i was a sailor for a living, you should try this with a heaving line. its weighted cored rope designed to be thrown and coiled for tossing that we use to toss to the guys on shore to pull in the actual mooring lines for the ship. i hate this idea as much as anyone but i feel you're using the wrong cordage for the job. ropes are like swords man so many ropes for so many purposes
I think he is using the same rope he had for the arrow thing, which he described as period-appropriate and capable of holding the weight of a person. I could easily be wrong
Yeah you're exactly right. They rope she used was almost more like a thick twine with zero stretch. His rope looks like it has a ton of stretch to it. Also it's twice as long as hers. She never threw the axe more than like 10-15 ft.
There's a lot more testing that can be done with this rope throwing axe thing, There's a lot of stuff to consider Axe weight, how the axe weight is balanced and the materials, where the rope is tied, what kind of rope, how long and stretchy it is, etc etc It doesn't make the idea any less crazy or a valid combat technique that could work on the battlefield but yeah, there's a lot to consider
So, in the navy you learn how to throw a long line. You have to hold some large coils in your hand, while having the remainder of the line coiled, and that is the important part, coiled in a single layer from the outside in. It reduces tangling because it makes the rope uncoil in an orderly manner. Not that it would work in combat
Like a lassothrower, No matter it is a western cowboy, or a reindeerherder of the Sami people, yakut, evenki, samojeds or any other of the northern siberian reinherders
You can try coiling it in opposite coils (every other coil is rotated the other way). Then it unwraps itself easily without tangling - look it up, it's a nice trick.
I thought that wild hello fresh were almost extinct, and only the domesticated ones could be had, but there you go! Nice to see they are re-introducing them in the wild!
The entire reason that the returning axe and the predator shield were in the movie was because the director was playing God of War and cared so little about the project or had so little vision for it that they let its influance dominate the movie. Right down to turning the boy into the dog.
A throwing Axe is one of the best examples of a functional yet visually epic medieval weapons. Remember the Franks used throwing axes to defeat the Moors at Tours. And from personal experience it is much easier to throw an axe or a tomahawk consistently and with power than it is to throw a knife. Also it’s a pretty brutal close range hand to hand weapon, in my opinion it’s one of the best off hand weapons a fantasy fighter can use.
From my past experience doing juggling and whatnot, - hatchets and hammers are actually really easy to juggle with. - your hands adapt to the impact from handles pretty quickly. The weight tires you out more than the impact hurts. - the off-hand is used for handling rope, while the main hand mostly just throws. - There's a proper way to coil rope in your off-hand so that it releases as you throw. Life guards learn it for throwing flotation devices, and stage hands learn it for cables and such. Of course, none of that fixes the edge alignment, retrieving the ax, or the slack on the ground when you throw it a second time. You should probably use the off-hand to yank it back in, with the rope sliding through your gloved dominant hand.
I was thinking all of this. When I saw it being done in the film I rolled my eyes. The difficulty in which this feat would be to accomplish is quite high.
I agree with all of what yellow said however there are methods to retrieve items tied to rope that would greatly help with the return part. Playing with rope as a kid you can learn this but it is a practiced skill soon given the the time period of the movie its likely she had this skill. The throwing part I can't speak to much on although I know there are knots that could help a little but not solve the problem. Being a tomahawk does play a big role vs an age though and we know from Japanese and Chinese weapons that there are methods to fight with rope weapons appropriately. While these skills are much harder to learn now a days, back then when people were forced to use mechanical skills related to the body from childhood on these skills are much easier to learn this is the importance of playing outside as a child in today's time.
@@rendarcrow there are weapons in which have a chain or rope attached but they are not very long nor are they attached in such a manner as with this axe. Usually there is a weapon (kama, axe, sword, whatever) that has a chain/rope attached at the bottom of the grip/handle and that has a weight or instrument at the end of that which was used to attack at range. You would have to be very desperate to let go of your main weapon to throw it or swing it by the chain/rope. Regardless of that, none of the things you mentioned were in the movie. Even if what you're saying is a way to make it work, that's not what was shown. Besides, if it was that useful of a trick, the entire tribe would be using it I would suspect. Someone was bound to witness her in action and if not, keeping such a secret from the tribe would be inherently selfish to a group you count on to help you survive. Would it not? I don't know, it's all speculation from my side really.
@@naezjinra agreed had a whole cohesive reply typed then discarded to tired after rough day to retype. Short: saw it once but the scene was cut the rest the movie it was as described by shad. My earlier thing was speculation to make it work. Agreed never throw your main weapon. Its as much defense as offence.
@@naezjinra True, but you also have a creature coming from outer-space hunting for fun, filled with technology, so being worried about the realism of the rope-axe gadget seems a bit... Pointless.
Axe throwing is actually a bit easier than knife throwing once you've gotten a feel for the distances. It's a lot of fun, I recommend setting up a target in the back yard.
it's easier to throw something that's heavier on one end i used to throw screwdrivers in a tree and got pretty accurate with them much more so than with a wooden spear i made with no weight on the end
As a sailor, I can tell you that dropping a spooled line often tangles very badly, but there're ways of preparing a line to be released The easiest method is to place the end down and loosly put the rest on top bit by bit. The drawback is that you need space for this. A method that takes more to prepare, but is a bit more reliable would be to take 2 pins and make figure 8s on them. That forces the layers to stay separated, but it'll tangle if the tension is too tight. For storing, a line is coiled without kinking it. I don't have the proper English word for it but you'd call it "opschieten" in Dutch (th-cam.com/video/KXiOIy-M-EY/w-d-xo.html). If you wrap a line around something, it'll want to rotate around, causing kinks one way or the other. Best is to just let it do what it wants before storing it, or it'll be harder to use afterwards. For throwing a line for yay-long (even if stored correctly) you'd untie it, redo the length you need for the throw and then throw the whole thing instead of starting at the end. This uses the mass of the line to pull it along What I think should work is to keep it tied up on your belt, untie it before going into combat and hold the line in the hand with your axe while throwing. The problem with the gyroscopic effect being disturbed by the line remains though
First, note that the aim here isn't max distance or max speed throwing. It would be reliability. For max distance throwing, you'd probably want 2 nails (without heads) on the ends of the axe shaft and coil the rope in a figure 8 onto those. The only advantage that it gives here is that you can keep the rope and axe in one hand without the need to drop the rope off its attachment before throwing it. I'd even go so far to take the rope off of at least one of its coiling nails, keeping it pinned in position with only your hand.
Well to be fair Analysis of projectile motion with quadratic air resistance from a nonzero height using the Lambert W function. Projectile motion is a form of motion where an object moves in a bilaterally symmetrical, parabolic path. Key Points: range symmetry. The path that the object follows is called its trajectory. Complex projectiles, such as the bow-and-arrow, and spearthrower-and-dart, create greater acceleration and hence confer extensive impact. The distributions show a peak in the longitudinal momentum at half the projectile impact velocity. ABSTRACT In order to obtain the aerodynamic parameters of a high-spinning projectile, a new parameter identification method is proposed based on the Cubature Kalman Filter (CKF). First of all, the motion equation of the spinning stabilized projectile is established by the 4D trajectory model. Second, unknown parameters are added to the state vector to obtain the augmented state vector. Next, a new filter is designed for the identification of the unknown parameters based on the basic theory of the CKF. Finally, the simulation results of the CKF are compared with those of the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF). The results of comparison show that the CKF method can effectively identify the aerodynamic parameters and the identification error is less than 1.2%. The CKF method has greater accuracy than the EKF and the UKF.
@@michaeldavies7949 Well, the axe may chop into the line, but at least the line isn't dragging it down as much since the line itself already has forward momentum. If it were to hit the line, you could try to move the line a little bit more to the side after you released the axe
This reminds me of something I learned while young, trying a type of camp out with my cousins. While there they taught us how to gather electrical cords up(it was a type of theater camp, and I was part of the tech crew) so that they could easily be thrown out over stage without getting knotted or kinking in the process. It always worked, and I've used it in my personal life as well as on the job for many things: drop cords, rope, air hoses... It's simple and easy, but I don't know what it's called; you gather the length of whatever normally, but every other loop you twist 180 degrees to ease the natural tension(or torque?) that builds up otherwise. As this is thrown out, it's almost like throwing a cord that's already straight, or perfectly spooled.
Would love to see you do a Functional Fandom on jump attacks next, like jumping in combat, and falling from a height to attack a target, how effective would that actually be?
@@Reason4234 I'm sure double jumping wouldn't be practical in combat. People have been learning martial arts for thousands of years, and no one uses double jumps. If it was useful, surely someone would have used it by now.
I would also love a video on that topic, although I believe jump attack would realistically have a lot of downsides, like leaving yourself open to counterattacks and landing without harming yourself (or leaving yourself open to an attack after landing).
Shad, great take and love this kind of content In the film the rope is much thicker twine, and the Tomahawk is much lighter, also, the protagonist is much closer with only maybe 3-5 meters at most Again, the film is fantasy and the retrieval was completely unbelievable, but cheers for having a go!
What is shown in the film is a mash-up of two historical weapons. The use is based on a version of the Chinese Meteor Hammer that uses an axe head as the weight at the end of the rope. The setup is based on using an axe as an improvised grappling hook to help climb trees or climb over walls, as shown in the first season of Vikings.
I think if the axe was smaller, the rope was thicker, and about half as long. You could probably practice it enough to have a novelty skill. Also, if taut you could send a signal through the rope and tug when a wavelength would send the axe slightly upwards instead of straight down. I've found myself doing it a lot with different kinds of lines and garden hoses to have them travel or de-tangle where I want to. Ropeskill is a genuine craft, much like swinging a lasso. With enough practice, I bet you could get some 90% skill to where the hunter was.
No you can’t. The axe just isn’t designed to be a rope weapon. The way the center of gravity works goes against the momentum you need in order to use a rope weapon.
I agree that with years of practice, dedication, and talent, someone could use a heavily modified axe designed for rope combat, it is possible. However. Spear go staby. Spear go throw. Spear is man's best friend.
@@cruesteanmonarch7032 Agreed, when I say "novelty" it's because it's a near-worthless skill in itself apart from the developed dexterity and understanding of physics associated with it. Literally anybody with any established melee skill could overpower you when you attempt to chuck an weird axe tied to a rope at them. lol
I've been doing this quite successfully with a rope dart and meteor hammer for 10 years now. The rope used and the way it's coiled matters a lot and the exact weight and design of the projectile matters a lot. Many people absolutely can and do throw a blade into a target and pull it back with some level of velocity and remarkable levels of accuracy and repeatability. All that being said, we usually do this with a cord that's roughly 2 times your body height. Usually it's a highly static line with a special core that resists tangles and knots. Typically for safety we tie a small flag to the thrown projectile, it slightly slows down the object and makes its flight more stable and predictable and it adds some sound and some color and some movement to the object that makes it a lot easier to catch. Also attaching the cord to the projectile from a fixed point with some kind of swivel helps.
exactly...his rope is WAY TOO LONG...i stand 5'11 and the max length for my rope is 12ft...at 12 ft i can fully extend my rope dagger, stick my target and pull it back with one jerk but the difference is I'm spinning my dagger not holding it in my hand.
