I can’t believe there isn’t a thread on this already, but Will Smith’s “I am Legend” AR15 seemed to be perfectly conceived for a SHTF weapon.
16" barrel for mobility and respectable ballistics
Adjustable stock
“Tactical” light
Low level fixed power magnification for simplicity, keeping distance, target identification at range, and general surveillance.
Quad rail with panels to protect naked hands
It was pretty much everything a person of practicality would need in a SHTF situation. It wont be long till Robert Neville AR15 clones start popping up in picture threads
On a side note, notice the tactics of Will Smith throughout the movie. Evade, run and avoid fights whenever possible.
First off, read the Matheson Book, it’s much better. The themes present in the book are much more serious and the ending is nowhere near as cuddly as the movie. In the book, he’s a regular guy who is just out to kill the infected. He kills them while they sleep, instead of trying to cure them, in the book, he only wants to find the nest where they all gather. Where in the movie he ran and avoided fights, if it stayed true to the book, he would’ve saw that as a jackpot, had a UV light attached to his AR and killed them.
Second off, I’d prefer an Eotech given his environment. Those things move way too fast to engage with an ACOG at close distance. The ACOG is useful for IDing a target, but couldn’t he just use a monocular instead?
Also, I’d want a 14.5in barrel, easy to come by with all the .mil M4’s laying around, and you wouldn’t care about NFA when you go to put on a Phantom. 14.5 can perform with M193 out to 100 yards, and still make hits past that point to wherever you can. I’d rather not have a government mandated 1.5 inches sticking out of my gun when I’m clearing a dark building where they can really use the muzzle as leverage if it sticks past a corner.
His gun handling was pretty shabby at times, didn’t really look like they emphasized him looking familiar with it, at least during the scenes in which he shot it.
I’d give the movie **1/2 . Strayed from the book and it suffered because of that. Would’ve been much better and more deep if they kept the cute ending out.
I can’t believe I’m debating this, but if you are using a 1.5x ACOG, you won’t have any issues up close, and I’d much, much rather have that than a battery operated EOTECH.
Besides the title and the name of the character the book and movie had nothing in common. While it’s a very good movie it doesn’t follow the book at all. Read the book and see the movie but don’t try and compare the two.
Next on my reading list is Matheson’s “Hell House”
I haven’t seen the movie and don’t know who made it, but I will hazard that they just selected a tacticool looking M4 and threw it in there.
Saw most of “Omega Man” last night. I’d seen it a long time ago and wanted to give it another look, w/ all the hoopla about the remake (is it just me or iabout 40% of movies out these days remakes? but I digress). I fell asleep halfway through - from fatigue, not the movie. I’m going to try to finish it tonight. A few things I took away:
I had forgotten how much Charleton Heston is “The MAN”
TEOTW is cool because there will be no more annoying Christmas shoppers
" is cool because of conscience-free looting.
I am going to check out the movie. I hate Will Smith only because everyone likes him.
For anyone who is into movies, they are currently turning Cormac McCarthy’s (No Country for Old Men author) cannibalistic post-apocalyptic novel The Road into a movie. Viggo Mortensen stars, John Hillicoat (The Proposition) directs.
Same place he gets the batteries for the light on the M4.
I can’t say that I “liked” the movie, but I think it was a good movie and I thought Will Smith did a very good job in it. I really like the Matheson book but in today’s world you have to add in guns and explosions to get an audience.
SPOILER ALERT
Maybe I’m just a puss but the dog dying pulled heavily at the heart strings and I have to admit I shed a tear. And as for the weapons handling, I would think that after 3 years with out anyone you don’t really have to worry about sweeping the wrong thing with the muzzle.
I use an AA batery Eotech. Replacements are not hard to come by at all.
The muzzle discipline isn’t what I’m talking about. The scene where he is clearing the building and has his firing hand up by the forward assist and uses his hand to “cup” the light as opposed to using his pressure switch. At one point, he holds the magwell with his firing hand because cupping the light is keeping him from holding the gun right. Also, in the street scene, his doesn’t even shoulder the rifle. He was spraying, but it just didn’t seem right. He also forgets to shoulder it in the final scenes.
That’s a good point. I haven’t seen the movie yet and missed the mention of the “tactical light”. I suspect that if this were a real situation, the light wouldn’t last too long.
I think if they copied the book, no one would go see the movie. For the most part he’s not really doing much other then nailing boards to his house, occasionally clearing other homes and whining about sex. Oh and getting drunk at night. Then later he spends a couple chapters trying to get the dog which dies anyway. The last part is his betrayal by the woman and the uprising of the new society. There is very little action at all. Even Omega Man had more action then the book. The book was good but not movie material in it’s original state.
I think for a reinterpretation/modernization of the book, it did alright. Most of the same themes were there. This loneliness, the dog, and I guess the finding of the girl later. The scene where he’s running around in the bank was pretty exciting. I think they could have extended that a bit more though.
The trap the leader of the dark walkers was a bit disappointing since there was no explanation. Were the dark walkers just zombies or where they smarter? They kinda left that part hanging. In the book they weren’t active during the day. Neville was able to stake them while they slept. I guess dark walkers don’t need to sleep.
The ending was kinda lame. Neville has to die. That’s where the ‘I am Legend’ comes from but in the book Neville just gives up. I think the movie went too far with his heroic actions. The gated community in Virginia was kinda lame as well. I guess they wanted Neville’s death not to be in vein but that was the whole purpose of the book. He was the last human.
As for his AR. Well, you would have thought he’d get a M4A1 and not a 16". He was using the Acog to ID stuff most of the time. He wasn’t clearing rooms other then the time he was forced to to get Sam. In those cases an Eotech or Aimpoint would have been better BUT then you’ve got to consider the limited supply of batteries. In the book though, bullets don’t work on them since the bacteria is able to stop any bleeding so all shots would need to be head shots.
I think I’d be looking for a shotgun or maybe getting out of Dodge all together. Maybe find a cabin somewhere.
Not to over analyze but given the situation, finding batteries would not be a problem for him. He had keys to all the stores and access to any supplies he needed.
I liked the movie, however I wish it had lasted a little longer and given him a chance to battle the zombies a little more. I will admit I think the only downside to the movie was the pitiful CGI Zombies…they didn’t look right and should not have possessed super human strength and speed. Outside of that i liked it.
Well, he would have to make sure those stores were clear though. The batteries have been sitting around for at least 3 years as well. They don’t really explain that he was clearing out building with the map though. It would have been a lot harder to clear out the buildings then houses like in the book.
I believe the super strength was explained in the book.
