#Movies

When normal people hear the word “smart gun”, the first thing they usually think of is the guns that require either a fingerprint or some sort of wrist band that allows only that user to shoot it (in theory). However, when cinephiles and hoplophiles hear the same term, only one gun comes to mind – the M56 Smart Gun from the 1986 movie Aliens. In a recent YouTube video I came across from user  KetzuKhan, it seems that he’s managed to cobble together his very own working M56 Smart Gun replica.

Following the tragic shooting death of the cinematographer of the movie “ Rust“, Alec Baldwin Tweeted “Every film/TV set that uses guns, fake or otherwise, should have a police officer on set, hired by the production, to specifically monitor weapons safety.” On the surface, it’s easy to see why someone outside of the firearms community would suggest this, police officers carry guns every day, right? The required training and yearly qualifications should, “qualify” them as someone in the know, yes? It makes sense that Alec Baldwin, unintentional shooter of Halyna Hutchins would be looking for answers and remedies to his situation. Let’s explore his suggestion about hiring police officers to inspect on-set firearms in the film industry.

Gun nerds seem to have a serious crush on John Wick. What is it about this series of movies that makes it so interesting for gun people?

Opening in theaters on March 9th is 7 Days In Entebbe – a Focus Features film based on the actual events of Operation Thunderbolt – a hijacking/hostage crisis and subsequent counter-terror rescue mission in 1976. Lead by two German and two Palestinian terrorists, the hijacking took place on an Air France flight from Israel bound for Paris, which instead landed in Entebbe, Uganda. Israeli commandos killed seven hijackers and three hostages died during the rescue.

In this episode of TFBTV, James goes over what he thinks are the Top 5 movies from a gun guy’s perspective. James uses input from a poll completed by Patreon supporters in order to make this list. Gun porn need not apply, as all of these movies had positive critical acclaim, and a couple are even Academy Award nominees – you don’t need to watch a bad film to see a good gun movie.

Got to hand it to the various propmasters. They have quite the challenge to create a myriad of future fake firearms to satisfy the yearning and eager audiences. The latest Star Wars is no slouch, with a plethora of new models of hand blasters, carbines, and full-size support weapons equipping no less than hundreds of new characters and classes. Under simple guise, it’s amazing what one can do with the a bit of plastic and some imagination.

Anime fans have been nervously awaiting the March 2017 release of the live-action remake of the anime cult classic Ghost In The Shell from DreamWorks SKG. For those that take anime very seriously, the adaptation walks along a knife’s edge of a tribute to the original or a potential devastating insult. Criticisms of Scarlet Johansson playing ‘Major’, the Japanese cyborg and leading role, seems to be mostly overblown. However, we still have a few months before making a final judgement on the movie in its entirety.

A number of firearms have played iconic roles in movies, film, and tv shows over the years. Clint Eastwood’s .44 Magnum in Dirty Harry or the plethora of P90’s in Stargate (yes, I am totally a nerd). From there, one can point to plenty of other examples. The Beretta 92’s in the Die Hard franchies, Walther PPK’s in Bond films, and the M16 with M203 from Scarface come along.

A video has been released wherein the wrist mounted Glock 19s used by Will Smiths character Deadshot, are being tested in a movie prop facility, most likely the Movie Armaments Group based out of Toronto. In collaboration with Walter Klassen FX, the groups worked together to create a sort of gripless frame, that used a system to release the sear on the Glock 19 slide. This is from Imfdb, explaining how it all came together-

Ever since the movie came out in theaters, I’ve been waiting to buy it and take copious amounts of screen shots in order to make this post. Well, the movie was released on the 15th to the general public for paid download, you can go buy it yourself here at Google Play. Anyways, I’m the typical gun guy when it comes to action movies, always criticizing and calling everything out that is wrong with the small arms present. Although there was a lot completely off and unrealistic about the small arms in Furious 7, there actually was a lot of stuff right. In addition to a lot of detail that went into them and making the movie come alive, from a small arms perspective. If you want to get into some real detail, go check out the Internet Movie Firearms Database entry for Furious 7. There is also an excellent behind the scenes write up of the armorers from the movie, and some of the details from Range 365 blog. From their post-

I think that most shooters would agree that shooting a shooting scene in Hollywood is usually far from accurate. All too often magazines never run out of ammunition, aiming is as simple and thinking, and simple cover stops armor-piercing rounds.

[ I have done my best to ensure there are no spoilers in this blog post, but read forth at your own risk and DON’T read the comments that are below the blog post. All pictures are from the trailers and promotional material, not the movie itself. ]

This is the one I find most annoying: