Geek Syndicate
The “Japanese Way” Award: Samurai Sword - Blade
When Blade came to town, he packed a veritable arsenal with
him, including that double-bladed boomerang knife thing that
he threw around the room (Krull’s Glaive deserves a mention here
too, being more akin to the Smart-Disc in Predator 2 - a combination throwing star and boomerang). But what makes his Samurai
sword just pip Connor MacLeod’s 2000 year old Samurai sword in
Highlander, was the fail-safe in the handle. If you picked the sword
up but didn’t deactivate the guard, the four spring-loaded blades
in the handle would quite literally shred your hand.
The “Sounds Deadly” Award: Weirding Module – Dune
In the original Dune books, the “weirding way” is an higher plain,
almost religious, form of martial arts. For the big-screen version,
David Lynch replaced the “weirding way” with Weirding Modules,
which convert certain sounds into powerful blasts of sonic energy.
Eventually, Paul learns to kill without the module at all but it was a
great piece of kit.
Honourable mentions for other sonic weapons include the Tom
Cruise’s Sonic Shotgun in Minority Report.
The “Swiss Army Knife” Award: The Sonic Screwdriver –
Doctor Who
Is it a weapon? Of course it is! The intergalactic Leatherman MultiTool didn’t just repair or sabotage stuff – it could do harm as well.
And if you don’t think any of The Doctor’s dozen or so revisions
could do you any harm, then let’s see how you fair against The
Master’s Laser version …
An honourable mention must go to Varian’s crystalline ‘tuning
fork’ device named the Sonic Energizer as seen in