Tomb

As far as bladed weapons go, it's tough to beat a sword. They're light, sturdy, have good reach, can be used to either cut or poke and can swat away incoming blows. Of course, this versatility made them extremely commonplace (at least in the pre-gunpowder age), and they turn up in movies so often that props departments have tried many times to come up with something more original. Sometimes they get carried away.

The following edged weapons appear only in the movies, and are seriously impractical and strange. And awesome.

• The Glaive from Krull (1983): Check this bad boy out! It's a throwing star the size of a basketball! With switchblade teeth! Yeah! Good thing this weapon is “magic,” because otherwise it would only be good for injuring yourself. Oh, and for holding up in front of the camera, so all the nerds in the audience can gawp at its coolness.

• Those silver boomerang-Frisbee things from Blade (1998): These fancy little sharpened S-curves look so badass you don't even care that you can't throw one without slicing open your own wrist. At least they can kill a vampire from far away. Mind you, so can the machine pistol that Blade also carries, and that thing has the added advantage of not carving a chunk out of Blade's hip every time he does a shoulder roll. Hmmm....

• An actual Frisbee studded with razor blades, from Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987): Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Seriously?! Yes, in an almost unbelievably awkward murder scene, one of the heroes convinces a bad guy to play frisbee with him and replaces the toy with a razor-ringed model at the last minute. That's not even the stupidest death scene in the movie, either; there's one involving a skateboard, a bazooka and an inflatable sex doll. You probably think I'm making this up.

• Switchblade violin from Paganini Horror (1989): The murder weapon in this bizarre flick is a Stradivarius violin housing a secret spring-loaded blade. Yikes! It seems to me that the owner of this thing would be reluctant to wade into battle swinging a priceless musical instrument, even if you couldn't play a solo on it without worrying about nailing it to your shoulder.

• Laser nunchucks from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (1983): The protagonist finds this impossibly cool variation on the lightsaber on-board an alien vessel and uses it to combat Darth Vader. Unfortunately, he gets carried away and poses with the weapon tucked under his shoulder Bruce Lee style, scorching his own armpit.

• Huge, goofy sword from Turkish Star Wars (a.k.a. Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam, a.k.a. The Man Who Saves the World) (1982): OK, so it's just a sword, but you haven't seen just how big and goofy it is. This thing's about two metres long, as wide as a nightstand, covered with huge jagged points from hilt to tip and is clearly made out of gold-painted plywood. A combatant is much more likely to put his own eye out with this thing than to win a duel with it.

• Flying guillotine from Flying Guillotine (1975), Flying Guillotine 2 (1977), Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976), Fatal Flying Guillotines (1977), The Vengeful Beauty (1978) and Heroic Trio (1992): This nifty device is thrown onto the victim's head, which is then severed at the neck and yanked off of the body. The only defence is a cast-iron umbrella.

• Silver orb from Phantasm (1979): This evil alien device flies through the air under its own power before clamping onto a victim's forehead and drilling his brains out. Must be seen to be believed.

• Oddjob's hat from Goldfinger (1964): Why just shoot a guy when you can kill him with a Frisbee hat? The surprised look on his face will make all of the cuts on your fingers worthwhile.