Desert Eagle

The Desert Eagle is a large-framed gas-operated semi-automatic handgun designed mostly by IMI in Israel and also by Magnum Research in the US. It is chambered for a number of types of magnum ammunition, though it is most well known for its use of .50 Action Express rounds. In all of its appearances in the Resident Evil series, it is a powerful magnum that can kill most common enemies in a single shot, though players often save their ammunition for much tougher enemies.

Resident Evil 2
It is usable in Leon's and HUNK's games in Resident Evil 2. Referred to as the Magnum in game, and chambered with the large caliber .50 Action Express round, the Desert Eagle is among the most powerful weapons in the game, capable of killing many enemies such as zombies and lickers with a single shot.

The Desert Eagle appears in Claire's scenario, but is only seen in the hands of Brian Irons, and is not usable.

On top of its already considerable damage capability, Leon can also upgrade his Desert Eagle using the magnum parts (a custom 10 inch barrel) located in the weapons locker of William Birkin's laboratory, allowing for one-shot kills of even some of the toughest B.O.W.s such as enhanced Lickers.

Comparisons to Claire's Arsenal
The Desert Eagle has a longer range than the roughly analogous Grenade Launcher, with a single shot usually causing more damage than any of the three kinds of grenade rounds. The magnum pays for this however with enormous recoil (making it much slower to fire than the Grenade Launcher) a small magazine size (8 rounds) and very limited ammunition supplies (unless you know where to look.) When upgraded/customized, the Desert Eagle completely outclasses all of Claire's unique weapons.

HUNK's Magnum
The regular Magnum also appears in HUNK's kit, where he carries only one spare magazine on top of the gun's initial load (16 rounds in total).

Resident Evil Code: Veronica
Rodrigo Juan Raval is seen carrying a Desert Eagle in the opening FMV, though it is never made available to the player.

Resident Evil: Dead Aim
The Desert Eagle is availible in Dead Aim under the name Magnum. It is found in the captain's quarters and is chambered for the .44 Magnum round.

Resident Evil 5
The Desert Eagle returns in Resident Evil 5 as the Lightning Hawk, only now it is classified as a Magnum. The L. Hawk is available after completing Chapter 5-3. It can be purchased for 5,000 Gold. The L. Hawk can also be found during your first encounter with Wesker. It can be found up stairs in a sarcophagus along with two jewels. You will need help from your partner to move the lid.

It has a starting firepower of 1400, reload speed of 1.70, a capacity of 5, and a piercing value of 3. Fully upgraded, it has a firepower of 3000, reload speed of 1.36, a capacity of 8, and a piercing value of 7.

Resident Evil Outbreak
Also referred as the Magnum Handgun, The Desert Eagle can be found in the "Below Freezing Point" scenario with Yoko only, where it is given to her by an unnamed Umbrella employee. In Outbreak #2, it can be found in two locations: the "Desperate Times" scenario behind the Hallway painting using the Unicorn Medal (difficulties change location), and if the player is in control of Kevin Ryman, it can be found inside his personal desk. This weapon will inflict 900HP to foes.

Resident Evil Revelations
The Desert Eagle in this game returns as the Magnum L. Hawk. It is first found in Episode 9, in which it can be found on a desk in the fight with the first Scarmiglione. It is also featured in Raid Mode.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
The Desert Eagle returns in Operation Raccoon City, again called the '''Lightning Hawk. ''' It was first hinted to appear in the game when it was sighted on as the website for the Inserted Evil ARG. To obtain the Lightning Hawk, players must 'purchase' the weapon using 27500 experience points at the secondary-weapons menu, making it the most expensive weapon in the game. It is the most powerful handgun in the game, but it also has the slowest fire rate and the lowest magazine size among the handguns. The In-game model sports a laser sight module beneath the barrel, and has a small tactical rail on top of the frame. It is seen in gameplay with an eight-round magazine. Interestingly, the L. Hawk is seen being used Leon S. Kennedy when he first encounters the U.S.S., as opposed to his VP70.

In Resident Evil films
It also appears in Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction as L.J.s preferred weapon. The only differences are that L.J.'s are custom gold and are chambered for the .44 Magnum cartridge. In Extinction, L.J. only uses one. It is possible he lost one in the 5 years between movies. Carlos Oliveira carried a pair of blued .44 Desert Eagles in Apocalypse (note template picture). In the new film Resident Evil: Afterlife, Wesker is seen firing two chromed Desert Eagles simultaneously.

Replicas
Tokyo Marui, a high end airsoft manufacturer, released three separate Desert Eagles as part of their BioHazard line.

The first was a standard-sized model with a satin silver finished slide and frame. The grip had imitation wood grips set with a Raccoon Police medallion. This was modeled off of the Magnum in RE2. This model being the rarest of the three and the most difficult to obtain.

The second, modeled after the Magnum of RE2 combined with the



custom parts, had a metel upper receiver with a 10 inch barrel and adjustable sights. The lower frame was identical to the standard edition.

The third, called the "Leon Custom" also had a 10-inch upper, with a chrome silver finish throughout and black grips. The grip had large finger grooves and was engraved with "Leon". This is most likely a reference to the third Resident Evil novel, City of the Dead, in which Leon has been given a custom Desert Eagle with a 10 inch barrel as a gift.

The first two models, while true to the game, had an older gas system, and did not function as well as Marui's other Desert Eagles. The Leon custom did utilize the newer gas system, which gave it stronger recoil, a louder firing report and better performance. A drawback of this latter system is none of the Desert Eagles can take high power gasses very well, and as a result the stock models are unsuited to most skirmish usage.

The standard model came in a fairly ordinary box adorned with Biohazard 2 screenshots, while the 10 inch models both came with wooden collector's boxes. All three have been discontinued by Tokyo Marui, and along with the Samurai Edge models, are some of the most coveted custom airsoft replicas.

Trivia

 * The Desert Eagle is one of the few weapons in Resident Evil 5 that is not referred to by its actual name. Another video game called Counter-Strike refers to the Desert Eagle as a "Nighthawk .50c", which is similar to the name of the gun in RE5. Neither of these guns are related to pistols made by Nighthawk Custom, a gun manufacturer.


 * Resident Evil 5 ' s Lightning Hawk is the same as the Custom RPD Desert Eagle from RE2.


 * The name of the weapon in RE5 (Lightning Hawk), is a reference to Thunder Hawk (Abbreviated as T. Hawk), a Native American Fighter from the Street Fighter series, another Capcom video game saga.


 * The Desert Eagle is one of only three semi-automatic magnums available in Resident Evil, with the other two being the Sporting Int. Magnum Custom Edition and the AMT Hardballer Longslide.


 * Considered to be one of the most powerful weapons in games, killing most enemies with one shot and recommended to be used for bosses, however in Resident Evil Outbreak the magnum handgun will only do half of its firepower to the G-Mutant boss.
 * The only Live-Action Movie so far to not feature the Desert Eagle is Genesis.
 * After finishing Leon's scenario in Resident Evil 2, a picture is shown in the ranking menu. It depicts Leon getting out of a RPD squad car, wielding his Desert Eagle (instead of the VP-70) and cocking it.