Thank you to sci fi fans young and old for watching this episode of Loadout. And an extra thank you to Jonathan Ferguson and The Royal Armouries for helping make this intimate look at the Pulse Rifle happen!
Fun fact: the AvP game developers 'nailed the sound' of the pulse rifle because they got their hands on the original sound files from the movie late into development of the game.
One of the coolest looking, sounding, and functioning weapons in all of science fiction. I really love the M56 Smart Gun as well, for all the same reasons. They had brilliant minds behind those weapons, absolutely fucking brilliant.
I thought it was kinda meh, but I loved it a whole lot more when I played AVP1/2 where they gave it limited seeking and aimbot functionality which was a great idea and was cool as shit.
What a loss for movies. When I heard about his passing, I immediately thought of his famous line from the movie "Game over, man! Game over!" RIP Mr. Paxton, your fans still miss you.
I actually had the honour of handling the M41A Pulse Rifle hero weapons back in 2003 as a film student. Bapty's in North London. Very heavy thing, they say in the video 'extreme.' Yep it was. I handled it for like 5 mins during my tour. All the students had a go so we all took it in turns to hold it. Very beaten up and weathered. Not just due to weathering effects but lack of use. They did say it was the 'hero' weapon and they had two there at that time I knew of. They did say they were due to be sold on. So one of them could have been the one in the video at the Royal Amouries. It was a 'squee' moment for me I loved this weapon as a teenager watching Aliens. (Age given away there!) Thanks to the guys for letting me see it. :)
@@daegnaxqelil2733way heavier. The actual Thompson under the shell is already VERY heavy by itself. I say this as a Thompson owner, they're about 10-12lbs alone. Then the Remington 870 easily adds another 5-7lbs. I'm sure the shell weighs a bit too. So all together it's likely between 17-21lbs (7.7-9.5 kg).
I disagree with the counter being pointless, if it was on the inside (or if a leftie held it) it would be a good way to keep track of shots since it holds so many rounds, and doesn't eject shells.
@@UnitSe7en because it's built on top of a Thompson, and it had to be able to eject shells to get realistic recoil. Like star wars blasters, in lore, looks like an ejection port, but is probably something else, or just a way to open the gun to get into the bolt and clear jams easier.
Also, many caseless designs have an extraction port to clear misfires. Under ideal circumstances, it wouldn't be necessary, but if a single round fails to fire, there has to be a way to get rid of it without stripping the weapon down. Another thing the Vietnam war has amply demonstrated - the battlefield is rarely if ever ideal. The M16's issues were many: flawed cleaning/maintenance gear, weak spot on the stock, unnecessary logistical complexity (the two halves of the heat-shield weren't identical, leaving some soldiers with the wrong spare part, a burst counter which failed to reset reliably after even slight wear, etc. Not a bad gun, but rushed into battle with lots of teething problems exacerbated by the unforgiving jungle environment it hasn't been designed for.
Absolutely agree with you... A quick check a weapon is still ready (slide forward) which is a standard check would allow you to see the rounds you have left too!
I was working at Picatinny Arsenal (US Army weapons development facility) when they were researching "the Aliens gun". I would have sworn some Generals went to see the movie and came out with strange ideas!
Right? and Clearly Snake likes the Ingram because he uses one in Captain Ron as well. I always wondered when Captain Ron took place in the Escape From series, I always figured it happened before Escape from New York when Plissken was on the lamb.
The smartgun is still way cooler. I mean the combination of a MG42, a motorcycle handle and a steadycam rig. What's not to like! It's so dirty and crood... And nice.
Caseless ammo means the round has no metallic cartridge. So like a muzzle loader, there is just propellant and a projectile. The main advantage to caseless ammo is weight savings from not needing the cartridge. The main problem is heat. The metal cartridge soaks up heat from the firing process (hot brass down your shirt is a thing). Without a good way to get rid of heat the problem of a firearm overheating is difficult to solve. Caseless ammo is also susceptible to the effects of weather as it’s not self contained and sealed in the same way a metallic cartridge is. And obviously caseless ammo cannot be reloaded as there is nothing to “reload”. It’s a bit of a white elephant
I think the idea is to cut production costs of ammo and save some weight. But like cased ammo, it isn't without its drawbacks. I'll stick with cased ammo for self defense until technology can produce a real, reliable caseless ammo handgun.
Of course, if this is set in the distant future - I suppose they'd have much better propellants than we do today that would produce far more gas with far less heat... As far as "reloading" goes - sure, it's a great hobby, and a way for police departments to get cheap ammunition for target practice, but in wartime no one reloads, at least no one reloads small arms ammunition. The thing _I_ wonder about is how they manage to fit 300 rounds of 10mm ammunition (caseless or not) into that weapon. I also seem to remember that Ripley's gun had a 3 digit round counter (everyone probably remembers it counting down to zero), the ones in this video only have 2 digits. Also, if they want to pack as much propellant into the same amount of magazine space, they should have used propellant blocks which were square (or rectangular) in cross section rather than round, like the H&K G11 did.
The nostalgia and little historical bits like that pulse rifle are why I love Ready Player One. Nothing more 80s than running through a street in your Delorean, shooting at Bowser with your M41 pulse rifle!
I absolutely love the Pulse rifle. I remember even seeing it in the (not very good) Dredd film in 1995. It’s always to me the most iconic Sci-Fi weapon of all-time like the Lightsaber is.
@@AntiHamster500 Compared to the classic AvP2, it was kinda lackluster. That's why it didn't really take off. This was also just before social media really took off as an insanely good way to promote games just by word of mouth alone. Kinda pisses me off though. You can, digitally speaking, buy the first AvP. You can buy the latest AvP. You can even buy fucking Colonial Marines. But you can't buy the best one, which is AvP2.
I always liked the Thompson based design of the pulse rifle. I also like the Ruger AC-556 based Morita bullpup rifles used by the Mobile Infantry in Starship Troopers.
The Harrington Assault Rifle can be used in the Aliens Colonial Marines game, and fires by bursts of 3 or 5 (upgraded). I personally like it very much especially the attached mini flamethrower, but it ran out of ammo quicker than the Pulse Rifle
0:28 Kudos to the animators for putting forth the effort to animate ejecting casings. The gun's supposed to be caseless, but its base components certainly are not. 1:51 Apone: "Fasten that chinstrap, Hudson!" 2:23 Before the M-203, there was the XM-148. Jesse Ventura had one of those. 3:39 That's a MAC-10. The Uzi's way better. And the MP5 is the best (for the era). 4:05 Hicks describes the grenade launcher as being "30mm." A 12-gauge bore in metric is 18.5mm, so "20mm" would be more feasible. By comparison, a .45 caliber bore is 11.43mm in metric, so "10mm" is close enough. IRL, a caseless rifle would inevitably use a much slimmer bullet with an aerodynamic spitzer shape. 9:29 Sometimes, the launcher element is on top, as with the OICW. But not just an ordinary launcher. That's a "smart cannon." It's semi-auto, magazine-fed, and has a bullpup layout. The rifle element is actually underslung on the launcher/cannon. 10:16 More left-handed characters in vidya games! 10:46 20mm over 5.56. The pulse rifle's U1 grenade launcher would use grenades like those, but most likely shorter (and without the "smart" chip). So maybe more comparable to 18.5mm FRAG-12 grenades.
