Fall craft
The sugar-resin glass substitute that shatters dramatically without lacerating, used for window-breach falls and bottle-strike fights.
Mechanism
Breakaway glass is a sugar-and-resin compound (historically true sugar-glass, now typically a polyurethane or proprietary resin) cast into window panes, bottles, lampshades, and other glass props. On impact, the material fractures into chunks too soft to lacerate skin while producing the visual appearance of shattered glass. Modern formulations behave more realistically — clean fracture lines, rotational shard distribution, and scattering on the floor that matches real glass for camera. Any prop that the performer's body passes through, lands on, or strikes is breakaway; everything that's just dressed in the background can be real glass.
Safety
The performer wears a long-sleeved Nomex base layer or similar abrasion-resistant garment under the visible costume. After every take, the floor is cleared of breakaway debris before the next take or before any other crew enter the working area; some breakaway formulas absorb moisture and become slippery underfoot. Performers and crew never touch breakaway material until coordinator confirms it has cured; freshly-cast resin glass can produce splinters before full cure.
Variants
The original formulation — true cooked sugar resin. Cheaper, but absorbs moisture and degrades quickly under hot lights.
Modern polyurethane formulation — colour-stable, less moisture-sensitive, cleaner fracture pattern.
On screen
Sequences in the archive whose discipline tags overlap this technique's category. Click through for the full rigging breakdown of each set-piece.
References
Every URL is stored once in the archive and attached to as many entities as cite it. Entries marked +N also cited appear on other detail pages too — click to see every entity that depends on the same source.