10 Common Movie Myths Everyone Believes

2. Igniting A Trail Of Gasoline With A Cigarette

In the chaos and confusion, nobody seems to notice that a few stray bullets punctured some nearby tanks of gasoline in the corner, spilling a long trail of the flammable liquid that has begun to ooze its way across the white tile floor. Sensing this as his means of escape, our man springs up, much to everyone's disbelief, and springs for the exit. Safely away, he pauses, lights a cigarette, and inhales slowly before tossing the burning stick into the pooling gas. We watch as the flames slowly lap up the brown liquid until they reach the source, causing a huge explosion that subdues the firing squad and allows the hero to escape. It seems to make sense on the surface, but pulling off such a stunt would be difficult. The aforementioned Mythbusters put this scenario to the test and discovered that a cigarette does not burn hot enough to ignite gasoline unless it is being smoked. Actually igniting the trail and causing an explosion like John McClane? Highly unlikely.
 
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Contributor

Matt Dusenbury got his start blogging about music and the web back in 2006. Since then, he's branched out to Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. In 2011 he founded ANewAtlantis.com, a site dedicated to dismantling cultural artifacts, from movies to news stories. When he's not banging out new articles, you can find him neck-deep in tweets.