Revolver-carrying luddites in fiction

[Dr.Rob]

Sean Penn in "Colors".

 

[HiVel1]

Hunphrey Bogart in a lot of old "grey " movies -he also carried and shot a Luger, a bunch of Colt 380 autos, a broomhandle and some other stuff-machine guns and cannons too!

Bond carried an S&W 45 Colt - 6"- in one movie about the voodoo thing.

 

[rikman]

SFPD Motorcycle cop in Bullitt & steve McQueen

Model 58 & Colt Diamondback

 

[rikman]

Clive Owen in Inside Man

Ruger GP-100

 

[harmon rabb]

Read urban fiction? Harry Dresden.

 

[skt239]

The stereotypical old white Irish cop on law and order is another. His name escapes me at the moment...

 

[jhvaughan2]

OK so it's not a revolver but I always loved how PFC Vasquez's carries a S&W model 39 as her back up gun.
That's pretty "ludite" for the 22nd century isn't it?

 

[bugmania]

Starksy and Hutch. Starsky with the autoloader and Hutch with the wheel gun.

 

[JFrame]

OK so it's not a revolver but I always loved how PFC Vasquez's carries a S&W model 39 as her back up gun.
That's pretty "ludite" for the 22nd century isn't it?

...Not to mention Hicks with his pump shotgun...


.

 

[Devonai]

Fun fact, it was actually producer Gale Ann Hurd's hands firing the S&W 39 in the climactic final scene with Vasquez, as Jenette Goldstein couldn't handle the weapon properly.

I also have to plug my own fiction, as I have a character who carries and uses a S&W 625 "Model of 1988" rather profusely.

 

[Nullcone]

Ack!

Some other character in fiction packs a webley...can't remember off hand

This is the one I am trying to remember! My google-fu is week tonight.

The main character carries a .476 while everyone else carries lasers or .17 caliber electromagnetic rail guns (pistols).

It's an "alternate timeline" type story that diverges from reality at the time of the Whiskey Rebellion; in fact the WR has a different outcome and serves as the catalyst for the divergence.

I seem to remember simians being on the same level as man, a la Planet of the Apes.

There is a quote in the book along the lines of (not verbatim)...

"If muzzle blast was stopping power, you'd be the deadliest gunman on the planet."

One free interwebs win for whoever can spit the title and/or author out for me.

 

[kayak-man]

Dirk Pitt and his bowen. Some other character in fiction packs a webley...can't remember off hand

Dirk Pitt carried a .45 Colt (Except in Pacific Vortex, when he had a Mauser C92). I'm pretty sure that it was a 1911A1, but I think they mention a 14 round magazine in one of the books (I'm thinking it was either Treasure or Inca Gold.)

Kurt Austin is the Cussler character who carries the Ruger Blackhawk converted by Bowen Arms to a .50. He actually fits the trope better, as he also collects the old dueling pistols.

The Webley-Fosbery automatic revolver was carried by the Big Bad in Pacific Vortex.

Another Literary example is the Nightcrawler in Dead Six, written by our on Larry Correia and Mike Kupari.

Colonel Quatrich in Avatar carried a revolver, albeit a very futuristic one.

Lets not forget almost the whole cast of Firefly and Serenity as well.

Chris "the Kayak-Man" Johnson

 

[screwtape2713]

Just a little reality check here. ... All that said, the revolver doesn't really give up that much in a real gunfight. Few down and dirty, fight-or-die shootouts, be they police or civilian defensive shoots, would be lost to a well employed revolver and won by some semi-auto. In a real fight, revolver or auto matters little. Honestly, do you think Jerry Miculek or Bob Munden (or countless cops "from the day" that knew how to use their revolvers) would be at a big disadvantage in a firefight with a revolver?

Unfortunately, I can't locate the source tonight, but there is a quote I remember from the late 1980s or early 90s, when the revolver vs. semi-auto debate was being fought out in police departments across the US and Canada.

An NYPD detective shot it out with a thug. He survived unharmed; the thug died on the spot. Afterwards, the officer was asked if he had felt badly outgunned facing down a criminal armed with the latest style .45ACP autoloader while he only had a .38Spl snubby revolver.

His answer (which has stuck in my memory for about 20 years):

"Me shooting straight, with my .38,
Beat him giving me jive, with his .45."

Or as Bill Jordan used to say: "Speed is deadly, but accuracy is fatal." And "I've yet to hear of a man being killed by a fast noise."

 

[CajunBass]

Dr. Temperance Brennan (AKA "Bones") has been know to pull what looks like a .500 S&W from her purse a time or two.

Sealey Booth carried a revolver on that show at first too, I believe.

 

[19-3Ben]

The stereotypical old white Irish cop on law and order is another. His name escapes me at the moment...

