FN Minimi

The FN Minimi was a combination 'belt fed'/magazine fed' light machine gun, designed to serve in the role of "Squad Automatic Weapon". The SAW was a mobile suppressive fire platform that was light weight and single man transportable - much more so than the venerable M60 (which was always supposed to be a General Purpose Machine Gun, i.e. a crew served weapon). The U.S. Military adopted the first models of the FN Minimi in the 1980s directly as the XM249 or later as the M249 (with some slight design changes in the official U.S. Adopted version. Later versions of the gun, reflected upgrades and design changes that were requested by the U.S. Military.

On a historical note: in the first months of the First Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm 1990), there were not enough M249s to supply the massive troop buildup in the Middle East, so the U.S. Army bought outright a number of unaltered FN Minimis directly from FN, to supplement the weapons. So it is not inaccurate to see first pattern FN Minimis in the hands of U.S. Soldiers who are supposedly issued M249 SAWs since the Army mixed the two versions together until the Late 1990s.

The FN Minimi and variants are used by the following actors in the following movies, television series, video games, and anime:

FN Minimi

FN Minimi 5.56x45mm with 200-round ammo drum (note 90-degree carry handle and flash hider design).

Film

Title	Actor	Character	Notation	Date
Swordfish	John Travolta	Gabriel Shear		2001
Black Hawk Down	Ian Virgo	PFC John Waddell	Substitutes the M249 SAW	2001
Black Hawk Down	Tom Hardy	Specialist Lance Twombly	Substitutes the M249 SAW	2001
Proof of Life		Downtown 3	Substitutes the M249 SAW with an added heatshield	2000
Ronin	Robert De Niro	Sam	The Paratrooper version is used	1998
Courage Under Fire	Lou Diamond Phillips	Staff Sergeant John Monfriez	Substitutes the M249 SAW	1996
One That Got Away, The		One of the SAS soldiers		1996

Games

Title	Notation	Release Date
Resident Evil Game	Can only be found in the PC version	1996
Project I.G.I		2000
Project IGI 2: Covert Strike		2003

M249-E1 / M249-E2 / M249 Paratrooper SAW

M249-E1 SAW with 200-round ammo drum - First major upgrade of the SAW officially adopted by the U.S. Military (this is a real blank adapted movie gun) - 5.56x45mm

M249-E2 SAW - upgraded M249 with heat shield and full synthetic Stock - 5.56x45mm with 200 round ammo drum.

M249 SAW 5.56x45mm paratrooper version with 200 round ammo drum

M249 Paratrooper - a real blank adapted movie gun with bipod folded and a picatinny rail on the top of the receiver - 5.56x45mm

Film

Title	Actor	Character	Notation	Date
I Am Legend	Will Smith	Dr. Robert Nevile		2007
War of The Worlds	???	U.S. Army soldiers		2005
Jarhead	???	U.S. Marines		2005
The Island			Mounted on the 'Black Wasp' craft	2005
Bad Boys II	???	A member of the rescue team	Paratrooper version is seen	2003
Hulk	???	Soldiers in the Secret Lab	fitted with Cobray CM203 Flare Launcher	2003
Tears of the Sun	Nick Chinlund	Michael "Slo" Slowenski	Paratrooper version with cloth ammo pouch and accessory rail mounted on feed tray cover	2003
Die Another Day	???	U.S. Army soldiers	Paratrooper version is seen	2002
Rules of Engagement	???	U.S. Marines		2000

Television

Show Title / Episode	Actor	Character	Notation	Air Date
Generation Kill	Billy Lush	Lance Corporal Trombley		2008
Generation Kill	???	U.S. Marines		2008
CSI: NY/Heroes	???	U.S. Marine		May 10, 2006
Invasion	???	Hybrid National Guardsmen		2005-2006
Over There	Kirk 'Sticky' Jones	Pvt. Maurice 'Smoke' Williams	Starts out with the standard version, then changes to paratrooper version	2005

Video Games

Title	Referred As	Mods	Notation	Release Date
Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield		w/scope		2003
Rainbow Six: Vegas		w/variety of accesories		2006
ArmA: Armed Assault				2007
Full Spectrum Warrior				2004
America's Army				2002
America's Army 3				2009
Soldier of Fortune: Payback	TBD			2007
Battlefield 2				2005
Battlefield: Bad Company			Paratrooper version	2008
Far Cry: Instincts				2005
Kill.Switch				2004
Counter Strike: Source	Para			2004
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare				2007
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories	SAW			2006
Kane and Lynch: Dead Men			A paratrooper version is used by a Retomoto skyscraper gangster	2008
Half-Life			Only appears in the expansion pack Opposing Force,unrealistically the magazine capacity is 50 rounds	1998
Counter-Strike Online			Paratrooper version	TBD
Far Cry	Machine-gun			2004
Far Cry 2				2008
Saints Row 2	AR-200			2008
Operation 7				???
Delta Force: Land Warrior				2000
Delta Force: Task Force Dagger				2002