Movies with Lasers

1. James Bond Movies
2. Star Trek
3. Other

James Bond Movies

1. GoldenEye (1995)
   • Omega Seamaster Professional Divers's wrist watch contains a laser used to escape from the villain's private train which is about to explode.
   • Miniature laser contained in a mountain climber's piton gun is used to burn through a steel doorway to a secret russian bio weapons facility concealed inside a hydroelectric dam.
2. Moonraker (1979)
   • From a space shuttle, James Bond uses a laser to destroy several pods before they reenter earth's atmosphere and destroy humanity with lethal nerve gas.
   • In the temporary 'Q' laboratories in Rio de Janeiro, a laser rifle is tested on rubber dummy and the head seems to be melting. The rifles are later used by a squad of 'space-marines' powered by MMU's (Manned Maneuvering Units).

   James Bond is about to be sliced in half by Auric Goldfinger's laser.
   Bond: "Do you expect me to talk ?"
   Goldfinger: "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die !"
   
3. Goldfinger (1964)
   • High power ruby laser used by Goldfinger to process metals (how?)
     Goldfinger attempts to use it for more sadistic purposes on a helpless James Bond.
4. Diamonds are Forever (1971)
   • Diamonds are the lasing material used for constructing a satellite based laser weapon used by Specter to extort money from the nuclear powers. The diamonds are part of a parabolic antenna, which is curious because normally this is used to focus radiation. If the diamonds were lasing they would have to be optically pumped; electrical pumping is not an option because natural diamond is one of the best electrical insulators around. Also they would have to be phase locked otherwise the beam would quickly degrade due to incoherent addition of multiple beams with random relative phases. One point that is overlooked by the author(s) is how the laser makes it trough atmospheric turbulence without distortion ?
5. Never Say Never Again (1983)
   • Russian whiz kid formerly of the KGB constructs high powered laser in a wrist watch. Bond uses it to cut off his steel wrist shackles holding his prisoner in a dungeon.
6. The Living Daylights (1987)
   • Laser in the wheel of an Astin Martin Volante. Bond uses it to causes a separation of the undercarriage of a pursuing police car.

Star Trek

1. Star Trek
   • Good old phasers are used in most episodes.
2. Star Trek episode - Patterns of Force
   Captain James T. Kirk and his second in command Spock are locked in jail cell on a planet controlled by a Nazi regime. To escape they cut they way through the lock by using a pair of subcutaneous rubindium locator crystals to create a primitive laser pumped by the light bulb in their cell. Spock fixes the crystals a precise distance apart with a piece of metal from the mattress in their cell, supposedly to create a resonant cavity something like the cleaved coupled cavity laser (C3 laser) used by the telecommunications industry : Each crystal could probably produce strong amplified spontaneous emission (a kind of weak laser effect) but it is not very bright and lacks directionality. However if both crystals are combined and properly aligned into a Fabry-Perot resonator cavity with parallel faces their combined gain would exceed the laser threshold and extremely bright and highly directional laser oscillation would occur. The gain factor of both lasers combined increases by more than a factor of two due to the exponentially amplifying nature of the laser gain medium.
3. DS9 (Deep Space Nine episode) - Our Man Bashir
   A spoof of James Bond in which the villain intends to flood the earth by firing lasers into the earth's crust at various key strategic points.
4. Star Trek The Next Generation - Barkley hijacks enterprise
   • When Barkley attempts to regain control of the fusion reactors aboard the Argus astronomical array, he constructs a neural interface directly to his brain on the holodeck. The device apparently probes his brain with what looks like blue lasers shining onto his skull via some kind of support structure.

