Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: Difference between revisions
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Compare [[Magic Bullets]], [[Murphy's Bullet]], and [[Homing Boulders]] (for those cases where it's not a bullet). [[Pinball Projectile]] describes a specific variant, when something ricochets off multiple objects before hitting its target. A [[Little Useless Gun]] is when some bullets are inexplicably harmless.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* Energy/laser weapons in many anime (such as ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' and ''[[Transformers Energon|Energon]]'') will often curve and even zig-zag in extremely sharp angles on their way to their target.
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** Guido Mista's Sex Pistols are ''six small intelligent and talking dwarves that ride the bullets and can kick them to change their trajectory''. Freaking hilarious but also fearful.
* Vampiress Rip Van Vinkle in ''[[Hellsing]]'' was armed with a vintage musket with magical bullets that "punished all without distinction", zigzagging around at impossible trajectories and hitting several targets in a row or one target several times.
** Hitting fighter craft from outside their missile range, when the effective aimed range of a flintlock is about 100 yards (meaning that by rights she shouldn't have been able to hit someone on the other side of the flight deck).
** It seems that she was directing the slug with the force of her will, seeing that it always hit exactly where she wanted it to. She hit Alucard several times over with the same bullet, trying to make him fall in the sea where vampire's powers would be useless, but she shouldn't have aimed for his head, as he managed to catch it between his teeth.
** She didn't. Alucard decided to stop playing around and purposely chomped the bullet. You can see him lunge forward to bite it.
* In the ''[[One Piece]]'' anime, Van Auger can shoot a bullet with a bullet. Which then [[Rule of Cool|cuts the bullet in half and hits the gun that fired it through the barrel]].
* Mana Tatsumiya from ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' once bounced some bullets off of a building to hit targets that were behind cover from where she was shooting.
==
* In the Marvel Universe, ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' mutant Domino has the power to [[Winds of Destiny Change|alter probability]], and prefers to use that ability in conjunction with firearms. She can thus perform outstandingly improbable trick-shots, including multiple-ricochet bulls-eyes against moving targets.
* ''[[Dreamkeepers]]'' uses hyper compressed springs loaded into rifles to fire bullets hard enough to punch through concrete.
* When the [[Runaways]] traveled back in time, they encountered a superpowered gang war. One of the gang members had a gun that could never miss: The bullet would ricochet until it hit
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** Recoil making the gun jump? Waves changing the angle of the barrel just slightly? Bizarre and Improbably yes, Impossible no.
* In Uwe Boll's ''[[Alone in the Dark (2005 film)|Alone in The Dark]]'', one character dies from a bullet that obviously misses her by about two feet.
* In a scene from ''[[Scarface]]'', a man has his brains blown out, which makes a big mess in the car in which he is driving. Even though the brains are splattered all over the passenger side window, the window is unharmed.
* ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'' features "Toon bullets". The one fired is an American Indian, he hollers and then produces a large axe and smashes the bottle Eddie has shot at.
** Later in the film, Eddie fires three times, but the bullets stop in mid-air and change direction when they lose sight of their intended target.
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== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[The Bill]]'', when Kerry Young got shot by Gabriel Kent's sniper rifle, the bullet goes through her back and out her front. She slumps to the ground and the camera pans to reveal Gabriel, standing on a
* Parodied in an episode of the Australian comedy series ''[[Bligh]]''. John Macarthur has challenged Governor Bligh to a duel, but plans to shoot him while his back is turned. Macarthur's wife lambastes him for this cowardice, and to demonstrate her own skills shoots a vase...by pointing the pistol in the opposite direction and firing. The bullet ricochets all over the room and, of course, ends up smashing the vase.
* A common plot-point in the various incarnations of ''[[CSI]]''.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'', ''Nightmare of Eden'': In the scene where Della is shot with an [[Energy Weapons|Energy Weapon]], the shooter is clearly aiming way over her head, the special effect shows the shot hitting her face, then she clutches her stomach and keels over.
* On ''[[True Blood]]'', Marianne managed to deflect a bullet from the front with her hand into someone behind her.
