5 Gruesome Movie Deaths That Are Way Worse Than You Think (And 5 That Aren't)
2. Exposure To The Vacuum
We all know that there are a lot of myths flying around about how exposure to the vacuum of space would go down. The key thing to bear in mind is that the unpleasantness of your death largely depends on how you are exposed.
Generally speaking, your blood wouldn't boil, because the elastic pressure of your blood vessels would be sufficient to keep it pressurised, and you wouldn't freeze solid either, because heat energy requires a medium to travel through and the vacuum of space isn't exactly terrific for that.
According to NASA:
"It is very unlikely that a human suddenly exposed to a vacuum would have more than 5 to 10 seconds to help himself. If immediate help is at hand, although one's appearance and condition will be grave, it is reasonable to assume that recompression to a tolerable pressure (200 mm Hg, 3.8 psia) within 60 to 90 seconds could result in survival, and possibly in rather rapid recovery."
That said, it's not exactly harmless. 90 seconds isn't a great life expectancy.
This is just exposure to the vacuum, however, it's the speed of decompression that you've really gotta watch. In one decompression disaster back in 1983, an oil rig diver's spine was forcibly ejected and flung up to 30 feet when the decompression chamber he was in went from nine atmospheres to one in less than a second.