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'''Version A'''
[[The Hero]] (or [[Badass Longcoat]] [[Anti
'''Version B'''
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[[The Hero]] (or B. A. L. C. A. H. w/N. N. G.) and the [[Big Bad]] stand at opposite ends of the street, hands hovering over their holsters. The camera cuts between their faces, their twitching fingers, the faces of the frightened crowd, and of [[Between My Legs|the combatants framed by the opponent's legs]]. Long seconds pass. On a cue known only to the gunfighters, hands slap leather and shots ring out.
The outcome is never certain, and any number of Westerns, even in the pre-[[Post Modern]] days of the Fifties, [[Playing
A [[Dead Horse Trope]] (no pun intended) right up there with [[Chained to
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Anime and Manga ==
* Vash the Stampede found himself pulled into a couple of these in ''[[Trigun]]''. They never ended as planned.
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== Film ==
* ''[[High Noon]]'', despite what one would think, actively ''subverts'' this, as the hero sneaks up behind the gang of villains, gun already drawn, and yells for them to drop their guns before shooting one in the neck and leading to a tense chase. Furthermore, noon only marks the ''arrival'' of Frank Miller and co., not the showdown itself.
* ''[[Outland (
* ''[[Back to The Future]] Part III''. Marty asks Buford if he wants their showdown to happen at high noon, but Buford insists that he "does [his] killing before breakfast." Ultimately, the film provides a [[Double Subversion]] of the trope when Marty refuses to take his place in the duel, but is forced to anyway. However, he still refuses to actually shoot Buford, relying instead on a [[Bulletproof Vest]] ploy. (Maybe that makes it a ''[[Zig
* ''[[The Quick and
* Common in Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns:
** ''[[The Good, the Bad
** ''[[Once Upon a Time
** In the unauthorized [[Spaghetti Western]] remake of ''Yojimbo'', ''[[A
* Most films about the gunfight at the OK Corral usually turn this bloody ambush into a
* ''[[Howard the Duck (
* ''[[The Matrix]]'', in the subway station. It even had newspaper tumbleweed. Of course, given the fact that both combatants could dodge bullets like crazy, it quickly turned into a [[My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours|kung fu showdown]] rather than a gunfight.
* ''[[Yojimbo]]'' (1961), the [[No Name Given|ronin with no name]] prepares for a [[Jidai Geki]] version of the
* ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'' spoofed this with {{spoiler|Angel and most of the villains at once}} in an idyllic English village. {{spoiler|It quickly turned into a action move shoot-out.}}
* ''[[Tombstone]]'': The duel between Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo. They stand an arm's length from one another, circle slowly, and draw.
* Played with in Sam Peckinpah's ''[[Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid]]''. Billy, finding one of his friends had been badged by Garrett, ends up doing the [[Ten Paces and Turn]] version. Once his opponent starts counting off steps, Billy simply turns and waits, gun drawn for his opponent to turn. [[Rash Equilibrium|Of course, Elam's character didn't exactly wait until ten to turn around]].
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* The endings of the western spoofs ''[[Support Your Local Sheriff]]'' and ''[[Support Your Local Gunfighter]]'' are both extended parodies of this trope.
* ''[[The Guns of Navarone]]''. While in a firefight in some ruins, Spyros Pappadimos and a German officer find themselves facing off, each armed with a machine gun. They advance slowly toward each other and eventually start firing. {{spoiler|Both are killed in the gun battle}}.
* The film ''[[Posse (
* ''[[Three O
* Inverted in ''[[
* ''[[Once Upon a Texas Train]]'' climaxes with a showdown between Cotton's gang of [[Young Gun
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== Live Action TV ==
* Used in a time traveling episode of ''[[Honey I Shrunk the Kids (TV series)|Honey I Shrunk the Kids]]''.
* Subverted in ''[[Wayne and Shuster]]'''s Fist Full of Dollars sketch where, after the climactic gunfight in which dozens of bullets are fired at Schuster with no effect, he reveals that he was using the old "brick wall under the poncho" trick.