Other

1. MacGyver (TV, 1985-) Episodes: Pilot, Heist, Human Factor, Lost Love and Wall.
   • Pilot : Kicked grate to test for hidden laser. Lit cigarette with the beam and used the smoke the reveal the beam's location. Using a binocular eyepiece the the beam was deflected towards the source to destroy the laser itself.
   • Heist : Found a laser beam with cigar ashes, rerouted it with a plastic tube and passed under it by 'limbo-dancing'.
   • Human Factor : Tightrope walked over laser trap floor. Using a mirror a mop and a pail, the laser beam was redirected to destroy the laser.
   • Lost Love : A hidden laser beam was revealed by creating a cloud of climber's chalk and observing the light from the beam scattering off the particles. (or was it powdered cleaning agent)
   • Wall : A signal flare was used to detect a laser beam.
2. MaxGyver - "The Legend Of The Holy Rose"
   • MacGyver stumbles across the ancient artifacts of Ambrose. He first comes across the 'Diana's Mirror' and by following inscriptions on this mirror MacGyver begins a quest for the rest of the artifacts of Ambrose. His search eventualy leads him to the temple which contains the treasure.
     The mirror unlocks a device and releases three scepters each containing a large white crystal. Eventualy, these scepters will unlock the puzzle and reveal the location of the 'Holy Rose', a ruby crystal.
     This ruby is eventually placed at the center of an enclosure consisting of five petals which are highly polished on their inner surfaces. The assembly forms a spherical globe with two openings.
     Once at the site, MacGyver assembles the five artifacts on a specially designed rock or optical table. The mirror is positioned above the ruby, and the scepters are aligned in a straight line in front of the ruby.
     MacGyver then suggests that it is an ancient 'optical pump' or laser.
     The mirror concentrates the sun's rays, and reflects the light into the ruby crystal, the light is bounced off the five reflective surfaces and into the ruby, the light is amplified, then it is further amplified by the scepters.
     Well a crude laser never the less... (movie reviewed by Flavio Spedalieri)
3. Star Wars (1977)
   • The 'Death Star' was used by Darth Vader to destroy ships or entire planets in the Empire's attempt to subdue the rebellion.
4. Andromeda Strain (1970)
   • Scientist is perforated by a laser weapon supposedly designed only to destroy small infected lab rats that have escaped accidentally.
5. Congo (1995)
   • While prospecting for rare blue diamonds for ultra fast computer chips (or is it lasers?) an expedition is protected by a perimeter of defensive lasers.
6. Fortress (1993)
   • In the future, lasers are used to control inmates in an underground prison in middle of the desert.
7. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (1985, TV)
   • A laser is used as the data link to a virtual reality headset designed to reconstruct historical events using some kind of direct brain stimulation technique (bypassing the usual five senses).

   Real thermonuclear fusion laser used in the movie 'Tron'. Inertial confinement research at Lawrence Livermore National Labs.

8. Tron (1982)
   • A research lab has perfected the means of digitizing living matter by using ultra-high power lasers to 'pixelize' a 3D object and decompose it into bits of information fed to a computer. The hero of the movie is 'decomposed' against his will by the laser and ends up in a virtual world inside the supercomputer. The set used in the movie is actually Lawrence Livermore National Labs SHEVA the worlds most powerful laser at the time. In real life this laser is used for high energy experiments in thermonuclear fusion by inertial confinement.
9. Fantastic Voyage (1966)
   • A miniturized laser is used to perform arterial surgery in the brain of an important scientist rescued from behind the iron curtain. This foreshadows the present-day use of such lasers in unblocking coronary arteries.
10. Manhattan Project (1986)
    • A bright whiz kid is taken on a tour of a plutonium reprocessing plant which uses high powered lasers to perform isotope separation. The chief scientist lights his cigar using the beam and reveals the path the beam takes by blowing smoke over it. The physics of laser isotope separation relies on the highly selective nature of intense laser radiation to cause non-linear multi-photon ionization of molecules containing various isotopes of plutonium. However, there is a flaw in the realism of the premise : Historically, only uranium 235 required isotopic separators because trace amounts of the bomb grade fissionable material are found mixed with quasi-useless U238. Plutonium produced as a nuclear reactor byproduct is relatively 'easy' to extract by simpler chemical means. The difficulty in plutonium processing are due to the extreme toxicity of plutonium and the high levels of radioactivity associated with spent fuel rods. Perhaps they are extracting a particular isotope of plutonium ? (this should not be necessary as all isotopes of plutonium are unstable and highly fissionable)
11. The Final Countdown (1980)
    • The USS Nimitz enters a time warp, the special effects used to create a surreal tunnel are created by shining a laser on a spinning mirror to give the appearance of a light tunnel. The beam cuts trough dense smoke and reveals the complex vortex structure of the smoke as it spirals and diffuses. The laser beam is so thin that it can reveal these two dimensional cross sections which are usually never seen when viewing the smoke under normal illumination because all the layers are illuminated simultaneously which blurs the fine structure of the smoke vortexes and turbulence.
12. Doctor Who (TV)
    • K-9 the Doctors' mechanical canine has a laser in his nose.

