Quaritch - Bad Gunman?

[Vauktu]

Quaritch, being the experienced marine he is, is actually ... a rather bad gunman, or so it appears.

The number of times we see Quaritch shoot a gun is three times. On each account, he misses.

1. The first time we see Quaritch test his aim is when Trudy, Jake, Grace, and Norm make their escape from Hell's Gate. As they escape, Quaritch charges out of the operation center by kicking open the door and pulling out his SN-9 WASP, where he then aims, shoots, and in an attempt which seems to be to bring down Trudy's samson, misses.
   
2. The second time Quaritch pulls out a gun is after Jake fails in his attempt to bring down the Dragon gunship during the last battle scene in the movie. As Jake tries again, Quaritch opens the top hatch of the Dragon and pulls out his WASP yet again, aims at Jake, but misses.
   
3. The third time Quaritch attempts to get a shot in, he is an AMP suit being attacked by thanator, one which Neytiri is riding during the last battle scene. During this scene, Quaritch does not get much time to aim, but, in a battle which seems to be favored towards Neytiri, he pulls up his GAU-90, aims, shoots, but misses as the thanator quickly jumps onto Quaritch's AMP, bringing it down to the ground, where the gun is shortly demolished afterward.

Of course, simply because Quaritch missed each shot in the movie doesn't necessarily mean he's a bad gunman. He might have been unlucky, or his gun may have been faulty. He may be able to redeem himself in the sequel, if he does happen to make a re-appearance.

While Quaritch's aim seems to be a little off, he does appear to be a pretty decent hand-to-hand fighter. After all, he did manage to defeat a thanator with the use of a knife while in his AMP, and he didn't miss when he drove a punch into Jake's face as Jake came out of the link pod.

Also, this brings to mind a scene in the movie which I remember very well:

Grace: "What are you going to do, Ranger Rick? Shoot me?"
Quaritch: "I can do that."

ORLY?

[Sacred Tsahaylu]

Originally Posted by Vauktu

Also, this brings to mind a scene in the movie which I remember very well:

Grace: "What are you going to do, Ranger Rick? Shoot me?"
Quaritch: "I can do that."

ORLY?

That would be an epic motivational/demotivational

I did notice that when was shooting at Trudy's scorpian, he hit the lamp post beneath him. It was at least 3 feet below where he was aiming. Bad shot, I think so

[Human No More]

Fair enough when fighting the Thanator, but the rest, not that good really

[Ateyo]

not as good as we think, when Jake throws the rocket into the helices of the Dragon ship, COLONEL was shooting him and Jake didn´t get any bullet lol

[Vauktu]

Originally Posted by Ateyo

not as good as we think, when Jake throws the rocket into the helices of the Dragon ship, COLONEL was shooting him and Jake didn´t get any bullet lol

Yeah, that's got to be his worst shot in the movie. What was he, like five feet away?

[rapunzel77]

I agree that he was a bad shot at times. It could be a way of making him seem weaker because he is the villian. This is one of the aspects that I wished was better about the movie. However, he is, as several of you have said, pretty good at hand to hand combat. I'm sure he would be a better sharp shooter since he probably would not be a colonel if he wasn't.

[Gunny]

With the Thanator I think that can maybe be dismissed, for the one on the ship, did he fire before the missile exploded? This could cause him to miss.

As for trudy and such, he did hit grace, and when he was firing he was hitting parts of the ship. For the angle he was at he had to be deadly accurate to go through the sides or attempt at the control panel also being deadly accurate, which would be hard with an automatic weapon. Also, it would be nearly impossible to take down the ship with either of the weapons he had.

[Tawtsamsiyu]

I wouldn’t know if this could account for his aiming difficulties, but in both cases (shooting at Trudy’s Samson and shooting at Jake while outside the Dragon) Quaritch was carefully holding his breath. This would be very distracting, as breathing is automatic with humans, so desperately trying not to give in to a body’s natural desire to breathe in while simultaneously attempting to aim a gun and shoot it accurately might be somewhat difficult.

[Boomachucka]

Originally Posted by rapunzel77

I agree that he was a bad shot at times. It could be a way of making him seem weaker because he is the villian. This is one of the aspects that I wished was better about the movie. However, he is, as several of you have said, pretty good at hand to hand combat. I'm sure he would be a better sharp shooter since he probably would not be a colonel if he wasn't.

In the military, if you get to that kind of rank it really has very little to do with actual combat skill. I guarantee you that any specialty sniper in the armed forces could easily outshoot their (far) superiors, such as a colonel.

Making that rank is pretty much based on politics and (in Quaritch's type of position) management and tactical ability.

Now with that said, some of those missed shots were pretty bad

[Site 26]

Pandora has a very humid climate which can have an effect on bullet trajectory.

But I still think the Colonel's bad shooting was a deliberate move on JC's part.

[Omaticaya Na'vi]

And you know bad guys (nearly) always miss anyway

[Human No More]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...manshipAcademy

Evil characters (particularly but not exclusively redshirts) will always have bad accuracy when shooting at main characters.

[Gunny]

Hahaha! Its true, if they were excellent marksman than the movie wouldnt end to well LOL

[Vauktu]

Originally Posted by Gunny

Hahaha! Its true, if they were excellent marksman than the movie wouldnt end to well LOL

Yeah, Jake wouldn't look like such a big hero if he were getting shot left and right.