What are the names of the weapons in Rebel Moon?

Question

After watching Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon, I really liked the look of the weapons. I found information about how the weapons are supposed to work, but I can't find any names for them.

There are two notable weapon types:

Plasma based guns (Like blasters from SW)

I saw the guns were called Lava Cork weapons on fandom, but there are no references. In an interview Snyder talks about how the weapons work, but doesn't name them.

Okay, well it's not really lava. It’s the way I describe it. So don't get too hung up on lava (laugh). Everybody loves lava and that is true. But it's more just like a visual, whenever I try and describe it. Also, I say like, you know when metal drips out of a foundry? That's what the bullets are like. They're some sort of liquid plasma metal. So if I fired it, it would splash into the wall. But you don't make a huge … almost like if you shot it into a piece of metal, you’d have this beautiful kind of cratered – like a drop of water that got frozen, you know? … It's not super forgiving (when it hits people). (laugh) We definitely have a huge R and D period ahead of us for how that does look. Maybe it just passes cleanly through you. I don't know. That might be nice. It cauterizes (the wound).

And glowing swords (Lightsabers)

I found less information about these but it seems like they are normal swords that are heated to the point of glowing.

I know the film is new and is probably light on lore, but are there any official names for either of these weapons?

Answer 1

Rummaging through the official novelisation, mostly we just see bullet-firing "guns", "rifles" and "pistols". Occasionally there's mention of sci-fi-y "pulse-pistols" and "heat-signature rifles" which seem to fire the plasma rounds that Snyder mentioned, but without any obvious description of how they work or what they're firing.

Bodies lay where they fell. Viscera and blood saturated the ground. She hesitated to go farther, seeing a group of people from the town pointing long-range pulse pistols and heat signature rifles to the sky. The staccato of rapid fire overhead made her cover her ears again. Each of those people fell dead with multiple shots to their bodies. There was no way to outrun whatever killed them. When the threat was gone, she began to move again, but a pistol in the hands of a bloating dead man caught her eye.

_{^{Rebel Moon: Official Novelisation}}

The 'making-of' book goes more into detail about how the plasma-firing rifles might work.

"Our main motherworld rifle, for example, was designed with this really cool bit of technology on top - Nobody knew what that was.", [Prop Master Brad] Elliot recalls. "Our guns shoot this burning piece of dense plasma, like a chunk of lava the size of a cork. If it hits you, it would probably make a hole in you and knock you over. My first thought went to 'They're going to get hot. We're going to need to dissipate this heat. So a lot of the gun design is focused really on heat sinks. That little top chunk that we had on the AR [Assault Rifle] is now something that's going to reciprocate back and forth as if it's cycling some coolant into the barrel or if it's a radiator fanning itself".

_{^{Rebel Moon: Wolf: Ex Nihilo: Cosmology & Technology}}

and

Brad Elliot: No, we have a really interesting sort of idea for that. It's all like tanks of plasma. This is going to light up for us. So this is one that's fun because when you load it, you get all the ammo counters and then as you shoot it, they go away…So what we shoot is, think of it as a lava cork. It's molten, it's heavy, and it's about the size of a cork. So if it hit you, it would knock you over, but the hole that it would create would cauterize, if that makes sense. If it hits a hard surface like metal, it's going to hit and maybe drip a little bit, like a lava would, if that makes sense. They're either driven by these sort of tank-like magazines, and when I say tank, it means there's a pressurized sort of plasma inside of them. Or when we get to Veldt and we get to their hunting weapons, they're a little older, so they go on like a, it's still caseless, but it's like a puck of whatever this compressed material is that would then become what that is.

_{^{Rebel Moon Set Visit Interview With Prop Master Brad Elliot}}

The brightly lit swords are just referred to as "swords" or "oracle-steel sword", although there's a fair bit of explanation how they work.

One of Harmada’s stinging, sharp-tipped legs stabbed toward Nemesis. The warrior swordswoman lunged out of the way to avoid being skewered, but her left arm was grazed. Harmada’s leg had ripped through cloth and flesh. In an instant, Nemesis drew her swords, raised them to protect herself from a still-stabbing Harmada. The furious creature shrieked before swiping again. The tip of a leg went straight through one of Nemesis’s gloves. The energy within crackled. This time Nemesis did not hold back.

Her swords became imbued with the power of the ancient blood and wisdom of her ancestors. And that blood took the form of molten lava heat that dwelled within the swords. They glowed brighter like seething rage as the heat radiated from the center and spread across every inch of metal. The brightness of the fires of Byeol could be seen as they were prepared to strike a foe. She placed both in front of her and drew an incandescent circle around her with the heated tips of the swords. When Harmada struck again, Nemesis was ready and sliced the air with her left sword. One of Harmada’s legs flew into the air, releasing squirts of viscous greenish blood. She cried out in agony and dropped the child.

_{^{Rebel Moon: Official Novelisation}}

The baddies also have these swords, presumably raided and repurposed. They need external powerpacks to power them and can only hold them with special heat-dissipating gloves.

For close combat, "They have their oracle-steel swords that are externally powered," Snyder explains. "There's a little power unit on them. Clumsy wiring, crude. Those are unlike Nemesis's swords which are made of the same kind of metal but are more elegant because the power source is her. She's more in harmony with her swords. The Krypteians have had to retrofit and glue things on to make them work, and so they defile the beautiful symmetry of the thing. That's why they wear those gloves, so they can hold the sword. It's kind of like an oven mitt".