Nothing Up My Sleeve



"''"I didn't think you was stupid, Mister Vimes. [...] I know a clever copper like you'd think I'd got two knives."

"Yeah, right," said Vimes. [...]

"Mister Vimes? [...] I got three knives, Mister Vimes," said Carcer, bringing his arm up.''"

- Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

A character will have a weapon hidden in his sleeve. Occasionally extracted by a device attached to his arm that will eject the weapon into his hand when the situation calls for it - this can overlap with Blade Below the Shoulder.

Typically it's a knife, throwing star or a Little Useless Gun, though there are other options.

Westerns, such as Louis L'Amour novels, use the gun version occasionally. Often called a "palm gun", a "sneak gun", a "gambler's gun", "gambler's draw", etc. Apparently this type of weapon was common among Mississippi riverboat gamblers. Derringers were, of course, the favourite as you can actually hide one up your sleeve. Western or Noir Femme Fatales are often armed with this type of gun as well.

Sometimes the sleeve is a good way to access Hammerspace. If you find yourself wondering how the object being removed could possibly fit inside a sleeve, you know Hammerspace is involved.

A knife in the boot is another variant. Anyone paranoid enough to have this many spare weapons is almost certain to have another one under their pillow and yet another by the bathtub.

The title is, of course, a common line for a Stage Magician, as a way to assure the audience that he has no hidden devices that would help him perform the trick. Don't expect characters hiding a weapon to say this line, though.

Not to be confused with Raymanian Limbs, although the two could potentially be used simultaneously in order to create more space. Compare Combat Haircomb.

Anime and Manga

 * In Trigun, Meryl had dozens of single-shot derringers hidden on the inside of her coat. Ditto for Millie's stun gun.
 * Yomiko Readman from Read or Die keeps pieces of paper up her sleeves.
 * It's not so much that she has paper up her sleeves, her sleeves are paper.
 * Not guns, but on Yu-Gi-Oh!, Bandit Keith has a remote armature up his sleeve to feed him cards. Earlier appearances just had him pull the cards out from his wristbands.
 * Fabiola Iglesias ('mini killer-maid') from Black Lagoon has two guns (MAG-7) hidden in her sleeves and EX 41 grenade launcher on her back.
 * In the first episode of Gunsmith Cats, Rally had a derringer up her sleeve, which she gives away in a disarming sequence.
 * Shizune of Naruto has several spring-loaded needle launchers that she uses by pulling back a cord and letting go of. She has particular long sleeves to help hide them. After the timeskip, Naruto hides a kunai attached to a cord in his sleeve. Naruto first used the sleeve-roped-kunai in the first movie The Snow Country.
 * In Bleach, a picture drawn by Kubo Tite shows Nanao drawing her as-of-yet-unseen-in-the-manga sword from her sleeve.
 * Mousse from Ranma One Half. His whole gimmick is that he has tons of melee and ranged weapons that are never visible until he uses them. Not only does he have a virtually unlimited number of these, but the sheer variety of them can only be attributed to it being a martial arts comedy series. In his debut arc, among more tradition weapons he uses claws hidden in his shoes, a hook and wire concealed in his hair, and a training potty from his sleeves that he slams into his opponent's head before they can see what it is.
 * Not to mention a duck laying explosive eggs. Foreshadowing, anyone?
 * Tooya from Ayashi no Ceres has a dagger embedded in his arm, which he can summon and use as he pleases. He says it never leaves him.
 * Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt: In If the Angels Wore Swimsuits, Scanty and Kneesocks both reveal their Time for Plan B weapon; their Monster of the Week Sealed Army in a Can equivalent of Instant AI, Just Add Water.

Comic Books

 * In the final showdown of Sin City's A Dame To Kill For, Dwight unloads on Manute, Ava's bodyguard, with a snub revolver hidden up his sleeve. He hits with all six rounds, but Manute is still standing. Shoulda aimed for the head, buddy.
 * A derringer up the sleeve is the typical armament of Professional Gamblers in Lucky Luke. In The Stagecoach, Scat Thumbs passes his off to Luke in a move that saves the day.

