Video of Electric Samurai Sword That Shoots Lightning Looks Like 'Bad CGI'

Controlling electricity might be a skill left to the likes of Thor, but us mere mortals can also apparently do it. Well, kind of.

YouTuber Allen Pan gained over seven million views in one day with his TikTok video showing him using an "electrified samurai sword," appearing like something from a Hollywood blockbuster.

"We are testing an electrified samurai sword," began the text-to-voice generator, as Pan stood in a chain mail ensemble. "We actually don't know what's going to happen," it continued.

The sword did a quick test run, creating a quick hum. "Ok sweet, it didn't catch on fire, let's keep going," added the voice.

Pan then drew the samurai sword and wielded it towards a metal ring attached to the floor. The sword appeared to strike lightning-like electricity at the ring.

He then went on to wield the sword multiple times, creating immense noise and lightning arcs each time.

The video can also be seen in full here.

Pan however, did his trick in the watchful eye of Tesla Orchestra, an entertainment engineering company that regularly uses Tesla coils for shows across the world.

The electricity was created using a Tesla coil, which sees electrons flow from the coil through the air, looking for a conductor to land on. The electrons break into a plasma of ion filaments before they surge into a nearby conductor.

"The tesla coil is off to the left and you can't see it. What's underneath Allen is an electrically insulating platform we rigged up. The top of this platform is metallic (aluminum screen and PVC pipe covered in aluminum tape) and is connected to the output of the tesla coil so that the sparks come out of Allen as he stands on top of this in a protective full-body chainmail suit. The suit acts as a "Faraday Cage" and protects Allen from the very dangerous sparks," explained founder Ian Charnas.

Tesla Orchestra however actually use the coil to produce music at the same time: "A traditional Tesla Coil produces a large high-voltage spark that just makes one loud tone. However, with modern power transistors we've been able to modulate that spark to produce music.

"For example if we turn the spark on and off 440 times per second, you will hear an A note—specifically A4, which is the A string on a Violin or the A above middle C on a piano. It's terrifying to see these large sparks in person, and hearing them play music is a wonderful surprise," said Charnas.

The Tesla coil was invented by Nikola Tesla. It goes without saying not to try this at home, with even the similar woodwork technique of fractal wood burning getting a bad wrap for its danger risks.

The style sees people use two conductors to burn lightning shaped lines into wood using high voltage electricity.

Earlier this month, Newsweek reported on a woodwork artist who used the fractal wood burning technique to burn a portrait of Tesla himself.

The post by the artist went viral, but was met with warnings and criticisms, as the technique has led to multiple deaths across the years.

Even without the added music, the "electrified" samurai sword has impressed many online, and drawn comparisons to how Hollywood has attempted to recreate it.

"It's wild how actual electricity looks exactly like cheap CGI," commented one Reddit user, after the video was reposted to the "Next F***ing Level" Subreddit.

"I know it's real but my brain keeps telling me it's bad CGI," wrote one TikTok user.

Pan and his friend even went the extra mile to make it seem straight from a movie, recreating their own version of a fight scene.

In the video, he wielded the sword towards the grounded friend, also in chain mail. The electrons landed on him but did no harm, instead appearing like he's managing to bat away lightning in a fight.

"My brain cannot wrap around the idea that this is real," wrote one TikTok user.

Newsweek has contacted Allen Pan for comment.