The Gun (novel)

The Gun is a novel by C.S. Forester about an imaginary series of incidents involving a single eighteen-pounder cannon during the Peninsular War (1807-1814.) The book was first published in 1933 and has as its background the brutal war of liberation of Spanish and Portuguese forces (regular and partisans) and their English allies against the occupying armies of Napoleonic France.

As the story begins, the titular huge bronze cannon is abandoned by the remnants of a Spanish army retreating after their defeat in the Battle of Espinosa. The local people employ it in their rebellion against the French, but are eventually forced to hide it away beneath a pile of stone to prevent its capture. Years later, a group of guerrilleros learn of its location and conscript the locals to outfit it with carriage and train. Over time, the gun is used in battle with ever-increasing success. It falls under the control of a series of guerrilla leaders; each achieves strong leadership through his connection to the gun, and each is eventually killed in some way (captured and executed, killed in battle, killed by rival leaders), until the gun finally comes under the control of the 18-year-old Jorge, who emerges as an untrained but naturally gifted leader and tactician. The exploits of the Spanish irregulars under Jorge eventually lead to the diversion of a large body of French troops from their fight against the Peninsular allies under the Duke of Wellington and thus help win the war.

Gun (disambiguation)

A gun is an object that propels another object through a hollow tube, primarily as weaponry.

Gun or Guns may also refer to:

Places

In entertainment

The Gun (1974 film)

The Gun is a made for television film, of the suspense-thriller type, which ABC-TV transmitted as a Movie Of The Week on November 13, 1974. It starred David Huffman, Ron Thompson, Richard Bright, Pepe Serna, Lee de Broux, and Stephen Elliott, and was written directly for television by Jay Benson, Richard Levinson, and William Link and directed by John Badham, then a working director of television productions. Levinson and Link were also the producers of the film.

Plot

A series of interweaving stories tell the journey of a handgun—specifically, a long-barreled revolver with a blue-steel finish, whose caliber is not specified—as it passes from one owner to another. Some of these owners are lawless; others are law-abiding and, indeed, law enforcers. But in all the time it passes between its various owners, it is never actually fired (aside from the one test-firing it underwent at the factory) and is never shown actually to discharge any ammunition.

Its last scene, however, depicts a child who finds the gun while it is fully loaded and has none of its safeties engaged. The film shock-cuts to black just then, but it is implied that the child has accidentally caused it to discharge a round of ammunition—and been seriously injured, or killed, by the bullet thus fired from it.

The Gun (short story)

The Gun is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick, first published in 1952 September issue of Planet Stories, and later published in Beyond Lies the Wub in 1984. "The Gun" has been published in Italian, German, French and Polish translations.

Plot synopsis

The plot centers around a group of space explorers who investigate a planet which appears deserted. However, they are shot down and crash land on the planet. While repairing their ship, a team of explorers sets to survey the surrounding area, where they discover the ruins of an ancient city. Upon further investigation, it is revealed that the gun which shot them down is in the city, and is programmed to shoot anything down which enters the airspace above the city. They examine the gun and discover that it is protecting a tomb directly underneath it -- a tomb which contains artifacts, film and photographs of a lost civilization. In order to prevent themselves from being shot down by the same gun while attempting to leave the planet, they destroy the gun and take the artifacts with them. As they leave the ship, hoping to return one day, it is revealed that several automatized machines begin to repair and erect the gun again: this time it is loaded with nuclear warheads.