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The Weapons Training of Flashpoint with Enrico Colantoni and Hugh Dillon
by Troy Rogers
 After a successful first season on CBS, the cops of the SRU task force return for a second run of Flashpoint on CBS, as actors Hugh Dillon and Enrico Colantoni suit up to rescue hostages, take down gangs, dismantle bombs, and scale buildings on the side of elite law enforcement. Premiering January 9 at 9m, Flashpoint will see Dillon and Colantoni step back into their roles as Ed Lane and Sgt. Gregory Parker as the two tactical team members begin another round of negotiating, profiling and applying their psychological strategies to diffuse a new season of hair raising and life threatening situations.
Leading up to the second season premiere of Flashpoint, we scored a few brief minutes with Hugh Dillon and Enrico Colantoni to talk about the real E.T.F. and the weapons training they received for the show, which will undoubtedly be put to the test in season two.
THE DEADBOLT: Hugh, what surprised you about the E.T.F. before the season began?
HUGH DILLON: How human they are. That’s really it in a nutshell. They’re just decent people, very human. Before, all I ever saw were the uniforms and that’s it.
 THE DEADBOLT: Can
you talk about what kind of weapons training
you received?
ENRICO COLANTONI: God, it was so long ago. I’m not a gun guy. I’m more of a knife and rope guy [laughs]. I don’t really carry those around.
DILLON: They’ve got everything, and we’re very lucky that we got some guys on hand, the real deal to walk us through everything. And more than that, to talk us through everything. What was interesting was how safe it was. It was just all about safety and then you really get a handle on what the weapons do and what you’re meant to do with them.
COLANTONI: I think more than the weapons, it’s their philosophy of the teamwork, because I know S.W.A.T. teams in America don’t have the cohesiveness. They don’t have the team mentality because they’re usually cops on a beat. And then they’re called in and they show up and work as S.W.A.T., as opposed to E.T.F. who work together all day long. And they train together and that’s what they do, they wait for calls and they go out. So the unity on the team is so spectacular and that plays into the trust element, and the safety element, and I guess weapons are in there too. I think weapons are cool.
 DILLON: [laughs] The only thing I’ll say about the weapons training that I found unique and interesting is they have a 360 degree shooting range and nobody has ever seen it on TV - at least I haven't seen it - or in films, which means you can shoot in any direction. You’re in a room and you can shoot in any direction and I found that incredible.
COLANTONI: What about your gun that shoots around corners? It’s not really a gun, though.
DILLON: Yeah, Rico, but I don’t want to belittle it. It was a pain in the ass. You know what? They should really work out some of these bugs [laughs]. I like the handguns and the machine guns, the one that shot around corners. You know, next time lets give that one to Wordy [Michael Cram] [laughs].
COLANTONI: I know there are a lot of E.T.F. guys that look at the stuff that we have on TV and go, ‘We want that. Oh, that’s really cool.’ Our GPS system is better than theirs, our trucks are better than theirs. They just salivate when they see the toys we get to play with.
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