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Subject: The Weapon From 'Predator' - What Is It?
EKAdams    12/31/2007 2:29:34 AM
A lot of speculation assumes that what the various films featuring Predators use, must be firing plasma bolts. However, upon reading here, taht seems quite unlikely. http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/PlasmaWeapons.html Judging by the characteristics, what could it be? It's a bolt of some sort, with a bright glow. It apears to super-heat the target, upon impact, sealing the wound and leaving "no powder burns". It's a bit slower than a bullet. Could it be possible that the glowing projectile is actually a tracer created out of heat? Something hot enough for the thermal vision of the mask to track, with the actual thing doing the damage being invisible? If so, then it would have to be moving at the same speed. What could it potentially be?
 
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EKAdams       12/31/2007 2:30:48 AM
That link should be there.
 
 
 
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WarNerd       12/31/2007 3:42:22 AM
The "Predator" gun uses standard BILWCM technology (But It Looks Way Cool, Man)
 
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Jeff_F_F       12/31/2007 8:34:20 AM
Basing scifi on science is good. It makes a story more realistic and plausible.
 
Analizing scifi as if it should be based on science is bad. Enjoy the scifi man! It's supposed to be fun, not science. That website really puts the "Anal" in analysis.
 
Most science fiction inherently relies on enormous amounts of handwavium. Frankly which is fine because it isn't *about* science. Even with extremely "hard" science fiction, the science should stay in the background and allow the story to be told, because the story is the important part.
 
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andyf       12/31/2007 11:44:30 AM
could be one of those incendiary rounds that were discussed a while back, held together with polymers so its mostly tracer
 
 
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Treadgar       1/21/2008 1:21:07 PM
Remember the first movie? There's Jesse Ventura. The Predator has him in his sights, then his chest blows open. There were what appeared to be some interesting thermal effects. Microwaves I thought at the time. But the weapon in the later movies have different effects....so who knows? 

Treadgar
 
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flamingknives       1/21/2008 5:32:23 PM
I would contend that to be Science Fiction, the science should be fairly sound, otherwise it's a fantasy story with a futuristic setting, where the alleged technology stands in for magic.

The best science fiction relies on only minimal amounts of handwavium, possibly just extrapolating from where we are now. Basically it's about how people interact with science. It happens to involve spaceships a fair amount of the time. That doesn't necessarily mean that anything with spaceships in is science fiction. The story is important, but not to the exclusion of all else - the best scifi mixes a compelling story with good science. Arthur C. Clarke is a good example, mixing a bit of handwavium (black blocks and the like) with solid amounts of orbital mechanics.
 
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Treadgar       1/22/2008 10:34:42 AM
I agree that there needs to be as little handwavium as possible, but I think the people who hang out here are a little different than your average person on the street, the ones I call "mundanes." The stuff we see is market driven. I can't count how many times I sit down and watch a scifi movie with mundanes and get told to be quiet. You see they're enjoying the movie and don't want to hear about  that science stuff. In space no one can hear you scream, but the screams go on for dramatic effect, reeling in the paying customers.

Treadgar
 
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Ehran       1/23/2008 11:55:19 AM

Remember the first movie? There's Jesse Ventura. The Predator has him in his sights, then his chest blows open. There were what appeared to be some interesting thermal effects. Microwaves I thought at the time. But the weapon in the later movies have different effects....so who knows? 

Treadgar

it's not at all impossible they were entirely different weapons sharing a common mounting point sort of like a mk 19 and a M2 sharing a common tripod mount.  predators seem to deploy a variety of different toys in the movies rather than being setup like soldiers with issued gear.
 
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Treadgar       1/24/2008 5:06:59 AM
 
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