    Firouz: "My ! It certainly packs a powerful wallop doesn't it !"

13. Sinbad - episode: "King Firouz" (TV)
    • Firouz, the genius inventor, a member of Sinbad's crew constructs a device called a "Beamer" to transmit encoded optical information between far away lands, "This invention could change worldwide communications !". (any viewer knows that this device is a primitive laser, which has revolutionized telecommunications via fiber-optics). The initial test accidentally fires a beam so powerful it blows up the side of a mountain.
      The portable device sits atop a simple tripod. A collapsible flower petal array of highly reflective brass mirrors collects and focusses sunlight onto a series quartz crystals arranged radially at the focus of each petal. The crystals re-direct and combine the sub-beams onto the sides of a large fist-sized spherical ruby crystal suspended in the center of a cylindrical metal housing with a mirror at one end. A collimating lens is visible at the output side of the tube, and one can deduce that it is half silvered or there must be a second partially silvered mirror to create the resonant cavity. The spherical shape of the crystal indicates a confocal resonator, however the lack of silver coating on the ends of the ruby would necessitate an external mirror cavity. In later tests, Firouz has designed a special mask to be inserted between the ruby and the front mirror to spoil the resonance properties of the cavity, hence preventing laser action by reducing the optical feedback below the loss threshold. If this 'lens-cap' were inserted outside the cavity, the laser beam might melt it. With the mask in place the ruby fluoresces mostly by spontaneous emission in all directions randomly. However, when it is removed, the beam immediately appears, indicating that the light has bounced back and forth within the mirrored cavity with very little loss and has been exponentially amplified by stimulated emission at each pass leading to a highly directional laser beam.
      When fired, it makes a high pitched electrical whine a kind of 'shrill' noise, this is puzzling as there are no electrical transformers, no storage batteries, no gas discharge flashlamps. Maybe the sound is from acoustic oscillations of the quartz and ruby crystal under intense thermal stress, the brass supporting structure could act as a conduit channeling the vibrational modes to the large solar collector petals. The petals seemed rather flimsy and vibrated a lot when the device was moved, so it is not unreasonable to expect them to amplify vibrations like a megaphone.
      The red beam shouldn't be visible because the air around the laser is perfectly clear.
      In real life only synthetically grown rubies are used, natural ruby has too many iron impurities to successfully fluoresce at the laser emission wavelength. Plans for solar pumped lasers have been published.
14. JAG (1995, TV) - episode: "Recovery"
    • Investigation of the failure of the emergency space shuttle escape system after an aborted lauch attempt at Vandenberg Air Force base reveals that a laser was responsible for sabotaging a cable. The laser is to be used in an upcoming shuttle mission.

    'Beam Rider', a laser powered launch vehicle on its maiden flight.

