A recent post came up on the quite brilliant Unreality Mag blog about the coolest body armor around in both movies and video games. Reading through this, it inspired me to do a post on what I thought were the most awesome body armor in the sci-fi, movie and video game realms.
Check after the jump for the full list.
This is just a comparison of the body armor not in terms of who’d beat who in a face off (because let’s face it, number 7 could freeze time and take his merry time wiping out the rest of the list) but which in my opinion is more awesome than the next. Therefore this list is just composed of my own opinion and anyone will agree, you develop loyalties and affinities to movie/video game characters according to how attached you are to their franchise. So without further adieu check out my top ten most badass body armors.
10.) Samus’s Light Suit – Metroid Series
Samus Aran's Light Suit is the ultimate blending of Luminoth and Chozo technology. It was solely created to counter the forces of darkness and it has proven to render Samus immune to darkness effects that would otherwise hinder her.
Source: Metroid Wiki
9.) Gray Fox – Metal Gear Solid Series
Now a lot of MGS fans will be wondering why this might be so far down the list, and it mostly comes down to the fact that I really don’t have all that much of an affinity to the series having only played it on the Nintendo game boy. Sorry fanboys/girls!
Fox was Solid Snake's war buddy and best friend after Operation Intrude N313, but Fox's loyalty to Big Boss, forced him to betray Snake during Operation Intrude F014. He survived his injuries during his battle with Snake and was outfitted with a powered exoskeleton and given intense gene therapy. He confronted Snake as a neutral force during the Shadow Moses Incident before dying at the hands of Liquid Snake via Metal Gear REX.
Source: Metal Gear Solid Wiki
8.) Snake Eyes – GI Joe Series
Pretty much the only reason I went to see the GI Joe movie interpretation … although yes I do accept that technically it’s not a “suit” of armor.
Snake Eyes was the callsign of a man who was an expert of Martial Arts. He shared a rivalry with a man from his past, callsign Storm Shadow. Snake Eyes is man of few words, if any, as he has no lines in the movie. In the film it is revealed as a child he took a vow of silence after his martial arts master was killed by his rival. This makes his entire appearance in the movie completely silent and leaves him as mostly an action character. The only word he says in the whole movie is "Master".
Source: GI Joe Wikia
7.) Timeshift Armor - Timeshift
A cool suit for a game which was sadly of only mediocre standard.
Scientists from the near future have begun work on creating a viable time machine. The project results in the creation of two devices, the Alpha Suit, a less advanced prototype jump suit, and the Beta Suit, a more advanced, so-called military grade model with features the Alpha Suit lacks such as combat-related timeshifting abilities and an integrated artificial intelligence to prevent the creation of temporal paradoxes.
Source: Timeshift Wiki
6.) Garrus - Mass Effect Series
One of my favourite characters from the amazing Mass Effect game series. What makes Garrus’ armor amazing in my eyes is not just the sharp curves and the cylindrical neck unit but also the luminescent bands and the awesome optics on his left eye. He also pulls off the “broken armor” look in Mass Effect 2 really well which not a lot of characters do. Garrus has a great piece of armor and the superb voice acting really pushed him to 6th on the list.
A male turian, Garrus is a member of the Citadel Security force (C-Sec). He has never liked or trusted Saren and was investigating his activities, but wasn't able to prove any blatant acts of treason. He chafes under the red tape, rules and regulations of Citadel Security and had become unsatisfied with his role there. He believes in using any means necessary to either prevent or solve crimes, almost seemingly regardless of the consequences; this is a direct result of a case he was involved with that came to an unsatisfactory conclusion.
Source: Mass Effect Wiki
5.) Synthetic Adaptive Bio-Armor with Trooper Assault Helmet – H.A.Z.E
I’m really digging the mish mash of black and yellow contrasting armor here with that very rigid hexagonal shape to the chest plates and back plates.
In the game, soldiers make use of 'Nectar'. Mantel uses this drug to control the minds of its soldiers. When administered, Nectar can control what a soldier sees, among other things, similar to the effects of a hallucinogenic drug. Nectar drowns out images of death and destruction (for instance, bodies will vanish). Nectar also reduces recoil, and allows the player to zoom in further while scoped. An overdose of Nectar is dangerous, with loss of mental control and death being possible side effects. Nectar also enhances the soldiers' fighting capabilities, allowing them to run faster and jump higher. They also receive a boost in reaction time. A Mantel soldier experiencing an overdose is shown by a change in their armor, changing in color from yellow to red.
