The Big Gun

[Andrew]

Saw the tv teaser for "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" tonight.  What immediately struck me was Demi Moore using a Desert Eagle automatic pistol.  Heck, I think she even had two: one in each hand.

Film makers seem to love giving people a "Big Ass Gun" (BAG) and the Desert Eagle is their Holy Grail.  Have any of these people fired one?  The .50 cal version weighs in at 96 ounces!  That is 6 lbs of handgun and it still kicks like a .44 shooting hot loads.  I do not like shooting a Desert Eagle and I shoot all the time, mostly .45 and .22 (when I want to plink or spend lots of time getting in practice).

The Desert Eagle also pops up in a few other movies.  "Sleepstalker" comes to mind.

Anyway, can anyone else think of movies with BAGs that are just plain ill used?

Given my choice, I will either shoot my tuned S&W 4566, a good, full-sized Kimber .45 (1911 action), or a Springfield full-sized (again, 1911) with the trigger pull reduced.  36-40 ounces feels really good and a .45 with 3 lbs of trigger pull, a fitted bushing, and a polished slide is just plain fun to shoot.

Websites:

Magnum Research (Desert Eagle)
Kimber
Springfield Armory

[Ash]

"Bullet Tooth Tony" makes that big speech to the three black guys in Snatch.

They point replicas at him and then he brandishes the real thing.

I like how the camera scrolls down the side of the weapon close up where it says "Desert Eagle .50"!

But I think he puts it to good use in that film.

He kills "Boris the Blade" with it!

Takes like 6 shots!

Yeah right!



Post Edited (06-10-03 23:10)

[Brother Ragnarok]

Being that I don't know a great deal about guns other than the high "you can't do that without breaking your arm" factor in a lot of movies with big ones, what the hell is Rutger Hauer's gun in Split Second, the big strange handgun.  Obviously an amalgamation of different guns, but what is it based on?

Brother R

[ahab]

to brother r. in split second rutger's gun is a fa (fully automatic) rotary shotgun. pretty sure there is no such thing although i have heard of a fa shotgun that uses a stick and/or drum magazine. looks like a m-16 on steroids! Remington made a 12 shot rotary shotgun called the street sweeper in the 90's for a few years but discontinued it when it was placed on the destructive device list by the atf. the street sweeper is another frequent movie gun because it looks badass.

to andrew.  the one movie that always struck me as funny was sabertooth. near the end a character gets with a .45 win mag in the shoulder from about 15 feet and not only is the arm still attached but he uses the arm to climb a rock if i remember correctly. have you ever shot any of the ruger p series 45's? i own one and love it. very little kick for a 45 and great fun. im not a huge fan of the 1911 frame's but i do like the para-ordanance line of 45's.

[Brother Ragnarok]

To ahab: thanks brother, but I knew about that streetsweeper and I know the rotary shotgun isn't real.  I was talking about his handgun that he uses in the PMS shooting range.

Brother R

[Scott0]

I heard the .50 Desert Eagle is standard issue to members of the Israeli army. Damn.

Of all the guns I'd like to own, I think a Desert Eagle .50 would be my first choice. You can control that thing, and you control whatever the hell you want. In Snatch they did a fantastic job at making that .50 look cool as hell, and then I watched the whole Cowboy Bebop series and saw all the guns used in the show, and I was just like "dayum." They make replicant .50 Desert Eagle air soft pellet guns that are exact weight and everything except for the cartridge due to the obvious lack of weight those pellets have. My friend has one, and I held it once. It was like butta. Smooth creamy butta in my hands. I hope I don't come off as dangerous to you all now.

Scottie

[Conrad]

Not a film, but I remember reading a Bob Shaw short story, can't remember the title, a mix of Western, time-travel and SF.  One character of the 1880's is given a modern day .44 Magnum to fire, scoffs at it, pulls the trigger and is hit on the head when recoil throws it up in their face.

What I have also noticed in films from "The Mask" onwards is the silly habit of holding a gun sideways, i.e. the shooter's wrist is at 90 degrees to what it ought to be.  WTF?  Annoying!

[AndyC]

Yep, if a Desert Eagle was perfect for any character, it would be Bullet Tooth Tony. Goes nicely with the sword.

[Kirk]

Scottie wrote:  Of all the guns I'd like to own, I think a Desert Eagle .50 would be my first choice. You can control that thing, and you control whatever the hell you want.

