The Guns of Die Hard
The upcoming Nation Firearm Museum Hollywood Guns exhibit would not be complete without guns from the 1988 classic Die Hard. The barrels are threaded so that a blank firing adapter can be inserted. The blank adapter increases the pressure inside the barrel allowing the weak blanks to open the slide.
You can learn more about the below guns at NRABlog and the latest episode of The Curator's Corner (Click on "program Archive" button, then click the Apr 01 tab, then scroll down to "Curator's Corner"). Many thanks to Lars for emailing them me the photos.
Beretta 92F prop gun
Bruce Willis' Beretta 92F
Hans Gruber's Heckler & Koch P7 M13
[ Many thanks to Lars Dalseide for emailing me the photos. ]
For what its worth, blank cartridges are not necessarily weak. They simply don’t have a projectile to contain the gas pressure, and thus, require the bore constrictor to operate self-loading firearms.
Remember that actors Jon-Erik Hexum and Brandon Lee died due to the mishandling of prop revolvers and blank cartridges. Obviously, revolvers don’t need a bore constrictor in order to function with blanks.
We didn’t get the Karl’s AUG, but the MP5 Willis carries around will be on display at this exhibit.
“This is a Beretta 92 F. It’s a very expensive gun made in Italy. It’s made out of rubber and it’s designed to go through metal detectors!”
They have that too (not actually an MP5 though);
http://www.americanrifleman.org/BlogEntry.aspx?cid=25&id=2233
Not to mention the AUG, but where’s the mp5 willis carries for a decent part of the film?
“Are they really the actual guns? The tag on the bent one says something like, “as seen in Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, etc…””
Prop guns made from cast rubber are common for stunt work. Imagine the actor/stunt man dramatically diving away from an explosion with his gun in hand, only to knock out several teeth off-camera when he accidently smacks a steel-frame handgun in his face as he lands on the stunt cushion.
See also:
http://www.originalprop.com/blog/2007/08/20/types-of-prop-guns-employed-in-film-television-productions/
Awsome will they have Karls Styer AUG?
Where’s the Glock 7?
What, no Glock 7???
Fun Fact:
The Beretta 92 FS that Bruce Willis uses in Die Hard is the same one Mel Gibson uses in the first Lethal Weapons – the armorer worked on both films
Also,
The Heckler and Koch P7 was used by Alan Rickman in Die Hard and also by Christopher Walken’s character in True Romance.
That P7 is absolutely beautifull!
Is that P7 to scale? Maybe the curator has incredibly tiny hands? The grip especially seems way too large.
Polish rifling?
More Die Hard guns here:
http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Die_Hard
Woot! Die Hard is one of my all time favourite movies. I remember when it first came out and along with Lethal Weapon, created a mad buying frenzy for Beretta 92F’s.
Shame they went on to make probably the worst film sequels ever made (barring Police Academy and the Star Wars prequels obviously).
Are they really the actual guns? The tag on the bent one says something like, “as seen in Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, etc…”
KalashniKEV, that was a prop (fake) gun. The other two are real.