There are some basic common-sense tactics that characters in movies and TV shows always get insanely wrong. I've compiled these from facepalm moments in many, many TV shows and movies (one, because I search for it to find this doc: The Walking Dead), when things go really badly for people because they do things that are so obviously going to result in things go really badly. Some are almost universally true on TV, but probably not in real life: - When faced with a choice and only one of your options is sketchy... don't choose that option. "*Should we go down the well-lighted, clean corridor, or the scary-looking dark hallway with rotting floorboards and spooky sounds? Let's go for the spooky hallway, what could possibly go wrong?*" However, I also learned some serious tactics for individuals that are certainly applicable in real life: ### **Individual Tactics** - RULE #1: **Never give your adversary any information under any circumstances**, even if you have the advantage over them and there's no way they could use it. Nothing! No explaining yourself, no gloating, no making sure they know you've beaten them, no telling them who you are, etc. If they're a prisoner, don't tell them anything about their location, situation, who else you're holding, how long you'll hold them... anything! Even if your next step is to literally kill them, don't tell them anything! Anything you tell your adversaries can potentially be used against you, so **don't give them any information**! (For those people in the back of the room who didn't hear: **DON'T GIVE THEM ANY INFORMATION!**) - Consider running this in reverse: ***do*** give your adversary information, but make sure it's carefully calculated ***misinformation***. - RULE #2: **When your opponent goes down, make sure they stay down**—do not immediately run away. - If guns are involved, that means a head shot. No guns: bash them again; tie them up, etc. While you have the advantage, make sure they're not going to get another chance at you. - If guns aren’t involved, press your advantage and keep attacking. Don’t stand back and wait for them to pick themselves up—keep hitting/kicking them until you’re sure they won’t attack you again. That either means you keep going until help arrives, or until they stop moving. If there isn’t going to be any help, don’t stop even when they stop moving—stop when they’re dead. - **When your opponent is down, take their weapons**. There’s a good chance they have something better than you had, or have more ammo than you had. Even if you don’t need their guns or ammo, make sure they are disarmed, even if you think they’re dead (and especially if you know they’re not dead). - RULE #3: When someone (really, *anyone*) asks "*have you told anyone else about this?*", or "*does anyone know where you are?*", for the love of all that's holy, *always* say *"yes"*, even if it's not true! - RULE #4: If you think your story will sound crazy, then it *will* sound crazy! Shut up, or make up something else to tell them that doesn't sound crazy. - Never write a diary. Never, ever. At least, not with your real thoughts. - If you have a ranged weapon (like a gun), don't stand so close to your enemy that they can grab your weapon. If they step closer, you have to credibly threaten and/or shoot them—if you let them get within jumping range of you, you'll lose control, so don't let them. - Remember the “[21 Foot Rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tueller_Drill)”: an attacker <21 feet away who runs at you can be stabbing you with a knife before you can draw and fire. This is on a flat and unobstructed path (so maybe you have more time)… but on the other hand, one shot won’t stop the attacker from stabbing you, so the edge of the “danger zone” may actually be even *more than 21 feet away*. Also, [an actual scientific study](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15614263.2020.1772785) found 21 feet was too close. - Don't be a lone wolf: - Never go off to do something potentially dangerous without letting someone know your plans. - Always work with a partner. - Always call for backup and tell people what's going on, *before* you engage. - Focus - When you enter a new area, always fully clear it upon entry, before you do anything else. This applies not just to combat situations, but also to things like arriving at home, or even getting into your car (always check that back seat!). - Never drink on duty. - Always remain alert and move quietly when on duty—no idle chit-chat. - If you or yours are in danger, *you're on duty*. Unless you're in a secure location, *you're on duty*. - Maintain situational awareness: keep aware of your surroundings, keep looking around—don't get so focused on something (like talking to friends or looking at your phone) that you don't see someone sneak up behind you. - No small talk—save the chit chat for when you’re in a safe place. - Fight dirty—unless you're playing a game, this is about survival. If you're in a dangerous situation, unless you're Superman, playing "fair" can get you seriously injured or dead. So fight dirty and keep yourself safe: lie to them, surprise them, attack them from behind, hit them below the belt, etc. - Remember: if you're a good guy, you're in a dangerous situation because the other guy already threw the rule book out the window and is not playing fair. - *Always try to have an unfair advantage*. - If an enemy is coming at you in a way that threatens your safety, don't threaten them back or try to block them—if you have the means, take them out preemptively. - When you're being followed (or might be followed), don't leave doors and windows open behind you—leave them in the same state you found them in (if they were