When I was a kid, I always watched the credits of action movies until the end. I was waiting for one credit in particular - the movie armorer. The existence of such a job seemed too good to be true, since it encompassed all of my favorite hobbies: guns and movies.As I was getting older, I often criticized movie armorers and historical consultants, noticing small mistakes and serious blunders. Incorrect guns in historical movies, sloppy gun handling, stoppages in the middle of the scene… “How could you be so bad at what you do?” I wondered, “You’re so lucky to have my dream job!”I learned the answer the hard way, many years later, when I had a chance to work as a historical consultant and source weapons for the movie ‘Kalashnikov’, the biopic about the famous weapon designer. Movie poster for 'Kalashnikov’ (RB Production, 2020) In 2018, I was working as a part-time technical advisor at ‘Kalashnikov media’. One day, I get a call from a colleague: ‘They’re making a movie about Kalashnikov, and they need an advisor: guns, history, all this stuff.’Within a few days, I read the script. Something was painfully obvious to me - the movie won’t be any good. You can make a bad movie with a good script, but not the other way around. Well, I thought, at least I will make sure all the details are accurate.I spent a month looking for a perfect ‘main character’, the original AK-47 that would be featured in the movie. And we struck gold. Type 1 AK rifle, in perfect condition, converted to semi-auto. Original wood, original bluing, even original non-detachable axis pins that hold the trigger mechanism. It was almost perfect. The author with the AK rifle that was picked for the movie We just had to do a few little changes to make it look like a prototype: put a little tube over the charging handle to mimic the early prototype, and add the compensator, so the gun would be perfect for the role. We even made a beautiful spare set of wooden furniture, so the original furniture won’t be damaged during the shoot.Things were going well, and I started training the actors - everyone who was shooting guns in the movie went to the range with me. It was not only important to teach them how to shoot - their techniques had to be authentic for the year 1946, so I encouraged bladed stances and some ‘chicken wing’. Soviet army manual from 1950, note the elbow position We started with live ammo, then switched to blanks, and I showed one important technique that is often ignored in movies. You see, blank guns don’t have recoil, and if you apply proper fundamentals while firing a blank gun, the lack of recoil becomes obvious to a viewer.So I asked the actors to keep a little bit of space between the shoulder and the buttstock. Not too much, so it won’t be visible, but just enough to let the gun recoil somewhat realistically. AK, with its heavy bolt carrier going back and forth, has some recoil even with blanks; you just need to let it ‘dance’ by eliminating the main point of contact. The author shows an actor how to increase the visible recoil of a blank gun But the right guns and range training were only part of it. My friend made historically accurate blueprints, so they will be used on screen. A special workshop made replicas of early prototypes that were designed before the AK 47. I wrote about one of those prototypes in one of my previous articles.In the fall of 2018, I got another call - the movie was canceled, so the guns I picked and the actors I trained won’t be used for anything. I was a bit sad, but mostly relieved.However, next summer I learned that the movie is actually being made, with new actors I never trained and weapons I didn’t pick. A few months later, I was invited to a movie studio to watch it before the premiere and asked to take notes of all the technical mistakes. In the middle of the movie, I ran out of ink in my ballpoint pen. I threw the pen at the screen and grabbed a spare one I brought. The notes took multiple pages: incorrect guns, wrong blueprints, and many historical mistakes that could have been easily avoided. Still from the movie with a drawing of the AK Type 3, which was developed in 1955 After a few days, I got a call from one of the movie executives. I asked him never to credit me as the historical consultant. A few weeks later, I came to the premiere, and watching it again was harder than I thought. At a certain point, I pulled the hoodie over my eyes so I wouldn’t see the screen. But there was one silver lining - in the credits, I was not listed as an advisor; my name was under ‘special thanks’, so nobody could blame me for a lackluster consulting.After I left the theater, I remembered how in the past I was always blaming movie armorers and historical consultants for gun mistakes… I realised that I will never do it again. 9 times out of 10, those professionals cannot correct mistakes. Mistakes are made on a different level, and in most cases, as an armorer or a historical consultant, you’re pretty much powerless to change anything.That is why it is always great to see when directors are taking gunplay in the story seriously and making a conscious effort to get things right. Michael Mann’s “Heat’ and ‘Collateral’, two ‘Terminator’ movies, ‘John Wick’ series - in these cases, directors invested plenty of time in actor training and proper armory, and the results speak for themselves.