I don't think it matters that the actors aren't wearing safety gear They're only doing that so it shows their faces. If guys that have never played before want to go to a field after seeing this movie then so much the better, but any field they go to will enforce the mask rule. We paintball players know the difference anyway.

Early last year I encouraged the producer/director of Splattered (an indie film) to place a disclaimer in the credits of his moving stating that paintball safety gear is required for safe play and that the actors were actors in a film that for various artistic reasons did not always follow the safety guidelines.

It is, so far as I know, the only such safety disclaimer in a full length feature film depicting paintball.

Paintballers often diss Hollywood over their depiction of the game, feeling that it often denigrates our game, doesn’t show it accurately and rarely mentions safe play.

This is not because Hollywood hates on paintball. It is because film makers have different goals than paintball players.

What is missing is dialogue (my case will hopefully influence others, but I doubt it will have any real lasting affect). And there is no dialogue because while Hollywood can be talked to in the aggregate (there are numerous organizations from the SGA to the Ratings board), paintball has yet to deliver a strong, respectable and involved industry organization.

Until paintball can ‘talk’ to other industries on a level playing field, this kind of thing will persist.

personally, I would never do anything to impress reese witherspoon.

From a filmmakers perspective:

I’m proud to report myself as part of the crew that insisted on not only enforcing safety while shooting our movie (to this day the first and only professionally produced film about scenario paintball), we dedicated an entire section to showcasing safety. I think we proved that with a dedicated film crew and even a modicum of respect for both the actors and the sport a filmmaker can show enough recognizable features that one CAN distinguish who is who under a paintball mask. Yes, it took some extra sound and creative engineering to work in the conditions we worked. Yes, our sound engineers had to develop new techniques on location to p/u professional quality sound. Yes, I think we proved it can be done -> and we were just a small budget independent film. No, we did not have any big name or even real actors, so I suppose there may be an “ego” factor we didn’t have to consider. Oh, and yes, we only used “real” paintballers on camera, and the only game footage we used came from a real live scenario game! Long Live the West Point Combat Classic!

I think that overall the players who go to fields will be fine but its the ones who decide to go out in their back yard and not realize the importance of goggles who are hurt by these terrible depictions of paintball in popular movies.

Hollywood, only good for making paintball an unsafe sport and taking away our internet. Some people these days need to be injected with cancer and die painfully from it

I don't like the way that they portray the sport in movies they make it seem so different then it really is. I don't use anything less then a full facemask for paintball.

I was shocked when I saw this scene, even though I love tom hardy, but not this way, not on screen showing off, is so dangerous.
We players know the rules, but not the public, some from where I am, did not inforce it as much, we can still catch operators and public playing without mask on.
not a good publicity stunt.

I was shocked when I saw this scene, even though I love tom hardy, but not this way, not on screen showing off, is so dangerous.
We players know the rules, but not the public, some from where I am, did not inforce it as much, we can still catch operators and public playing without mask on.
not a good publicity stunt.