Gun Arm

A Gun Arm is a prosthesis, any prosthesis to replace a humanoid appendage which is also a serviceable weapon. This is commonly found in science fiction and action movies which were produced around the turn of the millennium and have relative frequency in American and Japanese popular culture.

imilar but not the same

There are many similar phenomenons in Science Fiction. One huge similarity is the Gauntlet. While a gauntlet can appear from the outside to be a prosthesis, there is a very important fundamental idea here: to be qualified as a gun arm, the weapon is a replacement for the original appendage.

Notable Characters with Gun Arms

Adam (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer)

For a few episodes, the human/demon/cyborg hybrid villain Adam, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, had installed a gun (and a grenade launcher) into his arm as part of an upgrade. This was revealed in the fourth-season episode Primeval, in which the final confrontation between Buffy and Adam takes place.

Ami Hyuga

Ami Hyuga is a schoolgirl in the live-action Japanese movie Machine Girl, who loses her arm. Her newfound mechanic friend builds a replacement for her, "out of steel". Her new arm is a machine gun.

Ash Williams

In Army of Darkness, Ash has a chainsaw replacing his right hand.

Barret Wallace

In the Square Enix game Final Fantasy VII, Barret has a gun prosthetic grafted to his arm.

Borg, The

One of Star Trek's most notable nemeses was the Borg. The various cybernetic additions to certain members of the Borg collective included projectile weapons replacing arms. Due to the hive mind of the Borg collective, these weapons could be fired with deadly triangulation at a moment's notice.

Henry Dorsett Case

In William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer, the character Case sports a gun arm.

Cherry Darling

In the segment Planet Terror of the movie Grindhouse the characters end up replacing replacing Cherry's lost leg with a modified stockless-M4 carbine with an underslung M203 grenade launcher

Cybermen

Certain models of the Cybermen of Doctor Who are equipped with retractable energy weapons housed within their forearms.

Edward Elric

In the Anime series Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward often uses alchemy to transform his automail arm (a form of prosthetic) into a bladed weapon.

Gunnar Armstrong

Gunnar Armstrong is a villain in X-men. His gun was a fully automatic 12 gauge Pancor Jackhammer.

Klaw

The molybdenum steel solidified sound generator that serves as a prosthetic appliance which replaces Klaw's right hand.

Megaman

The Nintendo video game character, Megaman, has a laser cannon in the arm that is facing the Fourth Wall.

Megatron

The Transformers evil nemesis, has an arm-mounted fusion cannon, which is capable of mass devastation. Megatron's subsequent incarnation as Galvatron dispensed with this ability, though the weapon into which Galvatron transformed was still more destructive.

Vash: The Stampede

In the Manga and Anime series, Trigun, The $$6,000,000,000.00 Man's Left arm is Cybernetic and converts into an integrated firearm.

His right arm converts into a very powerful cannon called Angel Arm.

Weapons of Vash

Other Instances in Popular Culture

Pen and Paper Gaming

The roleplaying game Shadowrun allows for a gun arm to be selected as a body modification, available in lower-arm and complete arm versions. Due to its relatively low cost, it is often preferred over other prostheses, though its major failing is its lack of concealability, due in large part to the lack of a hand on the end (though this can be advantageous as fewer neural connections are needed to install it). [cite book
last = Boyle
first = Rob
coauthors =
title = Shadowrun
publisher = Catalyst Game Labs
date = 2007
pages = pp. 336-337
month = November
isbn = 097920478X ]

Music

[http://lyricwiki.org/The_Program The Program] , an aggressive punk band, wrote their debut album "Artificial Unintelligence" in January 2003. On that was a track called [http://lyricwiki.org/The_Program:Use_Your_Machine_Gun_Arm Use Your Machine Gun Arm] .

ee also

* Cybernetics
* Prosthetics
* Science Fiction

References

External links