The Claymore Mine - In the Movies 

Thanks everyone who gave their input on what they wanted to see in the next video. I'll still do all the rest of the videos voted on in due course.

My favorite depiction of this weapon was in Commando with Arnold Schwarzenegger. He planted it outside the barracks. The explosion was so powerful that it managed to teleport inside the building and blow it up from within somehow lmao

“If you can’t remember which way you placed the mine it is facing toward you,” Murphy’s Laws of Combat Operations.

Although "FRONT TOWARDS ENEMY" is my long-time favorite, "TOXIC IF EATEN" holds a special place in my heart

The claymore roomba needs to become a reality

every scene has a movie title thank you johnny

There is a book I read years ago called Tank (possibly Tank Sergeant by Ralph Zumbro). The author said in Vietnam they hung claymores off the front of the M60 tank and would detonate them when the enemy would get too close like when placing a explosive on the tank.

I remember the first time blowing one up during my infantry training. I was very nervous attaching the blasting cap to the body. I carefully rolled out the cable gently then took cover and detonated it when it was my turn. Once we were all done and the range was cleared I then proceeded to carefully roll up the wire back into its spool and then got worried when I couldn’t find the mine itself. As the handling test was practised a thousand times with a wire, a fake blasting cap and a plastic claymore. I felt pretty silly actually but it bought some much needed laughs for the boys.

This is an excellent overview. I will add some additional information from my combat tour in VN. We set up “mechs” or mechanical ambushes, which I believe was wordplay to get around the Geneva Convention. We would take a Claymore and put an alligator clip between the Claymore and the battery source. We would put a c-ration spoon handle in between the alligator clip with a trip wire attached to something solid(usually base of a tree or substantial vegetation) . The Claymore would be position and hidden on a trail strategically aimed down the trail. It would have 50 feet of wire that you would trail in the bush back to a battery. Of course the last thing you would do is attach the battery at a safe distance with some cover. I personally had one detonate prematurely due to wind causing the spoon slipping out of the alligator clip. When we were in our “night position” we would set mechs on all trails and also have command detonated Claymore placed on the outside of our position at a safe distance. If an enemy walked into a mech it would blow at least one leg off and severely injured anyone 50 feet behind them. You had to be careful retrieval of mechs as the enemy was know to reverse the setup when found and you could end up walking into your own mech. This happened to a guy in our other squad who lost a leg. It is a devastating anti-personnel weapon that has been over hyped in movies.

Nothing beats running around and planting these on backs of prone snipers in MW2 (2009)

During the Vietnam War, green berets in MACVSOG developed timed fuses for their claymores. So if they were being chased by the NVA in Cambodia, Laos or North Vietnam. A green berets or one of their indigenous team members could lay one behind a tree, put the timed fuse in and run like hell. According to John Stryker Meyer, and Lynne Black Jr. these were very effective at stopping the enemy from chasing.

‘Those Who Hunt Elves?’ Wow! That, Johnny, is an impressive deep cut.

The "Front Toward Enemy" marking is really the perfect balance of movie cool and actually effective. It almost seems too stylish and imposing to be real, yet it is.

The large two-handed Claymore sword was used to break up enemy "shield wall" formations by literally breaking their shields. The mine was designed to break up enemy "human wave" formations.

There’s a warning on the back of a claymore mine that warning you not to eat it implying that enough people have tried to eat anti personal mines that they had to add a warning

Ive read stories about Vietnam where Vietnamese sappers would crawl under the wire and turn Claymores around so they faced the American's. The Yanks counteracted this by putting grenades under the mines with the pins out. I also remember on an episode of the tv show Booker that the hero shot a Claymore with a pistol to set it off. He survived the back blast of course.

It's basically a disposable giant single round shotgun. Incidentally, I've heard actual shotguns referred to as "reloadable Claymores."

During the Vietnam war, there were a couple of attempts to arm convoy escort gun trucks with claymore mines. The idea being that since the mine acted like a giant shotgun shell, it could disrupt ambushes. Unfortunately, the mines completely destroyed the trucks they were attached to and the plan was scrapped.

I don't have much experience with actual Claymore mines, but they actually do have offensive capabilities, mostly for ambushes. Not with tripwires, mind you, but from behind cover, you can trigger them to start an ambush. Also, surprised the "Do Not Eat" wasn't mentioned. I love that Claymores actually have that printed on them lol.