* Parodied in ''[[Seinfeld]]'', when both Kramer and Newman claimed to have been spat on by Mets player Keith Hernandez at the same time. Jerry's response: "That must have been one magic loogie!"
** The references here are to the movie ''JFK''.
* In the fifth season of ''[[24]]'', Curtis Manning is using an accused terrorist Jack Bauer is protecting as a human shield. When Jack is forced to kill Curtis, his gunshot hits Curtis in the middle of his chest, which would mean it would have to pass ''through'' the hostage. Then again, this ''is'' Jack Bauer. [[Memetic Badass|The laws of ballistics know better than to get in his way]].
* ''[[The Three Stooges]]'' used this one for (of course) comedy. One of them shot a fleeing Western bad man in the rear. The bandit stopped, turned, clutched his chest, said 'They got me!', and keeled over.
* In an episode of ''[[Hotel Babylon]]'', a man who has taken people hostage fires a bullet. We see the bullet in slo-mo head towards some of the regulars, who get out of the way. The wine guy chucks an urn to one side and then the bullet ''turns 45 degrees in mid-air'' to hit the urn, covering the entire room in dead person. (For some reason Anna, in the vent above the room, gets it in [[Slo Mo]]).
* {{spoiler|Tara's death}} in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''; a bullet fired randomly into the air from the back garden manages to pass through a second story window and hit her horizontally in the chest as she stands near the middle of the room.
** That's an exaggeration; She was standing in front of the window, the bullet was fired at a low angle from the back of the lawn, and we never saw the exit wound. The angles were still somewhat weird, though, and the coincidence and spray pattern have to be taken into account.
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* Similar to the Doctor Who example above, the small hand-held [[Frickin' Laser Beams|phasers]] in ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' were often pointing at very weird angles when they fired and uniformly hit their targets in the chest.
** In fact this irritated the staff so much that the tiny phasers were slowly removed in favor of larger weapons.
* Parodied in an episode of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' (Season 3 episode 3: "Bad Day at the Black Rock") where there is a magic rabbit's foot which gives the owner good luck (until they lose it, which they do and then horrible deadly luck follows). There are many examples where people (the holder) dodging bullets or someone else missing hilariously throughout the whole episode. But the best example has to be near the end when Dean gets hold of it and while it technically doesn't involve the firing of a gun, it is bizarre projectile skills involving a gun, [[Confusion Fu|''a pen and a remote'']]. At 6 minutes into the 5th part of this [https://web.archive.org/web/20100916060202/http://videostic.com/TvShows/episode.php?id=88&season=3&episode=3 video] is the scene in question.
* The ''[[Angel]]'' episode "The Magic Bullet": Fred breaks Jasmine's spell on Angel by deliberately shooting him with a bullet that first had to pass through Jasmine, since it is exposure to Jasmine's blood that breaks her glamour.
* In the pilot of ''[[Alphas]]'' Hicks performs a virtually impossible shot in order to kill a witness. He fires the bullet from the roof of a neighboring building, into an air duct that connects to the windowless room where the witness is. The bullet has to pass through a narrow slit in the outside vent cover and then has to graze the vent cover in the room just enough to tumble a the right angle to hit the witness in the forehead. Hicks Alpha power allows him to perfectly plan and then execute shots like that.
== Tabletop Games ==
* In the Table Top [[Role
* ''[[Role Master|MERP]]''. You shoot someone with a bow from his front and score a [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|perforation]] [[Critical Hit]]. Table result: arrow enters through one ear, exits through the other.
** The strange ballistics didn't end with projectiles, either. It's quite common to stab someone in the back and break their leg.
* One special Ork vessel upgrade in ''Battlefleet Gothic'' involves altering their weapons batteries so they teleport the shells immediately after firing, leading to things like armor plates in front of the guns.
* =[[Warhammer
* Available for all ranged attacks in ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' by taking the Ricochet feat for each time you want your attack to be able to bounce. Also sometimes used as a descriptor for powers with the Indirect feat, describing the ability to bypass cover by describing multiple improbable deflections.
