Monday, January 19, 2009

Movie Guns XXXII

Well here we are again ladies and gentleman. It's been a long time. I'm going to shoot for a Movie Guns post every other week and see how that goes for awhile. We're getting baby CTone on a routine now, and I can work on the computer downstairs while the chillun wreck the place with glee.

Today's Movie Guns is on the film Under Siege 2. This is an old request from P7_M13 in comments on a Movie Guns from earlier. Sorry it took so long hoss.

As we all know, Steven Seagal is a 1911 kinda guy, and this movie has 1911 goodness all over it. If you're a Heckler & Koch fanboy then this movie will send 'a thrill up your leg!' It seems to me that the movie's armorer bought up all the shares in H&K; every bad guy, save one, has an H&K weapon. Then again, it could be that H&Ks are very durable, and that's why the armorer had them for the film. Who knows. . .

The film is set on a disenfranchised DoD contractor named Dane (Eric Brogosian) and a group of mercenaries led by Penn (Everett McGill) who hijack a train in order to gain control of a secret satellite that is armed with a laser that causes massive earthquakes. Dane was instrumental in designing the satellite. I have to mention that Hollywood has a very poor perception of what defense contractors do, and generally portray them in a negative light, just like they do with the military. It does make sense since they don't like anything military related to begin with. This is confirmed by noticing that in any movie that has a military or militant theme, that's not an outright war movie, that during military scenes the viewers are treated to the cheezy drum beat that signifies that the men are somehow organized. I personally hate it.

We start with a glimpse of Penn's Jerico 941 (Baby Desert Eagle) when he and his team steal two helicopters from a depot in Colorado. There's a better shot of it later on:
Jerico 941
Jerico Close Up
The close up of the muzzle shows the reverse slide rail that is unique amongst the Jerico and CZ pistols.

Penn's team then hijack a train that is on its way to California. Two of his henchmen flag the train to a stop before shooting the two drivers, and I got a picture of this guy's Glock which he fired to slide lock after only four rounds, and then holstered while still at slide lock:
Glockage
Slide Lock

A retired SEAL, and our movie's hero, Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal), kills one of the many mercenaries, which prompts a bunch more of them to shoot up the train car in a futile attampt at killing him:
H&K Convention

The rest of the mercenaries board the train and take the occupants hostage.

Now, I have to point out that pretty much all of the mercenaries have H&K MP5s, or varients thereof, which are very spendy, but one of the 'speshoul forses' mercs is carrying around a Browning PM12S (I assume it's the 'S' model) which is heavy, and made in the 50s. I can only guess that he didn't have the money to buy a tacticool weapon like all of his buddies, and that's why he's such a dick throughout the movie:
Browning PM12S
PM 12S
PM 12S Fire
Good luck firing a gun like this one-handed with real rounds instead of blanks.

I also caught this merc taking a Benchmade auto - probably a 9050 from the looks of it - from the pocket of one of the hostages:
Benchmade 9050

Some of the mercs are wandering about aimlessly while carrying what looks to be MAC 11s in snazzy leather shoulder holsters:
MAC 11

Here one of the mercs is seen with a H&K MP5K PDW:
H&K MP5K PDW

Now we're getting to the good stuff. Ryback finds a porter, Bobby Zachs (Morris Chestnut), and with his help finds his bag which contains a pre-1924 Colt M1911. I don't know if this is the real deal or not; I can't see cutting up a rare vintage pistol in order to turn it into a blank firing prop gun, or perhaps it is only used for close ups. Either way it's cool:
Colt M1911 Press Check
Worn Colt M1911
1911 Hammer Back
Colt M1911
You can see that it's well worn, and some of the frames show it at hammer down, and then seconds later show it a hammer back.

At one point I caught Casey flagging Zachs' face with the Colt:
Muzzle Awareness

Ryback starts to systematically take out the mercs, and with his first kill he takes the guy's radio and Glock:
More Glockage

He gives the Glock to Zachs which he refers to as a ".45", but in reality is a mid sized Glock, so it can't be a .45. Ryback then instructs Zachs in the deadly art of pistolcraft, and tells him thusly:
". . dynamic tension; left hand, right hand; palms pressed together. Never look in a direction where the gun ain't pointed, you understand?"
Moving along, Casey is heading towards the front of the train to stop it. Penn finds the first dead guy and orders his men to sweep the train. The two mercs driving the train are seen here with a Glock sitting on the table, and an unknown type of 1911 in the hands of the other guy:
1911 & Glock
Poor Grip
Notice the very poor grip. I find that it's natural to hold the gun as high up on the grip as possible, but it seems that some actors don't.

Casey does a swift ninja move and kills the guy with his own 1911 while it's still in his hand:
BG with 1911
You can see Casey poised to strike at the unsuspecting and poorly trained bad man.

