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Convenient Misfire: Difference between revisions

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Convenient Misfire (view source)

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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.ConvenientMisfire 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.ConvenientMisfire, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license)
 
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While the title of this trope is misfire-specific, do note that it applies to any type of failure to work on the gun's part.
 
{{examples|Examples: }}
 
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Full Metal Panic!|Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid]]'', Xia Yu Lan's gun jams while she's trying to kill Kaname. She quickly and methodically clears the jam and resumes firing, averting some other tropes associated with gun jams, but the momentary reprieve saves Kaname's life.
 
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* During the [[Mexican Standoff]] in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean|Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End]]'', it turns out that none of the guns work because they all got wet, thus conveniently avoiding having to kill off four main characters at once.
* ''[[Unforgiven]]''. William Munny enters the saloon where Little Bill Daggett and his deputies are celebrating the death of Ned Logan. He confronts Little Bill and prepares to kill him for torturing Ned Logan to death. Watch it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccqdEhytKOk#t=2m25s here].
{{quote| '''Little Bill:''' All right, gentlemen. He's got one barrel left. When he fires that, take out your pistols and shoot him down like the mangy scoundrel he is.<br />
'''Munny:''' [Points shotgun at Little Bill and pulls the trigger] Click.<br />
'''Little Bill:''' Misfire! Kill the son of a bitch! [Gunfight begins] }}
* Averted in ''[[Get Shorty]]''. Ronnie is not intimidated when Bones points a gun at him because he states the model is notorious for always jamming at the wrong times. Bones promptly shoots him four times rapidly.
* ''[[Man On Fire (Film)|Man Onon Fire]]'' features this when the main character attempts suicide, but the gun misfires. He takes it as a sign and gives up on the idea.
* ''[[The Mexican]]'' revolves around this.
* A scene in ''[[Schindler's List]]'' in which a Nazi officer attempts to execute a Jew, but his pistol misfires. He calls over another soldier to execute the Jew, but ''his'' pistol misfires as well. They give up on the idea. Due to the nature of the story, this was probably based on a real incident.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* Author [[JTJ. T. Edson]] disliked it when guns jammed or misfired for no reason in movies, so whenever it happened in his novels he would give a detailed explanation of what caused the gun to jam. That said, it still happened several times when it was convenient for his heroes. The short story ''Jubal Branch's Lucky B.A.R.'' was one example.
* In ''[[Les Misérables]]'', policeman Javert is standing facing Thenardier, who is holding a gun. Javert tells him not to shoot, since the gun will misfire. Thenardier shoots at point blank range and the gun, predictably, doesn't go off.
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* In ''[[CSI: Miami]]'', Speedle's nearly killed when his weapon jams from lack of cleaning. {{spoiler|He doesn't learn his lesson and gets Killed Off For Real when it jams again.}}
* Averted in ''[[War of the Worlds (TV series)|War of the Worlds]]''. Actor Richard Chaves (playing Lt. Col. Paul Ironhorse) had his assault rifle jam during an action scene. Being a Vietnam veteran, Chaves just cleared the jammed blank as he would a real round and kept firing.
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Call of Duty: Black Ops (Video Game)|Call of Duty Black Ops]]'', in the Khe Sanh mission, has Woods almost getting killed but for the player's intervention when his gun jams right before he kills an NVA soldier. He tries fixing it by [[Percussive Maintenance|whacking it a few times.]]
** Also, in the multiplayer, to prevent people from using modded controllers, the semiautomatic rifles will jam if fired too fast.
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The episode "Harlequinade" of ''[[Batman: theThe Animated Series]]'' originally ended with one of these, where Harley Quinn has a machine gun pointed at the Joker (because just was pissed that he was willing to let their pets die in his latest scheme). Joker makes it clear that he doubts she has the guts to shoot him, but she does... only for a flag reading "RAT TAT TAT" to pop out, to her surprise. According to the commentary, originally there was simply going to be a click, but the flag was added to soften the blow.
 
== [[Real Life]] ==
* President [[Andrew Jackson]] survived an assassination attempt when ''both'' of the would-be assassin's pistols misfired. Interestingly, both pistols were examined and determined to be in working order. [[Cracked.com|GuessDaniel O'Brien]] [http://www.cracked.com/article_15895_the-5-most-badass-presidents-all-time.html guesses] "that the bullets, like everyone else, were justsimply scared of Jackson]]."
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Guns and Gunplay Tropes]]
[[Category:Convenient Misfire]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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