Gunfights and Films - Sci-Fi Siren Edition
Gunfights and Films - Sci-Fi Siren Edition
The Fifth Element
Today we take a look at two films starring Milla Jovovich in Science Fiction settings. We'll be looking at the 1997 cult classic with Bruce Willis The Fifth Element and the iconic zombie film Resident Evil. Resident Evil became a long winded franchise but we're just going to focus on the first one today. Both films have a huge fan base and Resident Evil is based on a video game. Both films have futuristic qualities and amazing weaponry as well as great cinematography. Other than that these two movies are very different. Fifth Element has an element of fun and comedic moments with characters that are vibrant and larger than life. Resident Evil is dark and gritty and filled with jump scares. Two ends of the Milla Jovovich spectrum, one thing her films always have in common is that she always plays a strong female role that kicks ass and takes names.
Fifth Element was realieased in 1997 and has all the fun and flair of a good science fiction film with a feel good lesson in humanity. It was directed by Luc Besson. A true cult classic the film continues to garner new fans as parents pass down their love of the film. We get to see Milla Jovavich as a savior for the human race with a dash of romantic comedy to round it out.
As we flash forward to 2263, the Great Evil appears and destroys an interplanetary battleship. When the Mondoshawans attempt to deliver the Elements back to Earth, they are ambushed by another alien race, the shape-shifting Mangalores. Earthly scientists are able to recover a portion of the Fifth Element and use a reconstitution device to recreate it, whereupon it takes the form of an apparently human woman named Leeloo, who is described as a perfect being. Leeloo, terrified of her unfamiliar environment, escapes the scientists and arrives in the care of taxi driver Korben Dallas, a former major in the Federated Army's Special Forces. Dallas then delivers her to Priest Vito Cornelius, the current holder of the Mondoshawans' knowledge. Dallas, Cornelius, and his acolyte David help Leeloo recover, though Dallas is forced out of Cornelius' apartment before learning her purpose. Cornelius learns from Leeloo that the four Elements were not carried by the Mondoshawans but instead entrusted to Diva Plavalaguna, a singer currently performing on a luxury space liner at Fhloston Paradise, and that Leeloo must recover the stones from her. Meanwhile, wealthy industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg has attempted to gain the stones as urged by communication with the Great Evil. After learning that the Mangalores' attack on the Mondoshawans was unsuccessful in recovering the stones, Zorg betrays and kills them, whereupon the surviving Mangalores decide to extract revenge and gain the stones for themselves.
Dallas is later met at his apartment by his General Munro, who informs him that he has been drafted into the Army in order to travel to meet the Diva, having rigged the annual Gemini Croquette Contest to allow Dallas to win. Their meeting is interrupted by the arrival of Cornelius and Leeloo. Dallas, learning of Leeloo's need, offers to help, but is knocked out by Cornelius, who steals his winning transportation tickets and departs with Leeloo. Dallas accepts the job from General Munro and travels to John F. Kennedy International Airport, intercepting Cornelius, David, and Leeloo before they board their flight, and escorts Leeloo. The Mangalores and Zorg's assistant are rebuffed by the ticketing agent when they try to pose as Dallas. Cornelius instructs David to prepare the temple and then sneaks aboard the passenger space plane before it leaves.
On the flight, Dallas meets interstellar radio personality Ruby Rhod, who escorts him for being the contest winner. Upon arrival at Fhloston Paradise, Dallas is taken by Ruby to prepare for the show, while Leeloo waits near the Diva's quarters in order to retrieve the stones from her after her performance. The Diva's show is interrupted by the Mangalores, and the Diva is fatally shot. Dallas learns from her dying words that the Diva has hidden the stones inside her body; after she dies, Dallas extracts them, giving them to Ruby to hold as he defeats the Mangalores and saves the rest of the passengers and crew. Leeloo is able to defeat the Mangalores that attempt to ransack the Diva's quarters. Zorg, having flown himself to Fhloston, fights Leeloo at the Diva's quarters, injuring her and forcing her to retreat. This allows him to take the case he believes contains the stones while starting a time bomb. When Dallas goes to recover Leeloo, Zorg finds the case to be empty. Zorg re-enters the liner just as Dallas, Leeloo, Cornelius, and Ruby leave it on Zorg's ship. Zorg is able to stop his bomb; but the defeated Mangalores activate another bomb, destroying Zorg and the liner.