Ofc you can't throw 10 meters the film Prey was 5meters at best? And like yourself, I've spun dart for 7 years now, My ropedart has a 5lb Isis, when soaked in oil because I set it on fire for performing at festivals etc, its more like 7lbs, my lash and my meteor is max 11ft in length. And I'm only 5'7 clearly he didn't do the T Pose to measure his hight for length needed. Also (I can't remember the name for this) but you weave the cord like you link sausages, making the length less than 3ft, (there's another way the Japanese have with the dart resting on your forearm and the cords coiled around your arm and unties to the same effect) and the rope I use is ⅕inch tecnora..so that won't snap 100% guarantee. Anyway so when you throw the dart, it un-threads from your none dominant hand, that too holds the slack and its in a nuce tie, so it don't come off When I throw and hit a target e.g "a Tree" I can pull it out and re-catch in my dominant hand no problems ready to spin and throw again. I have to try an aluminium axe but I bet with practice I could do just like in the film
@@Toxicstrike91 let me give you a lil healthy push back, adding a rope makes the weapon very unstable and unpredictable...you have to train much more carefully to master it... the stability you speak of is a testimony to the skill of the person using it ..one wrong move and you can easily stabb and or injure yourself...I know
Shad, you're missing the real advantage the rope gives you. You've got a 10 meter long flail now! With a sharpened blade, even. That's gotta be like, a gajillion times deadlier.
Harder to use effectively than you think. a flail damages wherever it hits, while the axe only causes significant damage if you can get thr blade to hit.
This just seems like a rough equivalent to a kusarigama, which does have an historic basis. From what I'm seeing, it looks like the kusarigama limited the chain length to about three and a half meters, which from the tests here looks like it would be more viable and closer to what the clips were showing.
Kusarigamas are indeed historically used in combat (thanks for mentioning it, couldn't remember the name for the life of me!), but it's the reverse principle. Throw the weight to tangle/misdirect the opponent while the main strike comes from sickle/hook. A closer approach would be the rope dart I think? It's also historically used, but it is the "main attack". Still nowhere near as powerful as a tomahawk. But both weapons' rope/chain is nowhere near the length of the video. I think 3 meters (10 feet) is a more realistic length. Shad at some point mentions that attaching a rope to a weapon is problematic, so I hope he reads these comments and makes another vid about kusarigamas and rope darts!
On the notion of chain weapons, i'd be interested in seeing Shad cover more of such chain weapons, like the Flying Guillotine, Meteor Hammer and Rope Dart.
@@shadow20262 That's similar to what I saw for information regarding historical combat use, also that it was best suited against swords and spears for entanglement. I also saw mention of using them for flashy displays, but these were more for entertainment value than actual combat. I could see the bladed portion getting thrown around for that though.
@@jurtheorc8117 The catch though is he’s not an eastern martial artist and the above mentioned weapons are beyond the most technically demanding. I’m not sure what you’d get out of his particular opinion
@@camgoodkicks Fair points. I think Shad is wise enough to acknowledge that he's not the most skilled or best trained man to physically test them out, so perhaps he could ask someone who does know more about them And even just visually speaking, it could just be fun to see him analyzing and talking about the weapons in question.
This feels like a good opportunity to look into the different kinds of ropes available during different periods and in different locations. Ropes intended for lassoing would be good to look into, in particular.
Most of the "ropes" available to the Natives at that time would be of the "animal body parts" variety... but, it makes no difference... tying the rope to the shaft of the axe/tomahawk will always slow the ax/tomahawk down... as the tomahawk tumbles end over end in the air the rope will slide up and down the shaft, pulling at it the whole time... every revolution of the tomahawk equals two instances of the rope slowing it down...
@@jeebuschristos8423 Naru used a tree branch fiber construction of rope and how she tied it to the tomahawk would have an effect on whether it slid up or down the shaft. Based on pausing that roped tomahawk making scene it looks like it would have stayed put towards the head.
@@jeebuschristos8423 She’s not exactly chucking it at a huge distance. It slowing down would only matter at farther distances, probably farther than the rope itself.
This is probably why real life chain weapons such as the Kusarigama don't use the bladed part as the primary throwing impliment and the ball part intended to be used on the chain is typically held slack. They also have a much shorter tether than this. I do think there might be some validity if they idea is simply to be able to pull the ax back, not in one tug but to retrieve it, but in that case, I think it'd be far better just to carry multiple throwing axes, which wasn't uncommon.
Great video, liked for the algorithm! I had a character in DnD do something similar but instead had their magehand attached to the ax when they threw it then had it come back.
The concept of free fall physics alone will never let you pull an axe right back to the hand without some form of upward momentum. Everything falls at just under 10 meters per second. Thanks Gravity!
Yes! So we add Speed! She would need to pull on the rope so hard to give the axe enough speed to travel in a straight line to her hand. And then catch it with her hand. Someone who knows math can even calculate how impossible that would be both to pull that hard and then stop the axe once it's flying.
That means the lower you hit, the better your chance to do it. But if you hit at your height or above there's absolutely no way to do it. And even if you hit close to the ground, the force you need to apply to the axe is next to impossible to a) achieve and b) transfer through the rope. Ropes are elastic which really hurts in this case.
You could attach the rope to a shaft, as with a flail. Swinging it up and behind you over your head (like splitting wood but in reverse) would give you both the extra momentum and some extra speed. A mere step to the side would lower the chances of accidentally axing yourself, should this flail-shaft give it enough momentum to reach you.
I always thought it looked incredibly fake that people would catch axes thrown at them in movies like it was nothing, so I was as surprised as you were to find that is the most realistic part of this experiment. It is well worth the risk of a sore hand (or even missing hand) to stop an axe being thrown at your head if that is all you had time to do to stop it. Since it is rather possible to do so, I can imagine this actually happened in combat in real life on at least a handful of occasions. Imagine catching the axe and throwing it back at them with ease. That would really drop morale for the enemy side that watched it.
I love the different ways you seamlessly introduce Hello Fresh as the sponsor. Always so entertaining. And this time, my husband 'King' James, let me know after some dental work is done, he wants to try it out for ourselves.
The segue into Hello Fresh made me laugh pretty hard and I needed it. As for the rope throwing axe part I never really imagined it working very well; but now I'm wondering how well it would work if you had the rope tied to a ring at the bottom of the handle.
The rope the protagonist used was much shorter than the one you're using, and I'll use three examples of weapons that did use a chord to wrap around the user, as well as throw and recall using the rope, thong, or chain. The Chain Whip, which aren't usually long weapons, can be extended outwards and pulled back. The Kusarigama, with a 2 meter chain or so, could use the Kama as a thrown tool, and the weighted ball on the other end of the chain as a handle. The Maori had short clubs called Patu, that were tied to chords to prevent the weapon from being last. It could also be used to extend the reach of the fighter, and pull the weapon back into their hand. Adding onto this, The Hoeroa was a throwing club with a chord attached. The intention is to embed the weapon into an enemies legs, and pull them back. Should the weapon miss, it can be yanked back from the ground into the warriors hand again. Matau-tangata were throwing hooks with very long ropes attacked. Used differently to the yanking handaxe, the Matau-tangata was used to pull apart Army formations, or even to hook into a warriors body and yank them towards you. Lastly among the Maori chord weapons, Kotaha-kurutai, which was a dagger or a shortened spear attached to a fairly long chord between 1 and 2 meters. The intention is to cast the weapon from the warriors hand, while another hand held the chord(or stone at the end) in order to recall the weapon to their possession. Most of these weapons for Maori were primarily used by the Tuhoe people, who also go by the cool nickname of "the Children of the Mist". They had many intereactions early in their history with the Te Arawa people, who are believed to have traveled from the Americas before settling in New Zealand. Before the Americas, they were fellow Polynesian Wayfinders, and part of their dialect and tools were adapted from the American peoples.
Was going to say that it was a poor example of a test, rope too long and the rope wasn't tight enough on the axe and he was too far away for any momentum
He should have used a smaller axe for accuracy sake but regardless it wouldn’t work. A lighter axe would deal with the rope even worse. Fact. Doesn’t matter if someone in a grass hut can throw a hook with a line attached lol. All the throwing items you mentioned… not it one has to spin…. Axes do and that will be a no go for ropes lol
Catching the axe makes me wonder how feasible it is to throw and catch other weapons from the air. I imagine that throwing a sword to an ally across a room or a small part of a battlefield would be more difficult because the hilt would be smaller than a shaft of a spear or an axe. If there's a video idea there, I would love to see it.
Although there's probably no safe way to really test, I wonder how this would work out with some sort of bungie chord. In the movie, the motions seemed to imply a certain "springiness" to the "rope".
They used a type of rope sailors call "heaving line" that they use to pull mooring lines for the ship. Another commentor mentioned this rope and what its used for above.
You'd want less elasticity. Think fishing line: fluorocarbon has more elasticity, and so it stretches more before reaching tension; monofilament has less stretch, and so becomes taught much quicker. In order to pull something on the other end of a cord, you first have to pull out all of the slack and get tension. So, for pulling quickly like this, you'd want a stiffer maybe even heavier rope. The line she uses in the film was thinner and tougher, more like twine than that cloth looking stuff Shad is using.
I'm glad your doing this video I wanted to know of this is possible when I saw the movie, I like magic throwing weapons and thought that this was ridiculous. Can't wait to watch this later+
I will say typically in the movie she had a much shorter range. In the over the shoulder perspective it is way farther but in the side by side it didn't seem very far at all. So I think it would be cool to revisit this at a shorter range
these tests arent usually fully following what happens in the movies, in the mattrer of it hurting when you catch it she didnt catch it as much as moved it with the momentum and threw it again
LOL Great fun Shad. Try getting a little tactical throwing tomahawk, some stiff lariat rope and a pig side to throw at. Then get your safety equipment on so that when you pull the little throwing tomahawk back, it doesn't maim or kill you. The tomahawk will fly back to you easier when you pull it out of a person or animal with rope that has no stretch. It looked like she was only 10 feet from the little trees she threw it into them. Stay safe. I hope you and those near or dear to your heart are as healthy and happy as possible.
My first thought seeing the axe in the movie was, “this is how you hit yourself with your own axe,” and then I was disappointed by the lack of spinning the rope-axe whirlwind of doom style 😂
Functional fandom idea: Would swords be a usefull sidearm for troops fighting in starship corridors since only using firearms or lasers might risk damaging electronics or shoot holes in the ship? In other words a variant of sword & cuttlass in space...
I remember a norse-themed fantasy book, they had throwing axes tied to their wrists with leather strips. After throwing, there would be a pulling contest with the enemy.
