ray gun

A stereotypical raygun as shown in a 1955 patent application for a toy.

This article is about fictional weapons. For other meanings, see Raygun (disambiguation). See Directed-energy weapon for various real weapons which are similar to rayguns.

Rayguns are a type of directed-energy weapon. They are a classic and widespread feature of science fiction. Types of raygun have various names: ray gun, death ray, beam gun, blaster, laser gun, phaser, etc. They supply the general role of guns in the scenarios of many stories. When fired, a raygun fires a ray, usually visible, usually lethal if it hits a human target, often destructive if it hits mechanical objects, with properties and other effects unspecified or widely varying.

History

A very early example of a raygun is the Heat-Ray featured in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1898).^[1] Science fiction as far back as the 1920s depicted death rays. Early science fiction often showed raygun beams making bright light and loud noise like lightning or large electric arcs. Nikola Tesla's attempts at developing directed-energy weapons, or "death rays", also fueled the imagination of many writers.

After the invention of the laser in 1960, it briefly became the death ray of choice for science fiction writers. For instance, characters in the Lost in Space TV series (1965–1968) and in the Star Trek pilot episode The Cage (1964) carried handheld laser weapons.^[2]

By the late 1960s and 1970s, as the laser's limits as a weapon became evident, rayguns were redubbed "phasers" (in Star Trek), "blasters" (Star Wars), "pulse rifles", "plasma rifles" and so forth.

Function

Ray guns as shown in science fiction do not suffer from the disadvantages that have, so far, made directed-energy weapons largely unpractical as weapons in real life,^[1] requiring a suspension of disbelief from a technologically educated audience:

• Ray guns draw seemingly limitless power from often unspecified sources.^[1] In contrast to their real-world counterparts, the batteries or power plants of even handheld weapons are minute, durable and do not appear to require frequent recharging.^[1]
• Ray guns in movies are often shown as shooting discrete pulses of energy visible from off-axis, traveling slowly enough for the eye to follow them, or even for the target to evade them^[1], although real-life laser light is invisible from off-axis and travels at the speed of light. This effect could sometimes be attributed to the beam heating atmosphere that it was passing through.^{[citation needed]}

Some of the effects are what would be expected from a powerful directed-energy beam, if it could be generated in reality:

• Ray guns are often shown as transmitting heat, as with Wells' heat rays.^[1]
• Ray guns may be used to cut through hard materials like a blowtorch.^[1]

But sometimes not:

• In movies, rays are often depicted as taking effect instantaneously, with a split-second touch of the beam sufficing for the intended purpose.^[1] Raygun victims are generally killed instantaneously, often – as in the Star Wars films – without showing visible wounds or even holes in their clothing.^[1]
• Stories in text are sometimes more realistic, with details such as "... he fell with his chest charred open."
• Some rayguns cause their targets to disappear ("de-materialize", disintegrate, vaporize or evaporate) entirely, personal equipment and all.
• Occasionally a raygun is shown as transmitting cold, as with the "freeze rays" in the TV series Batman (1966–1968) and Underdog (1964–1970).^[1]
• Visible barrel recoil.^{[citation needed]} This would only happen if the momentum of the beam were comparable to that of a bullet fired from a gun.
• A wide range of non-lethal functions as determined by the requirements of the story: for instance, they may stun, paralyze or knock down a target, much like modern electroshock weapons.^[1] Many of the more implausible functions border upon the farcical and involve transmutation of matter such as rayguns that age or de-age people (various cartoons), the Point of View Gun (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), or shrink rays (Fantastic Voyage, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids)

Ultimately, rayguns have whatever properties are required for their dramatic purpose. They bear little resemblance to real-world directed-energy weapons, even if they are given the names of existing technologies such as lasers, masers, or particle beams.^[1] This can be compared with real-type firearms as commonly depicted in action movies, as tending to infallibly hit whatever they are aimed at (when wielded by the heroes) and seldom running out of ammunition.^[3]

"FX-Ray laser" in American science fiction and animation is a humorous name for a raygun that fires a visible beam: FX is a show business term for special effects.^{[citation needed]}

Rayguns under their various names come in various sizes and forms: pistol; two-handed (often called a rifle); mounted on a vehicle; artillery-sized mounted on a spaceship or space base or asteroid or planet. The pistol form is seen most often.^{[citation needed]}

Rayguns are a great variety of shapes and sizes, according to the imagination of the story writers and movie prop makers. Most pistol rayguns have a conventional grip and trigger,^{[citation needed]} but some (e.g. Next Generation phasers) do not. The shapes of some rayguns are influenced by an opinion that they look most effective and weapon-like if they look somewhat like real guns; others, such as this, are not:

"Plasma blaster": nuclear laboratory equipment look

Sometimes the end of the barrel expands into a shield, as if to protect the user from back-flash from the emitted beam; sometimes in humorous literature this shield is absurdly big.

Types of raygun

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The following is a partial list of notable rayguns or types of rayguns.

Real

• Electrolasers, electroshock weapons in which current is sent along an electrically conductive laser-induced plasma channel, are depicted as rayguns in many works of fiction.