The four return to the temple on Earth as the Great Evil rushes towards the planet. There, Dallas finds Leeloo disillusioned and unwilling to perform her role, believing that humans will destroy themselves despite her rescue of them. As the protagonists arrange the stones in the temple to form their weapon, they are briefly baffled by their ignorance of the weapon's operation, but discover that each stone is triggered by the presence of the Classical element to which it corresponds. Dallas then convinces Leeloo to perform her role, embraces her, and kisses her. At this, Leeloo releases the weapon's "Divine Light", causing the Great Evil to become a new moon in Earth's orbit. Later, the President and General Munro go to the reconstitution lab to congratulate Dallas on his successful mission, but find he has instead interrupted an intimate moment between the new couple.
This movie is a lot of fun to watch and has some great scenes featuring futuristic weaponry and dastardly villains. Let's take a look at some of the interesting things they fought with in this film.
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) makes a deal with the Mangalores that involves selling them his company's new Zorg ZF-1 pod weapons system. The ZF-1 contains a machine gun, rocket launcher, poison arrow launcher, net launcher, flamethrower (Zorg's favorite), and the "all-new Ice Cube System" that sprays liquid nitrogen. Simon Atherton, the armorer who designed and built the weapons used in The Fifth Element, has said in an interview for a science-fiction magazine that firing versions of the ZF-1 were built around 5.45x39mm AKS-74U carbines. It is also possible to see the AKS-74U magazine on the weapon in some scenes. In scenes where the ZF-1 is not fired, inert models are used instead; the firing ZF-1s can be distinguished by an ejection port on the right side of the upper body shell.
AKS-74U - 5.45x39mm
Promotional image of one of the blank-firing ZF-1s; note the single barrel opening and AK magazine visible below the freeze ray.
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) demonstrates the capabilities of the "Zorg ZF-1" to a group of Mangalores. The large yellow rocket is the front of an Estes Bullpup 12D flying model rocket.
First, he demonstrates the machine gun feature. Note the firing version's ejection port just ahead of the poison dart launcher on the right side, not present in the previous shot. The inert models also have multiple openings in the front of the barrel while the firing props have only one for the real barrel.
To watch the scene with Zorg show of the gun you can watch here:
The handgun used by Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) and Father Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) throughout the film appears to be a visually modified Vektor CP1 pistol.
Vektor CP1 - 9x19mm (Base weapon)
Screen Used Gun
Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) pulls the handgun on a robber.
Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) pulls the handgun on Korben.
Father Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) points the handgun at Korben.
To see the scene with Korben and the robber you can watch here:
The Mangalore assault rifles props were built around the AK-47 series assault rifles
AK-47 - 7.62x39mm
A Mangalore with a modded AK-based assault rifle.
Korben wields one of the assault rifles along with a Mangalore pistol.
To watch the scene with Leeloo and the Mangalore you can do so here:
To see what other weapons were used in this film you can go here: http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Fifth_Element
I watch this movie a lot, it's got a great story line and some of my favorite actors are in it. It's got some great action scenes and it's a movie with a lot of heart. Grab some friends grab some stellar snacks and watch it tonight for some futuristic movie fun.
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Resident Evil
is the 2002 feature film adaptation of the Capcom video game series. Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (Death Race), the film stars Milla Jovovich as Alice, a young woman who along with fellow survivors must find a way to escape a underground biofacility that is infested with zombies. The film would launch the Resident Evil film series.In the opening shot, a voice-over narrator explains that in the early 21st Century, the Umbrella Corporation is the leading company in the world. Currently 9 out of 10 homes own products from them. But what the public doesn't know is that the Umbrella Corporation really make weapons for armies, military, as well as creates viral chemicals for biological and chemical warfare. They have created an artificial environment known as the Hive; a secret Umbrella lab half-a-mile underneath Raccoon City where over 500 people live and work for the Umbrella Corporation.
A man in a protective suit handles blue-tinted T-virus and its green-tinted antidote, using mechanical arms. He then puts all of them in a lockable suitcase except for one of the T-viruses, which he throws and breaks. The virus spreads out through the vents. We cut to a man drinking coffee. Another man whose face is unseen bumps into him and knocks the coffee all over him, which is a foreshadowing. He goes into an elevator with some other people.
We then cut to a scene with some people working in the lab where the virus had broken. The bio emergency alarm goes off. Everyone thinks it's a drill, but then the emergency water comes on, flooding the lab. They try to stop it, screaming at the camera to make it stop. The doors are locked. Then gas comes on in the offices making everyone pass out. During this, the prior mentioned elevator has stopped and starts falling. It stops at level three. We watch as a woman attempts to get off but the elevator drops, stopping before her head meets the floor. The others try to pull her back in, but the elevator goes up suddenly and her head is chopped off.
