I am aware that the human body consists of 108 pressure points with 36 being deadly and the rest either numbing or paralyzing.
Basically each of the "fatal" pressure points are tied to series of specific nerve bundles that can *occasionally* induce certain organs to
malfunction. However, if you cut off blood supply to a major artery you can also have an acute shock reaction followed by rapid loss of
consciousness.
Medically, the specific number of pressure points (fatal and non-fatal) differ greatly for each individual, as well as specific location. There are
"general areas" but ultimately their identification depends on one's ability to observe the musculoskeletal qualities of the subject. With
anything, you get better at this with practice
Much of the damage inflicted by fatal and non-fatal pressure points can be corrected with
medical attention that you'd expect to find in any level 1 trauma center (in the US). Occasionally you will see irreversible nerve damage, but this
is in an extremely low percentage of martial arts admissions.
But once you take your first five steps, the power of the punch and the location of the punch causes your heart to explode inside of you.
The time delay is possible for a complete loss of consciousness to occur, although it wouldn't be tied to number of physical steps. Likely, the
extent of the trauma inflicted would cause the person to reflexively attempt to flee the situation before they collapsed.
Physiologically speaking, the breastplate and ribcage would normally prevent against this from happening. The heart is one huge muscle, it can take
one hell of a beating (externally and surgically). Additionally there are individual differences in heart size due to exercise history, etc. Martial
arts experts tend to be well-conditioned.
Even if you managed to puncture the heart, it would not directly "explode". It would simply leak & spray blood into the chest cavity (and probably
lungs) leading to a loss of consciousness and immediate reduction in blood pressure, and eventually death. Upon opening the chest cavity, the heart
would superficially appear to be damage, but still in one piece. However, it is possible to
temporarily stop the heart by targeting a specific
bundle of nerves, but the heart tends to recover (thanks to the Purkinje fibers).
It sounds like there has been a great deal of creative license taken with this movie. Interestingly, some cardiac patients have described their first
heart attack as feeling like "an explosion in my chest", and, "an elephant sitting on my chest and bearing all of his weight on me at once".
MK
[edit on 28-9-2004 by MKULTRA]