Under Siege is a 1992 action film which many dubbed as "Die Hard on a battleship." Steven Seagal stars in the film as Casey Ryback, a US Navy cook who finds himself having to battle terrorists who have taken over the ship he serves upon, the Iowa-class battleship USS Missouri. While it did not receive support from the US Department of Defense, the production utilized aerial footage of the real USS Missouri sailing towards its final docking in Pearl Harbor and several scenes were actually shot aboard the decommissioned South Dakota-class battleship USS Alabama. The film was directed by Andrew Davis (who directed Seagal's debut film Above the Law and who would later direct co-star Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive). Seagal would return as Ryback in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.
The following weapons were used in the film Under Siege:
Several characters wield the Beretta 92F throughout the film, among them Commander Krill (Gary Busey) and Doumer (Colm Meaney). Ryback fires one as he fights off the terrorists while planting a bomb in the hull of the renegade sub.
William Stranix (Tommy Lee Jones) uses a Heckler & Koch P7 throughout the movie. He holds it high during many scenes, clearly showing the single stack 8 round magazine.
Krill uses a silenced Ruger MkII to shoot Captain Adams (Patrick O'Neal). When Krill is sitting at the desk in the Captain's quarters, the Ruger logo is visible on the grip.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingRuger Mk II pistol with professional Ciener Suppressor - .22 LR. This is a classic Silenced Pistol and this pistol has been seen in several motion pictures.
The Heckler & Koch MP5A3 is used by several terrorists as well as Jordan Tate (Erika Eleniak) who carries one fitted with a laser sight. When instructing her how to use it, Ryback (Steven Seagal) inaccurately labels it an "assault rifle" though he does accurately describe the difference between semiautomatic and fully automatic fire modes.
Some of the "MP5"s are full auto conversions of the Heckler & Koch HK94. One of the terrorists uses a long barreled HK94 with a 'slip over' fake suppressor to fire.
Ryback takes a suppressed Heckler & Koch MP5K and carries it throughout the film. At the time of the making of the film, it was a common weapon in Steven Seagal movies, the MP5K (not the PDW) was adapted to take a suppressor.
A Marine guard holds a Colt Commando-style rifle when he's taken out by terrorists. Since the Marine makes a high fall, the weapon probably is a rubber stunt weapon. Navy SEALs who prepare to assault the Missouri are seen chambering their Colt Commandos as well.
During the initial assault many of the terrorists are using obviously rubber weapons. They are cast from the real deal and used in any scene where stunts occur. It is much safer to wave around and hit other actors with rubber guns than the real thing.
The following are armaments which are seen in the film and are available weaponry on the gun platform Iowa-Class Battleship USS Missouri (even though most of the filming took place on the South Dakota-Class USS Alabama, a museum ship permanently docked at Mobile, Alabama). These are listed for the sake of completion, but none of these weapons systems appear in any movie weapons armory.
Phalanx CIWS
The terrorists commandeer the USS Missouri's Phalanx CIWS (Close In Weapons System) to shoot down an F/A-18 Hornet. As the Alabama (the Missouri's stand-in) was decommissioned in 1947, she never had any CIWS mounts installed and this is a prop version.
9 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 - United States Naval Guns form the main armament of the Iowa class battleships. They were also seen firing in archival footage of the USS Missouri in action. Dialogue established that Missouri carried 1000 projectiles.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingSeen here are the 9 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 United States Naval Gun, the main armament of the Iowa class battleships. This is footage of the actual USS Missouri as it sailed to its final berth in Honolulu.
16"/45 caliber Mark 6 - United States Naval Gun
The USS Alabama (BB-60), now a museum, stood in for the Missouri in this film. The Alabama belongs to the older South Dakota class, which were armed with nine 16" guns, but of an older design. These 16"/45 caliber Mark 6 guns were used to destroy the North Korean submarine.
These guns formed the secondary armament of the battleship. Originally 20 were carried, but the number was reduced 12 in the Reagan-era modernization. In the film, star shells were used to illuminate the North Korean submarine. The Missouri's stand-in, the Alabama, carried the same guns in a similar Mk 28 mount, but retained all 20 guns.
