Tavor 21 and Resident Evil: Apocalypse
 

Some numbers aren't working here. Resident Evil: Apocalypse was released between sometime in 2004, but AFAIK Israel only just recently started issuing Tavors in 2006.

Are the Tavors in this movie legit or are they mock-ups? If they're legit, how exactly did Hollywood get a hold of them before Israeli troops did?

Can somebody shine some light on this for me and tell me if I'm missing something?

The Tavor may have been officially adopted in 2006, but it was available for foreign sales before that. The IDF's been slow to adopt it, in part because they're really not sure if it's better than the M16s/M4s that most personnel already use. As of now, the Tavor is still in somewhat limited circulation (if you watch news footage of the Gaza conflict in December/January, you'll see almost all of the Israelis were still using M16s and M4s).

Also, one of the armorers who worked on "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" visited that page and made a whole bunch of corrections and provided us with additional information on the film's guns. He said nothing about the Tavors being mock-ups or fakes.

A friend of mine with a brother in the Israeli army says that it's gonna be a while before the Tavor really makes an appearance.

If it does at all...apparently, most of the IDF brass really doesn't like the Tavor. It was the same situation back in the 70s when the Galil was introduced; nobody in the IDF wanted to give up the FALs and M16s they were already using.

The Tavor is current fielded in the Israeli military. It was in used since the last Lebanon war.

It might or might not have a future in the Israeli military. Time will tell.

Hi, we used the Tavor in the movie, no it's not a mock up but a real one, bought some from IMI direct.
IMO I hate the thing and would never want to use one ever again, directors like them though lol.

If I recognize this user name correctly, would this be Al Vrkljan speaking?

You got it.

Epic. Welcome back. I didn't get to meet you last time you were on the site, but I built you an actor page and credited you in your film roles.

Anyway, glad to have another armorer on the site.

Thanks so much for that page lol, now I feel like a real nob lol, kidding.

Just wondering, how do you pronounce "Vrkljan"? It's been something I've been wondering for a while.

lol "nob" I had to look that up.

Now if only we get more armorers on this site, we be set.

IMO, armorers are celebrities, without all the drama and crap. Here at IMFDb, you matter more than the actors. Without you, the films wouldn't have guns, and IMFDb would not exist.

Thanks, but IMHO it starts at the writer and then everybody else.

As for my last name, it's like klingon so I'll break it down for you in english,
verk len, now say it fast and you have it.

You would be amazed how that handle has worked for me.

Oh okay, thanks.

Mr. Vrkljan,
As you worked on Resident Evil Apocalipse, would you mind giving some details on what exactly was done with the M134 Minigun in the film? I know for a fact that it's not an XM-214 Microgun. I belive you said that the only thing that wasn't customised was the motor. Frankly I like the look of a handheld Minigun and the work that goes into building one is impressive.

And maybe some comments on the nickel plated MP5K (usually they use an SP89 when nickel plating that type of gun), and the custom Para-Ordnace P-14s.

Mr.
wow never been called that before, feeling old now lol.

The M134 mini was really simple, we just made our own barrels at 12 inches and also made a shorter barrel clamp.
Then the rest was furniture machined from aluminum to make it lighter, 60-80 pounds total, then we attached a feed chute that held 200 rnds in the chute and there you have it.
It was fired by one arm, so take that Arnie.

For extend firing, the ammo can was below camera frame, the longest burst was when he was taking out the stars unit, did about 15 seconds straight and that was a very long 15 seconds, funny watching the brass and link build up around his ankels.

The one thing that I will never forget was when we fired it in the hallway, we told them what will happen and they wouldn't believe us, so we told the set department to glue, staple and tape every paper that was on the wall,
the grips built a 5/8's plywood shield in front of the camera on the dolly and had lexan in the viewing port for the focus puller.
We then had sound blankets over the camera guy's and the usual eyes and ears, thenwe asked locations to open all the window's on that floor that were not in shot.
So the dolly started 100ft down the hall on tracks and the grip would push that thing, once it got to 60ft, nemisis came around the corner and fired a 200rnd burst.

Now remember we tried to explain to them what it's goingto sound like and what type of over pressure we were going to deal with and because of that they should keep their mouths open, the usual camera reply of I'm too cool to worry and everybody just figured it was going to sound like a machinegun like the other ones.

Well let me tell you it scared the living shit out of everybody that was there when that thing went off, the focus pullersteeth rattled so much that he didn't focus because he was holding his jaw, the doly grip and dollywas pushed back 20 ft from the pressure and one fellow nearly pissed his pants because he was too busy reading his newspaper to even bother putting on his ears.
Needles to say everybody went crazy, they wanted more, I had to beat people away as they wanted to know more and I was busy trying to make the gun safe.
So everything was fine, on to take 2.
Again the doly grip couldn't hold the dolly, take 3.
So they bring in dolly grip #2, they needed a 2nd guy to push and hold the dolly in place, so off they go, gun goes off, the 2nd dolly grip just ran away in fright, he was to busy smoking in the truck and never heard the thing go off before hand, we all thought he knew what was happening, it was a good laugh.
Take 4, in the can.

After that, huge crowds would form on set to watch the mini fire, it turned into a problem sometimes.

Now I thought that was loud until I worked on Deathrace
we had 5 x mini's, 2 x 20mm vulcans, 5 x .50 cals and other various belt feeds firing at the same time, that sound cannot be described.

The MP5K was spray painted to look like nickle, the para's beaver tail was shaved off and some other corner's were filed off so when Milla was spinning them they would not get in her way or cut her.

Awesome, I wish I could have been there to witness this spectacle.

The MP5Ks were spray painted? Hmm, looked convincing enough since I thought it was actually nickel plated.

And the P-14s were nicely done, although shaving off the corners seems a little unecessary. How could she mess up with cornered back edges? I mean, I can understand the beavertail getting in the way (I hate those things), but shaving the corners seems strange.

Wow, that's quite a story! Do you recall roughly how much blank ammo was expended from the Minigun alone?

RE2, maybe 15k tops

Deathrace, 4 tons of spent brass was collected through out the movie.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

That sounds like it would have taken up a sizable portion of the budget!

believe it or not, firearms can be the most least expensive thing in a movie budget

True. Although 4 tons of brass is still just...whoa. Of course, that's because 20mm and .50-cal rounds are both huge.

Yeah, I remember the filmakers talked about the 20mm blanks fired from the Vulcans in xXx, and the blanks were so expensive, they were going through ~ $100 a second. My memory on it is fuzzy though.

Four tons of brass collected?! I'm buying that movie now, that sounds fucking awesome! :D

I recall on 2nd unit we were filming the rig all gunned up and firing all it's guns, we went through 5000 rnds a take I believe, how many takes and days I don't know, I was only there for a week then back to work on another show.
The 20mm had 12g inserts, I think it had upwards of 80+ grains of powder in the shell.
I agree with excalibur for features, on smaller shows they make you feel like chickens with lips are far more common.
The 3 things that get chopped are stunts, FX and guns,
I couldn't imagine what would happen if the upper's had to get rid of something useless in their contract in order to make the film a little more exciting.