Cool Guns/Assault Rifles

M16 assault rifle This has been the standard rifle issued to U.S. troops from Vietnam on, and the standard issue rifle of Canadian Forces Army personel under the name C7, and Mexico issues it own variant (which is how cartels have so many full auto AR type guns) Originally designed by Eugene Stoner as the Armalite AR-10 (7.62x51mm), and later AR-15 (5.56x45) rifles, the M16 was marketed originally by Colt, with current versions being manufactured by FN-USA. The elevated sight profile provided by the iconic carrying handle made the rifle much easier to control in automatic fire than the M14, and the AR's trademark "direct impingement" gas system eliminated a heavy gas piston from the design, making it lighter and more accurate. The gun is capable of making groups of less than 1 inch at 100 Yards, also called MOA (Minute of Angle) accuracy. Fires 5.56x45mm rounds in various configurations. M16A1s and A3s had semi and full automatic fire, M16A2s and A4s having semi and three round burst. Often used by the good guys in action movies. As it has been the basic combat rifle for the US and several other nations for decades, it's fairly ubiquitous in popular culture. Often depicted as horribly unreliable, though this is only actually true of the earliest versions, which were issued without cleaning instructions, cleaning kits, and using a dirtier burning ball powder and lacking chroming of the bore and chamber. This was probably the result of sabotage done by the Army, which did not want to replace the M14. However in the 2004 dust test, the M16 and the M4 did by far the worst out of all weapons tested. The M16 can be reliably in dirty conditions, so long as it is kept very well lubricated and thoroughly cleaned at least once a day, and given immediately attention after firefights; this is a weapon you have to put a bit of effort into taking care of. Due to its futuristic appearance and its light weight, it was often joked that the "M" in M16 stood for Mattel, and on that basis, some soldiers refused to use it in Vietnam. These looks, coupled with the fact that our military uses the M4, cause certain Stop Having Fun Guys to try to ban the AR and other guns like it based on certain cosmetic features. The platform, known as the AR15, is the basis of a huge number of variant designs, including the M4 [see below]. The M16's caliber has since become the standard for all wealthy first world nations. The gun is very popular in the US civilian firearms market, and dozens of manufacturers of different quality and price produce the AR, as well as its over 9000 different accessories and upper receivers of various lengths and calibers. The 16 inch barrel AR-16 dominates the world of tactical shooting and 3-gun, in no small part due to its exceptional inherent accuracy, as well and being the gun that millions of shooters, who were formerly in the armed forces, learned to use. It is the favorite gun of Mall Ninjas and all other sorts of shooters. The AR-15 is a rather expensive gun, with low end variants going for $600, but these are the most prone to being nightmarishly unreliable and the worst made. A quality AR will easily run you $1000 or more.
 * Cool Action: The "tap and slap," sometimes seen in military based films where the soldier who is reloading lightly taps the top of the magazine on his helmet before inserting the magazine into the rifle (this is to ensure the rounds are stacked correctly and prevent misfeeds) and hits the bolt release paddle with his palm, though its often shortened to just slapping the bolt release. This is also done with the M4. The tap action might end up being performed with any gun on the simple basis that it looks Badass, but is particularly associated with the M16.
 * Pretty much any video game in a modern war setting will include a member of the AR15 family.
 * "Say hello to my little friend!" Tony Montana of Scarface uses this with the underbarrel grenade launcher to mount a final stand against Sosa's assassins.
 * Mack Bolan used one.
 * Mack Bolan has likely used every firearm listed on this page by now.
 * Battlefield Bad Company has the M16A4.
 * As do all three Modern Warfare games, though outside of multiplayer it's a rare sight compared to the M4A1.
 * Shows up in Metal Gear Solid 3 as the XM16E1, despite being set before the introduction of the weapon. A Hand Wave explains that the Russians must have stolen one of the experimental versions. This does nothing to explain why they have so many suppressors for the weapons lying around, or the completely incompatible ammunition.
 * Duke Togo uses a scoped variant with a custom cheek pad.
