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Akm

The AK-47 assault rifle.

"Damn Soviet gun!"
—Libyan gunman's barely intelligible curse, when his rifle jammed.

The AK-47 assault rifle was a Soviet-built assault rifle manufactured from 1947 to the 21st century.

History[]

The AK-47 had the distinction of being the most widely used and distributed military firearm in the world. The Libyan terrorists had access to these guns and brought one along on a mission to kill Dr. Emmett Brown for stealing plutonium from them.

Arriving at at Twin Pines Mall, they successfully gunned down Doc with the AK-47, but once it was pointed at Marty McFly it jammed. After several attempts to unjam the gun, the gunman resorted to using a rocket-propelled grenade, though their Volkswagen Station Wagon crashed into and totaled a Fox Photo booth in the mall's parking lot before they had an opportunity to fire it.

One of the drive-by shooters who opened fire on the Strickland residence in 1985A — namely, the one who shouted "Hey, Strickland!" — also used an AK-47 (Norinco Rifle type 56).

Behind the scenes[]

  • This is probably the only time in a motion picture where a Kalashinov-pattern rifle is seen jamming (yet it can happen, usually when a round pops up at a strange angle in the magazine, stopping the feed completely, and racking the action doesn't immediately eject the misfed round). Why this was noteworthy amongst firearms enthusiasts is because the AK series is considered some of the world's most reliable weapons and rarely experiences jams such as the one portrayed in the film.
  • The AK-47 used by the terrorists was likely a very poorly-made knockoff.

Appearances[]

See also[]

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