Law of Inverse Recoil: Difference between revisions
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''The recoil of a real-life projectile weapon on television is inversely related to the recoil it has in real life.''
Firearms depicted in films and television seldom (if ever) demonstrate realistic recoil action (ironically, it is usually more realistic in comedies, or when used for comedic effect). The practical reason for this is because blank-firing prop guns have no projectile, meaning very little mass is pushed out of the barrel, hence minimal recoil (Newton's third law) -- it is not true that they have none, however, or they would not even be able to cycle their own action. No matter what type of small arms are used in
This often leads to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFJjaj7pXsA nasty] surprises for first-time shooters who [[Reality Is Unrealistic|expect that]] the 10-gauge shotgun or .454 Casull revolver they rented at the range will have no discernible "kick", when both actually sport recoil powerful enough to bruise the shoulder or sprain the
Naturally, this makes [[Guns Akimbo]] with automatic weapons wholly impractical in real life (of course, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4nfZu8VqgQ impractical] never stopped anyone in pursuit of [[Awesome but Impractical|cool]]).
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The other side of [[Blown Across the Room]]. See also [[Steel Ear Drums]] for another ignored part of guns being fired.
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=== [[Omnipresent Trope|Since the trope is so prevalent]], it's only worth listing [[Averted Trope|exceptions]]
== Anime and Manga ==
* In the final chapter of ''[[Macross]] Plus'', when struggling against Sharon Apple and other threats, Myung has the common sense to arm herself with the submachine gun of a fallen guard (by itself, quite a rare occurrence) but wastes almost the entire magazine when she tries to use it in full-auto, being overcome by recoil and spraying bullets everywhere. She gets a few shots in the right direction, however...
* Seras Victoria in ''[[Hellsing]]'' notes after becoming a vampire that she barely feels the kick on a huge gun, demonstrating her new super strength. She later gets an even bigger gun and can fire it with ease
Although when she uses a huge (even by her standards) anti-aircraft gun, she still needs to have it brace itself against the ground to account for the fact that she lacks the sheer ''mass'' to avoid being knocked over by the recoil.
* ''[[Blame]]'': In the manga, not only does Killy's [[Wave Motion Gun|graviton beam emitter pistol]] produce recoil, but on the first occasion when he [[Up to Eleven|turned it up to full power]] the recoil was enough to break his arm.
* In ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]'' all the weapons have realistic recoil, including handguns. The only reason that the girls can handle even large weapons, despite their own small size, is that they are [[Robot Girl|cybernetically enhanced]].
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* ''[[Dragon Ball]]'': In Goku's first tournament, Jackie Chun is knocked out of the ring, he manges to get himself back to the ring with the recoil from a Kamehameha. Goku learns from this, and at the next tournament, pulls off a similar trick to defeat Tien while he's busy taunting him about how he can fly and block his Kamehameha. And at the tournament after that, he uses a Kamehameha out of his feet to propel himself.
* ''[[Negima]]'': Negi uses the recoil from a magic arrow to avoid a blast by {{spoiler|his father}} during their fight in the Mahora Budokai.
* In ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' Spike fires his pistol several times in space, using the recoil to push himself back towards the spaceship to avoid being blown to smithereens. Lacking friction, each shot adds to his speed, which helps explain his rapid movement.
* ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]'':
** Batou's anti-tank rifle ([[BFG|"Your standard issue big gun"]]) features a realistic recoil dampener (a device to temporarily store the kinetic energy and then slowly dissipate it, converting the sudden "kick" into more manageable "sliding" action).
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* A sequence in the [[DC Comics]] [[Miniseries]] ''[[Green Lantern|Guy Gardner]] Reborn'', parodying [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]]'s [[The Punisher]], has the title character burst into a room with [[Guns Akimbo]], and rapidly lose control of them, injuring himself.
* ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]''
** The undersized, weedy, egotistical villain Odin "Meatman" Quincannon has a suitably oversized weapon (a sodding great
** A very young Tulip is carefully taught about guns; a powerful handgun sends her slamming back into a deep snowdrift.
* ''[[Sin City]]'' monologues sometimes refer to the sensation of recoil but it's minimal.
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* In ''[[Big Trouble in Little China]]'', Jack attempts to fire a fully-automatic submachine gun, but ends up spraying bullets in every direction, [[I Meant to Do That|only taking out a bad guy by accident]].
* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End'', the midget member of Jack's crew charges out of a cellar wielding what looks to be a cannon over his arm. He shoots it and is blown right back into the cellar.
* ''[[True Lies]]'', when [[Jamie Lee Curtis]]' character attempts to fire a MAC-10 at the
* ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'' has an absurdly tiny gun called the Noisy Cricket. When Agent J fires it, the recoil tosses him into a car several parking spots behind his firing position.