 * In a Shout Out, the Sniper Rifle in Unreal Tournament is also a custom scoped M16. Which is presumably firing a much bigger bullet than in real life, as it can completely remove a target's head with one bullet.
 * Carried by the guards in Escape From New York and one is also use by the president in his CMOA at the end, notable in that for some bizzare reason the handguard and gas tube had been removed from ALL of them
 * And in the sequel Escape From LA, the rifle given to Snake before he goes into the city is a cut down M16 with a scope and some kibble added to make it look futuristic.
 * The M16A2 plays a big part in Operation Flashpoint, where it's the standard rifle of the U.S. soldiers and is given to the player in 90% of the missions. At one point, one of the other soldiers in the player's unit proclaims his admiration of it, saying: "It's beautiful. How could you not love it?"
 * Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising features the M16A4 in several configurations, as well as the M4A1. The ARMA series also features multiple versions of both the M16 and M4.
 * The Battlefield 2 mod Project Reality features the M16A4 as the primary weapon of the US Marine Corps faction, with an optional M203 launcher, ACOG scope, red dot sight, or a bayonet for when things get up close and personal.
 * In normal Battlefield 2, the USMC's Assault and Medic classes' primary weapon is an M16A4. The Assault class gets an attached M203.
 * Battlefield 3 is notable in that it includes both the full-auto M16A3 and the three-round-burst M16A4.
 * The flamethrower in Aliens was made from cut-up M16 recievers and an M203 handguard.
 * Used in both Left 4 Dead games.
 * Shows up in The Punisher so he can bitch about how it was a useless piece of plastic crap that got G Is killed in Vietnam.
 * Sometimes used by The A-Team.
 * The M16 with an M203 is an unlockable weapon in Black.
 * The "Service Rifle" in Fallout New Vegas is a full size AR-15 variant with red Bakelite furniture (often associated with Sudanese versions of the AR-10). It also features a charging handle on the side (the AR-18 is the only AR variant that has this) for some reason (possibly to reuse reloading animations from other weapons).
 * On Sons of Guns Vince and Will assemble and test several AR15 variants with a lightweight design (partially through selected parts, partially through the elimination of accessories) called the Katana.
 * 7.62 High Calibre features the M16, as well as numerous variants (chief among them the CAR-15, which is available earlier). The 5.56mm round is acceptable for shooting at long range, but the M4 hits the perfect balance between accuracy and compact size to make it useful in a wide variety of situations.
 * The M16A4 with M203 underneath is Eldritch's preferred weapon in the Whateley Universe. And she has super strength, so she can carry around a lot of ammo. Even on campus.

Colt M4 Carbine A modern weapon of choice for many civilian law enforcement and military units. The basic M4 (and the earlier CAR-15) was shorter and lighter than the M16. Also available as the fully automatic M4A1. The M4 has come to supplant other weapons in U.S. military usage and even the M16 both in real life somewhat (the shorter length improving maneuverability in enclosures such as vehicles) and moreso in fictional depictions. The shorter barrel does reduce the effective range of the weapon, so it won't completely replace the M16 any time soon. A large number of variants exist (sometimes derisively called M4geries), with the most common alteration being the use of a gas piston operation rather than the original direct impingement system to improve reliability; such weapons include the HK416, Bushmaster M4 Type Carbine, LWRC M6, and Barrett REC7. The vast majority of gas-piston variants are semi-auto rifles in civilian hands, meaning they'll never actually see conditions where the improvement in reliability could be meaningful.
 * Used in many television shows (such as The Unit) and movies (such as SWAT) involving firearms. If it involves special forces, it's even more likely to appear.
 * Also in a number of video and computer games such as Metal Gear Solid 4 (Snake's signature weapon is the "M4 Custom" due to being the most customizable weapon in the game), ~America's Army~ (where there's both a regular M4A1 Carbine and a customizable M4A1 exclusive for Special Forces missions), Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games, the SOCOM series... if it's a military-themed shooter, an M4 or M4A1 variant is most likely in it.
