We just watched the 1999 film The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc and curious about the castle keep defense weapon used by the English in the film during the depiction of the Siege of Tourelles, Orléans on May 7, 1492.
Once the French have begun charging the gate, Vincent Regan's character Buck orders the English soldiers to arm, fire, and reload a inner gate defensive weapon he calls the 'porcupine'. It appears to be a stacked crossbow wall, with about 48 large bolts, all triggered simultaneously, that seems to be a very effective and deadly defensive weapon (albeit slow to reload and difficult to move).
I've never had the chance to visit France and I can't find anything online about it online, so I'm wondering if it was a real thing ever or perhaps just an artistic liberty taken by the film's creators?
Thanks!
The porcupine (or porc-epic, I suppose) does not exist, it was seemingly an invention of Luc Besson for the film. There are a number of pieces of artistic licence taken in the film just as with most dramatic reconstructions of military history, the invention of this weapon is one of them.
I'm not entirely sure about how to give you a source for something that doesn't exist other than to assure you that no such weapon is described in accounts of medieval siege warfare or otherwise.
Here's a pic of the weapon https://imgur.com/AEjzjpD