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Hand Cannon: Difference between revisions
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Often, the character's hands are barely big enough to support the weapon. In particularly [[Egregious]] cases they're fired [[Firing One-Handed|one-handed]] or even [[Guns Akimbo|dual-wielded]] -- try this in [[Real Life]] and you'll end up with a broken wrist/nose and [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|a bullet going nowhere near where it's supposed to.]]
The character with the giant handgun is sometimes [[Stock Super Powers|superhuman]], [[Our Monsters Are Different|supernatural]] or [[Cyborg|cybernetically enhanced]] in order to compensate for the weapon's weight and recoil.
Often, in [[Video Games]], the Desert Eagle is used as a symbol of just how badass the military is, never minding the fact that a huge fucking gun like a Desert Eagle would never be used by any unit, Special Ops or otherwise, because they're just too damn heavy and loud (not to mention only having a 7 shot magazine). In series where the heroes battle supernatural or cybernetically enhanced beings, weapons like these may well be necessary to take down their [[Made of Iron]]/[[Nigh Invulnerable]] enemies, which conventional weapons just aren't enough for. Guns that shoot [[Frickin' Laser Beams]] and other such energy weapons are rarely used in this trope, as [[Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better]] works well... better here.
You know you're dealing with either this or a [[BFG]] if a character says something along the lines of "Wow, that's a really big gun." A stock gag is that the gunman is [[Compensating for Something]].
A subtrope of [[Bigger Is Better]]. Differs from [[BFG]] in that the [[Hand Cannon]] is large ''for a handgun'', while the BFG is simply large. See also: [[Small Girl, Big Gun]]. Not to be confused with [[Arm Cannon]], which is literally a cannon on the arm.
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* The Arcane Colt Custom in ''[[Witch Hunter]]'' demonstrates the realistic effect a weapon like this would have; After firing it only once, the main character's arm is broken by the recoil.
* Liz and Patti's 'Death Eagle .42' forms in ''[[Soul Eater]]'', being massive versions of their usual Weapon forms. Kid uses one in each hand to shoot down Mosquito's bats.
* ''[[Kurohime]]'' features the title character's weapon, Senryuu (which grows even bigger as the series continues, and can transform into a gatling revolver, a sniper rifle, a shotgun/cannon, and something vaguely semblant of a minigun) and Onimaru's gun.
* In ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]'' Togusa uses a truly impressive looking .44 magnum auto-revolver. But he's frequently told to finally get rid of this flimsy thing and upgrade to something with [[More Dakka|real firepower]].
** It's a real gun. Meet the [[wikipedia:Mateba Autorevolver|Mateba Model 6 Unica]].
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* Parodied [[Trope Overdosed|(and what isn't?)]] in ''[[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', where [[The Chew Toy|Mikuru]] is made to [[Dual Wield]] airsoft Desert Eagles for the student film. In her hands the guns are comically oversized, which is only made worse by the absurd extended barrels.
* Kiritsugu Emiya from ''[[Fate/Zero]]'' favours a Thompson Contender chambered for rifle cartridges as his main weapon. He furthermore uses custom-made bullets (containing his own ground-up bones) that [[Anti-Magic|disturb magic]].
** To say "disturb" magic is to massively understate it, whatever the bullets hit is severed and then tied together into a knot, essentially, presumably on a very small scale, if it hit a person, the surrounding area would have all the muscles, nerves, and veins severed and knotted, making them useless and causing fatal bleeding. If it hits an expression of magic, it cuts apart the magic circuits of the caster of the spell, ties them together, and causes the mana in the person to explode out of them
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== [[Film]] ==
* Deckard's gun from ''[[Blade Runner]]''. Is it a blaster? Naw, but there is nothing like a gun that puts a four foot hole in...well anything.
* Colonel Douglas Mortimer in the [[Western]] ''[[For a Few Dollars More]]'' wields a Buntline Special that may be cumbersome on the draw, but can pack one hell of a punch with deadly accuracy.
* In ''[[Star Wars]]'', Han Solo's pistol is the [[Energy Weapon]] equivalent - a handgun many times larger than holdout hand blasters and with power closer to blaster ''rifles''. It only gets a few shots per power pack, but it only needs to hit once, being able to blow torso-sized chunks out of concrete walls or instantly incinerating Greedo before [[Han Shot First|he could ever fire a single shot.]]
* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End'', the midget pirate is seen firing a very large hand cannon that blasts him back out of the frame when Barbossa's meeting with Sao Feng is interrupted by the East India Trading Company.
* ''[[RoboCop]]'' in his movies and TV series used a huge machine pistol. It was a Beretta 93R with some futuristic doodads including an extended barrel and slide assembly with ostentatious compensator. It spews flames each time it's fired, and has an implausibly large ammunition supply. Overlaps with [[More Dakka]].
* Inverted by the Noisy Cricket in ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'': a tiny, unseemly weapon resembling a hypodermic needle with a handle, pauses momentarily and chirps like a cricket when you pull the trigger, and then promptly annihilates whatever it was pointed at and knocks you flat on your butt. The recoil usually hurls Agent J about fifteen feet, no matter how he tries to brace himself; in the TV series, he eventually acquired what amounted to a silencer for it, which made the blast more manageable and stifled the recoil.
* ''[[Dirty Harry]]'' and his famous .44 Magnum revolver.
* [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]'s character in the movie ''[[Red Heat]]'' wasn't impressed by the .44 Magnum he was loaned, when his personal gun (a hand cannon in its own right) was confiscated.
** The Hand Cannon in question was a customised Desert Eagle, presented as the soviet [http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Red_Heat#.22Podbyrin_9.2mm_Pistol.22 "Podbyrin 9.2 mm"]. Arnold's character describes it as "the most powerful handgun in the world".
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* [[Johannes Cabal the Necromancer]] uses a Webley .577 to insure that his victims stay dead. In his line of work, it certainly makes sense.
* Eddie Chase in Andy McDermott's ''[[Wilde-Chase]]'' novels favours a .50 Wildey automatic, often being mocked by other characters for the overkill. Subverted in ''[[The Sacred Vault]]'' where he loses not one, but two Wildeys over the course of the story before even getting a chance to fire them.
* Dr. Theophilus Algernon Tanner of the Deathlands adventure series and his always trusty [[Le Mat]] revolver. He's blown away many a "mutie" with the .63 caliber "grapeshot" round fired from the gun's underbarrel.
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* Stick-up artist and cat burglar Omar Little uses a Desert Eagle in HBO's ''[[The Wire]]'', mostly to break "bulletproof" glass.
* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAIigNcwYLc Particle Magnum] used by Ronon Dex in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]''. Given that later in the series, Rodney McKay easily beats him to the girl, I'd say he's compensating for something, except that he already had the magnum long before that.
* Josh Randall's "Mare's Leg" in the series ''[[Wanted: Dead or Alive]]'' is a cut down Winchester 1892 Carbine, in a hip holster similar to that of Zoe above.
* Parodied on ''[[SCTV]]'' with "Harry Filth" - a [[Dirty Harry]]-esque cop played by John Candy, who at one point carries a revolver that's much bigger than ''Harry himself''.
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** In ''[[Resident Evil]] 2'', Leon gets the .50 caliber Desert Eagle, which is a one-hit kill to zombies and lickers, and a two-hit kill to anything else short of a boss. Apparently unsatisfied with this level of death, however, it's eventually customized with a ten-inch barrel that, in addition to one-hit killing ''everything'' short of a boss, damn near knocks Leon off his feet with each shot.
* The weird, [[The Quiet One|silent]] [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|techno-zombie]] (or Deadman, as called in the series) Beyond the Grave in ''[[Gungrave]]'' wields not one, but [[Guns Akimbo|two]] very large pistols called Cerberus (Left Head and Right Head, respectively). Heck, his frickin' coffin is [[Swiss Army Weapon|a mobile weapons platform!]]
** Then in ''Gungrave Overdose'' there's Fangoram who wields the massive "Center Head" which is bigger than both of them and fires what can only be described as small artillery rounds, and is strong enough to {{spoiler|critically injure Grave to the point where his Regeneration powers can't close his wounds properly, leaving Grave in a near-comatose state for a while...until he [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|snaps out of it by sheer force of will]]}}.
* Carmelita Fox in the ''[[Sly Cooper]]'' games has her shock pistol, a huge red handgun firing bolts of electricity that kicks so hard she has trouble holding onto it when she shoots the thing. Some of the NPC guards can be seen brandishing these as well, either single or akimbo.