As per most of these films we then zag into a quick shot where we meet Alice who wakes up in a shower. Apparently she suffered a case of amnesia. She walks out into her bedroom and looks in her drawers. At the third one, she is surprised to find a gun locked up. She does not know where she is. She goes into the hall and finds a picture of herself with a man. Then she sees movement she walks outside and calls out into the darkness. Suddenly birds fly out of the trees and the wind begins to pick up. She is then pulled inside by someone, and SWAT officers jump through the windows. One of them, James, also known as 'One' the leader, grabs Alice and tells her who they are. Then another officer, Rain apprehends the man, named Matt, who tells them he's a cop.
They go downstairs to an underground warehouse under the mansion , leading to railroad tracks with a parked train on it. Alice asks James who they are and why they are here. James says that they are a team sent to destroy the Red Queen in the Hive.He explains that five hours ago a virus spread through the facility, killing everyone in it. Then James tells Alice that she had been one of the three security guards to the facility. They find a train that isn't working. Rain goes under to fix it. They go on the train and Rain is trying to close the door. Another officer, Kaplan, tries to close it, but then a man falls through after hiding in a compartment. Alice sees him and has a flash where she remembers that he was the man in the picture earlier. He also seems to be suffering from a short term amnesia.
Upon arrival at the Hive, the group batters down the locked steel door and tries to find the Red Queen's chamber. They pass through a hall where there is glass wall on one side. On the other side is the flooded facility. Suddenly a dead woman floats forward. Alice asks how long the amnesia will last. James says it was caused by a gas released when the virus spread, and it should last for maybe an hour. They all leave, and the dead girl opens her eyes and hits the window with her hand for a classic jump scare and to let us know something is definitely wrong in the hive.
Alice, Kaplan, another man, Dana, and James find and enter the Red Queen's chamber. Kaplan turns on the electricity to the chamber. Dana, James, and the other man go into a smaller room. Kaplan finds the code and the door opens. Suddenly the entrance to the cube room closes. They scream for Kaplan to open it. A laser appears and quickly moves along the room towards them. James ducks, but the laser takes off the other man's fingers. Dana unfortunately gets her head lasered off. The laser disappears once it reaches the end of the room and another one appears at the far end of the room, again moving quickly towards them. One man is cut in half. When another laser comes James thinks he has worked out its route and can dodge it, but it splits into a tight grid spread right across the room. Just when Kaplan screams he's overruled the defences, James is diced. Alice and Kaplan go in through the end door. They turn on the system and a hologram of a little girl appears. She tells them that they're all going to die down here. This scene is one of the best known in the film.
As the story unfolds further we nother sector of the Hive Rain hears a noise and finds a woman. The woman looks helpless, but then lunges forward and bites Rain's hand. The other man, J:D, walks over and shoots her in the leg. She doesn't die. Then Rain shoots her with a machine gun which appears to finally do the trick. Matt picks up the keys to his handcuffs while the team looks away. When they talk, they look and see that the girl is gone. Then they hear noises of something metal dragging on the ground. It shows a zombie dragging an axe and then we see a surge of blood-covered zombies come out from all directions, surrounding everyone. Kaplan, Rain and J:D. Matt is trying to uncuff himself while everyone begins shooting. A zombie comes at Matt but is shot by Alice. They split up. Kaplan is trying to open the door using passcodes while Spencer is rushing him. Soon, J:D kills a zombie and then moves Kaplan out of the way to open the door, While failing to get remember some numbers for the code, Kaplan finally gets it right and J:D successfully unlocks the code. Then the door opens. Zombies rush through and J:D is caught, as while Rain tries to pull him back, but she gets bitten again on her right arm. They are unsuccessful and they go into the Red Queen's chamber while J:D perishes.
Alice is seen wandering through a room. She notices a bunch of cages with holes in them, like something broke through them. She stops when she hears a noise. She looks and sees a zombie dog with all of its flesh gone. It chases her and she runs into a room, where there is another zombie. She punches him a few times and then kung-fu kicks him.
She wonders how she did it and then remembers what James had told her about being a security guard. She had been trained in martial arts. Then a dog jumps through the window. She runs into a room and locks the door. Then she turns around and finds about five or six more zombie dogs. They run at her and she starts shooting with the gun she stole from the zombie scientist. Then another one, hiding in a cabinet jumps at her. She steps on a box, pushes her self off the wall, and kicks the dog in the face.
Matt is observing a cubicle when he hears someone. He looks and sees Lisa who is his sister that looks innocent until she gets close. Then she tries to bite him, until Alice stabs Lisa in the back of her neck. Alice then has a flashback of her talking to Lisa about infiltrating the Umbrella Corporation and getting the virus to show the press. He says that one of the workers had tried to get Lisa into the building (Alice) but betrayed her (not true).
