Leave Behind a Pistol: Difference between revisions
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'''Prosecutor:''' "No, no, no..."
''(Kaminski drops a pistol in front of the prosecutor.)''
'''Kaminski:''' [[Ironic Echo|"Resign or be prosecuted."]]
''(Kaminski walks out. From behind the closed door comes the sound of a single gunshot as the prosecutor chooses to "resign.")'' }}
** In the unedited version, the prosecutor tries to back-shoot Kaminski after being given the gun, and is blown away for his trouble.
* Sand Serif does this to Donenfeld in ''[[The Spirit (film)|The Spirit]]'', after [[You Have Failed Me...|he fails her]].
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[The Departed]]'': an [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|understandably mentally unstable]] Billy Costigan asks his shrink for a Valium prescription. She hands him ''one'' pill. "Why don't you just give me a bottle of scotch and a handgun to blow my fucking head off!" She eventually gives it to him, [[Good Is Not Nice|the jerk...]]
* Played straight-ish in ''[[The Last Samurai]]'', when one of Omura's henchmen leaves a kodachi rather than a pistol with Katsumoto to commit seppuku—ritual suicide—with.
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*** Only if the Daimyo thought the samurai deserved it, and he felt magnanimous enough to grant that blessing. If the Daimyo felt the samurai needed not just to die but also suffer to expiate his dishonor...
**** The head cutting thing is optional. The 2nd was originally there to cut off the head if 1st showed hesitancy. Later, they started doing it as a mercy kill once they person performed the minimum action on their own, or were too badly injured to finish the job themselves.
* ''[[Dead Air (2009
{{quote|"There is not enough anti-venom for the two of us. How you choose to leave this world is up to you."}}
* A scene filmed for ''[[Aliens]]'' has [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Carter Burke]] [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong|impregnated]] and cocooned to the wall. Ripley gives him a grenade to detonate and moves on. The scene has never been included in any release of the film, [[Word of God|apparently]] because it breaks up the tension of the final segment, plus it would raise potential plotholes with regard to the alien lifecycle. However, the scene is included in the novelization and the ''Newt's Tale'' comic series.
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** Wasn't that the blackmailer? If so, it was because the whole affair would be wrapped up with far fewer tears if he died wihout exposure to proper authorities.
** No, the blackmailer is killed by one of his victims, a young woman whom Holmes and Watson choose not to tattle on.
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Warhammer
* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|The Chessman of Mars]]'', when they decide to proclaim A-Kor jeddak of Manator:
{{quote|''"There can be but one jeddak in Manator," said the chief who held the dagger; his eyes still fixed upon the hapless O-Tar he crossed to where the latter stood and holding the dagger upon an outstretched palm proffered it to the discredited ruler. "There can be but one jeddak in Manator," he repeated meaningly.
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== Live
* An episode of ''[[Foyle's War]]'' has Foyle confront a businessman who'd been dealing with the Nazis with the fact that, as a result of his dirty dealings, his business empire is crumbling, his son's been arrested for murder, his wife has left him, and his reputation is ruined. He then leaves the businessman and walks outside—and we hear a shot. Foyle's lack of reaction indicates that he expected this.
** In another episode, he offers a gay airman implicated in a murder the chance to fly one last mission in The Battle Of Britain. His plane is shot down. He does not bail out.
** In yet another episode, the guilty party is allowed to accompany his father in their small boat to the Dunkirk evacuation. As is par for the course he conveniently dies in heroic fashion rather than returning to face charges.
* Several episodes of ''[[Mission: Impossible]]'' ended this way.
* In ''[[Star Trek]] : Balance of Terror'' , Captain Kirk doesn't interfere—not that there was any way he could've—when the [[Worthy Opponent]] Romulan captain commits suicide. He simply watches and his reaction is [[What a Senseless Waste of Human Life|What a senseless waste of Romulan life.]]
* Implied in one episode of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' (the new version): Baltar and Boomer (who is beginning to suspect that she is a [[Manchurian Agent|Cylon agent]]) have a long conversation discussing how she needs to "do what's right for herself." As Baltar leaves, a gunshot is heard from the room behind him.
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* In ''[[Mara Daughter of the Nile]]'', when Thutmose reclaims the throne from Hatsheput, he offers her a poisoned goblet. She accepts, on the condition she be allowed to drink it in the privacy of her chambers, although Thutmose accompanies her as a witness.
