Using a whip Indy-style

Kodiak · Post by **Kodiak** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 5:40 pm

I'll bet this has been posted before.

Is it possible to use a whip like Indy did, swinging from all sorts of things such as branches, protruding rocks, etc? I know that a whip is a powerful, since I have used one to keep away large, quite fearless dogs and horses, and have heard of people really using them in fights. However, every time I try to swing with my whip (I feel like such a geek now), I end up not being able to loosen the whip from the branch or not being able to get the whip to wrap around the branch properly. Is there any trick to using a whip correctly, or am I just being an idiot, thinking that special effects can work in real life?

If it matters my whip is about six-seven feet long with a nearly worn-out cracker from www.bythesword.com. It is decent for ~50 bucks.

Indakin · Post by **Indakin** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 6:33 pm

hey kodiak, there is info some where about your question. From what ive read DONT use your whip to swing from things. It was done in the movies and is pobably possible, but if u have a good whip (or even a cheaper on ) you will destroy it by doing this. The way indiana treats his bullwhip is NOT how you want to take care of yours. Swinging witha a whip will put a ton of stress on the weaving and will eventually probably break your whip. Also using it in conditions with sand will ruin your whip, because sand gets into teh plaits and cuts the leather everytime you crack it. This is why the movie had many whips to use. Rope is what you want to use if you plan to swing, i bet even some if not all the whip swings int the films were actually done with something that looked like a whip but really wasnt. Ive tried wrapping my whip around objects before but i wont swing, not the safest thing.

Kris · Post by **Kris** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 6:34 pm

The movie swing stuff is done is like 5-6 takes, so .. .no

The whips where they swinged probably contained a metal core that was connected to a swing and a harnas.

Post by **BullWhipBorton** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 1:03 am

Yep, that question has been asked here many times and as correctly explained, whips where not made for swinging on. It’s a movie trick. It can be done, but doing so can ruin your whip, or break it all together. That said, we have probably all tried it at one point or another

hopefully with a less expensive whip and yes there is a definite trick to unwrapping your whip once you’ve locked around what ever it is your wrapping. If you have time, search though the old posts there is a wealth of really great information here.

Dan

Floribama Steve · Post by **Floribama Steve** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 5:24 pm

To augment what Kris said about metal core, I believe the "swinging whips" were made of a metal cord wrapped in leather.

McFly · Post by **McFly** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:40 pm

Not just any metal... steel. That should say something about swinging from things.

Use a rope, dude.

It's safer, and much less expensive.

In Christ,
Shane

thefish · Post by **thefish** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 12:15 pm

To augment what Kris said about metal core, I believe the "swinging whips" were made of a metal cord wrapped in leather.

We've discussed this before as well, and it's more likely that the swinging whips in Raiders, Temple, and Last Crusade were actually steel cables with a hollow rubber or silicone prop whip over it.

Now David Morgan HAS said that he braided a whip over a steel cable for Mask of Zorro, (for that scene at the beginning where Diego [Alex Green as Hopkins' character,] is swinging across the rooftops of the hacienda,) but he never mentioned Indiana Jones.

What is more likely for the Indy films is that the prop guys from Lucasfilm took molds of one of the longer Morgans, and then used them to cast the swinging whip over the cable. As the end of the cable would be teathered to the stuntman/actor's safety harness, the rubber/silicone doesn't have to support any weight. Remember, these things weren't necessarily built to last. They were built to get through the shoot.

After the stunt is finished for the movie, they either strip off the rubber whip prop and recycle the steel cable, or throw the whole thing in a prop box. Rubber and silicone break down after a while, and that would explain exactly why it is that while people have looked, and studied and researched this particular piece, there are no surviving pieces in the Lucasfilm archive.

Also, if you look at the whip as it is in the Temple scene at the beginning of Raiders, there's something "weird" about the whip when he saves Satipo and then hangs it on a convenient branch. The color is a bit too even for one of the morgan props.

We've all found little inconsistencies from shot to shot because these movies WERE NOT MADE to be analyzed as we have. Raiders came out in 81 when VCR's weren't and widespread and Raiders wasn't actually RELEASED on VHS for some years. Today, we have DVD, the web, and obsessive folks like us can get in there and look at things frame-by-frame.

