io9
Science fiction has three iconic images that definite the genre: aliens, rockets, and rayguns. Whether due to our obsession with phallic guns, or the idea that a laser pistol is just too cool to pass up, the scifi gun has endured since H.G. Wells introduced them as a "Heat-Ray" in 1898's War of the Worlds. As good old Han Solo would later say, "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Read on for our list of the best things that go PEW PEW PEW!
- Deckard's hand-cannon in Blade Runner: Deckard's gun was an amalgam of several other guns, namely the .44 Bulldog and a Styer Model SL. For the movie, they added some winky-blinky lights and a massive grip, making the thing look like it came off of a tank. And who could forget those massive CHOOMPF sounds it made when Harrison Ford fired it? This wasn't a little popgun, it had some real kick to it. It certainly wouldn't be very comfortable to wear in a holster under your coat, but it would give you some serious intimidation skills when you whipped it out.
- The Good Samaritan Gun from Hellboy: Not to be outdone by Deckard's overly large firearm Hellboy sports a truly massive revolver that would dwarf a normal hand. According to the comic books, "The gun itself has unearthly resistance to almost all forms of attack, and includes grips carved from fragments of the True Cross. The metal of the gun is forged from a combination of Irish church bells, cold iron from crucifixes, blessed silver, and other mystic metals." Plus it comes with a handy lanyard so he doesn't lose it. Of course, even that gets dwarfed in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army when he whips out another gun called, no lie, The Big Baby.
- The M41A Pulse Rifle from Aliens: While Ripley used to be a blue collar salvage worker, she proves that she wants to fight alongside the Marines in Aliens when she asks Kyle Reese... er, Corporal Dwayne Hicks to show her how to use this gun. It's basically a balls-out automatic rifle, complete with an underslung grenade launcher. She gets through the lesson and quickly becomes an expert in popping caps in Aliens. This supposedly also inspired the Assault Rifle in the Halo series, so it's definitely something to have on-hand during alien invasions.
- The Varon-T Disruptor on Star Trek: One episode of The Next Generation called "The Most Toys," obsessive collector Kivas "Douchebag" Fajo had four of the five of these highly illegal, outlawed collectible guns. They could tear your body apart from the inside, in a slow and painful manner, which is why the Federation outlawed them. Of course, it was still fine for Worf to carry around a bat'leth sword. That couldn't be painful at all, could it?
- The Lasseter Laser Pistol on Firefly: Not to be outdone by Trek, Firefly later had their own ultra-rare gun (the prototype handheld laser pistol_ and it was named after the jovial and affable John Lasseter of Pixar, who directed Toy Story... which Joss Whedon helped write. Mal and his on-again, off-again "wife" Saffron conspired to steal this sucker and make some dough, but things never really go as planned on that show.
- Reason version 1.0B7 from Snow Crash: In Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk novel Reason is a gun that comes complete with its own operating system, carrying case, and a heat exchanger that you need to drop into a nearby body of water to keep the gun from overheating. It fires spent uranium rounds gatling-gun style, and features millimeter-wave radar, giving you daylight vision, even during the night. It might not be the easiest thing to carry around, but it's deadlier than the bubonic plague. As long as the system doesn't crash.
- The Needler gun from the A Stainless Steel Rat novels: Harry Harrison's Rat books still haven't been adapted for film or tv, which continues to vex us. It's a great property that needs someone smart to bring it to the screen, big or small. Needlers, or needle guns, are popular in the series, and can be outfitted with different types of needles: tranquilizer, paralyzer, nerve toxin, truth serum, etc. Anyhow who is already scared of needles certainly wouldn't like this thing. If you haven't read these, A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born is a great starting point.
- The Sandman guns from Logan's Run: In the movie, the Sandmen fired guns with an incendiary charge at the Runners. Deadly, yes, but not too imaginative. However, in the books they were six-round guns, and each round did something different, like the "homer" bullet which tracked you and would burn out every nerve in your body, or the "tangler" shot with was a sticky, goo-like web substance. Always be prepared!
