I have been playing Destiny and one thing that I find a little disappointing is the weaponry. A lot of Science Fiction films and games have weapons that are only as dangerous as the ones we have now. As such, I felt like talking about that for a bit.
Disclaimer: I liked most of these movies, I am only interested in pointing out that we need to be a bit more creative with our science fiction weaponry. Also, these are only my opinions and they may not align with yours.
Some Bad
Star Wars: Blasters in Star Wars turn out to be as effective as the projectile firearms we use, not even today, but at the time the film was made. They are actually less effective because every weapon fires the equivalent of tracer ammunition and tracers point both ways. Princess Leia is shown getting shot in the shoulder and it is only a minor injury. Lightsabers are pretty cool but, since Jedi seem to be awful at multi-tasking, a fully automatic weapon or area of effect is all you need. It is terribly convenient that nobody uses those in Star Wars. Don't even get me started on Stormtrooper armor, though I once had an idea of re-writing Star Wars and making the white Stormtrooper armor refractive so only a direct hit in a black area would hurt them.
Starship Troopers (the movies): Once again, it is the future and mankind has failed to come up with anything better than we have today. In fact they have lost a lot of technology we have like; mines, tanks, APCs, grenades, though they did get small nuclear weapons... which they should have used more often. I still think the book would have made an awesome movie though.
Some Good
Star Trek, TNG, DS9, Voyager (I normally don?t count Enterprise because it was outside of the Star Trek continuity): When Star Trek TNG debuted, they had phasers that fit in the palm of your hand and could do anything from stunning a single target to blowing the top off a mountain. Now that is a futuristic weapon! Then, well, they weren?t phallic enough so they had to make them bigger for? reasons. The larger phasers did not seem to do anything better than the smaller ones, nobody ever had to reload/recharge but people could not get behind a weapon that small. Anyways phasers are awesome and the only reason you would have to shoot someone twice is if you failed to set it properly.
District 9: When I think of futuristic weapons, I think of over-the-top damage. The ARC gun from District 9 is a great example of that. Only one person is ever shown getting wounded by this weapon and he loses his whole arm. It is just a flesh wound, but it is a lot of flesh. The Repeater shown in the movie is more like a standard firearm, but once again the damage seems to be much higher than most portable weapons that we have. Then there?s the magnetic/gravity weapon that can stop bullets and fire them back at people.
Men In Black: Two words: Noisy Cricket.
Aliens: The M41A Pulse Rifle is interesting because the firearms technology is basically the same as it is today, however the ammunition has advanced. The weapon uses 10mm explosive tipped caseless ammunition (unless you watch very carefully, but that is more of a prop issue). Now the M41A barely makes it in here because we have caseless ammunition technology and explosive rounds today. The smart guns used by Vasquez and Drake were pretty cool because they were set up on a steadicam rig with a smart targeting system. They never showed what any of the ammunition would do to a human, but the Xenomorphs are considerably more resilient and they exploded.
A Bit of Both
Guardians of the Galaxy: Guardians fits into both categories because some of the weapons were just like weapons we have now: A taser that works at a distance, numerous bladed weapons, mounted canons that appear to do less damage than a .50 caliber bullet (the Milano?s guns seemed to be pretty awesome until they showed them taking out the Sakaaran troops with them) and lastly the Hadron Enforcer that was basically a rocket launcher. On the other hand, the sentient arrow that Yondu used was pretty interesting (it even provided plot armor! well, plot stun-lock).
Predator/Predator 2/Predators: The Predators plasma caster fits into the bad category. It looks bad ass, and the three dot laser sight is iconic, but it is about as dangerous as a 7.62 mm bullet. It takes two to kill Blaine and Dutch shakes one off. It is also slow as molasses compared to, well, arrows even. Some other notable mentions are the collapsible spear (ooh look a spear!), the wrist claws (it takes the impact away from your wrist joint). Then again, in Predator 2 they had my favorite, the Smart Disc. That little disc weapon cut through a bunch of frozen cow carcasses and Gary Busey like they were nothing. It also seemed in tune with its users mental state and reacted accordingly, which was an interesting touch.
