"Phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range."

[Lucky]

Anyway, how do you "phase" a plasma? It's just intended to indicate he's asking for something not invented yet

Whether you use lasers or particle beams, you'll need a bit over a kilojoule of output energy to reliably incapacitate a human target. In the case of a laser weapon, that energy would be subdivided into ~1 joule pulses at ~5 microsecond intervals, to achieve penetration in the face of a laser's natural tendency to deposit energy at the target's surface. Particle beams don't have that problem; boost the electrons up to a few hundred MeV, and you can dump the whole kilojoule's worth at once.

The plasma clears away easily in that time frame; debris is the real issue, and the driving force between the 5 microsecond pulse rate. That allows roughly 90% of the debris to clear the beam path, assuming a 1mm beam and instantaneous 1J pulses. 1 joule every 5 microseconds is optimal against soft tissue, other materials will want different pulse trains.

It was recently revealed that the US military was researching a rather alarming line of less-lethal weapons, the Pulsed Energy Projectile (PEP) program.

(As a side note, understand that there is no such thing as a "non-lethal" weapon. This is because any weapon or gas that can reliably incapacitate or render unconscious a 300 pound world wrestling champion will be strong enough to instantly kill a small child or elderly person.)


PEP weapons fire a laser pulse that is very intense but only a fraction of a second in duration. The pulse vaporizes a tiny portion of the hapless victim's clothing or skin, creating a plasma burst intense enough to knock the victim to the ground. This was intended to be used for crowd control. I don't know about you but it seems to me that a pulse strong enough to knock one down is also strong enough to make one's eyeballs explode if it hit your face. But I digress.

However, during test performed on animals, the researchers noticed something unexpected. The pulses were creating pain and temporary paralysis in the test animals. As it turns out, certain pulses would create a plasma burst emitting an electromagnetic signal of proper frequency to artificially stimulate the nerve endings in the animal's skin.

The 'phase' part could be one of several things, #1 it could be like a phased-array of laser diodes

Phase-locked diode laser arrays
Lots of microlasers on a chip, all working together. Extremely efficient, if you can actually get them to work together.

#2 it could be that there is something changing frequency

I also mentioned earlier that lasers would likely have to have pulse energy and frequency tuned to the specific material being targeted. It might be possible to do this automatically, based on crude spectoanalysis of the material vaporized in each pulse, but if not expect penetration to be roughly halved if a laser weapon is fired at a target it has not been optimized for.

Or perhaps something altogether different.

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3l.html

 

[asiparks]

i noticed that the 1911's (which were used extensively by Sarah Connor and The Terminator) not only had their hammers back, but also used seven shots. nice

heh ! count the shots from the T1000's 1911 in the scene where our heroic trio run into the elevators to escape from the asylum...around 21 with no reload...but as it was insanely cool, it's safe to let it slide....

 

[hotsauce]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H47QlGq3zQ4

Here's the clip. Enjoy.

 

[Kael]

I thought that doc said "I'll be your huckleberry" when he met some guy in a stand of trees... in the movie..

it was when Doc fought Johnny Ringo, because he knew Earp couldn't beat him.
I've seen it a...few times. good flick.

 

[evan price]

Billy Clanton: Why, it's the drunk piano player. You're so drunk, you can't hit nothin'. In fact, you're probably seeing double.
[Billy Clanton draws a knife]
Doc Holliday: [takes out a second gun] I have two guns, one for each of ya.

Val Kilmer played that part to perfection.

Although the Huckleberry line was said first, when Holliday was sitting on the porch in the barber's chair, and Johnny Ringo says, "Isn't anyone here man enough to play for blood?"
Holliday stands up and draws a pistol that he holds behind his back at the ready and says, "I'll be your huckleberry."

