Poll

What is your favorite sci-fi gun?

Rick Deckard's pistol (Blade Runner)
DL-44 blaster (Star Wars)
Zorg ZF-1  (The Fifth Element)
M56 machine gun (Aliens)
M41A pulse rifle (Aliens)
Lawgiver Mk2 (Judge Dredd)
Vera (you should know by now where it's from)
Auto 9 (Robocop)
Phaser (Star Trek)
PPG (Babylon 5)
Other (please specify in the thread)
phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range (hey, just what you see, pal)
Moses Brothers Self-Defense Engine Frontier Model B (Mal Reynolds' pistol from Firefly)

Author Topic: Favorite science fiction guns  (Read 2088 times)

Angel Eyes

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Favorite science fiction guns
« on: April 04, 2021, 05:46:06 PM »

The inspiration for this very silly poll:

https://gunmagwarehouse.com/blog/sci-fi-guns/

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lee n. field

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #1 on: April 04, 2021, 06:42:07 PM »
"Other", because these are all TeeVee and movie guns.  The best SF is written.

"Win Bear's .41 Magnum."
« Last Edit: April 04, 2021, 08:21:36 PM by lee n. field »
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WLJ

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2021, 06:48:59 PM »
PPG
But you forgot one for the list https://youtu.be/r-YjmXt15sg?t=22
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Ben

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2021, 07:10:02 PM »
I went with the M41A. I like Vera, and it's firefly and all, but I've always thought the M41As were cool scifi weapons.

To each their own, but one of the disappointments to me in Babylon 5, one of my favorite scifi series, were both the pistol and rifle PPGs. They were just too dinky looking to me. Though in one scene, I think an alternate timeline flash-forward in War Without End, Garibaldi had a badass BFG.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2021, 08:15:48 PM by Ben »
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TommyGunn

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #4 on: April 04, 2021, 08:21:44 PM »
Original series STAR TREK PHASER.  Back in the 60s I thought the phaser pistol was the coolest ray gun ever.  It's still just as cool.  The movie versions sometimes got close.

But the NEXT GENERATION "dustbuster"  versions were horrid.
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Devonai

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #5 on: April 04, 2021, 08:23:40 PM »
M41A. Built on a Thompson M1A1 with a Remington 870 covered in SPAS furniture. It may not really fire "10mm explosive-tipped caseless" rounds or grenades but I'll take it for what it really was.
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zahc

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #6 on: April 04, 2021, 08:26:48 PM »
You left out both Vera (Firefly) and Reason (Snow Crash).
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WLJ

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #7 on: April 04, 2021, 09:14:54 PM »
You left out both Vera (Firefly) and Reason (Snow Crash).

Vera is in the list
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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #8 on: April 04, 2021, 10:06:53 PM »
No choice for a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range?
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just Warren

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #9 on: April 04, 2021, 10:49:12 PM »
Hey, just what you see; pal!
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Perd Hapley

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #10 on: April 04, 2021, 11:05:33 PM »
Deckard's gun, because it just looked right. What else do you need in a movie gun?

Also, what about the Noisy Cricket?
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AZRedhawk44

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #11 on: April 04, 2021, 11:28:23 PM »
No choice for a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range?

This.  Prowled comments to see had the good taste to also point out its absence.  Well done, bedlamite.
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Regolith

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #12 on: April 05, 2021, 12:15:12 AM »
I'm surprised Han Solo's blaster isn't on the list.


I'm going to go with Mal's pistol, though.
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just Warren

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #13 on: April 05, 2021, 12:55:29 AM »
I'm surprised Han Solo's blaster isn't on the list.


The DL-44 Heavy Blaster *IS* on the list.

And it got my vote because the C-96 is the coolest handgun ever produced. 
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Ben

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #14 on: April 05, 2021, 07:58:50 AM »
Original series STAR TREK PHASER.  Back in the 60s I thought the phaser pistol was the coolest ray gun ever.  It's still just as cool.  The movie versions sometimes got close.

But the NEXT GENERATION "dustbuster"  versions were horrid.