I'm curious about this statement.  Do you mean that if you had a DE .50, you would be the "baddest dude on the block?"  I am guessing (and hoping) that you are not old enough to own a firearm yet.  As someone who carries a gun every day, I have to say that your attitude worries me.  You DO NOT draw, brandish, flash or even mention that you have a firearm unless it is a life or death situation.  Period.

Do you understand that even a justified shooting with no charges can cost you thousands in legal fees?  Every morning when you put on that holster and pistol, you pray that you will not need it that day and you will return home safe that night.  

Anyone who runs around waving a gun to look cool is a fool and a punk.  Shut your yap and stop making the rest of us responsible gun owners look bad.

Other stuff:
The current sidearm of the IDF is the Glock, some units still use the IMI Jericho of the SiG 226.

The Streetsweeper and the Striker 12 were originally South African exports, I believe Georgia Arms produced them in the US for a while.  Classified as a destructive device by the ATF, you can own one if you live in a class 3 state and do your paperwork.

Kirk
NRA, TSRA

[Scott0]

Yo, when you live on the streets yo. All you gotta worry about is feeding yo family and keeping yo head in place. And if dat means holdin a big gun, then BLAM! I got yo.

Owning a gun is my vain street mentality.

I'm not from the streets, so I'll never own a gun. And I'm just old enough to buy one should I ever want to make a bad choice. I just turned 18 the beginning of June. Happy birthday me!

So, no. I probably wouldn't own a .50, or a .45, or a 30/30, or a 10 gauge or 12 gauge, or even a .22. Just like nice cars, I think they look cool, but I'll probably never have one. I hope that clears things up.

Scottie

[Ash]

uh ok DAD!  (Kirk)

I do believe Scott WAS JOKING!!

Alot of us do that on here.

Now what were we talking about?



Post Edited (06-11-03 15:44)

[Flangepart]

Smith & Wesson have a new revolver, the S&W 50. A five shot DA piece with more power then a .454 Cassull! Yeesh!
Such power in a handgun has praticle limets. Never shot a .44 mag, will only do it once. I like the .45 acp, and thats big enough, thank you! If you miss that first shot, a guy with a 9mm can drill you rather nicely, while your struggeling to bring the barrel back down from the stratosphear! The big bores are backup guns in Grizzley Bear country...nought else.
Remember, a 22. will kill you. The bigger the bore, the faster the incapasatation of an attacker, but thats kinda the only real advantage.

Rifles: The pros wepon of choice.
On that note, the .50 cal Barrett semi autos in "Robocop" and a few other flicks are impressive. Burt Gummer should have used one of those, not the single shot Grizzley in "Tremors 2".
Diden't Clint Eastwood use a 20mm cannon in a bank job once?"Thunderbolt and Lightfoot?" was it?

[mr. henry]

andrew...have i told you lately how much i like your website???

with all that fire power lying around, i want to make sure i'm still on your good side...

;)

[kdraut]

Flangepart wrote: Smith & Wesson have a new revolver, the S&W 50. A five shot DA piece with more power then a .454 Cassull! Yeesh!

Wait until the 4-inch barreled version comes out.  That will be an absolute beast to fire.  I've shot a 4" Dan Wesson .44 Magnum and THAT was a wild ride.  Made my .40 Browning seem pretty tame by way of comparison.

If you want to test the limits of your recoil tolerance, try a TC contender in .45-70.  My reloading manual describes it best: "This is not a cartridge for handgunners of faint heart."

ASHTHECAT:  Bite my shiny metal ass.  

Kirk

[yaddo42]

There's a Desert Eagle early in "Hellraiser III", not that it did the guy who used it against Pinhead any good.

Not to demean the ladies, but most movies where a female character is seen holding or using a Desert Eagle, a .45, or any other "Hand Cannon" type BAG seems ill-suited. I mean large caliber weapons with massive recoil are overkill for many men, it just makes it worse with most female characters. Besides I'd be more worried about a p**sed off woman with a pistol in a caliber she could control and a high-capacity magazine.

John Sable carried the .357 version in the short lived 1980s "Sable" TV series. The gun fit with the character, but they had him claim in one episode that he had used the gun ten years earlier during some incident, but the gun had only been available for less than five years at the time.

And the joke of shooting Boris the Blade (also called Boris the Bullet Dodger) so many times was that he had a reputation of being remarkably hard to kill. He had already been hit by a car and was still going. What should have been overkill, wasn't. Obviously not reflective of real life but it was a comedy.