Casey then turns his attention to some other mercs; one of which is seen here with a H&K MP5A4:
H&K MP5A4 Close

When the shooting starts, the mercs realize that Casey is on top of the train, so they fire wildly over the top of it. None of the rounds hit him, of course, and they switch out their weapons with the guys inside of the train in order to not have to reload. Here is a scene where they are handing off two H&K MP5K PDWs:
H&K MP5K PDW Close

Casey has the same weapon, but he choses to have the stock extended even though he's not in the greatest possition to use it:
MP5K PDW Stock Xtended
He's using the engine room doors as cover, and they are apparently made out of thick enough steel to stop the rounds.

Mercenary chic climbs to the top of the train with an imposter H&K PSG-1 and shoots Casey:
H&K PSG1 Forgery

The scope on the weapon is definitely not the one that comes with a PSG-1, but hs instead been replaced with one that features this useless reticle:
Uber Tac Reticle
Uber tactical for the viewers.

Despite such an expensive rifle, she manages to just ding Casey in the arm. He still bleeds profusely despite such a minor wound, and for a time the mercs think that he is dead. When they find out that he's not, Penn discovers that Casey's niece is on the train, and he uses her as bait. Here Penn has his Jerico out and pointed at her head:
Jerico 941 Close

Penn was able to find her because she was wearing Casey's Navy Cross on a necklace. Earlier she was telling a woman that her Uncle Casey has "secret medals;" one's that he can't even show her! I'm a dork, so I got a laugh out of that.

Anyways, Casey kills some more mercs; one of them dropping another Colt M1911:
Real Colt M1911
Those mercenaries must have tons of money to throw away if they're carrying guns like that!

Here is a close up of another merc with one of those cool MAC 11s, right as he's shot in the chest with a flare gun:
MAC 11 Close

While all of this killing is going on, Dane is blasting China, airliners, F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters, out of the air with the earthquake satellite that looks like R2D2 with a boner:
R2D2's Erection
Those pesky DoD contractors are always designing futuristic looking crap.

Casey and Penn are gearing up for a hand to hand showdown, and while Casey is on his way to find Penn, he discovers a door that's booby trapped with a fake M61 grenade that's marked "RFX."
Fake M61 Grenade

Penn still has Casey's niece, Sarah (Kathrine Heigl), and he pulls the pin on a M67 grenade and hands it to her, for some odd reason:
M67 Grenade

Penn then pulls his Gerber MK II, and Casey pulls some unknown type of knife that is made out of rubber, and the two fight it out:
Gerber MK II
Unk Knife

Any guesses on who won? Penn turns out to be an airsofter, and Casey saves the day.

During one of the firefights, Zachs is getting ready to start shooting the Glock ".45" at some bad guys, and he says:
"let's see. . .safety off. . .dynamic tension. . .aim. . .shoot"
You can audibly hear him click off the non-existant safety.

Hollywood will never get it.

That's all for today. I see that it is, in fact, after noon, and not morning, so I'm late again as usual. If you could only hear what is going on not five feet from me right now, you would cut me some slack.

5 comments:

James R. Rummel said...

Good post.

James

GM45 said...

The "Mercenary chick" is actually using a Heckler & Koch SR9-T, not a PSG-1. Like most Hollywood props, it is an HK91 mocked up as an SR9, as noted by the lack of a forward assist.

BTW, that is a beautiful M1911, but Seagal has this thing were he pushes the slide back by pushing the spring plunger under the barrel. I don't like this because the muzzle is too close to my finger, but it has a "tacticool" look to it, like how you see Pacino do it in Heat (although he puts his thumb in the trigger guard to strengthen his pull on the slide, which you debunked for having a "foreign object" in the guard).

Oh, and great post. I hated the first Under Siege so I never watched this one. :)

Anonymous said...

if you're curious about the knife Casey used... you should check out www.missionknive.com it's a mock of the MPK10-Ti most likely. :)

Unknown said...

To blank-adapt the 1911, it is not necessary to 'cut up' anything. Depending on the type of blank load used, all the mods can be just to the barrel. There are 2 basic configurations of cases used for constructing the .45ACP blank. A full-length load that is used primarily in sub-machine guns that are usually made from cut-down .308 cases, and a slightly shorter load that is formed from standard length .45 WinMag brass. If the full-length round is used in the 1911, it is necessary to machine the ejection port forward so the case can clear the port when the crimped portion expands outward as the load fires. The shorter load will function without any port modifications. Modifications to the barrels are identical no matter which load is used. I blank-adapt firearms for WW2 re-enactors and have adapted several 1911's to use the shorter load. One was a 1917-dated 1911. The original barrels were not harmed in each case, the mods being performed on surplus GI barrels and the whole system being a 'drop-in' affair.

Anonymous said...

The knife used by Seagal is a Gerber Mad Dog