The latest episode of CSI: Miami featured a plot that revolved around a weapon they called the DX4 or the "vaporizer." In the opening scene, three gun smugglers are blown into tiny pieces my a mystery weapon later revealed to be an electronically fired multi-barrel gun. Though lots of folks may have thought it a flight of Hollywood writer fancy, there is a grain of truth to be found.
The technology behind the DX4 is, in fact, been in development by an Australian company called Metal Storm for some time now. The animated technology demo given on the show to illustrate how the gun worked was wrong. They had a single shot per barrel, making the DX4 the biggest single-shot blunderbuss I've ever seen. The real Metal Storm system uses stacks of ammunition in each barrel.
But after getting the technology wrong, which is de rigueur for Hollywood, you have to look at more basic plausibility issues. And if you do, you won't like what you see. For one, it's unclear why the perpetrators of the three opening scene murders resorted to such ridiculous over-kill when a double-tap would have been just as effective (and given the victims' line of work would have raised far fewer eyebrows). Then there's the problem with assassins moving swiftly and silently through the shadows lugging a giant sedan-chair sized weapon around - never mind aiming it properly at 3 armed stooges who presumably are trying not to be shot. Lastly, if you were to set off all the barrels in such a gun at once, with the purpose being to vaporize a human target, the recoil would be, well, memorable. Do we even need to mention the ever present exploding gas tank myth?
But despite all that, the episode was rescued at the last minute by Horatio Caine shooting the perp in the forehead in mid sentence. In that one instant, I was transported back to "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," and Tuco's memorable advice to all would-be villains who find themselves with the upper hand on their nemesis: "When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."
Friday, December 14, 2007
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17 comments:
While I agree that toting the gun around so quickly and easily would be impossible, there are many valid reasons for recoil not being a factor. Recoil is necessary to maintain the forward momentum of the bullet. Since the gun had no moving parts to slow the bullets down, there is nothing impeding the forward momentum. There is also the lack of gunpowder. The explosion of the gunpowder in the chamber is also a factor in recoil.
Your comments about recoil don't make sense. Recoil is what happens to a gun when it is fired because of Newton's first law. Some repeating guns use recoil to power mechanisms that reload the chamber, but that has nothing at all to do with whether recoil exists or not.
As to the lack of gunpowder, that's simply not true. Both the real Metal Storm system and the DX4 used traditional powder propellants. The only difference with traditional cartridges is the method of ignition. In the DX4 and Metal Storm systems, ignition is induced with high current electricity. In traditional systems, mechanical percussion ignites a primer instead.
Am i the only one who finds This Csi Horatio Cain Extremly irritating. EVERY EPISODE, AT THE BEGINING JUST BEFORE THE INTRO CREDITS COME, HE HAS 2 PUT ON HIS GLASSES AN SAY SOMETHING '' SUPER BAD'' THAT MAKES HIM WANNA LOOK COOL!? THAT GUY ACTS LIKE HE IS ABOVE THE LAW. HE IS JUST A CSI!(EVEN IF HE DOESN'T REALLY INVESTIGATE A CRIME SCENE. HE NEVER DOES A PINCH OF FORENSIC WORK)
i agree dude
i hate horatio
fucking old guy
tryin tu fuck young girls
i hate him
fuck off
and peace
I LOVE HORATIO! Imagine the program without his character.......
I,m from Poland. I just seen this episode. You answer for my ask: what the hell is that weapon?!!!
Thanks
Kris
Yup i just saw this episode today as well and yeah the way they moved at the begining i was expectinga much smaler weapon... ok i wasn't expecting a weapon i was expecting someone with super powers or an alien XD but since it's CSI i guess it had to be a badass gun.
Yup i'm an Horatio hater as well for the exact same reasons mentioned above. He really gets on my nerves with his self righteous speaches and always trying to look so cool. I really wish someone would take those glasses and shove them somewhere the Miami sun don't shine!
Nothing against David Caruso though he is a great actor.
Horatio sucks what ever happened to innocent untill proven guilty?
When it comes to Horatio everyone is guilty untill proven innocent.
I realy hate that hunchback posture of his and the sunglasses thing to.
He is such a cowboy,CSI's investigate they don't run around with guns blazing like they were in the wild west.
Phht pick up a magnifying glass and holster that gun Horatio.
Recoil, for anonymous's sake is the term given to reciprocating reaction of firing a bullet... Because there is no moving parts means nothing, there is still some from of barrel resistance, therefore there has to be some form of force exerted on the weapon by the bullet as it moves out.
In order the propel the bullet out with a force there must be an equal yet opposite force exerted on the gun.
So by firing all the barrels in one go would create an enormous amount of force exerted upon the user...
A side-by-side shot gun has no moving parts besides the hammer, pull both triggers at the same time and feel the recoil!!
CSI miami is just a poor television serie, with such a bad cast and argument... the only CSI serie which have any interesting episodes is the Vegas version, the very best one.
http://www.kahsoon.com/2006/10/13/gun-that-shoots-1-million-rounds-a-minute/
it's a program!!! the opening scene got me watching for the next hour,thats what tv is all about and if the progam or the characters bother you don't watch it!!!!
I don't know why you guys are wasting your time hating Horatio. Eric is total CRAP, wish he had died the fuckwit.
Yeah. Eric sucks balls.
When I saw the episode myself, metal storm was top of my list of suspected weapons (I also figured some kind of sonic weapon, but that seems implausible in sci-fi too), I figured the gun was mounted on a robot.
I was disappointed that they never explained the apparent ease by which the weapon was maneuvered around the warehouse, and by the fact they had one shot per barrel as opposed to the stack of rounds in the barrel the real metal storm uses.
As for the recoil, there are ways to dampen recoil, although the initial shots probably would not be felt in the real metal storm because of the mass of ammunition and propellant behind them. The last rounds are likely to be felt a lot more acutely. Without a visible muzzle brake, you'd need a series of springs and weights.
Having said that, you'd probably need to bolt the tripod down (as if the airport management would be okay with you fucking up their apron with a bolt gun) or mount the weapon on a robot with a fairly wide wheelbase to fire off large portions of the magazine in one go without the weapon mount toppling over.
For some reason I don't find Horatio's one liners irritating.
Meh.
Horatio = sexy ginger = !
I love Horatio. He is real man. CSI miami is thebest tv show!!!
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