I was a combat engineer in the Marine Corps. I have used at least one. We also made improvised ones with a soap holder and hex nuts. You set it off with det cord.

i honestly love all your videos, they completely cover specific pieces of equipment or topics and the way you use movies makes it even more entertaining and give a solid, easy to grasp image on what to expect and what to not expect of the real thing

The bomb in Rambo movie is Tallboy. Smaller than Grand Slam, but still effective as Earthquake bomb at 5 long tons

I learned to fire a claymore mine at Ft. Jackson. We practiced on trees that needed to be removed. Very fun.

Good video!!! While in US Army from 1981-2001, had trained with the M18A1 Claymore Mine numerous times and even got to set a bunch of them off as well - sort of like a big B=O=O=M similar to a fragmentation grenade going off. There is an upgraded version of the Claymore that operates off of a shock tube. Same basic principle setting the Claymore up just different detonating system. Only seen pictures/videos of that version. Was told that main reason for the shock tube is so that the enemy cannot recover whatever is left of the electrical wire and use it against friendly forces - you would be surprised on the number of uses that that electrical wire has, only limited to the imagination. Shock tube is pretty much useless once fired so no real sense in trying to recover that junk. Shock tube is also used in modern military explosives (I grew up in the era of electric, non-electric, and wires that made things go B-O-O-M). Also, since I work at a warehouse on a military installation, part of my job is to issue out the TRAINING version of the Claymore. Am constantly surprised at how many of today's soldiers are UNFAMILIAR with the Claymore, so I have impromptu training classes with the soldiers on the various parts, what to look for, set up, recovery, whatever so that way they can accomplish whatever training event they may encounter. I also try to name movies that they may see the Claymore in, and I do get quite a few odd/baffled looks. Also, and probably MOST IMPORTANT thing about the Claymore: the CARRYING BAG has multiple purposes, primarily being EXCELLENT for placing your shaving gear in it or used as a tool bag - again only limited to the imagination. Once we would finish firing off Claymores at a range, everyone would literally be begging the Ammo NCO for those bags, but they had to be turned in for accountability, along with the Clacker, Test Set, and what was left of the firing wire. Of course, a few carrying bags would "accidentally" come up missing.

Hello Again Johnny . Thank's to Emanuel Perez comment , I got reminded that other countries also succcessfully copied the M18 Claymore mine design. The Yugoslavs had two designs :- One exact Copy MRUD (Mina usmerena rasprskavajućeg dejstva - Directed fragmentation mine) and another one idk about The Chinese has the Type-66 Claymore which were reverse engineered copies of US Claymore models they got their hands on from various sources . The Soviets / Russians had the MON series (MON 50 and MON 90) The French had the MAPED F1 and the South Africans had the Mini MS-803 mine .

In OIF I 1st Tank Bn. (USMC) lost a platoon commander on the advance and his tank was damaged needing to be towed. 2 of his crew opted to ride in the towed tank to provide rearward cover fire to the column, and as a security measure rigged a 180° series of Claymores around the hull. Dudes were legit. I’ll never forget that sight.

The only movies I've seen the claymore mine being used in were Commando, Predator and Predators, and Rambo 4. My favorite scenes with the claymore mine are Commando and Rambo 4. That explosion was in Rambo 4 was so huge and the scene in Commando was awesome as always.

I remember back during early 2000s I was watching a documentary about military action during the V.N.war(I think either about U.S.Navy Seals or US Army rangers during the VN War).There was a North VN soldier veteran who was interviewed for the documentary.Even though he was speaking in Vietnamese and English subtitles was shown on bottom of tv screen📺,he said perfectly understandable,"Claymore",and bottom of screen it showed,"claymore" mine.

Worth knowing, the appearance in The Simpons episode "Summer of 4'2" featured in a fireworks shop: "Playmore with Claymore!"

The Park is Mine. A genuine classic.

It was pretty crazy to me to see how large the blast radius was in real life than video games.

Ron Swanson kept one on his desk.

Commando, the most effective claymore ever placed

To quote a Scottish sergeant I knew: "It's nae a sword, it's a grea' green box f'r blowin' up (censored)."

I never thought I'd see Chabboy and Azzy in one of these videos! I watched them back in 2014 when I started playing battlefield and I still laugh hard when I go back and watch them nowadays. Great video as always dude

JJ, I always loved Reb Brown’s character Blaster demo of a claymore in Uncommon Valor

Can’t wait for the M-16 😃 I trained with the claymore in San Antonio, TX while in the USAF - Security Forces

o.k. Johnny good work again. Thanks for the internal details of the Claymore construction.