Everyone is barricaded in the control room. Matt and Alice come in with a bunch of zombies following them. They can't escape so they end up going back to the Red Queen room, where they ask the hologram how to escape. The hologram of the little girl, the Red Queen, appears and tells them all about the T-virus and how she was forced to lock up the facility to prevent the virus from escaping and contaminating the rest of the world's population.The T-virus was designed in the Umbrella Corp labs in the Hive as an experiment to prolong life, except the virus mutated and all of the people that were trapped in the underground facility when the bio scanners went off died and are now zombies who need to feed on living flesh to survive. Anyone whom is bitten or scratched by one of the zombies will become one too. As she explains all of this, the camera cuts to a deceased J:D who reanimates. Rain has already been bitten more then once. Alice asks the Red Queen how can they get away and the Red Queen agrees to help them. They go over to the corner and find the sewer entrance. They go down, but then a bunch of zombies appear and attack them from both directions. Everyone climbs on top of the pipes, but in the process, Kaplan is bitten on the leg while Rain gets bitten again on both of her arms. She then finds her gun and is shocked when she points it at a reanimated J:D. She hesitates to shoot but when she says his name, he comes close to her and bites her neck, some zombies nearly attack her but she breaks free. As a zombified J:D attempts to attack again, Rain shoots him dead.
They all get to other side except for Kaplan. The pipe breaks and Kaplan falls but gets up in time. He tells them to leave. He puts a gun to his mouth. It shows Alice and she hears the shot. We find out later that Kaplan had shot a zombie and he goes around the center of the pipe standing vertical.
At this point Alice, the sickly Rain, Spencer, and Matt are walking through some corridors when Alice imagines people walking through and then she imagines the lab. She is looking through a window. It shows some scientist injecting the T-Virus into a rabbit and then it shows some green liquid. There is a vaccine. She tells Rain, whom by now is turning deathly pail and can barely walk. They go to where the lab was and it's flooded. Alice walks to where the vaccines should have been, but they're gone.
Then Spencer has a flashback. It shows him overhearing Alice talking with Lisa about stealing a sample of the T-Virus to go public with the Umbrella Corporation's nefarious plans. Spencer decides to destroy the Hive before anything can be made public. Spencer is seen operating a machine handling the viruses, then it shows him throwing the T-Virus deliberately infecting the facility, then it shows him in a hurry walking out. He was the man in the opening shot who stole the T-Virus and was the one who bumped into the man knocking coffee all over him, then he gets out via the train. He had been hiding on the train, until J:D had opened the door and he fell through. Alice realizes it had been him and dives for the gun, but not before Spencer. He points it at Matt not knowing that there is a zombie behind him. The zombie bites him, then he shoots the zombie. He goes out the door. They think he is getting away, but then the TV turns on showing the Red Queen, who says that's not true and that "I've been a bad girl."
Then we see Spencer walking to the spot on the trail where he hid the vaccine. He is about to inject himself when he hears something. He looks up at the ceiling where after a few seconds, a giant monster, the Licker, is seen crawling along the ceiling. Spencer looks up towards it and says "Oh my God" in shock, before the Licker drops to the ground. A panicked Spencer attempts to flee, only to be quickly mauled and killed by the Licker.
Back in the flooded lab the Red Queen tells Alice that in order to get the code to open the door, she must kill Rain, who is infected and dying. Rain says OK and tells Alice to kill her and give her a fire axe she takes from the wall. She keeps telling Alice to kill her and it looks like she is until she hits the screen instead. Then the Licker jumps against the glass and cracks it. It does it a few more times then disappears. Then Kaplan, thought dead, comes through a door. They are all happy until the Licker comes back. They go out where they make it to the train and Alice finds the vaccine, but not before a zombified Spencer awakens, After mocking to him with "I'm missing you already", Alice kills him by bashing on his head with an axe, she then abandons her wedding ring before leaving on the train.
As Kaplan drives the train back to the mansion, they inject the vaccine into Rain, who sits there talking, telling Alice she'll know what to do when the time comes. Her head falls and Alice is about to shoot her when she awakes and says she's not dead yet. Then some claws scratch through the metal, scratching Matt on the arm. They look to where they should shoot. Then the door to the cockpit opens and Kaplan perishes after the Licker pulls him out. The Licker bursts through the train and tries to kill Alice, who shoots it in the head. But the Licker keeps on coming and its tongue wraps around her leg, which she stabs. She tells Matt to knock it out the train, but then Rain awakens and has transformed into a zombie. She tries to bite Matt, who then shoots her in the head, killing her. The zombified Rain lands at the button, which pushes and opens the floor door where the Licker is standing on. The Licker drops out and gets squashed by the train, where it is burned to death. Alice then shuts the floor door which cuts the Licker's tongue, finally killing it for good.
