Not with the Safety On, You Won't: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

In the first case, the character being held up might use it as a ruse to try to wrong-foot his opponent. Usually in this instance the character at gunpoint is a veteran, his savvy attitude being contrasted to his inexperienced opponent. It is ''extremely'' rare for the opponent to call his bluff; instead he will usually tilt his gun and look down to check if the safety is on, letting the other person get the drop on him. Note that in this case the safety need not actually be on; all that's necessary is to trick the guy holding the gun into checking.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Somewhat subverted or at least tongue in cheek referenced in ''[[Gundam Seed]]''. Two characters are in a stand off with Athrun, an experienced soldier and ace pilot holding a knife and Cagalli, his temporary "prisoner", having snuck his gun away from him while he slept, which Athrun'd told her he'd kill her if she tried to do. The standoff breaks with Athrun charging with the knife just as Cagalli loses her nerve and throws away the gun because she doesn't want to shoot him, even to save herself. We hear a gunshot...and then the scene cuts back to the gun lying on the ground as Athrun angrily demands why she'd be stupid enough to throw a gun with the safety left off. Later referenced pretty much exactly in an exchange between Kira and Mu as they chase down Rau Le Creuset.

* An interesting variant of this crossing with [[It Works Better with Bullets]] appears in ''[[Detective Conan]]'' {{spoiler|Fake Shinichi}} is holding the rest of the cast at gun point when Shinichi calmly points out the gun is empty, dropping the bullets from his hands. {{spoiler|Fake shinichi}} checks and discovers its a lie, but its too late as it already gave Shinichi time to disarm him.

** {{spoiler|Jodie}} successfully puts the gun's safety lever on during an episode about a bus-jacking. The other guy found out too late.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In ''[[Batman|Batman: No Man's Land]]'', in an interlude called "The punk and the nomad", a punk threatens to shoot a guy for batteries. But the nomad points out that there's no way the gun's loaded, not because he knows, but because if the punk had a bullet, it would be worth more than the batteries. The nomad walks away unharmed.

* Done hilariously in an old ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' comic, where Snake Eyes' old master, pretending to be a simple chef, deals with an attempted robbery by a young teenager. First he points out that the safety is on in the boy's gun, and when the boy takes it off, he grabs the gun's slide, pops out the bullet from the chamber, drops the clip off, and then offers to buy the empty gun from him for $100, dropping it in a crate full of empty pistols!

 

== Film ==

* In the ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'' movie ''[[Live and Let Die (film)|Live and Let Die]]'' rookie agent Rosie Carver finds a hidden arsenal in Quarrel Junior's boat and confronts him with a revolver, only to be told she's left the safety catch on. This is a little odd, since while revolvers ''can'' have safeties, most don't have a catch to operate them.

** Type 2 in ''[[Dr. No]]'', when a hitman tries to shoot Bond with an empty gun. "That's a Smith and Wesson. And you've had your six."

* This happens to One-Round, the [[Dumb Muscle]] member of the gang in the 1955 version of ''The Ladykillers.''

* Early in the John Woo ''[[Broken Arrow (1996 film)|Broken Arrow]]'', Terry Carmichael's handgun passes between herself and Riley Hale twice courtesy of this trope. Hale manages to wrest the gun from Terry when she tries to hold him at gunpoint, but when he attempts to order her at gunpoint, she replies that she never keeps it loaded... which gives him pause long enough for her to get the weapon back from him. When he protests that she said it wasn't loaded, she fires off a warning shot to prove that she was lying.

** Proving that however hot a bomber jock he is, Hale is not a "gun guy". When a revolver is pointed at you, it's easy to tell if it's loaded or not - just ''look at the little holes in the front of the cylinder''. If each one has a bullet looking back out at you, you can safely assume the thing will go ''bang'' if the trigger is pulled. (For people who actually know firearms, this scene is a guaranteed groan-inducer.)

* [[Terminator|Terminator Salvation]] - Blair's gun gets stolen, and when somebody tries to use it against her she tells him. "You forgot to chamber a round." Whether it was true or not didn't matter because it bought her enough time to get the jump on him.

* When Experience pulls the rifle on Tucker in Black Sheep, Tucker points out the safety is on, and after a few minutes of directions to the safety, she gives tucker the gun to turn the safety off. As he hands it back to her, He yanks it back with the quick response: "Yeah, right."

