Samuel L. Jackson Movie Guns: Part 4

In between doing Marvel movies and Tarantino flicks, Samuel L. Jackson did some movies you may not have heard of in the 2010s, including a few gems that you should really see if you've missed them. This decade is full of great movies, action comedies, and off-beat flicks—pretty much like any era in Jackson's widly diverse career that includes the first Shaft sequel since the 1970s.

So let's look at all the guns Jackson has used on screen from 2012 to 2019:

The plot of this film is a gruff one. Foley (Jackson) just spent 25 years in prison for killing his best friend and fellow con man. Upon his release, his partner's son, Ethan, tries to recruit him for a con he's planning. Foley turns it down and tries to go straight, but when things start going south, Ethan is able to trick Foley into sleeping with his own daughter (who he didn't know existed). He then uses the information as leverage to force Foley to do the job.

In a flashback, we see Foley with hair and a Para Ordnance P-18 pistol. The pistol is somewhat famous for being introduced in the 1980s as the first ever M1911 pistol to feature a high capacity double-stack magazine, instead of the 1911’s traditional single-stack mags, doubling the capacity to 14 rounds.

Para Ordnance original sold it as a “high capacity conversion kit” for the M1911A1 including an updated frame with a thicker grip to accommodate the double-stack mag, which was also supplied. There was also a new trigger assembly to fit the new frame.

The company began making complete pistols in the 1990s. The P18 Jackson is using here is chambered in 9mm.

Foley gets his hands on the two-toned Heckler & Koch USP pistol that Ethan (Luke Kirby) carries throughout the movie.

The USP, or “universal self-loading pistol” was designed by H&K and released in 1993 as a replacement for the P7 series of handguns.

Prototypes of the USP participated in the rigorous testing required by the Offensive Handgun Weapon System (OHWS) program requested by U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). The trial later resulted in the Mk 23 Mod 0 pistol, also made by H&K.

Based on information gathered in the trials, the polymer framed USP was refined in 1992 and the designed was finalized late that year. It was formally introduced in January, 1993 with the USP40 chambered in .40 S&W, which was all the rage at the time. It was soon followed by the USP9 and, in 1995, the USP45 in .45 ACP.

If you don't remember this one, don't feel bad. It's actually a Finnish action comedy directed by Jamari Helander that is definitely worth a watch if you come across it. A teenager named Oskari (Onni Tommila) has to protect U.S. President William Alan Moore (Jackson) when Air Force One is shot down by terrorists over the wildness. Oskari is on a hunting trip to prove his maturity to his kinfolk when he comes across the president's escape pod. The duo team up to escape the pursuing terrorists as anxious Pentagon officials observe via satellite.

It’s meant to be an over the top action flick echoing back to the 80s and 90s and it certainly succeeds there.

The agents on the president’s Secret Service detail, including Agent Morris (Ray Stevenson) carry Heckler & Koch MP7A1 submachine guns throughout the movie. Later in the film, President Moore picks one up from a deceased agent after he is stranded in the Finnish wilderness.

H&K has been producing the MP7 since 2001 and is technically a Personal Defense Weapon (PDW) chambered in the HK 4.6x30mm cartridge. It was designed along with the new cartridge to meet NATO requirements for a PDW to have a greater effectiveness against body armor than a pistol, much like its direct rival, the FN P90.

The MP7 and the later MP7A1 and MP7A2 use a short stroke piston gas system like the one used on H&K’s G36 and HK416 rifles in place of a blowback system traditional seen on sub guns. The 4.6x30mm ammo is exclusive to the MP7 and offers reduced recoil which helps controllability. The bullet is made almost entirely of a hardened steel penetrator instead of copper or lead.

The MP7 accepts 20-, 30-, or 40-round box magazines and it features an ambidextrous fire selector, bolt catch lever, and magazine release. It has an integrated collapsible stock and an integrated folding vertical fore grip (other than the MP7A2). It can be fired one- or two-handed. Due to the use of polymers in its construction, it’s light weight and has a cyclic rate of 950 rpm.

Jackson returns as Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. in this Captain America sequel and continues to carry the Smith & Wesson M&P9 pistol as his sidearm carried in a thigh holster while the rest of the agency carries Glock 17 pistols. At the same time this movie was released, the Marvel TV show, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are carrying the M&P as their standard firearm instead of the Glock 17s they carry in the movies.