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** There is a quest where the character tosses a boot at lazy peons and it boomerangs back. However this can be done while flying an epic mount which is faster than the boots. The scene of an adventurer mounted on a dragon with twenty boots flying after him is hilarious.
** If projectiles are approaching you, and you die and release spirit, the projectiles will chase your ghost.
** Something quite similar happens in ''[[
** It's even better in ''Warcraft'' (the RTS) if you teleport when a ranged attack is launched a glitch will make the projectile will follow you forever. It can be amusing or annoyingly lethal.
** Another Blizzard example: arrows in ''Diablo II'' move rather slowly, meaning an Amazon with sufficient running speed can outrun her own arrows (which eventually just evaporate). Furthermore, in the early days of the game using the Guided Arrow attack with sufficient Piercing could cause an arrow to pass through a target, ''make a 90 degree turn'' and hit it again (and again, and again, and again).
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** More subtle, but the patriot somehow fires bullets that tumble end-over-end in flight.
*** Bullets [[Reality Is Unrealistic|actually do that]], once they fly past their effective range.
*** Except the bullets are shown doing so nearly immediately after being fired, plus, bullets actually doing this would be so inaccurate that it's not even funny.
*** Except you later find out that the Boss personally had the Patriot customized from an M16 rifle by cutting it's barrel short and other things, turning it into an inaccurate but powerful gun. This [[Fridge Brilliance|shows]] just how badass the Boss is by being able to hit really accurately with a gun like that [[Firing One-Handed|(One handed no less)]]
** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', all bullets fired at Fortune curve and go past her.
*** That's not improbable ballistics at work. The bullets curve around her because she is protected by an electromagnetic barrier doodad.
* Similar to the ''World of Warcraft'' example above, the blaster shots in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' curve if you try and run around the battlefield. Especially noticeable if the player is a Jedi Guardian, and has the leaping attack ability.
* In ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' and sequels/expansions, throwing knives and darts move very slowly, apparently levitating somehow. They also magically home in on you if you move while they're in flight.
* The "Bouncing Dart" powerup in ''[[Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy]]'' does [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: It's a blowpipe dart that bounces. Exactly ''how'' it bounces is never explained, though it ''does'' make satisfying "pwoing!" sounds on ricochet.
* The game ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' has arrows capable of piercing both a creature's lungs, heart, and ''liver'' in a single shot, causing 3 crippling mortal wounds with one arrow. As well this one arrow is capable of poking out both eyes, injuring an ear, break the nose and poke out the throat of a human in one shot. It appears dwarves forge very very flexible crossbow bolts.
** [[Dwarf Fortress]]: the arrows are flexible, [[Good Bad Bugs|the beer has to be minced]].
*** This has been fixed in the latest release, dubbed DF2010 by the community. Piercing attacks like bolts behave more rationally now, and armor protects you much better. Beforehand, arrows and bolts were death rays. Get hit by one and your armor would very rarely protect you, and if it hit anything but a limb you were [[Game Breaker|as good as dead]]. Unfortunately it seems to have swung to the other end of the spectrum, and bolts are ridiculously weak now if you have armor.
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== Real Life ==
* The most common interpretation of the Magic Bullet Theory of the Kennedy assassination requires one bullet to move like a gymnast doing floor exercises during its trajectory. This is largely due to a misunderstanding of who was where during the
** A [https://web.archive.org/web/20081228075111/http://shopping.discovery.com/product-56798.html?jzid=40587982-0-0 Discovery Channel documentary] actually took Oswald's rifle as well as ammunition from the same factory lot that was found in the book depository, and duplicated six of the seven wounds. The seventh would have occurred as well had the bullet not expended extra energy striking and breaking two rib bones of Governor Connolly compared to only one in the original incident. Striking all debate about the surroundings of the assassination, the Discovery Channel's accomplishment in catching a single bullet on high-speed cameras striking seven separate targets and doing so within half an inch of the bullseye certainly qualifies for the trope.
