David Blaine

Bullet Catch

Revealed

In this crazy trick, David Blaine has someone shoot a bullet in his mouth with a .22 caliber rifle. Blaine has a cup in his mouth, so he doesn't need to actually catch the bullet with his teeth, as some magicians do. The shooter just has to hit the cup and not shoot David in the face!

When both the shooter and Blaine signal that they are ready, the shooter presses the trigger. We hear a loud noise and the bullet lands traight into the cup in David's mouth. We can then see the whole thing in slow motion.

See this amazing performance here:

 

Explanation:

You are probably wondering: did he really do that, or was it some sort of a trick? Is it really possible to catch a bullet using a simple mouthpiece? After all, the slow motion videos look really convincing.

As usually, it was a trick. TV producers don't really let people do dangerous things like that. They would never allow Blaine to risk his life for something like this. Also, while Blaine is a pretty crazy guy, he is not stupid. He knows he can get the same effect in a much easier way.

So, if it was just a trick, how was it done? It has less to do with physical skill and accuracy and more with clever gimmicks and some video editing. When you see Blaine catching the bullet in real time, there is actually no bullet being shot. The sound of shooting is artificially created. The cup in David's mouth is actually a gimmick which, when triggered (probably by remote control), vibrates a little bit and then lets out some smoke to create the illusion of a bullet hitting the cup. Trust me, that is no ordinary cup.

But what about the slow motion videos?

The slow motion videos are filmed separately. This time, they actually shoot something into David's mouth, but rest assured it's not a .22 caliber bullet. Also, they shoot it from a much smaller distance. They give it just enough speed and force to create the effect we see on the video, but not enough for it to be really dangerous.

The rest is clever video editing.