At the end of the first act, when Nick Fury is ambushed and surrounded on a New York City street by disguised HYDRA agents, he uses the capabilities of his SHIELD vehicle, which is fitted with a host of countermeasures.

The skin and glass are reinforced and bullet proof, with the car’s computer displaying the various armor panel’s integrity as they take more and more damage.

Once the armor is depleted on one side, Fury goes on the defensive, using a quad-barreled machine gun and grenade launcher mounted on a turret that comes up from the passenger seat.

While the contraption looks to have four gun barrels, only the top two seem to fire. Beneath that is what looks like the barrel of an M203 40mm grenade launcher. Fury uses the gun to take out some HYDRA agents and by himself more time to escape the ambush.

In 2015, Jackson again teamed up with director Quentin Tarantino for a Western following eight travelers who find themselves stranded in a log cabin during a blizzard. Tarantino filmed it in Ultra Panavision 70, making it one of only 12 features shot in the format.

Other than a distinctive Remington 1858 Cattleman’s Carbine carried by John Ruth (Kurt Russell), the guns in this one are your typical Western fare.

Jackson plays Maj. Marquis Warren, who carries a Colt Single Action Army Quickdraw model with a 4.75” barrel. The same model is also carried by Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), and Gen. Sanford “Sandy” Smithers (Bruce Dern).

After Ruth is killed, Warren takes his Single Action Army Calvary model with a 7.5” barrel and uses it in tandem with his revolver.

An adaptation of a graphic novel, this bombastic action movie follows a new recruit to an international spy organization that's kind of like an updated MI-6 from the James Bond universe.

Jackson plays a villain this time around, albeit an eccentric one with a vast wardrobe and an odd lisp. Richmond Valentine isn’t big on guns, but in once scene he pulls a Heckler & Koch P30. It doesn’t seem like he carries it regularly and likely only brought it with him for the encounter with Galahad.

The movie spawned a sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, but it did not include Jackson or his character.

Another action comedy, The Hitman's Bodyguard teams Jackson as Darius Kincaid with Ryan Reynolds as Michael Bryce, former world class bodyguard who finds himself hired to protect a notorious assassin and personal enemy (Jackson) on his way to testify at an International Criminal Court.

He also has a bounty on his head placed by the dictator he’s set to testify against, which means bad guys are coming t his left and right.

Kincaid is briefly seen with a pair of Beretta 92FS pistols in the Interpol warehouse in Coventry, notably fallen asleep with one in his hand on his chest. Jackson should be pretty familiar with this model by now.

Later, Kincaid takes another 92FS, this one suppressed, from Bryce’s apartment in Amsterdam and uses it on the street against the Belorussians.

Most of the Belorussian operatives carry SIG Sauer P226 pistols as their go-to sidearms. Kincaid briefly uses one after disarming a bad guy during the gunfight in the Interpol warehouse. He discards it after firing it dry.

Also during the big shootout at the warehouse in Coventry, Kincaid briefly uses a Walther PPK/S pistol. We never see how he got the gun, though we do get a good close-up of it during his scuffle with Bryce and we can clearly see it’s a PPK/S.

The /S stands for sport—this model has a slightly longer grip and holds an additional round in its magazine for a seven round capacity versus the PPK’s six rounds.

Possibly because they look so much like James Bond’s PPK, Bryce (Reynolds) carries a pair of suppressed SIG Sauer P232 pistols in a dual shoulder holster rig when in the UK. The .380 pistols are usually seen with short silver suppressors affixed.

At one point, during the safehouse shootout, Kincaid disarms Bryce and takes one of his P232 pistols.

We don't see too many of these as import of the P232 into the U.S., and of spare parts and mags, was discontinued in July 2014 along with other guns manufactured by SIG in Germany. The ban was implemented by the German government after guns made by SIG were found to have been sold to the Colombian Police.

Under German law, arms exports require a special license not normally granted for countries where there is armed conflict, like Colombia, which bought almost 65,000 SIG Sauer pistols for its police force from the U.S. Department of Defense in 2014.

If you pay attention, the Beretta Kincaid takes out into the street in Amsterdam actually changes into a Smith & Wesson M&P in a continuity error, the same gun Jackson carries as Nick Fury in the Marvel movies.

Kincaid takes a Heckler & Koch P30 from the warehouse and later uses it to dispatch three mercenaries on the side of the road.

We later see Bryce using the same pistol in Amsterdam.

Most of the French GIPN operators escorting Kincaid to The Hague carry Heckler & Koch MP5A3 submachine guns. Kincaid picks one up during the ambush in Coventry and uses it to great effect against his pursuers.

