Hand Cannon: Difference between revisions

== [[Anime]] and Manga ==

* The vampire [[Dracula|Alucard]] in ''[[Hellsing]]'': he carries an awesomely huge pistol (39 cm/16" long, 6kg unloaded) stylized after an old-fashioned Colt that can fire the mighty .454 Casull cartridge (which is only ''slightly'' smaller than a AA battery); in fact, this ammo gives the gun its common name, "The Casull". Later on he is given another, ''bigger'' pistol (though it's more like a huge block of metal with a trigger) called "The Jackal" (also 39 cm/16" long, 16kg unloaded, 13mm Mercury core rounds with [[Abnormal Ammo|blessed Macedonian silver jackets]]), which he uses together with the first one [[Guns Akimbo|akimbo-style]]. Both guns are ridiculously heavy for their size. For comparison, the US Army's standard-issue platoon machine gun, the M240B, weighs in at 12kg. Neither are weapons any man could hope to wield, the former for its kickback and the latter for its insane weight, but "It was never meant for a man." The latter is also so heavy because {{spoiler|it has a bomb inside it}}.

** Although not quite as impressive as the above examples, Luke Valentine uses a cut-down M1 Garand - a rifle firing rounds slightly bigger than the standard 7.62mm.

* [[Human Aliens|Human alien]] Vash the Stampede in ''[[Trigun]]''. His sidearm is a [http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Firearms/Revolvers/Mateba_Model_6.jpg Mateba Model 6 Unica] semi-auto revolver (chambered in .45 Long Colt, a slightly shorter predecessor of the .454 Casull round), but it contains a piece of [[Applied Phlebotinum]] that allows it to merge with his arm and become the [[Arm Cannon|Angel Arm]], a [[Wave Motion Gun|beam weapon]] of [[Sphere of Destruction|monstrous destructive power]]. His [[Evil Twin]] Knives (who designed and built the gun in question) has an identical example (which can also form the Angel Arm), except his is black while Vash's is silver ("Blue" and "Nickel" respectively in gun-talk)

* The exact same thing occurs in the OVA ''[[Burn Up]] W''

* ''[[Patlabor]]'': Revolvers the size of Volkswagens! Mind you though, they ''are'' for [[Humongous Mecha]].

** Especially amusing since Revy was out at the time and spent his rant calmly reloading.

** ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' also has plenty of other characters (most of them villains) with oversized weapons, including Yolanda, the old nun from the Church of Violence who fires a gold-plated .50 AE Desert Eagle one handed; Gretel, a small girl and one of a pair of truly [[Creepy Twins]], who fires a BAR from the hip; and even a ''[[Terminator]] 2''-style minigun-wielder.

* Liz and Patti's 'Death Eagle .42' forms in ''[[Soul Eater]]'', being massive versions of their usual Weapon forms. Kid uses one in each hand to shoot down Mosquito's bats.

* ''[[Kurohime]]'' features the title character's weapon, Senryuu (which grows even bigger as the series continues, and can transform into a gatling revolver, a sniper rifle, a shotgun/cannon, and something vaguely semblant of a minigun) and Onimaru's gun.

** It's a real gun. Meet the [[wikipedia:Mateba Autorevolver|Mateba Model 6 Unica]].

* ''[[Castle in The Sky]]'' has something akin to this, an the one-shot weapons that Dola's pirate gang uses seem to also be capable of loading stink bombs as well as the normal bullet/explosive rounds. Near the end, the [[Big Bad]] actually calls the one Patsu carries a "cannon you can hardly lift".

* Parodied [[Trope Overdosed|(and what isn't?)]] in ''[[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', where [[The Chew Toy|Mikuru]] is made to [[Dual Wield]] airsoft Desert Eagles for the student film. In her hands the guns are comically oversized, which is only made worse by the absurd extended barrels.