15. Mr. and Mrs. Smith - episode 9: "Space"
    • The 'BeamRider' project, a laser powered launch vehicle loses its NASA funding so the chief scientist defects and attempts to launch the probe with the help of a questionable funding source. In the picture above, some of the technicians are standing uncomfortably close the potentially fatal exhaust plumes. (now that I think of it I didn't see any exhaust plumes ?). Almost none of the ground crew wore laser safety goggles, a momentary stray reflection and they could go blind, not to mention suffer severe skin burns. (a few sci.space.policy UseNet comments)
      'It is so elegant in its simplicity ... you fire a powerful laser at the bottom of the spacecraft, the beam interacts with the coating to create a gas which is dispelled just like the plume of a rocket, but you don't need fuel ... once your in orbit your half-way to anywhere !' - said by Craig Thompson, Chief Scientist for the 'BeamRider' project.
      

      Science Fact: The real 'Lightcraft', a laser propelled spacecraft was recently tested and reached an altitude of 30 meters.

      The 50 cm wide beam from a 10 kw CO2 laser is focussed by a parabolic mirror at the base of the vehicle into a ring shaped plasma. Air at the focal point is heated to between 10,000 and 30,000 Kelvin at tens of atmospheres by kilojoule laser pulses lasting 30 microseconds and repeated 10 times per second. After each pulse the plasma expands and cools very rapidly producing thrust and a brief flash of visible light. Air flowing through the vehicle replenishes the supply of gas near the focal point. The aluminum craft is 15 cm in diameter, has a mass of 50 grams and is gyroscopically stabilized.

      The "Lightcraft" is designed at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and launched at the White Sands Missile Range with a SDI laser which is normally used for testing ICBM components for vulnerability to laser countermeasures from a strategic missile defence system. It is the highest average power, pulsed carbon dioxide laser presently operating in the U.S. The team is planning to use a more powerful 150 kw CO₂ laser in preparation for flights to the edge of space (100 km altitude). Laser propulsion costs several orders of magnitude less than chemical-fueled rockets. Near term applications include launching microsatellites.
      There is another project called WaveRider which uses lasers to create shock waves by detonating the air ahead of the ship as it ascends into orbit, this reduces the atmospheric drag.

16. Spy Game (1997) - episode : "Dead and Gone, Honey!"
    • Margo deSalle, ex-chief scientist of a secret weapons division in the U.S. government attempts to regain control of project Tempest, mothballed after a catastrophic test which resulted in the death of 3 lab technicians. The laser weapon is based on a tri-crystalline light vortex which supposedly can generate an absolute light vacuum and designed to feed on any type of matter or energy and grow in power indefinitely, eventually destroying everything. (quote: 'Those crystals make the atomic bomb look like a sparkler') It looks like a three mirror ring laser with crystal laser amplifiers at each apex. Secondary beams are generated from the apex crystals and the number of sub-beams increases over time producing something like a mirrored disco-ball laser light show.
      In real life, lasers are being used to cool small bunches of atoms to such low temperatures that they are almost stationary. Presumably the authors of the story have extrapolated into the future where such a laser could condense the atoms and molecules in the air resulting in a partial vacuum; the powerful shock waves resulting from the sudden implosion of the surrounding air is what ultimately causes the material damage. The rotating beams also appear to be inducing a wind vortex as the outside air swirls inwards to fill the vacuum creating tornadic damage as well. Some of the sub-beams seem to emanate from thin air above Tempest, which isn't possible unless there are optical mirrors in those locations, clearly there aren't (science blooper).
17. Chain Reaction (1996)
    • A blue laser is used to enhance the yield of a 'cold-fusion-like' experiment which is used to extract hydrogen from water via an apparently simple sonoluminescent process. The laser is switched on only after the acoustic energy has had a chance to initiate a brilliant light emitting bubble in the water tank.
18. Blown Away (1994)
    • A bomb squad expert uses a small portable laser tool, a hi-tech wire stripper, to melt the insulation from wiring. It resembles those commonly used as laser pointers.
19. I-Man (1986, TV)
    A laser weapon perforates a hole through a man with instantaneous self-regenerative healing powers.
20. Nothing to Lose (1997)
    • Argon Ion Laser (8 watts), laser projector and 40 2x2 inch mirrors are used to produce a laser beam alarm. Cris crossing blue/green laser beams reflect and pulse around in the room while the alarm is activated. (Behind the scene, an optical table with accuating mirrors reflect the laser through 50/50 beam splitters and mirrors . The laser light is reflected and directed to the externaly installed mirrors, that direct the final beam destination.)
      (Reviewed by Jim McDaniel)
21. Mission Impossible
    • lasers as security sensors, breaking the beam triggers the alarm.
22. Real Genius (1985)
    • Whiz kids unwittingly develop a high power laser for the military.

