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Greatest Beams In Movie History
_Laban_ writes "Vue Weekly has summarized the greatest beams in movie history. From the article: 'They slice us, they disintegrate us, they roast us alive, they level our greatest monuments and pinpoint our deepest fears.'"
Zzzzzzap!
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
Slow news day?
...Jim Beam?
Yeah, I'll be quiet now...
Sampizcat
Logan's Run has one of the first (if not the first) use of the laser special effects that went on to be used in Star Wars. Other bonuses include Michael York's terrible acting and Jenny Agutter with a minimum of clothing. Apparently a remake is in the works...
Probably had more beams in his stories than all of Hollywood put together.
Ah, Space opera. Link for the unenlightened.
Zzzzzzap!
They used a zapper because the laser didn't quite phase her??
Thank you, I'll be here all week.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
...but couldn't the space be saved for something a lil more meaningful?
Your right! By posting this story they now won't have space for the article on the **AA saying "Screw it you can have all the songs/movies you want for free!"
chown -R us
What? No sharks with frickin laser beams?
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2B1ASK1
The most fearful one is the sunbeam. It makes people turn browner. It's why I hide in my mom's basement under the cool glow of flourescent tubes and LCD monitors all day long, to avoid the terrible sun beams...
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Not only can it vaporize druglords and pop corn, but it can point the way to a campus party. Now /that's/ utility!
Could this open some eyes and increase interest in alternative (Linux, Mac) offerings?
Why isn't Buzz Lightyear's blinking red LED (with SOUND!) on the list?
Let the commencement BEGINULATE!
My favorite was the beam in the corridor outside the Red Queen's chamber in Resident Evil. You think the trespassers have a chance, then it switches into checkerboard mode.
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How about video games?
The Freespace 2 slicer beams were the coolest sounding beams I've ever seen.
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Dalek scary 'turns the whole world negative' for the over 25s and 'turns people into x-rays' for the current kiddy-winks. Plus it's the only beam with a catch-phrase...
Justin.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
Oh yeah, so the Mako Gun from Final Fantasy VII just didn't cut it? I'm insulted.
I kid you not. Flesh Gordon featured the sex ray from the planet Porno. I have to admit i saw that movie and, well, it sucks.
What about those Care Bear Beams?
"Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."
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C'mon, people, how can you forget Cyclops from the X-men and his eye beams. And of course, there what disaster film wouldn't be complete with the similarly named, but completely different I-Beams collapsing at just the right time for dramatic purposes?
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
Okay, so that's a fair bunch of beams from movies, but what about from computer games?
I think I'll have to say that my personal favourite would have to be the beam weapons from FreeSpace II.
It was something grand with piloting your little fighter craft in a dense nebula and all of a sudden have a massive beam cut through just beside you, and then seeing a cruiser come out of the mist just as it's preparing to fire again... The knowing that if you'd been just slightly further in that direction you wouldn't even have had time to blink before you were reduced to space dust... That game had really nice atmosphere (pardon the pun)!
and the Dark Beams that came from the strage rotating evil lighthouse in the middle of hell? I think those were pretty noteworthy. although on a relative level of importance/interest this thread sucks
Don't take it personally, I 'm like this all the time.
"Energize the demolition beam. I don't know. Apathetic bloody planet."
There is a scene early in the HHGTTG movie where Arthur Dent is enjoying a nice cup of tea; he leans back to contemplate the immenent destruction of his house and the camera tilts upwards to show a simply lovely faux-Elizabethen wooden beam on the ceiling. I'd say it was early B&Q, probably from their "homely cottage" period. Magnificent: ripe, woody and with that nice fake crackulature effect. Sadly this scene was cut from the theatrical release, but we can hope its restored in the DVD with full commentary from cast members and local archeologists.
Sailing over the event horizon
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die."
- Roy Batty, Blade Runner
Great speech to go out on. Most spectacular beams in movies and they're not even shown. Sometimes what you don't see is the most compelling of all.
Sailing over the event horizon
President Skroob: "I'll be down immediately."
Cmdr. Zircon: "Shall I have Snotty beam you down?
President Skroob: "I don't know about that beaming stuff. Is it safe?"
Cmdr. Zircon: "Oh, yes. Snotty beamed me twice last night. It was wonderful."
President Skroob: "Alright, I'll take a shot at it. What the Hell, it works on Star Trek."
One of the most disturbingly funny movies ever made.
