Heads and Noses

In the movies, action heroes often use a particular move when fighting one of the bad guys: They slam their foreheads against the bad guy's nose. The bad guy winces for a moment, and then immediately delivers a flying kick to the abdomen, or jumps off a balcony, etc., etc.

I can now testify from personal experience how utterly unrealistic that is. This morning, I was lying on the floor as my daughter (age: 1 year, 10 months) bounced up and down on my chest. ("Horsie, horsie," she says, as she persists in confusing me with some sort of farm animal.)

Suddenly, without warning or even the slightest provocation, she dropped her forehead against my nose. It was inadvertent, I'm sure, although I have my doubts.¹ It was excruciating. I was incapacitated for at least a minute or so. I was in no position to fight back, even against a toddler. I can't even imagine how much worse it would have been had it been an adult male doing it full force on purpose.

So there you go. Yet another way that movies fail to represent reality.

¹She's had a glint in her eye for some time now.