Fictional

• Blasters are the standard raygun of the Star Wars universe.
• Disruptors or disintegrator rays, weapons disrupting the molecular structure of matter, are used in "Star Trek" and in "Star Wars", among other works.
• Phasers are the standard raygun of the Star Trek universe; see also Weapons of Star Trek.
• Plasma rifles, shooting bolts of very hot ionized gas (plasma), are depicted in many works of fiction. One well-known example is the BFG 9000 from the Doom video games.
• Pulse rifle is the name for a wide range of fictional weapons from various works.
• The raygun is used in video games such as Call of Duty: World at War.

The ray fired is usually stated to be one of the following:

• Laser
• A real type of particle beam, e.g. protons and/or neutrons from the Ghostbusters' proton packs
• A fictional type of particle beam, such as:
  • "Minovsky particles" in the Gundam scenario, where Minovsky Physics always operate.
  • Nadions, in the well-known Star Trek phaser
  • "Greek letter" rays other than the well known real-world alpha ray, beta ray, gamma ray. This includes delta rays and epsilon rays, which however have been given real-world meanings.
• Plasma; see also plasma rifle
• Defined by a word not known in real-world science, e.g. "disruptor".
• Concussion beam: A generic term often applied^{[citation needed]} to energy beams when the nature of the weapon is unknown. They are often non-lethal and only temporarily disable an opponent by knocking them down. They are often seen in television cartoons where realistic conventional weaponry is usually disallowed due to restrictions on violence.
• See Blaster (Star Wars)#Technology for an attempt (using unreal technology) at describing how a type of raygun works.
• Undefined

Rayguns are often one-handed, sometimes two-handed, and often artillery-sized fastened to a spaceship.

Rayguns fed from a backpack powerpack are depicted from time to time in science fiction.

List of rayguns

• Alien film series: "PIG" plasma cannon: run off a backpack powerpack. Uses an electrolaser to create a magnetic containment bottle.
  • "Particle Beam Phalanx": cannon-sized.
• Babylon 5: Phased plasma gun
• Blake's 7: paragun: Federation standard issue. Image here. More Federation kit images here.
  • a pistol: Federation issue, image here.
• Blood and Blood II: Tesla Cannon: shoots electrical discharges
• Captain Proton: blaster: lethal white electric ray
• Command & Conquer: Renegade: Black Widow (Volt auto-rifle): electrical beam (electrolaser)?
  • Firefly: laser rifle
  • Tarantula: laser chaingun
  • Merlin: personal ion cannon: instant visible bolt of ions
• Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars (novel): T7: Tiberium fueled laser pulse.
  • EW1: Laser beam
  • Scrin cannon: beam of tiberium particles.
• Crash Bandicoot: raygun: plasma of charged particles
• Call of Duty: World at War: raygun: Is in Nazi Zombie mode and can be obtained in the campaign mission 'Little Resistance' through an easter egg.
• Darwin's World: role-playing game: laser rifle: Nd:YAG laser
• David Weber's novel Apocalypse Troll: blaster: pulse of plasma
• The Day The Earth Stood Still: The alien visitor Klaatu's robotic bodyguard Gort had a conventional laser beam which was shot from his 'eyes'. Meaning no harm, Gort only used the laser defensively. It could vaporize weapons as large as a tank, or even a rifle in a soldier's hands, though the soldier would not be injured.
• District 9: The film's protagonist Wikus utilizes an extremely powerful directed energy weapon (manufactured by the film's resident aliens, pejoratively called prawns) that thoroughly destroys a human body on contact. Other alien weapons are used that seem to be highly advanced and powerful ballistic weapons. None of the prawn's weapons are ever named or their workings explained.
• Doctor Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators: Rayguns utilising infra-wave undulation and Phlogiston over-charging amongst other pseudo-scientific concepts.
• Descent series: laser pistols, fusion cannon, omega cannon
• FreeSpace 2: photon beam cannons
• Doctor Who: Daleks' guns: "ruby rays", Time Lord's "Stasers"
• Doom: Plasma rifle
  • BFG 9000: undefined (stated as plasma in Doom 3), unreal physics
• Dune: Continuous-wave laser projectors called lasguns runs on nuclear power, but are considered old-fashioned due to the use of the personal Holtzman shields, which would cause a small nuclear detonation, which would kill both the wielder and the wearer, and break the rules of engagement, as the use of nuclear weapons are strictly prohibited. They are also known to be heavy, cumbersome and very fragile. For those reason, lasguns are mostly mounted on aircraft.
• Fallout: Solar scorcher (runs on solar power), Alien Blaster, Various installments of laser weapons, plasma weapons, pulse weapons. (rifles, handguns, gatling, grenades.)
• Farscape: various weapons
• F.E.A.R.: Armacham Type-7 Particle Weapon: plasma
• Forbidden Planet: hand blasters & larger blasters
• The Foundation Series (The Trilogy): blaster: high-power nuclear particles, shattered target.
• The Foundation Series (The prequels): blaster: weaker
• The Foundation Series (The Sequels): microwave gun
• Ghostbusters: proton pack: particle beam
  • Filmation's Ghostbusters: The Dematerializer: disintegrator beam (though it only works on ghosts)
• Gridlinked: pulse-gun: various types of fire mode
• Gundam: mega beam cannons: "Minovsky particles". (Minovsky Physics operate throughout series.)
• Halo (series): various plasma weapons
• The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (1927 novel): "hyperboloid"
• Hammer's Slammers: Powergun: plasma pulse
• The Hyperion Cantos: Death Wand: A laser-like beam weapon
• Independence Day: city-destroyer ray
• James Bond: Moonraker: "Moonraker laser": laser beam. Images: [1] [2] [3] [4]. It also appears in some videogames.
• James Bond 007: Nightfire (a video game): Phoenix International Experimental Laser Rifle
• Kingdom Hearts II (a video game): Gun Arrow: bullet-like laser beams; freezes in midair before homing in on the target
• Kingdom of Loathing MMORPG: Toy Ray Gun: laser beam
• Lucky Starr series: blasters: small slugs which on impact turned a fraction of their mass into energy
• Mars Attacks: Both the cards and movie feature alien weapons used by the Martians capable of disintegrating human/animal flesh, and on some occasions, terrestrial weapons and devices.
• Metroid (series) (a video game): various, see Items in the Metroid series
• Quake: BFG10K: plasma
• Predator (film series): Plasma caster, see Predator technology
• Resident Evil 3: Nemesis: Paracelsus's Sword: massively offensive energy beam
• Resistance: Fall of Man: Auger: similar to the Hl2 OSIPIR
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tesla Gun: Multi-target electric shock gun.
• Robotech: Reflex Cannon (artillery-sized)
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: An unnamed raygun firing glowing rings is used by Dex.
• Stargate: staff weapon: yellow plasma-bolt
  • intar: red ball of energy
  • Kull disruptor: a blue blast
  • zat: blue electrical discharge
• Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse": raygun: red/blue bullet of energy
  • laser shotgun: a steady blue beam of energy
  • laser RPG: a swirling mass of red and white energy
• Super Smash Bros. series: Ray Gun: plasma
• Star Trek: See Weapons of Star Trek
• Star Wars: blaster: see blaster (Star Wars),. which describes it in detail, but with unreal physics.
  • lightsaber
  • various weapons: see List of Star Wars ranged weapons
• 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon: Traditional laser guns, carried by Bebop and Rocksteady
• Terminator (franchise): Beam-weapons
• Total Annihilation: may be a traditional laser, or may use coherent meson or pseudo-boson beams instead
  • Plasma Cannon: Bumble
• Transformers (film): Plasma cannon, Bumblebee's secondary weapon
• Unreal Tournament 2004: Lightning Gun: electrolaser
• V: shock rifle and pistol: unknown
• Warhammer 40,000: lasgun: laser beam
  • Lascannon: massive energy blast
• War of the Worlds (1898): Heat-Ray
• Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898 sequel to ditto): disintegrator ray
• (various): plasma rifle

