The Guns of The Punisher Movies

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a force to be reckoned with — for now. But there was a time not so long ago when comic book movies weren’t considered bankable properties. But some characters kept making their way to film and TV, even back in the ’80s. Hollywood found The Punisher pretty early on, since he’s essentially an action movie one-man-army type of character, with no superpowers to spend a special effects budget on.

Let’s take a look at the signature guns used by The Punisher in all three of his big screen appearances.

The Punisher (1989) – Dolph Lundgren

This low-budget, dark, grimy flick is barely recognizable as a Punisher movie, and if the lead character hadn’t been named Frank Castle, it would be really hard to tell. There are a few conflicting stories about why the lead character, played by Dolph Lundgren of Rocky IV fame, never donned the signature chest skull logo, but the fact remains that he doesn’t. The closest we get is throwing knives with little silver skulls on the pommels.

While this version of Frank Castle doesn’t have a huge arsenal of weapons, the ones he has are pretty awesome. He abides by the action movie philosophy of very rarely reloading. Instead, he usually tosses a weapon when it’s empty and draws another.

It seems Frank was supposed to have a go-to sidearm that he’d use a lot — it was even in a widely circulated publicity photo, but it barely makes an appearance in the film. The gun is a modified Desert Eagle Mark I in .357 Magnum with a long, extended barrel. A handguard from an AMD-65, a variant of the AKM rifle made in Hungary, was reversed and installed beneath that long barrel to give the appearance of an extended, vented frame.

The illusion is pretty good — it really does look like all one piece, like the gun was made that way. Maybe they didn’t use it much in the film because they realized they made the barrel too long to the point where it became a little comical, like the Joker’s revolver from Batman (1989).

In one of the more memorable scenes, Frank drops into an illegal mob-run casino operation through a skylight and wastes a whole lot of slot machines and bad guys using an M60 machine gun with a grenade launcher mounted beneath its significant barrel. From the grip and trigger, it appears the “grenade” launcher is actually a Smith & Wesson Model 276 Gas Gun used by police for firing tear gas canisters.

I gotta say, I’ve never seen such a gun before or since and the launcher on an M60 is an imposing sight. It’s right up there with Chuck Norris’ rifle-grenade-launcher combo from Braddock: Missing in Action III.

Frank uses a couple of shotguns, including a sawed-off double barrel and a Franchi SPAS 12. For the final act of the film, he heavily uses a Colt Model 610 carbine, aka Colt Commando, with a stubby suppressor on the muzzle. The gun in the movie is the U.S. Air Force model, not the version used by the Army.

GAU-5/A aka Colt Model 610 – 5.56x45mm. This is the USAF version and was only used by them. This is NOT the E1 version, which was used almost exclusively by the Army. The gun is pretty small for Dolph, and he mostly uses it like a big pistol, the stock never really meeting his shoulder.

The Punisher (2004) – Thomas Jane

In 2004, the character of The Punisher/Frank Castle got a big-budget, big-screen update with Thomas Jane in the titular role. But this was well before Iron Man got the MCU rolling in 2008, and it was only moderately successful — not enough to warrant a sequel, even though Jane lobbied hard to play the role again.

This movie gives Frank Castle some rather heavy motivation. Rather than his immediate family being killed in a mob hit, his entire extended family is wiped out, including his wife and kids, when mob hitmen target a Castle family reunion.

Frank survives, barely, and picks up what will become his signature weapons through the movie — a pair of custom 1911s that his father built. They are based on Colt M1911A1 pistols with bored chambers, custom triggers, thread-on compensators, Novak night sights, Smith and Alexander extended magwells, combat hammers, Kings Gun Works extended slide stops and extended mag releases, and Ed Brown extended beavertail grip safeties. Front cocking serrations have been added to the slide.

Frank carries both pistols in twin Blade-Tech Tactical Thigh Holsters that have also been customized. If they look familiar, it’s because inexpensive bushing compensators with the same look as the comps on Frank’s guns hit the market ever since, and people have been installing them on their first 1911s ever since.

In the comics, Frank, being a Vietnam-era military vet, also likes the 1911 pistol, specifically the Springfield models.

This version of The Punisher also uses an AR carbine. By the time this movie was made, the M4 Carbine had been adopted by the U.S. military, and Frank, being a veteran, gravitated to the M4A1 with an M203 grenade launcher mounted under the barrel and an Aimpoint CompM2 red dot on top.

