Roland Deshain's Revolvers from The Dark Tower Movie

[Noeland]

Well, I haven't seen anything posted yet on the new Dark Tower film. Looks like they have gone with modified Remington 1858 cap and ball revolvers, converted to fire cartridges/blanks. I kinda' like 'em. I've fired these revolvers a few times, considered buying one and I still may.



Interesting choice. I do hope the concept art for these gets released though, I would like to see what else may have been considered. I guess they didn't want to go with your standard old Colt Peacemaker. I get that.



His belt rig looks like fairly standard cowboy leather though. I think this is a decent choice. They are trying to evoke the classic gunslinger look.





I don't think he wears a hat in the film. I have not seen one yet if he does.

 

[MrSouthpaw]

That holster/belt rig actually looks like a fairly easy build. No fancy cuts, no tooling.

 

[ARKM]

I guess they didn't want to go with your standard old Colt Peacemaker. I get that.

Of course they should not have gone with the Colt SAA. However IMHO, they should have gone with a 3rd model Colt Dragoon, cartridge converted.

Though to be honest, they should have went completely custom as Roland's revolvers do not have a real world equivalent. For one thing, Roland's revolvers have swing out cylinders which did not exist in the old west so you can't just grab a replica off the shelf and say "let's use these"... but they did anyways. *sigh* Of course Stephen King doesn't know crap about guns or ammo capabilities so some of the details in the books about said guns should have been different. Oh well.

 

[MrSouthpaw]

Of course they should not have gone with the Colt SAA. However IMHO, they should have gone with a 3rd model Colt Dragoon, cartridge converted.

Though to be honest, they should have went completely custom as Roland's revolvers do not have a real world equivalent. For one thing, Roland's revolvers have swing out cylinders which did not exist in the old west so you can't just grab a replica off the shelf and say "let's use these"... but they did anyways. *sigh* Of course Stephen King doesn't know crap about guns or ammo capabilities so some of the details in the books about said guns should have been different. Oh well.

They had swing-outs in the Old West. Nearer the end, but they did exist in that period.

The Colt M1889 or Smith Model 1896 for instance.

 

[ARKM]

Ok, I guess I meant old old west, lol.

 

[Buliwif]

The belts look the way I expected them to, but the guns...... I always pictured them as... much larger.... Kind of like a cross between a Peacemaker, a Ruger Super Blackhawk, and a Smith & Wesson model 19 .357.... if that makes any sense at all... you know... BIG... As mentioned, they are the weapons of a gunslinger, and have no earthly equivalent... well, our Earth, anyway...

Oh yeah, and Mid World technically isn't the old west... I mean they got machine guns and super computer powered trains... So Swing-outs are doable... lol

 

[Luke Skyvader]

I seem to recall in one of the books a shootout with a mobster in the NYC bookstore where the mobster thought Eddies gun was so comically large that it couldn't be a real gun.

 

[Noeland]

I would have gone with a modified BFR. Here are some shots from Looper.



Looper did a great job of dramatically using these massive guns.





It's uncommon enough that even some people familair with guns don't know it, and with some mods it could certainly look otherworldly, but it retains the old west aesthetic.



I know that his guns had swing out cylinders in the books. That's why I was half expecting to see him weilding modified versions of a Ruger super red hawk, which may not have been a half bad choice either.

 

[Buliwif]

Glad to see I wasn't the only one thinking so big. In fact you're right, Noeland. That BFR about fits my image of them perfectly

 

[Luke Skyvader]

Those cartridge Remingtons in the very first picture need a loading port, gate & ejector otherwise Roland's poop outa luck during a gunfight.

 

[pseudodigm]

Ohhhh, the Big Iron. Expected something maybe a bit more ornate, but I'd say those are the guns of a working gunslinger. In my head I imagined something like the colt navy just because it's the biggest, baddest "old-west"-style pistol I could think of. Like something like Clint carried in his spaghetti westerns. I suspended disbelief because I think those particular pistols break down where I think in Tul (Tull?) King described the reloading action and it seemed like they swung out the side. I'd have to re-read. I feel like peacemakers wouldn't have enough beef to them, personally.

 

[Noeland]

Those cartridge Remingtons in the very first picture need a loading port, gate & ejector otherwise Roland's poop outa luck during a gunfight.

I suspect they'll go the Pale Rider route and he will be reloading entire cylinders. About a minute into this you'll see what I mean. These might be some kind of speed loaders though, since the tips of the bullets are showing, and they wouldn't on loaded cylinders. Who knows what they have cooked up for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQuKXGOoqUc

This image shows him with a belt full of loaded cylinders/speed loaders.

 

[MrSouthpaw]

Yeah, that's weird. I can't quite figure it out, atm.

If they were speed-loaders how the heck does he grab and load with them? Pretty much all revolver speedloaders have some variation of a knob on top.

If they were cylinders, the cartridges would not be protruding from the bottom. As that completely defeats the design of revolvers.

Would like to see pics of the rest of the holster/belt. Hope someone gets those soon.

 

[ARKM]

Hmm, maybe they modified the pistols to have swing out cylinders. That would be cool.

 

[MrSouthpaw]

I have a small suspicion that they may be side-swing cylinders. They may also be a mirrored pair and not just two of the same gun.

Need better pics of the guns to be sure.

 

[Noeland]

Hmm, maybe they modified the pistols to have swing out cylinders. That would be cool.

That would take a great deal of work. Those revolvers are not even kind of designed for that. That said, it's hollywood. He may never reload the gun on camera.

 

[ARKM]

The guns in the first pic of the first post do not show the normal mods companies use to convert them to cartridge firing (other than the cylinder of course). In that pic, they do not show a loading gate or the modifications for the ejector rod that are done on that side of the pistol, right before the cylinder. So again, if they are not some sort of stunt version of the pistol, they either open/break down the same way the unconverted versions do or via a new method. Here's what an unconverted version and a converted version look like. The unconverted is on top.

Unconverted

converted

Movie version (possible stunt)

I'm noticing several differences here between the movie version and both the pistols above. Do I have the right model?

 

[Dope]

Yeah, that's weird. I can't quite figure it out, atm.

If they were speed-loaders how the heck does he grab and load with them? Pretty much all revolver speedloaders have some variation of a knob on top.

If they were cylinders, the cartridges would not be protruding from the bottom. As that completely defeats the design of revolvers.

Would like to see pics of the rest of the holster/belt. Hope someone gets those soon.

I have an unlikely scenario. What if they aren't speedloaders or anything like that at all? Maybe they're just an efficient (or at least, unique) way of storing a lot of cartridges? Maybe they protrude from the storage cylinder so he can push them up from the bottom and then load each one individually into the cylinder on the revolver itself.

Dope

 

[MrSouthpaw]

Dope Would make total sense for a fixed-cylinder revolver, but that's not the case here.

Also, after another look I'm probably wrong about it being side-swings. I thought there was a channel cut into the left-hand gun. But now I think it's just the protrusion from the bottom of the frame curving out with some shadowing.

 

[JMSupp]

The cartridges in the belt are odd, and not speed-loaders per se, they appear to be "moon clips". In a side-swing or break top revolver you just drop in all six rounds at the same time, as a unit, and they extract at the same time too.