# What is your favourite fictional weapon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 17, 2008, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947 "2008-09-17T03:35:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/121 "2008-09-19T22:40:54Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Ah, was going to be my little contribution - add needler, vapor, nitro and ripper. Wayyyy cooler than the movie… IIRC, the Gun (it was always capitalized) was a revolver; the different things it did were because each chamber held a different kind of cartridge. It’s been decades since I read the novel, but I think I remember Logan spending a fairish amount of time looking for new ammo packs. Once a particular round was fired, it was gone and the Sandmen apparently didn’t have ammo put up in packs with only one kind of round. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/122 "2008-09-19T23:20:52Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > IIRC, the Gun (it was always capitalized) was a revolver; the different things it did were because each chamber held a different kind of cartridge. It’s been decades since I read the novel, but I think I remember Logan spending a fairish amount of time looking for new ammo packs. Once a particular round was fired, it was gone and the Sandmen apparently didn’t have ammo put up in packs with only one kind of round. Yep, slightly inefficient I’ll admit. But it wasn’t just _any_ revolver. It was modeled as a replica of the classic Colt. 45 Peacemaker ;). ---
**Author:** ![Buran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Buran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buran)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/123 "2008-09-20T08:54:38Z")
Favourite weapon? The Mig-31 Firefox of Craig Brown book and Clint Eastwood movie fame. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/124 "2008-09-20T11:58:00Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > …an amped up Gravity Gun from Half-Life … Bingo. No one can use their shiny, exotic toy if it’s snatched out of their hands from 50 feet away. And if they shoot a projectile your way just grab it and return it to them. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/125 "2008-09-20T13:17:43Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > Well that one isn’t entirely fictional: [GE XM214 minigun](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM214_Microgun). It holds 1000 rounds, so you could get over 2 minutes at 400 rpm, or 15 seconds at 4000 rpm. You have to figure that if your target doesn’t go down after being hammered with 1000 standard NATO rounds, you probably should have been using something else to begin with. But even the linked article describes it as “man-portable” i.e. deployable, not a hand weapon. Maybe if you’re six foot four and 300 pounds you could try firing one from a sling; but I doubt it. Even less likely are the games (Wolfenstein?) that depict an enemy firing **two** of them, one in each hand(!) > [@slaphead](#): > > Can I be a bit more subtle than the mega-tanks etc. and opt for Shuriken from Neal Asher’s Polity series? A self-powered ninja star with variable-extension blades that can cut through anything, basic AI and a rudimentary personality best described as ‘cranky terrier’. What’s not to love? Sounds functionally a lot like the Sentinal Spheres from the _ **Phantasm** _ series of movies Oh, my second choice of favorite fictional weapon: a mind-controlled bionic gorilla. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/126 "2008-09-20T13:25:54Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > But even the linked article describes it as “man-portable” i.e. deployable, not a hand weapon. Maybe if you’re six foot four and 300 pounds you could try firing one from a sling; but I doubt it. Even less likely are the games (Wolfenstein?) that depict an enemy firing **two** of them, one in each hand(!) Well I did say it wasn’t _entirely_ fictional. Anyway, if you’re not built like Jesse “The Body” Ventura _circa_ 1987, whose fault is that? A poor craftsman blames his tools. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/127 "2008-09-20T15:55:18Z")
I nominate the [electrolaser](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolaser), because of its high coolness-to-realism factor. I mean, seriously – a real life, if short-ranged lightning gun? Count me in! ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/128 "2008-09-20T22:46:01Z")
From comics: The Shocker’s suit and gauntlets. Yeah it’s brown and yellow, but it protects you from physical harm, the weapons can be used long and melee range, and they have 5 settings, from nasty jolt to liquify stuff. ---
**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/129 "2008-09-20T23:32:43Z")
Video Game: Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Zero-Point/Dark Energy Field Manipulator. Movie: USCM M41A Pulse Rifle. Book: No Channel weaponry from, I think, _Anvil of Stars_ by Greg Bear. ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/130 "2008-09-20T23:50:30Z")
Good suggestions in this thread, but I’m gonna have to go with the [Witchblade](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchblade). ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/131 "2008-09-21T03:43:01Z")
