View Full Version : Movies That Made You Want to Buy Firearms
Doc Safari
06-19-19, 15:28
My list (in no particular order):
1. Last Man Standing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Man_Standing_(1996_film)
Bruce Willis has a 1911 under each arm and hoses down rooms full of mobsters with mag after mag of .45 goodness. I seriously walked out of the theater with 1911 withdrawal since I didn't own one at the time.
2. Red Dawn
The original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dawn
I think pretty much any fan of military rifles wanted a Soviet AKM after seeing this movie. Imagine how this movie would have sucked if the teen soldiers had used bows and arrows through the whole movie instead.
3. Last of the Mohicans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Mohicans_(1992_film)
I never really wanted a muzzle loader until I saw this movie. A friend of mine had a zouave replica that he let me shoot after I saw it. Only my desire for other firearms and my limited budget kept me from getting a smoke pole.
4. Heat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_(1995_film)
The bank robbers' street shootout made me want a carbine AR with fixed carry handle sights more than anything else. Since the 1994 AWB was in effect I couldn't find one for a decent price. I gave up even wanting one for many years. I purchased a Colt 6520 in 2006 but traded it for a 5.56 milled Arsenal AK. Mistake.
Finally last year I bought a PA State Police surplus Colt 6520 and realized it was about the closest I'd ever get to the AR in Heat. I'm keeping this one.
5. Logan's Run
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film)
Okay, I know it doesn't really exist, but I STILL want the Sandman pistol firing its exploding pellets from this movie. Somebody hurry up and invent the darn thing already.
https://scifi-weapons.fandom.com/wiki/Sandman_Gun
:jester:
Die Hard - Must have MP5, must have Steyr AUG.
Heat - First time I tried to buy one of everything in the film.
Proof of Life - Made me realize it was time to get an actual M4.
Speaking of "Heat".
https://youtu.be/Y5nkm-L4A1Y
Five_Point_Five_Six
06-19-19, 15:57
Heat
Die Hard
Red Dawn
LMT Shooter
06-19-19, 16:01
Way Of The Gun reignited my desire to own a Galil.
Doc Safari
06-19-19, 16:03
Speaking of "Heat".
https://youtu.be/Y5nkm-L4A1Y
Great video. Lots of good training reminders. The only one I'm not familiar with is where Pacino was looking over the rear sight. I've never been taught that one.
Deliverance.
Red Dawn.
To be honest, a 90s video game called “Delta-Force” got me into guns, counter-strike is what really pushed me over the edge.
CS also taught me the gun doesnt matter, the user does. Pick something you like and run with it.
Deliverance.
Red Dawn.
To be honest, a 90s video game called “Delta-Force” got me into guns, counter-strike is what really pushed me over the edge.
CS also taught me the gun doesnt matter, the user does. Pick something you like and run with it.That Delta-force game rocked! Suppressed MP5 and the OICW with 20mm grenade launcher!
The original Dirty Harry
And oddly Taxi Driver
I could relate to both Harry and Travis back then.
Lethal Weapon sold a bunch of Beretta 92s. My brother picked up one.
Tom Berenger's Sniper got me wanting a 700 back in the day.
Failure2Stop
06-19-19, 16:40
The Patriot
Schindler's List
Red Dawn
Defiance
Enemy at the Gates
Mississippi Burning
John Adams
Zorro
The Alamo
Birth of a Nation
All illustrated how important skill at arms is to preserve individual liberty and life, and that the only way to fight oppressive force is with force.
After reading mack Bolan books as a kid, I wanted an auto mag, then seeing one in sudden impact made it worse.
Finally got one about 4yrs ago.
The dogs of war made me want an uzi, before the terminator.
Finally built one from an isreali parts kit several yrs back. An uzi with Hebrew markings, even better.
Mc Q, and lone wolf Mc quade, and the Mac 10.
Owned several over the yrs, still have one of the little m12 380s.
The terminator, with the amt longslide 45.
Had one, sold it, kinda regret it.
Terminator 2, the winchester 1887 lever action shotgun.