- The Lawgiver from Judge Dredd: Since a Judge was judge, jury, and executioner, this thing came in handy. They were DNA locked to each individual Judge, and featured bonus items like heat-seeking bullets, rubber "ricochet" shots, armor-piercing rounds, and even grenade rounds. Oh, and it also had a top range of three miles (!). That's some serious distance. Of course, if your bullet is going to explode when it hits, maybe aiming isn't that important at that range. Plus it gives you the ability to shout "I AM THE LAW" whenever you want.
- The thermal smart bullet in Runaway: Granted, Gene Simmons' over-the-top performance in this Tom Selleck action flick from 1984 was pretty lethal. However, all eyes were on the "smart bullet" that Simmons' character had devised. It could be encoded with its targets thermal signature and track them, even around corners. The POV shots of it in flight were flight reminiscent of that flying needle in Dune, but it was cool and scary just the same. And yes, we know it's not a gun, but a bullet. Just remember guns don't kill people... the bullet has a lot to do with it.
- Soran's gun from Star Trek Generations: While we're loathe to put to Trek entries on this list, Soran's gun gets a special mention for the street cred alone. You know how gangstas like to turn their gats to the side when they hold 'em? Soran's will turn right side up when he "gangsterizes" his hold on the pistol, for no apparent reason. The barrel just sort of flips back upright when he holds it sideways. It might look a bit like a doctor's exam tool, but at least it gives you some props and bling value.
- The Zorg ZF1 Gun from The Fifth Element: Zorg's gun is nothing short of spectacular. It can break down into four pieces that are undetectable by x-rays, is good for left or right handers, features a 3000 round magazine, has a "Replay" button that sends all shots to the same location, a rocket launcher, an arrow launcher (with posion or explosive-tipped arrows), a net launcher, a flamethrower, and an "ice cube" freezing blast. Oh, and it'll self-destruct if you push the button on the bottom. Not bad. We could go on about it, but it's better if you just watch Zorg himself infomercial-it for you in the video below.
You've probably noticed that a lot of these guns aren't laser guns, and that's simply because laser guns are just sort of, well... boring. They fire a laser "pew!" and that's it. Sure they look cool, and there's always the classic Buck Rogers-style laser pistols, but we wanted a bit more oomph in our arsenal for this list. Not that we wouldn't want a laser gun of our very own. Trust us, it's one of the first things we'll expect our future selves to bring back when they encounter time-travel.
Comments
Can't forget about the Qualta blade and good ol' Winona from Farscape.
BFG from Doom.
I can't help but be reminded of the organic, tooth shooting gun from eXistenZ - creepy and icky!
@ManchuCandidate: YES!
what about the point of view gun from the hitchhiker's guide movie? sure, not in the original book, radio show, etc..., but still a very great addams-like creation.
If were playing the video game angle then allow me to introduce .. The Cerebral Bore.
From the rather pants yet classic Turok 2, Seeds of evil. This baby fires a homing projectile that locks onto brainwave activity. No poncey kind of projectile either, an absurd buzz saw screams around chasing its victim only for sets of hooked prongs to be thrust deep into the victim's skull upon impact, thus draining their brain fluid and then finally detonating a small charge sending dino cranium flying through the badly pixelated corridors.
Don't forget Robocop's "Auto-9" machine pistol. Also, the "state-of-the-art bang bang" Cobra Assault Cannon
Agent J's gun The Noisy Cricket from "Men in Black"!
almost forgot, how about the loogie gun. a non-leathal that was in neal stephenson's novel "Snow Crash". i also swear that it was in the bruce sterling novel "Islands in the Net", but i can't find any references to it online. anyone?
I made a lawgiver from wood scraps and duct tape with a friend when we watched the movie. Awesome.
O yeah did anybody mention the portal gun from Orange Box/Portal? I'd love that one =)
It's hilarious that in the Fifth Element, Zorg spends so much time describing all the special functions of the gun, setting the movie up for awesomeness, and then he NEVER uses anything but the most basic setting.
Oh, if you are going to pick a weapon from Firefly, why wouldnt' you pick Vera? Oh, sweet Vera.