    A homebuilt laser is fired at an approaching spacecraft to assist in its propulsion.

23. Outer Limits (episode)
    • An ex-NASA employee contructs a makeshift laser, which is fired from earth to prevent a damaged alien solar sail ship from plummeting into the sun.
24. Spies Like Us (1985)
    • A Strategic Denfense Intiative (SDI) laser fails to down a Russian missile. The beam was generated in a ground based laser camouflaged as a drive-in theater. Orbital mirrors attempt to relay the pulse to the missile however there is a targeting problem and the pulse accidentally destroys the MTV satellite instead. (this causes certain TV sets tuned to that channel to blow up, to the delight of an adolescent viewer)

    A powerful laser originaly designed to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles, used instead against escaping rebels.

25. The Last Chase (1981)
    • In a futuristic society a race car driver and a teen computer whiz rebel. The opressive government goes to great lengths to anihilate them, such as attempting to destroy them with the aid of a strategic defence initiative laser. The red laser is coaxial with a parabolic radar antenna probably for target aquisition and tracking. The laser is presumbly one of many located in the deserts because of the relatively higher number of clear days there. (most lasers cannot penetrate the cloud cover).
26. Terminator (1984)
    • The terminator uses a conventional weapon equipped with a laser targeting system which appears as a red spot on the intended target.
27. Logan's Run (1976)
    • lasers used for 'instant' plastic surgery in what looks like a dentist chair.
28. Earth Star Voyager (1988, TV)
    • The orbital aphelion of a binary star system is used to power a solar pumped laser to defend the crew from pirates. This implies that the orbits of the two stars are elliptical. To my knowledge, this is the only instance in a movie of the construction and realisation of an artificial stellar laser.
29. Laser Moon (1992)
    • Someone is killing women with a laser to the temple during the full moon
30. Black Eagle (1988)
    • CIA must salvage a laser guidance system from a US Air Force F-100 aircraft which crashed into the sea near Malta.
31. Stunts Unlimited (1980)
    • Former US agent hires stunt men to recover a stolen laser gun.
32. Raise the Titanic (1980)
    • A rare mineral on board could be used to power a laser.
33. Laser Mission (1990)
    • Mercenary Gold is sent from the CIA to seize the laser expert Braun
34. Murderers' Row (1966)
    • Secret agent to track down a kidnapped scientist who invented the helium laser beam (powerful enough to destroy a whole continent?).

Under Construction !

• Deadly Rivals (1992)
• Short Circuit (1986)
• Laser Mission (1990)
• Laserblast (1978)
• The Inside Man (1984)
• The Destructors (1968)
• Beloved Enemy (1980)
• Corruption (1968)
• Crystals and lasers 1-6
• Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1972)
• Inspector Clouseau (1984)
• Laser: Light of the Future (1966)
• The Laserman (1988)
• lasers (1980)
• lasers from Space
• The Magic laser (1981)
• Monster Zero (1966)
• Serenade for Two Spies (1966)
• Super Van (1977)
• Zigzag (1970)

REFERENCES

1. Additional movie information links provided courtesy of the The Internet Movie Database
2. James Bond web sites (gadget, 'Q' etc...)
3. Star Trek web sites (in particular science related sites)
4. Krauss, Lawrence M.: 1995, The Physics of Star Trek, BasicBooks.

Back to Lasers in the Movies