History Main / WaveMotionGun

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'': Donald Duck unveils the Zettaflare spell, used only in a cutscene. It's a massive laser that outright obliterates [[TheJuggernaut Terra-Xehanort]] in one shot.

* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games have some, the most known of which is probably Hyper Beam and its variations. [[AwesomeButImpractical Due to its nature]], most are more likely to use the more practical wave motion guns available to them such as Flash Cannon, Dragon Pulse, and Solar Beam (in the sunlight), etc. Needless to say, the franchise has built up a Wave Motion ''Arsenal''.
** There are also a few Pokémon themselves with bodies that function or look like powerful beam cannons: Clawitzer has a gigantic claw, bigger than the main body, that shoots [[KamehameHadoken energy projectiles]]; Vikavolt and Alolan Golem have protrusions on their bodies (mandibles for Vikavolt, shoulder mounts for Alolan Golem) that resemble and function like electric [[MagneticWeapons Railguns]]; and Regidrago's battle stance has to going up into the air and positioning its arms to look simultaneously like a dragon's head and a large beam cannon, with a SignatureMove, Dragon Energy, in the form of a huge laser beam. Mega Blastoise is a borderline case, with one huge cannon coming out of its back rather than the three iconic cannons in its shell, and while it can fire energy projectiles too, Mega Blastoise is more closely associated with [[MakingAsplash large amounts of pressurized water]] than the usual application of this trope.

** The Wave Motion Gun's original name being made of two generic Japanese words, [[VideoGame/RType several]] [[VideoGame/NavalOps other]] [[Franchise/FinalFantasy series]] have gone ahead and [[ShoutOut used it as is]] for their variants. So even the name has become [[LawyerFriendlyCameo ubiquitous]], though the practice is [[LostInTranslation less noticeable]] in English because most translate it to the more apt [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Wave Cannon]] or the like.

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** In addition, Jamyl Sarum of the Amarr Empire used a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKdTJjDnYzE#t=1m30s chaining Wave Motion Gun]] against a Minmatar Titan, destroying it together with it's support fleet. [[spoiler:The gun is LostTechnology, [[MacGyvering MacGyvered]] into a modern ship hull. Firing it requires some {{Unobtanium}} and it ''melts'' the ship from within, including the crew. Suffice to say, it's reserved for [[CutscenePowerToTheMax cutscene]]s]].

** ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' brings back the Yamato Gun (renamed to Yamato Cannon, and which now fires plasma instead of a nuke), and also has the Drakken Laser Drill (only seen in the campaign mission ''The Dig'', though usable in the Co-Op missions as Rory Swann), a beam brought to break into [[Precursors Xel'Naga]] temple, which is so absurdly tough that it takes many minutes to melt through it when in comparison the Drill takes out a Protoss Archon, which has 300 shield points and great defense, in under three seconds - it takes longer to actually switch targets than to kill it. On the Protoss side we have the Void Ray, which should qualify as its initially decent attack becomes much stronger over time, and the Planet Cracker, a cut ability for the Mothership, and the in-game Purifer Beam, which basically does what sounds like.

** The Aeon ''Galactic Collossus'' and Cybran ''Monkeylord'' are [[SuperPrototype experimental tier]] units that are expensive and slow, but can vaporize everything in front of them with, respectively, a giant phason beam and microwave laser. Cybran [=ACU=] itself can wield the main weapon of the ''Monkeylord'' too, while invisible to boot.

** The oldest example in the series dates back to the very first movie; non-canon though it is, its villain El Drago had consumed the Scream-Scream Fruit, which gave him the ability to [[MakeMeWannaShout project beams of energy from his mouth using his vocal chords.]]

** In ''Literature/{{Ringworld}}'s Children'', human starships are armed with a weapon called simply "The Anti-Matter Bullet"; guess what it fires.

* The UIMS' Cannon Seed from ''VideoGame/{{Galaxian}}^3'' Also Gourb from the UsefulNotes/PlayStation version

* ''Anime/{{Blame}}'' in the early sequences of the movie, Killy saves the electro fishers with his Gravity Beam Emitter which fired an extremely long red beam that instantly put a large perfectly cut hole in everything it.

* ''Anime/{{Blame'}}' in the early sequences of the movie, Killy saves the electro fishers with his Gravity Gun which an extremely long red beam that instantly put a perfectly cut hole in everything it.

* ''Anime/Blame'' in the early sequences of the movie, Killy saves the electro fishers with his Gravity Gun which an extremely long red beam that instantly put a perfectly cut hole in everything it.

