Missed the fist three parts? Check out Fight Scenes Part 1: An Introduction, Fight Scenes Part 2: Physical Difference, and Fight Scenes Part 3: Hand to Hand Combat. Now let’s talk a little about weapons. These notes focus mostly on unconventional weapons or what Jonathan Maberry called natural weapons.
Weapons
The more a character knows how to use natural weapons the better he’ll be.
Types of Weapons…
- Core Body Techniques
- Surrogate Weapons
- Actual Weapons
Core Techniques
Fist: not very effective and can hurt you and bend wrist or break bones in hand.
Palm shot: joint already bent and can ram entire bone structure of arm, hit sharply to the head, can be jarring to the brain.
Motion: pushing into the forward leg motion and then using hands can move mass and do damage.
Forehead: forehead to nose is good… big bone to cartridge (see Fight Scene Part 3: Hand to Hand Combat for more information on this).
Heel of Foot: heel of foot can be effective as a battering ram.
Ask yourself… What would actually be damaged by a character’s move?
Surrogate Weapons
Weapons that aren’t weapons but can be used effectively in a fight.
Types of Surrogate Weapons…
- Puncture/cut
- Remaining
- Blocking
- Bulk
- Discharge
- Throw
- Assemble
- environment
If you can’t use anything as a combat weapon, then find something to distract the attacker.
What can you use around you? Be observant.
Paperclip: use a paperclip as nervous attribute for your character then bring it out later as an effective defense later.
A paperclip unwound with both sharp ends sticking out from a tight fist is a great way to do some serious damage to face or other soft areas of the body.
Key movement for paperclip defense… in and out jabs, don’t scratch.
Straw: fold straw in half and make the end pinch and then can use as a sharp object
Binding: Use cloth of binding object to strike out against face or throat. Or bring person forward so to kick them.
Biting: is very effective, especially if it’s the only way.
Glass rim: fast impact and can shatter hand or break elbow
With long weapons you have to be practiced to be good at them.
Something to think about... Most stab wounds don’t kill, but do hurt. Character can still usually fight after a stab injury, at least for a time, depending on the severity of the wound.
Fun Fact…
A .22 is an assassins choice because it will not exit the brain ( it will bounce around).
Check back for the next and last installment… Fight Scenes Part 5: Psychological Warfare.
Cynthia D. Griffin 
One thought on “Fight Scenes Part 4: Weapons”