He gears up with this rifle for the big assault on the Saints and Sinners club. He uses it until an enemy round hits the receiver and renders it inoperable.

There are a ton of firearms in this movie, but Frank comparatively uses few of them. In addition to the pistols and the M4 above, we see him use a few shotguns throughout the movie. During the assault on his family, he’s rocking an old-school, sawed-off Ted Williams Model 21 Deluxe pump shotgun and a Savage/Stevens 311A double barrel. Later, he uses a pistol grip Mossberg 590 Compact Cruiser.

Deeper in the film, we see Frank with a 311A that has been cut down as much as possible, which is probably another gun he retrieved from his father’s arsenal and modified.

Punisher: War Zone (2008) – Ray Stevenson

Four years after Thomas Jane’s film, we got another Punisher movie, but it wasn’t a sequel to the 2004 movie and it had the late Ray Stevenson stepping into the role for another reboot, Punisher: War Zone that was largely forgotten in the shadow of Iron Man.

Interestingly enough, this was the first version of The Punisher who truly used a broad arsenal of weapons.

At the top of the movie, Frank crashes a big mob dinner upside down on a rope through the roof with what looks like a pair of full-auto pistols with large mags.

The guns are actually customized Heckler & Koch MP5Ks that he carries in holsters on his back. The receivers have a satin stainless finish and the foregrips have been removed, giving them a wild appearance. So, technically, since there is nothing to grab with a support hand, they really are machine pistols. They also have top rails and what looks like the rear sights from an AR mounted to them with no front sight. We only see them in this one scene — when they run dry, Frank ditches them, just like Dolph would do.

Later in the same scene, we see Frank draw a Heckler & Koch USP Compact Tactical pistol. He carries this gun fitted with a tactical light as a backup for his two primary pistols.

And here they are. Frank’s favorite firearms are a pair of matching handguns, but instead of custom 1911s, this version of The Punisher carries twin stainless Beretta 92FS Inox pistols with extended magazines that have been converted to fire in full auto.

He typically carries one on his vest in a cross-draw position and the other in a leg holster.

When this movie came out, the Smith & Wesson Model 500 chambered in .500 S&W was the new hotness and the new holder of the “most powerful handgun in the world” title, so of course Frank Castle had to use a couple in the new movie. In the beginning, he uses a fairly standard hunting version of the Model 500 with an extended contoured ejector shroud and significant muzzle brake, all stainless.

Later, he uses a distinctive Performance Center version of the Model 500 that’s outfitted with a Knight’s Armament RIS setup, a weapon light under the barrel along with a laser sight, and on the muzzle is what could be a fake suppressor or some kind of compensator or brake. Hopefully, it’s the latter and the filmmakers weren’t implying a Model 500 could be suppressed.

In what might have been a nod to the Thomas Jane movie, this Punisher uses a customized M4A1 as a primary long gun during the big hotel shootout. It’s outfitted with KAC quad-rails, a C-More red dot sight attached to the quad-rail and not the top rail, a DoubleStar pic rail AR-15 gas block, an AAC M4-2000 suppressor, and a short-barreled AG-C grenade launcher mounted under the barrel, which is actually a non-functioning prop built from an airsoft launcher.

This movie marks the first time we see The Punisher using a sniper rifle and it’s not even really a sniper rifle. He arms up with another H&K firearm, this time an SL8-4 rifle. This gun is the civilian version of the famous H&K G36 rifle chambered in .223/5.56. To adapt the gun for the civilian market, H&K ditched the G36’s folding stock and pistol grip and replaced it with the SL8-4’s distinctive thumbhole stock.

When topped with a scope, it sure looks like a sniper rifle, and Frank uses it as such to take down Maginty with a kneecap shot from a rooftop.

The Punisher TV Show – Jon Bernthal

The latest iteration of The Punisher, and many people’s favorite, came on the small screen with Jon Bernthal starring in Marvel’s now-canceled TV show on Netflix that ran for two seasons. The character was also featured in the second season of Daredevil.

This version of Frank uses so many guns it would be impossible to list them here, but like the Thomas Jane version and the comic book version, he’s a big fan of 1911s. Otherwise, he tends to gravitate toward current U.S. military hardware.