M134 Minigun (Handheld) - In The Movies

An overview of the m134 Minigun as seen on film

Movies Featured:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2014
Terminator 2 1991
White House Down 2013
The Expendables 3 2014
World of Guns (Video Game)
Predators 2010
Scrooged 1988
Jurassic thunder 2019
Iron Man 2 2010
Spriggan 1998
Furious 7 2015
Soldier 1998
Predator 1987
We Were Soldiers 2002
Gemini Man 2019
Hyena Road 2015
Apocalypse Now 1979
Lord of War 2005
A Man Apart 2003
Terminator 3 2003
Resident Evil Apocalypse 2003
Black Hawk Down 2001
Warface (Video Game)
Kundo 2014
The Last Samurai 2003
Battleship 2012
Wolfenstein 3D (Video Game)

[endutubecensorship]

3:38 "For financially minded people, think of it as firing $3000 of ammunition every 60 seconds"
This statement combined with the AK "cha-ching" clip from Lord of War is absolute genius 😆😆😆

[whay-fung]

"It cost four hundred thousand dollars to fire this weapon for 12 seconds" -Heavy Tf2

[narutofanz]

I love that scene from Predator where the men line up after spotting the monster and proceed to fire everything...Then he runs out of ammo and the barrel keeps spinning... such a badass movie

[mbryson]

You bring us the coolest facts, Johnny. I never considered the massive recoil from that many rapid blanks, those actors definitely got a workout.

[ComissarYarrick]

BRRRYYTTT the gun.

Also, if you ever wondered why something so large is called MINIgun, it's because it's scaled down (miniaturised) version of aircraft 20mm vulcan multi-barreld cannon. Minigin like guns also exist in plethora of diffrent calibers, both smaller, and larger ( 4.7, 5.56, 9, 14.5, 20, 25, even 30 mm. )

[garfieldsmith]

The minigun will always have a practical place in the movies. Whether handheld or vehicle mounted it makes for great cinema.

[coffee]

3:40 you missed a good opportunity to sneak in a TF2 reference!
Great video, the minigun is a classic in both movies and games!

[Jay-lnco]

I remember seeing a video of someone firing an actual, live ammo minigun from the hip. It was a really short burst with maybe 3-4 rounds hit anywhere near the target before the muzzle was way off target. You could see the shooter physically skid back on the dirt a few inches as they tried to retain balance. Not an infantry weapon by any means.

[Withdrawlful]

“ How many bullets do you want on target?”
Minigun: Yes

[alankohn]

Even the MG-42 was considered to big of an ammo hog and it fired a 1200rpm which is why most modern squad machine guns are around 600rpm.
There is a great scene in the extras for Terminator 2 where the director test fired the minigun and with a huge shit eating grin he turned to the people behind him and said "Arnold is going to love this.
So could you produce a practical man portable minigun with modern materials motors and batteries? Yes you could, Should you? Probably not.

[wcharliewilson]

The M134 had a baby brother, the Microgun, a 5.56 version of 10 barrels with a maximum ROF at 10, 000. Years ago one of my brothers had a dear lease in our home state of TX where the owner was part of the original R&D team at Aberdeen for the M134. His part in development was in ammo feed, the receiver and delinking.

Fun Fact: For many years ID4 held the record for most blanks fired during a production. I recently discovered that number to be over 300, 000!!

[billybob]

Great seeing you use a Spriggan clip. I remember the first time I saw footage of that movie as a kid and it was mashed up to some techno screaming the future is ours. Thanks for the nostalgia!

[Fuerto]

Pretty much the only depiction of a handheld minigun which can be considered to be in the realm of "realistic" is when it's held by a terminator.

[yellowprime]

Fun Fact: Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Primal, etc) was brought in to storyboard the Iron Man & War Machine vs Hammer Drones battle scene. Allegedly when someone on staff congratulated him for "Graduating to Live-action", he told the person to 'Go Fuck Yourself'. That is Gendy's dedication to the medium of animation.

[Ididitlikethis]

Some people think they can outsmart me. But I have yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet.

Heavy Weapons Guy-

[patriotenfield]

Some facts about the MG151 aircraft autocannon:-

The MG151/20 20mm autocannon, chambered in 20*82mm, was an upgrade over its MG151/15 chambered in 15*96mm.
It was the primary gun of the later versions of BF-109, earlier ME-262 variants and other German fighter planes. It was also mounted into a X3 AA mount version of a SdKFZ 251 half track. Imperial Japan was also a user of this aircraft autocannon.

Fun fact, the gun was captured, reverse engineered and widely used by Portugal and France in their colonial wars. The French mounted it on a Mini pickup truck in their Algerian war campaign. Articles available in Tank encyclopedia.

The Portuguese were the first to mount MG 151/20 on their Alouette III helicopters during the Portuguese colonial wars, specially in Mozambique and Angolan stage.

The Rhodesians and South Africans were also primary users of the MG-151 autocannons. During international arms embargo on SA due to apartheid, South African armscor-Vektor company reverse engineeed the MG-151/20 Into a more simplified and modern version called the Vektor GA-1 rattler autocannon, which also have double feed features and can be fired by manual configuration or by an electronic plug setup. This configuration is also available for SAAF and Rhodesian air force Alouette III helicopters and later the SAAF denel Ah-1 rooivalk helicopter.

France, Portugal and South Africa, nevertheless still have modernised versions of MG-151/20 autocannons, made by both Nexter and Vektor respectively.

[girl]

Old Painless from the first Predator movie is the first time the M134 Minigun was ever seen on film if I recall. Jesse Ventura had experience with the real thing, which is why he handled it.

[julesbenedictcatalan]

I am Heavy weapons guy, and this is my weapon. She weighs one hundred fifty kilograms and fires two hundred dollar, custom-tooled cartridges at ten thousand rounds per minute. It costs four hundred thousand dollars to fire this weapon for 12 seconds.

[paleoph]

I like that you mentioned the Empty Shell XM556 Microgun at the end. Shows that there are those who want to make the handheld Minigun fantasy a reality.

[imadrifter]

Hey Johnny, there's a minigun with a short set of barrels fired out of the sliding rear door of a Toyota Previa in the film 'Last Action Hero' just so you are aware. Keep up the phenomenal work, my friend 👍🏻