How would you even do that? Train tracks are typically flat against the ground. If you can find a picture of a person being depicted as tied to traditional tracks rather than just being tied up and laying on the tracks, I’d like to see it. I didn’t find one from a quick search.
Because for the pacing of the scene, “wrapped with ropes” is movie shorthand for “immobilized.” Most of the time, most of the audience doesn’t really care about the details of the knots.
A bit more practical would be looping the rope under the track itself between the ties; especially if you found a viaduct or something where there is no ballast you could just loop the rope right under.
I doubt every track is easy to find spots to do that. Snidely Whiplash would have to go out and survey all the tracks to find ideal spots, or dig holes ahead of time. That’s a lot of trouble when he could just shoot them instead!
No, they’re attached to sleepers, and the whole lot sits on a bed of ballast (stones). You could easily move some stones aside and thread the rope through the gap.
Honestly, I usually saw this alongside Wile E. Coyote style antics performed by someone literally twirling a mustache, so I was never looking for consistency!
And less charitably, the character tied rarely seemed to do more than protest delicately even when she wasn’t tied…
Something I never got about the “tied up on train tracks” trope is that the victim is never tied to anything. Can’t they just wiggle out of the way?
I always thought they were tied *to* the tracks
How would you even do that? Train tracks are typically flat against the ground. If you can find a picture of a person being depicted as tied to traditional tracks rather than just being tied up and laying on the tracks, I’d like to see it. I didn’t find one from a quick search.
You know you’ve got a point…
I’m very good at wiggling
It’s to the wooden whatchamacallits orthogonal to the rails
Ties. Those are called railroad ties.
The ones flat against the ground that have been packed down by trains driving over them? I don’t think you can usually get under those.
Because for the pacing of the scene, “wrapped with ropes” is movie shorthand for “immobilized.” Most of the time, most of the audience doesn’t really care about the details of the knots.
I think it’s also because tying someone up that way is wildly impractical. The fact that nobody wants to show it the proper way is evidence of that.
A bit more practical would be looping the rope under the track itself between the ties; especially if you found a viaduct or something where there is no ballast you could just loop the rope right under.
I doubt every track is easy to find spots to do that. Snidely Whiplash would have to go out and survey all the tracks to find ideal spots, or dig holes ahead of time. That’s a lot of trouble when he could just shoot them instead!
No, they’re attached to sleepers, and the whole lot sits on a bed of ballast (stones). You could easily move some stones aside and thread the rope through the gap.
Even if that’s so, people are never shown tied up that way. They’re always just laid onto the tracks.
You don’t see all the rope so there could be a loop around the line behind them.
Honestly, I usually saw this alongside Wile E. Coyote style antics performed by someone literally twirling a mustache, so I was never looking for consistency!
And less charitably, the character tied rarely seemed to do more than protest delicately even when she wasn’t tied…