** Actually... she adds insult to injury by disarming him and then [[Pistol-Whipping]] him with his own weapon.

* Perhaps the ultimate example is the [[Cool Gun|Lawgiver 2]] in [[Judge Dredd]], which electrocutes any non-Judge who tries to fire it. It's also a subversion, as the one person who attempts to lampshade this gets shot - turns out the man he's addressing ''is'' a Judge.

* ''[[Snatch]]'' has a variation, when Bullet-tooth Tony points out that the guns being wielded by his would-be attackers have the word 'replica' written on them, while his has the words 'Desert Eagle'.

** [[BFG|"Point Five-Oh"]]

* In ''[[Tucker and Dale Versus Evil]]'', the sheriff suffers a fatal accident in Tucker and Dale's cabin. One of the panicking college kids takes the sheriff's gun and tries to kill Tucker and Dale, but fails thanks to the safety. Dale ''[[Too Dumb to Live|helpfully points this out to him]]'' while Tucker gives him a look that just screams "What the hell is wrong with you". Fortunately for Tucker and Dale the kid ''[[Too Dumb to Live|points the gun at his own face]]'' while trying to disable the safety, [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face|with predictable results]].

* {{spoiler|Billy}} pulls this on {{spoiler|Gale}} in the finale of ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]]''; she steals his gun as he holds the [[Final Girl]] hostage, and proceeds to run through a "the good guys win and the news reporter gets the scoop" scenario, when he stops to inform her that he knows something she doesn't:

** She gets a [[Take That]] back, however:

 

== Literature ==

* At [[The Climax]] of the [[Tom Clancy]] Ryanverse novel ''Patriot Games'', after the [[Big Bad]] is taken into custody, one of the Marines that joined Ryan on the would-be escape ship points out that if John had really wanted to kill the terrorist, he'd have had the safety off. As a part of the "Green Machine" legacy himself, Ryan would be more than familiar with the safety of the pistol he was holding.

* In [[Artemis Fowl]] Book 3, Juliet disarms a hitman's pistol without him realizing it. After he threatens her with the useless weapon, she taunts him with the slide she removed from the weapon, then knocks him unconcious.

 

* Appears back in 1966 in the ''[[The Wild Wild West (TV series)|The Wild Wild West]]'' episode "Night of the Deadly Bubble", where the female professor thinks West is an intruder, but West knows she won't shoot him because the safety's on.

* Not really a gun, but in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Magnificent Bastard|The Master]] scuppers a plan to hold him at laser-screwdriver-point by setting it so [[Loyal Phlebotinum|it only works for him]]. He is then able to steal it back and [[Kick the Dog|nick the protagonist's mother with it.]]

** And played straight on the Doctor's end as he went up against the [[Big Bad]] in the finale issue of IDW's ''The Forgotten'' miniseries.

* In the ''[[Due South]]'' episode "Free Willie":

'''Fraser''': I don't think so, because that would require knowing how to take off the safety. }}

* ''[[Chuck]]'': Chuck is supposed to get Sarah out of a locked freezer by shooting out the lock, but the gun doesn't work. Then Sarah tells him to take the safety off.

* From ''[[Leverage]]'':

** This happens in the pilot, "The Nigerian Job":

''Hardison looks down to check, and Nathan grabs the gun.'' }}

** Similarly, in "The Girls' Night Out Job", Sophie tells a thug pointing a gun at her that the safety is on. While he's checking the gun, Tara comes up behind him and breaks a vase over his head, commenting that the safety was off. [[Badass Boast|"Not to a grifter."]]

'''Napoleon Solo''' [''slowly walking towards Pepper'']: Alright then, better shoot and get it over with. [''Pepper fumbles with the pistol, which does not fire. Solo disarms her''] You see, the safety catch is on; it limits the range of the weapon considerably. }}

* The captain pulls this on Ken in the [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] episode ''[[Fugitive Alien]]''. It's justified, Ken's from an alien race that uses lasers instead of bullets.