I think its one of those things thats just plausible enough for an action movie like this. Dutch and Harrigan had a few moments that were a bit unrealistic. Dutch setting elaborate traps, making a reliable bow that can penetrate completely through thick trees... in just a few hours, from scratch.
see this is where i start to get kind of annoyed with people who watch films, and critique them. not directing this comment at you specifically, but the "plausible enough" thing, when it's a movie with a giant crab-faced alien who can wrestle grizzly bears, has invisibility, and self-propelled bolts controlled by a mask. There are so many other things we have to suspend disbelief over, in order to enjoy a movie like Prey, that I always find it strange, and a bit depressingly amusing, that fans will instead spend hours debating the real world physics of a hatchet with a rope to it. Like THAT is the "it's not real!" line in the sand you won't cross? That's the "realism" hill you plan on dying on? lol I dunno, I think our metric for the things we call BS on, in our entertainment, has skewed into a really weird spectrum.
oh gawd another midthunder simp defending a trash movie lol prey doesn't have shit on the originals n kids won't remember this trash when they get older and show their kids lol
@@happyninja42 I agree mostly. If they throw in crazy impossible weapons or stunts, that's what blows the suspension of disbelief off and ruins a movie, things like this are pretty far from it.
@@happyninja42 Because ropes and axes are real, while alien predators are not. Advanced science-fiction technology has a lot more flexibility than tying an axe to a rope.
@@WJS774 i am aware but the reality is that even in scifi, they do a LOT of shit where you could easily say "ok even with advanced tech that's just bullshit" and nobody bats an eyelash at it. because SCIENCE!! I just think people get a tad too hung up on things that boil down to The Rule of Cool, and forget the entire thing is fictional, and they should just enjoy it without losing their shit over it.
I regards to catching the axe, have you ever seen people bounce baseball bats of the ground? it sounds weird but it's what came into my mind when you said catching an axe would hurt, and how you track the handle to catch it.
It would be super unpredictable on the return; you have to yank it out of whatever it hit and it wouldn't come out cleanly in the same plane as it went in. Generally I prefer when my weapons _don't_ come flying back at me in unpredictable ways.
Bat tricks are usually done at a distance of a foot with extremely predictable angles and a set of exact practice, compared to pulling an axe back from a variety of distancesand angles without exact grip on the handle in the middle of that.
When I saw Prey for the first time, I thought the axe rope thing she did was so impractical and having you confirm it makes me happy. It really shows that if tying a rope to a axe was a good idea someone would have thought of it a long time ago.
tbf, The Predator IP was never really all that realistic when it comes to weapons. Jesse Ventura's ammo pack would be hundreds of pounds judging by the rate of fire and the ammo dump of the tree clearing scene alone.
It would seem that Shad hasn’t had much instruction of coiling rope for the purpose of no tangles. Sailors and electrical technicians are two groups I know of that want to be able to coil a rope/chain/cable without it tangling.
Would that mean Grandpa Jack would be a better axe thrower-retriever than Shad? His construction background would certainly grant him efficient coiling skills.
Rock climbers, too. Bunch of videos on the subject. The TLDR is that you don't "coil" the rope in the first place! A different shape is needed. Granted, climbing rope is pretty stiff, so what works for climbing rope wouldn't necessarily be ideal for electricians, sailors, etc.
As a lifeguard, throwing ropes without them getting coiled on themselves was an important skill. While it obviously wouldn't change the overall outcome, see if a local pool would have time to teach a proper throw with a buoy ring. I'd try to describe it, but I don't think I could explain the technique well enough through TH-cam comment, but I will give it a go. 1- Step on the back end of the rope. Mostly, this keeps the rope from flying away, but also provides a tension point for the rope to unfurl. 2- loosely coil the rope in loops the size of your wingspan. Do not let the coils cross themselves. 3- keeping the coils in the hand without the [axe], loosely hold them from below with an open palm, letting the coils hang freely. 4- with the throw, also toss the rope with an under hand toss. Use the tension to keep you hand on the rope. 5- ??? 6- profit.
Hi Shad, I love your content and you are by far my favorite TH-cam. I hope you and your family are well. If you don't mind, I have a video request. An underappreciated weapon video on the sling.
something that would also effect your tests is the type of rope used. A stiffer rope like the character in the clip seems to have may have different results the the rope you used for testing, that seemed to stretch a bit before the axe would move
theres something very charming about cooking over an open campfire. no heat control, no settings, just one setting, fire. i think there is is elegance in simplicity with it.
The main issue here is that the range is 2-3 times as long as in the movie with the rope even longer. The main idea behind weapons like this is not for long range use, but to make the weapon better at short range by being reusable quickly. You could even see it as a fold-able polearm.
It seems to be less dangerous to the user than the shaolin wip, but with the added difficulty of being a completely new technology invented by the girl in the movie.
Good stuff. If someone wanted to make this really work, they'd need a launcher with enough force to overcome the rope's drag, a spool & winch system that could pull really hard and not get snagged, and some kind of protective catcher for the returning weapon.
In the film, the protagonist breaks a metal hunting trap and then admires the metal chain link I was thinking that this scene would of been a plot development, like an upgrade moment to her throwing tomahawk Sadly missed opportunity, film was fine, but a lot of the writing needed fixed
She didn't break the chain, she just tried to break it with a rock. I find it strange she doesn't have an idea of what metal is, given that she's comamche and they have horses, who have they would have gotten from whites who have metal.
@@jeggsonvohees2201 They always try to memory hole Native cultures as having always had horses in media. No one understands how the Columbian exchange worked.
When throwing the axe, you can arc it upwards a little bit in the throw. When pulling back however, it's just straight back, meaning the axe begins falling as soon as it's out of the tree. In order to get the axe back into the hand, the return trip needs so much speed that it can get back to your hand before falling barely any distance. I don't think the pulling muscles are going to match throwing muscles in most people. Good work, it's always nice seeing this kind of testing in real life and piecing together why this stuff can/can't work.
I'm amazed that you were SO confident in your hypothesis that you didn't care to get any head protection at all :D Clearly a sign of someone that knows his stuff!
Shad, I bet others are with me in it: re-try it using the method that old finshers use (there's another comment with that), and also retry using a reel... I was also thinking that maybe some small apartus to reel back the line could be an interesting stage 3 to see what effect a mechanical force could have on helping to pull the axe back.
I think it could work in some of the fantasy depictions I've seen, though, where the rope is enchanted to extend and retract. It'd still be hard to catch, probably even harder, but that removes most of the other issues.
Thank you for this. No one is talking about the absurd magic axe she had, or the magic flower that apparently cooled her body temp to the ambient temp, which would kill a human. If I brought it up, I’d just get made fun of for nitpicking a movie with an alien in it, or I’d just get insulted and called racist or sexist or something, which is strange because I only ever mentioned the axe, the flower, the dog, and the final plan she came up with that worked so perfectly. Thanks Shad. I love your logic.
I think the closest real world example to the rope axe would be a harpoon. Though a harpoon was used in a different manner. First a harpoon isn't thrown or shot end over end so a rope won't effect it as much in flight. Second a harpoon wasn't hauled back in unless it missed or fell out cause it didn't seat properly. They were also attached to the boat so losing the rope wasn't a problem. They were used to weaken and kill things or attach floats to them so they couldn't dive and escape, like in Jaws. Beyond s grappling hook I don't see much point in attaching this to an axe.
This brings back some memories I'd almost completely forgotten about. And it's honestly pretty cringe. When I was about 13 I used to main pudge in dota 2. I was bad at it but the idea of throwing a hook out and reeling people in really encapsulated me for some reason so I made a winch and pulley system out of random bits in the garage to which I tied a paint roller to act as the hook and fastened the entire system to my belt. I'd occasionally go into the garage and just throw it around when I got bored. I found that I could throw it out the entire distance of the rope before it dropped. The mechanism couldn't bring the hook back itself, I had to actually wind it back if I wanted the rope shorter but I got really good at catching the hook if I pulled the rope. I could even snag some small objects like bird feeders but never managed to bring something all the way back, it would always fall off the hook. Eventually I decided the ordeal was pointless because the laws of physics wouldn't allow me to be able to do what I wanted. I hid it from my mum and to this day I don't think she knows about it. It's in her garage somewhere.
True. I like the film, but ironically the predator's alien tech is somewhat more realistic - especially in the "sequels - than a returning axe on a crappy rope...
1:45 I was genuinely surprised when the Hello Fresh bag flew into your hand, your own surprised reaction really helped sell it, enjoyed that quite a lot. 2:41 Am I the only one that heard Shad say that he could "Detest to that!" ?
... I'm actually stunned. I didn't originally intend on watching the full video... and now, you're making your conclusion speech. I'm not sure if you're a damn wizard or just one hell of an entertainer but well done. 10/10 would get hypnotized again.
That's why you need a magical chain for that in fantasy, but aside from the unraveling and pulling it back with enough force, you don't need to magic up anything else, it does work.
When you were trying to pull back the axe it looked like you had about twice the distance between you and the axe than what's shown in the clip. I'm not saying it would make much of a difference but it could have some effect.
This reminded me about the dwarven unit of axe-throwers in "The Battle for Middle-Earth II". So logistically ridiculous. Carrying at least about 1 kg/couple pounds of iron/steel per one axe - carrying maybe about 20 of them on your back just to throw 1 to hopefully kill 1 enemy from short range, hoping not to get killed with an arrow, bolt or by a horse in the meantime...
Would have made more sense for an axe throw to be a a unit ability, and dwarves to use crossbows like the Uruks. They're too short to make good use of bows, not against all threats.
The nice thing about dwarves in fantasy is that they are so much physically stronger that them carrying around a quiver of throwing axes can conceptually work. Them having infinite ammo because game mechanics is also a thing. After all, most of the bow units in that game did not even have quivers, they only carry around 1 arrow.
There are two advantages of a throwing axe over a crossbow: you can use it onehanded while carrying a large shield in your off hand and you can seemlessly switch into melee combat, since you can have throwable axes that make decent melee weapons, too. Also, they might be a little bit more effective against plate armor than short bows would be, so it makes at least a little bit of sense for a short race to practise axe-throwing as a ranged discipline when heavy crossbows aren't available. I agree though, the concept of a specialized ranged combat unit carrying a quiver full of throwing axes is ridiculous in a world where crossbows are known. The throwing axe makes more sense as a side arm for a melee fighter, who carries one or two throwing axes to mess up an enemy formation while charging to close in for melee.
@@chrisrudolf9839 If a dwarf can throw an axe with such strength that they actually out perform the crossbow, and thrown axes are made tough enough to be easy to retrieve and reuse there would not be much reason for them to use crossbows would there? Especially if the opening salvos can be repurposed by the guys charging into melee. Also, now that I think on it again, the axe thrower unit for the dwarves in Battle for Middle-Earth 2 were the only ranged unit to possess a shield. They were also tougher then other ranged units.
