Gunfights and Films - Urban New York Edition

Gunfights and Films - Urban New York Edition

Gritty, urban streets and the shady dealings of gangland activity are what drives these two films set in New York in the 60's and 70's. American Gangster tells us the true story of Frank Lucas and his rise and fall in being a Crime Boss. Dead Presidents follows the story of two young men that turn to robbery to help out their woes. Both stories show the various sides of cause and effect in crime that is both fictionalized as well as based on actual events in our history in poverty stricken cities of America. There are some intense scenes that feature gunfights, gunshots and amazing dialogue. Let's take a look at these urban classics.

American Gangster is the 2007 biographical crime drama that centers on the life of Frank Lucas, a low level gangster working out of Harlem who in the late 1960's rose to power after devising a way to smuggle a pure form of heroin to the States directly from the Far East during the height of the Vietnam War. Directed by Ridley Scott, the film stars Denzel Washington as Lucas and Russell Crowe as Richie Roberts, a New Jersey detective who was instrumental in taking the crime boss down. (Ironically, both actors previously starred together in Virtuosity, in which Washington played the cop and Crowe played the criminal.)

The film opens with Bumpy Johnson  and Frank Lucas pouring gas on a man and then lighting him on fire. As the man screams in pain, Frank shoots him. Bumpy runs Harlem in 1968 and says to Frank that big business in taking over and there is no more room for the little guy. He has a heart attack and dies in a nearby store. We see other mobsters showing up to this funeral. It is seen as a huge loss in the community and the crime world struggles with what to do with his share of the neighborhoods and their dealings.

Meanwhile Richie Roberts is a New Jersey detective who is taking classes to become a lawyer and hates public speaking. He's a complex man filled with anxieties and frailties but passionate about bettering himself, to an extent.  He and his partner find a million dollars in cash and they argue about turning it in, but Richie turns it in anyway. Because Richie won't keep any of the money for himself or let his fellow officers keep it, his fellow officers mock and ridicule him. Richie is seen as weak and his coworkers aren't shy about how they feel about him and his decisions.

Frank is unhappy with the way the mob is being run and it seems he always has to pay off another mobster named Tango. Tango is an old associate of Bumpy who wants control of part of Bumpy's old territory. As Frank is having breakfast one morning Frank makes it clear to Tango and everyone else that he is the boss now. Frank takes over Bumpy's roll as community saviour and will be in charge off all illegal business dealings in those neighborhoods. As  Frank decides how he can improve business  sees on T.V. that drugs are very cheap in Vietnam and so he buys a passport and goes to visit his cousin who owns a night club in Vietnam. He comes up with a plan that succeeds for quite some time. Frank makes a deal with his cousin to bring heroin back to the U.S. by smuggling it in coffins of dead soldiers returning from Vietnam. He goes to Nam to talk to his future provider directly. Since there is no middle man, Frank can sell heroin cheaper than anyone else in New York; it is also pure heroin nicknamed "Blue Magic."

Richie's marriage is failing because his wife says he doesn't spend enough time with their son. After they divorce, his wife says she and her son are moving to Vegas. Richie struggles with being a good cop and a good father. He also has trouble staying out of trouble when it comes to women.

Richie gets a phone call in the middle of the night from his partner, Javier, who is flipping out because he killed a guy in his apartment, claiming the man opened fire on him. They bandage the dead guy's neck to make it look like he isn't dead. Richie tells his partner that he needs help because he is hooked on drugs, which is why he killed the guy in the first place. His partner freaks out and jumps out of the ambulance. His partner says that it was Richie's fault to begin with, because he takes drugs to forget that everybody at the police station sneers at him. It's getting tougher for Richie on the job.

Frank at this point is doing very well. He owns several nightclubs and moves his brothers and mother from North Carolina to New York. He buys his mom a very nice house, a mansion with a huge garden and gives her a vanity for her bedroom that he'd had made from his own memories as a child in North Carolina. Success seems to flow from every direction.

We see Richie trying to fight for custody but it turns out that his chances aren't that good because even though he's an honest cop he hangs out with bad people and likes to sleep with hookers. He even has sex with his lawyer. Richie once again struggles with the balance of being a good cop with bad associates and wanting to be a good father to his son. I imagine it's not far off from the everyday struggles those that work in law enforcement face when it comes to their families. Afterall, Richie was part of this true story as well.

Frank gets his brothers from the south to help him sell his drugs and gives them good money for doing their job, the were called The Country Boys. He distrusts strangers and wants to give back to his family. He works hard to build his empire and wants to hold onto it at all costs. At one point Frank, yells at one his family members for dressing too nice because he feels that if you dress too nice you draw attention to yourself. It is also at this point that he meets Eva , a Puerto Rican Beauty Queen, and falls head over heels for her. Adding a more complex level of life to Frank's empire.

Richie's partner overdoses on drugs which promotes Richie in order  to start a Narcotics Unit and go after the big guys, not any small time dealers. They aren't too successful at first so Richie decides to start on the streets. This newly formed law enforcement unit was mired down in the basic street hustles and small deals. Then Richie discovers Blue Magic and tries to figure out who could sell such powerful stuff so cheaply. Upon finding a lead  he and his partner follow a large sum of money they'd given to a dealer and take the tunnel to New York to follow it. While trying to retrieve the money he runs into detective Trupo. Trupo doesn't much care for Richie but feels it's best to return the money and tells Richie not to come back to New York again because it isn't his jurisdiction.