I remember another gun from DS9 - a projectile rifle with a head-mounted scanner and a mini-transporter on the end that let you shoot someone from the other side of the station.
Here it is the TR-116 Projectile Rifle.
sorry for blabbing on about this but does the farsight from perfect dark count? Its a rail gun with an x-ray scope that lets you see and shoot through walls!
How about the thoroughly entertaining Bowel Disruptor pistol in Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis? Tons of gastrointestinal fun...
Anybody read John Scalzi's Old Man's War? The MP 35 is something to drool for. Not only encoded to the specific user, it would hook up to their brain pals - computers in their heads - and would nanoassemble the ordinance that the user requested. Not only that, it was scriptable!
@Niteowl: Yes, Jayne's favorite gun really should be mentioned.
The needler from Stainless Steel Rat (another series for my reading list, thanks) sounds a lot like Molly's flechette pistol from Gibson's Sprawl series. He probably drew inspiration from Harrison, all the way down to the different ammunition types.
@Lab_Cat: oh, very good mention!
Although futuristic guns in anime could comprise an entire article, I have to mention the Cerebus series of guns from the anime Gungrave. The protagonist, Grave, carries two huge handguns called the Left Head and Right Head. The Center Head is carried by a Frankenstein-like monster due to the fact that no human can hold, much less fire it. The character designer also created TriGun, another series where exotic handguns feature prominently.
Vera. The stuff of legends. How many guys out there have named a favorite Vera... so many.
Anyhow I'll go old school; how about the phaser 2? It's a classic!
Of all of the futuristic weapons out there, I would want the bowel disruptor more than anything. Also worth mentioning is the railgun from Red Faction. Pith your opponent with depleted uranium from the other side of the wall.
I always liked the flesh gun in "Videodrome," the Biker Scouts' compact little sidearms in "Return of the Jedi," and the "V" Visitors' guns with funky -(and very 80s) clear plexiglass tubes. "Doctor Who" also recently featured guns that senselessly-but-awesomely combined Dalek weapons with Tommy guns.
What about Arnie's awesome rail gun from Eraser? The movie kind of stunk, but the see-through-walls scope was kinda cool, as were the little smoke ring trails...
And, as long as the Stainless Steel Rat is mentioned, what about the gauss gun he uses in one of the stories that has some kinda smart holster lanyard that straightens and curves to nearly instantaneously slap the weapon in your hand whenever you curl your fingers...
@Lab_Cat: Seconded, for the obvious reason.
@mumblingmynah: Gotta love the ZF-1. Given all the fancy gadgets, it's your basic weapon of destruction.
I miss the Space: 1999 comlock guns; four different nozzles depending on the setting. And looked snazzy too.
The Phaser.
Pedestrian? Perhaps. But that's the POINT. Star Trek is totally embedded in our culture.
+1 on the ZF-1, though. That whole spiel is a classic of SF.
@gomi: Didn't Stainless Steel Rat predate Gibson?
Hey, no one mentioned the "Lazy Gun" from Iain Banks' "Against a dark background".
the shoulder mounted plasma cannon from predator? i guess the gun itself really wasn't so cool without the targeting system but still.
For the way it was used, I've always had a weak spot for the rocket pistol in the original Rollerball. A bunch of "beautiful people", drunk out of their minds, stagger out back of the house into a field with the thing and start incinerating trees. It's one of the best exhibitions of massive firepower in the hands of idiots you'll ever see.
Let's not forget Joe Piscopo's gun from Johnny Dangerously, the .88 magnum.
"It shoots through schools."
Oh: and what about the ray guns from Blake's 7? Weird little plexiglass wands, held like television remote controls, that could basically shoot whatever the effects budget could afford that week.
Never understood phasers. Now a sensible weapon for Star Trek would be to hook a transporter up to a targeting sensor and simply dematerialize whatever is bothering you. No mess, no fuss and if you want you can store the most recent pattern in the gun and rematerialize the victim/object later, in a holding cell.
Or, for a more lethal and messy version, you use the targeting mechanism with a replicator and simply beam slugs of antimater into the center of your target.