The one thing you failed to mention is that the XM29 was a near total failure because the grenades were so small, they had very little useful fragmentation and the rifle part didn't do anything better than an M4.
Around the 6 minute mark, you made a canon mistake. When mentioning Alien 3 the gun, you stated that marines return to Fury 161 the same planet in Aliens, when it's actually the planet from the third movie the game is named after.
@@hollowshrine4148 Fiorina "Fury" 161, later called "Fiori 16" in Alien: Resurrection. "Fury" was the nickname, no idea where the "Fiori 16" came from, though...
The Aliens Pulse Rifle will forever remain a popular and iconic weapon of the science fiction genre as a whole. Alongside the guns of Star Wars and their light sabers, and pistol from Blade Runner
@@jankthunder4012 no... the m16 is not an ar10. the ar10 fires a harder hitting round (the 7.62x51mm NATO). the ar15 is the next generation, design was improved and the caliber was changed to the 5.56x45mm. the ar10 IS NOT an ar15...
@@boundtodie I suppose that would be an issue. Convection can't happen. But it does happen eventually. Something made hot in space wont stay hot forever.
@@boundtodie Since space is already rather cold, the guns will (quite quickly) become very cold too which should negate any heat-build up issue. They may however become so cold they either seize to function or become so brittle the crack or splinter...
@@noremorsewoodworking2258 Except i've heard from many sources that total vacuum is extremely good insulator. Reason why they use it in thermos-mugs. So when something gets hot in space, it tends to stay hot longer than on earth where there is air to transfer the heat away. Like in the processor cooler. Normal processor would fry itself up very fast in space, even with the aluminium heat sink.
Last year at Bristol Comic Con there was the Terry English booth, the designer of the Colonial Marines armor. With him was a cosplayer weilding a replica of one of the screen used Pulse Rifles because when he let me hold it it was incredibly heavy I couldn't even lift it to aim being a full metal frame.
11:21 'Having a counter is total nonsense' What? I think he means that the counter is on the side (where it can't be seen by the user), because having an ammo counter is amazing. Gamers won't tolerate a revolver without an ammo counter. That's why transparent gun mags are popular in real life. And some vendors even sell ammo counter gun mods. A bit clunky mind you. A fully integrated ammo counter would be viewed favorably.
I was talking about the gun as a practical concept for a weapon, which it mostly is - but the counter is to build tension for the audience and nothing more.
@@johnm3907 Ah, no - different thing. Those round counters are not visible to the shooter and are there to aid armourers in maintaining the gun. Soldiers are trained to either count their rounds or check the chamber when the gun stops to verify whether it is empty or has encountered a stoppage. Visual round counters have been invented since Aliens, but are in fact useless in the real world, sorry.
Jonathan Ferguson ah so a soldier in the middle of a gunfight has time to check his bullets? Rather than just glancing at an led readout doesnt make sense to you?
M41A was available as a pick-up kit in the Allied Intent eXtended mod of EA/DICE Battlefield 2 and several mods of the Battlefield 2 first-person shooter.
@@Nia-qf4jp There would probably be some trouble with overheating as well. No gas medium to transfer the excess heat means it gets "caught" in the material of the gun for some time.
@@Nia-qf4jp They do make lubricants that can withstand extreme temps so I doubt you'd design a brand new gun for it. The real challenge is, while modern firearms can be used in space, you really wouldn't want to. The recoil, even from small calibre weapons, would be enough to send you into an out of control scenario if you weren't braced against something and you could end up going dutchman. Coming up with a weapon that had self stabilizing / recoil elimination would be the key for space combat.
The 1999 AVP pulse rifle’s sound did not pitch up and down in waves which is arguably the most iconic part of its sound. It just fired with a flat sample so to be fair, it can not be said that they nailed it. The actual sound effect was like a shriek and added greatly to the fear and excitement every time it was fired especially because the pitch of its terrifying and terrified shriek would wave up and down in faster or slower waves depending, to an extent, how long the trigger was held but was never an even and predictable wave so it hit the brain like an animal shriek encouraging a little squirt of adrenaline. Very hard to copy I’m sure but that game utterly failed or didn’t even attempt to emulate this key variance.
The M41A is excellent in Aliens: Fireteam Elite, for what it's worth. They absolutely nailed the sound and even though it's a starting gun, it wrecks at any level, any difficulty setting.
What's crazy is that this "sci fi" rifle theoretically, can be made. There's even a video of someone firing a homemade version and he did the same thing: he used scrapped parts from a Thompson .45 submachine gun and Franchi shotgun and it looks exactly like the one in the movie. He even installed a digital timer so it "counts down" the rounds as the firing pin hits each round. The one big difference is his rifle can only fire 20 rounds, not 100!
Nice insight into the creation of the weapon. I found Aliens - Colonial Marines, the PC game a great game to play. The Coop LAN option was great and I used to play that with a few friends and had lots of fun. Thanks for the background detail. 👍
The first FPS game to feature the Pulse Rifle was Alien vs Predator on the Atari Jaguar in 1994. Although it did not sound right and always looked like you were pointing it at the ceiling!
Very nice history lesson of what is arguably the most iconic prop weapon of all time!!! I would like to know more (sic) about one of my other favorite movie weapons: the rifle from the _Starship Troopers_ franchise!
The m41a pulse rifle my favorite science fiction weapon long side with the Space Marine Bolter yeah better than the Star Wars Blaster will by Stormtroopers
3:45 It's a popular misconception that the Thompson A1 M1 sub-machinegun of WW2 is the same 1930's Thompson the gangsters, and the police we see, used. Theirs was the 1928, it had a completely different type of bolt. Also it could accommodate the drum magazine, the WW2 version could not. There were other differences too, introduced to speed up production in wartime.