** To say "disturb" magic is to massively understate it, whatever the bullets hit is severed and then tied together into a knot, essentially, presumably on a very small scale, if it hit a person, the surrounding area would have all the muscles, nerves, and veins severed and knotted, making them useless and causing fatal bleeding. If it hits an expression of magic, it cuts apart the magic circuits of the caster of the spell, ties them together, and causes the mana in the person to explode out of them

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* [[Sam and Max|Sam's trusty revolver]], which is SO big the barrel actually bends from its own weight!

** Well, the [[Depleted Phlebotinum Shells]] are kind of a necessity no matter how crappy a shot he is; if he's firing the thing at all, he's probably up against something that's immune to fists.

** He's a lousy shout because his right hand is a huge stone thing so he has to shoot with his left. And he's not naturally a lefty. Good thing his [[Red Right Hand|Right Hand of Doom]] makes for a formidable bludgeon...

* When [[Nick Fury]] makes his return to the mainstream [[Marvel Universe]] during the Skrull invasion of New York in ''Secret Invasion'', he does so wielding a gun that's about as big as he is.

* In ''[[Jon Sable Freelance]]'', one of Sable's preferred weapons is a chrome .357 Magnum pepperbox. As a prototype that never made it into production, it also counts as an instance of [[Rare Guns]].

* ''[[Lobo]]'' uses pretty much nothing but [[Hand Cannon|Hand Cannons]] or [[BFG|BFGs]].

* Marvel Comics' ''[[Marvel 2099|Punisher 2099]]'' uses as his main weapon the circa-2015 manufactured Smith & Wesson .54 Magnum full-automatic revolver. It's belt-fed and can fire 6 rounds a second (360 a minute). One character later observes that this weapon usually leaves the Punisher's victims with a "hole in the chest...and a missing back."

* In one issue of ''[[ABC Warriors]]'', workcrew on a massive terraforming operation on Mars have been going missing. The woman in charge carries a massive hand cannon with three chambers, but only three rounds. It is capable of killing anything it hits. She is eventually killed by hundreds of Martian animals after using up her three rounds.

* In what seems to be a [[Shout-Out]] to the ''[[Johnny Dangerously]]'' reference below, a character in the '''very''' [[NSFW]] ''[[Lann]]'' by Frank Thorne says about his favored machine pistol, "This is ''not'' a ''gun''. It's a ''poem''. An ''ode'' to ''death''. It ''shoots through schools -- of sharks!''"

 

* In ''[[Star Wars]]'', Han Solo's pistol is the [[Energy Weapon]] equivalent. It only gets a few shots per power pack, but it only needs to hit once, being able to blow torso-sized chunks out of concrete walls or instantly incinerating Greedo before [[Han Shot First|he could ever fire a single shot.]]

* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End'', the midget pirate is seen firing a very large hand cannon that blasts him back out of the frame when Barbossa's meeting with Sao Feng is interrupted by the East India Trading Company.

* ''[[Dirty Harry]]'' and his famous .44 Magnum revolver.

** The Hand Cannon in question was a customised Desert Eagle, presented as the soviet [http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Red_Heat#.22Podbyrin_9.2mm_Pistol.22 "Podbyrin 9.2 mm"]. Arnold's character describes it as "the most powerful handgun in the world".

** Speaking of the Joker, we also have [http://www.vacuumboy9.com/tlh/3p9.jpg this charming little panel from The Long Halloween.] (the final one illustrates the page)

* In the Prohibition-era gangster parody ''[[Johnny Dangerously]]'', Danny Vermin shows off his .88 Magnum. "It shoots through ''schools''."

* ''[[Snatch]].'' Bullet Tooth Tony and his "Desert Eagle. Point five-o."

* At one point in ''[[Hard Boiled]]'', Mad Dog, [[The Dragon]], uses a Thompson/Center Contender, a single-shot pistol that uses rifle bullets, and which he's apparently modified to spit the spent cartridges out in slow-mo, to fight Tequila and Alan. This pistol appears to be using a .30-06 barrel.