Lennie Briscoe, played by Jerry Orbach. He was an uncle of one of my good friends. Decent fella in real life from what I've heard. Never got to meet him.

 

[Striker]

Brendan Fraser uses a pair of Chamelot-Delvigne Model 1873s in "The Mummy", a S&W Triple Lock in "The Mummy Returns", and a S&W Smith & Wesson Military & Police and Colt SAA in the "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor".

 

[Zaydok Allen]

French in The Departed. Colt Python. Everyone else is carrying Sigs, Berrettas, and Walthers. I love that movie.

Oh yeah, another one from The Departed.



David O'Harra with a S&W 36.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Funny as hell.



I love the random anger shooting in this scene.

Ok I'm not sure if it fits in this thread, but all the other guns in this movie are machine guns, and Dr. Gonzo is rolling around with a .357. It's just classic imagery too. Sorry if it doesn't fit due to the erra it is suppossed to be taking place in. S&W Model 19

 

[HiVel1]

Wrong era but neat guns- is OK with me= how about the murder weapon in one of Bogies thrillas -a "Webley -Fosbery Automatic" revolver . Really neat -look it up!

 

[screwtape2713]

Brendan Fraser uses a pair of Chamelot-Delvigne Model 1873s in "The Mummy", a S&W Triple Lock in "The Mummy Returns", and a S&W Smith & Wesson Military & Police and Colt SAA in the "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

I don't know that Brendan Fraser's weapon choices in the Mummy movies exactly fit the OP's "old-fashioned and out of date" motif -- the movies were set between the World Wars when revolvers were still very much current issue weapons with most armies and police forces throughout the world. In the harsher backwaters, even the SAAs weren't all that old-fashioned a choice then given their reputation at the time for being more ruggedly reliable than DA revolvers.

 

[Striker]

screwtape:

Point taken sir.

 

[GCBurner]

This is the one I am trying to remember! My google-fu is week tonight.

The main character carries a .476 while everyone else carries lasers or .17 caliber electromagnetic rail guns (pistols).

It's an "alternate timeline" type story that diverges from reality at the time of the Whiskey Rebellion; in fact the WR has a different outcome and serves as the catalyst for the divergence.

I seem to remember simians being on the same level as man, a la Planet of the Apes.

There is a quote in the book along the lines of (not verbatim)...

"If muzzle blast was stopping power, you'd be the deadliest gunman on the planet."

One free interwebs win for whoever can spit the title and/or author out for me.

Sounds like one of L. Neil Smith's "Probability Broach" SciFi series. He gives his characters from an alternate reality a lot of interesting guns, including the Webley, and the Dardick "revolver".

Capt. Mal Reynolds in "Firefly" and "Serenity" also carries a revolver, and his First Officer carries a "Mare's Leg" sawed-off carbine.

 

[Comedian]

Deckart in Blade Runner.

While the prop of Deckard's sidearm has a revolver incorporated into it, the film never actually identifies it as one, nor does it ever intimate that the design is outdated. In fact, several people other than Deckard are using it, suggesting that it's fairly popular.

edit: Also both Tango & Cash carry revolvers in the movie of the same name. Tango with a S&W Model 36 Chief's Special and Cash has a Ruger GP100 that's fitted with what appears to be some kind of video recording equipment (how in god's name does that fit into a holster?).

 

[Quoheleth]

In his novels Robert B. Parker usually has/had Spenser carrying a "Smith & Wesson .38 revolver with a short barrel." One would assume Model 10 or 15. Other times he kept a .357 Magnum in his desk drawer and would occassionally carry it. Again, I assume a model 19. On the TV shows, Hawk packed a Python, either nickle or stainless, or a Smith 629.

On the season finale of Psyche two weeks ago, Henry (Spenser's dad) was shot by a dirty ex-cop with a j-frame.

FWIW, I saw a county sheriff's deputy yesterday with a revolver on his Sam Browne. He had pulled someone over and I was passing by so I didn't get a good look at it.



Q

 

[Zaydok Allen]

While the prop of Deckard's sidearm has a revolver incorporated into it, the film never actually identifies it as one

THANK YOU for pointing that out. I have heard that coment so many times, and it just isn't true when you look at what the prop is supposed to represent. When he shoots it in the movie, there is no revolution of a cylinder.

I was looking at a 4" Chiappa Rhino awhile ago, and the salesm said to me "Have you ever seen Bladerunner?" I responded "Yes I have." He responded "That gun looks just like the one Harrison Ford used in that movie!" All I could think was "Ummmm...... no it doesn't. Have YOU seen Blade Runner?" I was polite though, and just said thanks and left.

Anyway, back to it.