* The pistol weapons in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' are rather large for a human being... but since the grip is intended to be large to allow a variety of species' hands to use it, we don't know what it's made of or how the technology would realistically act, it could very well be a [[Justified Trope]].
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* For some reason, the most powerful and second-most accurate gun in ''[[Half Life|Half-Life 2]]'' is a .357 Magnum. [[Revolvers Are Just Better|And this is with the futuristic pulse rifles and sniper-crossbows]]. Balanced by the [[Law of Inverse Recoil|high recoil]], low rate of fire and small amount of ammunition Gordon can cary for it.
** One of the Expansion packs, Opposing Force, gives the HECU marine protagonist the actual desert eagle.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Duke Nukem]]: the Manhattan Project'' has Duke start with a large handgun with a shiny gold finish.
{{quote|'''Duke:''' Say hello to my little friend...}}
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* How could we get this far and not mention the Chaos Dwarf Hand Cannon of ''[[Runescape]]''?
** The Hand Cannon is a literal example though, as it really is a cannon. That you can carry.
* A better question: How is there no mention of ''[[Dungeon Fighter Online]]''? The Launcher's preferred handgun of choice is two literal hand cannons! ''And'' they have a passive skill called "Hand Cannon Mastery," which increase the attack speed and damage of a hand cannon, which in turn fires by creating small, short-ranged explosions that can hit multiple enemies and ignores obstacles.
** Using them is literally the only way a launcher can use the skill Cannonball, which shoots an orb of energy.
*** Did I forget to mention that it even lowers the MP required to use the Launchers ''other'' BFGS?
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* [[Septerra Core]]. Maya's gun.
* ''[[Battlefield Heroes]]'': The Royal army has Harry's Hand Cannon, which falls under the Pistol category.
* The antagonists of the ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' series seem to favour this kind of pistol; Imran Zakhaev in ''Call of Duty 4'' used a .50AE Desert Eagle, while General Shepherd in ''Modern Warfare 2'' had a .44 Colt Anaconda.
* All the handguns in the ''[[Syndicate]]'' remake, but especially the Bullhammer Mk II, a [[Revolvers Are Just Better|revolver]] firing .600. One upgrade option for that is the [[Magnetic Weapons|Magnetic Acceleration Rail]], which gives it an impact profile, to directly quote the fluff, "such that it's often mistaken for cannon or explosive blasts in police investigations."
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' The Desert Eagle has appeared in the series since Vice City (albeit only cutscenes in that game only so far) and on, it is often regarded as being the most powerful hand gun in the series with great accuracy, making it one of the superior weapons.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* Any of the various [[wikipedia:.50 caliber handguns|.50 caliber handguns]].
* Very early hand-guns really were, literal, "hand-cannons", merely reduced-size versions of early artillery weapons, with the same one-piece cast barrel-and-stock, and touch-hole ignition.
** Even later when they used matchlocks (1600s or so) most weapons were at least .50 cal, often closer to .75 cal, since modern round sizes fired with black powder wouldn't go through armor.
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* The Thompson/Center Contender can fire shotgun shells or various full-power rifle rounds. In fact it's so much like a rifle that when outfitted with the optional stock and longer barrels that T/C sells it basically ''is'' a rifle.
* During an episode of his series Lock and Load, R. Lee Ermey showed why standard shooting positions are standard. While test firing a .44 Magnum, he was nearly knocked to he floor by the recoil. He then was shown saying he didn't want to shoot it again. This being the same person who had picked up and fired a crew served machine gun in his arms to prove it could be done. Hand cannon indeed.
* The current record-holder (according to the manufacturer) for most powerful ''production'' (see the Pfeifer Zeliska, above) hand-cannon is the Smith & Wesson Model 500, a 5-shot revolver with an 8-3/8" barrel (15 inches long in total) that weighs six pounds ''empty''. In a demonstration on Spike TV's ''[[Manswers]]'', the .357 Magnum blew a chunk out of a watermelon; the .44 Magnum took off the lower three-quarters; and the Model 500 ''exploded'' it. Due to a compensator on the barrel, however, its recoil is actually less than the .44 Magnum - though that's not saying much.
** For the purpose of illustrating scale, [http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/forums/userpix/8724_DSCF3008_1.jpg here's a picture of one with a 20 dollar bill].
* The four-pound Colt Walker and Dragoon models were outrageously oversized to their smaller cousins brought into production a few years later.
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