'''Mattie Ross:''' It belonged to my father, he carried it bravely in the war, and I intend to kill Tom Chaney with it if the law fails to do so.<br />

'''Rooster Cogburn:''' Well, this'll sure get the job done if you can find a fence post to rest it on while you take aim. }}

* The opening scene of ''[[Desperado]]'' has El Mariachi's buddy spin a story of how he cleared a bar with a sawed-off and a de-stocked [[wikipedia:Armsel Striker|Armsel Protecta]] shotgun, which manage to throw your average Mexican about ten feet in the air with one shot:

{{quote| '''Buscemi''': The stranger... he ''bolts'' out of his bar-stool like you wouldn't believe, he grabs his case and he dives right in the middle of the room with it! Just dives right in! Now, I don't know what he does on that floor, but he's up in two shakes, his suitcase is wide open, and he's pulled God knows what out of it, but it's the biggest hand cannon I've ever ''fucking seen!''}}

* In the [[Vigilante Man]] flick, ''[[Death Sentence]]'', Kevin Bacon needs to buy some guns for his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] so he goes to a black market gun dealer (played by John Goodman). John Goodman then proceeds to use this sales pitch when refering to a [[Revolvers Are Just Better|Colt Python]], a [[Cool Guns|Colt M1911]], and a [[Rare Guns|Desert Eagle]] respectively:

{{quote| '''John Goodman''': You got the bastards of bastards, .357. A guaranteed head removal. That's... that's a sweetie. You got your standard-size .45, super-sized. That's a fucking Hungry Man right there. And you got the king of mayhem. Half-cannon. Sword of justice. Take this fucker to the holy land, start your own crusade. Any one of these is bound to make you feel better of what's bothering you.}}

* Bohdi (played by Patrick Swaze) also uses the .454 Casull in ''[[Point Break]]''.

* Paul Kersey's friend "Wildey" from ''[[Death Wish 3]]'' is the world's most powerful production semi-automatic. The bullet has as much impact energy at 100 yards as the .44 Magnum has at 1 yard. Unlike most examples here, the .475 Wildey Magnum has a relatively manageable recoil.

{{quote| '''Marlboro:''' "Man, why in the hell are you carrying a hand cannon like that?"<br />

'''Harley:''' "Hey... I learned to shoot using one of these."<br />

* Every agent in ''[[The Matrix]]'' spawns (literally) with a Desert Eagle .44 Magnum in their jacket pocket. (Some are even outfitted with [[Bottomless Magazines]].)

* ''[[I Come in Peace (Film)|I Come in Peace]]'' (aka ''Dark Angel'') has an alien pistol that when fired, blows up entire rooms ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlZbj4knIYw example], with a car).

{{quote| '''Hellboy:''' I'm not a very good shot, but the Samaritan uses really big bullets.}}

** In the second movie, he gets an even ''bigger'' gun, that apparently uses clockwork to fire, has about sixteen barrels, and fires pairs of flaming shotgun shells. It is called the "Big Baby" and he uses this to destroy a forest god.

{{quote| '''Hellboy:''' You woke up the baby!}}

* Though normal-looking guns are present, the air pirates in ''[[Castle in The Sky]]'' use these as their weapon of choice.

* Leslie Nielsen briefly wields a ridiculously over-sized Magnum at the end of, ''[[Two Thousand And One A Space Travesty|2001: A Space Travesty]]''.

* In ''[[Drive Angry]]'' John Milton steals a five barreled Hand Cannon from Hell called the Godkiller. It has 3 shots in it and can be used to kill demons.

 

 

* In ''[[Against a Dark Background]]'' by [[Iain M Banks|Iain M. Banks]], protagonist Sharrow has this literally; the model name of her gun is FrintArms HandCannon.

