Early in the 21st century, while the Tyrell Corporation was busy producing replicants
for Off-World slavery, there remains only one other major industry that can compete...
Weapons production.
There are a lot of interesting weapons in the year 2019. One interesting weapon you may see, and even mistake for a 20th century four shot magnum derringer, is the
"black hole" gun. The mistake is easy, because apparenlty the future designer of this weapon was a huge fan of the older four shot magnum. In any case, this new "black hole" weapon was wielded by
Leon Kowalski and used against RepDetective Dave Holden at the beginning of Blade Runner. This weapon gave off a huge blast and packed quite a kick... A kick felt only by whomever it hit.
And that hapless victim of the weapon was Holden, whom we see being hit so hard by the force of the weapon's impact
that the first shot spins him and the chair he is in completely around, throwing him backward at a high rate of speed and crashing through a wall. Though Holden had his own
weapon out already, Leon was faster to fire. But, just in case, the Leon gun was designed with the same principle as the Colt .45 automatic. designed to knock the target back and around,
so the target isn't a threat anymore. The Colt .45 was designed to defend against a repeat of the massacre of American soldiers in the turn of the century
Phillipines, when guerillas would jump from trees with cutting weapons, get shot and continue to come down and kill the soldier because their weapon was still aimed downward. The Colt .45
would use something similar to a hydrolic effect, knocking the target back and spinning. With this same principle in mind, the "Black Hole" gun was designed for knock down power
as well as being deadly.
Another affect the weapon has is the way it attacks the target, absorbing
whatever light is in its path, increasing its power, then completely and fusing
the opening and exit wounds. Unlike a conventional weapon that has mass and gasses that tears
or punches through a target, and pushing more mass in front of it,
the Black Hole round simply takes it out of existence, making whatever it touches collapse in on itself.
Whatever it makes contact with is gone. This is why the damage to Holden was so complete.
One more plus of this future weapon is apparently the materials it is made of. I bring this up
because of the fact that Leon
was able to smuggle it into the Tyrell Corp. building without detection. as many may rewcall,
the Tyrell pyramids are very security oriented buildings. Unless replicants also come
with super colons that can hide hand guns, short of a conspiracy,
there is no way that this weapon could have been smuggled in unless two things probably happened:
- The weapon is made of an undetectible material.
- The weapon is illegal on earth and because it was used only for Off-World combat,
the Tyrell Corporation's detection devices would not have expected to have to look for it,
and it therefore went undetected.
In the end, the weapon was used, and had the desired effect by its user.
BLADE RUNNER Production
The idea of an a "Black Hole" weapon had been decided on early into the production of Blade Runner.
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"What I particualrly wanted to avoid in Blade Runner's weaponry was an
indication of the common laser pistol." Scott said. "We all felt that a bright streak
of light coming out of a barrel had become a horrible cliché, and we were sick
to death of it. Then David Dryer came up with the idea that our pistols discharged a
high intensity, particle-beam-type material that imploded on contact, drawing in so
much light on the way that it became a black beam instead of a light streak. And
whatever section of the body it hit would collapse in on itself.
That would lead to a rather elegant demise - very little blood or gore.
"I thought this was an interesting concept" Scott concludes. "A black
beam would have been the dramatic opposite of the expected laser ray.
So we intended to later animate this dark effect and dub our weapons
Black Hole Guns."
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In the film, you can see the anti-matter blast that was animated into the shot for four frames.
This effect was used only once in the film, even though Leon takes a second shot in that scene, only
the first shot from under the table contains the animation of the anti-matter blast, this
was due to the constant threats of going over budget and schedule. The actual animation only appears for four
frames, as seen in the below thumbnail images captured off the DVD. To view the larger images, simply click on the thumbnails.
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