One fateful night Frank and his girlfriend go to highly publicized boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis. He sits right up front and has better seats than some of the world's biggest entertainers. Frank also wears an expensive chinchilla fur coat and hat Eva had bought for him, and he has the opportunity to shakes hands with Joe Louis. Richie sees all of this and figures it's a good time to get the license plate number from the limo Frank was riding in. Richie is not the only one who notices Frank is doing a little too well. Trupo stops Frank's car crammed with drugs and takes them away, and tells him that he wants his share of the money he's making to the tune of 10,000 dollars each month. When he arrives home, Frank throws the expensive coat which has put him under the spotlight into the fireplace to burn.

Richie discovers that the man he saw was Frank Lucas and wants to bring him down. The only problem is Richie has no evidence that Frank is a drug dealer. The picture that Frank has painted as him being a family man and pillar of the community was difficult to break through and Richie continued to come up against road blocks when following the path of Frank Lucas.

After the wedding of Frank and Eva detective Trupo stops the couple as he wants to extort them for ten thousand dollars a month to keep his mouth shut. Frank also has to deal with local competition mobster Nicky Barnes who was trying to sell heroin under the name of Blue Magic, but Nicky has been cutting the supply and selling it himself while still using Frank's brand name. Barnes was nothing but trouble for Frank from the beginning.  Shortly after all of this Frank and his wife almost get shot by an unknown. We never find out exactly who it is, but we are lead to think that it was Nicky.

One night Richie gets lucky and sees one of Frank's men almost kill his girlfriend. Instead of putting the guy in prison they have him wear a wire. This is where Richie learns how Frank gets heroin back into the U.S. Things don't look too good for Frank now. Since the war is over he can't get his drugs back into the U.S. the way he was before.  Richie manages to search a U.S. plane but finds no drugs. He also teams up with Trupo who is more than happy to take down Frank as he blew up Trupo's car. Trupo goes so far as to search Frank's house. Richie gets into an argument with some U.S. General because Richie is making it look like the U.S. military is smuggling drugs. Richie's men find drugs in coffins located at a warehouse and invade. There is a huge shoot out and they arrest Frank while he is at church. All the pieces of the empire crumble to the ground.

Richie and Frank finally meet and Frank says he isn't concerned as to what happens to him However, Richie offers him a deal which strikes Frank's interest. If he turns in all his offshore accounts and he gives in all the corrupt cops' names, he will have a much more lenient sentence.

Frank turns in other drug dealers and crooked cops and gets his sentence reduced because he is being so helpful to police. Richie ends up relinquishing  custody of his kid and lets his wife take him to Vegas. Frank is released from prison in the 1990s.

This movie is one that I've spent a lot of time watching. In the era that all of these events occurred, Frank was a trailblazer both legally and illegally. He helped law enforcement during his time incarcerated and has assisted in the war on drugs. Let's take a look at the weapons used in this film.

 Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) carries a Fegyver és Gépgyár PJK-9HP. This weapon is chrome plated with wood grips, and has been converted for blank fire. During production the gun was set up as a "solid plug" version, meaning the barrel was completely blocked off so the gun could safely be fired close to a person's skin. This was necessary for the scene in the film where Lucas shoots a rival gangster in the forehead, and then places the gun on his chest.
There was only one FÉG pistol rented for the production, so the same gun can be seen on screen in every shot. It can be matched by the wood grain of the grips and small scratches on the frame.

 FÉG PJK-9HP - 9x19mm. This is the screen-used hero blank-fire weapon used by Denzel  Washington throughout the film.

Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) with a nickel plated PJK-9HP threatens Tango (Idris Elba) who owes him money.

 Frank with his PJK-9HP after shooting Tango.

Frank drops the PJK-9HP on his victim.

To watch the scene with Frank & Tango you can watch it here:




A MAC-10 is used by one of the drive-by shooters during a assassination attempt on Frank and his wife.

 Ingram MAC-10 open bolt submachine gun - .45 ACP

A drive-by shooting on the streets of Harlem with a MAC-10 9mm.

 The shooter fires at Frank and his wife.

To watch the scene with the drive by you can do so here:



Detective Roberts (Russell Crowe) and various other police officers use Ithaca 37 shotguns during the raid on Frank's heroin distribution center. Another Ithaca 37 is seen in the hands of one of the thugs at the distribution center.

      Ithaca Model 37 riot version - 12 Gauge

   Detective Roberts fires the Ithaca 37 during raid.

The Colt Official Police revolver is used by various police officers throughout the movie. Both the 2" snub nosed version and the 4" standard configuration are carried.

  Colt Official Police - 4" Barrel - .38 Special

Police Officer during raid on drug factory.Note the exposed ejector rod.

To watch the Heroin House raid you can do so here:



To watch the Gangland episode featuring Frank, you can watch it here:

To see what other weapons were used in this film you can go here: http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/American_Gangster

This movie is perfect for when you're in the mood for gritty truthful tale set in New York. Grab a hot dog and a soda from the corner vendor  and plop on the couch for a great film.

Don't forget to visit our website to see what we're carrying in tactical gear today!
Magazine loaders from Cactus Tactical

Dead Presidents

This action drama was the second film by the movie-making twins, Albert and Allen Hughes. The two started their careers with the urban drama, Menace II Society, and this effort has a 70s urban setting. The style and skill of these talented filmmakers is immediately apparent and the script which they co-wrote with Michael Henry Brown has well-developed characters and great tension along with explosive action scenes framed with an engrossing small scale story. The acting is excellent, but the real star here is the Hughes direction which is cool and inspired.

We open the film in the spring of 1969, Anthony Curtis  is about to graduate from high school. However, Anthony is not going to college, but needing to get away from home to find himself, he enlists in the U.S. Marine Corps shortly after graduating high school. He is sent to Vietnam, leaving behind a middle-class family, a pregnant girlfriend, and a small time crook, Kirby, who is like a second father.