 * Special mention should be made of the M4 in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, where, in the campaign, the SAS uses the M4 SOPMOD (Special Operations Peculiar MODification), which includes infrared laser, suppressor and other mods.
 * While the version in Modern Warfare 2 is often mistaken for an HK416, it's actually an M4 S-System, an airsoft gun developed by the Tokyo Marui Model Company that was based on the real weapon. It's essentially an M4 with an ARMS Selected Interface Rail, a PRI folding front sight and an ARMS #40L rear sight.
 * Black Ops features the CAR-15 as the "Commando"; it's apparently a customised model, replacing the carrying handle with an M4-style flat top rail.
 * The M4 appears as the primary weapon of the USMC's Special Forces class in Battlefield 2, fitted with a red dot scope.
 * The M4 appears in almost equal numbers to MP5 submachine guns in the hands of police SWAT teams in films and television. These M4's are hardly ever seen without some sort of accessory, be it flashlights, laser pointers, or some sort of red dot sight or close-range scope (sometimes all the above!).
 * Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) use CAR-15s during the infamous bank heist scene in Heat.
 * The HK416 appears in Battlefield Bad Company, as well as its sequel; in this case, it's renamed the "M416", apparently a pass at what its official designation would be if it were formally adopted by the US Army.
 * In the Killzone series, the LR300 (now known as the Para-Ordinance Tactical Target Rifle), an M4 variant using a patented gas system with no recoil buffer tube to allow the mounting of a side-folding stock, becomes the M82-G Assault Rifle used by the ISA. The M82-G has an early production handguard, and is shown as a bullpup (which would not function in real life). In the first game it has a non-functional tube reflex sight and an M203 grenade launcher; in the second, an EOTech holographic reflex sight and what appears to be a flashlight replacing the grenade launcher.
 * This is Max Payne's most powerful automatic weapon (apart from the Jackhammer).
 * A popular weapon in Counter-Strike, it is the standard assault rifle of the Counter-Terrorist team.
 * The "Assault Carbine" and "Marksman Carbine" in Fallout New Vegas are variants firing a fictional 5mm round and the standard 5.56mm round, respectively.

Armalite AR-18 A variant of the AR-15/M16 assault rifle. Using steel stampings as opposed to aircraft-grade aluminum forgings and a short-stroke gas piston as opposed to Stoner's direct impingement system, this 5.56x45mm assault rifle was intended to be a lower-cost version of the M16 for export and/or localized production in Third World countries; this by and large failed when the United States instead gave away M16s by the truckload to counter the Soviets doing the same with AK variants; the AR-18 only tended to be picked up by banana republics who didn't have enough bananas to afford the M16. It also served to keep Armalite in the firearms business, since they'd foolishly sold the AR-15/M16 patents to Colt, and the expiration of those patents was still 16 years away. Since neither the Americans nor the Soviets were particularly interested in The Troubles, quantities were purchased by the various splinter factions of the Irish Republican Army, to the point where their general strategy was referred to as "Armalite and ballot box." Then only First World nation to adopt it in large numbers was Japan, with the Self Defense Force selecting a modified, home-produced variant (the Howa Type 89) as their main service rifle in 1989. Although the design itself was a flop, both the SA80 (standard issue weapon of the British Army), and the G36 (standard issue weapon of the Bundswehr) can be considered spiritual successors to the weapon.
 * Cool Action:: most servicemen have learned to duct-tape two magazines together to unload and flip around for easy reloading. See also the M16
 * Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator.
 * Mal Reynolds in Serenity.
 * Carried by various mooks in the 1970's Bond movies.
 * Far Cry 2 has an oblique reference to this weapon in the form of the "Armalite AR-16," a fictional AR15-like platform named after the AR-18's obscure 7.62mm predecessor. This is seemingly just so that all the rifles in the game would be using 7.62mm ammo, forgetting that the AK series 7.62mm round isn't the same as the NATO one anyway.
 * The BBC mini Harry's Game, being set in 1970's Belfast, features this in the hands of some IRA types.