Had one over a decade now. Not cut down like the movie, its an 1893 original. Maybe get a repro, and cut it.
Untold westerns, the love of sixguns and lever guns.
Had numerous over the yrs, still got a winchester 73 I made most of from scratch, and an Italian colt clone.
Lethal weapon had me searching for a beretta 92, ended up with the Taurus copy. Ended up selling it.
Miami Vice, the original television series: I still want a S&W 4506 in a Galco Miami classic shoulder holster.
Platoon: the Colt carbines carried by Barnes and Elias. The reason to this day that I think a carry handle looks so right on a carbine.
Great video. Lots of good training reminders. The only one I'm not familiar with is where Pacino was looking over the rear sight. I've never been taught that one.
Gee, I did not know that SAS invented bounding overwatch. :o
Seriously, I really enjoyed this scene from HEAT, one of the earlier more authentic gunfights.
At around 3:29 LV is talking about using cars for cover. I bring this up because at that point DeNiro is standing and firing from behind right hand concealment - no cover at all from the windows, plus as LV mentions, cars aren't really cover. He is shooting right handed which, in turn exposes more of his body around the 'cover.'
I bring this up because, as someone who has always been transition centric, this stands out like a sore thumb. To someone who isn't transition centic, it wouldn't be as obvious. Differing philosophies and emphasis.
This was one reason, for a fleeting time period, I liked one-points, way easier to transition. With the advent of the quick adjust two points, it is easier to run the slings loose for transitions.
FWIW, my two cents. I'm going to youtube now, to watch the scene uninterrupted.
Grand58742
06-19-19, 17:21
Heat for the FN FNC.
Navy SEALs for the MP5A3
Various WWII movies for a Luger
I read more growing up than watched movies and found a few in books. Don't recall which book it was in, but I did like the idea of a Tokarev and still own one today.
The Wild Bunch with early 1911s. Eventually ran across one in the 10,2XX range, made in 1912. The knife blade front sight and round notched rear are problematical, but the old buster still works just fine.
militarymoron
06-19-19, 18:13
Here are some purchases that were definitely influenced by movies I saw:
Red Dawn - bought an AK
Platoon - bought a CAR-15 (Colt SP-1)
Lethal Weapon - bought a 92F
Die Hard 2 - bought an SP89
Godless/West World - bought a T&C 'Smoke Wagon' SA 1873 revolver
Heat - bought a Colt officer's .45
Not a movie, but Magnum PI is the only reason I own a 1911.
Looks like I’m an odd one but Glory and the Ken Burns Civil War made me want a rifled musket. I bought a model 1853 Enfield in .577. My first gun.
Saving Private Ryan made me want a 1911 but I couldn’t afford a vintage piece at the time. Ended up with a Kimber Custom Compact series I as my first modern gun. Got my carry permit in advance.
Wild Geese -- FAL/L1A1 lust as a kid. I finally got both L1A1 and Metric FAL kits, but still not fully assembled :)
ETA: Also "Dark of the Sun" -- anotehr Merc movie. I don't remember what firearms they had in it as I was just a little kid when I saw it but it got my blood flowing for firearms stuff.
I don't know the title, but in high school, we had to watch the documentary that Ike ordered made when the NAZI camps were liberated. I realized as if I had been slapped in the face that those things were done to these people by their own government. I decided then and there that I would never allow myself to be without the means and mindset to defend myself if I were to end up in a similar situation.
The Dumb Gun Collector
06-19-19, 19:51
Die hard p7. That’s about it
I honestly can't say there was ever a movie that made me WANT to go out and buy one of the guns featured...
Future Weapons on the other hand... :cool:
Or Forgotten Weapons for that matter.
History documentaries and anti-fun parents are 100% responsible for my ammosexuality. :laugh:
Die hard p7. That’s about it
There is a Part 7!?!?!??! :jester:
And any movie with a mini gun made me want a mini gun....... then i shot one AND THEN I REALLY WANTED ONE!!!!!
Lone Survivor made me want to go out and buy a Beretta M9.
