Gun Doesn't Fire
I took a frame-by-frame (TiVo) look at the scene with the struggle for the pistol, and it does not go off. The flash in the scene is from outside the windows and apparently comes from engine #1.
shareThat's the way I see it after replaying this scene several times.
shareThe first time I watched this on DVD I thought the gun did indeed fire but now I think you're right. It did not. (And it doesn't fire in the novel, either.) Note that none of the passengers checks himself or herself for wounds and no member of the crew checks for damage to the plane.
share In one of the dumber scenes in film history, the guy goes back to his seat like nothing serious happened.
At minimum he should have been cuffed in the rear of the plane and the Captain should have confiscated the .38(not another passenger). Dumb.
"No Jews, or Negroes and very few Catholics and that's because I'm Catholic."
When i first saw the scene, I thought the gun had gone off, and then a few seconds later the engine blew. I was wondering if the bullet had somehow damaged some some wiring or something that controlled the engine. I had to rewatch a few times to determine the gun didn't go off and it was just a coincidence that the engine blew just then.
And yes, it seems od that it eveidently was OK to carry a gun aboard a plane and threaten other passengers. None of the crew said a word to him.