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

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Zeus:''' You call in that code right now or I'll blow your sick ass into the next world.

* 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."

* ''[[Shoot'Em Up (film)|Shoot Em Up]]'' features this trope when, at the beginning of the movie, the hero, Mr. Smith holds the villain, Mr. Hertz at gunpoint with his own gun. Hertz appears quite jolly, even reciting a limerick, until Smith tries to shoot him, only to find that the gun has a fingerprint sensor to prevent anyone but the owner from discharging it. Later, {{spoiler|it is inverted, when Smith corners Hertz in a brothel, who chuckles again as Smith pulls out a gun, the freezes in horror as Smith pulls out the previous owner's hand, and places the thumb on the sensor to authorize the gun. Hertz is saved by his bulletproof vest.}}

* 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."

''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."]]

{{quote|'''Ernestine Pepper''': Mr. Smith, the first shot goes into the floor, the second goes into your head.

'''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. }}

 

== 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."