NYH1.
Die Hard/Lethal weapon=many Berettas
Quigley Down Under=24 month wait on two Shiloh Sharps in 45-70 and 45-120
The longest day=M1 Garand
Dirty Harry=6 1/2 inch pre 29
Magnum PI= 1911
Many WWII=more than a few PPk's ans P-38's
Starsky and Hutch=Python
MountainRaven
06-19-19, 23:25
Strike Back (TV show): Glock 17
Bosch (TV show): 1911
Siege of Jadotville and The Wild Geese: FN FAL
Collateral: USP
Saving Private Ryan: M1A1 Thompson
John Wick 2: Tricked out G34
The Matrix: Beretta 92, MP5K
We Were Soldiers: XM16E1
Equilibrium: G36K
Air Force One: MP5
3:10 to Yuma: S&W Nº3 "Schofield"
Black Hawk Down and Heat: 11.5" CAR-15
Last of the Mohicans: Pennsylvania rifle (and a tomahawk and long knife and a gunstock club)
Gettysburg: Colt 1851 Navy
Red Dawn: AKM and RPK
I think that's it.
I don't think I've had nearly half of them.
Miami Vice, the original television series: I still want a S&W 4506 in a Galco Miami classic shoulder holster.
Platoon: the Colt carbines carried by Barnes and Elias. The reason to this day that I think a carry handle looks so right on a carbine.
My bestfriends ( shooting team mates ) know that I am a pretty big Miami Vice fan, grew up watching it :cool:
So, my wife was really glad to see them presenting a wedding gift to us, in front of all the guests..it was a 4506 with spare mags... :p
On the topic, I blame 48Hrs for why I have a 4" S&W M29...
Quigley Down Under makes me want a Sharpes.
I actually don't have a lot of guns that I decided I wanted directly as a result of seeing them in specific movies. I mostly want the guns I want regardless of whether I see them onscreen or not. Although I do enjoy seeing them in films when they appear.
There are a couple of exceptions though. Most notably Heat, which made me want a Colt 733.
Although I had to settle for a clone:
http://i.imgur.com/5FiWJ3z.jpg
Believe it or not, my interest in Retro ARs in general didn't come from the usual sources like Blackhawk Down or the various Vietnam flicks, although I do enjoy the guns in those films, but rather from Tremors 2: Aftershocks. The two graboid hunters have a couple of XM-177 mockups made out of Colt Sporter carbines. There's a scene where the graboid hunting goes a bit awry and one of the characters, for want of a better idea, simply starts firing his carbine from the bed of a pickup into the dirt where a giant subterranean worm is dragging the truck through the Mexican wilderness. By the end of the film the graboid hunters are implied to be on track to become filthy rich through their worm killing efforts. And I thought to myself "That's the life for me".
Now I have a small pile of Retro ARs.
The original Matrix kind of made me want an MP5K, but I pretty much already did, and the film simply reinforced that. I still want *any* MP5 variant pretty badly though.
Another film that really made me want a gun was a Japanese Anime called Jin-Roh. In it, heavily armored police tote MG-42s. There's also a live-action film from the same franchise. So I'd really like an MG-42 or the updated 7.62x51 version, the MG3. Also I'd like the armored suit to go with it. I doubt I'll be realizing that dream though.
Terminator 2 got me into looking for a lever action 12 gauge, albeit it was years after I saw the movie. Turns out lever action SG's suck and Schwarzeneger's way of rolling the gun over to cycle it while riding a Harley is about as hollywood as it gets.
Lethal Weapon 3 (I think) when Joe Pesci's character makes fun of Danny Glovers character for "still" carrying a wheel gun these days. I wanted a wheel gun after that.
No Country for Old Men. The main bad guy has a suppressed shotgun. I am still seeking how to suppress a shotgun, but nonetheless it got me into suppressors.
Terminator... still looking for a plasma rifle in a 40W range.
Zero Dark Thirty made me really want a suppressed 416.
Movies are lies and I regret any and all purchases made by homos paid to play pretend.