Also reminds me of the wound dressings with “Other Side Towards Wound” on them as in the famous photo by Don McCullin.

The M18 mine is 100% more affective if tactically used on a Roomba vacuum. The idea being to direct the blast towards the enemy from the most affective angle. 50 casualties could easily become 150 casualties from a single tactical Roomba strike.

During my time in the military I actually had training in how to set up anti-personal and anti-tank claymores. Sadly we only got dummys to place and weren't given real ones :(

thanks for adding this one I remember it as part of the standard issue equipment in a board game I used to play ages ago as a time traveling VN war GI Time Tripper

Interesting video. Also good to know someone out there aside from me remembers "Those who Hunt Elves". Also I do love the informative content in this video. Especially talking about the clackers. My friend used to give out clackers converted into cigarette lighters as a present for his business.

Great visit. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay safe.🙂🙂

Retired Marine Combat Engineer. 1371. Worked as VFW Service Officer. Had a guy who wanted to file a claim for disability. Said " was holding a claymore, when somebody hit the clacker". The backblast hurt a couple of fingers. I said "how am I talking to you?"

My grandfather and I both hate that particular clip in "The Green Berets" where John Wayne walks in front of the Claymore. For him, it was kind of a personal bit, as he's seen what those things can actually do, so he thinks (even though its a movie) that it was very irresponsible.

This is a very underrated channel. Should have way more subs.

I call the vas car system a claymore mine when i was playing the game call of duty mw2 and mw3 they have them in the games and the vas car system that local police use kind of look like a claymore set up on the side of the road

1:02 Glad to see you mention airsoft!

Love that you gave us the opportunity to vote for topics. Amazing how fast you montage these videos in that short amount of time.

We needed him, and he delivered

1:05 NOVRISCH love how you added that in!

Very useful bits of kit.

Good to see the land mine that lets people say “oh shit” before they die has its day of fame on ur channel

Hey Johnny can you please do the A-20 havoc and the vickers welligton 3 please

I remember in BCT/AIT one of these being detonated into a berm for demonstrative purposes. We were behind another berm about 50 yrds behind it, and for about 30 seconds afterwards clods of dirt rained down on us, lol!

In training, was told if at night, the curve told you which way to face it. Remember basic, sound a sleep solider would yell " claymore, claymore, claymore". Then another would yell " I see the light" 3 times. The tester, can't remember but I think it was M40. Scared me at night when you hear that

Still can't believe if the shield + claymore combo trick could be carried out in real life or not . Can somebody debunk that?

My fave was in Platoon, when Charlie Sheen first got there, he fumbled with the switch on the ambush. At the end attack, he was like click click click BAYAM! Click click click BAYAM! Ah you get it. Great vid, well done.

Wrote about “round mines”, which were inspired by these. Those were fictional. Was some years later that I learned about the Russian MON-100 and -200 mines - which are real life “round mines.”

There is a video on RU-vid that has demonstrated the true power of claymore against a truck next to it, the ball bearing shredded so much of the steel chassis of the truck, truely horrific in battle.

The Claymore sword was designed to defend against cavalry by taking both front legs out. The use of the mine is similar to that function; sweeping low.

Love the NOVRITSCH clip...love to see synergy among my favorite RU-vidrs.

I was hoping you would use atleast one Green beret scene, I was kinda hoping for the final sacrifice when he sets of the claymores and stops the attack.

Awesome as always

aimed about 10 to 20 mts in front at ground level or there abouts and when detonated, the blast does actually kick back a little which in turns sends most the ball bearings upwards more to help effect the lethality more and someone correct me if im wrong, but i believe you can no longer set up banks of claymores., well thats what we were told during my time in Australian army. We could only set up as individual mines, something about Geneva convention or shit like that but very effective when waiting in ambush

What has 700 balls, 4 legs and F's up soldiers. The m18 claymore mine.

Awsome video, especially like the clip from the park is mine

I didn't realize how many movies the Claymore is but Rambo seems to use it most and I've never had the patience to watch those movies. I honestly believe what they do to a human at close range is more terrifying then how Hollywood gets it wrong.