Film

 * During the killing spree that marks the climax of Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle uses a small-caliber pistol hidden up his sleeve, which is drawn using a special rig that he made himself. He empties the weapon into the face of one of the men he kills.
 * Victor Rosta, the Big Bad of the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Red Heat uses a derringer hidden in his sleeve, also shot into his hand via a special rig.
 * John Preston from Equilibrium is the master of this trope--not only does he sneak a pair of fully-automatic pistols through a polygraph test this way, but he keeps a pair of reloading devices in his sleeves and the ammo to feed them.
 * In the Reverend's CMOA in the film Hot Fuzz He says to the protagonist "Oh, fuck off grasshopper!" and shoots him with a pair of derringers he had up his sleeves.
 * Darth Sidious in Star Wars: Episode III had his lightsaber hidden in his sleeve (that or he used the force to pull the lightsaber to him).
 * That guy in the fourth Alien movie had a pair of these strapped to his arms. Which made it difficult for him to drop his weapons when told. In the original script, he tosses the empty guns aside and ejects a second pair during his blaze of glory.
 * The Mariachi from Desperado used dual Ruger P89s that he drew from his sleeves. He uses this twice, once during the Tarasco Bar shootout, and the other during the final showdown with Bucho.
 * Weird because the P89 is a pretty big handgun. Looking closely, you can see that the prop guns that pop out needed to have their grips sawn off in order to fit in Banderas' sleeves.
 * The Blue Raja of Mystery Men does this with silverware.
 * In a variant in Tango and Cash, Cash had a gun concealed in his boot that let him fire when he put his feet up on a table.
 * Undercover Brother. During his final fight with the title character, Mr. Feather extended a wicked looking clawed blade from each sleeve.
 * In The Dark Knight, Batman had a weapon on his sleeves. The armor spikes look decorative, but could launch off and imbed into enemies.
 * In the first Underworld film, the werewolf Lucian has a retractable, mechanical blade concealed up his sleeve, used several times during the movie.
 * In Last Action Hero Benedict has a knife up his sleeve and he loves - ahem! - whipping it out.
 * Commodus of Gladiator pulls a knife from the armor around his elbow in the final duel.
 * The protagonist of Kill Bill keeps a straight razor in her boot.
 * The Return Of The King. In a deleted scene, Wormtongue kills Saruman with a knife hidden up his sleeve. The knife has a curved blade to fit against the curve of the forearm for better concealment, as weapons weren't supposed to be carried in King Theoden's hall.
 * Inglourious Basterds. An OSS glove pistol is used to kill one of Hitler's guards.
 * The Soldier (1982). The Renegade Russian has a sawn-off shotgun up his sleeve with a wire attached to the trigger, so it fires when he raises his hands in surrender when confronted by a police officer.
 * In The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, Andrew Dice Clay keeps a nickeled S&W Model 38 up his sleeve in a spring-loaded gamblers' rig. Naturally it never works right 'til that one time...
 * In the Guy Ritchie version of Sherlock Holmes, has a small gun up his sleeve, that flips up and out with a certain arm movement. Also a few minutes before Irene Adler had used a club that dropped out of her sleeve to knock out a mugger.
 * In Maverick, one card player was caught cheating with card attached to a sleeve device. Later,
 * In Smokin Aces, torture-expert and Psycho for Hire Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) utilizies a long stiletto hidden in his sleeve that is activated with a special device.

Literature
"Mr Vimes? I got three knives, Mr Vimes..."
 * Mara Jade in the Star Wars novels. One of her signature weapons is a tiny blaster pistol hidden in her sleeve.
 * Inigo Skimmer from The Fifth Elephant; among his hidden arsenal is a dagger shaped to fit the shape of the edge of his hand (so he can remove people's heads with nothing more than a karate chop) which emerges from his sleeve when he shrugs his shoulders in a certain way. Vimes first realises that the clerk is more than he seems because he feels the palm dagger armor under his sleeve when he grabs his arm.
 * Double Subverted in Night Watch; Vimes knows Carcer always has a backup knife, and relieves him of it. But-


 * In the Discworld universe,the 'nothing up my sleeves' gesture is the traditional sign that the following spell will be performed the old fashioned way, with magic. It has also been likened to something less...friendly.
 * Raistlin from Dragonlance kept a dagger up his sleeve.
 * Mages are allowed to carry a single non-steel knife on them, and usually conceal them up sleeves of their own.
 * Any protagonist in The Wheel of Time series not wielding a sword or magic can be expected to have knives stashed around their body and the ability to produce them at will. The most notable of those, Mat Cauthon, is stated to have 11 daggers stashed about his person, and in one particular fight goes through at least 6 of them. There is always at least one knife in each sleeve, no exceptions.
 * Enough daggers to make the proud warrior race people nod approvingly when he removed his weapons for Rhuidean. And that was before he Took a Level In Badass.
 * A conversation in Jhereg implies this is standard in Dragaera.
 * In the Andrew Vachss Burke book Dead and Gone, Burke produces a length of chain from up one sleeve when dealing with some punks.
 * Burke does this with rebar in Terminal.
 * In The Stand, Dayna has a knife holder she wears on her arm (covered by long sleeves), hoping she can gain access to Flagg. Problem is that when she does get within reach of him, he has somehow managed to swap her knife for a banana.
 * In Harry Harrison's Deathworld Trilogy every Pyrran, including little children, wears a gun on the forearm, with powered, automatic extension for instant fire. They never take them off. Ever.
 * In the Honor Harrington novel Field of Dishonor Andrew LaFollet kept a small pulser up his left sleeve.