Heckler & Koch G36 This German assault rifle is starting to turn up all over the place in fiction due to its rather futuristic appearance. Developed from AR-18 action as a replacement for the G3 battle rifle, the G36 is used by numerous special police units and special forces units throughout the world, though use by actual militaries is somewhat less widespread, mainly due to the lack of compatibility with NATO STANAG magazines. Was the basis of the aborted XM8 assault rifle, which was essentially a G36 mechanism in a silly plastic body. The civilian versions, the SL8 semi-auto and R8 bolt-action, are among the most famously nerfed real-life firearms, and both are often mocked as being the "emasculated" versions of the G36 by firearm enthusiasts. There is a Mexican-designed rifle, the FX-05 Xiuhcoatl, whose suspiciously similar look made its designers the target of a lawsuit by Heckler & Koch, though it was dropped as soon as its inner working were proved to be completely different.
 * Doctor Who -- used by Van Staaten's forces in "Dalek", UNIT generally since 2005 and the British Army on occasions.
 * Primeval --.
 * Four Brothers -- used by the bad guys during the siege of the Mercer house.
 * Gaz's weapon of choice in Call of Duty 4.
 * Carried by the Mooks in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
 * And the Mooks in Equilibrium.
 * Also the mooks in V for Vendetta, both elite fingermen as well as British army grunts.
 * Rainbow Six 3 onwards.
 * The regular double-optic model (with an unusually short muzzle) is used by expert Freedomers and Loners in STALKER.
 * The rifles in the Doom movie are visually modified G36s.
 * J.D. and the team leader of the Umbrella response team use the K variant G36 in the first Resident Evil film.
 * In the James Bond movie Die Another Day, Moon's OICW rifle is actually a modified G36.
 * The XM8 rifles used in XXX: State of the Union are modified G36 rifles; the most obvious sign of this is that they still have hinges for folding stocks visible.
 * An SL8 was used in advertising materials for Perfect Dark, presumably standing in for one of the game's futuristic weapons.
 * The SL8 was usable in Resident Evil 4 as the "semi-auto rifle."
 * In FEAR, the "Rakow G2A2-C" assault rifle was essentially an SL8 fitted with a tiny C-Mag.
 * The basic STAR 556 rifle in All Points Bulletin is similar - SL8 stock and short G36C foregrip, but it uses a normal magazine instead of a C-Mag.
 * In Dead Fantasy Part V, the squad of special forces-esque soldiers at the end appear to be armed with G36 rifles fitted with silencers.
 * This weapon (particularly the G36K version) is becoming increasingly common in the various Stargate series, strangely enough. It was even Cameron Mitchell's Weapon of Choice.
 * The Rittergruppen rifles in Alpha Protocol are modeled after G36C.
 * Yet another weapon in Black.
 * Used (and referred to by name) by Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible III.
 * Features in the Combat Arms in 5 variants, . The 3 variants based around the G 36 E are generally considered game-breakers due to the ridiculously high damage, easy to control (but still high) recoil, and accuracy better than many sniper rifles.
 * Available in several variants in 7.62 High Caliber as an advanced assault rifle.

Steyr AUG Has been in Austrian service since 1977, also used by the Australian armed forces and the Irish Defence Forces. One of the most popular weapons with a bullpup design, with the magazine behind the trigger rather than in front. Extremely durable - one example could fire after being run over repeatedly by a 10-tonne truck. The weapon's distinctive and rather villainous appearance (the very narrow barrel and front section makes it almost appear the AUG is skulking behind the shooter's arm, up to no good) made it a favorite for arming the Big Bad or The Dragon until bullpups became more common around the millennium.
 * Cool Action: The "HK Slap" can be done on the AUG as well, due to the cocking handle being almost identical in location and design to the MP5's cocking handle. Also, inserting the barrel and slapping the secondary firing grip with their hand to lock it into position looks particularly badass, giving the impression that the user is about to get serious.
 * The Dragon in Die Hard had one of these.
 * The Big Bad in Commando.