== Tabletop Games ==▼
* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'' features a short story where a witch-hunter finds that a town's local priest of Sigmar, and an old friend who once saved his life in his youth, has become a chaos cultist. Rather than treating his old friend to the usual round of [[Burn the Witch]], he offers him a dagger and leaves the room. The priest is given a hero's burial.▼
== Video Games ==▼
* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', on Jacob's loyalty mission, he finds his father marooned on a planet where the men of his crew have gone feral and he's kept the women as his personal harem, all of them except Jacob's father suffering from mental degeneration from the food on the planet. You find out [[Apocalyptic Log|how things went so horribly wrong]], and have the option of either taking him in, leaving him alone with a pack of bloodthirsty, feral former crew members...or leaving him alone with a ''half-loaded gun'' and said feral formal crew members closing in. If you do the latter, the trope plays straight, complete with the gunshot while walking away.▼
* One of the weapons you can pick up in ''[[Dawn of War]] 2'' mentions that leaving a shotgun with a single shell in it in the cell of someone charged with treason is common practice on Meridan. Considering the alternatives that have been described for treason convictions in the setting, this is a ''ridiculously'' merciful and humane act.▼
* Variation : In ''[[Tenchu]]: Steath Assassins'', you confront a corrupt government minister. Rather than killing him, you offer to assist him (by delivering a coupe de grace) if he chooses an honorable death by seppuku.▼
* A variation pops up in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' during the sidequest "Return to Sender": If you choose to turn in {{spoiler|Chief Hanlon}} for falsifying intelligence reports, as soon as you leave the room, he confesses to the crime over the camp's PA system, and then shoots himself.▼
** There is a pistol left behind though. His. Which you can then run in and take. It's the unique black revolvers only NCR rangers have, and it's the only way to get one without killing a Ranger yourself.▼
* In Metal Gear Solid 3, after you are tortured by volgin, Ocelot puts a Single Action Army with no ammo into your holster.▼
== Web Original ==▼
* Subverted for [[SCP Foundation|SCP-451]], a former agent who can no longer perceive or directly interact with other people. A colleague left a gun for him [[Mercy Kill|as a favor]]. [[Intangible Man|The bullet didn't touch him]].▼
== Real Life ==
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*** Many sources quote him as refusing, saying "If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself," so it wasn't indecision so much.
** Similarly, Ludwig Beck offered to commit suicide after being arrested for his role in the Valkyrie plot. Unfortunately subverted, since [[Nightmare Fuel|he survived the gunshot]] and a sergeant had to deliver a coup de grace.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080616211617/http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/wwII-a-f.html Thomas Baker] subverted this trope while badly injured and retreating from a Japanese attack. He told another soldier that he was slowing down the retreat too much, so he asked to be left behind with a loaded pistol. He was last seen sitting against a tree, calmly holding a pistol loaded with 8 rounds. When they went back for his body, they found it in the same place, [[Improbable Aiming Skills|facing 8 dead enemy soldiers.]]
** That would qualify as a [[Badass]] [[Taking You with Me|Dying]] [[Dying Moment of Awesome|Moment of Awesome]]. Bit of a mouthful though...
** You forgot to mention he requested a new pistol because [[Badass|his was too damaged from '''melee combat''' to shoot]].
** Sergeant Thomas Baker received the posthumous Congressional Medal of Honour for the feat. Talk about [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] !
*** [https://web.archive.org/web/20080616211617/http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/wwII-a-f.html Said Medal of Honor is found here.] [[Too Cool to Live|May his legacy of asskicking live on...]]
* In a subversion of sorts, the former Head of the Metropolitan Police (Head of the Greater London police and generally regarded as the top policeman in the UK) Sir Iain Blair was once described as the sort of man who if offered the traditional revolver and bottle of whiskey, would drink the whiskey and come out shooting.
** Preventing this type of reaction is why the [[Trope Namer]] pistol is loaded with only one round.
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* A non-lethal variation often occurs in workplaces where a sympathetic supervisor might discover that a liked employee has nonetheless done something worthy of termination and presents them a resignation form instead of reporting it or before an investigation occurs.
* Before confessing to killing her two sons, Susan Smith asked the sheriff to give her his gun so that she could take her own life.
* During a brushfire war in the
*An Inversion happened at Nuremberg. Guards were specifically ordered to prevent suicides. The attitude was, "We went to all this trouble and by golly we're gonna get to see them hang."
▲== Tabletop Games ==
▲* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'' features a short story where a witch-hunter finds that a town's local priest of Sigmar, and an old friend who once saved his life in his youth, has become a chaos cultist. Rather than treating his old friend to the usual round of [[Burn the Witch]], he offers him a dagger and leaves the room. The priest is given a hero's burial.
▲== Video Games ==
▲* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', on Jacob's loyalty mission, he finds his father marooned on a planet where the men of his crew have gone feral and he's kept the women as his personal harem, all of them except Jacob's father suffering from mental degeneration from the food on the planet. You find out [[Apocalyptic Log|how things went so horribly wrong]], and have the option of either taking him in, leaving him alone with a pack of bloodthirsty, feral former crew members...or leaving him alone with a ''half-loaded gun'' and said feral formal crew members closing in. If you do the latter, the trope plays straight, complete with the gunshot while walking away.
▲* One of the weapons you can pick up in ''[[Dawn of War]] 2'' mentions that leaving a shotgun with a single shell in it in the cell of someone charged with treason is common practice on Meridan. Considering the alternatives that have been described for treason convictions in the setting, this is a ''ridiculously'' merciful and humane act.
▲* Variation : In ''[[Tenchu]]: Steath Assassins'', you confront a corrupt government minister. Rather than killing him, you offer to assist him (by delivering a coupe de grace) if he chooses an honorable death by seppuku.
▲* A variation pops up in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' during the sidequest "Return to Sender": If you choose to turn in {{spoiler|Chief Hanlon}} for falsifying intelligence reports, as soon as you leave the room, he confesses to the crime over the camp's PA system, and then shoots himself.
▲** There is a pistol left behind though. His. Which you can then run in and take. It's the unique black revolvers only NCR rangers have, and it's the only way to get one without killing a Ranger yourself.
▲* In Metal Gear Solid 3, after you are tortured by volgin, Ocelot puts a Single Action Army with no ammo into your holster.
▲== Web Original ==
▲* Subverted for [[SCP Foundation|SCP-451]], a former agent who can no longer perceive or directly interact with other people. A colleague left a gun for him [[Mercy Kill|as a favor]]. [[Intangible Man|The bullet didn't touch him]].
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:Betrayal Tropes]]
[[Category:
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