Greatest Weapons of Fiction: Auto 9

This one comes from that greatest of Distopean science-fiction films, Paul Verhoeven's 1987 masterpiece, RoboCop.

This weapon was based on the real-life Beretta 93R, which was a development of the famous Beretta 92 pistol, in service with the US Armed Forces as the M9. The movie version is given an extended barrel and compensator/ barrel weight/ heat sink to lessen the recoil and muzzle rise of a small weapon firing a burst at a high cyclic rate. The prop masters also added a large front a rear sight set.

The real 93R is a select-fire pistol chambered in 9x19mm NATO round and firing from a 20 round detachable box magazine. Unlike the 92, the 93R is a single action pistol. The "R" stands for Raffica which translates to "burst" in Italian. There are two modes of fire, semi-automatic and burst. The burst is of three rounds, firing at approximately 1100 rounds per minute. The designers opted for a burst mode rather than a true full automatic to help minimize muzzle rise and its attendant ammunition wastage.

The Greatest Weapons of Fiction: M41A Pulse Rifle

I have gotten a little bored with the small arms and big guns of real life and thought I'd spend a little time with some awesome weapons that do not really exist. I'm going to limit it to weapons that seem to be technically possible though, so I don't have to write about magic or the gods. If there are any fictional weapons you would like to hear and see more of, leave them in the comments section and I will get cracking on it. Anyways...


The first up is the M41-A Pulse Rifle from the movie Aliens. Described as a fully automatic weapon (remember to fire in short, controlled bursts) that fires a 10mm caseless, exploding tip round. Well, that about drives the nail into the coffin of the 5.56 NATO for me. It featured a 100 round magazine, although it was only loaded to 95 to prevent jams. Just like Dark Helmet said in Spaceballs: " Fuck! Even in the future nothing works!" And I haven't even gotten to the 25mm pump action grenade launcher under slung from the barrel. I'm actually salivating as I write this. Of course, it is near dinner time. A weapon like this could be very useful for a close quarter combat. Although I suppose it didn't save the Colonial Marines. But hey, they were fighting Aliens. North Koreans don't have concentrated acid for blood. (We think). Caseless rounds are lighter and enable a soldier to carry more of them. 10mm would likely have good terminal ballistics, even without an explosive tip. The weapon itself is short and compact with a collapsible stock, again making it very suitable for CQB.


The props used in the movie were constructed by Stan Winston, mostly from Thompson submachine guns, Remington 870s for the grenade launcher and Franchi SPAS 12 parts, apparently with some motorcycle parts thrown in to help it look cool and futuristic. One interesting thing is that I was able to find more info and pictures on this fictional gun than many of the real guns I've featured here. Go figure.