Quick correction. It wasn't "The AR-15" that US soldiers used in Vietnam. It was the M16. The Colt AR-15 (ArmaLite Rifle Number 15) was and is strictly the civilian derived descendant of the AR-10 (ArmaLite Rifle Number 10) a prototype/limited-production rifle designed by Eugene Stoner that would also be the basis for the Colt M16. The AR-15 lacks many of the features the M16 was given. One of the most important is Select Fire (the ability to switch the weapon from firing semi-automatically to either automatic fire or burst fire). The AR-15 is strictly a semi-automatic rifle. You have to pull the trigger once for every bullet that comes out. The M16 (and its carbine descendant, the M4) have the options of Semi-Automatic Fire, Automatic Fire (hold down the trigger and bullets will fire until either the magazine empties or it jams [heaven forbid]), or Burst Fire (the weapon automatically fires two or more rounds up to a designated number, in the case of the M16 three rounds, and then stops and you have to release the trigger before you can pull it to fire again).
All of the Star Wars OT hand weapons were based around real guns too. For example, the Stormtroopers used heavily modified British Sterling and German MG-34 machineguns, whilst Han's blaster was a modified Mauser.
I always thought it was super strange they used a Thompson as part of the base of this prop but had never considered that the look of the flash would have been a big consideration, i doubt there were that many other 45 cal riffles back then to pick from and the armorer prob just had one already as they are popular movie guns
From Overwatch to Resistance to Deep Rock Galactic to Haze to Alien Swarm, the Pulse Rifle has inspired a LOT of he best guns in games in one way or another
No idea what became of it, but there was one of the actual prop guns being used at E3 1998 or 1999 at the Alien Vs Predator booth. It was being held by one of the models (aka booth babes) in full Colonial Marine dress. She mentioned how sore her shoulder was from the strap diggin in the whole day before. She let me hold it, and i can confirm those things were freaking heavy. Fox Interactive was the company making it, and since they were affiliated with 20th Century Fox, it made sense that they were able to get one for the display, especially considering the way E3 was done back then, where you could generate a TON of hype just by drawing attention to a game display/booth with good props and/or models out in front.
IDK, stating that an ammo counter is superfluous is well, inaccurate. A typical magazine on a modern combat rifle carries 30 rounds, which on full auto you can burn through in around 4 seconds, bust fire (which is the correct way) slightly longer and of course on semi even longer. Point is however, it's relatively easy to keep track of your rounds and MANY modern magazines includes a window or are semi-transparent to give an idea of how full that mag as and whether you needs to replace it. On a weapon like the M41A with it's INSANE 100 rounds mag, I'd say having SOME indicator of your ammo level would be quite necessary.
that is true - a counter would be useful. The major problem is that the magazine in question could never hold 100 rounds, even caseless ones. they're 10mm in a rifle cartridge.That is, the rounds would be absolutely no smaller than the AK's 7.62x39 in size. Given how big the magazine is shown to be, there's no way it could possibly hold more than 50 rounds. Frankly, 20 would be more realistic given how narrow the mag looks like (it's a typical 30-round Thompson mag on a larger baseplate in reality). A 100 round caseless mag would be at least twice the volume of a 30-round STANG box mag for the 7.62mm M14, and more likely thrice the volume. Caseless ammunition does not really reduce the volume much (maybe 10%) over what the equivalent cased ammunition is. The savings is WEIGHT, not volume.
@@eriktrimble8784 I meant in universe, but yes I agree, the 100 round thing was a joke. Also, according to lore it was unwise to load to max capacity as the autoloader would usually jam, so they only loaded to 95. Still though, that's a pretty substantial rifle round. If you look at the latest caseless offerings that are in the running for the Army's new LMG, you'd see they are still pretty long. The way they get around this in universe is by saying that the bullet was wrapped in a block of solid propellant. Also, since it was packed with an explosive charge instead of depending on the mass of the round only for damage, you could get much more from less. But we're nowhere close to that yet so not an option.
Fun fact the prop they use to show the weapon when they show it in the hands of the host and in revolving shots is actually a functional airsoft replica and the ammo counter actually counts down from 99 even though the magazine houses 120 pellets I believe
@@andygreener3130 6:15 he said return to fury 161 the same plant from ALIENS not alien 3 which is wrong the moon they’re on in alien and aliens is Acheron or LV426
@@BradSimkiss Sorry, you misunderstood my response but that’s my fault. I thought I was correcting you as you refer to the “plant” as LV-426. I now see it was a misprint. You meant planet. So yes, I totally agree with you
5 Most iconic science fiction guns in no particular order - Blade Runner - Pfläger-Katsumata Series D 5223 pistol; Star Wars - DL44 Blaster; Original Series Star Trek - Type 2 Phaser; Men in Black - The Noisy Cricket; and of course, Aliens - M41A Pulse Rifle. Anything I'm forgetting?
Oh man, Paxton really made that character. Highly doubt doubt anyone else could have made it as good. Funny parts all around, car sales person from True Lies was absolutely hilarious :)
My brain went to the M41A pulse rifle from Aliens movies. Features: The M-41A Pulse Rifle fires 10 millimeter explosive tip caseless ammunition at a rate of 900 rounds per minute. It has an effective range of 500 meters and can fire in space. The rifle also has an armat U1 pump action grenade launcher. IF they can imagine it, we can make it.
I always love this gun so much. Yep. Like a laser gun. A pulse sound when firing. And come on. I found the Rifle on the Colonial Marine Game just fine.
8:12 That's because it is not as horrible as you are making it sound. The AI and pathfinding were bad, and the story was all over the place, but it looked and sounded great. The biggest issues came from conflicts between Sega and Fox on what they would let us do with the material. I was a QA Lead at Gearbox on another project, but did what I could to help this one as well. With the multiplayer modes added, it was too much game and too little time, as dictated by our publishers, which is always how it goes. It is a challenging franchise that is bound to leave half the audience (1st or 2nd movie) wishing it was more like the 2nd or 1st one. We had a military advisor, Col. John Antal (Ret.) starting with the Brothers in Arms series, and he worked with an armorer to try to cobble together a working model starting from a Thompson as described here, but without the benefit of the custom aluminum shell, so it was a little unfinished looking.
So I was in the kitchen today, thinking about Aliens, the movie. And I thought "Man the sound the weapon made, that was one of the best ever sound effects in movie history. I wonder how they made that sound, and how they chose it?" -- Here I am say. Huge huge thanks to GameSpot for this video, so informative, thank you so much!
