 | |
| Flamethrower | |
| Type: | Weapon |
| Continuity: | Many |
| Availability: | Common item |
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire. Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and natural gas, which is considered safer.
In fiction[]
Aliens[]
In the 1979 film Alien, the character of Ellen Ripley defended herself by using a flamethrower. This was also useful in executing mercy killings upon those who had been infected by alien xenomorph young and subsequently cocooned. In a cut scene from the movie, Ripley uses a flamethrower to end the life of her captain, Dallas, who begged her to kill him.
Ripley also used a flamethrower for largely the same purposes in the 1986 sequel, Aliens. In this film, the flamethrower also became useful as a light source to help her navigate dark corridors.
In Alien Resurrection, set some two-hundred years after the events of the previous films, a clone of Ripley, dubbed Ripley 8, used a flamethrower to destroy a laboratory of her failed clone predecessors.
Planet of the Apes[]
In the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth film in the Planet of the Apes series, a flamethrower was used by a member of the Ape Management facility as a form of discipline against the apes secured within the facility. Although he had used the tool as a weapon and a means of defense, it was not enough to save him when the apes decided to revolt against their human masters.
Puppet Master II[]
The animated killer doll known as Torch is equipped with a flamethrower in his right hand. He used it to murder a young boy named Billy, as well as a farmer's wife named Martha.