Shad, my dude, I absolutely love how offended you get on behalf of all of us weapons nerds when movies do unrealistic things. Please never stop. Thank you, that is all.
What if you had like a spring-loaded spool on your belt kinda like a rope tape measure and then you tie that to the ax? It would unravel smoothly and never have any slack
So when's Shad going to look into a Flying Guillotine? Last thing i heard is that people are losing their head over them. Kidding aside, an analysis on meteor hammers and rope darts would be neat. Regardless of practicality compared to sticks and stones, they are beautiful to see in action.
Cool video, but I think: 1. Rope should be thicker. 2. Rope should wind around the arm so that it is taut when retracted at the desired range, yours is currently too loose. 3. Should be already adept at axe throwing to accomplish, not a novice, you're not able to "see" the rotations yet so this is futile. 4. Most importantly, the attachment should be at the base of the handle. When throwing overhand, the axe rotates forwards, when retracting, this will be reversed. I'll see if I can demonstrate this when I've the opportunity. It's actually very doable.
Something I noticed here right around the 10 minute mark. Shad! You’re wearing the foam armor! WHAT ARE YOU DOING…..oh yeah….you were never in any real danger. Carry on, then. And then towards the end there, I had a good belly laugh just imagining Future Shad going out back to play catch with Older Thunder Warrior…with an axe instead of a baseball. 🤣
In the Navy we throw ropes made up in 'heaving lines', which is how I thought she used the configuration of Tomahawk and rope. Other than the lightning reactions you'd need, a 'heaving line' might be the best way to try it as a novice
I was playing a Star Wars campaign and my character was a lightly force sensitive echani (SW5e Monk class) who used a pair of short swords/daggers. One of them was fitted with a rope and a powered reel was attached to the back of his forearm. Don’t ask how he sheathed the weapons, I never figured it out and my DM didn’t ask. It was definitely fun, though, that’s for sure
This could definitely work better with the right techniques, such as having the rope in a somewhat loose single-layer coil. It might also work better to hold the rope in your off-hand, so you can use it to manipulate the rope while you throw the axe with your other hand. That way you can keep a loose grip on the rope so you're ready to pull on it immediately. Lastly, finding the right balance of rope length, rope weight, and axe weight would definitely improve effectiveness. I think the rope-axe has a bit more potential than shown in this video, although still not enough to consider it viable in a real fight. With how difficult it is to actually pull the axe back in such a way that it's possible to catch it, not to mention how your opponent will have plenty of opportunity to kill you while you're trying to get your weapon back, I'd say this gimmick has too many drawbacks to get anywhere.
It’s worth considering that even learning the technique is impractical, as the risk of injury is incredibly high. Also if you need to throw the axe twice, your probably doing it wrong or shouldn’t be throwing it
@@waylander9265 I've been learning rope dart and meteor hammer techniques. Putting a weighted tennis ball on the end of the rope until you stop hitting yourself is a simple safety measure easily achievable with whatever. The important thing your learn is that the longest line length to deal easily with is arm span plus shoulder to ground.
With how easy it was for Shad to adjust to tracking the handle when it was thrown back, I wonder if that has any implications to the effectiveness of the throwing axe as a weapon. If you can track the handle so easily, can you practice to at least deflect an incoming axe without the head impacting you?
With a shield, yes. With a staff/polearm, maybe, but hitting the axe with the polearm could cause it to bounce unpredictably, possibly into you. With a sword, doubtful, due to the leverage the sword has against the hand. You could halfsword, but that would be worse than a polearm. With a hand, yes, with training. Or you could just step out of the way.
I would think if you were going to attempt to deflect the axe with any weapon, you would try to track to the head to prevent most of the unpredictable rebounding. Especially since that would be closer to the center of rotation.
Thrown at target it would be moving a bit faster than the tosses back. Likely still block/dodgeable but not as easily. It’d require a lot of focus in a fight and you’d be distracted or off balance for the followup or the strike from the next soldier in the line.
Shad, what about winding the rope like you'd wind a lariat or Lasso it was used on horseback and due to the way it was winded up it was able to just unwind layer by layer. It would be winded up so the rope is layered on itself not twisted around itself. Liked the video just thought that would be a better way of winding the rope.
Just seeing Shad cook the food directly on the floor in the wild like this, idk....it caught me off guard and tbh doing so gives a certain charm to cooking the food, like i was certainly not ready for it but imma okay with it. I kind of wanna try out too lol Not really a brocoli fan but this indeed looks super tasty
one of the way to possibly hold the rope spool is within the same had as the throwing axe, releasing the axe also releases the rope so you would have minimal friction and items for the rope to catch on.
After finally seeing the movie the magical returning axe (right up there with magical dog of convenience) weren't what irked me about the film. It was that Naru had the kind of intuition you'd expect from someone several centuries ahead of her, with how she handled something like the pistol to how she was able to intuit how the Predators tech worked well enough to create a plan around exploiting it. It should be dangerously close to inconceivable to not just her, but every human during that era how any of the alien tech works, we're talking ancient aliens depictions of gods descending in their space pyramids level. That... and getting into a CQC fight and holding her own, when Dutch from the first film, and Harrigan from the 2nd, were getting their shit rocked. Guys with significantly more experience with violence going up against a creature that is stronger and faster then a man...and you want me to believe she can do better? How? In what world? In the end all I can say is that it was....fine. Not The Predator bad, but not quite as interesting as Predators. I'd even take Predators 2 over it despite it's occasionally cheesy dialogue and hammier acting. Though that could've just been Gary Busey.
I'd be curious about how where the rope was attached (pommel, shaft, head) would effect it's ability to land a sticking blow also, if you can reliably catch the shaft, could you bleed off some momentum by continuing the moment
Going and watching the scene, i think a major factor in her ability with the weapon is she has her hand as an anchor for the rope. She throws with her left hand and holds the rope tight in her right hand, elimanting the issue of slack and it getting in the way. Also as another pointed out, she was a bit closer to her trees, and unsure atm of how much issue it would offer but she does have a lot more freedom of movmemnt in the way of clothing and the actual movement itself. I was v worried the entire time we were gonna see you hit yourself with an axe, the best kind of failure of delivery
One thing that I can think of that would _kinda_ fix the tangling issue is using a relatively light chain rather than a rope, since the lower coefficient of friction means it's less likely to get caught on itself. However, that would add more drag on the axe and probably reduce the range of the weapon and make it even less accurate.
i was a sailor for a living, you should try this with a heaving line. its weighted cored rope designed to be thrown and coiled for tossing that we use to toss to the guys on shore to pull in the actual mooring lines for the ship. i hate this idea as much as anyone but i feel you're using the wrong cordage for the job. ropes are like swords man so many ropes for so many purposes
I would think a heavier rope would just slow down the axe even more.
I think he is using the same rope he had for the arrow thing, which he described as period-appropriate and capable of holding the weight of a person. I could easily be wrong
Yeah you're exactly right. They rope she used was almost more like a thick twine with zero stretch. His rope looks like it has a ton of stretch to it. Also it's twice as long as hers. She never threw the axe more than like 10-15 ft.
There's a lot more testing that can be done with this rope throwing axe thing, There's a lot of stuff to consider
Axe weight, how the axe weight is balanced and the materials, where the rope is tied, what kind of rope, how long and stretchy it is, etc etc
It doesn't make the idea any less crazy or a valid combat technique that could work on the battlefield but yeah, there's a lot to consider
Keep in mind in the movie he is trying to replicate the woman is using wild vines for rope.
So, in the navy you learn how to throw a long line. You have to hold some large coils in your hand, while having the remainder of the line coiled, and that is the important part, coiled in a single layer from the outside in. It reduces tangling because it makes the rope uncoil in an orderly manner. Not that it would work in combat
Were can I learn to do that?
Relevant point though, thank you for the insight.
@@DTinkerer he learned it in the Navy. Sign up
Like a lassothrower, No matter it is a western cowboy, or a reindeerherder of the Sami people, yakut, evenki, samojeds or any other of the northern siberian reinherders
You can try coiling it in opposite coils (every other coil is rotated the other way). Then it unwraps itself easily without tangling - look it up, it's a nice trick.
I thought that wild hello fresh were almost extinct, and only the domesticated ones could be had, but there you go! Nice to see they are re-introducing them in the wild!
Dude, i got attacked last weekend by a wild pack of waffles.
You never know whats out there.
@@voidwalker7774 Gotta make sure you ALWAYS have a bottle of Canadian maple syrup on your persons, only way to prevent an attack.
They are in the wild. But only in Australia.. Let's hope they don't become a "rabbit problem.."
@@Zylo1111 i hear butter burns right through them as well. Keep a stick (of butter) on you at all times when hiking.
Clearly they are bring them back like the Tasmanian tiger.
The Prey axe was actually a +1 Axe of Returning, that’s why it worked so well.
That make sense. It worked well for Grog.
And the rope was megical indian rope, woven from a virgin on a full moon
The entire reason that the returning axe and the predator shield were in the movie was because the director was playing God of War and cared so little about the project or had so little vision for it that they let its influance dominate the movie. Right down to turning the boy into the dog.
the camera adds +10 magnetic return
@@krikeydial3430 *shanks Pike*
A throwing Axe is one of the best examples of a functional yet visually epic medieval weapons.
Remember the Franks used throwing axes to defeat the Moors at Tours.
And from personal experience it is much easier to throw an axe or a tomahawk consistently and with power than it is to throw a knife. Also it’s a pretty brutal close range hand to hand weapon, in my opinion it’s one of the best off hand weapons a fantasy fighter can use.
I think a fantasy warrior wielding a Spear and an Axe is a unstopable force
I've carried a few throwing axes on all my fighter-type TTRPG characters for years
Dear Shad, I know we haven't had this conversation yet, but please don't hurt yourself with an axe. Thank you
Amen
I'll drink to that
@@pr9039 I was already drinking, but now it is with you
I agree. Do Not Rope Dart with an AXE!
He did specify he was using a foam LARP axe for the catching tests for saftey reasons.
From my past experience doing juggling and whatnot,
- hatchets and hammers are actually really easy to juggle with.
- your hands adapt to the impact from handles pretty quickly. The weight tires you out more than the impact hurts.
- the off-hand is used for handling rope, while the main hand mostly just throws.
- There's a proper way to coil rope in your off-hand so that it releases as you throw. Life guards learn it for throwing flotation devices, and stage hands learn it for cables and such.
Of course, none of that fixes the edge alignment, retrieving the ax, or the slack on the ground when you throw it a second time. You should probably use the off-hand to yank it back in, with the rope sliding through your gloved dominant hand.
I was thinking all of this. When I saw it being done in the film I rolled my eyes. The difficulty in which this feat would be to accomplish is quite high.
I agree with all of what yellow said however there are methods to retrieve items tied to rope that would greatly help with the return part. Playing with rope as a kid you can learn this but it is a practiced skill soon given the the time period of the movie its likely she had this skill.
