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THE GUNS IN ROBOCOP
State of the art, bang bang! Here we take a look at the many guns used in the movies and tv-series. From the real ones used by the Clarence and Cain gangs to the fictional ED-209 guns and the cobra cannon.



ED-209 WEAPONS

The movie version of ED 209 was equiped with heavy armament. Conceived as having a modular weapons system, ED's left hand was equipped with one 20mm gun and had been further retrofitted with three heat-seeking missiles. The right hand held two additional 20mm guns. And in a clever touch, never used in the film, a pocket behind the robot's head was equipped with twin launchers which could be loaded with either mortars or gas grenades for crowd control.

Phil Tippett, who animated the stop-motion Imperial Walkers in the Star Wars films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, directed the stop-motion animation of the ED-209 unit, which included the guns' firing. The muzzle flashes were created with pieces of cotton (stretched numerous ways), painted a special orange color, and lit with flash-bulb tubes modified to be placed inside the guns of the actual ED-209 miniature. The effect was enhanced with a large amount of optical diffusion to give the 'flashes' the more 'burned-in' look of gunfire.



COBRA ASSAULT CANNON

When Clarence Boddicker and his gang are asked by Dick Jones (Ronnie Cox) to kill RoboCop, they are provided with an experimental military weapon being developed by OCP called the Cobra Assault Cannon. The Cobras are actually older-specification Barrett M82 long-range .50 BMG rifles which have been dressed up extra plastic housing over the receivers and fitted with gigantic scopes (according to IMDB, the scopes were originally supposed to show computer-generated targeting information, but this idea was scrapped due to budget constraints). The Cobra fires some type of powerful round that explodes upon impact; in the film, Clarence Boddicker memorably tests the weapon by firing it at a 6000 SUX sedan, destroying the vehicle.

Anne Lewis obtains one of these Cobra rifles and uses it to kill one of Boddicker's men during the shootout at the end of the movie. After RoboCop and Lewis take out Boddicker and his gang, RoboCop takes one of the Cobra Assault Cannons (presumably, the same one used by Lewis) to the OCP office building and uses it to destroy the ED-209 cyborg out in front.

The Cobra gun used in RoboCop2 is different from the one in RoboCop1. Here a Pauza P-50 rifle caliber .50 BMG is used. The most obvious difference is the front of the rifle and the handle wich Robo carries the rifle with. It also doesn't have the gadgets on top, such as the monitor. The Cobra gun also makes a short apperances in RoboCop:The Series and RoboCop:Prime Directives.



POLICE GUNS

The Heckler & Koch P9S is the standard sidearm of the Detroit Police Department in the first movie; Murphy uses one briefly during the highway shootout with Clarence Boddicker's men that he borrows from his partner Anne Lewis. Later in the range, we see many policemen practicing with their P9s, indicating clearly that this weapon is their standard-issue.

Alex Murphy, before he becomes RoboCop, uses a different gun as his sidearm of choice. The scene in which he is practicing his TJ Laser trick shows a SIG-Sauer P226 9mm. In real life many police agencies prefer Glock pistols. This is because the Glock 22 or Glock 19 price is often discounted for police agencies. The Glock's durability and dependability as well as its safety features are a few of the reasons most police departments have adopted the Glock as their standard issue weapon.

In RoboCop2 Officer Anne Lewis carries a SIG-Sauer P228 as her sidearm throughout the movie, which was a brand-new pistol at the time that RoboCop 2 was made (this is, in all likelihood, the first film ever to feature this gun, because the P228 was first introduced in 1990, the same year this film was released). Interestingly enough, RoboCop was the first movie to prominently feature a SIG-Sauer P226 (including firing sequences) and RoboCop 2 was the first to prominently feature a P228.




BAD GUY GUNS

Clarence Boddicker uses a short-barreled semi-automatic shotgun with vented barrels to blow Murphy's limbs off during his death scene. This is a modified Remington 1100. The conversion involves moving the action spring from behind the action to around the magazine tube behind the gas piston. This allows the shotgun to be fitted with a pistol grip, and a telescoping stock.

A semi-automatic civilian version of the Sterling Mark 6 Semiautomatic Carbine (recognizable by its 16" barrel, necessary to comply with gun laws in the U.S.) is seen used by the convenience store robber. It was imported for commercial sale into the U.S. during the 1980s and banned from import after 1989. The carbine is fired semiautomatic throughout the robbery and Robocop renders this weapon useless by bending the barrel under the receiver of the gun.

When Emil Antonowsky robs the gas station he threatens the clerk with an Ingram MAC-10 fitted with a custom flash hider and a modified folding stock. The city hall employee whom Robocop tosses out a window during a hostage situation uses a full-size Uzi submachine gun.

A Desert Eagle .357 Magnum with a threaded barrel (sometimes fitted with a suppressor)) is used by Clarence Boddicker throughout the movie. A chrome version is used by Dick Jones. The chrome pistol is the same weapon from an earlier scene in which an employee was killed while "threatening" the ED209 prototype as a demonstration gone wrong. It was originally supposed to be Robocop's main firearm, but once the suit was completed it looked too small.

Leon in the Disco scene uses the now extinct LAR Grizzly which can be seen by its distinctly shaped, buffed-up Colt1911-frame but with an extra two-inch barrel protrusion at the nose. It also has a big grip-knob protruding backwards, between the grip and the hammer.

The "boom-box" was used by Hob, the kid villain, in RoboCop 2. The Utah Carter custom boom box machine gun fires 9mm and can, just like in the movie, be turned into a "box".





BONEMACHINES QUADRA GUNS

BoneMachine, the villain from RoboCop: Prime Directives, wears four-barelled metallic cylinders on the end of each arm called "Quadra Guns" and were entirely made up by the script writers for PD. The "Quadra Guns" are able to fire a variey of weapons, including tear gas and automatic machine gun fire.

The metal cylinders themselves weigh over 30 pounds apiece, have 9mm Czechoslovakian Scorpion machine pistols (which are quite tiny just a bit larger than a typical handgun) outfitted with blanks inside, and had to be supported by wooden crates as the actor waited to shoot his part.

The gauntlets were, after filming was completed, sold at Director Julian Grants garage sale in Toronto. After that they found their way to EBAY where the "Quadra Guns" got an unknown buyer.




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