5 Most Iconic Sci-Fi Weapons Of All Time, Ranked

Isn't science fiction great? Thanks to these fantastical tales, we've been able to see what the future of the human race could look like and observe seemingly impossible things. Also, with the weapons featured in these flicks, like Iron Man's armor and Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, you can imagine taking down bad guys in really creative ways. Over the years, we've seen sci-fi heroes and villains wielding weapons and have been left wishing for them to exist in real life. 

They might defy the laws of science and undoubtedly come with major technical flaws that could endanger the wielder's life, but all of that could be overlooked given how undeniably iconic they are. The important question to consider, however, is which is the best death dealer out of the bunch? These are the important issues we simply can't shy away from, which is why we found the five most iconic science fiction weapons and ranked them without injuring ourselves once. Well done, us. 

From classic weapons getting a hi-tech upgrade to those that changed cinema and pop culture for the better, we've got a varied collection of toys that can do some serious damage. So before we start, put on protective goggles, keep a first-aid kit nearby, and take up arms with some of the most iconic sci-fi weapons of all time.

Tony Stark built an arc reactor in a cave from a box of scraps, but it was the way he wrapped it that made it one of the coolest weapons in science fiction history. Certainly, there's an argument to be made that it's a suit of armor, just one that gets the wearer moving at Mach 2 and firing heat-seeking missiles. Much like some other entries on this list, there isn't just one, either.

After that original bucket-level suit got him away from the bad guys in the first "Iron Man" film, the rest of Stark's time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was spent modifying and upgrading the thing that saved his life. This gave rise to a game-changing kind of superhero, which many others would be modeled after. Even the suit's interior became iconic, with a close-up of Robert Downey Jr.'s mustachioed mug lit by a futuristic HUD serving as the template for many super-suited heroes from then on.

By the time "Avengers: Endgame" came around, Tony had built an impressive 85 suits, each designed for a different purpose. While we didn't see all 84 that preceded it, it's safe to say there's plenty to go around, given that Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Rhodey (Don Cheadle) had versions of their own. No matter what version would be available, though, we'd be willing to give up our Disney+ subscription for a chance to take just one of them for a spin.

When Stan Winston took over designing the alien trophy hunter in "Predator", originally played by '90s action movie icon Jean Claude-Van-Damme, he created a character that would come with a host of gadgets. The Wolverine-like wrist blades were great, and that helmet with thermal vision is legendary, but one of the coolest features of the Yautja was easily the shoulder-set plasmacaster that obliterated anything the villain set his sights on. Perched on his body like some sort of space-age parrot, the plasmacaster could lock onto anything the Predator was looking at with devestating results. 

This wasn't some small pistol, it was more of a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. As synonymous with the space hunter as his dreadlocks and wrist bomb, the plasmacaster eventually became an important part of "Predator" lore. In Dan Trachtenberg's "Predator: Badlands," it was revealed that the weapon wasn't simply handed out, instead it had to be earned by a Yautja. This explains why it felt so satisfying by the time heroic hunter Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) got his, and left us excited to see how lethal he'll be with it when his tribe inevitably returns in whatever future plans Trachtenberg has in store.

If Ridley Scott's first "Alien" movie was a scary house in space, James Cameron's sequel was a ghost train running on firepower, and one of the most notable items in its arsenal was the M41A pulse rifle. Standard issue for the Colonial Marines that thought they were on a regular bug hunt, this weapon, like the rest of the tech in the 1986 blockbuster sequel, feels incredibly tactile and set a new standard for how acid-blooded pest control would be dealt with going forward.

Designed by Cameron and brought to life by props designer Simon Atherton, the fully functional rifles were pieced together from an M1A1 Thompson, a Remington Model 870, and an SPAS-12 for the grenade launcher. The result was one of the coolest-sounding guns to ever come up against a movie monster, where even something as simple as a bullet counter would become iconic. In the years that followed, variations of the M41A would reappear in both the "Alien" and "Predator" franchises, with one of the most notable being in the recent "Alien: Romulus." In the end, though, when it comes to the science fiction armory, heading back to LV-426 and loading up the classic M41A rifle is the only way to go.

Before 1966, ray guns were nothing new. Flash Gordon had been packing one for some time, and the Robinson family from "Lost In Space" needed to be armed, what with all the "danger, danger" they were regularly finding themselves in. But when the crew of the Enterprise set out to seek new civilizations in "Star Trek," they were carrying a ray gun that felt familiar, yet completely new to the sci-fi genre, just like the rest of the world they inhabited. 

Packing a surprising 16 settings into a relatively small pistol, the phaser was regularly seen on the show whenever Kirk and his buddies needed to beam down to a planet they'd just discovered, or came across an alien race they didn't like the look of. The type 2 phaser has taken many different shapes and sizes over the years, including a more pistol-shaped weapon in the original series and a cool flip mode in the Star Trek Kelvin timeline movies. Plenty of science fiction stories have featured their own versions of laser-firing pistols, but Star Trek's phaser became the go-to space gun that outshone all the rest and has remained so ever since.

Well, what else was it going to be, really? Arguably the most legendary weapon not just in science fiction but in all of movie history, the lightsaber is why you can't pick up a tube of gift wrap around the holidays without making the "vwoom" sound, and the world of pop culture is honestly better for it. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age, the lightsaber debuted in "Star Wars: A New Hope" with Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker. 

George Lucas looked at a sword and a laser and brought them together to make something cooler than both. Over time, though, we saw just how deliriously fun duels with a laser sword could be, arguably peaking in the "Star Wars" prequels. There's just so much to like about lightsabers. You can slice with them, you can dice with them, and if you don't have the right access code to get in somewhere, well, you can just make your own door. 

Sure, you might be in constant danger of accidentally switching one on while it's clipped to your waist, but that is arguably worth the gamble for having a weapon that features your favorite color. No matter your stance on the current status of the "Star Wars" universe, there's no question that the signature weapon at the center of it all is, and always will be, one of the most iconic sci-fi weapons of all time.