I used to always wonder if the next gen phasers were created as part of an anti-gun agenda.  =)
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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #15 on: April 05, 2021, 08:50:13 AM »
Original series STAR TREK PHASER.  Back in the 60s I thought the phaser pistol was the coolest ray gun ever.  It's still just as cool.  The movie versions sometimes got close.

But the NEXT GENERATION "dustbuster"  versions were horrid.
I used to always wonder if the next gen phasers were created as part of an anti-gun agenda.  =)

Actually they start to make sense IMHO if you think about it when you consider they have zero recoil, no moving parts, and there's no need for any sort of magazine just a power pact and give easy access to a control panel
« Last Edit: April 05, 2021, 09:23:12 AM by WLJ »
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fifth_column

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #16 on: April 05, 2021, 09:14:45 AM »
I went with Vera mostly for sentimental reasons.
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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #17 on: April 05, 2021, 09:37:45 AM »
I went with Vera mostly for sentimental reasons.

Pretty much the same here.
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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #18 on: April 05, 2021, 10:21:56 AM »
I kind of like the "blasters" from Forbidden Planet. In particular, the "cannon" blasters - instead of one barrel, there are four emitters in a square pattern. In the movie, the blaster pistol disintegrated a tiger, so they're not popguns.



Then there's this raygun infomercial (poor horsey at 1:20):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysYsFqwSJ7k&ab_channel=WetaWorkshop
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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #19 on: April 05, 2021, 10:30:32 AM »
I kind of like the "blasters" from Forbidden Planet. In particular, the "cannon" blasters - instead of one barrel, there are four emitters in a square pattern. In the movie, the blaster pistol disintegrated a tiger, so they're not popguns.



Then there's this raygun infomercial (poor horsey at 1:20):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysYsFqwSJ7k&ab_channel=WetaWorkshop

That's why phasers were superior.  The legs would be ionized too. [popcorn]
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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #20 on: April 05, 2021, 12:09:36 PM »
I invented the .11 UHV ("Ultra High Velocity") for a story.  Its tiny tracer bullet would zoom out at UHV with no loss of V until it reached 100 yards, then it would stop and drop straight to the ground.

It deployed a tiny little parachute when the tracer material burned out.

Unfortunately, it got banned in New Jersey, Maryland, Ilinois, New York, California, and Hawaii, so the market evaporated and that was that.

For more detailed information, you can look up the patent or see the Wiki article.

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« Last Edit: April 05, 2021, 12:30:23 PM by 230RN »

MechAg94

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #21 on: April 05, 2021, 03:18:27 PM »
I just noticed there is no plasma rifle (Terminator). 

I always liked the Power Guns from David Drake's Hammer's Slammers.
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HankB

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #22 on: April 05, 2021, 04:08:26 PM »
I just noticed there is no plasma rifle (Terminator). 

I always liked the Power Guns from David Drake's Hammer's Slammers.
The guns in Harry Harrison's Deathworld trilogy were pretty cool, too - attached to the wearer's wrist, when the gun sensed the hand was ready to receive it, a servo pushed it into the wearer's grasp - fast. An inexperienced user would find his fingers being bruised as the gun smashed them out of the way, an experienced user would curl his trigger finger just a bit so the gun fired as soon as it was in position. Made for an incredibly fast "draw."

"Win Bear's .41 Magnum."
I kind of liked Win's friend's Webley-Electric and other hypervelocity mass-driver weapons from 0.11 to 0.17 caliber. IIRC, in one of the sequels, his daughter's guns apparently took small caliber high velocity weaponry to the next level, with 250,000 ft. lbs of muzzle energy. At that velocity you wouldn't need a tracer - that little grain would be moving as fast as a meteor and would leave its own trail of ionization in the air.
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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #23 on: April 05, 2021, 04:13:32 PM »
How about the bazookoid?

Blakenzy

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Re: Favorite science fiction guns
« Reply #24 on: April 06, 2021, 09:56:42 AM »
No choice for a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range?

Exactly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4pbYsRl8Wk
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