The throwing part I can't speak to much on although I know there are knots that could help a little but not solve the problem. Being a tomahawk does play a big role vs an age though and we know from Japanese and Chinese weapons that there are methods to fight with rope weapons appropriately.
While these skills are much harder to learn now a days, back then when people were forced to use mechanical skills related to the body from childhood on these skills are much easier to learn this is the importance of playing outside as a child in today's time.
@@rendarcrow there are weapons in which have a chain or rope attached but they are not very long nor are they attached in such a manner as with this axe. Usually there is a weapon (kama, axe, sword, whatever) that has a chain/rope attached at the bottom of the grip/handle and that has a weight or instrument at the end of that which was used to attack at range. You would have to be very desperate to let go of your main weapon to throw it or swing it by the chain/rope.
Regardless of that, none of the things you mentioned were in the movie. Even if what you're saying is a way to make it work, that's not what was shown. Besides, if it was that useful of a trick, the entire tribe would be using it I would suspect. Someone was bound to witness her in action and if not, keeping such a secret from the tribe would be inherently selfish to a group you count on to help you survive. Would it not?
I don't know, it's all speculation from my side really.
@@naezjinra agreed had a whole cohesive reply typed then discarded to tired after rough day to retype.
Short: saw it once but the scene was cut the rest the movie it was as described by shad.
My earlier thing was speculation to make it work.
Agreed never throw your main weapon. Its as much defense as offence.
@@naezjinra True, but you also have a creature coming from outer-space hunting for fun, filled with technology, so being worried about the realism of the rope-axe gadget seems a bit... Pointless.
I am pleasantly surprised by Shad's axe throwing ability.
Axe throwing is actually a bit easier than knife throwing once you've gotten a feel for the distances.
It's a lot of fun, I recommend setting up a target in the back yard.
it's easier to throw something that's heavier on one end i used to throw screwdrivers in a tree and got pretty accurate with them much more so than with a wooden spear i made with no weight on the end
Better than his knife throwing lol
It's called editing
@@stonefox9124 remarkable how most people dont notice even when he showed later how he was missing most throws
Never thought about bringing hellofresh as camping meals... it's genius.
Shad's Hello Fresh sponsorship segments may be the most convincing advertisements out there. Food looks freakin delicious
Never watch TH-cam when you are hungry!
I've gotten Hello Frest for a month when I was sick. Its genuinely pretty good. A bit salty, but otherwise very nice.
As a sailor, I can tell you that dropping a spooled line often tangles very badly, but there're ways of preparing a line to be released
The easiest method is to place the end down and loosly put the rest on top bit by bit. The drawback is that you need space for this. A method that takes more to prepare, but is a bit more reliable would be to take 2 pins and make figure 8s on them. That forces the layers to stay separated, but it'll tangle if the tension is too tight. For storing, a line is coiled without kinking it. I don't have the proper English word for it but you'd call it "opschieten" in Dutch (th-cam.com/video/KXiOIy-M-EY/w-d-xo.html). If you wrap a line around something, it'll want to rotate around, causing kinks one way or the other. Best is to just let it do what it wants before storing it, or it'll be harder to use afterwards. For throwing a line for yay-long (even if stored correctly) you'd untie it, redo the length you need for the throw and then throw the whole thing instead of starting at the end. This uses the mass of the line to pull it along
What I think should work is to keep it tied up on your belt, untie it before going into combat and hold the line in the hand with your axe while throwing. The problem with the gyroscopic effect being disturbed by the line remains though
First, note that the aim here isn't max distance or max speed throwing. It would be reliability.
For max distance throwing, you'd probably want 2 nails (without heads) on the ends of the axe shaft and coil the rope in a figure 8 onto those. The only advantage that it gives here is that you can keep the rope and axe in one hand without the need to drop the rope off its attachment before throwing it. I'd even go so far to take the rope off of at least one of its coiling nails, keeping it pinned in position with only your hand.
Well to be fair Analysis of projectile motion with quadratic air resistance from a nonzero height using the Lambert W function. Projectile motion is a form of motion where an object moves in a bilaterally symmetrical, parabolic path. Key Points: range symmetry. The path that the object follows is called its trajectory. Complex projectiles, such as the bow-and-arrow, and spearthrower-and-dart, create greater acceleration and hence confer extensive impact. The distributions show a peak in the longitudinal momentum at half the projectile impact velocity. ABSTRACT
In order to obtain the aerodynamic parameters of a high-spinning projectile, a new parameter identification method is proposed based on the Cubature Kalman Filter (CKF). First of all, the motion equation of the spinning stabilized projectile is established by the 4D trajectory model. Second, unknown parameters are added to the state vector to obtain the augmented state vector. Next, a new filter is designed for the identification of the unknown parameters based on the basic theory of the CKF. Finally, the simulation results of the CKF are compared with those of the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF). The results of comparison show that the CKF method can effectively identify the aerodynamic parameters and the identification error is less than 1.2%. The CKF method has greater accuracy than the EKF and the UKF.
Would is work with a spinning axe attached?
@@michaeldavies7949 Well, the axe may chop into the line, but at least the line isn't dragging it down as much since the line itself already has forward momentum. If it were to hit the line, you could try to move the line a little bit more to the side after you released the axe
This reminds me of something I learned while young, trying a type of camp out with my cousins. While there they taught us how to gather electrical cords up(it was a type of theater camp, and I was part of the tech crew) so that they could easily be thrown out over stage without getting knotted or kinking in the process. It always worked, and I've used it in my personal life as well as on the job for many things: drop cords, rope, air hoses... It's simple and easy, but I don't know what it's called; you gather the length of whatever normally, but every other loop you twist 180 degrees to ease the natural tension(or torque?) that builds up otherwise. As this is thrown out, it's almost like throwing a cord that's already straight, or perfectly spooled.
Would love to see you do a Functional Fandom on jump attacks next, like jumping in combat, and falling from a height to attack a target, how effective would that actually be?
And the double jump, just for the lols
We do it in boar hunting with spears, it works, unless you miss, then you might have a really pissed off hairy pig on your ass.
@@Reason4234 I'm sure double jumping wouldn't be practical in combat. People have been learning martial arts for thousands of years, and no one uses double jumps. If it was useful, surely someone would have used it by now.
I would also love a video on that topic, although I believe jump attack would realistically have a lot of downsides, like leaving yourself open to counterattacks and landing without harming yourself (or leaving yourself open to an attack after landing).
The bigger issue is the lack of mobility while mid-air, you are on an obvious trajectory and you will get skewered if they see you
Shad, great take and love this kind of content
In the film the rope is much thicker twine, and the Tomahawk is much lighter, also, the protagonist is much closer with only maybe 3-5 meters at most
Again, the film is fantasy and the retrieval was completely unbelievable, but cheers for having a go!
5 meters is about what he was doing. It's pretty far.
What is shown in the film is a mash-up of two historical weapons.
The use is based on a version of the Chinese Meteor Hammer that uses an axe head as the weight at the end of the rope.
The setup is based on using an axe as an improvised grappling hook to help climb trees or climb over walls, as shown in the first season of Vikings.
@@dgmt1 the original preditor whas no more realistik than pray you canot fire a minigun held in the hands.
@@martinhg98 So this man doesn't exist? th-cam.com/video/pcEg9aUa5js/w-d-xo.html
@@martinhg98 why not?
I think if the axe was smaller, the rope was thicker, and about half as long. You could probably practice it enough to have a novelty skill. Also, if taut you could send a signal through the rope and tug when a wavelength would send the axe slightly upwards instead of straight down. I've found myself doing it a lot with different kinds of lines and garden hoses to have them travel or de-tangle where I want to. Ropeskill is a genuine craft, much like swinging a lasso. With enough practice, I bet you could get some 90% skill to where the hunter was.
No you can’t. The axe just isn’t designed to be a rope weapon. The way the center of gravity works goes against the momentum you need in order to use a rope weapon.
@@VendettaProduction01 Okay Buddy.
An axe wasn't designed for this type of usage.
I agree that with years of practice, dedication, and talent, someone could use a heavily modified axe designed for rope combat, it is possible.
However.
Spear go staby. Spear go throw. Spear is man's best friend.
@@cruesteanmonarch7032 Agreed, when I say "novelty" it's because it's a near-worthless skill in itself apart from the developed dexterity and understanding of physics associated with it. Literally anybody with any established melee skill could overpower you when you attempt to chuck an weird axe tied to a rope at them. lol
I've been doing this quite successfully with a rope dart and meteor hammer for 10 years now. The rope used and the way it's coiled matters a lot and the exact weight and design of the projectile matters a lot. Many people absolutely can and do throw a blade into a target and pull it back with some level of velocity and remarkable levels of accuracy and repeatability. All that being said, we usually do this with a cord that's roughly 2 times your body height. Usually it's a highly static line with a special core that resists tangles and knots. Typically for safety we tie a small flag to the thrown projectile, it slightly slows down the object and makes its flight more stable and predictable and it adds some sound and some color and some movement to the object that makes it a lot easier to catch. Also attaching the cord to the projectile from a fixed point with some kind of swivel helps.
exactly...his rope is WAY TOO LONG...i stand 5'11 and the max length for my rope is 12ft...at 12 ft i can fully extend my rope dagger, stick my target and pull it back with one jerk but the difference is I'm spinning my dagger not holding it in my hand.
Ofc you can't throw 10 meters the film Prey was 5meters at best?
And like yourself, I've spun dart for 7 years now, My ropedart has a 5lb Isis, when soaked in oil because I set it on fire for performing at festivals etc, its more like 7lbs, my lash and my meteor is max 11ft in length. And I'm only 5'7 clearly he didn't do the T Pose to measure his hight for length needed.
Also (I can't remember the name for this) but you weave the cord like you link sausages, making the length less than 3ft, (there's another way the Japanese have with the dart resting on your forearm and the cords coiled around your arm and unties to the same effect) and the rope I use is ⅕inch tecnora..so that won't snap 100% guarantee.
Anyway so when you throw the dart, it un-threads from your none dominant hand, that too holds the slack and its in a nuce tie, so it don't come off
When I throw and hit a target e.g "a Tree"
I can pull it out and re-catch in my dominant hand no problems ready to spin and throw again. I have to try an aluminium axe but I bet with practice I could do just like in the film
Shad is not a flow artist.
A dart is one thing. The rope adds stability when used with a dart but with an axe..... not the same result....
@@Toxicstrike91 let me give you a lil healthy push back, adding a rope makes the weapon very unstable and unpredictable...you have to train much more carefully to master it... the stability you speak of is a testimony to the skill of the person using it ..one wrong move and you can easily stabb and or injure yourself...I know
Shad, you're missing the real advantage the rope gives you. You've got a 10 meter long flail now! With a sharpened blade, even. That's gotta be like, a gajillion times deadlier.
Harder to use effectively than you think. a flail damages wherever it hits, while the axe only causes significant damage if you can get thr blade to hit.