> [@Valgard](#): > > The Yamamoto from Larry Niven’s Man-Kzin Wars. Simple concept - take a ramscoop spaceship and launch it from Earth to Alpha Centauri. It arrives travelling close to the speed of light. The magnetic field kills everything in front of it and at that speed it’s mighty hard to hit from any other position. As it whips by the Kzin-occupied planets it just flings quarter-ton blocks of iron at them. At those speeds it might as well be chucking out antimatter. Bit of overkill, actually. I’ve read the calculations of a 10-_kilo_ cannonball chucked Earthward at .99c It came yo about the equivalent of a 500-megaton bomb. I’d like Sgt. Schlock’s weapon of choice, the Strohl Munitions BH-209 Plasgun. It was introduced in the very [first](http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20000612.html) strip, and is fired for the first time [here](http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20000703.html). ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/132 "2008-09-21T03:50:17Z")
What about the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator? It creates an earth-shattering KA-BOOM! Or at least, it’s supposed to. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/133 "2008-09-21T04:11:13Z")
You kids and your “doomsday” weapons and “killing everyone”. I’ll take the anti-life equation, please, and then I’ll be just one Rickroll away from controlling the universe. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/134 "2008-09-21T04:12:36Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Bit of overkill, actually. I’ve read the calculations of a 10-_kilo_ cannonball chucked Earthward at .99c It came yo about the equivalent of a 500-megaton bomb. If I had basically unlimited power to play with and I was fighting for the survival of the human race I’d probably go with a bit of overkill myself. 500lbs of iron is a block 2 feet on a side, pretty small…In the stories they are still dealing with the residual climate change years after that strike. ---
**Author:** ![First\_Amongst\_Daves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@First\_Amongst\_Daves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/First_Amongst_Daves)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/135 "2008-09-21T04:46:24Z")
> [@A\_shameful\_cracka](#): > > Reusable Monomolecular Thread Grenade. About the size of a baseball, it contains thousands of feet of carefully woven monomolecular thread with hundreds of carefully spaced beads of crystallized iron threaded on it. When it is set off, the beads are fired outwards by electromagnets, causing a net of unbreakable thread to expand at supersonic speeds into a sphere app. 10 meters across centered on the grenade, after which it is pulled back into the grenade. Everything within 5 meters of the grenade is cut into pieces no larger than an inch across, and the grenade can then be retrieved from the pile of rubble that it creates to use again. > > I think I came up with this myself, but it’s such a neat idea I wouldn’t be surprised if it has been “invented” before. That’s actually very cool. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Klutz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captain_klutz/32/4993_2.png) [@Captain\_Klutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Klutz)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/136 "2008-09-21T11:44:54Z")
I’d like the Neuralyser from Men In Black. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/137 "2008-09-21T16:26:19Z")
> [@A\_shameful\_cracka](#): > > Reusable Monomolecular Thread Grenade… > > I think I came up with this myself, but it’s such a neat idea I wouldn’t be surprised if it has been “invented” before. George R.R. Martin, in _Tuf Voyaging_, wrote about an alien critter that’s kind of like that: the walking-web. The walking-web waits in one place for its prey, and then once touched, closes around it. “A thousand mono-molecular silicon arms” can cut through even the hardest armor, and then it eats whatever organic material is left. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/138 "2008-09-21T19:41:31Z")
The [Nude Bomb](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nude_Bomb#Plot_Summary) ---
**Author:** ![A\_shameful\_cracka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@A\_shameful\_cracka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_shameful_cracka)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/139 "2008-09-29T22:07:43Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > George R.R. Martin, in _Tuf Voyaging_, wrote about an alien critter that’s kind of like that: the walking-web. The walking-web waits in one place for its prey, and then once touched, closes around it. “A thousand mono-molecular silicon arms” can cut through even the hardest armor, and then it eats whatever organic material is left. I knew I wouldn’t have been the first. I’m kinda glad I didn’t read this book, I was afraid it might have been something I had read about, forgotten, and then thought I made up myself. I embarassed myself doing something similar musically when I wrote “Iron Man” when I first started playing guitar. I thought I had invented a really killer riff until I played it for a friend who was a Black Sabbath fan. ---
**Author:** ![Telcontar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Telcontar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telcontar)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947/140 "2008-09-30T01:44:27Z")
I’m surprised no one mentioned the Orgazmorator, a device that forcefully triggers climax in its victims. From the movie orgazmo. An elegant weapon, from a more humorous age. Would be great crowd control, and much fun at parties. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-fictional-weapon/463947.md?page=8)