* The Bifrost, properly mishandled, was almost one of these in ''Film/{{Thor}}''.
** And it had the greatest range of anything on this list, striking through wormholes, though it took longer to get to work.

*** Finally ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn Unicorn]]'' gives us the Beam Magnum, essentially a super-charged version of the standard beam rifle. In the Universal Century, beam rifles have e-packs, effectively energy-based magazines which contain enough energy for roughly seven or eight shots; the Beam Magnum expends ''all'' of the e-pack's energy in a single shot, producing a battleship-class particle blast. It even has a specialized magazines containing several e-packs for recharging. The same series also fields the ''Nahel Argama'' again and [[spoiler:puts Gyrps II back in service, requiring the Unicorn (and Banshee) to tank it with [[DeflectorShields psychic forcefields]]]] in the finale.

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsDreamDropDistance'': For the Brawlamari Dream Eater's fight against Riku, it gains access to a huge laser beam, which Riku has to avoid by hiding behind a rock.

** ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' brings back the Yamato Gun (renamed to Yamato Cannon, and which now fires plasma instead of a nuke), and also has the Drakken Lazer Drill (only seen in the campaign mission The Dig, though usable in the Co-Op missions as Rory Swann), a beam capable of taking out a Protoss Archon, which have 300 shields and great defense, in under three seconds. On the Protoss side we have the Void Ray, which should qualify as its initially super-powerful attack becomes stronger over time, and the Planet Cracker, a cut ability for the Mothership, and the in-game Purifer Beam, which basically does what sounds like.

** Every side has an enormous, Tier 3 artillery piece which takes a half hour to build and fires about once ever 10 or 15 seconds to a range of around 10-15km, enough to cross the small and medium maps and get almost across the large maps (the extra large maps are up to 81km). They're really only useful when used by UEF, and then in large numbers to try and take out the enemy's commander.
** The UEF also has a Tier 4 version, which is hideously expensive, has an insane build time, but has unlimited range and much better accuracy then the Tier 3 guns.
** The Cybrans have their own Tier 4 artillery, which is cheaper, builds faster, does less damage, and fires fast enough to batter down shields in under 20 seconds, but takes obscene amounts of energy and has much shorter range (though it is mobile, barely).
** The Aeon and Cybrans also have tier 4 units that are expensive and slow, but can vaporize everything in front of them with respectively a giant phason and microwave laser. The Cybrans also have the option of upgrading their [[RankScalesWithAsskicking ACU]] with one for a massive 5000 DPS. And it can turn invisible. In the expansion, the UEF got a KillSat with one of these.

* In the universe of [[Literature/TheCulture the Culture]], there are several versions of this, from CREWs (Coherent Radiation Emitting Weapons, basically lasers, to "Line Guns" which go largely undescribed but appear to generate transient 1-dimensional gravity singularities... effectively a black hole beam.

* In ''VideoGame/RogueGalaxy'', the Dorgenark carries a double-barreled Wave Motion Gun on the front--called, simply, 'The Big Guns'. According to an NPC, they can take out a small planet, and the one time they're used in-game, they live up to the hype, taking out an endgame-sized enemy ''in a single hit.'' It should be noted that, humorously, the guns are fired by pressing the helm of the ship like honking a car horn.

** Some Bolos were equipped with a Hellbore variant called a Hellrail. These were normally larger than the Bolo's main armament, but could not be depresed to engage ground targets. They were intended explicitly to engage spacecraft. As a Hellbore is capable of pin-point accuracy at interplanetary range, this is a serious threat to any enemny operations in an entire star system.

** The Shogun Battleships, despite looking like a catamaran Yamato, don't use this (their specil ability is to put on a burst of speed to ram enemies) but the Wave-Force Tricannons (used on their Floating Island Fortresses) do.

*** The GENESIS (from ''Gundam SEED'') is a Wave Motion Gun powered by freakin' NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS! Technically it fires a laser made of gamma radiation instead of light. In a SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome, the asteroid sized mirrors need to be replaced each time they're fired.

* The {{BFG}} (Binary Fusion Generator in the show, but we all know what it really means) on the Watchtower in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited''.

* The first [[WesternAnimation/SupermanTheatricalCartoons Fleischer Superman]] cartoon has a MadScientist using one of these to threaten the world. Superman beats it by [[RuleOfCool punching through the laser]].

** On the conventional weapon side, the Glaive Beam is one of the few weapons to take four power bars to activate, and is the slowest weapon in the game barring artillery systems, at 25 seconds base. While its beam doesn't pierce shields, if you get the enemy ship unprotected before firing it deals three damages per room hit, which, if properly amed, will probably OneHitKill the other ship.