# What Is This Weapon Called?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 19, 2011, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111 "2011-10-19T04:39:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SeaCanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaCanary)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/1 "2011-10-19T04:39:27Z")
In The Matrix Reloaded there is [fight scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU3wPWYV6HQ#t=3m38s) between Neo and the Merovingian’s supernatural minions. One of the minions, wearing white, (I’ve setup the YouTube link to start at the relevant time marker.) is using something that looks like a pike with a lot of spikes close to the business end. (Neo eventually takes it away from and kills him with it.)
What is this thing called?
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/2 "2011-10-19T04:45:38Z")
It’s called a thagomizer, after the late Thag Simmons.
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/3 "2011-10-19T04:46:04Z")
Looks like a larger than usual [morningstar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_star_%28weapon%29) to me. Morningstars were typically one-handed weapons, but I don’t see any particular reason why there wouldn’t have been polearm versions of them, since more or less every other one hander has been declined into a polearm at some point (polehammers, poleaxes, swordstaves, mauls and flails…).
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/4 "2011-10-19T04:46:40Z")
Isn’t that a mace?
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/5 "2011-10-19T04:54:04Z")
What about poleswordchucks? Did they ever make those?
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/6 "2011-10-19T04:55:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> What about poleswordchucks? Did they ever make those?
No. That would be insane even by Fighter’s standards.
ETA : although there \*was \*something called a [sansetsukon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansetsukon) which I suppose is akin to a polechucks.
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### Author:  [@SeaCanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaCanary)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/7 "2011-10-19T04:59:15Z")
A little too long to be called a mace I should think. Doesn’t the term mace usually refer to a weapon with a [flanged head](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mace_%28club%29#European_Middle_Ages)?
ETA link.
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### Author:  [@SeaCanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaCanary)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/8 "2011-10-19T05:01:08Z")
> [@Kobal2](#):
>
> Looks like a larger than usual [morningstar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_star_%28weapon%29) to me. Morningstars were typically one-handed weapons, but I don’t see any particular reason why there wouldn’t have been polearm versions of them, since more or less every other one hander has been declined into a polearm at some point (polehammers, poleaxes, swordstaves, mauls and flails…).
There’s a thought. Hell, I don’t even know if the thing is European.
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### Author:  [@SeaCanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaCanary)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/9 "2011-10-19T05:02:37Z")
> [@Kobal2](#):
>
> No. That would be insane even by Fighter’s standards.
>
> ETA : although there \*was \*something called a [sansetsukon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansetsukon) which I suppose is akin to a polechucks.
But this thing isn’t “sectioned.” (Is that a word?)
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/10 "2011-10-19T05:12:47Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> Isn’t that a mace?
The spikes differentiate it from a mace.
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### Author:  [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/11 "2011-10-19T05:55:18Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> It’s called a thagomizer, after the late Thag Simmons.
[Complimentary link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thagomizer)
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### Author:  [@SeaCanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaCanary)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/12 "2011-10-19T05:59:28Z")
Penis ensues! 😃
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### Author:  [@Wizard\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wizard_One)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/13 "2011-10-19T06:25:24Z")
> [@SeaCanary](#):
>
> Penis ensues! 😃
From which of your orifices?
THIS is a serious question on a weapon class, not about your personal sexual fantasies.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/14 "2011-10-19T06:59:09Z")
Maybe it’s one of the Japanese war clubs, like a Tetsubo or a Kanabō?
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### Author:  [@SeaCanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaCanary)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/15 "2011-10-19T07:45:24Z")
> [@Wizard\_One](#):
>
> From which of your orifices?
> THIS is a serious question on a weapon class, not about your personal sexual fantasies.
Sorry. That should have been “panic ensues.”
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### Author:  [@SeaCanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaCanary)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/16 "2011-10-19T07:54:44Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> Maybe it’s one of the Japanese war clubs, like a Tetsubo or a Kanabō?
Could be. Could very well be, but the shaft seems to be shorter than in the movie.
It’s almost like a [plançon à picot](http://www.medievalwarfare.info/pics/plancon.jpg) (from [Medieval Weapons & Armour](http://www.medievalwarfare.info/weapons.htm)) but again the plançon’s shaft appears to be too short.
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/17 "2011-10-19T07:54:56Z")
Wolf tooth club/mace.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePOzJ6iuDGw)
[http://www.crouchingtiger.co.uk/product.php?xProd=76&xSec=24](http://www.crouchingtiger.co.uk/product.php?xProd=76&xSec=24)
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### Author:  [@SeaCanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaCanary)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/18 "2011-10-19T07:59:43Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#):
>
> Wolf tooth club/mace.
>
> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePOzJ6iuDGw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePOzJ6iuDGw)
>
> [http://www.crouchingtiger.co.uk/product.php?xProd=76&xSec=24](http://www.crouchingtiger.co.uk/product.php?xProd=76&xSec=24)
BINGO !! That really looks like it! How in the world did you dig this up??
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2011, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-weapon-called/600111/19 "2011-10-19T08:03:59Z")
> [@SeaCanary](#):
>
> BINGO !! That really looks like it! How in the world did you dig this up??
Japanese Wikipedia page listing club-like weapons.