*** The same show demonstrated ''why'' the "magic bullet" disbelief caught on as well. The show took the injuries to the dummies and used them to produce a fake forensic report (which was supposedly a shooting that occurred in a stadium), with the rough description of the position of the victims and provided it to an experienced medical examiner who gave the opinion that there had to be more than one shooter, and who was stunned to see the video showing that it was only one bullet.
*** Rifle bullets travel in an inherently unstable configuration; center of gravity behind the center of aerodynamic pressure. This is why they have to be spun with rifling, otherwise they would tumble wildly. Upon encountering denser media, such as flesh they can lose stabilization, and can do some [https://web.archive.org/web/20120302200854/http://ammo.ar15.com/project/Misc_Images/DocGKR/40052-MilitaryAssaultRifleWPcopy.jpg bona fide weird shit]. Alas, this remarkable fact seems rarely to be brought up in fiction; perhaps a case of [[Reality Is Unrealistic]].
** Another interesting hypothesis including Kennedy's assassination says that there had to be a second sniper, shooting form opposite direction, as Kennedy's head was pulled towards Oswald (i.e. forwards), and should be pushed away from him if he shot (backwards). However, [[Reality Is Unrealistic]] (also incredibly gory) as Kennedy's brain absorbed a lot of bullet's energy and flew forwards out of the exit wound and acted like a... rocket engine, pulling the head backwards.
* In the Discovery Channel's forensic documentary show ''New Detectives'', one episode involved teenage who died in an indoor shooting range. The bullet someone else (who did not stand in the proper spot) fired hit the suspended ceiling. One would have expected the bullet to go through the foam tiles, but due to the aforementioned unstable configuration of bullets, hitting the softer medium caused the bullet to curve back down and hit its victim on the head, leaving only a long gash in the ceiling tile it had hit.
** The ballistics get even more bizarre when one considers that the fatal shot actually originated from the OUTSIDE shooting range and involved a stray bullet that was fired too high, then slipped through a tiny gap in one of the outdoor range's overhead safety barriers, penetrated through a storage room, and emerged into the indoor range only to ricochet off the previously mentioned foam ceiling tile.
** Other example from a forensic documentary
** According to a ''Reader's Digest'' article many years ago about a freak shooting accident: A boatman well over a mile offshore fired a .303 at some floating object, missing narrowly. The bullet ricocheted off the surface of the water and sped inland, where it passed through the open quarterlight of a fast-moving car and hit the driver just below her ear, killing her instantly. It had barely enough velocity to penetrate and would have been unlikely to cause damage had it had to smash through the window first.
* Using the [https://web.archive.org/web/20090827100545/http://www.tippmannpros.com/BT-Apex-Barrel-Tip-P1971C136.aspx Apex barrel tip], it is possible to make a paintball do anything from have a longer trajectory, to dropping shots over the top of bunkers, to curving them around corners.
* One military project involved researching bullets that have motorized tips. These tips would be able to swivel in flight, altering the trajectory of the bullet much like a baseball in flight.
* The knuckleball in baseball can sometimes produce very unusual and unpredictable flight patterns.
** The now banned Spitball also did that. Due to the glob of spit on the ball, the air currents on the ball create some rather odd flight patterns... such as speeding up, slowing down, changing direction mid-flight (as much as 90 degrees) and rebounding when it hits a solid object, like a glove or a bat.
* Certain lower-quality Airsoft guns, due to flaws in the barrels, cause shots to curve or list when fired.
** Hop-up in higher-quality airsoft guns can also cause shots to curve off and miss, depending on the distance from the target and [[Gangsta Style|how the user is holding the gun]].
* The ''[[
** An episode handled a few myths like these. Such as if a bullet can be fired, ricocheted off a few walls, and come back at the shooter with lethal force. And in good ol' ''Mythbusters'' fashion, they bent a tube into a 270 degree bend and found you can shoot a bullet down it and retain lethal force
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ABGIJwiGBc This video] demonstrates a near-fatal example of this trope. Luckily, it only hits the guy's earmuffs.
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[[Category:This Index Is Highly Improbable]]
[[Category:Guns and Gunplay Tropes]]
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