Anthony voluntarily joined the military and his close friend Skip later joined Curtis's squad after flunking out of college, and Jose, got drafted into the Army also in 1969. Once in the Marines, Curtis meets the gung-ho lieutenant, Dugan, and his wartime friend, Cleon, a religious yet deadly staff sergeant. During their tour in Vietnam as members of a Force Recon unit, they experience the horror of war, losing several fellow Marines during combat. The Marines also commit atrocities, including executing enemy prisoners and beheading corpses for war trophies. One of their squad is the victim of terror tactics of the North Vietnamese: D'ambrosio , who is disemboweled and castrated alive. While waiting for medevac, Anthony, succumbing to the request of the dying D'ambrosio, gives the man a fatal dose of morphine. One of their squad is killed by stepping on a land mine and a night ambush ensues, with NVA troops and half of Anthony's team killed; Dugan is killed after Skip can't perform during the gunfight when he is ordered to cover him. Cleon manages to hold off the enemy long enough for Anthony and the last of the crew to escape.

When Anthony returns to The Bronx in 1973, after four years of service and presumably multiple combat tours in Vietnam, i.e. multiple tours of duty, and attaining the rank of sergeant, he discovers that returning to a normal life isn't easy or pleasant. He finds his friend Skip, who used drugs during the war, is now a heroin addict. Jose, after serving as a demolitions expert, during which he lost his hand, has become a pyromaniac. Cleon is now a devoted minister. And Kirby has since become legitimate due to police cracking down on his criminal business. Anthony is laid off from his job in a butcher shop and finds himself unable to support his daughter. During a pool game at Kirby's Cowboy makes fun of Anthony and informs him that Cutty  was having sex with his girlfriend Juanita while he was deployed in Vietnam, he beats up Cowboy with a pool stick out of anger. Anthony pesters Juanita into admitting to sleeping with Cutty to provide for their daughter, in which there is speculation if the child is even Anthony's.  Anthony meets his girlfriend's sister Delilah. She is a member of the "Nat Turner Cadre", a fictional group similar to black revolutionaries.  Delilah has always had a crush on him and decides to help him with a plot he devises. Anthony, Kirby, Skip, Jose, Delilah and Cleon plan to rob an armored car making a stop at the Noble Street Federal Reserve Bank of the Bronx.

Skip and Cleon act as lookouts, Kirby is the getaway driver, Delilah waits in a dumpster across the street and Anthony and Jose hide under the loading docks, all armed. Though they plan the heist very carefully, it goes horribly wrong when a policeman stumbles on the scene by accedent. The policeman interferes, resulting in Kirby's attacking him, only to be shot in the arm, and Skip's shooting the policeman in the head. The security guards engage the robbers in a gunfight, ending with Anthony and Delilah's killing the most and Delilah's dying while saving Anthony as the truck leaves. After Kirby tries to block the truck with his car, Jose makes use of an excessive amount of explosives, destroying the armored car and burning most of the cash. They escape with what money is left, but Jose has been killed after being struck by a police car.

The surviving four try to lie low after the robbery. Cleon however begins handing out cash to members of his congregation, also buying a new Cadillac car which he obviously cannot afford. Anthony and Skip give out presents to poor children on Christmas. Cleon is finally arrested at his church and gives up the other thieves. NYPD officers storm Skip's apartment to find that he has died of a heroin overdose. As Kirby and Anthony prepare to leave the country, they are ambushed at Kirby's pool hall by the police and arrested. In court, Anthony is tried, convicted, and sent to prison for 15 years with an L. Anthony berates the judge, a war veteran himself, who also goes so far as to call him a disgrace to any person who put on uniform and served his country. Upon receiving his sentence, Anthony gets angry and throws the chair at the judge. After the court, Anthony on a police bus and goes to jail.

Not known to be a film of truly uplifting nature this movie does speak to some of the socio-economic issues of those neighborhoods and the problems in that era. Action packed and charged with an underdog plot line this movie does have a lot of intense gunfight scenes. Let's take a look at some of the weapons used.

During Anthony's tour in Vietnam, he carries an anachronistic Mossberg 590 shotgun, which wasn't introduced until 1987. In order to make the shotgun resemble a more accurate Mossberg 500, the 590's original wood has been replaced with sporting wood taken off of a 500C model.

Mossberg 590 Combat model (Parkerized) with 500C wood forearm and stock - 12 gauge. Custom assembled and photographed for IMFDB by MoviePropMaster2008.

Anthony fires his Mossberg 590 in the jungle. Note bayonet lug, heat shield, and Mossberg Sporting wood furniture. Historically, this gun would not be introduced until 1987.

Anthony realizes his shotgun is out of ammo. Note the Mossberg style chamber and trigger guard.

Many of the men in the Marine Recon unit use the M16A1 rifle. Lieutenant Dugan's is noteworthy in that it is an M16A1, but it has the original M16 three prong flash hider, indicating that it was mocked up to resemble the XM16-E1. Historically this would be unnecessary, since the M16-A1 was already widespread in the field throughout Vietnam by the 1970s.

M16A1 with 20 round magazine - 5.56x45mm

D'Ambrosio, and another member of the Marine Recon unit firing on the enemy with M16A1 rifles.

Dugan aims his M16A1, made to resemble an XM16-E1 by the addition of the 2nd model three prong flash hider.

As Anthony is the designated shotgunner, the platoon Staff Sergeant, Cleon (Bokeem Woodbine) is the designated autogunner. He carries an M3A1 "Grease Gun", which in the movie has a very memorable muzzle report and slow fire rate. The sound of fire for this weapon, is obviously taken from a much larger caliber weapon.

