Gun Kata is a firearm-based martial art invented by Kurt Wimmer and Jim Vickers in their 2002 film Equilibrium. The extremely stylized, Rule of Cool depiction of gun-to-gun combat resulted in many other works copying the fighting style. Due to Equilibrium becoming a Cult Classic in Japan, gun kata is especially common in anime and other Japanese media. Equilibrium, gun kata (or what is assumed to be gun kata) appeared under two distinctive combat styles; both were reproduced by later media works. Long Range: The proper form of Gun Kata involves a combatant firing guns at extreme close range, outside of cover, while executing intentionally choreographed poses (typically highly dynamic and exaggerated ones) during combat, much like how a real world martial artist executes their practised kata techniques. These gun kata patterns usually involve dual pistols being fired at enemies without aiming or even looking at them, often alongside copious amounts of Gangsta Style and gratuitous whole-body spins, with the shots always hitting regardless. Properly executed, the choreographed motions of gun kata give the combat style a dance-like quality. Short Range: The second form of (possibly) Gun Kata depicted in Equilibrium involves two armed combatants fighting each other at a very close range, with both constantly trying to aim and fire their guns at their foe, while also trying to knock off the foe's aim. It is essentially the Wing Chun "Sticky Hands" technique, but with guns. This combat style technically doesn't involve kata-styled trained choreographynote , and functions more similarily to fencing with guns. Both of these combat styles run on extreme amounts of Rule of Cool. Equilibrium claims that Gun Kata (the first, proper, long range form of it) allows combatants to shoot where the foe ought to be when they're aiming at you, and to not be where the foe ought to shoot; this completely ignores the possibility of a target firing from cover, which is the fact of most gunfights in real life. The second form of "gun kata", while logically more plausible, disobeys several gun safety rules, and a much safer approach for both parties at that range would be to physically attack the opponent's person, instead of trying to knock away their gun. It needs to be emphasized that the practical definition of Gun Kata is the act of striking dynamic motions when firing guns, not the in-universe bullet dodging justifications of Gun Kata from Equilibrium. A gun-based CQC scene consisting of literal bullet dodging, like the one seen in Resident Evil: Vendetta, would better be described as some sort of "bullet-dodge-fu". Compare and contrast to Gun Fu. Not related at all to the series Uta∽Kata. May serve as a pseudo-scientific justification for the existence of graduates of the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy.