Why Are Sci-Fi Guns So Weird?

Spacedock delves into science fiction firearms.

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Spacedock does not hold ownership of the copyrighted materiel (Footage, Stills etc) taken from the various works of fiction covered in this series, and uses them within the boundaries of Fair Use for the purpose of Analysis, Discussion and Review.

[Spacedock]

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[Serbobiv]

To be fair to the P90, the reason it was chosen wasn't futuristic-ness but rather because it ejects downwards and so causes less trouble for filming.

[ryllharu]

Forgotten Weapons taught me that some of the weirdest, coolest, and most scifi looking pistols are mostly from the 1880s to shortly after the turn of the 20th century.

[RevantheBlack]

I love how Spaceballs is used as an example of when realism wasn’t the focus

[biohazard]

Fun fact: Arnie DID break his fingers doing the shotgun flip. One of the props used for wide shots was an 1887 with a normal lever and because he was so used to doing the flip he tried it with that one without thinking and fractured his pinkie and ring fingers.

[hcy]

The guns from District 9 are my absolute favourites, they look alien but still ergonomic in a way that would suit a vaguely humanoid species like the Prawns

[andrewk]

My good sir, how could you bring up Elysium but not the Prawn weaponry from District 9? One of the greatest examples of practical alien firearms... they were very believably real, and were ergonomically suited for their intended users, the Prawns. Super cool stuff!

[toob]

One of the best stories behind a sci-fi gun has to be RoboCop's Auto 9. Paul Verhoeven intended to use a Desert Eagle, which is a monster of a sidearm to a normal human. When he put it in Peter Weller's hand with all the RoboCop armor on, it looked comically small. That's why Verhoeven took a Beretta 93R and put a whole bunch of extra stuff on it to make it proportional to RC's hand. You can tell how huge the Auto 9 is when Lewis shows the gun to RC in the factory near the end of the movie.

[AiluropodaPanda]

I always figured that the crazy designs was to make sure the toy lines don't look dangerous.

[mage]

The pulse rifle from Aliens _used_ to have an entirely unique sound. Then Reinmetall made their 30 mm MANTIS C-RAM gun, which sounds exactly like the pulse rifle, but way noisier.

[andrewbutton]

I speculate that the ZF-1 was explicitly designed with a self destruct to test the Mangalores, and get rid of them when they get curious. The spiky bits on Corbens would be armed robber could be a visual deterrent for grabbing the barrel, but they are a bit large to actually work

[wild_lee_coyote]

My biggest issue with space guns is the lack of any sights on so many of them. Some like the Phasers of TNG don’t even have a barrel to sight down. How is it any military will accept some of these guns is beyond me. The K.I.S.S rule should always apply to firearms you design for shows, movies, or games.

[George_Davies]

Makes sense that Jayne's rifle would be the in-universe equivalent of an edgy alienware gaming PC 👽

[mcintoshpc]

Halo also stuffs 12.7x40mm cartridges into magazines that look like they were made for 9x19mm; thats a 12.7 mil or half inch diameter and a 40mm long cartridge case. For reference, most AK type rifles have a 39mm long case, so the grip for every m6 series pistol in halo should be about the front to back length of an AK magazine

[ianbelletti]

To be fair to Mass Effect's guns, they break their ammo off a chunk of metal then fire it using a futuristic method, but they also have mass effect relays which sends ships traveling at relativistic speeds. Everything is realistic to the setting that the game happens in.

[ph-]

interesting that Star Wars' method of just adding grebles or removing parts of existing weapons (often WW2-era ones) was never mentioned, it makes the weapons still seem functional while adding to the ascetic

[JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries]

"Vera" was actually designed for an earlier movie (Showtime), which is why it doesn't resemble the other Firefly guns. Still a great prop though. I've been lucky enough to hold "her" and speak to one of her makers.

[mluby]

The coolest sci-fi weapons can barely contain exotic destructive forces within (black holes, antimatter, etc) and so look and act more like protection for the wielder (maybe with some focusing or directing aspects) than a traditional gun.

[CMTechnica]

Titanfall has the best “realistic” weapons for a sci-fi setting I’ve seen. They make sense from a gunsmith standpoint that and don’t trigger all the “this doesn’t make sense” flags avid firearms enthusiasts or actual gunsmiths are known for. *mostly*. Of course Titanfall has a few outliers

The issue with firearm design is that the artists generally don’t know why something is built the way it is, and/or they’re taking creative liberties to make something that only looks interesting at the surface level but falls apart the moment you put thought into it (Destiny is the largest offender here. Don’t @ me).

Also, mad props for getting the pronunciation of Chiapa right. The moment I saw the mateba and the rhino after I was like “here we go again, he can’t say it right– holy shit he got it right”

[dylanmcgovern]

0:25
Rotating barrels are not terribly common, but they do have a purpose. One particular example is the Beretta PX4 series. The barrel rotates as the recoil cycles the gun, but it distributes some of the recoil impulse along the length of the barrel, which makes it much smoother to shoot. I guess it's a sort of a gimmick, but I own a compact version of it. It shoots as smooth if not smoother than some full size pistols.

As for why it's on an SMG, I'm not sure.