** Another shows up in the form of a gun much like Killy's from BLAME! in the short story collection State of the Art.

* In the ''[[Doc Savage]]'' novels, Patricia Savage's signature weapon is an old six-shooter handed down from her grandfather - a Colt Frontier Single Action .44 with the trigger filed off and a fanning spur welded on the hammer, which she carries in her purse.

* [[NUMA Series|Kurt Austin]] carries a Bowen revolver, essentially a .357 Magnum Colt Python custom-built to fire the same .50-caliber rounds that the Desert Eagle is famous for. His partner Joe Zavala calls it "Kurt's Cannon" and likes to joke that it shoots [[Abnormal Ammo|railroad spikes]].

* Burke from [[Andrew Vachss]]'s books favours large-calibre handguns for quick manstopping.

* Brian Mallory, the protagonist's brother from ''[[The Difference Engine]]'' by [[William Gibson]] and Bruce Sterling, carries a Russian pistol that most definitely qualifies as a [[Hand Cannon]] (and is later called that). It was picked from a dead Tzarist officer in Crimea, "isn't exactly regulation", "queer-looking", and presumably shoots something not unlike artillery canister shells. Think [[Bigger Is Better|giant razor-buckshot rounds, "as thick as a copper's baton"]]. It is single-shot, insanely loud (it even causes friendlies to lose their bearing for a minute) and can literally ''gib'' six people at once with a well-placed shot. In other words, a flare gun from Hell.

* Inverted in the [[Raymond Chandler]] novellas ''Trouble Is My Business'' and ''Red Wind''. Both stories feature hard guys carrying .22 target pistols. As Chandler puts it: "This guy uses a twenty-two. He uses it because he's good enough to get by with that much gun. That means he's good."

* Eddie Chase in Andy McDermott's ''[[Wilde-Chase]]'' novels favours a .50 Wildey automatic, often being mocked by other characters for the overkill. Subverted in ''[[The Sacred Vault]]'' where he loses not one, but two Wildeys over the course of the story before even getting a chance to fire them.

* Dr. Theophilus Algernon Tanner of the Deathlands adventure series and his always trusty [[Le Mat]] revolver. He's blown away many a "mutie" with the .63 caliber "grapeshot" round fired from the gun's underbarrel.

* Stick-up artist and cat burglar Omar Little uses a Desert Eagle in HBO's ''[[The Wire]]'', mostly to break "bulletproof" glass.

* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAIigNcwYLc Particle Magnum] used by Ronon Dex in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]''. Given that later in the series, Rodney McKay easily beats him to the girl, I'd say he's compensating for something, except that he already had the magnum long before that.

* Parodied on ''[[SCTV]]'' with "Harry Filth," a [[Dirty Harry]]-esque cop played by John Candy, who at one point carries a revolver that's much bigger than ''Harry himself''.

 

** Characters who have full body cybernetic conversions or are wearing powered armour can also carry firearms such as "assault rifles" chambered in .50 BMG or 14.5x114 RUS, as well as a 4 gauge autoshotgun and a 10 gauge, 6-barrel gatling shotgun with a back-mounted ammo hopper.

* Subverted in ''[[Iron Kingdoms|Warmachine]]'' where many warcasters carry guns that are called Hand Cannons but which are no bigger than the setting's average handgun. Most of the time.

* ''[[Rifts]]'' has a fair number of large handguns, including a plasma Cartridge pistol with a bore two inches wide, weapons deliberately designed for large humanoids, and a laser pistol with its own under-slung ''[[Grenade Launcher]]''.

* The magnum pistol from ''[[GURPS|GURPS: Ultra-Tech]]'' fires a 15mm round, larger than the bullets in a modern anti-materiel rifle. And then there's the shotgun pistol...

* ''[[SLA Industries]]'' has the "Blitzer".