Ranks right on up there with the Rocky Horror Picture Show for sheer... ummmm.... merry perversion?
Why can't I mod "-1 Idiot"?
Actually, the joke was a reference to the penultimate episode of the new 'Doctor Who' series (*), so it was neither particularly unoriginal, nor out of context.
I'll refrain from explaining how, in the light of this, your post makes you look like a major-league ****- that much is blindingly apparent anyway. I'll also refrain from making the obvious joke because (a) I hate that show and (b) It really *wouldn't* be funny this time.
(*) Not particularly spoilerish: The penultimate episode of the series (effectively the first of a two part story) featured a futuristic version of 'The Weakest Link' with a killer 'Anne Droid' robot (har har). Rather too silly (and unimaginative) for my tastes, but the final episode was better.
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And what about the Wave Motion Gun? Sure, technically it isn't a movie beam, but its got to be the greatest beam ever, or at least the most influential. Virtually every anime since Space Battleship Yamato has featured a Wave Motion Gun knockoff. Besides, you just can't beat that blister effect...
"Mission Accomplished" -- George W. Bush May 1, 2003
"Do you understand the mechanism?" "Yes, Doctor Morbius, a simple blaster".
The big point defense beams that outlined the Monster From the Doc's Id.
Hey, even the force-field fence that initially revealed it...
The tractor beam was not even mentioned. Another failure in this, well maybe not a failure since it was never seen in action....The shark head mounted frickin laser beams. Those are a couple of my favorite beams.
Not to mention the Vorlon super-beam on their planetkillers in season 4. They had the same destructive power as the dreaded death star beam in StarWars although they had a much more sinister firing sequence where you could see that the entire Vorlon ship was basically just one big gun as the ship started gathering energy at the back and then energy proceeded along the perimeter of the ship untill it reached the front with the actual gun-mount.
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Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer.
Come on, I know the first Resident Evil movie wasn't all that good on the whole, but the laser sequence when the soldiers were in the passage to the Red Queen's chamber was the best part! Who could forget the memorable quotes that were uttered there, such as "It's coming back!" and "You're going into shock.. Stay with me.. Stay awake!!"? Or where the team leader is sliced into tiny pieces by the laser when he would have survived if he'd just taken a step back. A classic movie? No, but a great laser sequence, you betcha!
The best ray in Doctor Who is the defabricator and it's devestating effects
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups. -- 0 1 My two bits
frigging sharks with frigging laserbeams on their heads?
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups. -- 0 1 My two bits
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... he met with the people who owned it, and they didn't take him at all seriously. So he took the Flash Gordon trailers -- the diagonal titles that talk about the universe at that point [he means the opening story synopsis that seems to recede from the viewer as it scrolls up] -- and sort of combined it with a Stanley Kubrick '2001' world and created his own 'Flash Gordon.' " Lucas says the characters of "Star Wars" are not originals but "tributes."
Here it is, straight from Lucas' first Hollywood boss and fellow USC graduate, Francis Ford Coppola: "George wanted to do Flash Gordon
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
The Shadow planetkillers were downright sinister....
To be honest, though, I liked the pulse guns that you saw on the "lesser" ships. The B5 defense system, starfuries, Drazi ships, and even some of the human battlecruisers. For some reason, when I think of energy-based weapons, a rapid pulse energy-based weapon seems more realistic.
A lot of modern cutting lasers are femtolasers. The laser beam actually hitting the target has better cutting/penetrating power than continuous contact, so you solve that problem by having a laser that does a billion pulses a minute.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
Anyone that thinks that the [adjective] beam from [TV series] was superior clearly has [disgusting substance] for brains.
The [adjective] coolness of my choice is [superlative].
But I suppose the [adjective] beam from [book title] was really the winner. If they'd only made that into a [visual medium], it would *so* beat all the other choices.
Argue with that.
Except for one major problem: The Cube featured not laser beam one. The scene you describe was a razor-sharp screen of cyclone fence.
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I actually preferred the purple "slicer" beam from the Shadow vessles. Pretty cool how they would fire the beam, it didn't first touch its target, but then sliced through the target, until it emerged from the other side of the target, once again firing into empty space. In one of the episodes, about midway through the saga, a shadow vessle slices an entire Narn battle cruiser in half. (This is when main Narn force is diverted to a battle that they believe will give them victory, but are ambushed by Shadows, thus destroying their main fighting force, while the Centuari meanwhile attack the Narn homeworld using mass drivers.)
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