Live Action TV

 * Ezra from The Magnificent Seven TV series had one of these.
 * Jim West in the The Wild Wild West TV series often had a Derringer up his sleeve, which he sometimes used as a Grappling Hook Pistol.
 * Angel used to keep stakes in his sleeves on Angel. Wesley gets a collapsible sword that comes out of his sleeves during his darker period in Season 4 (this is parodied during the episode where they all revert to a teenage state of mind), but he pulls a grappling hook out of there at the end of the season. The device is not seen again until his Hope Spot in the final episode.
 * The potential problems of this were lampshaded in an episode where the cast lost their memories and Wesley started accidentally activating all sorts of weapons that came flying out of his sleeves.
 * In the pilot two-parter Buffy slips a stake up the sleeve of her leather jacket, but takes off the jacket before her fight anyway.
 * The Stargate SG-1 episode "The Devil You Know" has returning Big Bad Apophis kill two Jaffa guards with a blade that appears out of his sleeve, although it stays fixed on his wrist rather than falling into his hand.
 * In a much later episode, RepliCarter kills Lord Yu with a blade that comes out of her ... okay, hand, technically.
 * In Justified Quarles has a spring loaded sleeve gun mechanism strapped to his arm. He likes to tell people that he is unarmed and to demonstrate this by raising his hands up as he approaches them. As his left arm reaches face level, he activates the mechanism which propels a small gun into his hand. He then shoots his victim in the forehead from close range.

Tabletop Games

 * The 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons Complete Fighter's Handbook offered three solutions ranging from the simple leather thong that untied with the right arm motion to a more complex mechanical rig which shot the weapon out with more alacrity to a pair of magical rings to allow the same trick.

Video Games

 * Anonym, a sinister nun from the fighting game Akatsuki Blitzkampf, fights with revolvers that fall from her sleeves in her opening animation.
 * Hsien Ko from Darkstalkers, asides from having giant claw guantlets, can produce from her billowing sleeves bombs, knives, weights, flails, statues...
 * Governor Tekagi from Freelancer kills with a blade hidden on his sleeve.
 * From Guilty Gear, we have Baiken, who uses a whole assortment of gizmos hidden in her sleeve along with her katana.
 * Justified in that there's no arm in the sleeve, leaving more room for concealed weapons.
 * Billy Lee Black of Xenogears He hides a long arm up each of his sleeves of his habit (and keeps a shotgun under it, too).
 * The Commandos have knuckle plate vibro-blades as a melee weapon in Star Wars: Republic Commando.
 * A wrist blade is Altair's main weapon in Assassin's Creed.
 * And in Assassin's Creed 2, Ezio has two hidden blades, a poison blade and a hidden gun. There really is No Kill Like Overkill.
 * Nash in Suikoden III has what's apparently a spring-loaded a knife-launcher in his sleeve. Despite being established as a master swordsmen in his Gaiden Game, he never uses his swords in this one.
 * Similar to Hsien Ko, Xiao Lon has an assortment of bladed weapons inside her oversized sleeves. And she doesn't actually need them as her sleeves themselves can hurt.

Web Comics

 * In Angels2200, Captain Kurosawa, while being confronted by Toat, hides a pistol in her sleeve..

Western Animation

 * Bat Lash had a small gun hidden up his sleeve in Justice League Unlimited that came into play after his cheating at poker was revealed.
 * On at least one occasion in The Batman Joker had empty hands, but big baggy straitjacket sleeves covering his hands. Arms up, sleeves flap down, and presto! He has razor-sharp playing cards in his hands!
 * The Joker has a tendency to do this, in fact- he keeps a knife up his sleeve (with hidden ejecting mechanism) in The Killing Joke.
 * He also hides a stiletto during his confrontation with Batman in Return of the Joker. He even uses the threat of one to feint, making Batman think it's in his right sleeve when it's really in his left.
 * In The Dark Knight the Joker is an outright Knife Nut. He conceals a blade in at least one shoe, and when he's find "Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint." Earlier on, when he visits the mobsters and they try to attack him, he reveals the inside of his coat is lined with grenades that he's rigged to detonate all at once if need be.
 * In the scene where a police officer is organizing the Joker's confiscated knives on a table, he stops for a considerable amount of time, unable to decide where to place the potato peeler(!). Even better, if you look closely at the table in that scene, you'll realize that one of said "Knives" is a pizza cutter.
 * Avatar: The Last Airbender
 * Mai, who uses both throwing knives and stiletto-launchers hidden under her sleeves.
 * The Dai Lee also hid weapons in their sleeves, including what seemed to be stone handcuffs on long chains.
 * An episode of Superfriends did a variation on this with their version of Mr. Mxyzptlk: One of the heroes asks, rhetorically "I wonder what Mxyzptlk has up his sleeve this time.." Cut to Mxyzptlk, who is eavesdropping: "What do I have up my sleeve?" Pushes the sleeve back, leaving his glove floating unsupported in midair. "Why, nothing of course!" Cue Evil Laugh.
 * In an episode of The Simpsons, a saloon produces derringers, some from their sleeves, and proceed to blast each other. No one is injured because the tiny derringers are weak. Powerful weak!

Real Life

 * Truth in Television: the tradition of shaking hands came about as a way for people to check if the other person had a dagger in their sleeve. Which is why in older settings you see two characters grabbing each others' forearms.
 * The hand-shaking thing also resulted in left-handedness becoming associated with tricksters.