                                 

 M3A1 "Grease Gun" - .45 ACP

 Cleon (Bokeem Woodbine) reloads his M3A1 "Grease Gun".

                                         Cleon aims his M3A1 "Grease Gun" next to Dugan.

To watch the footage from the scenes in Vietnam you can watch it here:



During the robbery, a nickel plated model M1911A1 is used by both Kirby (Keith David), who fires a whopping 11 rounds without locking, and Skip blows alway the NYPD Officer on beat (Chris Tucker).

      Nickel plated M1911A1 - .45 ACP

Kirby (Keith David) fires on the police officer attempting to intervene in the armored car robbery with a nickel plated 1911A1.

Skip fires the nickel plated 1911A1.

The police officer who attempts to intervene in the armored truck robbery uses a Smith & Wesson Model 10. He is drawn by Kirby's 11 rounds fired from his Commander, and returns 9 of his own from his six shot revolver, making their gun battle highly fictitious. Another Smith & Wesson Model 10 is used by Joe in the planning room, and after the robbery as he fires 8 rounds without reloading at a pursuing police car.

   Smith & Wesson Model 10 HB (Heavy Barrel) Revolver - .38 Special

 Joe pulls his Smith & Wesson Model 10 in the planning room.

 The intervening police officer fires on Kirby with his Smith & Wesson Model 10.

 Joe aims his Smith & Wesson Model 10 at an approaching police car.

Delilah uses a blued Colt Government Model as well as an M1911A1 during the armored car heist.

     Colt Government Model M1911A1 - .45 ACP

Delilah armed with a blued Commander in her left hand, and a Colt Government Model in her right hand.

  No notes were given for this shot of Delilah but it captures the scene beautifully.

Delilah lies dead with an empty Colt Government Model. Somehow it managed to get into her left hand.

To watch one of the scenes from the heist you can watch it here:



This film features some amazing actors and captures the dialogue and issues of the era and neighborhoods. Well directed, action packed and hard hitting. Grab some popcorn and settle in to a film that portrays the urban life of New York.

To see what other weapons were used in this film you can go here: http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Dead_Presidents

This three day weekend make sure you take a moment to look at the tactical items we're offering on sale right now here: Current specials from Cactus Tactical

Be safe out there tonight and we wish you all  a very happy New Year!

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www.USGunWorks.com

Shawn in the Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan.

For more info on these and other weapons
Technical specs compiled from:
http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/Active_FM.html
http://world.guns.ru/index-e.html
https://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.militaryfactory.com/
http://www.olive-drab.com/
http://www.army.mil/
http://dok-ing.hr/products/demining/mv_4?productPage=general
http://www.peosoldier.army.mil/

"The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."

Gunfights and Films - The Bourne Franchise

Gunfights and Films - The Bourne Franchise

The Bourne Identity

is a 2002 spy thriller that is the second adaptation of the Robert Ludlum novel of the same name (the first being a 1988 television film starring Richard Chamberlain as Bourne). The 2002 adaptation was directed by Doug Liman and stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, a man suffering from amnesia who slowly discovers that he is actually a high level covert operative for the CIA. Compared to the 1988 adaptation, the newer plotline heavily utilized modern communication/computer technologies in the furtherance of the story arc. Damon would return as Bourne in two sequels: 2004's The Bourne Supremacy and 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum and the story would continue in 2012's The Bourne Legacy.

Our opening sequence is an Italian fishing boat crew working off the coast of Marseille, France finds an unconscious man adrift in the Mediterranean with two gunshot wounds in his back. The man awakens on board, and very soon he comes to realize he suffers from retrograde amnesia, having only one clue to his identity: the account number to a safe deposit box provided by a tiny laser projector surgically implanted in his hip. He uses the information and travels to Zürich, Switzerland to find the corresponding bank and discovers he is skilled in advanced hand-to-hand combat and fluent in German when he instinctively defends himself from two policemen questioning him for loitering in a closed park at night.

The man arrives at the bank and finds the deposit box contains a significant amount of cash in different currencies, a handgun, and several passports with his photo, but with numerous aliases and nationalities. He assumes the identity of the top passport, "Jason Bourne", and leaves. A bank employee notifies a CIA Special Activities Division group, "Operation Treadstone," about his visit, and the police arrive on the scene. Bourne manages to escape and flees to the U.S. consulate, where he is accosted by the officials there but once again manages to elude capture. A few blocks away, Bourne approaches Marie Kreutz (Franka Potente) and offers her US$20,000 to take him to Paris to the address on his "Bourne" passport.

Meanwhile, back at CIA headquarters, Alexander Conklin (Chris Cooper), the head of Treadstone, reveals to his supervisor, Deputy Director Ward Abbott (Brian Cox), that Bourne was the covert operative responsible for a failed assassination attempt on exiled African dictator Nykwana Wombosi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). Intending to sever all connections between the CIA and Wombosi, Conklin sends three highly-trained "assets" (assassins) to eliminate Bourne. Bourne and Marie arrive at the apartment in Paris, where he finds that one of his aliases, "John Michael Kane," was supposedly killed two weeks ago. The first asset, code-named "Castel" (Nicky Naude), ambushes them but Bourne subdues him after a brief fight. Marie checks Castel's bag and panics when she discovers a hit list package with photos of CCTV footage of her and Bourne at the embassy the day before. As Bourne tries to calm her down, Castel escapes and jumps out the window to his death before Bourne can learn anything else from him.

