False Roulette

A form of Perp Sweating, invoking Russian Roulette, where a gun is emptied out and one bullet is palmed while apparently being loaded into the chamber. The perp is then asked questions and awarded a dry-fire for tardy answers.

See also Two-Headed Coin for a similar but less violent game of "chance".

Anime and Manga
"Luck: You know, Jogi, we... We are very thankful for all the work you've done until now. So, we three came to a decision after a little discussion. If you came to an understanding and pulled the trigger on yourself, then we wouldn't say anything and just chase you out of the organization. If you cried and begged for mercy, we would beat you half to death then chase you out of the organization. If you persisted in pretending to be confused, we would cut off your tongue then chase you out of the organization. Looks like you chose the worst of the lot. This is truly regrettable."
 * A variation occurs in Black Lagoon. Revy and Dutch, after shooting their way through a small army of Neo-Nazis, have the leader cornered, alone, and sobbing. They make a cryptic bet with each other—Revy choosing "black" and Dutch choosing "white--and toss a gun to the Neo-Nazi. He slowly brings it up to his own forehead, and then at the last moment turns the gun on Dutch and fires. Naturally it's empty. It's probably better we don't know what happened afterward.
 * Upgraded in the Gunsmith Cats manga. Rally Vincent puts in the bullet without palming it, spins the chamber, pulls the trigger FIVE TIMES in a row rapidly, and finally fires the gun into the wall (right over the perp's head) to prove the bullet wasn't palmed; she's so good with guns that she can time the spin and lock the chamber so she knows where the bullet is when it stops. After demonstrating her prowess she puts in another bullet and points the gun at the perp. Naturally this scares the perp even more than a regular Russian Roulette.
 * Baccano!: The Gandors pull one of these on a traitorous subordinate, confronting him with their knowledge of his betrayal and then presenting him with a fully-loaded revolver, with which, they inform him, he must now play Russian Roulette. When he panics and tries to shoot Keith Gandor, he quickly discovers two things: the revolver was loaded with harmless empty cartridge casings, and the whole production was actually a Secret Test of Character.


 * Maria pulls this in one episode of the second Sakura Wars OAV. Ohgami seems to consider it a sign of progress that she didn't load the gun (considering that she used to have no qualms whatsoever about killing).

Comic Books

 * In an episode of Lucky Luke, an extended shootout ends with Luke running out of bullets and Jack Dalton having one left. Jack suggests Russian roulette. After failing to shoot the hero he hands over the gun and starts shivering in mortal fear. Realizing Jack is too preoccupied to keep an eye on him, Luke deftly empties the gun, puts it against Jack's head and shouts "BANG!!" Jack, believing he's been shot, passes out from the shock.
 * One issue of Daredevil has the title character playing a version this with a paralyzed Bullseye. A version in which the cylinder of the gun is not spun after each pull of the trigger, meaning that someone IS going to die by the time the trigger is pulled 6 times at the latest. At the end of the story with both still alive, Daredevil points the gun at Bullseye...CLICK. It was never loaded. "We're stuck with each other, Bullseye."

Film
"Gay Perry:"
 * Used in reverse in the 2004 Starsky and Hutch movie. Starsky lifts the gun up while he loads one bullet and lets the bullet fall into his sleeve. Then he puts his arm down before closing the chamber and the bullet falls back into the gun. The perp being questioned sees the whole thing and Hilarity Ensues as the perp tries to keep Starsky from blowing his own head off with the really loaded gun.
 * In Malcolm X, Malcolm does this to a co-conspirator in a burglary to force him to accept his leadership. Malcolm X claimed to Alex Haley that he actually did this.
 * A variant of this is used in the recent The Punisher movie. Frank captures low-level mook Mickey and strings him up by his ankles, tying his hands together. He then goes into a fantastic description of how a blowtorch flame will affect him: it won't burn, so to speak. Instead, Mickey will smell burning flesh, but, because his nerve endings are being destroyed, all he'll feel is cold. After the appropriate one-liner ("Isn't science fun, Mickey?"), Frank then proceeds to use the blowtorch to burn a steak, and presses a popsicle against Mickey's back, causing him to react as though he's being burned. When Frank has given away all the information he has...he pops the popsicle in his mouth and lets him down.
 * Variant from The Dark Knight: Harvey Dent threatens a man with a coin flip: Heads, he doesn't shoot him; tails, he does. He's using a two-headed coin. Of course, that coin later manages to get badly burned on one side, right around the time Harvey's worldview takes a massive shift, so when he makes similar threats later, he means business.
 * Subverted hilariously in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang:


 * Played straight in L.A. Confidential during the interrogation of the three Night Owl murder suspects, when Bud White realizes the suspects have kidnapped and raped a woman who's still being held hostage. However, in the film we never actually see if Bud takes the last round out of his .38...
 * Subverted in Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Jack assumes this is what's happening, as even Blackbeard surely wouldn't risk his daughter's life as an interrogation method. Then Jack fires one to prove his point...

Literature

 * A book found in The Elder Scrolls series, "A Game At Dinner" tells the story of a ruler who invites his court to a banquet. After the meal, he informs them that he has poisoned those disloyal to him, and only by drinking the antidote (and revealing their treachery) will they live. The courtiers wait tensely until one snaps, confesses, and drinks...
 * The James Patterson novel Sail.
 * Subverted in L.A. Confidential, where the cop in question apparently leaves at least one bullet in the revolver.
 * A variant appears in the novel Dominion. The leader of a gang is fond of subjecting his members to Russian Roulette, using a live round, but he's always the one to spin the revolver and if he sees the round in the chamber about to be fired, he just spins it again. He reassures all his gang members that nobody has ever died while playing with him, although he doesn't tell them his secret.

Live Action TV

 * Used as recently as the Pilot for USA's Kojak remake.
 * Used by Tavon in The Shield.
 * Used by Doug in The Riches, when he is trying to get hired as a lawyer.
 * A bad guy in Foyle's War tries this on with a burglar who has stolen something very incriminating from him; unfortunately, the burglar gets the bullet before the bad guy gets the information.

Video Games

 * Variant done in Killer7 Garcian Smith is forced to play a game of Russian Roulette, the person who forces him goes into a great deal of dramatics as he picks up the gun and puts it to his temple...pulling the trigger and putting the gun down... Garcian meanwhile simply picks it up and methodically, almost robotically, picks it up, puts it to his head, and pulls the trigger. It's a revolver, and it comes down to the fifth pull of the trigger. It's the man behind the desk's turn. He shudders as he pulls the trigger. Click. No bang. He chuckles and slides it to Garcian. "Well, I suppose I win, Guess you have to do what I say." Garcian picks it up and just calmly pulls the trigger. Click. He puts it back down. "This kind of gun holds seven bullets." Cue said man killing himself after a speech.

Real Life

 * Derren Brown played Russian roulette on a TV special, demonstrating his ability to manipulate a person into picking a number between 1 and 6 of his choice. It was later revealed that the gun would not have fired.
 * Incidentally enough, the original Russian Roulette is an example. The design of the Nagant revolver makes it more than likely the bullet (or bullets -- the original version was played with six loaded chambers out of seven) will end up at the bottom of the chamber if the gun is greased well.