Lage Manufacturing MAX 41A, a real life 9mm chambered replica. Also Redtech has built digital shot counter replacing the slide cover plate of a Glock. With luck we're not far off a proper M41A.
thank you for this video, people didn't believe me when i said that the bolt looked like the Thompson smg's bolt, also, i think this gun is used in the DOOM movie with the Rock
If you didn't show the idea of combined weapons and/or other weapons used to make this, I would've gone with my idea that the pulse rifle was a heavily modified h&k g36 assault rifle (one of my favorite assault rifles of all time) with a underbarell attachment (shotgun/grenade launcher)
"Hero" is just the prop (and vehicle) term used in film to designated the most featured version (because it's either the most functional or the most photogenic). A "hero" gun may fire, where a "stunt" prop may just be a rubber facsimile. Or it could be the opposite, where the "hero" car actually drives but the "stunt" car is only an engineless version that gets blown up. Sometimes the "hero" sword is the only metal one and the prettiest while the "stunt" facsimiles are hard rubber and disposable. And sometimes different departments use opposite terms. The ADs and art departments may use the drivable/hero and destroyable/stunt paradigm but the stunt and SPFX departments use a destroyable/hero and drivable/picture car paradigm. (Film terms are not as fixed as scientific terms, and more akin to - and I'm not kidding - Urban Dictionary. They're dictated by popular usage.) Anyway, all of this to say "hero" does not refer to the protagonist (as the video seems to allude) since a secondary or bit character may wield a "hero" weapon/item or drive/pilot a "hero" vehicle. Well, usually. I've been on Teir A shows where they used "hero car" simply to refer to the lead protagonist's "picture car" even though there were 3 other "hero cars". But the picture car terms are a whole other lecture. Needless to say, hero weapons, items (sometimes aka props), and vehicles are usually the coolest because they were the most featured in the production and are likely the closest to being what the movie or show wanted us to believe they were. Unless you're an SPFX demo specialist weirdo who likes seeing the twisted carnage of an explosive gag. To them, that shit is the coolest. But those guys are nuts. ___ Note: This is my North American experience. The rest of the world doesn't use the same lexicon. Some terms are shared, others are entirely different depending on which continent or country you're in, even between English-speaking ones. Hell, different teams have their own internal lexicon. So, take it all with a grain of salt, and spare some pity for 2nd ADs across the world who have to deal with all this terminology and lingo.
Thank you to sci fi fans young and old for watching this episode of Loadout.
And an extra thank you to Jonathan Ferguson and The Royal Armouries for helping make this intimate look at the Pulse Rifle happen!
No problem Dave, it was a pleasure.
What about 2008 AVP pulse rifle? That was nice.
you missed the 1988 game Aliens and you missed the platform beatem up AVP both had the rifle in it .
Wouldn't it technically be an SMG given it's firing 40 caliber pistol rounds? :P
John is that best
Fun fact: the AvP game developers 'nailed the sound' of the pulse rifle because they got their hands on the original sound files from the movie late into development of the game.
I'm sure they could have just recorded the sound directly from the films themselves, it's not exactly hard.
One of the coolest looking, sounding, and functioning weapons in all of science fiction. I really love the M56 Smart Gun as well, for all the same reasons. They had brilliant minds behind those weapons, absolutely fucking brilliant.
The smart gun looks to me like an MG42 on a steadicam mount.
pure genius.
@@johnjeromson3471 That's because it literally is, plus some motorcycle parts on either side of the barrel and a new grip/trigger at the rear.
I thought it was kinda meh, but I loved it a whole lot more when I played AVP1/2 where they gave it limited seeking and aimbot functionality which was a great idea and was cool as shit.
@From a DOOM fan they actually did
@@ODST_Parker actually the “trigger” was a lever that connects to the actual trigger
RIP Bill Paxton. He was awesome in Aliens as Hudson
What a loss for movies. When I heard about his passing, I immediately thought of his famous line from the movie "Game over, man! Game over!" RIP Mr. Paxton, your fans still miss you.
Rip he will be missed
Coincidentally, he and Lance Henriksen are the only 2 actors to be in the Terminator, Aliens and Predator series.
@@largol33t1 and "Game over, Man" was NOT in the script. It is one of of the most famous improvised lines in movies.
I actually had the honour of handling the M41A Pulse Rifle hero weapons back in 2003 as a film student. Bapty's in North London. Very heavy thing, they say in the video 'extreme.' Yep it was. I handled it for like 5 mins during my tour. All the students had a go so we all took it in turns to hold it. Very beaten up and weathered. Not just due to weathering effects but lack of use. They did say it was the 'hero' weapon and they had two there at that time I knew of. They did say they were due to be sold on. So one of them could have been the one in the video at the Royal Amouries. It was a 'squee' moment for me I loved this weapon as a teenager watching Aliens. (Age given away there!) Thanks to the guys for letting me see it. :)
heavy, like a real gun
Wanna know something cool, I got a replica in my closet
@@daegnaxqelil2733way heavier. The actual Thompson under the shell is already VERY heavy by itself. I say this as a Thompson owner, they're about 10-12lbs alone. Then the Remington 870 easily adds another 5-7lbs. I'm sure the shell weighs a bit too. So all together it's likely between 17-21lbs (7.7-9.5 kg).
I disagree with the counter being pointless, if it was on the inside (or if a leftie held it) it would be a good way to keep track of shots since it holds so many rounds, and doesn't eject shells.
If it's supposed to be caseless, why does it have what looks like a standard shell ejection port near the counter?
@@UnitSe7en because it's built on top of a Thompson, and it had to be able to eject shells to get realistic recoil. Like star wars blasters, in lore, looks like an ejection port, but is probably something else, or just a way to open the gun to get into the bolt and clear jams easier.
Also, many caseless designs have an extraction port to clear misfires. Under ideal circumstances, it wouldn't be necessary, but if a single round fails to fire, there has to be a way to get rid of it without stripping the weapon down. Another thing the Vietnam war has amply demonstrated - the battlefield is rarely if ever ideal. The M16's issues were many: flawed cleaning/maintenance gear, weak spot on the stock, unnecessary logistical complexity (the two halves of the heat-shield weren't identical, leaving some soldiers with the wrong spare part, a burst counter which failed to reset reliably after even slight wear, etc. Not a bad gun, but rushed into battle with lots of teething problems exacerbated by the unforgiving jungle environment it hasn't been designed for.
Absolutely agree with you... A quick check a weapon is still ready (slide forward) which is a standard check would allow you to see the rounds you have left too!
Being a "lefty," I agree with this assessment. 👌 😁
I was working at Picatinny Arsenal (US Army weapons development facility) when they were researching "the Aliens gun". I would have sworn some Generals went to see the movie and came out with strange ideas!
The XM8 was literally based off the gun from Starship troopers. So...