Matt and Alice get out just in time before the emergency doors close. Matt tells Alice that with the vaccine and the T-Virus sample, they will make public about what Umbrella Corporation is really doing when he drops to the floor complaining of pain in his arm. Suddenly, bunch of protectively-clothed scientists burst through the door. They take Matt and say that they're going to put him the Nemesis program when they see that he is infected and his scratch wounds on his arm begin pulsating. Then they take Alice and we hear them ordering her to be quarantined to check for the T-Virus. We hear them say that they're going back in the Hive to find out what when on down there....
Alice wakes up in a white room with cords sticking in her head and arm. She rips them out. Then she goes to the mirror and screams for them to let her out. Something whose face is not seen walks by the opposite side. She goes over to the door and gets a needle which she jams into the door code opener. She finds that she is in the Raccoon City Hospital and the place appears deserted. She walks outside in Raccoon City and sees that everything is destroyed. There are no people or bodies anywhere. It shows a newspaper headlined "The Dead Walk!" It is apparent the the T-Virus has escaped from the Hive and has now infected the entire city. Then she walks over to an abandoned cop car, stealing a pump action shotgun.
This ending screams for a sequel and we get not only that but several other films for this franchise that spawned from a popular video game. Although it's set in modern time it has a very futuristic feel even though it came out several years ago. I've always like this franchise, even if it got a little cheesy sometimes. Let's take a look at some of the weapons used in this movie.
Rain Ocampo (Michelle Rodriguez) uses a Springfield Armory Mil-Spec M1911A1 with Pachmayr grips and an accessory rail as her sidearm. This weapon is also shared between the characters, specifically Alice (Milla Jovovich), when all of their other weapons run out of ammunition. Matt (Eric Mabius) can also be seen trying to draw a Springfield Armory M1911A1 on the commandos in the beginning of the movie before it is taken away from him.
Springfield Mil-Spec 1911A1 - .45 ACP
This picture shows how the strange accessory rail is simply combined to the sides of the frame. In the late 90s the first universal integrated rails on guns began to appear (for example on third-generation Glocks). The addition of the rail could have been made to give modernity to the old 1911 design. Interestingly a stainless steel variant was chosen, a marked contrast to the dark style of the movie. Coincidentally, just a few years after the film's release, many companies began offering tactical reissues of M1911A1 pistols, often with rails.
To see the scene where they learn what the hive is you can watch here:
Rain with her M1911A1 drawn.
Alice with Rain's M1911A
Alice eyes Rain's M1911A1 on a lab bench after learning of Spencer's (James Purefoy) betrayal.
Spencer holds the M1911A1 on Alice before leaving to get back on the train.
Alice with the Springfield.
To watch the top 3 Resident Evil fight scenes you can do so here:
Alice (Milla Jovovich) uses a Beretta 92FS Inox taken off the dead security guard to defend herself against zombified dogs.
Alice grabs a dead security guard's Beretta Inox.
Alice (Milla Jovovich) fires a Beretta 92FS Inox.
Alice discards the empty Beretta Inox and kills the final dog with a swift kick.
To watch the scene with Alice and the killer dogs you can watch it here:
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Alice (Milla Jovovich) grabs a High Standard K-1200 Riot Deluxe Shotgun - 18 1/8th inch barreled 12 gauge riot/self defense shotgun with rifle sights out of a police car in the abandoned streets at the end of the film
High Standard Model K-1200 Riot Deluxe Model FLITE KING Shotgun - 12 gauge. The Riot Deluxe Model came with an 18 1/8th inch barrel and rifle sights.
Closeup of the High Standard K-1200 Riot Deluxe before Alice grabs it out of the police car, "Riot" and "High Sta" can clearly be seen on the barrel
Alice is ready to take the streets of Raccoon City with her High Standard K-1200 Riot Deluxe Shotgun.
To watch this scene you can do so here:
If you like movies that are filled with zombies, conspiricies and terror around every corner than this is a franchise you'll love. Grab some red vines, your favorite zombie film fans and make a weekend out of it.
To find out what other weapons were used in this film you can go here: http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_(2002_Film)
Labels: action movies, actress, cinema, cult classics, fight scenes, futuristic, gunfights and films, guns, milla jovovich, resident evil, science fiction, shooting, strong female lead, thrillers, weapons, Zombies
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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/
posted by Unknown @ 8:19 PM
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