Shoot the Bullet: Difference between revisions

 

Not to be confused with the ''[[Touhou]]'' game of the same name.

 

* [[Madlax]] does it to save Elenore.

* Rushuna from ''[[Grenadier]]'' does this ''all the time''. At one point, she even stops an entire [[More Dakka|machinegun salvo]] with a single revolver bullet (by making it ricochet).

** Yuuna Akashi does this with Fate's [[Taken for Granite|petrification]] [[Flechette Storm|darts]], with some help from [[Status Buff|Ako's]] [[Bullet Time|artifact]].

* ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]''

** In ''[[Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force]]'', Arnage uses her [[Gatling Good|Gatlings]] to take down [[Beam Spam]] instead of bothering to dodge.

* Batman does this in [[The Dark Knight|Gotham Knight]], except since he doesn't use guns, he simply punches the bullet out of the air with the armored part of his gauntlet (because, you know, a batarang wouldn't be half as badass). A bullet fired from a high powered sniper rifle, from a train moving at full speed, towards a moving target.

** Done earlier by Kamille Bidan and Jerid Messa in ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam|Zeta Gundam]]'', during the AEUG's operation in Jaburo.

** Also done by [[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam|Uso Evin]] to defend from [[Badass Normal|Katejina's]] beam rifle ''while'' he is fighting [[Char Clone|Chronocle Asher]] for the last time. Also, note that all the previous examples were done by newtypes, who can sense the ''intention'' to fire before the actual shot rather than simply react with impossible speed.

* [[Naruto]] often uses this with kunai or shuriken, the most notable occasion being part of the battle between Sasuke and Itachi in Shippuden. Since both are equipped with [[Evil Eye|Sharingan]], each deflects the other's dozens of shuriken, which pile on the floor between them.

 

* [[Green Arrow]] did it with arrows against his robot doppelganger.

* [[Hawkeye]] has also been known to do this with arrows, such as one instance where he couldn't dodge an arrow with dynamite strapped to it without getting caught in the blast range, so he shot it in midair instead. Naturally, when he and [[Green Arrow]] meet up in Marvel/DC Crossovers, they do it to each other quite often.

 

 

* In the [[Heroic Bloodshed]] movie ''[[Full Contact]]'', Chow Yun-Fat shoots Simon Yam's bullet out of the air during the nightclub scene.

* This happened in the movie adaptation of ''[[The Shadow]]''.

** The looks on the character's faces when it happens is the film's Crowning Moment Of Awesome.

* Alluded to in ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'': {{spoiler|Teleporting from a ship moving at warp speed to another}} is compared to "trying to shoot a bullet with a smaller bullet, blindfolded, while riding a horse".

* A character in ''[[RED]]'' shoots an RPG out of the air. The fact that he survives while the shooter dies demonstrates the director likely [[Rule of Funny|did]] [[Rule of Cool|not]] [[Crazy Awesome|care]] how a shaped charge actually works.

* Disney's ''Robin Hood'' adaptation has one with arrows. In the archery competition, the sheriff has just scored a bullseye (by cheating). To make sure Robin (in disguise) can't win, the sheriff taps Robin's bow as he releases. The arrow goes in a high arc. Undaunted, Robin nocks another arrow and fires at the first arrow. It hits, changing its direction such that it too hits a perfect bullseye, ''right through the sheriff's arrow.''

 

* A particular sect of the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Jedi]] are specifically trained to do this. They want to prove a point about relying too much on one weapon, so instead of blocking plasma bolts with lightsabers, they learn to shoot them down with a blaster pistol.

* This happens often in [[Dale Brown]] books with missiles getting shot down, sometimes with other missiles, sometimes with [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]. Sometimes, though, it fails.

* A realistic version occurs in one of the ''[[Sharpe]]'' novels. Hagman, [[The Squad]]'s [[Friendly Sniper]], tries to take down a fleeing enemy spy. Unfortunately, at the same time, a cannon fires a load of grapeshot that intersects with his shot and knocks it awry.

 

* Done in the episode "Gunmen of the Apocalypse" of ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' within an artificial reality environment. The outtakes video features a several-minutes-long montage of the multiple attempts to film the bullets falling out of the air.

* ''[[Get Smart]]'' had the anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-missile-missile, which was [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].

* Done in the "Modern Warfare" (1.23) episode of Community, the gets {{spoiler|Britta and Chang}} out when their paintballs collide in midair, spraying them both with paint.

* Done in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' several times. Station weapons, when set to "intercept" mode, automatically target incoming energy blasts and take them out with their own.

 

* In ''[[Exalted]]'', Dragon-Blooded archers have several techniques for shooting down projectiles with their own arrows. At higher levels of skill, they can use this to protect their allies, or hit the attacker with their counter-arrows.

** Lunars have a similar ability... except they can use their bare hands to make the deflection. This also explicitly allows them to use the ability on [[Frickin' Laser Beams|attacks of pure essence]].

* ''[[GURPS]]: [[Gun Fu]]'' has a perk that allows the character to try doing this. Of course, ''GURPS'' is pretty unforgiving when it comes to actually hitting that bullet.

 

* Dante from the ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' series is a pro at this. In ''DMC3'', he does it during the cutscene where he and Lady find the body of {{spoiler|Arkham}}. In ''DMC4'', he uses his handguns to cancel out Nero's revolver shots.

** Indeed you can do it during {{spoiler|her boss battle}} by firing when she does, which also gives you a nice Style boost.

* The ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' series has the ability "Shoot Down", created as a gun-based counterpart to [[Implausible Fencing Powers|"Sword Cut"]]; however, it only works on missiles, grenades, and [[Attack Drones]].

 

* Used in ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle|Peabody's Improbable History]]'', in particular in that episode about a guy who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, but his gun was crooked so that made him a great shooter. However the gun got fixed just before the big competition, so Peabody shot his ''own'' bullet to correct the trajectory in flight. Inverted the [[Unspoken Plan Guarantee]] and lampshaded the improbability of this trope while explaining the plan.

 

* Close-in Weapons Systems do this, the most well-known of which is the American Phalanx CIWS. CIWS guns that use a hit-to-kill system actually track both the incoming projectile ''and'' their own outbound projectiles on radar and "walk" the bullets towards the target. Many modern CIWS guns have started to use explosive proximity rounds, rather than hit-to-kill penetrators, in order to conserve ammunition so they may not qualify as "shooting the bullet" (or missile, in this case.)

* On a larger scale, this is the basic idea behind PATRIOT systems that were deployed in Israel to protect it from Iraqi SCUD missiles that were launched by Saddam Hussein in the First Gulf War in an attempt to goad the IDF into attacking Iraq and causing the Coalition's Arab members to withdraw. The idea was that, when an Iraqi SCUD was detected, the PATRIOT would launch its own missile so that it would detonate when the two crossed paths and destroy the SCUD before it could reach its target. The US military touted it as a great success, but its effectiveness has been contested by outside experts.