Feel the force: Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi duke it out in Episode IV. Image: CineText/Allstar
As Obi-Wan once said, it is "a more elegant weapon from a more civilized era". And, as always, Obi-Wan was right.
The Star Wars lightsaber has been voted the favourite movie weapon of all time, in a survey of 2,000 film fans commissioned by 20th Century Fox. Here's the top 10:
1. Star Wars - Jedi Lightsaber
2. Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum
3. Indiana Jones's bullwhip
4. The Hanzo samurai sword used in Kill Bill
5. The chainsaw from Texas Chainsaw Massacre
6. Scaramanga's golden gun (The Man With the Golden Gun)
7. Robin Hood's bow and arrow
8. Scarface's M4A1 rifle with undermounted M203 grenade launcher
9. Star Wars - The Death Star
10. Oddjob's razor-edged bowler hat as used in Goldfinger
Personally, I would have liked to see Ash's chainsaw gauntlet from the Evil Dead trilogy in there, instead of the one Leatherface wields. And if you can have planet-destroyers like the Death Star in the list, why not Unicron from Transformers: The Movie?
The proton packs from Ghostbusters are far cooler than Robin Hood's bow and arrow any day, and just about any weapon carried by the Predator in the first two films - wrist blades, tri-cannon, smart disc - beat the golden gun, which close up looks like a cigarette lighter, mainly because it was a cigarette lighter (and cuff links, and a pen).
If we're including people created specifically as weapons (and I am) River Tam from Serenity has gotta be up there, which suggests that Jedis are weapons themselves, due to the psychic elements of the Force. Not to mention Batman's "wonderful toys".
Fox's poll was carried out to mark the DVD release of Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest - it was inevitable that something Star Wars related would win. So, over to you. Let's compile a definitive list of movie weapons, unfettered by promotional events ...
