Shoot the Rope: Difference between revisions

'''Ahchoo''': To tell you the truth, [[Accidental Aiming Skills|I was aiming for the Hangman]].|''[[Robin Hood]]: Men In Tights''}}

 

Well, you know what they say. [[Just for Pun|No noose is good noose.]]

 

 

 

But this is unlikely to be the case when bullets are used, because at this point executioners have already learned the proper method. Though in a few cases hangmen have ''deliberately'' "botched" the hanging to make the victim's death more painful (for example, after Nazi war criminal Julius Streicher yelled "Heil Hitler" just before his execution, it is widely believed that the hangman repositioned the noose so that he would be strangled). Another possibility was to pay out so much rope that when the drop finally ends, the body energy gets so high that [[Off with His Head|the head]] ''[[Off with His Head|tears off]]''.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[The Outlaw Josey Wales]]'' sends a posse for a "Missouri Boat Ride" by severing a ferry cable with a rifle shot.

* ''[[Robin Hood: Men in Tights]]'' also had this (when someone comments on the [[Lampshade Hanging|improbable shot]], the shooter admits he was really [[Accidental Aiming Skills|aiming for the hangman]]).

** This may have been a parody of a similar scene in [[Kevin Costner]]'s ''[[Robin Hood]]'' film.

* A variant was used toward the end of the first ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'': {{spoiler|Will Turner throws his sword, not to cut the rope, but to give Jack a foothold so he doesn't drop far enough to die.}}

* In ''[[The Quick and the Dead]]'', [[Action Girl|"The Lady" Ellen]] pulls this to save [[The Atoner|the Preacher]] from being hanged by his ex-colleagues. {{spoiler|Then it's subverted in her flashback to when she was [[Children Are Innocent|8 years old]]: the [[Big Bad]] is about to hang her father, but tells her to shoot the rope, promising to release him if she manages to hit it. ''[[Tear Jerker|She hits her father instead.]]''}}

* Realistically averted in the 2010 ''[[True Grit]]'', where the heroes opt to climb a tree and cut the rope on a man hanged high.

* [[The A-Team (film)|Hannibal Smith]] goes against the [[A-Team Firing|norm]] by cutting through Face's noose in the film with three or four bullets in rapid succession.

* ''[[Cat Ballou]]'' gets rescued in this manner in the the eponymous movie.

 

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** The [[History Channel]] show ''Extreme Marksmen'' noted that there were no documented examples of this trope actually being done (or even attempted) with a gun. But they had expert shooter attempt to do it anyway, just to see if it was possible. On his first attempt he eventually broke the rope, but it took about 5 or 6 shots. Naturally, that wouldn't have been fast enough to save the victim. He tried again, this time using wadcutter bullets (normally used only for shooting paper targets) which hit a slightly wider area than pointed or rounded bullets, and this time took only 2 shots to break the rope. Since he fired the first shot at the exact moment the "victim" (a sack of potatoes) was dropped, this left at least a slight chance that he could've survived, as the follow-up shot came very quickly due to the shooter's great skill. So with the right ammo and an exceptional shooter, it was possible (though extremely unlikely) that it could be done. It was mentioned that hangman's rope is roughly a half inch wide, which is wider than most bullets. And aside from some machine guns, sniper rifles and super-magnum hunting rifles (that almost all came onto the scene after hanging had begun to fall out of favor and was certainly no longer used in in places public enough to be disrupted), most guns with bullets larger than a half-inch in diameter have poor accuracy. So there's no realistic way to take out the rope in a single shot.

* In one episode of ''[[Lost]]'', Jack and Kate shoot themselves out of a net by shooting the rope holding it up. It takes several shots to manage the trick, though.

* Done fantastically in the ''[[Jonathan Creek]]'' episode "Black Canary". A very decrepit old man manages to snipe the rope of someone who attempted to hang herself from at least 300 feet, and finishes off by nonchalantly saying "Well, my eyes still work."

* More correctly Unwind The Rope, in episode three of the Channel 4 miniseries ''[[The Devil's Whore]]'' Sexby unties Angelica from the gallows after she is hanged by Joliffe.

 

== [[Music Videos]] ==

* While this is normally a very hard shot in ''[[GURPS]]'' (most ropes are at -13 to hit at take reduced damage from bullets) a special perk makes it so that any shot that hits a rope automatically succeeds in breaking it.

* The ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]'' manual's weapons section depicts some arrows made specifically for this.

 

 

* Colette of ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' does this with a [[Rings of Death|chakram]], which makes a little more sense.

* The [[Western]] [[Wide Open Sandbox]] game ''[[Gun (video game)|Gun]]'' uses this in one mission, where you have to save a safe cracker you met earlier in the game.

* Proper use of this trope is the only way to win ''[[You Have to Burn The Rope]]''. When you confront the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|you have to burn the rope}} to win.

* ''[[Silent Scope]] 2'' has a variant as its final shot - the [[Big Bad]] has handcuffed himself to the hero's girlfriend and climbed to the top of Big Ben. After shooting him a few times, he falls out of the tower while the girlfriend tries to drag him (and herself) back - to win the game, you must shoot ''the handcuffs''.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' features a variant where Dominic is about to be hanged by a group of evil wizards - one of whom is holding him up with one hand. After he drops Dominic, a stray magic bolt ricocheted off a wizard's hand in the melee cuts the rope - right next to Dominic's neck, no less.

 

* Done by Elisa in ''[[Gargoyles]]'' {{spoiler|when Broadway turns to stone in mid-glide, and Elisa shoots down a crate full of carpets hanging from a crane in order to cushion Broadway's fall.}} To the series' credit, the reawakened gargoyles are astounded by this feat the next night and call Elisa a miracle for pulling it off. Also, it took about six shots to break the rope.

* Done by Calamity Jane as her very first act in the series in ''[[The Legend of Calamity Jane]]''. It helps that it was an impromptu over-the-branch hanging, at a height that required a barrel to be kicked out from under the (innocent) victim's feet.

 

 

[[Category:Public Execution]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters]]