Great video, thanks

There's a film from the VN war where the aftermath of an ambush shows the lead man cut in half by the Claymore. All that was left was his upper torso and head; the bottom part was .... somewhere else.

A mate of mine who is an artillery man told me these things are the loudest thing he’s ever heard go off by far

They are still uses with “tripwires” you just have to recover them after; this can work say as an un-observes defensive line or doorway of a room/building being used as an observation post.

The Rambo 4 bomb was a WW2 Grand Slam one. Sly wanted to put something WW2 releated in the script.

I was just shy of my 18th birthday when I got my training, and I was just past my 40th before I ever had to place a live one defensively. You never forget the first time, wondering if you did it right until it goes off.

There was a certified badass in the 101st named David "Fireball" Dixon during Vietnam. Every mission out (part of the LRRP unit with the 1st Brigade) he wore a claymore mine strapped to his chest with a short wire and clacker in an easy to reach spot. He figured if he was going out he was going out with a bang. Unfortunately, Fireball and his team were ambushed in their NDP and he was killed. He did not have to use his mine as his fellow LRRPs despite all odds and severe injuries, kept the enemy at bay until the QRF arrived.

I love these.

I still love the German Bouncing Betty Anti-Personal mine

good video! still waiting for the m16 though

An old ditty from my Army days..."Here comes Peter Cotton Tail....hopping down the bunny trail...BOOM!.....CLAYMORE!"

It was actually invented by Canadian and French soldiers in the Korean war. The idea gave the U.S. the inspiration to make the Claymore.

Loved the Predator comment, and the Rambo Four bit! Actually, Britain did drop a lot of bombs in the jungle, I found out, so it (the blockbuster bomb being there) is plausible, if not likely. You are also supposed to shout, "Claymore!" when detonating them. That is just before detonation. I did that once, but my shout came out afterward (admits sheepishly). NTC, early 90s.

When I see a Claymore, all I think about is a free kill in Siege.

Bandages say "Other side toward wound." Claymores say "Front toward enemy" I guess it's nice to have guidance about fundamentals when things get nasty. A quibble: I don't think anything has been made with "tin foil" since the 1940s. It al-u-min-i-um now, mate. ;) Thanks for another interesting and informative video!

Edge of Tomorrow, the best movie no one has seen. I didn't see Ron Swanson?

Is there enough info to talk about the MON series? it's like the claymore but soviet and the biggest one can even penetrate lightly armored vehicles and helicopters

Missing is the rule to never tie them to a tree. It changes the blast pattern. Always place them in the open well away from rear obstacles.

I'm going to need a few of those to keep my neighbors dog from shitting on my lawn.

i like that you made a distinction between average soldier and marine. hoo ah

In Vietnam, atleast MACV-SOG guys made claymores with 5 and 10 second fuses. When they were chased by enemy force, they would put these agaisnt trees so that tree would absorp the backblast, pull the pin and run. The enemy would then get hit in the face. The thing was, they had the fuses and the blasting caps in the mine when had them in their rugs

Glad you included The Punisher

Weirdest thing I’ve seen done with a M18 Claymore was during UNITAS. Peruvian Naval Infantry sawed one in half. Use half now for training, use the other half for future training.

Perfect video!

I have seen claymore at shrine in Melbourne Australia

My favourite depiction of the Claymore is in Parks and Rec, where Ron Swanson 'detonates' his in the office! 🤣

Fun fact, on the back it also says Poisonous if eaten, or do not eat.

A very Vicious Weapon. A real Nightmare for the ones on the receiving end. PS: the Beehive Shell and the Claymore besides the destructive and Horrible Power have that "Fear Factor" that can Freeze an entire enemy attacking force, specialy in a jungle environment where you cant see the direction from those ball bearings or darts come from. Must be a Terrifying feeling.

In one movie I saw I believe it was a claymore mine that they switched the sticker to the back side so the bad guy thought he was safe. Both people were only like 10 ft away from the mine but on opposite sides and of course the good guy was fine.

The claymore GRince winner is short film "The Cure" in a small undergound pedestrial crossing the hero pulls our dozen claymores from his small backpack and stacks them along side tunnel wall, one feet from acth others. Glossing over the fact that enemies chacing him much ahve been completely blind not to see them , the best part is then they zoom in to the claymores when they triggered and claymores flip open their - AIR SOFT TOY - covers.

Oh wow. You used a scene from Bullet in The Head. Hell of a movie.