We see the police in West Midlands are also armed with MP5A3s when they respond to the shooting at the safe-house.

Currently, the latest King Kong movie is more of an action adventure film than a brooding creature feature like Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005). It is the second installment in the "Monsterverse" cinematic universe after Godzilla (2014).

We follow a survey team escorted by U.S. Army personnel in 1973 sent to explore the mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter all sorts of beasties and the titular character, who is a whole lot bigger than he usually is in movies.

Since it's 1973, all the Army gear and guns are late Vietnam era equipment, so we see a bunch of M16A1 rifles along with earlier M16s, M60 machine guns, and at least one M16A1 with an M203 grenade launcher slung under the barrel.

One character, Capt. Cole (Shea Whigham) carries what he says is an AK-47, explaining that he took it off a 50-year-old farmer who fought for the NVA who surrendered after his village was destroyed. The gun in the movie is likely an AKM judging by the divot by the fire selector switch and the ribs on top of the receive cover. It would be a little difficult for Capt. Cole to find 7.62 ammunition, or spare magazines, to feed his AK, especially when no in country.

Jackson plays the squad's leader, Lt. Col. Preston Packard, who carries was look like Colt M1902 semi-auto pistols in a double shoulder rig. This is a bizarre choice for an Army colonel, as the pistol was never adopted by the U.S. military and was almost half a century old in 1973.

The pistols have a distinctive look due to the six-inch barrel and slide and boxy frame. The pistol is chambered in .38 ACP, which would also have been difficult to impossible to find in the U.S. Army supply chain. However, officers often carried their own sidearms well into the 1970s.

The M1902 was designed by John Browning and was an improvement over the M1900. There were three models, the 1902 Sporting, 1902 Military with a square and lengthened grip frame with an additional round int he mag, and 1903 Pocket Hammer model had a shortened barrel and slide but the same grip frame as the Sporting.

The Model 1902 would be succeeded by the M1905 in .45 ACP, the precursor to the M1911. The choice of the Model 1902 for the movie is especially odd, considering other characters carry an M1911A1.

Lt. Col. Packard is also a bit old school when it comes to his long guns, preferring to carry an M14 instead of the M16A1s carried by most of his squad.

The M14 was chambered in 7.62 NATO/.308 Win that became the standard issue rifle for the U.S. military in 1959, replacing the WWII era M1 Garand chambered in .30-06. The M14 was fully phased in by 1965, but was replaced by the M16 two years later in 1968. The M14 contined to be used by the Army, Navy and Marines for basic and advanced training well into the early 1970s.

The M14 was in many ways an updated version of the M1 Garand with a different chambered and an external box magazine instead of the Garand's en-bloc clip system and select fire modes. But like its predecessor, it was on the heavy side, fired a powerful cartridge that required hauling heavy magazines of extra ammo, was all but uncontrollable in full auto. Additionally, the gun's wood stock tended to swell and contract in the humid jungle environments of Vietnam, ruining the rifle's accuracy.

The platform would continue to be used with a high powered scope in a designated marksman or sniper capacity and still remains in limited service.

The French-made Chamelot-Delvigne Model 1873 gets a lot of screen time in this movie, and is used by Leon Rom (Christoph waltz) and Dr. Georg Washington Williams (Jackson) who carries his in a leather shoulder holster.

The gun is the first double action revolver used by the French Army and was produced from 1873 to 1887 without about 337,000 being made. It was widely used during WWI and was issued to reserve units in 1940. It was also widely used by the French Resistance during the Nazi Occupation of WWII.

The revolver used an 11mm cartridge which was underpowered, but the guns themselves were considered reliable and hearty.

During the night attack at the Kube village, Williams uses a pair of large Colt Walker revolvers, but we never see him with the guns before or after.

George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson) uses two Colt Walkers during the night attack of the Kube village. He only used the Colts in this scene.

The 1847 Colt Walker was the largest and most powerful block powder repeating handgun ever made. It was designed in collaboration between Capt. Samuel Hamilton Walker and Samuel Colt, adding to Colt's earlier Paterson design. The idea was to create an extremely powerful handgun for close-range fighting.

Walker carried two of the guns in to the Mexican-American War, and was killed the same year his namesake guns were invented. Only about 1,100 Walker Colts were ever made, making them highly sought after by collectors today. In 2008, on Walker from a Mexican War veteran was auctioned for $920,000.