Conklin enlists Nicolette "Nicky" Parsons, a logistics technician at the Treadstone Paris safe house, to assist him in tracking Bourne and Marie. Bourne goes to meet Wombosi to obtain more information but the second asset, code-named "The Professor", kills Wombosi before Bourne arrives. With the news of Wombosi's death, Bourne surmises he was an assassin before the onset of his amnesia. Bourne and Marie flee to the home of her stepbrother in the countryside where Bourne decides that he no longer wants to be the man from his previous life.

Back at the CIA headquarters, Conklin tracks Bourne and Marie to the countryside house. The next morning, The Professor tries to snipe Bourne but Bourne creates a diversion and dispatches him in a cropfield, having sneaked out. As he dies, The Professor tells Bourne about their mutual connection to Treadstone. Bourne sends Marie and her stepbrother away for her safety, then uses The Professor's cell phone to arrange a meeting with Conklin to bring him out into the open so he can track him.

Bourne tails Conklin back to the Paris safe house where Conklin tells him that Bourne has planned an entire operation to kill Wombosi. The revelation triggers Bourne's memory and through successive flashbacks Bourne remembers he used the Kane alias to infiltrate Wombosi's entourage but couldn't bring himself to kill Wombosi because Wombosi's children were present with him. He aborted the mission and tried to flee the boat, but he was shot twice by Wombosi and fell overboard from Wombosi's yacht into the Mediterranean, where the Italian fishermen later found him.

Bourne tells Conklin he is quitting Treadstone and warns them not to follow him. After knocking Conklin out, Bourne engages in a shootout with several other Treadstone agents in the building. Bourne is wounded during the gunfight but kills the other agents and escapes the building. After Bourne has escaped, Conklin orders Nicky to close down the safe house, and shortly afterwards is murdered by the third asset, code-named "Manheim", on orders from Abbott. Some time later, Abbott explains to an oversight committee that he shut down Treadstone because of its ineffective cost benefit ratio and proposes a new program, "Operation Blackbriar."

Bourne, now free from the CIA, travels to Mykonos, Greece, where he reunites with Marie, who runs a scooter shop, and the two share an embrace. This would seem like a peaceful end but this is exactly how franchises are built, nothing can stay peaceful forever.

A film franchise that packs a punch, these movies are non stop action. Gunfights, clever strategy and mercenaries all are key ingredients in a good action film, there is no shortage of theses in the movie. Lat's take a look at some of the weaponry in The Bourne Identity.

A member of US embassy security carries what appears to be a blued Taurus PT945, which Bourne manages to take from him during a struggle. Bourne tosses the gun in a trash can while making his escape. This is the gun that Bourne is seen holding on some posters for the film.
The blued PT945 appears in Castel's (Nicky Naude's) case with his passports and money. He is never seen using it. One of the assassins in the Paris Treadstone safehouse also has a suppressed stainless PT945, which Bourne disarms him of. Bourne then fires the PT945 and Walther P5C side-by-side, but the PT945 is upside down because he took it from the assassin very quickly and didn't have time to adjust his grip.

       Taurus PT945 in blue - .45 ACP

   Bourne with the PT945.

Bourne tosses the gun in a trash can while making his escape.

 Castel's PT945 sits in his case. The holster looks to be Desantis.

To watch the scene where Bourne accepts his new identity you can do so here:



Jason Bourne carries a Walther P5 Compact in the Treadstone safehouse in Paris after taking it from the Professor (Clive Owen). After disarming an assassin armed with a suppressed Taurus PT945, Bourne uniquely carries the P5C and the PT945 side-by-side.

     Walther P5 Compact - 9x19mm

The Professor chambers his Walther P5 Compact but is shot before he gets a chance to use it.

    Bourne threatens Conklin with the P5C.

Bourne fires his Walther P5 Compact and PT945 side-by-side. Note that the PT945 is upside-down

The Professor (Clive Owen) uses a SIG SG 550 Sniper as his weapon of choice, first in Paris during a mission. He is seen with the rifle again later in the French countryside, after he tracks down Jason Bourne and Marie Kreutz to Eamon's home. The "suppressor" shown in the film is actually a Hogue OverMolded™ free-floating handguard for the AR15/M16 rifle. Even if the suppressor was functional, it would have to be attached to the end of the barrel in order to actually suppress the report of the weapon. Simply sliding it over the barrel would do absolutely nothing to the sound of the round being discharged. Also note that there are no provisions on the SIG 550 shown (IE; a threaded muzzle or some sort of mount attached to the barrel) to attach the "suppressor" depicted.

     SIG SG 550 sniper rifle - 5.56x45mm

  The Professor prepares to use the SIG 550 rifle.

The Professor is armed with the SIG 550 (minus scope and suppressor) while searching for Bourne.

To watch The Professor in the "We Always Work Alone"  scene you can watch here:



To check out what we have for your Sig Sauer you can take a look at our website here:
Cactus Tactical's Sig Sauer ACP platform

U.S. Marines arm themselves with various M16/AR-15-model assault rifles when searching for Bourne in the U.S. Consulate in Zurich. Strangely, all of the rifles seen in this scene appear to be civilian AR-15 variants, many of which are clearly "post-ban" versions (if you look on the armory wall, you can see many lack flash hiders and bayonet lugs - all signs of the "politically correct" black rifles that used to be sold in American gun shops). The ones with the short barrels are Bushmaster "Dissipator" carbines, an AR-15 variant that used to be sold only to LE agencies, but is now available to civilians in most states since the Assault Weapon Ban ended. Another Marine has a C7 Style AR-15 (i.e. the brass deflector, but A1 Rear Sight).

Colt Government Model HBAR, the A2 version of the AR15 Civilian Rifle (note the lack of a third position for burst mode for the selector switch) - 5.56x45mm

U.S. Marines arm themselves with the rifles.