closed before you went through, close them after you go out), so you don't leave a trail for your pursuers to follow. - If you're being chased, running away makes you easy to spot. As soon as you have a few seconds out of your pursuers' eyeline, blend in. Example: busy street? Stop running, sit down at a cafe and pick up a newspaper. - Set your phone on silent. (Not vibrate… *silent*). Better: turn your phone *off*. - Cars - Before you get into a car: - Always look around for possible threats. - Always look in the back seat. - Always lock the doors immediately after getting in. - If you’re in danger, don’t stop if you have a flat tire—you can still drive, just with poor handling and a rising repair bill… but you can still drive. - Always look through the peep hole before you open a door. - Unless you're expecting someone might be trying to kill you—then don't approach the door at all. If you're in some kind of danger, there's no reason to go to the door at all, ever. - Don't wear headphones, or listen to loud music, when you might potentially be in danger. (By the way, that includes when riding a bike on a public street, or even walking across a street…). - *Always put your own mask on first*—in general, not just on airplanes. Your first priority isn’t helping others, it’s making sure you’re safe yourself, so you will be *able* to help others. (This is a CERT rule, too: don't come out to volunteer to help until your own family is safe). - Always guard prisoners—never leave them alone, even if they're "secure". - Never talk to prisoners (see rule #1). If they insist on talking to you, gag them. Nothing good comes from talking to, or even listening to, a prisoner (unless it's an interrogation gambit). - The closest set of people guarding prisoners shouldn't have weapons the prisoners could take from them. (Prison guards don’t carry guns when in the same space as prisoners for exactly this reason). - The people guarding prisoners also shouldn’t carry phones, for the same reason. - Never let prisoners talk to each other. - Never talk to each other in front of prisoners (unless it's a misinformation play). - Don’t let prisoners wear shoes (this will make it harder for them to escape, plus prevent them from having shoe laces which they can use for other things). - Always have a "***duress code***": a word or phrase that, if you use it, signals that you are under duress. If in a group, ideally every member should have a unique duress code. - If you learn something critical, immediately share it with other people. Certainly don't go into a dangerous situation when vital information is nowhere except in your own head. - When something big is imminent, never start a side quest. - Blackmail is always perpetual: it’s never “just this once”… you’ll never be off the hook with the blackmailer, even if they say you will. You have to deal with it permanently by eliminating the evidence (may not be possible), the blackmailer’s leverage (”out” yourself), or the blackmailer themselves (blackmail them back?). - (MAYBE) In a hostage situation, **cutoff communications**. Not just between them and the world… between them and you, too. They’re not taking hostages because they want to kill people (or whatever)—they’re trying to force you to do something, and if they can’t talk to you, they can’t tell you what that is. Their only leverage is their hostages; if lack of comms means they can’t exercise that leverage, they’re stuck (and they have no motivation to kill any hostages then, either—there’s no audience). This buys time for you, and it puts them off balance where they’re more likely to make mistakes. Don’t let them talk to you, to each other, to anyone. - Don’t keep sensitive stuff in your home—that’s, of course, where the bad guys will look. Put it somewhere else. - Never sit with your back to an entrance. - When you decide to confront a bad guy, don't do it alone. - Surprise your opponent with violence. Surprise gives you a big level up, and if things are going to get violent anyway, maybe startle your opponent by launching into the violence early, when they’re expecting you to be talking. - If you’re in a gunfight from a somewhat protected position, at some point before you run out of ammunition, **stop returning fire** and go silent. Instead of wasting ammunition, make your opponent think they hit you, or that your out of ammo. When you stop returning their fire, eventually they’ll come to you, giving you a chance to surprise them. - If you need to tie up or handcuff your opponent, don’t stop with their hands—restrain their feet, too. If you need them to be able to walk, you can still tie their feet together, but with more slack. Consider putting a hood over their head, too. - When you need to be secure or safe, **keep your curtains/blinds closed**. A “safe house” with the curtains open isn’t “safe” at all. - When you enter a location, always check every room to ensure no one else is there, and that all doors and windows are locked, before you do anything else. - Never answer the telephone with identifying information (e.g. “Smith residence, Andrew speaking”); “hello” is sufficient. If the first thing the caller wants to know is your name, don’t give it to them if you don’t know who they are (e.g. “Hello?”; “Is this Andrew?”; answer with “Who’s calling, please?”) - If you shoot someone, push them off a cliff, etc., but don’t see and check your body… don’t assume they’re dead: **always check**. - Don’t fire your weapon unless you can see and aim at your target—otherwise you’re just wasting ammunition and advertising your position. Exceptions: when you’re providing covering fire, or when you **want** to advertise your position. - Always have at least two ways out, and