Here at Pro-Lock and Safe in Felton, we are pretty big fans of the cinema. Whether it’s heading to the theater to see something like Dunkirk or War for the Planet of the Apes, renting a movie to watch at home, or even just flicking through the channels to find something that looks interesting, there’s just something about watching movies that is such a blast. Perhaps it’s the fact that we get to escape from reality for a little while.
And as a matter of fact, that’s the subject of the day here on our blog. Everyone has an area of expertise. That means that sometimes when you’re watching a movie, you just to watch a scene and you have to exclaim, “Wait a second…that is not realistic at all!” As your local locksmiths, the things that we happen to notice are–you guessed it–scenes where people are picking locks. Do films and television portray our craft accurately? Let’s take a look at a few movies before answering that question.
The Italian Job
In the 2003 remake of The Italian Job, one of the main characters (played by the always wonderful Charlize Theron) opens a safe. She is shown using a power drill to break the lock, but due to complications, she ends up trying to crack the combination manually. After quite a bit of trial and error and a handful of encouragement from her teammates, the safe unlocks and the heist commences.
As safe locksmiths, we are uniquely qualified to comment on the accuracy of this scene. Many commenters on the internet refer to it as being particularly accurate. The truth of the matter is that the way they portray the trial and error aspect of getting into the safe is fairly true to life–depending on the safe, of course.
Police Squad
Premiering as a television show in 1982, Police Squad is frequently referred to as a television show that was cancelled too early, with only six episodes having aired. Many will likely be more familiar with the films the show gave birth to–The Naked Gun series starring Leslie Nielsen. “But wait a minute–wasn’t he a detective?” Sure, but his character Frank Drebin was also a locksmith.
Ocean’s 11 (and 12 and 13)
Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, and several other familiar faces, the Ocean’s films center around heists where the characters are breaking into safes left and right. While many safecrackers aren’t out there doing acrobatics in order to get into safes, the movie does its part to make pulling off the perfect crime seem like something that can be done with a bit of planning.
So Are They Accurate?
Television shows and films depict people cracking safes and picking locks on a fairly regular basis, but is what is shown actually accurate? The answer is that it depends. In many cases, the actors on screen are actually using lock picking kits that an actual locksmith would use in real life. In others, the tools that they bring to the table are all wrong and wouldn’t be useful in actually getting past a real lock.
Regardless of how the actual lock picking itself is depicted, one thing is almost always true in these movies–it only takes about five seconds to actually pick a lock. The reality of the situation is that sometimes it can take much, much longer than that. At Pro-Lock and Safe, we pride ourselves on doing quick work, yes, but are we movie quick? The majority of the time, the answer is no, but sometimes we do just happen to get lucky pretty quickly.
Do You Need a Local Locksmith?
If you’re in need of someone to unlock the door to your home, your vehicle, or your business, look no further. Will we be doing crazy acrobatics in order to make it happen? You can rest assured that we won’t. We will, however, get the job done the right way the first time, unlocking your door and getting you back to your day.
Our goal is always to go above and beyond for our customers, so whether you find yourself in the middle of an emergency and need help in the middle of the night or you’ve simply locked your keys in the car and need a hand getting back in, the team of experts at Pro-Lock and Safe will always be here for you when you need us the most. We love saying that “we’re here to unlock your problems 24 hours a day” and that’s exactly what we mean. We’re here for you no matter what time of day or night you need our assistance, so feel free to contact us online to schedule an appointment or give us a call at 302-469-6185 if you’d rather speak on the phone. We look forward to helping you!