Thread: Safes & Vaults versus Hollywood

After thinking that problem through a little more, making angled cuts would not only solve the likelyhood of binding, it would also move the cutter further away from the dropping floor slab and safe. Still would be a nasty job tho. I have a mini lance which I play with every once in a while, and have seen a full sized one in use. Very messy

I would prefer the way the Italian job did it. A shaped charge thou. Once the floor is gone the safe would drop. The only reason to use the lance is very little vibration.

I remember watching a movie with Sean Connery in it called Time Lock,were a kid gets locked in a safe vault, a fact someone told me was that was Connery's first speaking role in a movie. the only thing I really didn't understand is why a timelock would be placed were it was in the movie. It had to have been to make the idea believable, because I've never seen one mounted that high and out of the way.

I always liked the scene from the Andy Griffith/Mayberry RFD show where the bank robbers broke into the bank vault by manipulating the lock only to enter and find Sheriff Andy inside waiting for them. Seems the bank lost the combo years ago and had cut a side door into the vault so they could use it. Sheriff Andy thanked the robbers after he arrested them for opening the door after all these years.

The Movie "Thief" starring James Cann and Jim Belushi had the greatest safe burn job in the movies. Great interior bolt work photography also. Guy

Just watched this, there is a good view (briefly) of a wall mounted safe with a nice brass plate saying....

Prize Medal London 1852
G Price and Co
Patent
Fire-proof Safe
+ Lock Manufacturers
Wolverhampton
Regd. Trademark R370?

There is an escutcheon plate that says...

??????
Patent Lock

and a nice hexagonal knob for the boltwork.

The safe plays no part in the plot, our hero just checks it to ensure it has not been opened.

Originally Posted by Parautoptic

Saw a film a while ago, can`t remember title or who was in it but it involved a bank robbery where the manager was forced to divulge the combination to the outer doors of the vault and the hero produced two very nice shiny black S&G dials and pushed them onto the shafts to dial open the outer doors. Is this a common thing? or was the detached dial thing just a plot device? The whole thing got a bit silly when the wall next to the main vault door (timelocked) was breached with a few rounds from a 20mm cannon at point blank range. The robbers were all right though, they had protective goggles!!! Wot a crock....

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is the film, starring Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, George Kennedy.

---------- Post added at 09:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:51 AM ----------

The flaw in the Italian Job is the underwater 'safe cracking', at a depth of say 12 feet, even a small safe door perhaps 2 foot square, would require about 600 pounds of force to pull the door open.

Surely the safe would soon fill with water-if they were that waterproof then you would never beat the suction to open then normally on dryland
Cheers
Tom

Eventually of course it would fill, but not in the time frame depicted in the film.

The same physics are in play in a submerged car, if you were in a vehicle that ran off the road into a body of water, you should roll down or shatter the side window, allow the car to fill with water and then swing the door open. Attempting to push the door open from inside the dry car is useless.

Also, because the body is more or less neutrally buoyant, pulling open the door as you would on dry land doesn't work either, you would need to pull the door handle while bracing the other hand on the safe body, otherwise you'll just pull your body to the safe instead of the door to you.