Safes & Vaults versus Hollywood

wylk · 2009-12-22T18:17:07+00:00

Purely for fun I though I’d start a discussion of how Hollywood treats safes & vaults. Sometimes it’s quite ridiculous, sometimes it’s interesting. What are your favorites? James Bond, I forget which movie, used a credit-card-sized X-ray viewer to open a wall safe by viewing the wheels. Very difficult to do unless the X-ray source is on the other side, and even then quite unlikely. Nevertheless the lock industry has long offered “radiation resistant” wheel packs and other countermeasures. What impressed me was the image looked like a real X-ray view of a real safe lock. And the wonderful product-placement choice of “Sharper Image” on the imaging card. Ocean’s 13 used a similar idea in the opening, this time to view the locks and boltwork of a massive vault door. The image looked plausible though the device was pure baloney. Goldfinger. Quite silly representation of a vault, and it seemed that everybody knew the combination. But it sure was impressive-looking, and the door was moderately realistic. Bond, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (I think). Over a lunch hour, he uses a suitcase-sized auto-dialer to open a safe. A clever idea, and portrayed more realistically than most gadgets and techniques. Today they are somewhat common; did they exist in 1969? Ocean’s 11, my favorite scene is near the beginning when the vault/explosives expert “blows” what looks like a real York door (US patent 929,907, dated 1909). It looks to me like they even got the boltwork right (easy if it’s a real door) and the mechanism is even shown in the “locked” position as the door is opening. Just ignore the utter silliness of shaped charges cutting through the door and slicing through the bolts :-) Any thoughts on the above, or addition? Jim

VaultDoors

This vault door used in the TV series ‘Space: 1999’:

It also appeared in the 1979 British crime film ’A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, with David Niven:

Website: http://catacombs.space1999.net/main/cguide/umwdoorreactor.html

wylk

Lennox International (heating/cooling) has an advertisement using a vault door. “…we used a team of artists and muralists to transform a home into a money-saving vault.” For a Hollywood rendition it’s not too bad but they did get a few things wrong.

On the outside view, the hand wheel is shown to retract the pressure bars which is not how they work. On the inside view it’s reasonably close to something that could work. The pinions (small gears) are very large but could operate as shown. I believe the gearing shows 24 bolts, a traditional number, but the actual bolt protrusions don’t line up! It looks like there might be 20 or 22 bolts around the outside which is not possible if there are 24 inside the support ring.

The ad can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHdrZc1qY-s

wylk

This one is merely Hollywood-ish. There is a bar simply called Vault in the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel in Dubai (http://www.jwmarriottmarquisdubailife.com/dining/vault), on the 71st and 72nd floors. While this two-piece door is rather pretty to look at, it’s clearly a polished fabrication.

wylk

A poor attempt to draw a vault door, but not surprising; this is from a comic book.

wylk

A TV commercial from Old Dominion Freight features truck trailers with vault doors installed (plus the trailers can spin around!).

I simply see trailers that will tip over onto their sides even standing still. At least they are pretty reasonable, as if the animator did some decent research first.

VaultDoors

Bank Vault in Risky Business with an unusual time lock enclosure and no visible combos:

VaultDoors

Paul Blart - Mall Cop 2:

arielschoenberg

I enjoyed the movie The Italian Job where they break into the safe, old school way how they just listen to the dial and try to break it open it that way. Can you actually break into like that now of days? Because that seems crazy how she did it. It was just really exciting and good movie. 🙁y):

Dean Nickel

It is a skill that takes a great deal of practice. Once one learns it is something that some can open almost any safe with. But there are many systems out there that help prevent or slow this skill. In the trade there are few that can do this well. I know of 5 (in the USA) myself that can do it. I have taken classes and know what it takes but I am not good at it.

wylk

Now You See Me is an entertaining movie about magic/illusion. The first big illusion is robbing a bank in France by “teleporting” an audience member into the vault. Of course the vault is very flashy and Hollywood-ish but the door is a reasonable facsimile of a real one (ignoring that 20 bolts is an unusual number) –

Immediately after, in France, the real vault is found to be empty –

VaultDoors

Public Enemies, 2009 staring Johnny Depp may have bank vaults since the movie is all about bank robbers.

Huw Eastwood

wylk wrote
Now You See Me is an entertaining movie about magic/illusion. The first big illusion is robbing a bank in France by “teleporting” an audience member into the vault. Of course the vault is very flashy and Hollywood-ish but the door is a reasonable facsimile of a real one (ignoring that 20 bolts is an unusual number) –

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Immediately after, in France, the real vault is found to be empty –

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I’m glad that you sat through an hour and a half of that so that we didn’t have to :o:

[unknown]

wylk

VaultDoors wrote
Public Enemies, 2009 staring Johnny Depp may have bank vaults since the movie is all about bank robbers.

There are a few real vaults in the movie but we don’t get to see them for very long.

This Remington Sherman vault was the main standout, nicely photographed with what looks like natural light. A few seconds before this we get a glimpse of the emergency door. This former bank is now the Milwaukee County Historical Society.

[unknown]

VaultDoors

Looks like there is an upper vault as well.

wylk

At the very beginning of this thread (December 22, 2009), one Hollywood scene was described where James Bond uses an X-Ray viewer to see the wheels in a small safe’s lock. This was almost 20 minutes into the movie “Moonraker.” The device was disguised in a large cigarette case (not a credit card). It looks to me like they shot some footage of a safe lock with the back removed then processed the color to make it look vaguely X-Ray-ish.

wylk

This one isn’t quite Hollywood, but Van Nuys is only 8.5 miles away. An impressive but clearly fake vault door was constructed for an Aston Martin dealer (Galpin Ford). Behind the door is “Club Aston.”

Note in the last image the locking bolts are not evenly extended.

Arcade Al

Another one that isn’t Hollywood but certainly represents a mock up. It’s the “Coca-Cola Vault”, where they keep the secret recipe!🙁rofl):

Clearly they’ve gone to a lot of trouble and expense, but somewhat failed to really get it…

wylk

I like the way they labeled the vault THE VAULT in case people are confused. Inside is the “visitor experience” which includes a rectangular door behind which is the formula (which of course is not believable):

But overall I feel these two doors are fairly well done for being fakes. Somebody spent time looking at real doors before concocting these fabrications.

Arcade Al

wylk wrote
I like the way they labeled the vault THE VAULT in case people are confused. Inside is the “visitor experience” which includes a rectangular door behind which is the formula (which of course is not believable):

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But overall I feel these two doors are fairly well done for being fakes. Somebody spent time looking at real doors before concocting these fabrications.

This is very true. It almost makes you wonder, considering how much money and time must have spent on it, if it might have just been easier to find and install a couple of real redundant vault doors…

[unknown]

Chubby

Look around 15 minutes for the most unconvincing mock up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJgaENlDyx8

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