how did Jack survive the shot to the throat?

In the movie, same thing. In through mouth, out below left ear. Very survivable, though ugly wound.

Do you think that Joe in the book had to have a lot of reconstructive surgery before he was able to talk again? Think about it. Half a tongue. Few teeth. Face ripped open. I'm surprised he could call Marla on the phone and talk intelligebly to her.

he couldn't. the entire thing at the end of the movie is absurd. calls into question whether it's really happening, which i think is a nod toward the book.

With half a tongue, you can only speak in vowels...

I always figured he survived it because its a movie and not real.

The book's ending is no less absurd, given he wasn't dead at the end and the bullet went throught the hole in his cheek. I wish he had shot himself in the chest or something, because that would have been somewhat more believable if he stood up and it would have been a strong enough statement to kill Tyler. Well no movie is perfect.

And, if you shot yourself in the mouth, wouldn't you not be able to hear for a very, very long while??????

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by plastic [/i]

[/QUOTE]

there's someone listening in.

To the best of my knowledge, you could survive. It looks like all he did was take out a chunk of his cheek, and maybe a little of his jaw/teeth. Can't see[I]that[/I] well because of all the blood, but if that's all that happened than he would survive, yes. So long as he didn't hit anything on his neck, or anything in the area of his back jaw/ear.

And yes, he would be pretty much deaf for a while. That wasn't a pansy gun.

This thread has been dead for a while, but I remember back in 9th grade they showed us a kid who had been shot in the exact same place...with an M-16. Miraculously, he survived and still functions normally to this day after some reconstructive surgery. If he can survive that, I suppose Jack could survive the shot after all.

yeah, what he said...

it is the best way to kill himself i think
when you die you will be free to do anything in hell

Yeah, the kid whose parents took Judas Priest to court because their kid and his friends heard "Kill yourself" in one of the songs, well one of them lived. He only has half a face, but he survived, and I think it was a shotgun blast to the face. I would think it would have to be a pretty lucky shot to damage the part of the brain which is responsible for perpetuating Tyler and leaving most of the rest of the motor skills relatively in tact. Certianly it has to be concievable but highly unlikely, unless you have the Pixies playing in the background.
And what if he was wearing earplugs? Just kidding, I'm sure it would still cause permenant hearing loss.

i wonder if he hit the brain at all. perhaps it was the act itself was so intense that psychologically he was able to gain control of his brain again. sort of like forced trauma or something.

If anything it was forced trauma, the shot wasn't really that close to the brain. It went from the inside of the mouth, through teeth, his cheek, maybe part of his ear, and then out.

If you look at the damage done in the movie, the shot is pretty low on the face, and exits sideways as opposed to upwards.

If you watch the second disk in the special edition dvd, you'll see quite clearly that the bullet is meant to exit via the back of the cheek. Which would not be a lethal wound.

I don't have any problem with this scene. I don't watch movies/read books as some sort of alternate reality where everything has to be completely possible. It's the ideas that are important, not the details.

mh

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by izen [/i]
[B]i wonder if he hit the brain at all. perhaps it was the act itself was so intense that psychologically he was able to gain control of his brain again. sort of like forced trauma or something. [/B][/QUOTE]

That's not why he got control of his brain again.

In the book though, Joe'd been talking about drilling holes in the barrel of the gun (that gun?) or something so it wouldn't a been as loud as a normal gun shot? I have no idea, I'm not really defending anything.... I'm just mentioning it for whatever reason.

i also thought it was the act, as tyler said, "maybe self destruction is the answer" and having a near life experience is as close as he was going to get without commiting suicide. i figured the car crash didn't count since tyler helped with that. jack shot himself on his own, so that was a true act of self-destruction.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by jack's wasted live [/i]
[B]it is the best way to kill himself i think
when you die you will be free to do anything in hell [/B][/QUOTE]
The best way to kill yourself is suicide.
Didn't he already have a hole in that cheek?

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by krbye [/i]
[B]In the book though, Joe'd been talking about drilling holes in the barrel of the gun (that gun?) or something so it wouldn't a been as loud as a normal gun shot? I have no idea, I'm not really defending anything.... I'm just mentioning it for whatever reason. [/B][/QUOTE]
Who the hell is Joe?

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Six On The Dot [/i]
[B]Who the hell is Joe? [/B][/QUOTE]

in the book, the narrator is referred to as Joe because the "I am Jack's Raging Bile Duct"-type phrases use "Joe" instead of "Jack".

Oh, right.
I sitll have issues reffering to the main character as Jack. The whole Joe thing just threw me off track a little.

there are people who have survived bullets to the head...very few, mind you, but there are some. So it seems perfectly reasonable that he could survive such a shot to the cheek.
As far as the shot killing tyler, I think that this:

pretty much sums it up for me. right on.

it all depends where u shoot urself in the head, directly through the back of the mouth(top of the spine) as it takes out all of the nerves and stops the person doing anything, Im not sure that killing himself was the whole idea behind being shot, i think it was meant 2 represent killing tyler. It would appear that the bullet hit inbetween the was bone and his neck, or through his cheek, tho this is hard to be sure off.

I believe he didnt die because he did the same thing he did to get the gun in his hand. ie: he though it wasnt his (jack's)head, but Tyler's, so that way he recieved damage, but as it was Tyler's head, Tyler died instead of Jack.
About going deaf n that, i dont know