Interestingly, the actual prop was auctioned off in 2022 for more than $18K! [0]<p>[0] <a href="https://propstoreauction.com/lot-details/index/catalog/319/lot/89009?sc=337" rel="nofollow">https://propstoreauction.com/lot-details/index/catalog/319/l...</a>
Just as a note, real chemical weapons are not like this at all. Basically, VX (in the US and basically all other countries) is stored in binary form(1), two separate, basically clear chemicals with a glass wall that separates them, and the wall breaks from the force of the blast and the chemicals mix and you have VX, but it doesn't look cool. So Michael Bay had them make this instead, because it looked better on film.<p>There was a famous bit from the Iraq Inquiry Committee (aka the Chilcot Report) where they found that MI6 reported a bit of intelligence to Tony Blair that a source in Iraq claimed that they produced VX at the Al-Yarmuk plant- but described what was in the movie, not real life. After it was reported to Blair that they had sources who had seen VX in Iraq, they showed the raw intelligence to someone who knew something about chemical weapons and they said "Whatever your source saw, it wasn't VX" and MI6 realized that the source was lying. (I think that this source is different from the more famous liar Curveball.)<p>1: Besides being bad for humans, VX is also bad for metal, and will destroy any case if kept in long term storage. Basically if you load a normal chemical weapon shell with mixed, ready to go VX it will be unusable- more of a threat to the crew firing the howitzer than the enemy- within a few days.
This build unlocked the memory of watching this movie as a child and being terrified that nerve gas was something I could encounter in my day-to-day life.
My first thought was why would someone want to do this, like they're glamorizing a weapon that causes mass horrors and misery.<p>But I did just spend hours of the holiday weekend playing a typical video game that's pretty much entirely about shooting people. (And in this case with a sprinkling of sometimes running them through with a machete instead.)<p>So maybe we already society-wide glamorize weapons and killing, but the nerve gas variety of that is... only unfamiliar?<p>Or it is innately less-appealing somehow?