Yea like who would want to know how much ammo they have left in a battle? Nobody apparently 😏
Psst, guys, that was an Ingram Model 10, not an Uzi ;)
Right? and Clearly Snake likes the Ingram because he uses one in Captain Ron as well. I always wondered when Captain Ron took place in the Escape From series, I always figured it happened before Escape from New York when Plissken was on the lamb.
Like how the "ar-15" is actually an m16?
@@arthurmorgan2418 no the MAC 10 is different vs the uzi. For starters, the former is American-made while the latter is Israeli.
@@ayuchanayuko I know, also I don't even remember making that ar15 comment lmao
@@arthurmorgan2418 the ar15 is an m16 and an m4. Ar15 is a platform the military adapted to make m16 and m4.
I am actually lucky enough to own an airsoft variant of the pulse rifle, it does count down bullets, but sadly the grenade launcher is only cosmetic.
Do you know where I could get my hands on one? Thnx.
@@charlessenecal4706 Sadly I do not know. I found it by pure chance in a local air-soft shop.
Ok, thnx. I'll try to find a store nearby. Or maybe on- line.. 👍👍
@@charlessenecal4706 Best of luck to you, and a happy new year :)
You could jimmy it
When mentioning modern assault riffle design don’t forget H&H G36 - looks very similiar!
The smartgun is still way cooler. I mean the combination of a MG42, a motorcycle handle and a steadycam rig. What's not to like! It's so dirty and crood... And nice.
Narp, the M41A is and always will be the daddy firearm of the scifi world, (smartgun is fucking cool though xD)
@@Nemoticon nothing sounds like that M41a👍🏼
lets not forget their Sidearm, the H&K VP70. which also happens to be Leons Gun in Resident Evil 2.
Cept Vasquez's SW Model 39
The Matilda yeah that's an actual gun with the actual stock the converts the pistol to a 3 round burst.
Furia 161 is the planet from Alien3, not Aliens. (6:20)
I know, such a glaring error considering how well researched the video is overall.
yeah i think the planet in aliens was Lv426
Fury, not Furia
Thanks. Now I don’t have to.
It’s actually Fiorina 161, Fury was a nickname.
Caseless ammo means the round has no metallic cartridge. So like a muzzle loader, there is just propellant and a projectile. The main advantage to caseless ammo is weight savings from not needing the cartridge. The main problem is heat. The metal cartridge soaks up heat from the firing process (hot brass down your shirt is a thing). Without a good way to get rid of heat the problem of a firearm overheating is difficult to solve. Caseless ammo is also susceptible to the effects of weather as it’s not self contained and sealed in the same way a metallic cartridge is. And obviously caseless ammo cannot be reloaded as there is nothing to “reload”. It’s a bit of a white elephant
I think the idea is to cut production costs of ammo and save some weight. But like cased ammo, it isn't without its drawbacks. I'll stick with cased ammo for self defense until technology can produce a real, reliable caseless ammo handgun.
Of course, if this is set in the distant future - I suppose they'd have much better propellants than we do today that would produce far more gas with far less heat... As far as "reloading" goes - sure, it's a great hobby, and a way for police departments to get cheap ammunition for target practice, but in wartime no one reloads, at least no one reloads small arms ammunition. The thing _I_ wonder about is how they manage to fit 300 rounds of 10mm ammunition (caseless or not) into that weapon. I also seem to remember that Ripley's gun had a 3 digit round counter (everyone probably remembers it counting down to zero), the ones in this video only have 2 digits. Also, if they want to pack as much propellant into the same amount of magazine space, they should have used propellant blocks which were square (or rectangular) in cross section rather than round, like the H&K G11 did.
Ten millimeter explosive tip caseless, huh? Sounds like a standard, light armor-piercing round.
And they seem to be right under the primary cooling towers..
When I seen this guns cameo in Ready Player One, I lost my shit! My favorite movie gun, next to Zorgs ZF1 in The Fifth Element.
The nostalgia and little historical bits like that pulse rifle are why I love Ready Player One. Nothing more 80s than running through a street in your Delorean, shooting at Bowser with your M41 pulse rifle!
I love what they did to the sound, the high pitch burst was like nothing I ever heard!
I absolutely love the Pulse rifle. I remember even seeing it in the (not very good) Dredd film in 1995. It’s always to me the most iconic Sci-Fi weapon of all-time like the Lightsaber is.
I wish he mentioned the 2010 AVP game
Justin same, I still play it from time to time
Same here. Going bug hunting once in a while
9:06 it’s shown!
It's a shame that AVP 2010 wasn't more popular. It is without a doubt a better game than Colonial Marines yet it sold far fewer copies.
@@AntiHamster500 Compared to the classic AvP2, it was kinda lackluster. That's why it didn't really take off. This was also just before social media really took off as an insanely good way to promote games just by word of mouth alone.
Kinda pisses me off though. You can, digitally speaking, buy the first AvP. You can buy the latest AvP. You can even buy fucking Colonial Marines. But you can't buy the best one, which is AvP2.
This video owned, every second was a joy to watch and listen, more of this please.
I always liked the Thompson based design of the pulse rifle. I also like the Ruger AC-556 based Morita bullpup rifles used by the Mobile Infantry in Starship Troopers.
Another iconic weapon of that time was Megatron's original alt mode, the Walther P38 with it's sci-fi bells and whistles.
It was also used in GPolice , however only in some of the very few CGI sequences.
This game was awesome thanks for the memories !
The Harrington Assault Rifle can be used in the Aliens Colonial Marines game, and fires by bursts of 3 or 5 (upgraded). I personally like it very much especially the attached mini flamethrower, but it ran out of ammo quicker than the Pulse Rifle
REALLY liked and enjoyed watching this!!!!
One of my most favorite weapons in Sci-Fi!!!!
The one thing that ticks me off to no end, is when comics just get lazy about futuristic or advanced firearms and drop an M41A.
0:28 Kudos to the animators for putting forth the effort to animate ejecting casings. The gun's supposed to be caseless, but its base components certainly are not.
1:51 Apone: "Fasten that chinstrap, Hudson!"
2:23 Before the M-203, there was the XM-148. Jesse Ventura had one of those.
3:39 That's a MAC-10. The Uzi's way better. And the MP5 is the best (for the era).
4:05 Hicks describes the grenade launcher as being "30mm." A 12-gauge bore in metric is 18.5mm, so "20mm" would be more feasible. By comparison, a .45 caliber bore is 11.43mm in metric, so "10mm" is close enough. IRL, a caseless rifle would inevitably use a much slimmer bullet with an aerodynamic spitzer shape.
9:29 Sometimes, the launcher element is on top, as with the OICW. But not just an ordinary launcher. That's a "smart cannon." It's semi-auto, magazine-fed, and has a bullpup layout. The rifle element is actually underslung on the launcher/cannon.
