MiB Weapons Overview and Characteristics
"Men in Black", based off a Malibu Comics series, is perhaps one of the most popular sci-fi movies of the 90s. Starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, with Linda Fiorentino, Rip Torn, and Vincent D'Onofrio providing a supporting cast, Men in Black was a blockbuster hit portraying a supersecret organization with the purpose to police extraterrestial life on Earth. It had dynamite special effects, particularly the amazing Tunnel Scene and the CGI bug at the end of the movie.
During the course of the movie, three different weapons are seen in the service of the Men in Black. They are as follows.
Series 4 De-atomizer
The Series 4 De-atomizer is a pistol like weapon that Agent K carries as his standard sidearm. It is seen in this picture:
It appears to have a laser scope, and is clearly smoking after being discharged. When fired, it has always caused the target to "explode". The first firing was when he blew up "Mikey" to save a curious border patrol officer. The second was during the questioning of Jeebs, the alien gun dealer.
First firing: 747KB
Second firing: 765KB
In both, we never actually see a projectile or an energy beam. One possibility is that the "de-atomizer" is basically a very powerful microwave, and causes the target to literally explode from the inside, like a hot dog that you heat for too long in the microwave. Although then one wonders why the MiB don't call it a "microwave" gun instead of a "Series 4 De-atomizer". I guess "Series 4 De-atomizer" sounds more "technologically cool" than "Microwave gun". :-)
Noisy Cricket
This weapon was MiB's running gag, and the epitome of the saying "Size matters not". J complains "I'm afraid I'm gonna break this thing", and it's wicked "recoil" nearly ends up breaking him. It's a small, almost compact gun, yet it's effect was devastating for it's size, blowing out a glass window, destroying the cable pulley on the tow truck, and then blowing a large hole in the trailer of a semi tractor-trailer. Damage like this is usually done by large ordnance, not a small handheld sidearm.
It blew a hole through the trailer, and apparently the cause of this destruction was the explosion the projectile produced. As for the scale of damage, let's scale that.
The trailer's height is 94 pixels. Although a trailer can be anywhere under 13'9", most are around 12'6", or 3.8 meters. Thus, using this as a base, the height of the blown out area is 2.14 meters, and the longest width is 2.26 meters. It looks like a car went through the trailer, or more appropriately, a tank or artillery shell. Quite an impressive showing for such a small weapon.
To show all of J's attempts at firing the weapon, I've compiled these clips. Warning: my vid capture software went nuts, and these clips have some bad jumps in them.
NC Firing 1: 255KB
NC Firing 2: 407KB
NC Firing 3: 761KB
As for the nature of the Noisy Cricket, once again we see no visible projectile, energy bolt, or whatever, but unlike the Series 4 D-A, it has a severe recoil. This is quite silly: such recoil should have injured J's arms. However, it may be that the gun itself does not produce recoil, but instead the projectile it fires creates a shockwave, perhaps as a method of propulsion. This would explain why J is thrown backward so violently yet does not suffer severe injury to his arms. Recoil would be transferred from the Noisy Cricket to his arms. But if it were a shockwave, it would hit his entire body. He would still be hurt, but his arms would not be harmed as they would be if it were actual recoil.
The projectile itself is likely physical, like a bullet or a shell. It produces one hell of an explosion for it's size, but there is an interesting possibility here. Gasoline has ten times the specific energy of TNT, yet TNT is more destructive because of it's rate of reaction. However, imagine a material with the specific energy of gasoline and the reaction rate of TNT, dense enough to be as large as a 5mm round. That is what the Noisy Cricket may very well be.
Heavy Weapons
Near the end of the movie, J and K used two heavy weapons to take down Edgar's flying saucer. Unlike other MiB weapons, this displayed a visible weapon effect, a blue orb/sphere-like bolt. It had some recoil, but nothing near that of the Noisy Cricket's "recoil".
Both guns fired the same thing, but had different barrels. The significance of this does not seem to be apparent. The blue bolts that it fired burst into expanding clouds of blue energy when they hit the target, like a splash effect, and a possible indicator of KE impact on the target. Considering that it did have recoil and therefore had mass, supported by the "splash" upon impact, it appears to be a plasma weapon.
Final Notes:
Yes, you've seen all of the "if"s, "maybe"s, "could be"'s, and "appear"s in here. Why, you may ask, do I not put something down "in stone"? Simple: we can't. We have no conclusive, 100% irrefutable proof that the Noisy Cricket fires a round, or that the de-atomizer has a microwave effect, or that the heavy guns fire plasma. There is no way of knowing if the NC's round creates a powerful shockwave when it leaves the barrel or if it's actually recoil and J's arms were secretly augmented with cybernetic enhancements or some other technobabble. All I can state is what we see, what we hear, and the possibilities that these give us.
Also, I will point out that even though I like the show, WB's cartoon MiB is not considered by me to be something one can apply in examing the movie. In other words, I don't consider it to be "canon" for the MiB movie, unless someone makes such a connection. The cartoon itself has some fancy toys, such as the freeze weapons and the "dispurser" that J puts on the Noisy Cricket to stop it from throwing him around like a rag doll. Just letting you know.
Acknowledgements:
My father, who spent years driving a semi tractor-trailer and was the obvious source for info on the height of a trailer.
Mike Wong, for intelligent discussion on the properties of MiB weapons.