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Only on THR do we dissect movie quotes about weapons that haven't been invented
Terminator 2 has been on a lot lately. The lever action shotgun is pretty cool. Not something you see every day.
Now...in the first scene of T2, ahnold goes into the bar and confronts a biker that matches his size and asks for his clothes, boots, and motorcycle. The guy is eventually thrown into the kitchen and lands on the grill burning his hands badly. He tries to rack the slide on his 1911 with his sleeve since his hand is so burnt and doesn't make it work. Yet another reason to carry cocked and locked (although against a terminator it doesn't matter what you have short of a phased plasma rifle )

 

[Lucky]

They eye's on the H.K. model are susceptible to damage

 

[Kr4kJ4k]

here's an interesting link to the origin of the phrase "I'll be your huckleberry"
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-huc1.htm

 

[kjeff50cal]

As huckleberries are small, dark and rather insignificant, in the early part of the nineteenth century the word became a synonym for something humble or minor, or a tiny amount. An example from 1832: “He was within a huckleberry of being smothered to death”. Later on it came to mean somebody inconsequential. Mark Twain borrowed some aspects of these ideas to name his famous character, Huckleberry Finn. His idea, as he told an interviewer in 1895, was to establish that he was a boy “of lower extraction or degree” than Tom Sawyer.

Also around the 1830s, we see the same idea of something small being elaborated and bombasted in the way so typical of the period to make the comparison a huckleberry to a persimmon, the persimmon being so much larger that it immediately establishes the image of something tiny against something substantial. There’s also a huckleberry over one’s persimmon, something just a little bit beyond one’s reach or abilities; an example is in David Crockett: His Life and Adventures by John S C Abbott, of 1874: “This was a hard business on me, for I could just barely write my own name. But to do this, and write the warrants too, was at least a huckleberry over my persimmon”.

Quite how I’m your huckleberry came out of all that with the sense of the man for the job isn’t obvious. It seems that the word came to be given as a mark of affection or comradeship to one’s partner or sidekick. There is often an identification of oneself as a willing helper or assistant about it, as here in True to Himself, by Edward Stratemeyer, dated 1900: “ ‘I will pay you for whatever you do for me.’ ‘Then I’m your huckleberry. Who are you and what do you want to know?’ ”. Despite the obvious associations, it doesn’t seem to derive directly from Mark Twain’s books.

I stand partially corrected .

 

[G36-UK]

I kept wondering why I remembered the line as being from Aliens.
...

The first time I saw the movie was in the "special edition".

Me too. Want me to quote that part too?

it was 40 kilowatt if I remember correctly.

It was 40 watt, but in the S.M. Stirling novels, it was changed to 40 kilowatt, mainly because it seemed more realistic.

heh ! count the shots from the T1000's 1911 in the scene where our heroic trio run into the elevators to escape from the asylum...around 21 with no reload...but as it was insanely cool, it's safe to let it slide....

As far as I know, that's a Browning Hi-Power that he got off the unfortunate Lewis.

Yet another reason to carry cocked and locked (although against a terminator it doesn't matter what you have short of a phased plasma rifle)

Heh. Good point. I'm pretty sure a .50BMG would do okay against the 800 Series (Probably why the Governator banned them).

 

[Red Tornado]

Yet another source....with references yet!
http://home.earthlink.net/~knuthco1/Itemsofinterest1/huckleberrysource.htm

On and off I hear discussions in which people speculate on the exact origin and meaning is of the quaint idiom used by Doc Holliday in the movie "Tombstone." I've heard some wild suggestions, including "huckleberry" meaning "pall-bearer" suggesting "I'll bury you."

Still others think it has something to do with Mark Twain's character, Huckleberry Finn, and means "steadfast friend, pard." This is unlikely, since the book of that title was not written until 1883. Tom Sawyer was written in 1876, but nowhere there is the term "huckleberry" used to mean "steadfast friend" or the like.

Still others claim that a victor's crown or wreath of huckleberry is involved, making the statement "I'm your huckleberry" something like "I'll beat you!" But no such reference can be found in the historical materials supporting the use of this term in 19th century America. Additionally, "huckleberry" was native to North America so it's unlikely it was used in ancient Britain as a prize!

Solutions to such questions are actually very easy to find, since there are numerous dictionaries of the English language in its various periods, and there are dictionaries of English slang. These works simply cull from books, magazines, and newspapers of the period representative usages of the words to illustrate their meaning. I consulted several of these and found the expression to have a very interesting origin.

"Huckleberry" was commonly used in the 1800's in conjunction with "persimmon" as a small unit of measure. "I'm a huckleberry over your persimmon" meant "I'm just a bit better than you." As a result, "huckleberry" came to denote idiomatically two things. First, it denoted a small unit of measure, a "tad," as it were, and a person who was a huckleberry could be a small, unimportant person--usually expressed ironically in mock self-depreciation. The second and more common usage came to mean, in the words of the "Dictionary of American Slang: Second Supplemented Edition" (Crowell, 1975):

"A man; specif., the exact kind of man needed for a particular purpose. 1936: "Well, I'm your huckleberry, Mr. Haney." Tully, "Bruiser," 37. Since 1880, archaic.

