Is the “Old Painless” Gun From Predator, the Matrix, Terminator 2 and Many Other Movies a Real Gun?
The BrainFood ShowShow Notes
It is one of the most iconic cinematic weapons in history, on par with James Bond’s Walther PPK, Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber, and Indiana Jones’s bullwhip. Strap it to your back, and you instantly become an unstoppable one-man army, a bullet hose spitting hot lead at 6,000 rounds per minute and turning dense jungle into leaf mulch, cars into twisted scrap metal, and your enemies into piles of hamburger meat. It is, of course, the M134 Minigun AKA “Old Painless”, the blisteringly fast rotary-barrel machine gun wielded by the likes of Jesse “The Body” Ventura in Predator, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and Keanu Reeves in The Matrix. Unlike many other movie weapons, “Ol’ Painless” seems remarkably plausible, but does such a weapon really exist, and could you wield it the way it’s almost always shown in movies?
Well, strap on your bullet proof vest, as we dive into how humanity went from the Gatling Gun, to the incredible M61 Vulcan which, in turn, birthed one of cinema’s most badass, and misunderstood, weapons.
Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila
0:00 Intro 1:06 Inventing the Gatling Gun 5:31 How Automatic Firearms Work and Aviation 15:49 Project Vulcan 19:10 The Incredible M134 "Minigun" 25:25 So, Is the “Ol’ Painless” Version of the Minigun From Movies Real? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from The BrainFood Show
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Although you might assume that being made to wear a stupid costume, be mocked, and act like an idiot for the entertainment of fatuous rulers would be a job nobody would want- like the position of Groom of the Stool (a job which initially consisted of directly supplying the necessaries to facilitate a good and clean bowel movement to the King, as well as to monitor said fecal matter and make dietary recommendations based on what you saw there)- the position of court jester was actually an enviable one due to it involving spending so much time with those in power. And as you were often putting them in good humor and otherwise making them happy, it was a position that came with a whole slew of perks. So what was life actually like as a court jester?
Ever wonder why Austria agreed to give up its sovereignty so readily to Nazi Germany without any semblance of a fight?
In the video today, we're looking at How Do German Schools Teach About WWII? How Do the Japanese Teach About WWII? Why Wasn't There an Italian "Nuremberg / Tokyo War Crimes" Trial After WWII? How Did Germany DeNazify So Quickly After WWII. How Do They Teach the American Revolution in Britain? How do Arabic Nations Teach the Crusades? How Do British Schools Teach About the British Empire? How do The Persians Teach Alexander the Great and When in History Did He First Become Great?
In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we skip the quick fact because this one took forever to research and put together and I ran out of time. Instead we jump right into the main topic which is a very real phenomenon that popped up off and on for several hundred years called Dance Mania or St. Vitus’ Dance. While it might sound like a bit of a joke, it was surprisingly deadly at times and had a fascinating cure.