A Marine aims his M16 while searching for Bourne. This rifle seems to be a Bushmaster "Dissipator" carbine, as can be witnessed by its full-length stock and handguard combined with a shorter barrel.

To see the scene in the consulate you can watch here:


Since it's a three day or four day weekend for most of us it's the perfect time to stay inside and stay warm with some fun and thrilling cinematic adventures. Grab someone to curl up with and enjoy the Bourne franchise.

For more information on the weapons used in this film you can take a look here: http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Bourne_Identity,_The_(2002)

I don't normally like to do the immediate sequel when I write about a franchise in this blog but this one uses the most weapons of all of them so I wanted to focus on that.

The Bourne Supremacy 

is the 2004 sequel to 2002's The Bourne Identity. Matt Damon returns as the covert operative known as Jason Bourne, who comes out of hiding to expose who is responsible for a series of assassinations that were done in his name. The sequel was directed by Paul Greengrass, who also returned for the 2007 sequel The Bourne Ultimatum. The film's plot bears little resemblance to the Robert Ludlum novel of the same name.

Two years after the events in The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne  and his girlfriend, Marie Kreutz , are living on the beach in Goa, India. Bourne is beginning to recover some of his memories, and he is troubled by disjointed flashbacks of an assassination he carried out in a Berlin hotel.

Meanwhile, in Berlin, a CIA officer working for Deputy Director Pamela Landy is arranging to pay $3 million in exchange for the "Neski Files", documents pertaining to the theft of $20 million from the CIA, seven years earlier.

During the exchange, a Russian assassin named Kirill intercedes. He plants two explosives in the basement electrical circuit, one on the main and the other on a sub-line. He tags one of the items with a fingerprint belonging to Jason Bourne. The explosive on the main line kills the power, while Kirill kills both the agent and the person with the files, then steals both the files and money. He gives those to Russian oil magnate Yuri Gretov.

Kirill then travels to Goa, his next task being to kill Bourne, but Bourne sees Kirill first and recognizes he's out of place. He gets Marie and tells her they have to get out fast. As they take off, Kirill sees them, gets in his car, and gives chase. Bourne gets Marie to switch places with him and take over the driving. Not long after that, he prepares to get out of the car, instructing Marie to drive back to their cottage on the beach and he'd meet her there in one hour.

Kirill gets hung up in traffic and bails out of his car, grabbing his rifle from the trunk. As Bourne and Marie are crossing a bridge, in heavy traffic, Kirill fires his sniper rifle and hits Marie. She loses control of the car and it careens through a guardrail and off the bridge into a river. Bourne gets out of his side of the car and swims around to get Marie out. He takes a gulp of breath from air trapped near the roof of the vehicle, then attempts mouth-to-mouth on Marie there, underwater. He realizes she is dead, and lets her go. She slowly drifts away in the current.

Kirill looks down at the water from on the bridge, then leaves, believing that he had killed Bourne. He later meets up with Gretov, confirming that Bourne was dead, and collects his payment.

Bourne manages to swim away from the scene, undetected. He returns to his cottage and collects and burns all of Marie's passports and pictures, except for one picture showing them in an embrace. He collects all of his passports, cash, and the notes that he used to dictate his dreams, then leaves India. Bourne travels to Italy to learn why it is he is being targeted again.

Landy's team investigates the scene of the killings in Berlin and finds the fingerprint that Kirill planted. Checking various fingerprint databases, they determine that it is linked to someone who worked at the CIA, specifically with the secret Treadstone project, which was top secret, requiring a level 5 clearance to read about.

Landy flies to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia to find out more information. She meets with her superior and asks for the level 5 clearance to continue her investigation. He approves it.

Landy learns that the fingerprint belongs to Jason Bourne. She notes the other names of personnel listed in the files and decides to contact CIA Chief Ward Abbott, asking to meet with him. When they meet, Abbott denies knowing anything about the program called Treadstone. He quickly learns she Landy knows all about it, having acquired the level 5 clearance, including that he was very much involved, so he tells her that as far as he knows, Jason Bourne was long dead. When she tells him about the men killed in Berlin recently, and Bourne's fingerprint found at the scene, he appears to be very concerned.

Based on what was found on the hard drive of a laptop computer belonging to the deceased Alexander Conklin, the former head of Treadstone, Landy tells the people she's working with, including her boss and Abbott, that Bourne and Conklin may have been involved in some sort of lucrative venture together, and that Bourne appeared to still be involved in whatever it was, so that's why he'd resurfaced. While Landy is briefing her superior and the other staff, an agent comes in and says Bourne's passport showed up in the system in Naples, Italy.

Landy tells Abbott that the stolen files contained information about the CIA agent who was suspected to have stolen the $20 million from the CIA, and there was a Russian politician, Vladimir Neski, who was prepared to identify the thief, but before he could do so, he was killed by his wife in a Berlin hotel, in a murder-suicide. Based on the fingerprint, Landy believes Bourne killed the CIA officer and the source in Berlin, so Abbott and Landy set out to capture him.

When Bourne arrives in Naples, Italy, he is detained by an Italian Carabinieri officer and CIA interrogator, John Nevins. Bourne stays mute, frustrating Nevins. Tom Cronin  calls from the CIA in Langley and tells Nevins that Bourne is an agency priority target. Bourne senses trouble from what he hears Nevins say, and responds intuitively, reacting before Nevins can bring his gun to bear, taking down both Nevins and the officer in the room.

After quickly copying the Nevin's phone SIM card onto his own cell phone, Bourne escapes. That SIM allowed Bourne to listen in on a call to Nevin's from Landy and he learns her name and phone number, then finds out that he is suspected in the recent killings in Berlin.