The "Historical Dictionary of American Slang" which is a multivolume work, has about a third of a column of citations documenting this meaning all through the latter 19th century.

So "I'm your huckleberry" means "I'm just the man you're looking for!"

Now ain't that a daisy!

The "Daisy" comment is easier. In the late 19th century "daisy" was a common slang term for "the best in it's class." So for "daisy" just substitute "the best" and you'll have it. It was a short-lived idiom and doesn't seem to be popular much after 1890.

I've been hearing the huckle bearer stuff for a while, but I think this seems more likely...and more documented.
RT

 

[Creeping Incrementalism]

I too watched T2 this weekend on cable. And again a few weeks before that. And again a few months before that.

Regarding the first Terminator, in the scene where he shoots up the police station, what kind of rifle is he using?

I heard that Arnold's casting as the terminator was actually something forced on Cameron by the studio. One reason Cameron deliberately had few lines for the Terminator was because he wasn't sure of Arnold's acting ability--I've never heard anything about Arnold considering the Reese character. Originally, the terminator was supposed to be a normal-looking person, and the actor who played Bishop in aliens was used by Cameron as a terminator in some stunt he used to pitch the movie idea to the studio.

 

[AJ Dual]

The Plasma rifles as supplied to the Terminators by Skynet have two "barrels". While it creates the impression of being an OICW type weapon firing two different things, The skinny underbarrel is an ultraviolet laser that creates an electricaly conductive ionization path in the atmosphere that the plasma bolt from the upper barrel can follow to the target.

As compared to pen pointers which can begin to burn holes in paper and thin plastic at just 50 milliwats or so, 40 Watts of UV is pretty huge. And "40 Watt Range" which would initialy seem to confuse distance and power, (or just be a range of Wattage) could mean a 40 watt UV laser that reliably creates an ionization path out to a certain distance for the plasma shot to follow.

That's at least the lore that's grown up around the "Plasma Rifle" from the Terminator franchise, (admittedly after the fact, from the movie dialouge) and it does bear at least some semblance to real-world physics. There actualy is development of "wireless tazers" that use UV lasers to create conduction ionization paths for the disabling electric charge to strike the target, so perhaps firing something more deadly down that ionization path is not such a stretch.

 

[rocinante]

Yeah concerning Doc Holiday and the movies I always just yell at the screen when Doc Holiday in the 1957 Gunfight at O.K. Corral says he was from Philadelphia. Doc Holiday was from Newnan GEORGIA! Don't get your history from Hollywood folks.

You guys don't have a plasma rifle? For 19.99 I will sell you a easy DIY home kit. I also have a steal deal on an old bridge in Brooklynn New York.

 

[Dravur]

If I remember Right.

and who knows, maybe I don't. A huckleberry is also the name of a holster, kind of like an across the chest shoulder rig. A few CAS use them and I have heard them referred as such. Now, I have no idea why he would say "I'm your shoulder holster" but it is another definition.

Hehe

 

[G36-UK]

I too watched T2 this weekend on cable. And again a few weeks before that. And again a few months before that.

I watched it two days ago for the first time in about a year. Sister's ex forgot to return it.

Regarding the first Terminator, in the scene where he shoots up the police station, what kind of rifle is he using?

It's an Armalite AR-180, with (IIRC) the stock removed.

I heard that Arnold's casting as the terminator was actually something forced on Cameron by the studio. One reason Cameron deliberately had few lines for the Terminator was because he wasn't sure of Arnold's acting ability--I've never heard anything about Arnold considering the Reese character.

Yep, the Behind the Scenes featurettes on the DVD gives you the story. Arnold was considered for Reese initially, but wanted to be Terminator, so the studio kind of put pressure on Cameron.

He was supposed to meet with Arnold for lunch, and got the idea to start a fight with him to "dissuade" him (he actually said to his friend "I'm going to pick a fight with Arnold, if it goes wrong, the TV and the stereo are yours").

He ended up liking Arnold, and agreed to give him the part.