See also

• Death ray
• Weapons of Star Wars
• Weapons of Star Trek
• The film The Librarian: Quest for The Spear (2004) refers to Tesla's "Legendary Death Ray", whose prototype in the film is housed in the massive library of artifacts and books, which also includes such artifacts (fabled, or otherwise) as The Ark of the Covenant and Excalibur.
• Shrink ray
• Category:Rayguns
• Pulse rifle

Gallery

A typical imaginary raygun

Imaginary raygun, 2 views, with parts labelled

Small artillery sized version of same, in use

Real-world development

• CBS in their show 60 minutes showed a real weapon described as a raygun. This video of it shows that it is most likely the Active Denial System.
• Recent developments in the real world in laser guns have produced artillery-sized weapons which might be described as rayguns, but usually are not.
• See electrolaser for an electric current sent down a laser beam.
• See directed-energy weapon for various real weapons which are more or less like rayguns.
• See Directed-energy weapon#Mythology for energy weapons in ancient mythologies.
• See Directed-energy weapon#Tesla for reports that Tesla made a real raygun or similar.

Distinguish from

• The "RayTek laser heat gun" (at [5] call search for heat gun) is a non-contact infrared thermometer, not a gun.

References

See also

• Death ray
• Weapons of Star Wars
• Weapons of Star Trek
• The film The Librarian: Quest for The Spear (2004) refers to Tesla's "Legendary Death Ray", whose prototype in the film is housed in the massive library of artefacts and books, which also includes such artefacts (fabled, or otherwise) as The Ark of the Covenant and Excalibur.
• Shrink ray
• Category:Rayguns
• Pulse rifle
• Leyden ball
• Plasma rifle
• ID Sniper rifle
• BFG 9000
• Lasgun
• Needlegun

External links

• The Wave Weapons of Dr. Grordbort : Showcasing the advanced Raygun technology of inventor and philanthropist extraordinaire, Dr. Grordbort.
• Atomic Rocket: descriptions and technology and many images of handguns and rifle-sized guns used in space including rayguns.
• The Virtual Ray Gun Exhibition: Computer-generated ray gun art by various artists.
• The Original Ray Gun