* Happens in ''[[Psych]]'', between a policeman and... a cowboy (not a real cowboy - this is the one at those little re-enactment tourist traps), after it's uncovered he's been whacking people to try and keep a gold cache under the town secret. The cowboy's SAA, however, was real. {{spoiler|Cop wins.}}
* In the episode of ''[[The Prisoner]]'' where Number 6 is an old-west sheriff, he has a [[Single
* Parodied in ''[[
* For a bizarre non-Western example, the final showdown between John Sheppard and Acastus Kolya on ''[[
* The final confrontation between Jack Keenan and Frank Butler in ''[[
* When Sam and Dean in ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' [[Time Travel|go back in time]] to find something to help them beat [[Big Bad|the Mother]], Dean and a phoenix have a type 2. Dean wins because his gun is the Colt.
== Music ==
* [[Crowning Music of Awesome|The Megaman remix-band]] [[The Megas]] make the battle between Megaman and Quickman sound like an embodiment of this trope. It's all built up with Quickman as the "sheriff"; with lines such as "Quick on the draw, in this town I am the law. Is what they say true? Does death wear blue? Can he fall?" The conclusion comes with "My circuits slow. I'm not scared anymore. Reach for my weapon and in turn you're reaching for yours. My circuits slow. What they said is a lie. The shots are heard and the bullets scream death as they fly", essentially also making this an example of a [[Single
* Panther of [[
* ''Big Iron'' is this trope in spirit, when the Arizona Ranger and Texas Red have their showdown.
{{quote|
''It was twenty past eleven when they walked out in the street.'' }}
== Newspaper Comics ==
* When ''[[
{{quote|
** His mom didn't let them play with guns.
== Real Life ==▼
* Ironically, in matter of historical fact gun duels have been more common among upper-class "gentlemen" who put great value on personal honor, rather than the lower-class characters who dominate Westerns. Perhaps the most famous example of such a duel is the 1804 duel in which American Vice President Aaron Burr killed Treasury Secretary [[Alexander Hamilton]]. The difference here is that dueling pistols were not at all accurate nor meant to be accurate -- the point of the duel was to prove you cared enough about the grievance to risk your life. That Aaron Burr actually ''hit'' and ''killed'' Hamilton was a freak occurrence.▼
** According to the book ''Founding Brothers'', the two witnesses they had brought along agreed in writing that Hamilton fired first and missed, then Burr fired two or three seconds later, fatally wounding Hamilton. Whether Hamilton missed deliberately or Burr intended to miss but hit by accident is a matter for speculation.▼
** Also, the showdowns happened at high noon (yes, they really did) so that neither participant would have more of the sun in their eyes than the other, and it'd be a fair draw.▼
** In an episode covering duelling, the documentary series "Tales of the Gun" indicated that high quality duelling pistols were in fact made to be extremely accurate (or at least as accurate as unrifled flintlocks and percussion cap pistols could be).▼
* James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok gunned down a man by the name of Davis Tutt in 1865 in Springfield, Missouri, in a rare example of a bona fide Wild West "quickdraw" showdown. After winning about $200 in a poker game against Tutt's compatriots—who were playing with Tutt's money—Tutt alleged that Hickok owed him $35 from a previous game; Hickok claimed the debt was only $25. Tutt seized Hickok's prized golden pocket watch as collateral. Humiliated but outnumbered, Hickok warned Tutt not to wear the watch in public. Tutt brazenly assured Hickok that he would be wearing it first thing in the morning. Hickok then calmly told Tutt that he would shoot him if he saw him wearing the watch, then pocketed his winnings and left. True to his promise, Tutt openly wore the watch in the town square the following day. Word quickly reached Hickok's ears and, after a final round of negotiations failed to settle the debt, Hickok walked into the square just before 6 p.m., pistol drawn, sending everyone except Tutt running for cover. Wild Bill cocked his pistol, holstered it and called out to Tutt, "Don't you come across here with that watch." Tutt said nothing, but stood with his hand on his pistol. At a distance of about 75 yards, both men "stared down" the other for a brief moment. Tutt drew first, Hickok raising his Colt Navy in response. Each man fired one shot at almost exactly the same moment. Tutt missed. Hickok was luckier: his shot struck Tutt in his left side between his fifth and seventh ribs. Hickok was charged with manslaughter. However, in his trial, the judge informed the jury that, while Wild Bill was technically guilty of the crime he was charged with, they may decide to apply the "unwritten" law of a "fair fight." The jury took no more than a couple of hours to bring back a not guilty verdict.▼
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* You get to participate in a few of these in ''[[Call of Juarez]]''.