As Landy is planning to get on a plane to Europe, Abbott warns her that she's getting into more than she can deal with. Cronin, their boss, orders Abbott to go with her and to put a stop to Bourne's activities.

Bourne steals a car and heads to Munich. As he drives, he has more flashbacks, involving Conklin and a man and woman he'd shot to death.

In Amsterdam, Netherlands, Abbott finds Nicky Parsons, a woman who worked in Paris for three years. She was specifically tasked with monitoring the agents assigned to Treadstone. Landy forces Nicky to go to Italy with Abbott and Landy, considering her critical to their attempts to capture Bourne.

In Berlin, the CIA office has video of Bourne at the airport. One agent figures Bourne has made a big mistake by being so careless, but Nicky tells him that Treadstone agents don't make mistakes, that if Bourne is able to be tracked, it's because he wants to be.

Bourne finds and interrogates the only other remaining Treadstone agent, Jarda, who tells him that the project was shut down following Conklin's death. Jarda most likely had been forewarned about Bourne, and they end up having a huge fight, in which Bourne emerges victorious, by strangling Jarda to death. Bourne then creates a leak in the house's natural gas supply and puts a magazine into the toaster to slowly heat up and create a flame. The subsequent explosion slows down arriving police and allows Jason to escape.

Bourne searches hotels in Berlin until he finds where Pamela Landy is registered. He watches until she leaves and follows in a taxi. He goes to the top of a building, opposite of the one she enters, and sets up a rifle and scope. With Landy in his sights, he dials her cell phone and asks her if she's running Treadstone. She tells him Treadstone had been shut down, and he knew it. She then asks him if he remembers killing two people in Berlin.

Bourne tells Landy he wants to come in. He then sees Nicky come into view and tells Landy that he wants them to send "that girl from Paris" to meet him and bring him in. When Landy asks what if she can't find that girl, Bourne says, "she's standing right next to you." That alerts them to him watching and  they immediately look out the windows to try and pick up on where he is.

Abbott and Nicky want snipers positioned to kill Bourne when he meets with Nicky. Landy wants him alive, so she can learn what he knows about the Neski case, but after Abbott has a private conversation with her, she does decide to go ahead and position the snipers.

Nicky is given Landy's cell phone, per Bourne's instructions. Bourne calls and directs Nicky to board a streetcar, which he's also on. He escorts her off the streetcar before any of the tailing CIA men can get to her, and before any of the snipers can see him. He takes her down into the subway, to a room out of public view, interrogating her along the way, and inside the room.

Nicky is able to prompt a bit more memory in Bourne's mind, about a Russian politician named Neski. When he asks her when he was in Berlin, she tells him he was never in Berlin. He is convinced she's lying and becomes so upset that he nearly shoots her, but he also senses that she's telling the truth, as far as she knows things to be, so he ends up leaving her and taking off again.

Upon overhearing the conversation between Nicky and Bourne, Landy begins to believe that Bourne really can't remember killing the two men in Berlin, or that maybe he didn't actually do it. Abbott becomes increasingly agitated that Bourne can't be caught or killed.

Bourne goes to a library and finds articles about the Neski murders, which occurred at the Brecker Hotel in Berlin. He decides to go there.

Abbott's young associate, Danny Zorn, takes Abbott down to the electrical breaker room, in the Berlin building where the killings occurred, and shows him how the explosive charges that were set were done in a way that was unnecessary, and that he thinks Bourne wouldn't have done such a thing, therefore, it's possible that Bourne and Conklin were being framed. Abbott asks Zorn to show him how the explosives were set again. When Zorn was focused on the electrical connections again, Abbott grabbed him and choked him to death. Bourne arrives at the Brecker Hotel and goes to the room of the murder. He is able to remember being sent to kill Neski, on Conklin's orders, and that Neski's wife unexpectedly showed up. He remembers shooting them both, then putting the gun in the wife's hand to make it look like a murder-suicide.

Bourne is able to escape the police, who'd been called after a desk employee recognized him from a wanted poster, by climbing up a firewater pipe outside the building. The police on the street see and recognize him and give chase. He barely evades capture several times, eventually jumping off a bridge onto a river barge, hurting his left leg, then uses a grappling hook to pull himself up onto another bridge. He is able to limp over to a streetcar and make his escape.

Abbott is shocked to learn that Bourne let Nicky go, unharmed. He feigns concern to an associate about where Zorn might be, and wonders aloud about why Bourne might have come to the Hotel Brecker. Landy recognizes the room Bourne was in as being the Neski murder room. She no longer believes that Bourne killed the Neskis. She receives word that Danny Zorn's body was found.

Abbott calls Gretkov and tells him that his CIA associates are on to the facts about Neski. He emphasizes that Gretkov must kill Bourne, or their involvement in the theft of the $20 million would be revealed. Gretkov tells Abbott that he isn't obligated to do anything anymore, and hangs up on Abbott. Bourne then appears behind Abbott.

Abbott admits everything to Bourne. Bourne thrusts his pistol up against Abbott's head and demands to know why they just couldn't leave him alone after Treadstone ended. Abbott tells Bourne that it's just the way things had to be, that Bourne was a killer and always would be, so he likely wouldn't ever be left completely alone.

Abbott tells Bourne to go ahead and shoot him, but Bourne says Marie wouldn't want him to, so it's because of her that he didn't shoot. He then shows Abbott that he has been recording the conversation. Before Bourne leaves the room, he sets a pistol on the desk next to Abbott.

Landy walks in on Abbott to find him holding the pistol, pointed at her. Abbott tells her that the work he did for the CIA was a result of his patriotism. When she asked about Danny, Abbott called that "collateral damage." When she asks Abbott what they do now, he turns the pistol on himself and shoots.