@@jeggsonvohees2201 don't forget an axe is also a stick the deadliest weapon of all!
@@jeggsonvohees2201 I mean, it's just a sharp corner square hammer on the not-blade sides - it's not like axes have pillows on their asses
Yeah! Then tie a second axe to the other end and you have nunchucks... err...axechucks! Everyone's favorite weapon after the stick!
If he can sharpen it to the point he could fell a forest by pointing the blade at the trees, he'd be unstoppable!
This just seems like a rough equivalent to a kusarigama, which does have an historic basis. From what I'm seeing, it looks like the kusarigama limited the chain length to about three and a half meters, which from the tests here looks like it would be more viable and closer to what the clips were showing.
Kusarigamas are indeed historically used in combat (thanks for mentioning it, couldn't remember the name for the life of me!), but it's the reverse principle. Throw the weight to tangle/misdirect the opponent while the main strike comes from sickle/hook. A closer approach would be the rope dart I think? It's also historically used, but it is the "main attack". Still nowhere near as powerful as a tomahawk. But both weapons' rope/chain is nowhere near the length of the video. I think 3 meters (10 feet) is a more realistic length. Shad at some point mentions that attaching a rope to a weapon is problematic, so I hope he reads these comments and makes another vid about kusarigamas and rope darts!
On the notion of chain weapons, i'd be interested in seeing Shad cover more of such chain weapons, like the Flying Guillotine, Meteor Hammer and Rope Dart.
@@shadow20262 That's similar to what I saw for information regarding historical combat use, also that it was best suited against swords and spears for entanglement. I also saw mention of using them for flashy displays, but these were more for entertainment value than actual combat. I could see the bladed portion getting thrown around for that though.
@@jurtheorc8117 The catch though is he’s not an eastern martial artist and the above mentioned weapons are beyond the most technically demanding. I’m not sure what you’d get out of his particular opinion
@@camgoodkicks Fair points. I think Shad is wise enough to acknowledge that he's not the most skilled or best trained man to physically test them out, so perhaps he could ask someone who does know more about them
And even just visually speaking, it could just be fun to see him analyzing and talking about the weapons in question.
This feels like a good opportunity to look into the different kinds of ropes available during different periods and in different locations. Ropes intended for lassoing would be good to look into, in particular.
All I have to say is thank you 👏👏👏👏
Most of the "ropes" available to the Natives at that time would be of the "animal body parts" variety... but, it makes no difference... tying the rope to the shaft of the axe/tomahawk will always slow the ax/tomahawk down... as the tomahawk tumbles end over end in the air the rope will slide up and down the shaft, pulling at it the whole time... every revolution of the tomahawk equals two instances of the rope slowing it down...
his rope is way too long; shouldn't be no more than two of his arm's length
@@jeebuschristos8423 Naru used a tree branch fiber construction of rope and how she tied it to the tomahawk would have an effect on whether it slid up or down the shaft. Based on pausing that roped tomahawk making scene it looks like it would have stayed put towards the head.
@@jeebuschristos8423 She’s not exactly chucking it at a huge distance. It slowing down would only matter at farther distances, probably farther than the rope itself.
The rope attached to the tomahawk in Prey is one of those instances where I will totally let it slide because the rest of the movie is so well done.
tiny little cute native girl having the strength and prowess to stand up to a predator LMAO
This is probably why real life chain weapons such as the Kusarigama don't use the bladed part as the primary throwing impliment and the ball part intended to be used on the chain is typically held slack. They also have a much shorter tether than this.
I do think there might be some validity if they idea is simply to be able to pull the ax back, not in one tug but to retrieve it, but in that case, I think it'd be far better just to carry multiple throwing axes, which wasn't uncommon.
Very true. Have you ever seen the anime "Inuyasha?" It's mostly okay but I can't stand how one character keeps using a kusarigama wrong.
Great video, liked for the algorithm!
I had a character in DnD do something similar but instead had their magehand attached to the ax when they threw it then had it come back.
The concept of free fall physics alone will never let you pull an axe right back to the hand without some form of upward momentum. Everything falls at just under 10 meters per second. Thanks Gravity!
Yes! So we add Speed! She would need to pull on the rope so hard to give the axe enough speed to travel in a straight line to her hand. And then catch it with her hand. Someone who knows math can even calculate how impossible that would be both to pull that hard and then stop the axe once it's flying.
That means the lower you hit, the better your chance to do it. But if you hit at your height or above there's absolutely no way to do it.
And even if you hit close to the ground, the force you need to apply to the axe is next to impossible to a) achieve and b) transfer through the rope. Ropes are elastic which really hurts in this case.
@@konstantin3814 needs to be quite less than 1 second then. She better put on some muscle and develop pistol shrimp reflexes haha
You could attach the rope to a shaft, as with a flail. Swinging it up and behind you over your head (like splitting wood but in reverse) would give you both the extra momentum and some extra speed. A mere step to the side would lower the chances of accidentally axing yourself, should this flail-shaft give it enough momentum to reach you.
I always thought it looked incredibly fake that people would catch axes thrown at them in movies like it was nothing, so I was as surprised as you were to find that is the most realistic part of this experiment. It is well worth the risk of a sore hand (or even missing hand) to stop an axe being thrown at your head if that is all you had time to do to stop it. Since it is rather possible to do so, I can imagine this actually happened in combat in real life on at least a handful of occasions. Imagine catching the axe and throwing it back at them with ease. That would really drop morale for the enemy side that watched it.
Shad: "let's try throwing axes with ropes attached"
The trees: "ugh, not that guy again! I barely grew my bark back!"
I love the different ways you seamlessly introduce Hello Fresh as the sponsor. Always so entertaining. And this time, my husband 'King' James, let me know after some dental work is done, he wants to try it out for ourselves.
The sponsorship segway was absolutely peerless.
The segue into Hello Fresh made me laugh pretty hard and I needed it. As for the rope throwing axe part I never really imagined it working very well; but now I'm wondering how well it would work if you had the rope tied to a ring at the bottom of the handle.
THANK YOU SHAD! My friends thought I was crazy when I told them that this axe rope combo was impossible.
Well I guess you get to turn it back on them cause their crazy for believing it was even remotely legit.
The rope the protagonist used was much shorter than the one you're using, and I'll use three examples of weapons that did use a chord to wrap around the user, as well as throw and recall using the rope, thong, or chain.
The Chain Whip, which aren't usually long weapons, can be extended outwards and pulled back.
The Kusarigama, with a 2 meter chain or so, could use the Kama as a thrown tool, and the weighted ball on the other end of the chain as a handle.
The Maori had short clubs called Patu, that were tied to chords to prevent the weapon from being last. It could also be used to extend the reach of the fighter, and pull the weapon back into their hand.
Adding onto this,
The Hoeroa was a throwing club with a chord attached. The intention is to embed the weapon into an enemies legs, and pull them back. Should the weapon miss, it can be yanked back from the ground into the warriors hand again.
Matau-tangata were throwing hooks with very long ropes attacked. Used differently to the yanking handaxe, the Matau-tangata was used to pull apart Army formations, or even to hook into a warriors body and yank them towards you.
Lastly among the Maori chord weapons, Kotaha-kurutai, which was a dagger or a shortened spear attached to a fairly long chord between 1 and 2 meters. The intention is to cast the weapon from the warriors hand, while another hand held the chord(or stone at the end) in order to recall the weapon to their possession.
Most of these weapons for Maori were primarily used by the Tuhoe people, who also go by the cool nickname of "the Children of the Mist". They had many intereactions early in their history with the Te Arawa people, who are believed to have traveled from the Americas before settling in New Zealand. Before the Americas, they were fellow Polynesian Wayfinders, and part of their dialect and tools were adapted from the American peoples.
Was going to say that it was a poor example of a test, rope too long and the rope wasn't tight enough on the axe and he was too far away for any momentum
He should have used a smaller axe for accuracy sake but regardless it wouldn’t work. A lighter axe would deal with the rope even worse. Fact. Doesn’t matter if someone in a grass hut can throw a hook with a line attached lol.
All the throwing items you mentioned… not it one has to spin…. Axes do and that will be a no go for ropes lol
would kinda take away the benefit of throwing it then.
@@kinroga what would that be
Catching the axe makes me wonder how feasible it is to throw and catch other weapons from the air. I imagine that throwing a sword to an ally across a room or a small part of a battlefield would be more difficult because the hilt would be smaller than a shaft of a spear or an axe. If there's a video idea there, I would love to see it.
That would be totally interesting
Although there's probably no safe way to really test, I wonder how this would work out with some sort of bungie chord. In the movie, the motions seemed to imply a certain "springiness" to the "rope".
I think this would work if shad used maybe half or even less of the rope he was using.
They used a type of rope sailors call "heaving line" that they use to pull mooring lines for the ship. Another commentor mentioned this rope and what its used for above.
You'd want less elasticity. Think fishing line: fluorocarbon has more elasticity, and so it stretches more before reaching tension; monofilament has less stretch, and so becomes taught much quicker. In order to pull something on the other end of a cord, you first have to pull out all of the slack and get tension.
So, for pulling quickly like this, you'd want a stiffer maybe even heavier rope. The line she uses in the film was thinner and tougher, more like twine than that cloth looking stuff Shad is using.
Feels like a bungie line would make it harder to retrieve the axe, unless you were constantly throwing at maximum distance.
I'm glad your doing this video I wanted to know of this is possible when I saw the movie, I like magic throwing weapons and thought that this was ridiculous. Can't wait to watch this later+
I will say typically in the movie she had a much shorter range. In the over the shoulder perspective it is way farther but in the side by side it didn't seem very far at all. So I think it would be cool to revisit this at a shorter range
@@GreenLycan And the axe was smaller I think.
these tests arent usually fully following what happens in the movies, in the mattrer of it hurting when you catch it she didnt catch it as much as moved it with the momentum and threw it again
@@PrinceGastronome it is smaller but that is less in it's favor I think since it has to pull more mass
@@shizo66 she also did just straight up catch it several times. But yeah, some of his demonstrations don't really track for me.
It’s nice watching Shad having fun doing these experiments.
LOL Great fun Shad. Try getting a little tactical throwing tomahawk, some stiff lariat rope and a pig side to throw at. Then get your safety equipment on so that when you pull the little throwing tomahawk back, it doesn't maim or kill you. The tomahawk will fly back to you easier when you pull it out of a person or animal with rope that has no stretch. It looked like she was only 10 feet from the little trees she threw it into them. Stay safe. I hope you and those near or dear to your heart are as healthy and happy as possible.
My first thought seeing the axe in the movie was, “this is how you hit yourself with your own axe,” and then I was disappointed by the lack of spinning the rope-axe whirlwind of doom style 😂
You know it's a good video when you go like, Yep, this is clearly dangerous
Facts! I had that exact thought.
Functional fandom idea: Would swords be a usefull sidearm for troops fighting in starship corridors since only using firearms or lasers might risk damaging electronics or shoot holes in the ship? In other words a variant of sword & cuttlass in space...