10:16 More left-handed characters in vidya games!
10:46 20mm over 5.56. The pulse rifle's U1 grenade launcher would use grenades like those, but most likely shorter (and without the "smart" chip). So maybe more comparable to 18.5mm FRAG-12 grenades.
Now that someone mentioned the Thompson, I can totally see it peeking through the frame.
The one thing you failed to mention is that the XM29 was a near total failure because the grenades were so small, they had very little useful fragmentation and the rifle part didn't do anything better than an M4.
"..suffered from a myriad of bugs..."
A myriad of "bugs"? Maybe that wasn't intended as a pun, but sure does work like one.
Pule Rifle is the greatest sounding movie weapon of all time!
As a sidenote the Spas Autoloader shotgun used to make up the pulse rifle was also used by Arnold in the Terminator
Around the 6 minute mark, you made a canon mistake. When mentioning Alien 3 the gun, you stated that marines return to Fury 161 the same planet in Aliens, when it's actually the planet from the third movie the game is named after.
Lv426 is the planet from aliens fury 161 is the prison planet from alien 3
@@hollowshrine4148 Fiorina "Fury" 161, later called "Fiori 16" in Alien: Resurrection. "Fury" was the nickname, no idea where the "Fiori 16" came from, though...
5:55 That one in the museum looks filthy. Someone needs to give it a clean.
The Aliens Pulse Rifle will forever remain a popular and iconic weapon of the science fiction genre as a whole. Alongside the guns of Star Wars and their light sabers, and pistol from Blade Runner
2:24
That's not an AR-15, he even calls it the proper name: the XM-177. That's a variant of the M16 family, totally different from the AR variants.
M-16 is literally just the military designation of the AR-10 design, so he got the generation wrong I guess.
@@jankthunder4012 AR15 friend, AR10 is chambered in7.62 NATO, not 5.56 NATO.
@@jankthunder4012 no... the m16 is not an ar10. the ar10 fires a harder hitting round (the 7.62x51mm NATO). the ar15 is the next generation, design was improved and the caliber was changed to the 5.56x45mm. the ar10 IS NOT an ar15...
@@reaperaf9511 You're right, I had always assumed the M16 was 7.62 and the M4 was 5.56 but it turns out that the M4 is just the carbine variant.
Isn't ar15 civilian version of M16?
Also ar 10 is practically at 15 in 762 NATO ( it's older )
All modern firearms can fire "in the vacuum of space"
This needs to be higher. Hell, they fire underwater
A few rounds maybe before they seize up from the heat they can't disperse
@@boundtodie I suppose that would be an issue. Convection can't happen. But it does happen eventually. Something made hot in space wont stay hot forever.
@@boundtodie Since space is already rather cold, the guns will (quite quickly) become very cold too which should negate any heat-build up issue. They may however become so cold they either seize to function or become so brittle the crack or splinter...
@@noremorsewoodworking2258 Except i've heard from many sources that total vacuum is extremely good insulator. Reason why they use it in thermos-mugs. So when something gets hot in space, it tends to stay hot longer than on earth where there is air to transfer the heat away. Like in the processor cooler. Normal processor would fry itself up very fast in space, even with the aluminium heat sink.
Last year at Bristol Comic Con there was the Terry English booth, the designer of the Colonial Marines armor. With him was a cosplayer weilding a replica of one of the screen used Pulse Rifles because when he let me hold it it was incredibly heavy I couldn't even lift it to aim being a full metal frame.
11:21 'Having a counter is total nonsense'
What? I think he means that the counter is on the side (where it can't be seen by the user), because having an ammo counter is amazing. Gamers won't tolerate a revolver without an ammo counter.
That's why transparent gun mags are popular in real life.
And some vendors even sell ammo counter gun mods. A bit clunky mind you. A fully integrated ammo counter would be viewed favorably.
I was talking about the gun as a practical concept for a weapon, which it mostly is - but the counter is to build tension for the audience and nothing more.
Jonathan Ferguson some experimental versions of the lsat lmg have ammo counters. It cant hurt to know how many bullets you have left.
@@johnm3907 Ah, no - different thing. Those round counters are not visible to the shooter and are there to aid armourers in maintaining the gun. Soldiers are trained to either count their rounds or check the chamber when the gun stops to verify whether it is empty or has encountered a stoppage. Visual round counters have been invented since Aliens, but are in fact useless in the real world, sorry.
Jonathan Ferguson ah so a soldier in the middle of a gunfight has time to check his bullets? Rather than just glancing at an led readout doesnt make sense to you?
Jonathan Ferguson and also iv read articles about the lsat that said readouts for the user on ammo capacity.
Jonathan Ferguson ❤️❤️❤️
M41A was available as a pick-up kit in the Allied Intent eXtended mod of EA/DICE Battlefield 2 and several mods of the Battlefield 2 first-person shooter.
In the film it’s referred to as an M forty one A not an M four one A.
All firearms function in vacuum, though. To make that a selling point is like lauding it for having a functioning trigger.
Thank you! I was just scrolling down to see if this had already been said.
@@gawthic1 You're welcome! I noticed some other stuff but they were already covered in other comments.
iirc the problem is that the lubricant and such dry up causing it to break down in space?
@@Nia-qf4jp There would probably be some trouble with overheating as well. No gas medium to transfer the excess heat means it gets "caught" in the material of the gun for some time.
@@Nia-qf4jp They do make lubricants that can withstand extreme temps so I doubt you'd design a brand new gun for it. The real challenge is, while modern firearms can be used in space, you really wouldn't want to. The recoil, even from small calibre weapons, would be enough to send you into an out of control scenario if you weren't braced against something and you could end up going dutchman. Coming up with a weapon that had self stabilizing / recoil elimination would be the key for space combat.
Was not expecting Johnathan Ferguson in this.
That first Colonial Marines pulse rifle animation is pretty good to be fair
5:45 The Royal Armouries purchasing an Aliens Pulse Rifle! That is a great acquisition.
electronic buzzing growl yes that sums it up. well done.
The 1999 AVP pulse rifle’s sound did not pitch up and down in waves which is arguably the most iconic part of its sound.
It just fired with a flat sample so to be fair, it can not be said that they nailed it.
The actual sound effect was like a shriek and added greatly to the fear and excitement every time it was fired especially because the pitch of its terrifying and terrified shriek would wave up and down in faster or slower waves depending, to an extent, how long the trigger was held but was never an even and predictable wave so it hit the brain like an animal shriek encouraging a little squirt of adrenaline.
