The Truth About Land Mines

It is a classic war movie trope: a squad of soldiers are marching through the jungle when, suddenly, they hear an ominous click. One of the soldiers freezes and, glancing down, spots a telltale metal disk under his foot. His heart begins to beat furiously: he has just stepped on a landmine. His comrades urge him to stay perfectly still, for if he moves even an inch the mine will explode, blowing off his leg and very likely killing him. The seconds and minutes tick by in unbearable suspense as the soldiers scramble to come up with some way - any way - of getting their squadmate out of this sticky situation alive, despite how relatively easy it would be in that scenario to solve the problem by simply keeping downward pressure on the person’s shoe, then taking their foot out and putting a rock or something on the shoe after. Nevertheless, a highly-effective means of introducing tension, this scenario has appeared in dozens of films including 2014’s The Monuments Men, 2017’s Kingsman: the Golden Circle, and the appropriately-titled 2015 Georgian exploitation film Landmine Goes Click. But does it have any basis in reality? Author: Gilles Messier Editor/Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Caden Nielsen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices