Let's guess how many people this drone injured filming a one-shot flight through a bowling alley

Let's guess how many people this drone injured filming a one-shot flight through a bowling alley
Photo: Thomas Barwick

Drones. Sometimes they’re pretty badass. Most of the time… not so much. So it was only a matter of time before the internet stumbled across a video somehow straddling both options. On the one hand, this first-person, single-shot clip of a drone whizzing through the public and private sections of a bowling alley is both impressive and exciting. On the other, we can’t help but wonder the on-site injuries that came about during the dozens of takes needed to sync the minute-and-a-half choreography just right for filmmaker Jay Christensen’s latest project.

Christensen’s remote-controlled aerial camera definitely hit those passers-by in the shins at least once at the 6-second mark, right? The bowler in the pink shirt at the 10-second mark is probably bowling through the pain of a dislocated shoulder from an earlier take. Likewise, that extra is wearing a long-sleeve shirt at 21-seconds only to hide a sizable propeller gash in their right bicep they suffered just minutes earlier. We don’t see any alley technicians as the drone coasts behind those pin machines at 30-seconds because their union thankfully stepped in on their behalf right before the shoot.

That guy at 40-seconds may look like he’s incorporating a reference to The Big Lebowski, but he’s really using the bowling ball to ensure he can one day have children. The three dudes at 50-seconds were miraculously spared any injuries, but the arguing couple pulling in another Lebowski reference only moments later weren’t nearly as lucky. As for the bar patrons at a minute in: Why do you think they’re so eager to drink?

The bros chilling in that theater at the 1:12 mark are acting like they’re having a dope, chill time. But, inside, they’re cowering from the hovering arbiter of injury above their heads. Further victims are spared as the drone careens into an alley’s ten pins at the clip’s conclusion, but we’ve all seen these horror movies. We know that drone will resurrect itself somehow to terrorize even more unsuspecting extras in its inevitable sequel.

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