Very hard to copy I’m sure but that game utterly failed or didn’t even attempt to emulate this key variance.
that was a M16 in Vietnam, not an AR15. The AR is the civilian semi-auto rifle based off of the M16
Best gun sound ever recorded ever
The M41A is excellent in Aliens: Fireteam Elite, for what it's worth. They absolutely nailed the sound and even though it's a starting gun, it wrecks at any level, any difficulty setting.
That shooting sound of the pulse rifle is so satisfying I would say more satisfying then the iconic m1 garand ping sound muhehe MUHEHE
What's crazy is that this "sci fi" rifle theoretically, can be made. There's even a video of someone firing a homemade version and he did the same thing: he used scrapped parts from a Thompson .45 submachine gun and Franchi shotgun and it looks exactly like the one in the movie. He even installed a digital timer so it "counts down" the rounds as the firing pin hits each round. The one big difference is his rifle can only fire 20 rounds, not 100!
Nice insight into the creation of the weapon.
I found Aliens - Colonial Marines, the PC game a great game to play.
The Coop LAN option was great and I used to play that with a few friends and had lots of fun.
Thanks for the background detail. 👍
The first FPS game to feature the Pulse Rifle was Alien vs Predator on the Atari Jaguar in 1994. Although it did not sound right and always looked like you were pointing it at the ceiling!
You can see the pulse rifle (exactly the M41A) in the intro of the addon of the game : I-War.
Mr. Ferguson looks like Michael Sheen. Just ups the badass.
And this is an impressive video article.
Very nice history lesson of what is arguably the most iconic prop weapon of all time!!!
I would like to know more (sic) about one of my other favorite movie weapons: the rifle from the _Starship Troopers_ franchise!
You can see a Pulse Rifle in the hands of the heroes in the game Contra by the way - the Arcade Version of it :)
3:41 that isn’t an uzi, that is a MAC 10 or 11. I can’t really tell from the video.
The m41a pulse rifle my favorite science fiction weapon long side with the Space Marine Bolter yeah better than the Star Wars Blaster will by Stormtroopers
Hope u do more these types of vids
Either Predator or T2
3:45 It's a popular misconception that the Thompson A1 M1 sub-machinegun of WW2 is the same 1930's Thompson the gangsters, and the police we see, used. Theirs was the 1928, it had a completely different type of bolt. Also it could accommodate the drum magazine, the WW2 version could not. There were other differences too, introduced to speed up production in wartime.
Quick correction.
It wasn't "The AR-15" that US soldiers used in Vietnam. It was the M16.
The Colt AR-15 (ArmaLite Rifle Number 15) was and is strictly the civilian derived descendant of the AR-10 (ArmaLite Rifle Number 10) a prototype/limited-production rifle designed by Eugene Stoner that would also be the basis for the Colt M16.
The AR-15 lacks many of the features the M16 was given. One of the most important is Select Fire (the ability to switch the weapon from firing semi-automatically to either automatic fire or burst fire).
The AR-15 is strictly a semi-automatic rifle. You have to pull the trigger once for every bullet that comes out.
The M16 (and its carbine descendant, the M4) have the options of Semi-Automatic Fire, Automatic Fire (hold down the trigger and bullets will fire until either the magazine empties or it jams [heaven forbid]), or Burst Fire (the weapon automatically fires two or more rounds up to a designated number, in the case of the M16 three rounds, and then stops and you have to release the trigger before you can pull it to fire again).
All of the Star Wars OT hand weapons were based around real guns too. For example, the Stormtroopers used heavily modified British Sterling and German MG-34 machineguns, whilst Han's blaster was a modified Mauser.
I always thought it was super strange they used a Thompson as part of the base of this prop but had never considered that the look of the flash would have been a big consideration, i doubt there were that many other 45 cal riffles back then to pick from and the armorer prob just had one already as they are popular movie guns
From Overwatch to Resistance to Deep Rock Galactic to Haze to Alien Swarm, the Pulse Rifle has inspired a LOT of he best guns in games in one way or another
They forgot AvP2 game, released in 2001.
I know! Literally didn't mention or even show the best game of the series.
One thing it does is fix the biggest flaw in the Thompson 45. Moving the stock in line with the action fixes the tendency to climb.
I didn't realise how fast the rate of fire was on the pulse rifle...awesome.
No idea what became of it, but there was one of the actual prop guns being used at E3 1998 or 1999 at the Alien Vs Predator booth. It was being held by one of the models (aka booth babes) in full Colonial Marine dress. She mentioned how sore her shoulder was from the strap diggin in the whole day before. She let me hold it, and i can confirm those things were freaking heavy. Fox Interactive was the company making it, and since they were affiliated with 20th Century Fox, it made sense that they were able to get one for the display, especially considering the way E3 was done back then, where you could generate a TON of hype just by drawing attention to a game display/booth with good props and/or models out in front.
Did anybody get recommended this because it has Jonathan Ferguson in it
The amount of knowledge Dave has of guns has convinced me that he's the guy under the Doom guy helmet. It's canon now, there's no going back.
Rip & tear my friend, rip & tear...
Hardly. He said the gun could fire in space? All guns can. And he couldnt tell the difference between an uzi and a mac 11?
its weird to think that AVP in 1999 was just 2 years before halo. its insane how big that jump in gameplay and technology was
IDK, stating that an ammo counter is superfluous is well, inaccurate. A typical magazine on a modern combat rifle carries 30 rounds, which on full auto you can burn through in around 4 seconds, bust fire (which is the correct way) slightly longer and of course on semi even longer. Point is however, it's relatively easy to keep track of your rounds and MANY modern magazines includes a window or are semi-transparent to give an idea of how full that mag as and whether you needs to replace it. On a weapon like the M41A with it's INSANE 100 rounds mag, I'd say having SOME indicator of your ammo level would be quite necessary.
that is true - a counter would be useful. The major problem is that the magazine in question could never hold 100 rounds, even caseless ones. they're 10mm in a rifle cartridge.That is, the rounds would be absolutely no smaller than the AK's 7.62x39 in size. Given how big the magazine is shown to be, there's no way it could possibly hold more than 50 rounds. Frankly, 20 would be more realistic given how narrow the mag looks like (it's a typical 30-round Thompson mag on a larger baseplate in reality).
A 100 round caseless mag would be at least twice the volume of a 30-round STANG box mag for the 7.62mm M14, and more likely thrice the volume. Caseless ammunition does not really reduce the volume much (maybe 10%) over what the equivalent cased ammunition is. The savings is WEIGHT, not volume.
@@eriktrimble8784 I meant in universe, but yes I agree, the 100 round thing was a joke. Also, according to lore it was unwise to load to max capacity as the autoloader would usually jam, so they only loaded to 95.