* In ''[[Toy Soldiers]]'' when teenaged preppy [[Wil Wheaton]] picks up a full-auto AK and ''tries'' to blast the villains with it; about two bullets go in the right direction, the rest of the magazine goes into the ceiling. And he obviously would like to make the gun stop but can't.
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** And this is despite the fact that Bolter ammunition is explicitly stated in several places to be self propelled. Probably the charge needed to actually get the bolt out of the weapon would not be enough to break somebody's arm..
** Bolt rounds are spin-stabilised bi-propellant rounds. They have a conventional "soft launch" charge roughly equivalent to a 10-gauge shotgun (even the bolt pistol uses those), but certain bolters take "Astartes-grade" ammunition, which are far bigger/more powerful. However, since the Astartes are [[Powered Armor|power armoured]] [[Super Soldier|augmented]] [[Space Marines]], they can handle it.
* In the ''[[Rifts]]'' RPG, the [[Powered Armor|Glitter Boy]] boom gun (the [[BFG]] of all [[BFG
* ''[[GURPS]]'', in its relentless pursuit of accuracy, avoids this at every turn and even tries to establish realistic recoil of weapons that don't exist.
* In one ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' sourcebook it is stated that while firing both barrels of a large calibre elephant gun might just [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|save your life]], it will break your shoulder even so.
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* The tank cannon in ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] 3'' causes the vehicle to roll backward slightly if it is stationary when you fire. It's possible, when driving forwards, to rotate the cannon and fire repeatedly behind you, using it as a makeshift booster and accelerating the tank to huge speeds.
** It is possible to use the tanks recoil to make the tank FLY, turn it around, start firing while driving, go up an incline while constantly firing.
** Possible additional subversion in ''San Andreas''
* In ''[[Far Cry]] 2'' the PKM has so much recoil that you'd get better range with a shotgun.
* Explained with a hand wave in the ''[[Hitman]]'' series. Forty-Seven, being a peak-human clone, handles any sort of gun with ease, minus the recoil.
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* ''[[The Boondocks]]'': In the first episode, "The Garden Party", Ed Wuncler III asks Riley (an 8-year old) to shoot him with his SPAS-12 combat shotgun to prove his bullet-proof armor works. Riley gladly obliges, and while the armor works, the force of the gun knocks Ed over and out a second-story window, and causes Riley to fall over and suffer an injured wrist.
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'',
** When Bart and Lisa are shipped off to a military school, the instructor gives them submachine guns when they train on the firing range. ("As you've transferred here from a public school, you should already have experience with smaller arms.") Whereas Bart does quite well, Lisa's gun gets stuck on autofire, the uncontrollable recoil pushing her every which
** Bart does quite well because he isn't given an SMG, but a multiple grenade launcher, a weapon with limited recoil (though how he adjusted for the grenade arc is another matter, especially the shot that destroyed Skinner's car when it was a several hour car ride away. Additionally, Lisa was given an M16 pattern assault rifle, and a full sized one at that, thus her difficulty controlling an extremely unwieldy weapon for an eight year old Girl with, as shown in a later episode, the physique of a gymnast (small, with the weight of her head off-setting her balance point to her torso rather than her lower body, meaning a much higher center of gravity than most of the recruits, especially Bart who has always had a gut reminiscent of Homer's (though no way near as flanderised, ironically, excluding the episodes when he was rendered obese via snack foods.)
* In an episode of ''[[Transformers]] Heavy Metal War'', Wheeljack tries his new "shock blast cannon", a shoulder-mounted bazooka-like weapon, out on an incoming Megatron - only to knock himself to the floor with the quip, "That's a shock, alright..." Kind of a justification, as Wheeljack built the thing himself, and as a [[Mad Scientist]], it probably wouldn't be the first time he'd forgotten to take into account something as simple as recoil.
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** The recoil of Desert Eagle itself is actually depending on the cartridge: when using standard .357 Magnum, the recoil is light due to the [[BFG|sheer mass of the gun]]. But loading it with [[For Massive Damage|.50 AE or .44 Magnum/Cor-bon]] [[Artistic License Gun Safety|without proper training whatsoever]]...
* In basic rifle training it's not uncommon for a drill or other training cadre to demonstrate the M16's lack of recoil by firing it off their nuts. Yes, you can place the stock in your crotch and fire full auto downrange without injuring yourself.
** Note: this is due to M16 using relatively small 5.56
** Sometimes replaced by the Drill Sergeant volunteering a Private to stand still while the Drill Sergeant jams the buttstock of the weapon against his nose and fires.
** Civilian rifles designed for large cartridges (.308, .30-06, .45-70, 9.3x74) and the re-chambered by the factory in .223Rem (civilian version of the 5.56mm) or .243Win calibers may even dispense a recoil pad altogether and still not generate enough recoil to feel a distinctive kick, due to the gun's heavy weight dampening recoil.
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