know what they are before you need them. - When people may be looking for you, or wanting to spy on you, and you leave a safe location, setup a **telltale**: a way to tell if a door has been opened while you were away. - When going into any maze-like location, leave **breadcrumbs** or marks to guide your way back out. - If you come into possession of media (document, USB drive, video tape, etc.) containing something important, **immediately** make copies and put them in secure locations different from where you normally put things. - Consider putting setting up a “dead man switch” on one of the copies (e.g. give one to someone with instructions to send it to a newspaper if they don’t hear from you by a certain date). - When entering a sketchy room/building/location, or investigating a suspicious noise, **don't announce your presence** (e.g. calling out “*Is anyone there?*”). If someone bad is there, you don’t want to let them know you’re aware of them, or that you're coming… so just go look, quietly (maybe **after** calling police, just in case?) - Don't *announce* you're going to call the police… just do it: call the police, *first*. You can announce it afterwards if you feel that will make you safer… but make the call **first**. - Set your phone to auto-upload photos to the cloud, and take lots of pictures of things you see. - Never leave your keys anywhere in your car (in the ignition, above the visor, in the glove box, etc.) - If some asks for you to give them your phone, tell them you lost it (keep it hidden and silent). - If someone tells you they lost their phone, don't believe them (they may be hiding it). - EDC (Every Day Carry) items: - Cellphone - Cash (real cash) - Flashlight - Multi-tool - If you decide you need to leave because someone will be coming after you, **leave immediately*, not tonight, not tomorrow. Putting off leaving puts you in jeopardy. - Don't assume someone is unarmed unless you've personally searched them. - Don't put flashing lights or countdowns on bombs, or make them make beeping or ticking sounds (these are examples of providing information to the enemy). - Use 2FA on any kind of physical or computer access: “something you *have* and something you *know*”. A fingerprint or retinal scan shouldn’t be all you need—you should also need a password (lest an adversary cut off a finger, remove an eyeball, or even just holding your phone up to your face). - Do not set your phone or computer to unlock with only your face or fingerprint—set them to require a password or PIN. - Don’t drink anything that has hasn’t been in your sight the entire time since it was first served. - If you’re in a fight with multiple armed bad guys, replenish your ammunition by taking their guns and ammo as you neutralize them. - If you’re being pursued, don’t go where your pursuers expect—i.e. don’t run away from where they are. Instead, stop, or even move toward them. They’re looking for someone fleeing them, not someone coming toward them. - When you’re doing something weird, look confident. Looking like you’re nervous or unsure of yourself draws attention to you. - Don’t wear headphones. - Always have a cover story, or “excuse” for what you’re doing. If something goes wrong and your caught, you need a consistent plausible story that you already figured out in advance, not something you make up on the fly. - When someone is at the door to your house or hotel room, use the peep hole before opening the door - Block the hold with something like a “do not disturb” card, first (if someone is waiting to shoot through the door, this will trigger them). - If that doesn’t result in a shot fired, look through the peephole. Never open the door without knowing who’s there, first. - When you rifle through things, do it neatly. Be systematic so you don’t miss anything, and don't leave a trace of having gone through the place. So: *don’t* dump the contents of drawers on the floor, etc. - When you’re holding a gun, don’t gesture with your hands: it takes your weapon off-target for long enough that your opponent can make a move. - When you’re in a fight, don’t talk. - Always close curtains/blinds at night (it seems like *everyone* on TV leaves them open, and bad guys are always looking through their windows, watching them) ### **Team tactics** - “*Let’s split up so we can cover more ground*” is ***always*** a bad idea. If you do need to split up, always deploy people in teams of at least two—never alone. - Even if you stay together in a large group, always use the “buddy system”: everyone is paired with a buddy, they go everywhere together, keep track of each other, and don’t split up. - As long as you have time, don't give people an order without telling them *why* you're giving that order. If they don't understand the motivations, don't be surprised if they do the wrong thing (and conversely: if they understand the motivations, they will respond to unexpected circumstances in appropriate ways). - Always have a plan for regrouping if you're separated. Establish a rendezvous point everyone will go to if you get split up. - Never commit your whole group to a new situation—always hold someone back, out of site, as a **reserve force** / insurance, in case things go badly. - Never stop to talk, rest, or permanently settle, in a non-defensible position. - Always **post a lookout**, whether when resting, sleeping, stopped for a few days, or in a permanent location (i.e. "always"). You need to be able to get advance warning of danger. - **Watch your six**: always be looking around, maintaining situational awareness. - When you have a team going against a smaller number of opponents, attack together, all at once, to overwhelm the opponents from all directions. Don’t