On the movies, they smother the victim?

Question

I know I watch too many movies, but this one question has been bugging me for awhile now.

Now, what I've been told that if you hold you breath long enough you'll pass out (duh), but your body knows to automatically to start breathing again after.

So on the movies when someone smothers another until they have  stopped moving/breathing, shouldn't the victim just start breathing again?

Thanks in advanced.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

In actuality, it takes about four to six LONG minutes to smother someone to death.  But have you noticed that in just about all the movies in which smothering occurs, the time is a lot shorter? So the victim must be simply acting by keeping their facial expressions motionless while holding their breath so their chest doesn't rise or fall or...it's a trick of film editing, the camera angle, etc. The actor is not really being deprived of oxygen to a dangerous time limit. That type of scene always bugs me. And the fact that if a person were truly dead, their eyes would be fixed (non-reactive to light) and dilated (the pupils would be big). So often, when there's a closeup of a dead person in a movie, their eyes are normal -- dead give-away that the person is not dead. Ahh, excuse the pun!

heyitsme · Answer

Simple answer.....it's a movie.

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On the movies, they smother the victim?

2 Answers