Kinda aggro but there it is. That said I have an AR like Sgt Barnes That I treasure
Have Gun Will Travel made me lust for a Colt derringer. It was my first gun at age 17. I traded another punk my beautiful engraved german switchblade for the .22 short. Fortunately it was stolen before I got caught carrying it.
Heat- Colt 653 and other commando models.
Die hard 1 and 2 MP5 and Steyr AUG
Terminator 2 - Colt commando. Want a mini gun and 40mm launcher but that’s obviously not going to happen.
sundance435
06-20-19, 13:09
There are only 2 gun purchases I can directly equate to seeing a movie: 1) Glock 34 after seeing "Man on Fire". I liked Glocks anyway, but seeing Denzel paint his masterpiece with a 34 was all the practical/tactical convincing I needed. 2) "Collateral" - HK USP .45. "Yo, homie, is that my briefcase?"
Influenced purchases:
"Heat" - Sig 220
"Wild Bunch" - Classic 1911 (also still want a Win '97)
"Die Hard" - Beretta 92FS
"Zulu" - Martini-Henry
ETA: If one shows up locally, I will buy a 6.5" Model 29 solely because of "Dirty Harry".
Most of my collection was inspired by history, books and documentaries.
However "The Revenant" has left me with the burning desire for a respectable flintlock pennsylvannia or kentucky rifle
Sent from my SM-J727T using Tapatalk
Movies are lies and I regret any and all purchases made by homos paid to play pretend.
Kinda aggro but there it is. That said I have an AR like Sgt Barnes That I treasure
Film is just a medium that is no more or less accurate than books or any other medium. There are documentaries and there is entertainment, there are great films and there are terrible films.
And films might make you buy a gun for the wrong reason, but I've enjoyed most of my film inspired purchases. The other thing that made me buy certain guns was reading SOF growing up.
Have Gun Will Travel made me lust for a Colt derringer. It was my first gun at age 17. I traded another punk my beautiful engraved german switchblade for the .22 short. Fortunately it was stolen before I got caught carrying it.
Gen I Remington Derringer.
https://i.imgur.com/08fYByP.jpg
This is what happens when you grow up watching Wild, Wild West.
The Patriot
Schindler's List
Red Dawn
Defiance
Enemy at the Gates
Mississippi Burning
John Adams
Zorro
The Alamo
Birth of a Nation
All illustrated how important skill at arms is to preserve individual liberty and life, and that the only way to fight oppressive force is with force.
You watched Birth of a Nation?
Point taken, and affirmed, regardless.
I'd always wanted a Sig P226 since they were first imported. Seeing the original Robocop did it.
57744
I got my first one the next summer of 1998. No one knew what it was back then.
The next two that jump out are Die Hard for the Beretta 92, lets face it, almost every movie in the late 80's had a Beretta 92 in it... And the HK P7. I still don't have either...
Dirty Harry for a 629. Check.
That Delta-force game rocked! Suppressed MP5 and the OICW with 20mm grenade launcher!
Yea- i like to run with the 22 suppressed pustil and m40, haha.
Death wish 3 made me want a .475 Wildey Magnum.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190621/c72d15d44424f52154fceb7472adc98f.jpg
I credit Die Hard, Commando, Terminator, Terminator 2, Running Man, Red Dawn, Navy Seals, among others for my strong desire to own samples of the M16, UZI, MP5, AUG, etc...
eightmillimeter
06-20-19, 23:25
How can one watch Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Thin Red Line, The Pacific, To Hell and Back, The Big Red One, Pork Chip Hill, Fury, Attack, A Walk in the Sun, The Longest Day, or even Gran Torino or ... Jaws...
Without wanting to buy an M1 Garand?
Heat for the FN FNC.
Navy SEALs for the MP5A3
Various WWII movies for a Luger
I read more growing up than watched movies and found a few in books. Don't recall which book it was in, but I did like the idea of a Tokarev and still own one today.
You’re gonna hate me for this one, because I hate myself. I had an opportunity to buy a full auto FNC Para directly from Curt Higgins for $3,250, and I passed.
