AK-47 bullet
Made in Ukraine
Shot in Sierra Leone
KEY FACTS
Type:
Short film (movie credits)
Duration:
3.01 minutes
Director:
Andrew Nichol
Visual effects supervisor:
Yann Blondel
Watch in:
Lord of War (2005)
INGREDIENTS
INTENTIONS
Cross cultures
Show capitalist evils
TACTICS
Make the hidden visible
Follow the thing
Show the violence
Add mood music
RESPONSES
LOL capitalism
They aren’t experts
It’s so badly made
That’s racist
I’m humming that music
IMPACTS
Now we’re talking
Activism is publicised
Image credit
followthethings.com
Life of a bullet
IN BRIEF
Imagine you can follow the life of a bullet from sheet metal in a factory shot into the head of a child soldier, like a Point of View (POV) video game. These are the opening credits of the Nicholas Cage movie âLord of War,â set to Buffalo Springfieldâs 1960s counterculture song âFor what itâs worthâ. For some, this 3 minute CGI creation is the best part of the movie. For us, itâs the most brutally clear follow the thing example weâve found.
How to read this page
We are slowly piecing together a ‘followthethings.com handbook for trade justice activism’ and are publishing the pages here as we write them. This is an ‘example’ page. The wide column paraphrases and condenses this example’s followthethings.com page, section by section. The narrow column contains some details about the commodity, some key facts about the activism that took place around it, and a list of its ‘ingredients’: its intentions, tactics, responses and impacts. These have been identified during the writing of this example page and, as more handbook pages are added, you will be able to click each one to read about it, and there will be links to other examples where we have found that ingredient, and a list of linked ingredients. This hypertext format, we believe, will help readers to understand how trade justice activism can work, and what it can do.
Original
Description
Youâre sitting in front of the screen. The movie âLord of Warâ is about to start. Its star Nicholas Cage makes a short spech to camera. Then the music starts. Thereâs something happening here. What it is ainât exactly clear. Thereâs a man with a gun over there. Telling me I got to beware⌠Buffalo Springfieldâs 1966 song âFor what itâs worthâ. Playing over the opening credits. A three minute point of view (POV) mini-movie: the life story of a single bullet. You see what it sees. You hear what it hears. You are the bullet. Emerging from sheet metal in a Ukrainian factory and dying in the flesh of a Sierra Leone firefight. People along the way inspect, carry, load, fire and are killed by you. In the final slo-mo scene, you whiz down a street into the forehead, the brain, of a black African boy, a child soldier. He stands there, looking you in the eye as you career towards him. Death is the end product. The music stops. The credits fade to bloody red and black. Thrills give way to chills. The film starts with a bang.
Inspiration / process / methodology
Conceptualised by Andrew Niccol and overseen by Yann Blondel, it was built using Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) – XSI, Shake, After Effects, Photoshop, Matchmover – not by strapping a tiny camera to a bullet. Studying factories, they found bullet-making âinsanely complicatedâ and simplified it. Arms trade people might find it âinaccurateâ. Stephen Stills wrote the song after Hollywoodâs 1966 Sunset Strip curfew riots and it became a civil rights anthem for the Vietnam War. Blondel didnât have it in mind when the CGI was created. This jarring film and music combo nails the movieâs message: âviolence round the world begins and ends directly at your doorstepâ.
Discussions / responses
Itâs like a Bond intro. Or bowling alley graphics. An episode of âHow Itâs Madeâ. An NRA ad. âThe adventures of the little bullet who wanted to killâ. A magical journey from Russia to Africa. Seeing more of the world than I have. Bullets fear no death. I wish I was a bullet. Longest killcam ever. Wish mine played that song. A âmindblowingâ end. LOLz. He should have seen it coming. It was moving so slowly. Donât stand up in a battefield. Youâll get shot in the head. What an aim! Most bullets miss. Imagine how many bullets they had to follow to find the story they wanted. How did they strap a camera to it? Or is it CGI? That killing gave me a warm glow. It made me want to fire my BB gun. I like guns, but Iâm anti-ammo now. The killing of a child soldier, forced to fight? Yeah, but look closely. He had a gun too. Itâs like a POV game. But how many gamers have fired an actual gun? Or worked in a bullet factory? Do they know who these bullets kill? No! Itâs just a job, like any other. Gunnies will be mad. Bullets arenât made, shipped, loaded or shot like that. Itâs not a documentary. Itâs a movie. Enjoy it. Arms manufacturers should die this way. Bullets donât kill people, people do. The Russians give guns and ammo to spread communism, the US to spread democracy. White people make weapons for black people to kill each other. You could blame the âwhite manâ or get activist. Following the tradeâs money would be a better story. 10 years on, that CGI looks sooo bad. But the message is there. Donât shoot people in the face. Two fingers, repeatedly picking up the bullet. Men blankly peering at it along the way. Responsibility is collective. Whatâs that song?
Impacts / outcomes
What it showed was true, said Amnesty, Oxfam and the Internatonal Action Network on Small Arms. Audiences should sign their âcontrol armsâ petition, to press for an international arms treaty. My mates in the USA have been talking about it. Especially because the DVD has that spoof AK-47 advert on it.
CONNECTED EXAMPLE
Teleshopping AK-47
FOLLOWTHETHINGS.COM PAGE
Cook, I. (2019) followthethings.com/life-of-a-bullet
DEPARTMENT: Security
By Ian Cook (June 2025)
