Bullet Holes and Revelations: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[Gun Struggle|Two characters are struggling for a gun.]] There's brawling, rolling, clenching... Suddenly they both stop with identical looks of shock on their faces after the gun goes off, and the viewer is left to ponder for several seconds which one of the characters was shot, usually with a headfake in the direction of it not being the character who was actually injured. It can be fatal, or not. It can also be a knife or other small weapon. Extra points if it occurs right before a commercial break which leaves you hanging.

When the reveal is delayed for a long time, or if the character who wasn't killed in the struggle was also injured, it may be a [[Secret Stab Wound]] that they're hiding from their friends.

 

 

Compare [[Bait and Switch Gunshot]]. See also [[Framed for Heroism]]. The [[Single-Stroke Battle]] is the Eastern version of this. This is a specific kind of [[Mortal Wound Reveal]].

 

* Not quite this trope, as there was no struggle for a gun, but the ending for ''[[Code Geass]]'' season 1 was kinda like that: {{spoiler|Lelouch}} and {{spoiler|Suzaku}} in a [[Mexican Standoff]], fading screen and sound of gunshot. Viewers are left to guess who shot whom.

** The end of ''Gundam Seed Destiny'' more clearly uses this trope.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Pitch Black]]'': Subverted. Sociopath Riddick and pilot Caroline are wrestling in the mud. Riddick has his bone knife throughout the fight but does not seem inclined to use it until the pilot jerks, stares at him in shock {{spoiler|and is snatched away by a carnivorous alien pterodactyl that impaled her through the chest}}.

* ''[[Minority Report]]'', ending with {{spoiler|Anderton confronting Burgess with the assumption that Anderton's predicted murder by Burgess will come to pass. A gunshot later, it's revealed Burgess took his own life.}}

* ''[[Waterworld]]'': The Mariner and the man who wanted to solicit the affections of the female characters struggle with a knife below decks. It cuts to the man climbing out from below decks with the implication being that he killed the Mariner, until the knife is revealed to be sticking out of his back, at which point he keels over dead.

* ''[[The Third Man]]'' has Holly Martins and Henry Lime having a stand off on the stairs up to a manhole tunnel at each other, then cuts to the British intelligence officer hearing the gun go off {{spoiler|Holly comes walking down the sewer tunnel.}}

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** When the Ghosts' raid into the Patricians' quarters is caught, Caffran is knocked down, his foe turns his gun toward him, and "the shotgun fired."

** In ''Straight Silver'', we are told that Muril whirled about, and a knife struck to the heart, but {{spoiler|not until many scenes later do we know that Cuu killed her, and not she Cuu}}.

** Also happens in the ''[[X Wing Series]]''. Corran is rescued from Imperials by an old enemy's lover and then taken to that old enemy, who has her remove his blaster. The enemy levels a blaster at Corran, "the whine of a single blaster shot filled the hangar and the bolt tinted everything with the color of blood", and then the enemy crumples because his lover shot him. She'd gone through a slow [[Heel Face Turn]] that culminated here.

* When the guardians of the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas review [[Dragonlance|Raistlin]]'s memories of his duel with Fistandantilus, they are unable to determine who won and stole the "life-force" of the other, but conclude that either way, the winner was before them and qualified for entrance.

* In one ''[[Savannah Reid]]'' book, Savannah and Dirk are listening outside a room, hearing the bad guy talking to his friend, a cop who has come to arrest him (and who had to put down his weapon so that the killer didn't shoot him earlier). The bad guy announces his intent to shoot the cop and then commit suicide, and Savannah and Dirk rush in. After some brief, tense words:

Two bodies hit the floor. }}

** Turns out that {{spoiler|both Savannah and Dirk's bullets hit the killer in the heart. The killer's bullet only grazed the police officer, Bloss, in the leg, but the shock of the moment made Bloss have a heart attack, and he has no pulse, so Savannah has to perform CPR on her archenemy. She lets Dirk know he owes her ''big'' time for making her do that.}}

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* ''[[Firefly]]'': Played with in "Objects in Space", when Simon and Jubal Early struggle for the gun. It's obvious that Simon is the injured party, but the seriousness of the injury is perceived as possibly fatal until after the commercial break when you find out he was just shot in the leg.

* ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'': This happens when Rick brings a gun to school. {{spoiler|After shooting Jimmy in the back, which turns him into a paraplegic, Rick and Sean wrestle for the gun and a news report reveals that Rick died.}}

* ''[[Los Hombres De Paco]]'': Played with when Sara and Alison are struggling for a gun while Sara's relatives look on from a live camera feed via computer. The camera cuts to them as two gunshots ring out from the computer, and it's unclear who, if anyone, was injured. We later see that {{spoiler|Alison is alive, but shot in the shoulder. For the next twenty minutes it is unclear if Sara is alive or dead, but all seems to be fine when she shows up for her elopement with Lucas. Until halfway through the ceremony, when it's revealed that she's been shot in the stomach. [[Secret Stab Wound|She toughs it out]] in order to finish the wedding, but then collapses after the priest pronounces them man and wife}}.

* Episode 20 of ''[[The Flash]]'', "Good Night Central City," involved an inventor (Bill Mumy) being pressured by his cousin into using his sleep-inducing invention to commit robberies. When the cousin proved willing to kill with the device, Mumy rebelled and tried to stop him, they wrestled over a gun, and the gun went off between them. There was a suspenseful pause... and at this exact moment in the original April 4, 1991 broadcast of the episode (at least on the East Coast), CBS cut away to a special report in which Dan Rather spent the rest of the hour reporting on a minor and ultimately harmless heart flutter that had been suffered by then-President George H. W. Bush. As a result, the suspenseful moment was never resolved, at least until the show went into reruns. In fairness, though, it was easy to guess which character must have died.

* An episode of ''[[Dollhouse]]'' starts out [[In Medias Res]] with someone struggling to not get Wiped. Cut to outside the room where the action is taking place, where we hear a gunshot and see blood splatter on the frosted glass window. Turns out {{spoiler|1=Dominic tried to blow his brains out rather than be wiped, but hit DeWitt in the side instead.}}

* In Part 2 of the Syfy miniseries ''Alice'', {{spoiler|Carpenter/Robert Hamilton}} and Walrus are struggling with a gun, there's a shot and {{spoiler|Walrus}} topples over.

* ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'': In episode 4 of season 10 "Lunacy", astronaut Col. Finley tackles Anton Thibodeaux to the ground after he has shot a suspect. The two wrestle on the ground, a shot goes off and both men lie motionless for a few seconds before {{spoiler|Finley}} stirs, unharmed.

* The season 4 finale of ''[[Babylon 5]]'' shows a scene where Garibadi is being held by a group of renegade telepaths who are threatening to shoot him (and others) if their demands are not met. After a few moments of trying to reason with them, Garibaldi is interrupted by Sheridan appearing on the com screen saying he has rejected their demands and telling them to surrender. Garibaldi mutters "Swell" as a gun is raised and pointed at his head. The clip ends with the sound of a shot being fired. It's not until midway through season 5 that we find out {{spoiler|that the one who fired the shot was Byron, the one the hostage takers were trying to get freed, who shot the gunman himself and allowed Garibaldi and the other hostages to go free}}.

* [[Fringe]] had something similar to this. Agent Dunham and an assailant are fighting, both armed with a gun, but they're at close range, and so are resorting to brawling. eventually Olivia puts some distance between them and they both fire at each other. {{spoiler|The attacker falls over dead with a [[Pretty Little Headshots|Pretty Little Headshot]], and Olivia glances over and sees a bullet hole mere inches from her.}}

* [[Xena: Warrior Princess]] liked this trope, except with swords.

* [[CSI: NY]] did a variant of this in the season 6 finale. We see Shane Casey holding Lucy with a gun in the other hand, and Lindsay going [[Mama Bear]] with her own weapon. Cut away to an exterior shot and we hear the gunshot. We don't find out until the season 7 premiere that it was Casey who got shot.

 

== [[Radio]] ==

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'', {{spoiler|Raiden}} and {{spoiler|The President of the United States of America}} are struggling over {{spoiler|Raiden}}'s pistol, what with {{spoiler|Mr. President wanting Raiden to kill him and Raiden refusing}}. A shot rings out; the camera pans to reveal that {{spoiler|Revolver Ocelot, who before was not even in the scene, has shot the President himself}}.

* In ''[[Halo]] 3'', Keyes decides to to kill Johnson and herself to prevent activation of the Halos, but Truth kills Keyes first.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

[[Category:Just for Pun]]

[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]