Kids these days get a lot of solid action movies. We have John Wick, Extraction, Nobody, the Raid series, and more. When I was growing up, we had some great action movies, like Terminator 2, Predator, Commando, and many more. The difference is that the new generation of action movies takes gun handling to the next level. If you’re not trying to meet those John Wick levels of gun handling, your movie is boring. As a kid, the closest thing we had to good gun handling came from Michael Mann and his love of the Mozambique drill.
Mozambique Drill and Movies
The Mozambique drill, also known as the Failure To Stop drill, is a classic pistol drill that came out of Jeff Cooper’s Modern Technique. Colonel Cooper learned about the drill from Rhodesian mercenary Mike Rousseau. Mike described an event in which he engaged a FRELIMO fighter and shot him twice in the chest with a Hi-Power to no avail.
He then took a well-aimed headshot at the fighter and shut him down. Cooper turned that into the Mozambique Drill. The drill became one of the most well-known drills in the world, and it’s still used. It’s also seemingly one of Michael Mann’s favorite pieces of firearms lore.
Mann is famously all about authenticity. When his movies feature gun handling, it’s realistic, accurate, and overall fantastic. It set a standard and still stands out as competent gun handling. The Mozambique drill has presented itself in four pieces of Michael Mann’s work.
First Case of Mozambique Drill In Thief
The 1981 film Thief is a neo-noir heist movie starring James Caan as the titular jewel thief. The film is slow and brooding, and I wouldn’t call it an action film. It has short periods of violence, but you won’t see your typical 1980s gunfights. This movie started Michael Mann’s film career and was possibly the first to show the Mozambique Drill.
James Caan was sent to Gunsite, Jeff Cooper’s shooting school, to learn to handle a gun. There was a bit of a dust-up when Jeff figured out he was playing a criminal and thought a criminal wouldn’t know how to use a gun this way. Fellow instructor Chuck Taylor taught Caan how to handle a 1911 and look competent with the weapon.
This is likely where Caan and Mann learned the Mozambique Technique, which is employed in the film. Caan, playing Frank, drops mobster Leo with a Mozambique drill. He delivers two to the chest, and as Leo falls, Frank follows him with his gun. He pauses, and as Leo lies dying, he attempts to use his revolver, so Frank finishes him with a final, well-aimed shot to the head.
Miami Vice
Mann is mostly known for his gritty neo-noir movies, but he was also the producer and a driving force behind the hit show Miami Vice. I argue that Miami Vice still holds up and is a pretty solid show. The grounded gunplay certainly helps make it a lot less cringeworthy than other shows of the era.
The film constantly featured dangerous criminals involved in guns, drugs, and more. In Calderone’s Return, Part 1 and Part 2, an Argentinian hitman, Jim Zubiena, acts as a lethal foil to the show’s Vice Cops and local mobsters.
I once read the phrase, “The devil checks under his bed for John Wick, but John Wick checks under his bed for Jim Zubiena.” Zubiena was a real-deal champion IPSC shooter. In Calberone’s Return, he executed an absolutely beautiful draw from concealment and dropped a bad guy with two rounds to the chest and one to the head in the best Mozambique Drill on film.
Heat
Heat is my favorite Michael Mann movie. It’s his absolute best, in my opinion. I love the setting and how it’s filmed. I love that we are watching two groups of men performing at the highest level. Cops vs. criminals with a certain grit to it. It’s a brilliant movie overall.
Heat has one of the best gunfights ever filmed. The post-bank robbery fight is long, loud, and violent. It’s chaos, and it works perfectly. That’s not where we see the Mozambique drill. Heat might be Mann’s best movie, but it has the most understated Mozambique drill.
Heat’s Mozambique drill comes at the beginning of the film. After the bank robbery, Waingro shoots a guard, and another gets blasted when he pulls his spare rod. The third is shocked, and Neal gives Cherrito the go-ahead. He uses a FAL at near point-blank range to shoot the guard twice in the chest, and after he falls, he approaches the downed guard and delivers the coup de grace.
Later, near the end of the film, Neil McCauley is hunting down Waingro, the man who betrayed the group. He’s seeking rightful vengeance, and as such, he tracks the man down to a hotel. In a brazen move, he pulls a fire alarm, and right under the cops’ noses, he kills him.
How? He leans into the masculine urge to tell your enemy to look at him, delivering those two rounds to the man’s chest. He finally ends Waingro with a shot to the head from his SIG P220.
Collateral
Say what you want about Tom Cruise, the man dedicates himself to a role. Tom trained with a former SAS commando to get a good grip on his shooting skills. Cruise plays Vincent, an assassin who has one long night of work in LA. Like most Mann movies, Vincent is a competent killer.
The most famous scene from Collateral is the Yo Homie scene. Two lowlifes rob Taxi Driver Max as he’s tied to his steering wheel. They take Vincent’s briefcase, and Vincent comes down at the right time to catch them.
He approaches them and hits them with a “Yo homie, is that my briefcase?” Low life affirms it is, draws a gun, and Vincent reacts. Vincent shoots thug one twice from close range, then pivots, assumes a standard shooting position, and shoots thug two with two rounds to the chest and a final round to the head. He ends the fight by firing a round into Thug One’s head.
This is a Box Drill version of the Mozambique Drill, which involves two targets and six shots. It’s brilliant in execution, especially for a movie star.
Later, we get into the slick and sick nightclub shootout. It’s one of my favorites because we see a ton of chaos and movement, but Vincent stays cool and collected. He tracks down his target as he cuts and shoots his way through the nightclub. He shoots the man in the chest, reloads, and finishes the Mozambique drill.
Mozambique Drills and Mann Movies
The Mozambique Drill is a classic shooting drill that’s remained relevant for a reason. It works and works well. It’s realistic, and it makes a ton of sense for handguns. Michael Mann’s love of the drill adds some competency flavor to his films, and I always look forward to seeing real-life gun lore in mainstream Hollywood.
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