before Early and Harry get home, but after the bomb was planted?? I'll tell ya -

BOOM! Bye Bye mailman (and bystanders)

Post is MY OPINION. Don't look for spelling/grammar errors as this isn't a PhD Thesis.

[–] ck1-5 12 years ago

A couple thoughts on that.......one, when asked by Harry where they learned to shoot so well at the firing range, the one who answered him said, "Special Forces". In lieu of that information, it's not a stretch to believe that at least one of them was a demolition expert for the same reason. Two, most citizens wouldn't interfere with a couple of police officers that appeared to be checking out a mailbox; they'd be likely to react like Mr. "I don't want to get involved" did inside the apartment house. If they did question the police, it'd be "Police business, sir. Please stand back".

[–] rexamillion (26) 3 months ago

[deleted]

[–] urgeking 10 years ago

Yeah, the bomb thing is a bit much. For one thing, it's a means of killing that would tend to draw a lot of attention to itself-- people would probably think of it as terrorism, even back in '73, since the 'Mad Bomber' and the Weather Underground were fresh in everyone's mind. So it could provoke a public outcry for an investigation, thus making it more likely that the vigilante cops would get caught sooner.

But at that point the filmmakers were probably thinking, "Another two shootings? We've got to come up with something different. Oh, how about hidden bombs to create some suspense?"

[–] pawtrax67 8 years ago

It was filmed in 1973. I don't think it would have been too odd to have bombs in his partners and Harry's mailboxes.
Since the "bungled" warrant for Palancio. It would not be a stretch to see it as mob retaliation.

[–] censorshipsucks06 8 years ago

Plus - there's the obvious issue - what happens if the mailman delivers the mail before Early and Harry get home, but after the bomb was planted?? I'll tell ya -

BOOM!  Bye Bye mailman (and bystanders)

There's some interesting counter points here, but this one remains the biggest issue with the mailbox bombs.

[–] Inspector81 8 years ago

Plus - there's the obvious issue - what happens if the mailman delivers the mail before Early and Harry get home, but after the bomb was planted?? I'll tell ya -

BOOM!  Bye Bye mailman (and bystanders)

Harry's apartment mailbox was built into the wall and it had a mail slot above its box door that the mailman uses to load it, so the mailman would have never opened Harry's box. A mailman would just load it through the slot like all the other mailboxes in Harry's apartment complex but probably would've had a hard time loading it since Harry's box was stuffed with the bomb. That was also how Harry knew he had a bomb in his box when he peaked through the slot and saw it.

Early's apartment mailbox was part of a free standing multiple mailbox unit that mailmen load from the back with one big master door. So a mailman wouldn't have opened Early box from the front either but would have seen the bomb from the back side while loading his box with mail.

[–] censorshipsucks06 8 years ago

Harry's apartment mailbox was built into the wall and it had a mail slot above its box door that the mailman uses to load it, so the mailman would have never opened Harry's box. A mailman would just load it through the slot like all the other mailboxes in Harry's apartment complex but probably would've had a hard time loading it since Harry's box was stuffed with the bomb. That was also how Harry knew he had a bomb in his box when he peaked through the slot and saw it.

Early's apartment mailbox was part of a free standing multiple mailbox unit that mailmen load from the back with one big master door. So a mailman wouldn't have opened Early box from the front either but would have seen the bomb from the back side while loading his box with mail.

Interesting points! Thanks.

[–] pking-2 8 years ago

The mail is always delivered by 11 am to my mailbox.

So, there could/would be a schedule and window of opportunity if Dirty Harry mail is similar.

Plant the bomb after 11 am but before my standard mail pick up time (which for me is after work around 6 pm).

Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.