The blend of mainstream cinema releases this year have a strange flavor that's the 70s, 80s, and 90s all mashed up and recooked into some kind of falafel. Last month saw the release of "Mad Max: Fury Road," a reboot of the 1979 original and 1981, and 1985 sequels starring Mel Gibson. Fury Road has been a huge hit with critics and audiences alike, so that's one in the win column for the seemingly endless march of Hollywood reboots, and re-imaginings, and prequels to sequels.
In July, Arnold Schwarzenegger drags himself back into the Terminator franchise for the fifth film in the series, but also a reboot, since it uses the time travel element to retcon all the movies before it, and redo things starting from the beginning of The Terminator from 1984. Got all that?
And we all know "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens" comes out in December. But this Friday, we get a reboot/sequel of a much loved special effects milestone of the 1990s, "Jurassic Park." In the upcoming "Jurassic World," it's 22 years after the events of the original "Jurassic Park" (1993) Chris Pratt, the real-life shooter and hunter, plays Owen Grady, a staff member and trainer at a new, fully functioning dinosaur theme park.
It's been running for 10 years, but visitor rates are declining, which forces the park's corporate bosses to order—you guessed it—that a new genetically spliced super dinosaur be created. Y'know, for kids. It backfires, and Owen has to tromp around the island with his Marlin 1895SBL rifle and a herd of trained Velociraptors outrunning this giant thing that looks like a cross between T-Rex and a giant alligator. Yeah, it could be cool. In addition to the Marlin, there are a few other guns we know will be going up against some prehistoric bad guys this Friday. Here's a little bit about each of them:
This lever-action .45-70 rifle is short and handy, with an 18.5-inch barrel and an oversized loop. It comes with a rear ghost sight and a red fiber-optic front sight. Almost all exposed metal surfaces are stainless steel. Chris Pratt as Owen carries one with a scope fixed on the top rail.
In one snippet from a trailer, we see Barry (Omar Sy) holding up a Colt Python with a 4-inch barrel. The gun was produced by Colt from 1955 until 1999, with limited production continuing until 2005. This is a shorter version of the same .357 magnum that Rick Grimes carries on "The Walking Dead." It's gotten a lot of screen time because of its intimidating size. It was the gun wielded by the four evil cops in the Dirty Harry sequel "Magnum Force" (1973). Judge Reinhold carried one in "Beverly Hills Cop II" (1987) and was the gun Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb carried in "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991).
CORRECTION: Once the film was released and I got a better look at the gun, it's clear that Barry carries a much bigger hand cannon than the Colt Python. It appears to be a Smith & Wesson Model 460 XVR. It's drawn, but never used.
This futuristic pump takes over for the SPAS-12 featured in the original, it seems. The UTS-15, at its name denotes, has a capacity of 14+1 2-3/4" 12 gauge shotgun shells, which feed from two magazine tubes running above the barrel. A switch allows the shooter to feed from each tube alternately, or from one tube at a time if specific ammunition is loaded in each. Though early production models suffered from some parts failures, the new models feature certain parts that were originally plastic redone in steel or aluminum and are reliable, high-capacity shotguns.
One of the InGen security officers is seen firing an HK UMP submachine gun with a red dot and a laser sight. The UMP was designed as a lighter and cheaper alternative to the widely used MP5 series of submachine guns. It fires from a closed bolt and was originally chambered for hard hitting .45 ACP and .40 S&W, compared to the MP5's typically chambering of 9mm, trading some long-range effectiveness. Designers mitigated recoil by lowering the cyclic rate to 600 rounds per minute. There is also a 9mm version of the gun, the UMP9.
It looks like people take on dinosaurs with some heavy duty weaponry, including a GEM134 Minigun fired from a helicopter, and an M136 AT4 Missle Launcher, which is a shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon. The trailers also revealed some specialty movie weapons, like a Taser rifle and a net gun. Let's hope we see lots more anti-dino goodies on Friday.
Check out the trailer here before you go to see it tomorrow!
*All photos from The Internet Movie Firearms Database.