So like lightsabers?
I believe the dune remake kind of tackles that idea to some extent.
Have you ever heard about the boarding of the "Endar Spire"?
They do this in Legend of Galactic Heroes (Anime from the 80s).
I kinda doubt starships would be this fragile.
I remember a norse-themed fantasy book, they had throwing axes tied to their wrists with leather strips. After throwing, there would be a pulling contest with the enemy.
I think its one of those things thats just plausible enough for an action movie like this. Dutch and Harrigan had a few moments that were a bit unrealistic.
Dutch setting elaborate traps, making a reliable bow that can penetrate completely through thick trees... in just a few hours, from scratch.
see this is where i start to get kind of annoyed with people who watch films, and critique them. not directing this comment at you specifically, but the "plausible enough" thing, when it's a movie with a giant crab-faced alien who can wrestle grizzly bears, has invisibility, and self-propelled bolts controlled by a mask. There are so many other things we have to suspend disbelief over, in order to enjoy a movie like Prey, that I always find it strange, and a bit depressingly amusing, that fans will instead spend hours debating the real world physics of a hatchet with a rope to it. Like THAT is the "it's not real!" line in the sand you won't cross? That's the "realism" hill you plan on dying on? lol
I dunno, I think our metric for the things we call BS on, in our entertainment, has skewed into a really weird spectrum.
oh gawd another midthunder simp defending a trash movie lol prey doesn't have shit on the originals n kids won't remember this trash when they get older and show their kids lol
@@happyninja42 I agree mostly. If they throw in crazy impossible weapons or stunts, that's what blows the suspension of disbelief off and ruins a movie, things like this are pretty far from it.
@@happyninja42 Because ropes and axes are real, while alien predators are not. Advanced science-fiction technology has a lot more flexibility than tying an axe to a rope.
@@WJS774 i am aware but the reality is that even in scifi, they do a LOT of shit where you could easily say "ok even with advanced tech that's just bullshit" and nobody bats an eyelash at it. because SCIENCE!! I just think people get a tad too hung up on things that boil down to The Rule of Cool, and forget the entire thing is fictional, and they should just enjoy it without losing their shit over it.
I regards to catching the axe, have you ever seen people bounce baseball bats of the ground? it sounds weird but it's what came into my mind when you said catching an axe would hurt, and how you track the handle to catch it.
It would be super unpredictable on the return; you have to yank it out of whatever it hit and it wouldn't come out cleanly in the same plane as it went in.
Generally I prefer when my weapons _don't_ come flying back at me in unpredictable ways.
Bat tricks are usually done at a distance of a foot with extremely predictable angles and a set of exact practice, compared to pulling an axe back from a variety of distancesand angles without exact grip on the handle in the middle of that.
When I saw Prey for the first time, I thought the axe rope thing she did was so impractical and having you confirm it makes me happy. It really shows that if tying a rope to a axe was a good idea someone would have thought of it a long time ago.
tbf, The Predator IP was never really all that realistic when it comes to weapons. Jesse Ventura's ammo pack would be hundreds of pounds judging by the rate of fire and the ammo dump of the tree clearing scene alone.
So... the Kusarigama?
It would seem that Shad hasn’t had much instruction of coiling rope for the purpose of no tangles. Sailors and electrical technicians are two groups I know of that want to be able to coil a rope/chain/cable without it tangling.
Sound technicians, too. We used to get hardcore chewed out if we didn't coil the mic cables correctly.
An earlier comment from an irl sailor mentioned this, though he clarified it would work in combat like shown in Prey.
Would that mean Grandpa Jack would be a better axe thrower-retriever than Shad? His construction background would certainly grant him efficient coiling skills.
Rock climbers, too. Bunch of videos on the subject. The TLDR is that you don't "coil" the rope in the first place! A different shape is needed. Granted, climbing rope is pretty stiff, so what works for climbing rope wouldn't necessarily be ideal for electricians, sailors, etc.
As a lifeguard, throwing ropes without them getting coiled on themselves was an important skill. While it obviously wouldn't change the overall outcome, see if a local pool would have time to teach a proper throw with a buoy ring. I'd try to describe it, but I don't think I could explain the technique well enough through TH-cam comment, but I will give it a go.
1- Step on the back end of the rope. Mostly, this keeps the rope from flying away, but also provides a tension point for the rope to unfurl.
2- loosely coil the rope in loops the size of your wingspan. Do not let the coils cross themselves.
3- keeping the coils in the hand without the [axe], loosely hold them from below with an open palm, letting the coils hang freely.
4- with the throw, also toss the rope with an under hand toss. Use the tension to keep you hand on the rope.
5- ???
6- profit.
they should have use a round leather buffalo hide shield, it would have made sense.
Hi Shad, I love your content and you are by far my favorite TH-cam. I hope you and your family are well.
If you don't mind, I have a video request. An underappreciated weapon video on the sling.
Yes the good ol sling the best lo budget missile weapon to compliment your stick
Its quite appreciated but sure, video would be nice :D
The OG, even before sticks we used rocks!
"Next, on Shadiversity: We will test a Machicolation tied to a rope".
This allows you to bring them with you so you have them for all your spontaneous seige needs.
something that would also effect your tests is the type of rope used. A stiffer rope like the character in the clip seems to have may have different results the the rope you used for testing, that seemed to stretch a bit before the axe would move
theres something very charming about cooking over an open campfire. no heat control, no settings, just one setting, fire. i think there is is elegance in simplicity with it.
The main issue here is that the range is 2-3 times as long as in the movie with the rope even longer. The main idea behind weapons like this is not for long range use, but to make the weapon better at short range by being reusable quickly. You could even see it as a fold-able polearm.
Safety first. Since humans lack superhuman reflexes getting a bounce back could be painful or even lethal.
@@knotengajin7359 In a life or death battle so is it better to risk harming yourself then to be sure to lose.
It seems to be less dangerous to the user than the shaolin wip, but with the added difficulty of being a completely new technology invented by the girl in the movie.
Good stuff. If someone wanted to make this really work, they'd need a launcher with enough force to overcome the rope's drag, a spool & winch system that could pull really hard and not get snagged, and some kind of protective catcher for the returning weapon.
In the film, the protagonist breaks a metal hunting trap and then admires the metal chain link
I was thinking that this scene would of been a plot development, like an upgrade moment to her throwing tomahawk
Sadly missed opportunity, film was fine, but a lot of the writing needed fixed
"the writing needed fixed"? *Likewise*
She didn't break the chain, she just tried to break it with a rock. I find it strange she doesn't have an idea of what metal is, given that she's comamche and they have horses, who have they would have gotten from whites who have metal.
@@stupidhandles Grammatical errors from a youtube commenter and creative writing errors from a creative writer aren't exactly comparable.
@@pagatryx5451 The same effort seems to have been put forth in both endeavors. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@jeggsonvohees2201 They always try to memory hole Native cultures as having always had horses in media. No one understands how the Columbian exchange worked.
Also would like to see this done with a natural fiber rope which has less stretch than a modern polymer rope like the one you're using.
I'm also curious how fast you can make a bark rope of the Prey length irl. She makes a pretty long rope within a few minutes in-universe.
Did he say what kind of rope it was and i just missed it?
I assumed it was just a cotton rope like the kind used for hanging laundry.
When throwing the axe, you can arc it upwards a little bit in the throw. When pulling back however, it's just straight back, meaning the axe begins falling as soon as it's out of the tree. In order to get the axe back into the hand, the return trip needs so much speed that it can get back to your hand before falling barely any distance. I don't think the pulling muscles are going to match throwing muscles in most people.
Good work, it's always nice seeing this kind of testing in real life and piecing together why this stuff can/can't work.
I'm amazed that you were SO confident in your hypothesis that you didn't care to get any head protection at all :D
Clearly a sign of someone that knows his stuff!
Shad, I bet others are with me in it: re-try it using the method that old finshers use (there's another comment with that), and also retry using a reel... I was also thinking that maybe some small apartus to reel back the line could be an interesting stage 3 to see what effect a mechanical force could have on helping to pull the axe back.
You should make a video on flaming swords!
He’s already expressed his stance on that, but yeah.
@@The_Sleepiest_Socialist When?
I think it could work in some of the fantasy depictions I've seen, though, where the rope is enchanted to extend and retract. It'd still be hard to catch, probably even harder, but that removes most of the other issues.
Thank you for this. No one is talking about the absurd magic axe she had, or the magic flower that apparently cooled her body temp to the ambient temp, which would kill a human. If I brought it up, I’d just get made fun of for nitpicking a movie with an alien in it, or I’d just get insulted and called racist or sexist or something, which is strange because I only ever mentioned the axe, the flower, the dog, and the final plan she came up with that worked so perfectly. Thanks Shad. I love your logic.
You should also test how effective the predator wrist blades would be in actual combat
I think the closest real world example to the rope axe would be a harpoon. Though a harpoon was used in a different manner.
First a harpoon isn't thrown or shot end over end so a rope won't effect it as much in flight.
Second a harpoon wasn't hauled back in unless it missed or fell out cause it didn't seat properly. They were also attached to the boat so losing the rope wasn't a problem. They were used to weaken and kill things or attach floats to them so they couldn't dive and escape, like in Jaws.
Beyond s grappling hook I don't see much point in attaching this to an axe.
This brings back some memories I'd almost completely forgotten about. And it's honestly pretty cringe.
When I was about 13 I used to main pudge in dota 2. I was bad at it but the idea of throwing a hook out and reeling people in really encapsulated me for some reason so I made a winch and pulley system out of random bits in the garage to which I tied a paint roller to act as the hook and fastened the entire system to my belt.
I'd occasionally go into the garage and just throw it around when I got bored. I found that I could throw it out the entire distance of the rope before it dropped. The mechanism couldn't bring the hook back itself, I had to actually wind it back if I wanted the rope shorter but I got really good at catching the hook if I pulled the rope. I could even snag some small objects like bird feeders but never managed to bring something all the way back, it would always fall off the hook. Eventually I decided the ordeal was pointless because the laws of physics wouldn't allow me to be able to do what I wanted.
I hid it from my mum and to this day I don't think she knows about it. It's in her garage somewhere.
When I watched the movie and saw the axe fly back as if it were jet propelled made me burst out laughing.
True. I like the film, but ironically the predator's alien tech is somewhat more realistic - especially in the "sequels - than a returning axe on a crappy rope...
that's probably the best ad transition I've ever seen on youtube...
There is suspension of Disbelief and then there is "I'm calling complete BS on this one!"
Prey falls into the later. Thank you for proving this.
1:45 I was genuinely surprised when the Hello Fresh bag flew into your hand, your own surprised reaction really helped sell it, enjoyed that quite a lot.
2:41 Am I the only one that heard Shad say that he could "Detest to that!" ?
What a great way to start my day😁✌️
Can you swim in full plate armor?
