Yeah, we live in an age of "lasers in the jungle," to paraphrase Paul Simon.

Hollywood loves the rail gun. Remember "Eraser," starring the Governator? The bad guys had a rail gun that supposedly shot an aluminum bullet at almost the speed of light through air without vaporizing.

And of course in Transformers 2 (a perfect sequel imo, which speaks volumes about my lack of both taste and maturity) the Navy takes out a Decepticon from thousands of miles away with a ship-borne rail gun. Was kinda cool. Aliens be warned: do you really want to cross countless light-years just so the US military can kick your butt around the moon? Think about it, ET. You'll be phoning home for your mommy.