Thunder Gun (Film Series)

Thunder Gun (sometimes written as "Thundergun") is a fictional film series beloved by The Gang that is  referenced or the subject of several episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Appearances
The first film in the series is the subject of the eponymous Season 7 episode "Thunder Gun Express." According to Dennis, it's about a "warrior from a post-apocalyptic underground society who has to travel back in time to save his lover from an evil robot army," with the tag line, "No Hesitation. No Surrender. No Man Left Behind." The film holds great appeal to all members of The Gang, including Dee, because of its action, the fact that it's also a love story, and because the main character "hangs dong." However, their last-minute purchase of tickets is held up by President Obama's visit to Philadelphia, resulting in all of The Gang abandoning one another in their attempt to get to the movie. Their efforts are foiled by Frank, who was arrested for hijacking a boat full of tourists to get to the theater, calling in a fake bomb threat and disrupting the screening for the others.

In "The Gang Squashes Their Beefs," The Gang plans to rent a "director's cut" of the film on DVD that includes several extra seconds of the dong shot for their Thanksgiving celebration, but they are unable to do so because the vengeful McPoyles have bought the local video store. Following their attempt at a conciliatory Thanksgiving feast with their "beefs" literally going up in flames, Dennis suggests they just buy the DVD instead.

In "The Gang Goes to a Water Park," Frank and Charlie are very excited to see that there is a Thunder Gun waterslide at the water park but are disappointed to find out that it is not finished and will not open for several months. Embracing the Thunder Gun mindset, they sneak in and Frank goes down the slide, which Charlie has (barely) wet with a small bottle of water. Consequently, Frank burns a large quantity of skin off his back from friction and bleeds profusely in the splashdown pool, starting a panic as he and Charlie had previously lied that Frank had AIDS to cut in line.

Appropriately, Thunder Gun's fourth appearance is in "Thunder Gun 4: Maximum Cool," which also features the first look at actual footage from the series. The series' protagonist is shown to be "John Thundergun," who is brought out of retirement to battle his old nemesis Colonel Washington by Dr. Ling and her assistant Max, who is revealed to be her and Thundergun's son. The Gang is horrified after watching a test screening because the film contains no sex, swearing or dong shot, and Thundergun is killed off for a PG-13 reboot focusing on Max as "Thunder Son." The screening facilitator explains that the studio is rebooting the franchise because of declining revenues for R-rated movies due to streaming and piracy, which leads to the gang revealing that they've never actually seen any of the Thunder Gun series in theaters, having always grabbed it off the Internet. Upon discovering that Frank recorded the movie on his phone, Dee uploads it to a piracy site that leads to a massive fan backlash, the studio pulling the film, and massive reshoots retooling the reboot into Thunder Gun: Maximum Bulge, a hard-R return to the series' roots. Naturally, The Gang does not bother to see it in theaters, instead preferring to watch it on a pirate site from the comfort of Paddy's on Dennis' phone.

Trivia

 * John Thundergun is played by Dolph Lundgren (Mac and Charlie's choice for a hero in their action screenplay in "Mac and Charlie Write a Movie"). It is unclear if Lundgren is playing himself playing Thundergun, or a different actor playing the character.
 * Although Lundgren is listed as "Thundergun" in the episode's credits, the series' title is always written out as "Thunder Gun“ in episode titles.
 * A poster for Thunder Gun 2: Still Gunnin’ is seen on a wall in Dennis’ Double Life. D8479854-3EAF-499A-BD1F-551041101A8D.jpeg
 * The number of films in the series is unclear, as The Gang refers to the events of "Thunder Gun Express" as a "previous sequel" in "Thunder Gun 4: Maximum Cool." It is possible they are simply misremembering the films' order or that they undertook another mass effort to get to the movies ruined by Frank calling in a bomb threat, which is entirely possible with them.
 * Additionally, the DVD cover for Thunder Gun Express seen in “The Gang Squashes Their Beefs” (which appears to feature a different actor from Dolph Lundgren) features a critical blurb of “The Best is Back,” which could imply the film is a sequel, or could just refer to the new material in the Director’s Cut.
 * The plot of Thunder Gun Express is virtually identical to the Terminator series of films.
 * In real life, “Thunder Gun” is a loose translation of the name of the blunderbuss firearm, whose name means, “Thunder Pipe.” There is also a “Thunder Gun” in the Call of Duty video game series.
 * According to one of the headlines in the montage in "Thunder Gun 4: Maximum Cool" the film is actually "a dark comedy about a dying man's desire to lose his virginity," though the articles shown are mostly made of nonsensical random phrases.IMG 7459.jpg