* There was a Nintendo Light Gun game called ''[[Wild Gunman]],'' and a version of it appeared in ''[[Back to The Future]] Part II''.
** ''Wild Gunman'' was recreated as a microgame for the first ''[[
* Used as a [[Mini Game]] in ''[[Kirby]]'s Adventure'' for the NES. Amusingly, the same Mini Game was recycled using [[Single
* The PC game ''[[Gun (
* The ancient [[ZX Spectrum]] western-themed adventure ''The Wild Bunch'' used version B if you decided you wanted to kill the bad guys, rather than just bring them in to the sheriff (killing them was more rewarding). The trick was that you had to let the bad guy move first, so that's it's self-defence to shoot him rather than just plain old murder.
* ''[[Billy Frontier]]'' has an unusual spin on this where rather than simply being the first to draw after a signal, you also have to play a LITERAL [[Simon Says Mini Game]] during the “glare at each other sullenly” stage.
* ''[[Red Dead Revolver]]'', being a love letter to the [[Spaghetti Western]], has this as a frequent occurrence. Not only is there a [[Whole
* ''[[Live a Live]]'' has one of the A variety in its Wild West chapter. The protagonist and his nemesis each take five steps (on account of the small viewing area), draw and shoot... at two different outlaws hiding on the sidelines.
* Parodied in ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]] Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal'': After Guybrush has rearranged the mysterious wind idol near the Vaycaylian Wind Control Device, De Singe arrives with a rifle and demands that Guybrush surrender his Poxed hand. A brief period of staring silence follows, complete with close-ups of both Guybrush's and De Singe's faces in a style parody of ''[[The Good, the Bad
* Tin Star is full of this, they're Always comical too, if you miss one of the shots you may kill a passing bird or even shoot down the belts from your opponent, causing his pants to fall down.
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[
* Spoofed in the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' cartoon ''Drip-Along Daffy'': Daffy and Nasty Canasta do version A, but before a single shot is fired, Porky defeats Canasta with a wind-up toy soldier... with a ridiculously powerful musket. The crowd already has Porky up on their shoulders when Daffy, still walking towards the showdown, realizes what happened.
* [[Bugs Bunny]] ''literally'' expands the town for Yosemite Sam in the cartoon ''Bugs Bunny Rides Again''. Sam doesn't care.
* Featured in a ''[[
* ''[[An American Tail]]: Fievel Goes West'' had one, though it was at sunset and not at noon.
* One episode of ''[[
* ''[[Teen Titans (
* Played nasty and played straight in the ''[[Adventures of the
* ''[[The Backyardigans]]'', being the kid-friendly show it is, played this relatively straight, replacing the shootout with a ping-pong match.
* In the ''[[
* An episode of ''[[
* ''[[
▲== Real Life ==
▲* Ironically, in matter of historical fact gun duels have been more common among upper-class "gentlemen" who put great value on personal honor, rather than the lower-class characters who dominate Westerns. Perhaps the most famous example of such a duel is the 1804 duel in which American Vice President Aaron Burr killed Treasury Secretary [[Alexander Hamilton]]. The difference here is that dueling pistols were not at all accurate nor meant to be
▲** According to the book ''Founding Brothers'', the two witnesses they had brought along agreed in writing that Hamilton fired first and missed, then Burr fired two or three seconds later, fatally wounding Hamilton. Whether Hamilton missed deliberately or Burr intended to miss but hit by accident is a matter for speculation.
