M79

"Got any more grenades, Brow?"

"No, we got that off some Russian geezer. The pineapples are hard to come by."

The M79 Grenade Launcher is a single-shot, shoulder-fired, break-action grenade launcher that fires a 40mm grenade. The M79 can fire a wide variety of 40mm rounds, including explosive and smoke grenades.

The Getaway[]

M79eyebrows — Eyebrows and Jake with the M79.

In The Getaway, the M79 grenade launcher only appears once in the entire game, during a cutscene midway through the mission, Aiding and Abetting. The gun was originally owned by Viktor Skobel, a Russian arms dealer who sold guns and other weapons to gangsters around Europe and in London pre 2002. At some point prior to 2002, Charlie Jolson, the leader of the Bethnal Green Mob, purchased an M79 grenade launcher from Viktor Skobel. This weapon would then be used by Eyebrows, one of Charlie's loyal heavies, to assist in the breakout of Jake Jolson during his prison van escort. Mark Hammond and Eyebrows ram the prison van that Jake is being transported in and manage to knock it onto its side. Eyebrows then takes out the cops with an AK47 and reunites with Jake. Eyebrows then takes out a dead body from the back of the car and puts it next to the prison van to make the scene appear as though Jake is dead and that Mark killed him by himself. Eyebrows then jokes around with Jake saying it's too bad he didn't make it. He then gets out the M79 grenade launcher from the boot of the car and takes aim at the van. He is about to fire when Jake requests that Eyebrows give it to him and that he be the one to use it. Eyebrows gives Jake the M79 which Jake then uses. He takes aim at the prison van and fires a grenade which causes the van to explode. Jake then cheers happily but Mark wants to leave as more cops are coming. Jake however wants to hang around some more. He asks Eyebrows if they have any more grenades to which Eyebrows responds that they bought the weapon off "some Russian geezer" (Viktor Skobel) and that they are hard to come by. In other words, they have no more grenades left. Eyebrows then gives Jake the AK47 he used earlier which Jake says will have to do. Jake hands the M79 back to Eyebrows who then places it back in the boot of the car. Jake meanwhile fires the AK47 at Frank Carter, who arrives moments later to arrest Jake. Frank ducks down in his car and avoids the bullets but he loses control and his car flips over. Jake then cheers and jumps in the back of the getaway car and Mark, Eyebrows and Jake flee the scene. Mark looks down as he passes Frank and see's he is still alive.

Much later, in the mission, The Vigilante, Frank mentions to his corrupt boss, Clive McCormack that the Bethnal Green Mob had used an M79 grenade launcher during the breakout of Jake and moans to McCormack about the fact there was no hot tip about grenade launchers. McCormack gets angry at Frank and then suspends him as a result. The M79 is not seen or mentioned again.

This weapon cannot be used by the player or any protagonist. It is only seen during the cutscene and never in any actual gameplay. Ultimately, it would likely be later retrieved by the police from Charlie's warehouse. This is because the M79 is brought back to the warehouse after Jake's breakout and would have presumably been taken out of the getaway car and put inside the warehouse. The police would later inspect the warehouse after the death of Charlie Jolson and find the weapon along with many other illegal firearms. No other M79's are seen in the game and the weapon does not appear in The Getaway: Black Monday.

Trivia[]

The "Russian geezer" Eyebrows refers to, during the cutscene where the M79 is seen, is actually Viktor Skobel, who sold the weapon to the Bethnal Green Mob pre 2002.
The grenade launcher is not seen in Frank Carter's mission, Escort Duty. This is because although this mission takes place at the same time as Aiding and Abetting, the mission is told through Frank's perspective. Frank only arrives on the scene after Jake has already used the M79 and therefore the weapon isn't seen or even mentioned.
The M79 grenade launcher only appears in the mission, Aiding and Abetting, and is only mentioned in the mission, The Vigilante.