What we saw in '
Prometheus' wasn't a laser beam. It was a bolt of something.
Not likely to be plasma, because, well... Weaponising steam is very impractical.
http://stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/PlasmaWeapons.htmlMaybe it's whatever the hell those Predator shoulder cannons use?
Quote from: Xenomrph on Apr 10, 2019, 04:55:12 PM
I'll admit that my mental image was pew-pew lasers, but I imagine 'Alien' was coasting off the pop-culture recognition of Star Wars in that regard. Like, in the wake of 'Aliens', laser pistols seem less likely, but in 1979 I suspect people would have been okay with it.
Taking 'Aliens' into consideration, I could see laser pistols as being a space-based personal defense weapon that is perhaps designed to be effective against organic targets, but isn't going to risk going through the hulk like a bullet might.
Well, real weaponised lasers are
specifically meant for slicing through hardware. Those on warships are intended for melting through drone casings and missile housings, stuff like that, as a defensive countermeasure against missiles, drones and swarming motorboats (whether pirates or the type Iran plans to strap anti-ship missiles to and overwhelm an enemy).
By this far in the future, hand-held stuff would be at
least that powerful, if not far more so. Of course, they would probably also have an ability to lessen the magnitude of their energy output (which would be an advantage over kinetic rounds).
Cameron probably just wanted to portray something more relatable for audiences, who, at the time, most likely equated 'lasers' with Buck Rogers-style disco sci-fi.
However, he did have the good sense to have the physical ammunition act as hand-held versions of what helicopter gunships and APCs, circa the 1980s, were using to take out armoured vehicles and tanks. Rounds which penetrate armour and explode when inside, have desirable destructive effects.
Plus, Hudson's speech takes account of energy weapons having definite standardised use.