Special Ops Sniper Rates 11 More Sniper Scenes In Movies And TV | How Real Is It? | Insider

Nicholas Irving, a former special-operations sniper and an author, rates 11 more sniper scenes in movies and television shows for realism.

Irving breaks down the plausibility of shooting moving targets in "Better Call Saul" S5E8 (2020); "Extraction" (2020), with Chris Hemsworth; "Skyfall" (2012), featuring Daniel Craig; and "28 Weeks Later" (2007), with Jeremy Renner. He discusses countersniper operations and different types of rifles in "The Last of Us" S1E5 (2023), starring Pedro Pascal; the desert-warfare scene in "The Wall" (2017), with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and John Cena; and "Hacksaw Ridge" (2016), with Andrew Garfield. He also looks at other sniper tactics — such as concealment, target detection, and the mathematics behind a long-distance shot — in "Sniper" (1993) and "Battle for Sevastopol" (2015); the spotting scope from "Operation Red Sea" (2018); and the firearms used in "Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation" (2015), starring Tom Cruise.

Irving was a special-operations sniper in the 3rd Ranger Battalion for the US Army. He is known as The Reaper for his 33 confirmed kills in Afghanistan in less than four months. He is the author of multiple nonfiction and fiction books, including his most recent novel, "Reaper: The BOARD."

You can follow Nicholas on YouTube:

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Special Ops Sniper Rates 11 More Sniper Scenes In Movies And TV | How Real Is It? | Insider

[smilodnfatalis]

It's very validating to hear a man known as the Reaper of Death say that he is also scared of bugs

[goeshard]

The “I’m scared of bugs so that ain’t for me” made me think of a Vietnam story my dad always told me. About how his unit was digging foxholes to bunker down for the night, and my dad started getting yelled at for being the last one and still digging his foxhole. He told his superior “look in the first one I dug”
He dug into a big nest of burrowing scorpions and said nope

[fluphybunny]

Love this guy. No nonsense, no bravado just talks about the stuff he knows.
Even saw him talk about how he cried when pinned down thinking that was it !
Not often you get someone admitting how bad it could be and how they still had a job to do and got on with it.

[Matatabi]

Knowing that a veteran military sniper is scared of bugs is unreasonably comforting to me

[Rob_FF]

"I should have gotten an award for that. 'Best Dead Guy Ever'" 😂😂😂

[khoifoto]

My uncle used to say: Call an airstrike or ask a favor from the artillery boys is the better things to do when facing another sniper. This is always true.

[MHandlykken]

Besides being a world class marksman and warrior, Irving is also a very good communicator, teacher and storyteller. Very happy to see you back!

[XtinoX]

“I only aimed at a tank one time and it was on accident I was quickly reminded don’t do that when they pointed the big cannon my way”😂😂😂

[ksosddnisss]

"I may have a shot" "absolutely not". what a start to a vid LOOOLLL DEAD.

[ItsJustOneGuy]

You know this guy is a sniper. He casually and calmly explained how he accidentally shot a tank and the tank started aiming the gun at him. Not one change in his voice as he says it.

[sniperfreak]

I've read a lot of memoirs of troops in WWII...it wasn't uncommon for snipers even at that time to talk about what a bad idea it was to hide in trees. German snipers were very confused by how often they'd find Soviet snipers up trees because their training taught them that doing such was basically suicide. Marines in the Pacific thought the same of Japanese snipers for the same reason.

The later scene, with the Soviet sniper, it was common training in both German and Soviet sniper schools to aim for the vision slits of armored vehicles, if not to kill the operator but to disable it. If the operators can't see through the spiderwebbed glass, they become much less effective.

[StephenYuan]

This guy is pretty cool. No machismo, no bragging, just low key knows his stuff. Respect

[austinhuber]

My favorite story about the Reaper is the fact that after the Carlos Hathcock story was "debunked" by Mythbusters and every armchair sniper in the world, Reaper set it up in his backyard and proved it was plausible in a video that is still on YouTube like it was no big deal. Literally one of the only people in the world who could prove it true and he did.

[jesseshore]

As a filmmaker, I think the reason they so often don’t use the scope of an actual spotting scope is to make it very obvious for the audience whose POV you’re looking through, whether it’s the spotter or the sniper, so exaggerating the difference just to make it clear. Since, considering they do have spotting scopes on set, I think it’s generally an intentional choice

[reclusecruise]

I always like to believe this guy can just make a spotting scope materialize outta nowhere

[JonSudano]

Normally when people do these How Real Is It bits they give pretty wild scores like "Not realistic at all, 8/10" but this dude actually gives reasonable scores based on real life experience and doesn't fluff it up or anything

[rajgill]

For a guy named The Reaper, Nicholas is remarkably chill

[britb]

Scared of bugs but becomes a sniper 😅 he’s so relatable

(Edit)
I didn’t mean I relate to him, lol. Just that it was the one commonality —this guy with the insane resume—is our arachnophobia lol.

[itsjustme]

I flew more than 700 CAS missions during my decade in OIF & OEF. More than once, my target was a nest. Reaper calls in good directions including 'send it' on target confirmation. Miser sends his regards.

[godSPARDA]

00:00-00:33 Intro
00:34-02:12 Skyfall
02:13-04:07 Better Call Saul S5E8
04:08-06:28 Mission Impossible Rogue Nation
06:26-08:53 Sniper
08:54-11:00 Last of Us S1E5
11:01-12:31 Hacksaw Ridge
12:32-14:53 The Wall
14:54-16:56 Extraction
16:57-18:37 Battle for Stevastopol
18:38-19:56 28 weeks later
19:57-21:07 Operation Red Sea