Now, if the stars are in alignment and the planets converge just right, and Indy 4 does actually go into production, I'll bet that David, (or Joe Strain if David retires,) gets a phone call for another steel-cored whip because if not, we'll notice!

-Dan

rebelgtp · Post by **rebelgtp** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 12:48 pm

I would have to agree that a whip is not meant to be used the way you see Indy use it however it can be just remember you will be putting alot of strain on the whip which is not the best idea if you are wanting to keep it around for awhile. now i did use to do this when i was a kid with my dads 10 footer with some great success. now as for not being able to get it to come undone you need to actually have slack in the whip so that you can flick the whip and send a "wave" down the length of the whip to loosen it back up. now you need to make sure this "wave" goes AWAY from whatever you are wrapped around otherwise it does no good really.

now then would i try this now? no more then likely not unless for some reason i was in some life and death situation (which how many times are we going to get into those with our whips handy

). now then if i lost quite a bit of weight and had a very high quality built whip that i thought could handle it i might give it a shot once or twice, but probobly not over some big pit.

jabahutt70 · Post by **jabahutt70** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:10 am

rebelgtp wrote:now then if i lost quite a bit of weight and had a very high quality built whip that i thought could handle it i might give it a shot once or twice, but probobly not over some big pit.

Why????

rebelgtp · Post by **rebelgtp** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:22 am

jabahutt70 wrote:
rebelgtp wrote:now then if i lost quite a bit of weight and had a very high quality built whip that i thought could handle it i might give it a shot once or twice, but probobly not over some big pit.
Why????

well cause i have fallen into enough pits and down enough cliffs in my life?

besides i'm just a big kid at heart

Indakin · Post by **Indakin** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:44 am

hey jaba go for it, and take some pics. Then we can make a sticky out of the post and let people see first hand why u dont do it lol. Good Luck

McFly · Post by **McFly** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:18 am

MorgonKenbur wrote:hey jaba go for it, and take some pics. Then we can make a sticky out of the post and let people see first hand why u dont do it lol. Good Luck

Pics of the 2 halves of bullwhip too - and we'll definitely sticky it.

We're just having fun with you, Jabba... at least I am. lol

In Christ,
Shane

Post by **BullWhipBorton** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 3:05 am

well cause i have fallen into enough pits and down enough cliffs in my life?

Adventure hurts a lot more then it does in the movies, doesn’t it!

Anyway, for those of you interested in the swinging on whips check out the new Ledgend of Zorro DVD. The special features section has some good behind the scene shots of the steel cable whips they are rigged up to for the swinging stunts.

Dan

jabahutt70 · Post by **jabahutt70** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:29 am

IndyMcFly wrote:
MorgonKenbur wrote:hey jaba go for it, and take some pics. Then we can make a sticky out of the post and let people see first hand why u dont do it lol. Good Luck
Pics of the 2 halves of bullwhip too - and we'll definitely sticky it.

We're just having fun with you, Jabba... at least I am. lol

In Christ,
Shane

Will you guys promise to sign my cast(s) after I get out of the hospital, lol?

rebelgtp · Post by **rebelgtp** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:22 pm

BullWhipBorton wrote:
well cause i have fallen into enough pits and down enough cliffs in my life?
Adventure hurts a lot more then it does in the movies, doesn’t it!

Anyway, for those of you interested in the swinging on whips check out the new Ledgend of Zorro DVD. The special features section has some good behind the scene shots of the steel cable whips they are rigged up to for the swinging stunts.

Dan

its generally not the adventiure that hurts just the abrupt stop at the end.

Rusty Jones · Post by **Rusty Jones** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 1:44 am

I used to have an 8 footer, admittedly poor quality, that I swung on a lot when I was a little kid (even got it to were it would wrap around the cord for the light in my room and I could turn it on and off or uncoil it by flicking different directions) I didn’t swing often, but I went on several "expeditions" that involved successful and unsuccessful whip swings... and now said whip is an unraveling 2 footer :c) I wouldn’t swing from any whip worth taking care of, and I wouldn’t swing over anything I wouldn’t mind falling on…