* In ''[[Scion]]'', Eric Donner, Scion of Thor, (one of the "canned characters" in the gamebooks) has as his signature weapon an oversized revolver called "Giantkiller." In addition to being a huge gun with oversized ammo (which has to have custom-made), thanks to his divine parentage, [[Shock and Awe|it can shoot lightning]].

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The [http://www.bungie.net/projects/halo3/content.aspx?link=h3pistol M6 series of pistols] in ''[[Halo]]'' is chambered for 12.7x40mm (necked-down .50 BMG) high explosive armor piercing rounds.Seems like overkill at first, perhaps, but against the [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Covenant]], it might just be justified.

* In the Telltale seasons, ''[[Sam and Max]]'' have a huge revolver and Luger, respectively. This is probably to compensate for the fact that they weren't allowed guns in the TV show and "left them at the cleaners" in ''Hit the Road''. Successfully complete the ''Hit the Road'' game however, and you get to watch Sam and Max amuse themselves by unloading on a carnival's BB gun shooting gallery with them.

** [[Older Than They Think|In fact, they've had them since]] [[Adaptation Displacement|the comics.]]

** And in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', not only do the Carnifex and Phalanx return, they're outdone by two new weapons. The Paladin is explicitly stated to be an ''even more powerful'' variant of the Carnifex, and the Talon is a shotgun revolver.

** Also making an appearance in 3 is the Scorpion. It's one of the heaviest pistols in the game and fires [[Sticky Bomb|Sticky Grenades]].

* Nero of ''[[Devil May Cry|Devil May Cry 4]]'' has the Blue Rose, a customized Smith & Wesson Model 500 with barrels at the twelve and six o'clock positions of six-shot cylinder(normal M500s have five shots), which [[Hand Wave|somehow]] fires both at once with a single hammer. He can fire it one-handed, and it can later be upgraded to have a [[Charged Attack]] that fires delayed-detonation high-explosive rounds.

** On a similar note, Dante's signature pair of pistols LOOK like handcannons, but they're more like heavily customized Colt .45 M1911s. What gives them they're Handcannon status, however, is that the bullets fired by them are charged(and somehow reloaded) by Dante's power.

** Justified in an odd way since the outer casing of the gun in Blade Runner is the lock section of a real .222 rifle.

** The 14mm pistol also counts. There's some [[All There in the Manual|background info]] that explains before the end of the world that it was a hunting pistol.

* For some reason, the most powerful and second-most accurate gun in ''[[Half Life|Half-Life 2]]'' is a .357 Magnum. [[Revolvers Are Just Better|And this is with the futuristic pulse rifles and sniper-crossbows]]. Balanced by the [[Law of Inverse Recoil|high recoil]], low rate of fire and small amount of ammunition Gordon can cary for it.

** One of the Expansion packs, Opposing Force, gives the HECU marine protagonist the actual desert eagle.

** Implied to be the blaster equivalent of a [[Sawed-Off Shotgun]].

* ''[[Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'' has a weapon that the player can construct from parts called the [[Hand Cannon]]. It's a wooden grip, a trigger, and what looks to be at least an inch-wide barrel.

* ''[[Advent Rising]]'' introduces what is described as a handgun that fires ".90 calibre armour-piercing concussive rounds" and can be [[Guns Akimbo|dual-wielded]]. Obtaining a good level of handgun skills allows protagonist Gideon to fire the weapon in rapid three-round bursts that can match the rate of fire of any machinegun in the game. This is trumped by an energy pistol powered by a miniature fusion generator which hits significantly harder and can still be [[Guns Akimbo|dual-wielded]]. Better skill in with this handgun allows Gideon to fire grenades at the cost of more ammo. This is then matched by a Seeker energy pistol which, while it starts off weaker, can become stronger when Gideon learns the skill needed to fire hideously powerful rounds which can bounce between upwards of four enemies at the cost of extra ammo. This, too, can be [[Guns Akimbo|dual wielded]]. About the only thing limiting total arm cannon carnage is ammo consumption.