 * The Hidden (1987). The criminal puppetmaster alien wields one of these while possessing the body of a nightclub stripper, as well as a bullpup Mossberg shotgun.
 * NOT Most powerful rifle in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines. (The most powerful would be Mary-Sue or what it was called)
 * Shows up the hands of mooks alongside the FAMAS in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
 * Also appears as an early prototype wielded by CIA agents in Black Ops.
 * One of the Colombian gangsters is seen with one at the beginning of Predator 2.
 * Now this here is a Steyr AUG, Steyr AUG's a bad motherfucker, it's expensive too, made in Austria, my customers don't know shit about it so there ain't no demand for it, but let me tell you though, you put this bad boy in a flick, every motherfucker out there'll want one.
 * A silenced one is used to assassinate the Chinese ambassador during the dinner celebration for the US/China trade agreement in The Art Of War (the below average action film starring Wesley Snipes, not the book).
 * Counter-Strike had this, including the "HK Slap"
 * Rainbow Six of course, no doubt to the lone Aussie's delight. Double the scope with a silencer or larger magazine...BadAss.
 * One of the Irish mercenaries in Sin City shoots Dwight with one.
 * Available in 7.62 High Caliber as a very accurate, powerful ,and relatively compact late game rifle. It's mostly seen early in the game in its Para form, converted to a 9mm submachine gun, in use by the Algeiran police.

FAMAS The FAMAS ("Fusil Automatique de la Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Etienne," meaning "automatic rifle of the Saint-Etienne weapons factory") is another bullpup rifle and the main service weapon of the French military and foreign legion since 1978. The FAMAS was affectionately nicknamed "le Clairon" (the Bugle, due to its shape) by French troops during the '70s and '80s, and is accurate and durable. Includes a massive carrying handle (which spans half the length of the rifle), a built in bipod, and a colossal fire rate of over 1000 rounds per minute. Due to severe problems with its delayed blowback action, which is powerful enough to rip apart regular NATO brass-cased 5.56x45mm cases and its rifling does not stabilize the modern 5.56mm NATO bullets (does terrible things to the accuracy, making it accurate on par with factory AKM specs), It's also known as the range rifle, that is being reliable only when being shot on the firing range. The French Army is currently looking for a replacement.
 * Featured in Metal Gear Solid where almost everybody (excluding Decoy Octopus, Ocelot, Sniper Wolf, Vulcan Raven, Grey Fox and Psycho Mantis) uses one at some point.
 * Has been in every Rainbow Six game from 3:Raven Shield onwards.
 * Usable in Counter-Strike.
 * Used by the Mooks in the first 2-3 levels of Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain.
 * The UN helicopter crews in Macross Zero can be seen carrying them.
 * Can be seen amongst many other guns on a rack in Tomorrow Never Dies.
 * French Soldiers in Taxi 2.
 * Mook weapon in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
 * The game also shockingly didn't take advantage of the enormous fire rate of the weapon in real life and the gun only fires in three-round bursts in it.
 * Shows up in prototype form as a weapon used by the allied SOG and CIA members in Black Ops, and more bizarrely, by Soviet Spetsnaz in exactly one level (reverse-engineered?). This game, unlike Modern Warfare 2, did actually show off the gun's insane cyclic rate.
 * Killzone's Helghast assault rifle is based somewhat on the FAMAS; in the first game, with the export sight and carrying handle of a G36, and in both with a SPAS-12 forend under the barrel.
 * The standard issue rifle for Britannian soldiers is based heavily on the FAMAS.
 * The machine guns used by the Mistral Armslave in Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid are modelled after the FAMAS.
 * Michelle and Jacques (before he got tossed back in time and get Oni whip instead) use this as their primary weapon in Onimusha 3.
 * Shows up in Perfect Dark as the "AR-43", despite not looking anything like an Armalite. Like other games, it's nerfed to have a much slower firing rate than in real life.