The .44-45 caliber revolver was designed to be carried in saddle-mounted holsters to be used by calvary soldiers to shoot enemy horses and the enemy themselves.

The gun had a number of problems, aside from its huge size and heavy weight. Because of the steel used in its construction, the Walker tended to suffer ruptured cylinders when fired, which was also contributed to by user error before soldiers took to topping the mouths of the cylinders with lard after each bullet to prevent a chain fire—a practice that continues today with black powder revolvers.

The loading lever catch was also flimsy, leading to the lever dropping during recoil and jamming up the gun. Soldiers often used a rawhide loop to keep the lever in place.

After capturing the train, Williams uses what looks to me like a double-barreled rifle, but it could also be a side-by-side shotgun.

In the scenes after the night attack at the village, Williams carries a Winchester Model 1873 lever action rifle.

He lost the gun after he jumped from a cliff into the jungle even though it was slung on his back.

Through the movie, Belgian and Force Publique soldiers are mostly armed with the Swiss Schmidt-Rubin M1889 rifle. We see a scoped variant used by Williams after it is dropped by one of Rom's men.

The Schmidt-Rubin rifles were a series of Swiss Army service rifles used between 1889 and 1958 with a straight-pull bolt action chambered in the 7.5x55mm Schmidt-Rubin rifle cartridge, which was one of the first copper-jacketed rifle rounds. The Model 1889 was the first in the series and was long with a free-float barrel and a 12-round magazine with a wood stock extending nearly to the muzzle.

During a battle, Williams picks up one of the dropped M1889 rifles to defend himself.

We see the Belgian and Force Publique forced using the Maxim 1895 machine gun. Some are mounted on heavy carriages with large spoked wheels, on Rom's boat, and on the train and equipped with shields.

Williams uses one of the brass plated Maxims firing from a belt in an onboard wooden ammo box. "1886 model Maxim machine gun. This is way better than my Colt Walkers."

To keep up with the weird naming conventions of reboots and sequels these days, we have Shaft (2019), which is a direct sequel to Shaft (2000), which itself was a sequel to Shaft (1971). Got that?

Ok. This time, Jackson reprises his role as John Shaft, one time wisecracking NYPD detective turned private eye (that was in the 2001 movie). In the previous movie, Richard Roundtree, who played the titular character in the 1971 version, has a cameo as John Shaft's uncle, presumably meaning he's the same character and also named John Shaft.

In this 2019 update, Roundtree makes a return in the third act and it's revealed he's actually the father, not the uncle, of Jackson's character. We are also introduced to John Shaft Jr., or J.J., who never really knew his dad and is now an analyst for the FBI in NYC.

So that makes it: Richard Roundtree is John Shaft I, Jackson is John Shaft II, and newcomer Jessie T. Usher is John "J.J." Shaft, Jr.

Their paths cross and ultimate we get three generations of Shafts working together and getting in a shootout. We also get a bunch of tired tropes. Shaft II is so old school he doesn't have an Internet connection and still has a penchant for violence, leather jackets, and loose women, while his son is tech obsessed trendy urban millennial who wears tight pants and doesn't like guns, leading to much clashing and berating. (But of course, after shooting a bunch of bad guys, we get the obligatory, "I said I don't like guns. That doesn't mean I can't shoot.")

Still, it was entertaining, though kind of outta left field 19 years after the last movie.

John Shaft II carries a Colt Rail Gun as his primary firearm throughout the movie. From the barrel, it looks to be chambered in .45 ACP.

The M1913 spec Picatinny Rail allows the mounting of lights or lasers, but Shaft uses neither. The gun also comes with a match grade barrel and Novak white dot sights.

In the previous movie, Shaft II carried a Glock 19 and a Kahr K9 pistol.

Here we see all three Shafts, Shaft II on the left with his Colt, Roundtree as Shaft I with a Glock 17, and J.J. with the Beretta Px4 Storm he carries in the final raid.

Shaft II is briefly seen using a 12 gauge Mossberg Model 590 Shockwave shorty shotgun. This marks one of the first on-screen appearances of the Shockwave since it was introduced a few years ago.

It's ultimately John Shaft Sr. who has a secret arsenal hidden behind a wall in his home. We see a number of firearms, including an FN SCAR, an H&K G36, an M79 40mm grenade launcher, a short-barreled Kel-Tec KSG shotgun, a Mossberg Shockwave, a Remington 870, an RPG, and several handguns including the Beretta Px4 Storm J.J. carries.