TLDR: What are some of your favorite/least favorite science fiction weapons? Do you have any ideas for some that you would like to share?
Disclaimer: I liked most of these movies, I am only interested in pointing out that we need to be a bit more creative with our science fiction weaponry. Also, these are only my opinions and they may not align with yours.
Some Bad
Star Wars: Blasters in Star Wars turn out to be as effective as the projectile firearms we use, not even today, but at the time the film was made. They are actually less effective because every weapon fires the equivalent of tracer ammunition and tracers point both ways. Princess Leia is shown getting shot in the shoulder and it is only a minor injury. Lightsabers are pretty cool but, since Jedi seem to be awful at multi-tasking, a fully automatic weapon or area of effect is all you need. It is terribly convenient that nobody uses those in Star Wars. Don't even get me started on Stormtrooper armor, though I once had an idea of re-writing Star Wars and making the white Stormtrooper armor refractive so only a direct hit in a black area would hurt them.
Starship Troopers (the movies): Once again, it is the future and mankind has failed to come up with anything better than we have today. In fact they have lost a lot of technology we have like; mines, tanks, APCs, grenades, though they did get small nuclear weapons... which they should have used more often. I still think the book would have made an awesome movie though.
Some Good
Star Trek, TNG, DS9, Voyager (I normally don?t count Enterprise because it was outside of the Star Trek continuity): When Star Trek TNG debuted, they had phasers that fit in the palm of your hand and could do anything from stunning a single target to blowing the top off a mountain. Now that is a futuristic weapon! Then, well, they weren?t phallic enough so they had to make them bigger for? reasons. The larger phasers did not seem to do anything better than the smaller ones, nobody ever had to reload/recharge but people could not get behind a weapon that small. Anyways phasers are awesome and the only reason you would have to shoot someone twice is if you failed to set it properly.
District 9: When I think of futuristic weapons, I think of over-the-top damage. The ARC gun from District 9 is a great example of that. Only one person is ever shown getting wounded by this weapon and he loses his whole arm. It is just a flesh wound, but it is a lot of flesh. The Repeater shown in the movie is more like a standard firearm, but once again the damage seems to be much higher than most portable weapons that we have. Then there?s the magnetic/gravity weapon that can stop bullets and fire them back at people.
Men In Black: Two words: Noisy Cricket.
Aliens: The M41A Pulse Rifle is interesting because the firearms technology is basically the same as it is today, however the ammunition has advanced. The weapon uses 10mm explosive tipped caseless ammunition (unless you watch very carefully, but that is more of a prop issue). Now the M41A barely makes it in here because we have caseless ammunition technology and explosive rounds today. The smart guns used by Vasquez and Drake were pretty cool because they were set up on a steadicam rig with a smart targeting system. They never showed what any of the ammunition would do to a human, but the Xenomorphs are considerably more resilient and they exploded.
A Bit of Both
Guardians of the Galaxy: Guardians fits into both categories because some of the weapons were just like weapons we have now: A taser that works at a distance, numerous bladed weapons, mounted canons that appear to do less damage than a .50 caliber bullet (the Milano?s guns seemed to be pretty awesome until they showed them taking out the Sakaaran troops with them) and lastly the Hadron Enforcer that was basically a rocket launcher. On the other hand, the sentient arrow that Yondu used was pretty interesting (it even provided plot armor! well, plot stun-lock).
Predator/Predator 2/Predators: The Predators plasma caster fits into the bad category. It looks bad ass, and the three dot laser sight is iconic, but it is about as dangerous as a 7.62 mm bullet. It takes two to kill Blaine and Dutch shakes one off. It is also slow as molasses compared to, well, arrows even. Some other notable mentions are the collapsible spear (ooh look a spear!), the wrist claws (it takes the impact away from your wrist joint). Then again, in Predator 2 they had my favorite, the Smart Disc. That little disc weapon cut through a bunch of frozen cow carcasses and Gary Busey like they were nothing. It also seemed in tune with its users mental state and reacted accordingly, which was an interesting touch.
TLDR: What are some of your favorite/least favorite science fiction weapons? Do you have any ideas for some that you would like to share?