4.2.12 WC: 191694 Make believe murder: the case of the falling helicopter Another case that we won on the basis of science grew out of the making a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg and John Landis. The film was The Twilight Zone, based on the television series by that name. There were three segments to the film, each directed by a different person. John Landis, already famous for directing Animal House, and other mega-hits, was directing a segment involving the Vietnam War. The star of that segment was the veteran actor Vic Morrow. The scene at issue called for Morrow’s character to be running through a rice patty, in pitch darkness, carrying two children as helicopters fired at them. Landis wanted to make the scene as realistic as possible, so he filmed it at night, with extensive pyrotechnics and a real helicopter flying low to the ground. Tragically, the helicopter crashed into Morrow and the children, killing them instantly. Landis was charged with involuntary manslaughter, and he retained me to consult with his trial lawyer and to prepare an appeal, if necessary. He was the first film director in history to be criminally charged with causing the death of an actor. The major issue at the trial was whether the accident should have been foreseeable. If it was foreseeable to a reasonably prudent director that a helicopter, placed in the circumstances in which this one had been placed, might crash, then the directorial decision to have the helicopter fly close to the pyrotechnics could satisfy the legal criteria for involuntary manslaughter. But if the crash could not reasonably have been anticipated, then it would have to be regarded as an accident, giving rise, perhaps, to civil liability, but not to a criminal charge carrying the prospect of imprisonment. The prosecutor called 71 witnesses, many of whom offered scientific testimony about the cause of the crash and why it should have been anticipated. The defense summoned scientific witnesses who