Avtomat Kalashnikova The Battle Balalaika. The original AK-47 fires 7.62x39mm rounds, as does the improved AKM. Notable for its wooden construction, distinctive magazine, and the fact you can stick it in a swamp for a month, clean it a bit and it will fire first time. The AK's legendary reliability comes from its loose tolerances, the taper of its cartridges (this makes extraction easier, as any movement rearwards will completely disengage the cartridge from the chamber walls), and the fact that the gas system is way overpowered for the weapon (meaning, if the first round fires, the bolt will move all the way to the rear, making chambering of the next round very easy). It has been the basis for numerous Russian weapons throughout its long history, including the AK-74 (the current standardized weapon for the Russian Federation, firing the newer 5.45x39mm round) and RPK machine gun. The single most produced weapon in the history of firearms, with more variants and licensed modifications in existence than any other weapon, and used as a basis for many other rifles such as Israel's IMI Galil (and by extension the south african Vektor R4, which is based on the Galil). The Other Wiki has a list, though this includes all weapons even slightly influenced by the AK design, not just actual variants. Most of the licensed and unlicensed AK variants are actually based on the AKM; the official designation AK-47 was only used for weapons produced from 1947 to 1959.
 * Cool Action: The AK's magazine is loaded by locating the front lip of the magazine and then rocking it back into the magazine well. Video games often forget this, despite that it looks really cool; unfortunately, it also makes bullpup AK-action rifles rather difficult to actually load.
 * Bonus points for removing empty mag by striking it with the one you are loading.
 * Any video game, movie, or otherwise that features Soviet/Russian soldiers or settings will have some form of this gun, assuming the setting is after World War II. In movies, however, it will often be a Chinese copy, the Norinco Type 56, recognisable chiefly by the fully hooded front sight; a real AK has partially open front sight.
 * Appears in version three of Survival of the Fittest, but without ammo. One character's given the gun, another gets the bullets. Danya's hope was that this would force the two to either fight or work together.
 * Wolveeeerrrrrriinnnes!
 * The comic Hard Graft makes extensive use of the AK-47 when kitting out both the good and bad guys.
 * Rambo.
 * AK-47, the very best there is. When you absolutely, positively, have to kill every single motherfucker in the room; accept no substitute.
 * There was one used in the Firefly episode "Heart of Gold".
 * Used by female KGB sniper codenamed 'Trigger' in the James Bond short story The Living Daylights. The weapon seems an unlikely choice for a sniping mission, but as the AK-47 wasn't as well known then it probably seemed like a particularly 'cool gun' to Ian Fleming.
 * The basic Lasrian Mook weapon in Dark Sector is an AKS-74U fitted with a suppressor, reflex sight and skeleton stock.
 * A video game with these and without regular Russian troops is the Grand Theft Auto III set of games; this tends to be a 'basic' assault rifle. In San Andreas, CJ notes that other gangsters are bringing these to their fights instead of pistols. He's right, which is convenient when you expend a lot of your own 7.62x39 fighting them in the first place.
 * Appears in Left 4 Dead 2.
 * N-Tec 5 rifle in All Points Bulletin. Widely considered to be overpowered "noob" gun.
 * The UC rifles in Alpha Protocol are modeled after the AK-105. You also get a golden one after defeating the first boss.
 * In Singularity, when you time-travel to 1955, the Red Army grunts have these. In the present day, in the altered timeline where the Soviet Union conquered the world in the 1960s, the standard rifle is clearly derived from the AK with Steampunk bling to show that it's an E99-enhanced weapon.
 * Harry Turtledove's most famous novel, The Guns of the South, centers on Afrikaners from the early 21st century trying to alter history by supplying the Confederate States with AK-47s.
 * The Chinese Assault Rifle in Fallout3 is apparently a slightly modified folding stock Type 56 with different ammo.
 * This is justified and/or lampshaded by the fact that the personnel possessing the weapon are forward agents in the United States. At any rate, AK pattern rifles chambered in 5.56x45mm are big business for Russian (Izhmash) and Chinese (Norinco) arms manufacturers, due to the ubiquity of the NATO round.
