Percy Bartelt, staff writer

Among the controversies that can crop up in the film industry, lethal ones are always the first to leap to the forefront of peoples’ minds. After Brandon Lee, star of the 1994 film “The Crow,” was shot and killed by a misused prop firearm eight days before filming was supposed to end, many safety precautions and laws were written for film industries to abide by. However, the set of the upcoming western film “Rust” was a prime example of what not to do with your prop weapons. On film sets, the only people that can touch the props, including the weapons, are the prop master, the armorer, and the actor themself, and with these jobs comes obvious duties and responsibilities to make sure everyone involved is safe. But the “Rust” production wanted to keep things moving quickly with a blatant disregard for anyone’s safety, and especially the personal well-being of other members of the production team – and that ultimately came at a lethal cost.

What happened that day was incredibly disheartening for everyone involved, and all the more frustrating because of how big of an oversight it was. This prop gun had to go through many routine checks, it had to be passed between at least two other people before Alec Baldwin, the star of “Rust” and previous SNL actor, was somehow given a jammed prop gun that was deemed “safe-for-use.” 

When he was given the prop gun, Baldwin did what actors do and practiced his lines and body language and fired the weapon. Prop weapons either hold a blank cartridge with gunpowder or simply an empty casing for realistic kickback effect with the actor, but when something happens to get lodged inside the prop gun and is fired, it acts like a real, live and hot weapon that can, and did, kill people nearby. Ultimately, Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and injured the director, Joel Souzza. While Baldwin was the one who fired the weapon, he had no way of knowing the gun was jammed, he was under the impression that the prop gun was safe to be fired without any repercussions, as it would have been moving from multiple people whose literal job is assuring the weapon’s safety. If anything, those who declined to do their job should be at fault. Oversights do happen in the real world, but jobs that assure safety can’t gamble with that when people’s lives are on the line. 

Going along with this tragedy, there was also a strike and staff walkout happening in regards to the terrible and unsafe working conditions – sound familiar? Workers on set also report getting in serious trouble with the executives on the production team about their walkout, some resulting in getting fired, thus those that walked out are remaining anonymous. Many people on the production crew felt unsafe and disrespected whilst on the job. From long, strict, and debilitating working hours without the needed breaks, to multiple misfires of prop weapons resulting in injuries, it’s clear to see just how problematic the set of “Rust” truly is. This is only one of many films that operated in such a hectic and dehumanizing way, but “Rust” is just one that was told about to the public. It’s unfortunate that film sets are such toxic places to work at, especially with visual arts on the rise in the new generations, and for myself personally, who wants to pursue film.