** Although laser weapons would need safeties for the same reason conventional firearms have them.

** The same applies to Stan in an episode of ''[[Lexx]]''.

* ''[[Castle]]'': The murderer is cornered by Beckett while holding Castle hostage at gunpoint. After uncovering the murderer's motive, Castle knocks him down and wrests the gun from him. Beckett tells him he could have been killed, and Castle replies that the safety was on the whole time.

'''Castle''': Where's the fun in that? }}

* Used in ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' season two episode "The Good Wound". Reese points this out to someone holding a gun on him, and it distracts them long enough for him to draw his own (although not long enough for him to shoot).

* In the second episode of ''[[The Walking Dead]]'', [[Meet Cute|Andrea threatens to shoot Rick]] for bringing a hoarde of "walkers" to their location. Later, he advises her to take the safety off next time, and even gives her a quick lesson in handling a gun.

* An interesting subversion happens in an episode of ''[[21 Jump Street]]''. Hanson, posing a student, is being threatened by another student (named Ronnie) with a gun. He is saying things such as, "you could end up dead". The gun is cocked and incredibly close to Hanson's face. After the student is satisfied and begins walking away, the following exchange takes place:

'''Ronnie''': The safety don't work, man. Never did. }}

* Happens in an episode of ''[[Quantum Leap]]''. Sam is being held hostage by a woman he's been charged to protect (although, the person he's leaped into is really in cahoots with the bad guy, and the woman has just found out). Subverted in that it is Al who tells Sam that the safety is on. Since he is a hologram and the woman can't see him, he can examine the gun closely and at length. Also, the woman checks by actually trying to fire the gun, which doesn't work, and then [[Throw-Away Guns|throws the gun at Sam]]. [[Fridge Logic|Which is strange when you think about it]] because that basically meant [[Too Dumb to Live|she gave a man who she thinks wants to kill her a loaded gun]].

* A variation happened in one episode of ''[[Adam-12]]''. Malloy chases a guy armed with a shotgun over a hill, only to find the shotgun leveled at him. Then the guy gives up. Turned out he left the safety on and pulled the trigger so hard it ''broke''.

* The reason Stella wasn't shot by Frankie in ''[[CSI: NY]]'' 'All Access'. Frankie didn't know enough about guns to take the safety off.

 

== Video Games ==

** Which does not really make sense, as assault rifles aside from an AK-47 variant have the selector switch located where it can be deactivated in no time, thus allowing a soldier to carry it on safe yet still take a snap shot.

** In 4, he snatches Johnny Sasaki's gun away after almost exactly the same lines after the less experienced soldier visually inspects his [[Rare Guns|XM8]]. Since the XM8 was designed to evoke muscle memory from years of training with the M16 family, and it's almost impossible to pass even rudimentary military training without being able to tell the safety's position by feel, this succeeds in making Johnny look like an absolute moron.

** This is particularly strange, because the mugger in ''[[Deja Vu]]'' is clearly threatening you with a revolver, which would lack a safety.

* An inversion happens in the original ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'', when Max runs into [[Femme Fatale|Mona Sax]], her signature [[Small Girl, Big Gun|Desert Eagle]] aimed [[Mexican Standoff|point-blank into his face]]. He returns the favor with his own Beretta, [[Gunpoint Banter|uttering]]: "Your safety's off, [[Evil Twin]]. You could hurt somebody with that gun of yours."

 

* Subverted in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', during the Tough's first encounter with Doyt Gyo and Haban, where their weapons failed to work. When Kevyn points out that all Haban did was use [[Tractor Beam|field-effectors]] to jam the safeties on all the guns, Tagon curtly points out that their mil-spec weapons didn't ''have'' safeties. "Oh. Well, they do now." "That's not subtle, that's showing off!"

 

== Western Animation ==

** ''[[Brick Joke|Three seasons later]]'', Captain Sunshine appears on the show, still believing the Monarch is invulnerable.

* An episode of ''[[Men in Black (animation)|Men in Black]]: The Series'' had a variation; J grabs an alien weapon he's unfamiliar with and points what he thinks is the business end at his attacker. The alien identifies the gun and informs him that he's pointing it the wrong way; J assumes the alien is trying to bluff him and fires anyway. Sure enough, a beam shoots out of what appeared to be the scope and just misses J's head, and the alien smugly comments that he was just trying to help.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Guns and Gunplay Tropes]]

[[Category:Stock Phrases]]