Still though, that's a pretty substantial rifle round. If you look at the latest caseless offerings that are in the running for the Army's new LMG, you'd see they are still pretty long. The way they get around this in universe is by saying that the bullet was wrapped in a block of solid propellant. Also, since it was packed with an explosive charge instead of depending on the mass of the round only for damage, you could get much more from less. But we're nowhere close to that yet so not an option.
Fun fact the prop they use to show the weapon when they show it in the hands of the host and in revolving shots is actually a functional airsoft replica and the ammo counter actually counts down from 99 even though the magazine houses 120 pellets I believe
Holy fuck the editing in this video is beautiful
Avp 2010 is criminally underrated
The plant from Aliens is called LV-426
No, that's the planet. The planet/moon they refer to in this video is from Alien 3
@@andygreener3130 6:15 he said return to fury 161 the same plant from ALIENS not alien 3 which is wrong the moon they’re on in alien and aliens is Acheron or LV426
@@BradSimkiss Sorry, you misunderstood my response but that’s my fault. I thought I was correcting you as you refer to the “plant” as LV-426. I now see it was a misprint. You meant planet.
So yes, I totally agree with you
"Remember....Short controlled bursts..."
"Fuck you! Fuck you!" BRRP! BRRP!
"Fuck you! Oh, you want some more!?" BRRP! BRRP! 😂
5 Most iconic science fiction guns in no particular order - Blade Runner - Pfläger-Katsumata Series D 5223 pistol; Star Wars - DL44 Blaster; Original Series Star Trek - Type 2 Phaser; Men in Black - The Noisy Cricket; and of course, Aliens - M41A Pulse Rifle. Anything I'm forgetting?
For me it’s the sound. Iconic
Hey, maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!
Oh man, Paxton really made that character. Highly doubt doubt anyone else could have made it as good. Funny parts all around, car sales person from True Lies was absolutely hilarious :)
Best gun sound ever.
You overlooked AVP on the Atari Jaguar and Alien 3 on the 16-bit machines.
My brain went to the M41A pulse rifle from Aliens movies.
Features:
The M-41A Pulse Rifle fires 10 millimeter explosive tip caseless ammunition at a rate of 900 rounds per minute. It has an effective range of 500 meters and can fire in space. The rifle also has an armat U1 pump action grenade launcher.
IF they can imagine it, we can make it.
I always love this gun so much. Yep. Like a laser gun. A pulse sound when firing. And come on. I found the Rifle on the Colonial Marine Game just fine.
People who dislike that game couldn't play it because it's to hard for wimps. Only play on the ultimate badass setting.
8:12 That's because it is not as horrible as you are making it sound. The AI and pathfinding were bad, and the story was all over the place, but it looked and sounded great. The biggest issues came from conflicts between Sega and Fox on what they would let us do with the material. I was a QA Lead at Gearbox on another project, but did what I could to help this one as well. With the multiplayer modes added, it was too much game and too little time, as dictated by our publishers, which is always how it goes. It is a challenging franchise that is bound to leave half the audience (1st or 2nd movie) wishing it was more like the 2nd or 1st one.
We had a military advisor, Col. John Antal (Ret.) starting with the Brothers in Arms series, and he worked with an armorer to try to cobble together a working model starting from a Thompson as described here, but without the benefit of the custom aluminum shell, so it was a little unfinished looking.
So I was in the kitchen today, thinking about Aliens, the movie. And I thought "Man the sound the weapon made, that was one of the best ever sound effects in movie history. I wonder how they made that sound, and how they chose it?" -- Here I am say. Huge huge thanks to GameSpot for this video, so informative, thank you so much!
Woah Johnathan Ferguson is it just me or is he popping up more and more
I was always convinced the sound was an mg42 sample slowed down and mixed with something else to make it sound slightly muffled.
When the grenade launcher is a sawed down spas
That loose slide had me s h o o k
Lage Manufacturing MAX 41A, a real life 9mm chambered replica. Also Redtech has built digital shot counter replacing the slide cover plate of a Glock. With luck we're not far off a proper M41A.
The reason the M41A looks so good is that it uses the golden ratio. The dimensions of the shroud and where the vertices end are in the golden ratio.
You can carry an OICW in Delta Force, Task force dagger. 30 rounds plus 6 round loads of grenades/pump action.
thank you for this video, people didn't believe me when i said that the bolt looked like the Thompson smg's bolt, also, i think this gun is used in the DOOM movie with the Rock
The gun used in the Doom movie was actually a G36
If you didn't show the idea of combined weapons and/or other weapons used to make this, I would've gone with my idea that the pulse rifle was a heavily modified h&k g36 assault rifle (one of my favorite assault rifles of all time) with a underbarell attachment (shotgun/grenade launcher)
Theres a short in universe story about the development of the M41A that i found interesting. It was developed by a colonial marines master sergeant.
"Hero" is just the prop (and vehicle) term used in film to designated the most featured version (because it's either the most functional or the most photogenic).
A "hero" gun may fire, where a "stunt" prop may just be a rubber facsimile. Or it could be the opposite, where the "hero" car actually drives but the "stunt" car is only an engineless version that gets blown up. Sometimes the "hero" sword is the only metal one and the prettiest while the "stunt" facsimiles are hard rubber and disposable.
And sometimes different departments use opposite terms. The ADs and art departments may use the drivable/hero and destroyable/stunt paradigm but the stunt and SPFX departments use a destroyable/hero and drivable/picture car paradigm.
(Film terms are not as fixed as scientific terms, and more akin to - and I'm not kidding - Urban Dictionary. They're dictated by popular usage.)
Anyway, all of this to say "hero" does not refer to the protagonist (as the video seems to allude) since a secondary or bit character may wield a "hero" weapon/item or drive/pilot a "hero" vehicle. Well, usually. I've been on Teir A shows where they used "hero car" simply to refer to the lead protagonist's "picture car" even though there were 3 other "hero cars". But the picture car terms are a whole other lecture.
Needless to say, hero weapons, items (sometimes aka props), and vehicles are usually the coolest because they were the most featured in the production and are likely the closest to being what the movie or show wanted us to believe they were.
Unless you're an SPFX demo specialist weirdo who likes seeing the twisted carnage of an explosive gag. To them, that shit is the coolest.
But those guys are nuts.
___
Note: This is my North American experience. The rest of the world doesn't use the same lexicon. Some terms are shared, others are entirely different depending on which continent or country you're in, even between English-speaking ones. Hell, different teams have their own internal lexicon.
So, take it all with a grain of salt, and spare some pity for 2nd ADs across the world who have to deal with all this terminology and lingo.