* Fefnir in ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' has two. Justified as he was built as a heavy weapons specialist and is strong enough to do it.

** [[Infinity+1 Sword|Fomalhaut]]'s barrel in ''FFXII'' is roughly as thick as Vaan's arm.

* In ''[[Super Robot Wars]] OG Saga: [[Endless Frontier]]'', [[The Gunslinger]] Haken Browning's backup weapon is the Longtomb Special: a three-foot long [[Revolvers Are Just Better|revolver]] that he fires [[Firing One-Handed|one-handed]], [[I Am Not Left-Handed|left-handed]], from the hip, with the right hand pulling the hammer. He will also sometimes fire Dual-Wield it along with his Assault rifle, which is natually also fired one-handed. In his [[Limit Break]], he uses the "Klondike Mode", turning it into a [[Wave Motion Gun]] with a lot of recoil.

* Noel Vermillion in ''[[Blaz Blue]]'' [[Small Girl, Big Gun|wields 2 guns the length or her arms.]] Though this is hardly the most [[BFS|absurdly oversized weapon]] in the game.

* In ''[[Saints Row]]'', the in game version of the Desert Eagle is called the GDHC (God damn hand cannon).

* [[Word of God]] says that ''[[Persona 3]]'' villain Takaya's revolver is an S&W 500.

** Using them is literally the only way a launcher can use the skill Cannonball, which shoots an orb of energy.

*** Did I forget to mention that it even lowers the MP required to use the Launchers ''other'' BFGS?

* Carnby's revolver in ''[[Alone in The Dark]]: The New Nightmare''.

* ''[[Soldier of Fortune]]'' has the Silver Talon .44, an [[AKA-47]] version of the Desert Eagle .44, that can blow a [[Mook]]'s [[Boom! Headshot!|head clean off]] [[Sniper Pistol|at ridiculously long range]]. And it's fired [[Firing One-Handed|with only one hand]].

* ''[[The House Of The Dead Overkill]]'' has G and Washington using these as their default guns - they're AMS' standard firearm, apparently.

* ''7.62 High Calibre'' has several, including the .357 Colt Python, the Garza 12.7mm (.50 caliber) revolver, and the .44 [[Cool Guns|Desert Eagle]]. They tend to be significantly more powerful than any other handgun weapon, but severely hampered by lack of balance, slow firing, and small clip size. In most cases, a normal handgun (or small submachine gun) is more useful.

* ''[[Battlefield Heroes]]'': The Royal army has Harry's Hand Cannon, which falls under the Pistol category.

* The antagonists of the ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' series seem to favour this kind of pistol; Imran Zakhaev in ''Call of Duty 4'' used a .50AE Desert Eagle, while General Shepherd in ''Modern Warfare 2'' had a .44 Colt Anaconda.

* ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' The Desert Eagle has appeared in the series since Vice City (albeit only cutscenes in that game only so far) and on, it is often regarded as being the most powerful hand gun in the series with great accuracy, making it one of the superior weapons.

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[Chicanery]]'' character [[Trigger Happy|Mr. Saturn]] has a "Modified [[Trope Co|DeathCo]] Magnum", several times larger than the main characters and apparently a cross between a [[Revolvers Are Just Better|revolver]] and a [[Blame|GBE.]] Effects range from [[Your Head Asplode|blowing heads apart]] to [[Ludicrous Gibs|explosively atomising people]] and [[Overdrawn At the Blood Bank|coating the surrounding area in blood.]]

* ''[[Narbonic]]'' Antonio Smith the forensic linguist wields such a weapon.

'''Captain''': "I don't wanna hear it, McBain. Tha-that cannon of yours is against regulation. In this department we go by the book."(The Captain holds up the book of regulations. McBain draws his "cannon", a revolver bigger than his head, and fires it at the book. The book promptly disintregrates, along with a massive chunk of the wall behind it. <br />

'''McBain''': "Bye book!" }}