False Roulette: Difference between revisions

* 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--Revyother—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.

* ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|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]].

{{quote| '''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. [[Cement Shoes|This is truly regrettable.]]}}

* Used in reverse in the 2004 ''[[Starsky and Hutch (Filmfilm)|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 (Filmfilm)|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.

{{quote| '''Gay Perry''': {{spoiler|8 percent!? Who taught you math!?}}}}

* Played straight in [[LAL.A. Confidential]] during the interrogation of the three Night Owl murder suspects, when [[Determinator|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 ''[[LAL.A. Confidential]]'', where the cop in question apparently leaves at least one bullet in the revolver.

* A bad guy in ''[[FoylesFoyle'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.

* Variant done in ''[[Killer 7Killer7]]'' 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.