let them fight you one-by-one. - Don't use euphemisms or clever phrases. Say what you mean, unambiguously. If you’re receiving instructions, insist on your instructions being crystal clear. No “*if you take my meaning*”, or “*will no one rid me of this troublesome priest*”. - Never walk up to someone from behind and put your hand on them when they don’t know you’re there. - If you need to guard something, there are two approaches; choose the one that fits your situation (or, use both together to get the benefits of each): - **Deter potential casual adversaries**: you want the guards to be highly visible, which usually means in uniform and on sentry duty. To dial it up, you might want them to be openly carrying firearms, to be extra fit, or to be standing. This is the “locks keep honest people honest” philosophy: it prevents non-determined adversaries from trying anything, but it’s actually a horrible approach if the adversaries are determined (because the guards are obvious and easy to bypass or take out). - **Stop determined adversaries**: you want the guards to be invisible, which could mean hiding, in dark clothing, or dressed like civilians. This approach makes things far harder and more dangerous for a determined adversary, but might actually encourage a casual adversary to go for it. - If you have a group of people, each of whom is important to your success... don't put them on the same aircraft together. ### **OpSec** - Don't write anything in a diary you wouldn’t be ok with random people reading. (Better rule: don’t keep a diary at all!) - Make sure your whole team understands the importance of, and reasons for, operational security. If they don't, someone's going to give vital information away without realizing that they're doing so. - And then... assume someone's going to give vital information away, anyway, and plan countermeasures. Ben Franklin: "*Three people can keep a secret, if two of them are dead*." - **Code Names** - Always use code names when talking about your team’s actions: use tactical names ("code names") for common locations, groups, people, etc.: it simplifies communication and reduces the risks if you're overheard. Applies to direct person-to-person conversations, as well as telephone, text, email, letters, etc. - *Never* use code names when talking about *enemy actions*. The enemy knows what they’re doing; if they overhear you say “the enemy is attacking Narnia”, they now know what your code name “Narnia” refers to, ruining your code. (This one was technique the Allies used to crack the German Enigma code in WW2). - Use code words for even basic stuff; for example, don’t relay that something is done by calling and saying “it’s done”. Example: agree in advance that “I decided not to order the flowers you suggested” means “it’s done”. - Don’t make your code names sound cool or dangerous… make them sound, literally, like you’re talking about picking up the laundry. Instead of “*the target has been eliminated*”, more like “*I picked up the laundry*”. - **Phones** - Don't put sensitive contacts in your phone under their real names; use realistic fake names (a variation on tactical/code names). - Never take your personal phone on an operation; always use burner phones. - Always assume you cellphone’s location, calls, and even what you say on them, is being monitored. - When doing something secret, **always have two plausible stories** you can give out that include a few verifiable facts. The first is if you're questioned; the second is in case you're tortured. They might let you go after the first; the second might prevent you from being forced to give away the real secret. - **Use cut-outs**. Don't use your phone, borrow someone else's, or a burner phone; don't use your car, use someone else's; don't do something yourself, hire someone, who hires someone else, to do it for you. - In a large secret organization, use a **cell structure**: operations are conducted only within a cell, and people only know others in their own cell. - **Compartmentalize information**: Only tell people what they need to know. (Understand, though, that knowing the big picture is critical for both loyalty and to enable independent creative action). - When you label things, **make the labels misleading**. E.g. if there’s a switch that detonates a bomb, label it “disable bomb”. - Don't use a computer where people can see what you’re doing (e.g. don’t use a laptop in a coffee shop, or on a plane). - Never write anything on a pad of paper (if you've watched any TV at all, you know it leaves an impression on pages under the one you’re writing on that adversaries can later read). Instead, tear a sheet off the pad, put it on a hard surface, and then write on it. - Never use birthdays, anniversaries, etc. as passwords, combinations, PIN codes, etc. ### **Distilled general principles** - If someone is a *lethal* threat to you, don't mess around, don't be nice: use lethal force on them, first. - Don't knock them down and then run way; knock them down and then make sure they stay down, because if they get up, they're going to come after you. > “*In war, if you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying*.” > > Quote from TV show, Lioness, S01E01; said by two different characters. (The original quote, from pro wrestler Eddie Guerrero, didn’t have the “in war” part… which seems to give it a completely different sense… but the “in war” part totally applies here). [Someone else](https://xcancel.com/michaelharriot/status/1408919667859767303?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1408919667859767303%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=) who had the same idea as me in making this list: ![[Harriott Tactics Quote.png|541]]