As Landy listens to the tape recording that Bourne got to her, she continues to work with her people to try and track him down. He's headed for Moscow, where Gretkov is in the process of tracking down Kirill to let him know Jason Bourne was still alive.

Bourne takes a taxi to the address of Vladimir Neski's daughter. A woman was outside sweeping the front steps, and Bourne approaches her. She tells him that the Neski girl had moved, and she gives him the new address. Meanwhile, the police are aware that Bourne's in Moscow and are busy passing around wanted posters. One of the other taxi drivers recognizes him and tells police which taxi driver he went with.

The police, and Kirill, simultaneously close in on the neighborhood where Bourne is. Bourne hears the sirens and begins walking. Kirill sees him first, jumps out, and shoots, hitting Jason on top of his shoulder. The police arrive and detain Kirill, not knowing who he was, only that he was shooting at somebody. That gives Bourne time to slip away again.

When Kirill shows his i.d. to the police, he is let go and he again takes off after Bourne, this time on foot. Some other policemen on the street recognize Bourne as he enters a market to get some items for his wound. Bourne forces one of the cops down to the floor and walks out of the market. As some other police approach him outside, he knocks them out and steals a taxi cab. Kirill sees what's happened and commandeers a vehicle from woman and gives chase.

As Jason drives away, he checks a map he stole at the market to get a quick idea of the road patterns in the area, and where it was he needed to go. He then has to focus his full attention to his pursuers, which are many, in the subsequent furious and violent car chase. The chase reaches it's climax when Bourne and Kirill are slamming their vehicles into each other, side by side, as they travel at high speed in a congested tunnel. Bourne shoots out the tires of Kirill's vehicle, causing it to turn sideways. Bourne's vehicle t-bones it and pushes it into a concrete support divider. He gets out of his car with his pistol at the ready, but doesn't need to shoot, as Kirill is extensively injured and dying.

Gretkov is arrested by Russian police, after Landy provides them with the evidence she got from Bourne.

Bourne continues on to find Irena Neski. After breaking into her apartment he waits until she comes home. He is holding his gun, has blood on his hand, and is sitting in a chair in the dark. When she turns on the light and sees him, she is obviously frightened, but he tells her to not scream, and that he won't hurt her.

Bourne tells Irena that she's older than he thought she'd be. He knows she has been living with the belief that her mother killed her father and then killed herself. Bourne has tears in his eyes as he tells Irena that it was him who killed her parents. He tells her it was his job, his first time, and that her father was supposed to be alone. When her mother appeared, he had to change his plan. He tells her he's sorry. Irena has tears in her eyes, but doesn't speak as Bourne quietly walks out of her apartment.

In New York City, Bourne contacts Landy to ask why the CIA was still looking for him. Landy thanks Bourne for supplying the tape, which the CIA had used to settle matters concerning his frame-up. She apologizes to Bourne , then tells Bourne his true identity. His real name is David Webb, and that he was born in Missouri on April 15, 1971.

She wants him to come in so they can talk more about that. Bourne declines Landy's offer, then tells her she should get some rest, as she looks tired. She turns to look out the window, but he's gone, out into the crowded streets.

So many plot twists, flashbacks and action packed sequences it's can seem a bit hard to keep up on all the excitement but this is just a great film on all levels. Let's take a look at some of the weapons used in this follow up on the life of Jason Bourne.

Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) uses a SIG-Sauer P225 throughout the movie after arriving in Naples, stolen from U.S. Consulate agent John Nevins (Tim Griffin). It is most notably seen when he confronts Treadstone asset Jarda in his home, and when Bourne uses it to shoot through the door of his stolen taxi at Kirill's stolen Mercedes in Moscow and some how shoots 12 rounds instead of the P225's 8. Bourne also used a P225 in his flashback to the Neski double-murder (his first assignment).

    SIG-Sauer P225 - 9x19mm

 Bourne points his P225 at Nevins after disarming him of it.

 Bourne aims his P225 at Jarda, who has a Beretta.

   Bourne aims his P225 at Kirill.

To watch the scene where Jason escapes Naples you can watch here:

The FSB assassin Kirill (Karl Urban) uses a 1st generation Walther P99 with a QPQ finished slide during his pursuit of Jason Bourne. It is most notably seen in his hands when he wounds Bourne from an overhead bridge while in Moscow, and later during the film's final car chase when fired from Kirill's Mercedes towards Bourne's taxi. There is also a publicity photo of Bourne (Matt Damon) firing a standard black first-gen P99, though no scene in the movie depicts this. He does, however, use one to threaten Ward Abbott in his hotel room.

 Walther P99 with silver slide - 9x19mm

Kirill unloads his P99 in the hotel room.

      Kirill aims his P99 at Bourne.

Kirill raises his arms, P99 in hand, explaining to the police that he is with the FSB.

To watch the car chase with Kirill you can do so here:

Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) gives CIA deputy director Ward Abbott (Brian Cox) a Walther PP to kill himself with.

   Walther PP - 7.65x17mm (.32 ACP)

Bourne slams the Walther down next to Abbott.

          

Abbott looks at the PP, considering his options.

                          

Abbott points the gun at Landy before turning it on himself.

To watch the scene where Bourne confronts Abbot you can watch here:

To see the other weapons used in this film please go here: http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/The_Bourne_Supremacy

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Shawn in the Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan.

For more info on these and other weapons
Technical specs compiled from:
http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/Active_FM.html
http://world.guns.ru/index-e.html
https://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.militaryfactory.com/
http://www.olive-drab.com/
http://www.army.mil/
http://dok-ing.hr/products/demining/mv_4?productPage=general
http://www.peosoldier.army.mil/

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