Guns: Top 5 (Fictional) Rifles

It's meme time here at Shangrila Towers, and I thought I'd have a bit of fun with the "Top 5 Rifles" thing that is going around. Caleb and Breda discussed their top 5 choices on the Gun Nuts Radio podcast, and then Tam did the five most historically important rifles. My contribution? The top 5 fictional rifles, in no particular order.

Ground rules: No lasers, blasters, or plasma guns - just good-old fashioned gunpowder and lead. No guns that are or have been made in real life. No shotguns or handguns (no Samaritan, for instance).

1) The ZF-1 from "The Fifth Element"

Firearms technology has kind of stagnated; the Mosin-Nagant design, for instance, is well over a hundred years old, yet it remains a viable rifle. That hasn't stopped Hollywood from crafting some nifty guns, though. Here's Zorg demonstrating the ZF-1, an assault rifle with a number of unique features. The ZF-1 mostly makes it onto the list because of Gary Oldman's incredible, scenery-chewing performance:



2) The M41A Pulse Rifle from "Aliens"



The "space marine" concept is a familiar one by now, and they usually wield some form of generic polymer assault rifle (e.g. "Starship Troopers"). While it's hard to tell for sure, I think most of these rifles trace their roots back to the M41A, a "close personal friend" of Corporal Hicks in the movie "Aliens." The M41A is featured in a couple of memorable scenes - when Hicks tutors Ripley in its use (pictured above) and when Ripley straps two of the suckers together along with a flamethrower at the end of the movie to form a badass supergun.

3) The Assassination Rifle from "The Day of the Jackal"



If you've never seen the original "Day of the Jackal" (directed by Fred Zinnemann), it would be a major spoiler to tell you what makes the assassination weapon so special. In terms of specifications, it's merely a scoped, single shot rifle that fires .22s. Seeing how the Jackal gets this gun past a military blockade to make an attempt on French President Charles de Gaulle's life is half the fun.

4) Cobra Assault Cannon from "Robocop"

In a shootout with a warehouse full of drug dealers, it is made painfully clear that normal small arms - Uzis, AKs, what have you - are completely useless against Robocop; the bullets just bounce off and create harmless '80s action movie sparks. In this scene, Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith in his most villainous role) reveals a new toy that just might even the odds between his gang and Officer Murphy:



5) Lancer Assault Rifle



Most video game guns are generic blasters or laser rifles, but the team at Epic Games has always made fun weaponry a priority (the arsenal of Unreal Tournament was particularly inspired - who wouldn't like gibbing someone with a basketball-sized piece of exploding green goo?). Their latest addition to the gaming armory is the Lancer, and it's arguably so important to the "Gears of War" series that many of the gameplay mechanics and tactics revolve around its use (and abuse). A chainsaw bayonet too fanciful to make this list, you say? The Internet has defeated you once again: