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''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.
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RAY GUN TICKETS
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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,
requiring a
suspension of disbelief from a technologically educated audience:
- Ray guns draw seemingly limitless power from often unspecified sources.
- 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
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.
- Ray guns may be used to cut through hard materials like a blowtorch.
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.
- 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).
- Visible barrel recoil. 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.
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.
This can be compared with real-type
firearms as commonly depicted in
action movies, as tending to infallibly hit whatever they are aimed at 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.
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.
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, 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 these, are not:
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
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 hot 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 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.
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
Real-world development
- CBS in their show 60 minutes
showed a real weapon described as a raygun. 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 call search for heat gun
) is a non-contact infrared thermometer, not a gun.
References
- Van Riper, op.cit., p. 46.
- Science in popular culture: a reference guide
- Van Riper, op.cit., p. 47.