 * Appears in Counter-Strike as the standard assault rifle of the Terrorist team. Generally regarded somewhat inferior to the C Ts' M4.
 * Naturally, shows up in 7.62 High Calibre, in many variants, including the AKS-74, the AK-74, the AKS-74u, and the AK-47 (which is surprisingly uncommon). A Ks become common among the rebels later in the game, eventually taking over from the World War II submachine guns and pump-action shotguns.
 * Hotel Moscow's Vysotoniki in Black Lagoon uses the AK-74 as their weapon of choice (understandable as they are former Soviet army personnel). The 47 itself is seen in the hands of guerrillas in the "Goats, Jihad and Rock 'n Roll" arc.

Israel Military Industries TAR-21 The IMI Tavor TAR-21 (Tavor Assault Rifle-21st century) is a relatively new, compact bullpup assault rifle designed by IMI for the Israeli military. It has spent over 10 years in development and has only recently been assigned to three brigades (the Givati, Golani, and Nahal brigades), however in fiction its shown up in very large numbers due to its futuristic appearance, either in the hands of special forces or (most bizarrely) terrorists. Like the P90, it was once rare outside of fiction, but a large number of orders have recently been placed by various nations for it.
 * The standard version and the MTAR 21 variant are available in Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield.
 * And has been in every Rainbow Six game after 3, often bizarrely showing up in the hands of terrorists.
 * In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it has somehow ended up in the hands of the Russian Army, as well as Makarov's henchmen.
 * Nikolai carries the CTAR 21 variant in Resident Evil: Apocalypse.
 * Both Shin Kudo and Edgar LaSelle are carrying CTAR-21s in epsidoes 2 and 3 of Macross Zero, Shin's in particular having the peculiar addition of a folding/telescoping stock for no reason at all (most likely an animation error).

FN SCAR The Fabrique Nationale Herstal Special Forces Combat Assault Rifle, shortened to the SCAR is an assault and battle rifle designed by FNH USA, as an entry into a trial by the U.S SOCOM to replace or supplement the aging M4 rifle in 2003. The focus of the SCAR rifle is in modularity, with initial offerings coming in a wide variety of calibers including 5.56, 7.62x54mm and 7.62x39mm ammunition. During trails and further development, the 7.62x39mm version was dropped, and the first two became the SCAR-L (Light) and the SCAR-H (Heavy) respectively. The SCAR proved to be the top performer of the competition, and was adopted in 2010 by SOCOM. They really liked the H version, so much they canceled their orders for the L version completely. U.S Special Forces, such as the U.S Army Rangers and a few special forces groups outside of the U.S field it. As of late, it's been showing up in quite a few types of media, especially Video Games, due to it's futuristic appearance and connection to Special Forces soldiers. It was quite popular with SOCOM, who ordered quite a number a few years back. However, the orders stopped once the Army made SOCOM pick up the tab for these rifles.
 * In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the SCAR-H used by U.S Army Rangers and Task Force 141. Corporal Dunn's signature weapon is a SCAR-H with a thermal sight.
 * In End War, the primary assault rifle of the Joint Strike Force is based on the SCAR. In-universe fluff mentions how, with the breakup of NATO, Belgium-based FN is suing U.S weapons manufacturers for copyright infringement.
 * Arthur uses a SCAR to hold off combat projections in Inception until Eames dares to dream bigger.
 * In Alive in Joburg, the short film that served as the basis of District 9, CGI Soldiers use these to engage an attacking alien.
 * The Combat Rifle in Left 4 Dead 2, is an FN SCAR-L. It's the most highly accurate of the assault rifles and fires in three-round bursts.
 * It shows up several times in the Battlefield series, starting with Battlefield 2.
 * Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter has both the SCAR L and H models, as does the sequel.
 * In Army of Two The 40th Day, the SCAR-L is one of the rifles used by the 40th Day Initiative, as well as Salem and Rios.
 * The AR-21 and it's variants are all based on the SCAR in Alpha Protocol.
 * G.I. Joe Retaliation has the Joes use these, most noticeably General Joe Colton.