▲** Also, the showdowns happened at high noon (yes, they really did) so that neither participant would have more of the sun in their eyes than the other, and it'd be a fair draw.
▲** In an episode covering duelling, the documentary series "Tales of the Gun" indicated that high quality duelling pistols were in fact made to be extremely accurate (or at least as accurate as unrifled flintlocks and percussion cap pistols could be).
▲* James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok gunned down a man by the name of Davis Tutt in 1865 in Springfield, Missouri, in a rare example of a bona fide Wild West "quickdraw" showdown. After winning about $200 in a poker game against Tutt's compatriots—who were playing with Tutt's money—Tutt alleged that Hickok owed him $35 from a previous game; Hickok claimed the debt was only $25. Tutt seized Hickok's prized golden pocket watch as collateral. Humiliated but outnumbered, Hickok warned Tutt not to wear the watch in public. Tutt brazenly assured Hickok that he would be wearing it first thing in the morning. Hickok then calmly told Tutt that he would shoot him if he saw him wearing the watch, then pocketed his winnings and left. True to his promise, Tutt openly wore the watch in the town square the following day. Word quickly reached Hickok's ears and, after a final round of negotiations failed to settle the debt, Hickok walked into the square just before 6 p.m., pistol drawn, sending everyone except Tutt running for cover. Wild Bill cocked his pistol, holstered it and called out to Tutt, "Don't you come across here with that watch." Tutt said nothing, but stood with his hand on his pistol. At a distance of about 75 yards, both men "stared down" the other for a brief moment. Tutt drew first, Hickok raising his Colt Navy in response. Each man fired one shot at almost exactly the same moment. Tutt missed. Hickok was luckier: his shot struck Tutt in his left side between his fifth and seventh ribs. Hickok was charged with manslaughter. However, in his trial, the judge informed the jury that, while Wild Bill was technically guilty of the crime he was charged with, they may decide to apply the "unwritten" law of a "fair fight." The jury took no more than a couple of hours to bring back a not guilty verdict.
*More often averted then played straight. Dueling tended to follow [[Ten Paces and Turn|the same rules]] as the East while random mayhem could be any way to do a man to death. Obviously criminals would not fight like gentlemen and lawmen would not waste their lives fighting mere criminals without backup so occasions for this trope were uncommon. In point of fact the favorite tool of gunslingers was the shotgun.
**The [[Knife Fight|Bowie]] was closer to being the [[National Weapon|regional innovation]] in dueling for the West then the "Highnoon quick draw". Westerners were in general less formal about how they killed each other then Easterners. However the Eastern methods never really lost favor until dueling itself had lost favor. They had a [[Good Old Ways|tradition behind them]] after all. In any case it would be absurd for a lawman to want to give an outlaw a fair chance as if he was a gentleman; for one thing it would be imprudent; more to the point it would imply that the outlaw stands equal in respectability.
**What did often happen was that an angry person would spontaneously reach for his gun forcing would-be target to do so. This does not really qualify as dueling as it is not prearranged according to tradition. It is better called mayhem. The movie version is basically a merging of this kind of street fight, and the real life traditional Western duel which is just the [[Ten Paces and Turn|Eastern duel]] with some of the ceremony streamlined out.
***A rough and ready version was for two people who were ''really mad'' at each other to leave the saloon to avoid causing collateral damage and then shoot at each other until one was hit or they ran out of bullets. Note that there was [[Combat Pragmatism|no question]] of keeping the gun in the holster until the fight began and the contestants started with gun in hand. Making it really a less refined version of [[Ten Paces and Turn]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Guns and Gunplay Tropes]]
[[Category:Fight Scene]]
[[Category:The Wild West]]
[[Category:Showdown At High Noon]]
[[Category:24-Hour Trope Clock]]
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