The Most Powerful And Fantastical Fictional Weapons In History

If you are unlike most people, you hunger not just for global conquest, but universal domination. Think Lex Luthor, Emperor Palpatine, or Ganon. After all, why take over a planet when galactic clusters could be your new Disney World? But where to find the tools to do the task? Never fear, good reader. For those who need inspiration to fulfill their megalomaniac ambitions, there is a panoply of devices, tools, and even body parts littered throughout the annals of fiction that are so fantastical in their power as weapons that they cannot be anything but ... fictional.

What follows is an unranked selection of the most eminently powerful weapons that have graced the media. They are all equally fantastic in their own ways. This, however, does not make them less compelling for the preteen — and even postteen — set. These are plot MacGuffins which demonstrate the eternal struggle between good and evil. And they are equally subject to parody. So set your phasers to kill and load your ion cannons as we explore the most powerful and fantastical fictional weapons in history.

The line as spoken by Sir Alec Guinness' Obi Wan Kenobi in 1977's "Star Wars" — "That's no moon. It's a space station" – immortalized the Death Star as a trope of pop culture. It also built a mega-franchise. While the later Starkiller Base, as described by starwars.com, of "The Force Awakens" was more powerful, the original Death Star is far more memorable.

So what made it so powerful? The reasons are endless. About 100 miles in diameter, the Death Star used a hypermatter reactor (shrug), to power a superlaser that could destroy a planet. To defend this dastardly device of destruction, the evil Empire installed 10,000 Super Blaster 920 laser cannons and 50,000 quad laser cannons on its surface. These defended the in excess of 1 million imperial personnel that ran the whole thing. The Death Star even featured tractor beams to suck in wayward ships such as the Millenium Falcon and had a garbage compactor featuring a monster.

All these features did not stop Luke Skywalker from blowing the whole thing up with the help of the Force, though. So what to do? Seemingly out of original ideas, the Empire rebuilt the Death Star in time for "Return of Jedi," where it was promptly blown up again (although this time when it was half built). The Death Star has become the butt of numerous jokes, such as the memorable exchange in "Clerks" concerning contractors in the second Death Star.

While 2013's "Pacific Rim" may not be the most impactful or best-rated science fiction offering to hit the theaters, it has, as noted by Rotten Tomatoes, a certain irresistible style. IMDb's synopsis hits the main points: Giant monsters called kaiju invade Earth from an extradimensional gate under the Pacific Ocean.

So what does humanity do when facing such an existential threat? Build giant robots!

In this case, the robots are called "Jaegers" and are piloted by two people — since one person alone can't seem to handle the job. These robots spawned a mini-franchise. They are honestly pretty cool. Wired reports that as conceived, Jaegers were up to 300 feet tall and outfitted with ridiculous armaments. They naturally violated most laws of physics. But really, who cares? As Scientific American tells it, one punch from a Jaeger is like getting clocked by a jumbo jet. If one weighs 7,080 tons, and if a punch is thrown at above human speed with the assistance of rockets, the mechanical arm would be carrying about 125 million joules of kinetic energy. It's science. And, oh yes, these mechs also can wield giant swords. Alas, these awesome robots probably can never be built; according to Gizmodo, they were too large and would need to be built on a smaller planet.

The Marvel Universe's Infinity Gauntlet is a metal glove that is powered by six Infinity Gems (or stones) that control one aspect or other of the universe. These different facets seem to cover every conceivable thing: power, time, reality, soul, space, and mind. "American Comic Book Chronicles" details how these stones made their first appearance in the 1990s when the comic book writer Jim Starlin used them as a plot device for a series in which the intergalactic antagonist, the insane Thanos, used them in the "Infinity Gauntlet" mini series. 

This plot line was so popular that it was adapted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's crossover movie story. This reached a climax in, as detailed by IMDb, "Avengers: Infinity War" in which, with a snap of his fingers, Thanos eradicated half the life in the entire universe (Thanos was trying to fight overpopulation). Of course, comic books being comic books, the heroes manage to bring back the dead in the sequel, "Avengers: Endgame," and thwart Thanos' mad scheme.

In terms of ridiculous and unlikely weapons, there is no better franchise than the Transformers. For those of you unfamiliar with the Transformers, they are, according to "Transformers: Identification and Price Guide," a line of toys developed in the 1980s which turned (i.e. transformed) from robots to different vehicles and other equipment. These toys also featured a highly popular cartoon which really launched the franchise into the pop culture stratosphere. As described by Vulture, there is an entire mythology surrounding this science fiction franchise in which one group of good Transformers (Autobots) battle the evil Transformers (Decepticons). 

Of course, these Transformers have all sorts of powerful weapons. The most fantastical of these was the Sun Harvester, which was featured in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Star Harvesters are not weapons per se, but rather are a way to collect energy for the gas guzzling sentient robots. How do star harvesters do this? As the name suggests, they harvest stars, but not as green solar energy — they suck them in and destroy them. In particular, the movie featured a threat to the Earth's Sun being sucked up to be used to diesel up the Decepticon leader, Megatron. As always, it didn't quite work out for the Decepticons, but one has to appreciate the scale of Transformer energy needs.

The lightsaber, as conceived of in the "Star Wars" franchise, is probably one of the most powerful personal weapons in fiction. They are also the one weapon that is so desirable that even howstuffworks wrote an article on their speculative inner workings.

The heart of any lightsaber is a kyber crystal: a rare crystal that is especially attuned to the mystical Force, which grants Jedis and Sith their fantastical powers. The rest of the lightsaber is designed with scarcely pseudo-scientific parts to create an energy blade. This fierce energy sword can cut through hard armor, poke through blast doors, and ward off the most fantastical flurry of blaster shots. They also make really cool sounds. When "Star Wars" began, lightsabers were a single blade only, but later media in the franchise depicts double blades, multiple colored blades, and the like. So while the mind-warping physics of these blades stretches credulity, they are appreciably the object of fantasy for many children (and adults).

While not on the same level of popularity as Batman or Superman, one well-known character in DC Comic Books lore is Green Lantern. The most well-known of these is Hal Jordan, a test pilot who was bequeathed a green power ring from the dying alien Abin Sur. In doing so, Hal Jordan became a Green Lantern, a part of an interstellar quasi-police force that took their name from the green lanterns used to power up their rings.

So what does a Green Lantern's ring do? Well almost anything, but most commonly it is used to produce hard light constructs to fight bad guys. What the user can create is virtually limitless and depended on the willpower of the wielder. The ring's only weakness is that it is vulnerable to the color yellow. Why? Multiple reasons have been given over the years and being that these are comic books, those are likely to change (via Britannica). The bottom line is that theoretically, a Green Lantern ring could do almost anything (unless it involved manipulating a Twinkie). As Screenrant describes, the ring has been used not only to keep Jordan's mask glued to his face, but to turn himself into an envelope, and erase memories.

Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film, "2001: A Space Odyssey," was groundbreaking for its special effects but also the allegorical delivery of its story. The book, "Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey" details the famous opening set, called "The Dawn of Man," in which ape-like hominids are struggling for survival and squabbling over territory with other bands of hominids. Then one day, a black monolith appears. This unexplained structure seems to impart in the hominids knowledge of using tools. 

This is shown when the leader of the hominid band begins to smash things with bones: first other bones, then other animals, and then the leader of a rival band. These are the creatures that would evolve to be humans. Through the bone, they have now become masters of their own destiny, but it also was an allegory for the ability of humans to do violence to one another, something that would grow as technology developed.