@sir_eccles: Gah, you piped me to it... The only known weapon with a sense of humour.
I love samaritan personally.
"I'm not the best shot, but the samaritan here shoots really big bullets"
We need non-lethal weapons like this one:
[www.hostingphpbb.com]
Mal's Pistol from Firefly... clean, old fashioned, and deadly accurate. Bonus points for looking like its from the 1800s when you're 500 years in the future.
Mal's pistol from Firefly. Clean, reliable, and deadly accurate. Bonus points for looking like its 600 years old 800 years in the future.
Honorable mention: The modern laser pistol carried by a baddie in Firefly. When it runs out of power, actually flashes "Low Battery" :)
*Ouch* Double post-ish
1. I can't believe you went with a picture of the movie lawgiver instead of the comic book lawgiver.
2. I can't believe noone's mentioned the tasp used by Pierson's Puppeteer.
As cool as many of those guns are, and I really like the ZF1, and *everyone* listens to Reason, they don't even come close to my favorite. Nick Polotta and Phil Foglio wrote a little bit of fluff called "Illegal Aliens" that contains my choice: The Stop That Gun. No flash, no damage. It just shoots out an extremely powerful, telepathic blast of "Stop that!" The Presidential version, the Shut Up Gun ranks up there too.
Oh, and if you're going to use Niven, the tasp is very good, but then so is the Slaver Digging Tool.
Glad someone finally mentioned Mal's pistol from Firefly ... a true classic.
But what about Jessie Ventura's minigattling in Predator? That has to be the baddest gun ever since they brought it back for T-2 and T-3.
is it only me or is the layout of this story really bad? having to see a set of pics then read the whole story and at every new gun, scroll up and try to figure out which gun they are talking about..
hey! heres an idea!!!
one pic, then the write up, then another pic and another write up!!!
whachya think!!?
@Thud: That gun was the "Power Gun" from Harrison's Deathworld series. The Pyrran's all carried them. They were settlers from a sentient planet that was trying to kill them. They started training to use the guns as kids. It was classic! You just pointed at the target and as you made the motion to pull the trigger the gun jumped into your hand!
"# The Sandman guns from Logan's Run"
Later more or less ganked for XXX.
The laser pistol found in the Alien Crash site in Fallout 2. link
And you forgot Jay and Kay's guns from MIB, Han Solo's blaster from Star Wars.
A E Van Vogt "The Weapon Shops of Isher" The Finest Energy Weapons in the Known Universe. My fave was the assassin's ring, that materialized into an invisible ray gun when you crooked your finger the right way. Fired a heart attack needle beam, if memory serves
@super_bryant: I didn't want to be the one to bring it up. Thank you, Bryant, you truly are super.
I always had a soft-spot for Gunner from Rogue Trooper...
Hellsing - Alucard's hand cannons are fantastic.
This says nothing about movies-only, right? Well then what about the TAC cannon from Crysis, which you used to destroy the alien mothership? I thought that was kinda cool...
@Thud: I think you are referring to a different Harry Harrison series: "Deathworld". In the series, the Pyrrans use a weapon in a spring-loaded holster that leaps into the hand as the user points at the target. The owner has to hold his hand just right, so the gun fits in properly -- otherwise he can have his fingers broken as the powerful weapon slaps into his hand.
"What about Jesse Ventura's minigatling in Predator?"
That wasn't a sci-fi weapon, since it's *real*. [en.wikipedia.org]
Never put into service, because it was an answer looking for a question. Still funny though.
-Kle.
I'll also throw in a vote for Robocop's sidearm, and I find the absence of any form of phaser rather insulting.
Also, while not futuristic per-say, Constantine's holy shotgun was pretty rad.
I can't believe that no one's mentioned the elusive Phase Plasma Rifle, in the 40 watt range.
A weapon so devestating that Cameron couldn't afford to put it in any of his movies.
Well, by far the BEST weapon to have , is the LANCER
from GEARS OF WAR. Not only can you shoot your oponent
but you cna slice him up with the Chain Saw Bayonet.
TRULY AWESOME WEPONRY.