Source: H.A.Z.E Wiki
4.) Section 8 Lander – Section 8
Clearly an outside choice to the top ten list but there are just so many kick ass photos of the armor that I couldn’t post them all up. Still not cool enough to make it into the top 3 of the list.
The Section 8 soldier’s armor is globular and form fitting, almost insect-like. Dark heavy plate covers every inch of the body, sinking in at the torso and expanding at the legs. The bottom of the helmet is curved into an angle, sticking out into the environment. White-hot lights are in the place where eyes should be. There’s another intelligence seemingly behind the helm.
Source: Destructoid
3.) Batman – The Dark Knight
From the Batman armor catalogue which dates back to 1939, the latest addition to the Batman franchise in The Dark Knight shows off an awesomely impressive new body armor. The toss up was between the first and second movie but the first one in my opinion was on the edge of being a bit too rigid. The conscious decision by Christopher Nolan to increase the flexibility of the suit whilst updating it to include all the cool tech we know and love about our crime fighting super hero I believe did pay off. The body armor itself was made by Ceradyne Inc, a specialist in creating technical ceramics for body armor. They’ve even created a rather interesting video on the creation of this suit here. Oh and might I also mentioned the magnetised cape that instantly turns itself into gliding bat wings? Amazing.
2.) Iron Man Mark VI Armor – Iron Man 2 Movie
Although my personal reaction to the Iron Man 2 movie was not as good as the first one, the upgrades to the Iron Man suit are most noted for the triangular arc reactor Tony Stark builds into the suit. To me, the lines and just the general curves look better and more complete than the other armors in the series although I would’ve preferred a bit more screen time for it which we should hopefully get in the third Iron Man movie.
When Stark successfully develops a new power source for his personal arc reactor- the palladium he used for the power source in the previous version was slowly poisoning him-, he must develop a new suit capable of channeling the immense power of the new element, vibranium. The Mark VI armor differs little from the Mark IV platform; the main difference being a triangular-shaped chestplate protecting the arc reactor assembly. This suit withstands prolonged and extreme combat situations with relatively minor damage, and is shown to be extremely fast and responsive in flight, and strong and durable in hand-to-hand combat. The new model seemingly retains all the weapons present in the Mark IV, with two additions: a multi-fire adhesive grenade launcher in the upper arm, and a one-time-use hand-mounted laser weapon, powerful enough to cut multiple Hammer drones cleanly in half.
Source: Iron Man’s Armor Wiki
The Marvel Directory even has specific specifications for the Mark VI suit here.
1.) Crysis Nanosuit – Crysis Series
Maybe a little bit predictable, and it was hard to decide but this hi res photo pretty much pushed it over the line to the top spot.
Each member of Raptor team is wearing a Nano Muscle Suit, the most advanced armor ever created. Fit to the human frame, the suit allows for greater agility. Synthetic tendrils of muscles extend and contour where natural muscles lie underneath. Gray and white and serious, the armor offers more than looks. The exoskeleton allows the wearer to become invisible, become more resilient to damage, to be stronger and faster.
Source: Destructoid
Edit: As a few people have asked, just for the record, I have played the first Crysis and although I do love the design and the technology that’s been put into the suit, I just generally didn’t like playing the game that much. That said, well, just look at the suit. Just look at it!
So there we have it, the Top 10 coolest body armors in my humble opinion. There are a few glaring omissions such as Darth Vader’s suit, Marcus’ armor in Gears of War and Master Chief but I thought I’d highlight a few different ones instead (and to be honest, I don’t like Halo *Queue: Dramatic Lemur*). If you have any thoughts or opinions you’d like to share, feel free to comment just below.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sGUUkxyExFxg3BmENIZfyWhJeO-cZCPhdJPyyQQelHxD0Qj7ZyGFHcBaLOyJ14PMrpFqsBq6lBt--QG-xjsw1wSmpxEzjK3fosZvswemGyZ9X70Ewn578nLCWV2Nh8iX9X1zKuTOAEo6qI8TnuTFld=s0-d)