I ****ing passed. God dammit.. :mad:
I'd always wanted a Sig P226 since they were first imported. Seeing the original Robocop did it.
57744
I got my first one the next summer of 1998. No one knew what it was back then.
The next two that jump out are Die Hard for the Beretta 92, lets face it, almost every movie in the late 80's had a Beretta 92 in it... And the HK P7. I still don't have either...
Dirty Harry for a 629. Check.
I had my P226 in 1985.
How can one watch Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Thin Red Line, The Pacific, To Hell and Back, The Big Red One, Pork Chip Hill, Fury, Attack, A Walk in the Sun, The Longest Day, or even Gran Torino or ... Jaws...
Without wanting to buy an M1 Garand?
For me it was because I already had two by the time I was in High School.
I don't know think that I saw a movie or TV show and bought a gun right away, but they have influenced me--sometimes years later. Usually I did a bunch of research and let the idea germinate in me for a while.
I bought my first AR-15 in 1980. It was a Colt SP-1. It was the iconic gun that I had seen in so many movies and it was the gun that I was exposed to in ROTC.
The Wild Geese--bought an FN FAL over 20 years later
Red Dawn--bought a Maadi AK maybe 20 years later. I got into AKs years after the movie came out and wanted to get one that was the closest to a Russian one. I think I paid $1300 for the Maadi in 2004-2006, which was expensive for the time, but cheap by today's selling price.
The TV show Adam 12 and many movies and TV shows made me want to buy an Ithaca Deerslayer shotgun--like the type used by every cop. Result I bought an old Ithaca Police Special.
The Pacific HBO series--after seeing that I did buy an M-1 Carbine within a few months. There is that Iconic scene in the promo of a Marine jumping off the side of an Amtrac with an M-1 Carbine in one hand.
'71, An Ungentlemanly Act, and lots of footage of the British Army from the 1960s to the late 1980s made me want an L1A1. I found a complete Kit with the original barrel and had it built with some complaince parts and a Coonan receiver by Randy Klien of Sledgehammer arms.
6 Days (film about 1980 SAS rescue in Iranian Embassy in London) made me want an MP-5. Result--Bought HK 94 and SBR'ed it. I had seen them in many movies before, like The Final Option. But it took me a while to really get interested in one.
Red Dawn--bought a Maadi AK maybe 20 years later. I got into AKs years after the movie came out and wanted to get one that was the closest to a Russian one. I think I paid $1300 for the Maadi in 2004-2006, which was expensive for the time, but cheap by today's selling price.
Damn, you actually bought a Steyr import Maadi. Those were 1,200 when they were first offered around 1981 and have never been cheap. One of the Holy Grail AKs out there. I had to be satisfied with a CAI import Maadi when they were something like $189 and the first Romanian SAR 1s were $199. Also remember scoring a Romanian Intrac 74 for like $250 from CDNN. Swapped out the dumbhole stock for black furniture and it was awesome. Those were the days of the AK.
I also remember East German 5.45x39 bakelite mags for $4.99 of 4 in a pouch for $24.99. Wish I had ordered a dozen more 4 packs. When K Var offered SLR rifles for $400 one year I went all in and at one point had a dozen. I remember flipping a few for $1,800 each during the Great Obama Gun Sale.
There was a magic time for buying AKs and I'm glad I was there. One day I'll grab a Steyr import Maadi.
The_War_Wagon
06-21-19, 08:42
"Marked for Death"
From the collection of guns on the wall in his boyhood bedroom, the infamous "NY re-load (after the BMW crashes through Kohls, and his first 1911 is empty, he tosses it aside and pulls another!)," to the montage of them getting ready going for Jamaica, by building weapons, loading ammo, and blasting away at a side of beef in the warehouse. What's NOT to love?!
