TFB’s Top 10 Sci-fi Movie Guns PArt II

Welcome back to our Sci-Fi Movie guns series where we explore and discuss various weapons used in sci-fi movies and TV shows. This week we’re going to dive deeper into the weird and interesting movies ranging as far back as the 70s all the way up to the 2000s. So suit up, check your oxygen levels and charge your blaster, we’re going back in with TFB’s Top 10 Sci-Fi Movie Guns Part II.

1. Armat M41A Pulse Rifle – Aliens (1986)

Sci-Fi Movie Guns Part II – M41A Pulse Rifle

The sequel to the blockbuster Sci-Fi Horror film Alien, the film sees the return of Sigourney Weaver as the reluctant heroine Ripley. The M41A Pulse Rifle is featured heavily throughout the film as the main service weapon of the United States Colonial Marine Corps.  The Gun in the film is supposed to carry a whopping 99 rounds of 10mm caseless ammo and features a 30mm underslung grenade launcher.

Sci-Fi Movie Guns Part II – M41A Pulse Rifle

In reality, the prop weapon used for the film contains a number of weapons mashed together to make the blank firing prop weapon. The basis for the Pulse rifle begins with an M1A1 Thompson submachine gun with a 30 round box magazine. The “grenade launcher” is actually chopped down Remmington 870 shotgun with a  Franchi SPAS-12 heat shield and foregrip to give the gun its futuristic look.

2. dl-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol – Star wars (1977)

Sci-Fi Movie Guns Part II – DL-44 Heavy Blaster

Harrison Ford makes our list again with his personal DL-44 Heavy blaster. Han always shoots first with his trusty sidearm. The Basis for this gun is a heavily modified Mauser C96 pistol. Fitted with a bull barrel, and various scopes depending on which movie you’re watching, the combo of the scope, muzzle device and pistol makes for a believable space gun.

Sci-Fi Movie Guns Part II – DL-44 Heavy Blaster Featured in Star Wars IV: A New Hope

The gun itself has made previous appearances on the silver screen before Star Wars. In Frank Sinatra’s The Naked Runner, the gun was also featured with a scope mounted to it like in Star Wars. The scope used in A New Hope was a Hensoldt Wetzlar Dialyt 3x scope in its original mounting, a WWI-era German sniper rifle scope.

3. Vera – Firefly (2002)

One of the main crew members of the Starship “Firefly” from the TV show of the same name totes around a lot of guns. Jayne Cobb is the quintessential “gun guy” having a small armory hidden in his quarters aboard the Firefly Class Ship “Serenity.” His most favorite weapon is a Callahan Full-Bore Auto-Lock rifle he has affectionately named “Vera.”

Sci-Fi Movie Guns Part II – The Callahan Full-bore Auto-lock known as “Vera”

A Modified Izhmash Saiga-12 shotgun is the unique shotgun used by Jayne (Adam Baldwin) in “Our Mrs. Reynolds” (S1E06). The weapon was originally built by gunsmiths Larry Zanoff and the late Jim Boland for the film Showtime. For me, this rifle stands out because of its over the top design. I also happen to be a huge fan of Saiga shotguns so this one gets bonus points.

Sci-Fi Movie Guns Part II – Vera in all her glory. Note the clearly visible Saiga-12 receiver hidden underneath the prop’s decorations

Technically Vera is a shotgun, but in the show, it is a rifle that fires obnoxiously huge bullets. In “Our Mrs. Reynolds” (S1E06), “Vera” requires oxygen to fire, which could be explained if it used an ignition system like the Daisy VL caseless .22 rifle. However, this is not the case as it looks like the rifle uses .50 caliber straight-walled cases of some sort.

4.  Denel PAW-20 – District 9 (2009)

District 9 can probably have an article all on its own due to the sheer amount of cool real-world weapons. Neil Blomkamp and his crew did a great job with this movie-making sure to heavily feature South African made weapons like the Denel PAW-20 which makes its first-ever appearance in a film alongside the Mechem NTW-20 20mm rifle.

Sci-Fi Movie Guns Part II – The Denel “Neopup” PAW-20

The Denel PAW-20 is a semi-automatic grenade-launcher (or light cannon depending on the ammunition selected). In the film, it is used by antagonist Koobus Venter as he faces off against Main Character Wikus who is in control of a giant Alien Mech Suit.

Sci-Fi Movie Guns Part II – Koobus (left) can be seen wielding the PAW-20 with its very odd side-mounted pistol grip.

The PAW-20 fires a 20x42mm grenade in various configurations such as high-explosive incendiary (HEI) and semi-armor piercing high explosive incendiary (SAPHEI), the same round but with an added tungsten penetrator. Non-Explosive ammunition does exist for the weapon but performance would be significantly reduced due to the relatively low muzzle velocity (1000 fps).

5. Morita Mk I Rifle – Starship Troopers (1997)

Sci-Fi Movie Guns Part II – Morita Mk I Rifle

Come on you Apes, You wanna live forever?! To wrap up our Sci-Fi Movie sequel we have the Morita MK I rifle. The late 90’s sci-fi action film featuring supermodels Casper Van Dein, Denise Richards and Patrick Muldoon uses a small arsenal of beautifully crafted functional prop guns.

Sci-Fi Movie Guns Part II –  An injured Johnny Rico (Van Dien) desperately using the underslung shotgun to fight off a Bug. This is one of only two on-screen uses of the shotgun.

The Morita Mk I in the film is actually a cleverly disguised Ruger Mini-14/AC-556 rifle combined with an underslung short-barreled Ithica 37 shotgun. Both weapons were housed inside a Muzzelite MZ14 bullpup stock. While the stock never made headway in the real world, they found their calling in Star Ship troopers.

Sci-Fi Movie Guns Part II – The Marksman Variant of the Morita Mk I Rifle

Other variants of the Morita were produced and used during the film like the shorter Morita Mk I Carbine which lacked the underslung shotgun and had a much shorter barrel. Of particular note was the Marksman version of the Morita which featured a scope. Over 300,000 blank rounds were fired during the course of filming Starship Troopers.

What’s your favorite Sci-Fi movie Weapon?

We know there are tons of sci-fi movie weapons out there that we didn’t have time to list. Let us know down in the comments what your absolute favorite bug-slaying space gat is from TV or Film. We’d be interested to hear from you and what your favorite sci-fi weapon is. As always, thanks for reading and we’ll see you for the next Hollywood Guns article.