Only as much as a hippo (they just run along the river bottom)
... I'm actually stunned. I didn't originally intend on watching the full video... and now, you're making your conclusion speech. I'm not sure if you're a damn wizard or just one hell of an entertainer but well done. 10/10 would get hypnotized again.
That's why you need a magical chain for that in fantasy, but aside from the unraveling and pulling it back with enough force, you don't need to magic up anything else, it does work.
Yep Native American Tomahawk axes🪓 rules!
When you were trying to pull back the axe it looked like you had about twice the distance between you and the axe than what's shown in the clip. I'm not saying it would make much of a difference but it could have some effect.
This reminded me about the dwarven unit of axe-throwers in "The Battle for Middle-Earth II". So logistically ridiculous.
Carrying at least about 1 kg/couple pounds of iron/steel per one axe - carrying maybe about 20 of them on your back just to throw 1 to hopefully kill 1 enemy from short range, hoping not to get killed with an arrow, bolt or by a horse in the meantime...
Would have made more sense for an axe throw to be a a unit ability, and dwarves to use crossbows like the Uruks. They're too short to make good use of bows, not against all threats.
The nice thing about dwarves in fantasy is that they are so much physically stronger that them carrying around a quiver of throwing axes can conceptually work. Them having infinite ammo because game mechanics is also a thing. After all, most of the bow units in that game did not even have quivers, they only carry around 1 arrow.
@@TankHunter678
Those are good points. The axe throwers did actually carry multiple axes at least.
There are two advantages of a throwing axe over a crossbow: you can use it onehanded while carrying a large shield in your off hand and you can seemlessly switch into melee combat, since you can have throwable axes that make decent melee weapons, too. Also, they might be a little bit more effective against plate armor than short bows would be, so it makes at least a little bit of sense for a short race to practise axe-throwing as a ranged discipline when heavy crossbows aren't available. I agree though, the concept of a specialized ranged combat unit carrying a quiver full of throwing axes is ridiculous in a world where crossbows are known. The throwing axe makes more sense as a side arm for a melee fighter, who carries one or two throwing axes to mess up an enemy formation while charging to close in for melee.
@@chrisrudolf9839 If a dwarf can throw an axe with such strength that they actually out perform the crossbow, and thrown axes are made tough enough to be easy to retrieve and reuse there would not be much reason for them to use crossbows would there?
Especially if the opening salvos can be repurposed by the guys charging into melee.
Also, now that I think on it again, the axe thrower unit for the dwarves in Battle for Middle-Earth 2 were the only ranged unit to possess a shield. They were also tougher then other ranged units.
Your ad transitions are so smooth that I actually watch them
Ohhhh, my goodness gracious me. I am impressed. All my goodness and graciousness I did not expect to be so impressed.
Shad, my dude, I absolutely love how offended you get on behalf of all of us weapons nerds when movies do unrealistic things. Please never stop. Thank you, that is all.
What if you had like a spring-loaded spool on your belt kinda like a rope tape measure and then you tie that to the ax? It would unravel smoothly and never have any slack
Or a bungee cord to pull it back by itself?
If you had a stronger tape measure type system, it might be able to bring it back to you, probably in a fairly controlled way.
So when's Shad going to look into a Flying Guillotine? Last thing i heard is that people are losing their head over them.
Kidding aside, an analysis on meteor hammers and rope darts would be neat. Regardless of practicality compared to sticks and stones, they are beautiful to see in action.
Cool video, but I think: 1. Rope should be thicker. 2. Rope should wind around the arm so that it is taut when retracted at the desired range, yours is currently too loose. 3. Should be already adept at axe throwing to accomplish, not a novice, you're not able to "see" the rotations yet so this is futile. 4. Most importantly, the attachment should be at the base of the handle. When throwing overhand, the axe rotates forwards, when retracting, this will be reversed. I'll see if I can demonstrate this when I've the opportunity. It's actually very doable.
Yeah, this guy throws it like a scared woman❤
@@itsMaTt123 Don't be mean. Dude doesn't have to make these vids. He's still cool for trying it out.
@@steeldruid yeah he cool and all but he talking like he knows hahaha and it's so funny watching him throw it lol
Something I noticed here right around the 10 minute mark. Shad! You’re wearing the foam armor! WHAT ARE YOU DOING…..oh yeah….you were never in any real danger. Carry on, then.
And then towards the end there, I had a good belly laugh just imagining Future Shad going out back to play catch with Older Thunder Warrior…with an axe instead of a baseball. 🤣
Feel like it would be more practical to carry multiple axes and retrieve the ones you have lodged In the Corpses than it would be to have a rope axe
That is how the Vikings did it with their throwing axes.
stop using logic
In the Navy we throw ropes made up in 'heaving lines', which is how I thought she used the configuration of Tomahawk and rope. Other than the lightning reactions you'd need, a 'heaving line' might be the best way to try it as a novice
I made that same comment. Ive thrown a heaving line that has broken car windows and faces
@@mr.jackhatter9385 monkeys fist is the ultimate weapon!😅
The rope throwing axe can be pretty good if your enemies are two equally spaced, soft-wooded trees, and you have Hollywoke jump cut superpowers.
I was playing a Star Wars campaign and my character was a lightly force sensitive echani (SW5e Monk class) who used a pair of short swords/daggers. One of them was fitted with a rope and a powered reel was attached to the back of his forearm. Don’t ask how he sheathed the weapons, I never figured it out and my DM didn’t ask. It was definitely fun, though, that’s for sure
That was a great transition into the sponsor. Was legit pleasently surprised.
This could definitely work better with the right techniques, such as having the rope in a somewhat loose single-layer coil. It might also work better to hold the rope in your off-hand, so you can use it to manipulate the rope while you throw the axe with your other hand. That way you can keep a loose grip on the rope so you're ready to pull on it immediately. Lastly, finding the right balance of rope length, rope weight, and axe weight would definitely improve effectiveness.
I think the rope-axe has a bit more potential than shown in this video, although still not enough to consider it viable in a real fight. With how difficult it is to actually pull the axe back in such a way that it's possible to catch it, not to mention how your opponent will have plenty of opportunity to kill you while you're trying to get your weapon back, I'd say this gimmick has too many drawbacks to get anywhere.
It’s worth considering that even learning the technique is impractical, as the risk of injury is incredibly high. Also if you need to throw the axe twice, your probably doing it wrong or shouldn’t be throwing it
@@waylander9265 I've been learning rope dart and meteor hammer techniques. Putting a weighted tennis ball on the end of the rope until you stop hitting yourself is a simple safety measure easily achievable with whatever.
The important thing your learn is that the longest line length to deal easily with is arm span plus shoulder to ground.
You are right, it can be explored a bit more
it won't make it a viable combat technique but that's the fun part, checking how plausible it can be
With how easy it was for Shad to adjust to tracking the handle when it was thrown back, I wonder if that has any implications to the effectiveness of the throwing axe as a weapon. If you can track the handle so easily, can you practice to at least deflect an incoming axe without the head impacting you?
With a shield, yes.
With a staff/polearm, maybe, but hitting the axe with the polearm could cause it to bounce unpredictably, possibly into you.
With a sword, doubtful, due to the leverage the sword has against the hand. You could halfsword, but that would be worse than a polearm.
With a hand, yes, with training.
Or you could just step out of the way.
I would think if you were going to attempt to deflect the axe with any weapon, you would try to track to the head to prevent most of the unpredictable rebounding. Especially since that would be closer to the center of rotation.
Thrown at target it would be moving a bit faster than the tosses back. Likely still block/dodgeable but not as easily. It’d require a lot of focus in a fight and you’d be distracted or off balance for the followup or the strike from the next soldier in the line.
Stand outside and have a friend throw a few frisbees at you at full speed. Try dodging or blocking with a bokken. Wear a helmet with a face-guard!
Shad, what about winding the rope like you'd wind a lariat or Lasso it was used on horseback and due to the way it was winded up it was able to just unwind layer by layer. It would be winded up so the rope is layered on itself not twisted around itself. Liked the video just thought that would be a better way of winding the rope.
Just seeing Shad cook the food directly on the floor in the wild like this, idk....it caught me off guard and tbh doing so gives a certain charm to cooking the food, like i was certainly not ready for it but imma okay with it. I kind of wanna try out too lol
Not really a brocoli fan but this indeed looks super tasty
Hello fresh makes it easy too cook like that because everything is pre portioned in bags you just cut and dump
one of the way to possibly hold the rope spool is within the same had as the throwing axe, releasing the axe also releases the rope so you would have minimal friction and items for the rope to catch on.
Great production quality on this one Shad, loved watching as well!
For me the axe-rope throw fell into the Rule of Cool, and I was fine with it, even knowing it wasn't realistic. :)
After finally seeing the movie the magical returning axe (right up there with magical dog of convenience) weren't what irked me about the film. It was that Naru had the kind of intuition you'd expect from someone several centuries ahead of her, with how she handled something like the pistol to how she was able to intuit how the Predators tech worked well enough to create a plan around exploiting it. It should be dangerously close to inconceivable to not just her, but every human during that era how any of the alien tech works, we're talking ancient aliens depictions of gods descending in their space pyramids level.
That... and getting into a CQC fight and holding her own, when Dutch from the first film, and Harrigan from the 2nd, were getting their shit rocked. Guys with significantly more experience with violence going up against a creature that is stronger and faster then a man...and you want me to believe she can do better? How? In what world?
In the end all I can say is that it was....fine. Not The Predator bad, but not quite as interesting as Predators. I'd even take Predators 2 over it despite it's occasionally cheesy dialogue and hammier acting. Though that could've just been Gary Busey.
Oh thank you for looking into this. I’m sure all of us thought of you when this popped up in the film! 😂
Shad: Catching an axe is getting easier the more I do it.
Kratos: ...........*thumbs up*
I'd be curious about how where the rope was attached (pommel, shaft, head) would effect it's ability to land a sticking blow
also, if you can reliably catch the shaft, could you bleed off some momentum by continuing the moment
ummm... she did that in real life.
my uncle was the caterer on the set and he said she did it in one take.
Going and watching the scene, i think a major factor in her ability with the weapon is she has her hand as an anchor for the rope.
She throws with her left hand and holds the rope tight in her right hand, elimanting the issue of slack and it getting in the way. Also as another pointed out, she was a bit closer to her trees, and unsure atm of how much issue it would offer but she does have a lot more freedom of movmemnt in the way of clothing and the actual movement itself.
I was v worried the entire time we were gonna see you hit yourself with an axe, the best kind of failure of delivery
One thing that I can think of that would _kinda_ fix the tangling issue is using a relatively light chain rather than a rope, since the lower coefficient of friction means it's less likely to get caught on itself. However, that would add more drag on the axe and probably reduce the range of the weapon and make it even less accurate.
just watched the thing today in the morning, then reminded myself ,,hey didnt shad made a vid bout this movie" and i was like mm.. what a coincidence