It even inspired me to fix up a Ramcharger, own 1911's, and get a Benelli M1 Super90 Tactical! :cool:
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/cc305/The_War_Wagon/Ramcharger/polished_zps84skfclo.jpg?width=590&height=370&fit=boundshttps://hosting.photobucket.com/images/cc305/The_War_Wagon/New%20build/100_4866-crop_zpsktuoje29.jpg?width=590&height=370&fit=boundshttps://hosting.photobucket.com/images/cc305/The_War_Wagon/.highres/sling.jpg?width=590&height=370&fit=bounds
Doc Safari
06-21-19, 08:53
There was a magic time for buying AKs and I'm glad I was there.
Yeah, sigh. I had a Chicom of every shape and color--pre-ban mind you--blonde Type 56 folding bayo, green Ling Hua bakelite, sidefolder orange bakelite, milled MAK90 with the chocolate brown furniture....etc. I had a thumbhole Maadi, a 922(r) compliant Maadi, and even a thumbhole Galil.
Later, eating McDonalds dollar menu and living in a crappy apartment so I could get the latest ban style then later no-ban style Arsenal, or a Romanian SAR-1 for $389.95. I had a safe full of nothing but AK's for about ten years..
By 2008 I decided I'd had a gut full of Arsenal's QC problems after I had to have a SAM7R and an SLR107FR fixed for crooked sights, and other issues that I either fixed or learned to live with.
In 2010 I went full AR and never looked back. I don't even keep up with "who makes the best AK" anymore.
Damn, you actually bought a Steyr import Maadi. Those were 1,200 when they were first offered around 1981 and have never been cheap. One of the Holy Grail AKs out there. I had to be satisfied with a CAI import Maadi when they were something like $189 and the first Romanian SAR 1s were $199. Also remember scoring a Romanian Intrac 74 for like $250 from CDNN. Swapped out the dumbhole stock for black furniture and it was awesome. Those were the days of the AK.
I also remember East German 5.45x39 bakelite mags for $4.99 of 4 in a pouch for $24.99. Wish I had ordered a dozen more 4 packs. When K Var offered SLR rifles for $400 one year I went all in and at one point had a dozen. I remember flipping a few for $1,800 each during the Great Obama Gun Sale.
There was a magic time for buying AKs and I'm glad I was there. One day I'll grab a Steyr import Maadi.
An SAR-2 was my first AK and first gun period actually, followed by two SAR-1s a Vector underfolder and a couple Arsenals. I still have them all but rarely even touch them now. I'm pretty much over AKs but will keep them, because having some extra Kalashnikovs stashed somewhere just seems prudent now.
But I too remember those early 2000s years when Romy AKs were cheap. And I remember the elation my 23 year old self felt when at midnight on September 14th 2004, I legally attached a Romanian folding stock to my SAR-1......Only later realizing those stocks actually kinda suck. But at the time that didn't matter because it felt like *victory*.
One has to wonder if there will ever be any more victories for our kind.
What comes to mind is the M41 Pulse rifle from Aliens and M92's from Lethal Weapon and Die Hard.
That's really all I can think of.
As for books, Fleming's James Bond turned me on to the Beretta 418 .25 and PPK 7.65 mm. (Well, the movies first, the books later)
It turns out 418's are real collectables, so I settle for Beretta M950 .25's.
Also PPK's aren't that great a gun, although reportedly much more pleasant in 7.65 mm (like Bond's gun) than .380. I don't know if they are more reliable in 7.65 or the same.
Beretta M92's are a little big for my hand and just big giant cavalry pistols anyway.
So instead I have a Beretta Cheetah in 7.65 mm. The best of both of Bond's main carry guns. :)
Achilles11B
06-21-19, 23:37
The TV show “Black Sails” has me kicking around picking up a flintlock pistol. You know, in case of boarders.
Not that I let movies influence my decision on what kind of gun to own but.....
Heat did it for me, I didn't build a 733, I built a 653 like the one Chris and Neil used in the armored truck heist.
After watching Collateral, I went and purchased a brand new HK USP 45.
After watching Miami Vice (2006) I purchased a Benelli M4 shotgun tried my best to find a Rocky Mountain Arms Patriot Pistol with C-More tactical.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.