Smoking Gun: Difference between revisions

 

Sometimes other [[Courtroom Antic|courtroom antics]] are pulled to buy time if it is known the '''Smoking Gun''' will arrive soon.

{{examples}}

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In the film [[Legally Blonde]] towards the climax, Elle manages to pull one hell of a witness testimony and succeed just as she wanted. {{spoiler|Chutney states she had gotten a perm, then takes a shower at home a while later. Elle manages to catch there'd be no way she could have as she'd ruin the perm, and begins proving it with a series of fact paced comments stating why it's impossible. Chutney gets stressed and reveals herself as the culprit. While there technically was no introduced evidence, no character in the trial had picked up on the fact, thus Chutney's hair became the evidence.}}

 

* The [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] mystery novel ''Clouds of Witness'' ends with a Smoking Gun, namely {{spoiler|the victim's suicide letter, which he sent to his ex-lover in America. To get the letter back to London in time for the trial, Lord Peter has to take an airplane... and in the year 1926, a transatlantic flight is no laughing matter. It's dramatic all right.}}

* In [[John Hemry]]'s ''Rule of Evidence'', Paul Sinclair dredges up evidence at the last moment that the newly installed system on the ship could have caused the problem they were blaming on sabotage. Specifically, the evidence includes a warning of problems the system could cause ... and the description in the warning is essentially identical to what actually happened. Someone in the government had concealed that evidence; the prosecutor <ref>who helped get the evidence introduced, even though it trashed the case she'd been making</ref> and the judge were '''NOT''' happy with whoever it was.

* In the trial of Tycho Celchu in the ''[[X Wing Series]]'' novels, there are two smoking guns. The first is a surprise witness (Who the prosecution and defense were both fully aware of and trying to bring in, it's just that he had only come forward as a witness less than a day before), who was killed before he could testify. The other is yet another surprise witness, who neither prosecutor or defense knew about until he walked into the courtroom - {{spoiler|the man that Tycho was on trial for murdering}}.

 

** In an earlier episode, Majors Burns and Houlihan managed to have Colonel Blake arrested for "giving aid and comfort to the enemy". Hawkeye and Trapper arrived at the last minute with one of the "enemy" Blake was accused of aiding; a pregnant South Korean villager (North Korea was the enemy during that war, not South) who was dislocated when her village was bombed. When Burns refused to back down from his trumped-up charge, Hawkeye produced another smoking gun—a letter revealing Burns' affair with Houlihan, which he threatened to send to Burns' wife. The charges were dropped forthwith.

{{quote|'''Meg Craddy''': (Indicating the pregnant villager) This is an example of Henry Blake's work!

* The Canadian TV series ''Exhibit A: Case Studies In Forensic Science'' played with this trope in its accounts of Canadian crime investigations. At some point during each episode, host Graham Greene would present what he called "Exhibit A", the piece of evidence that typically broke the case for the police.

 

* ''[[Chicago]]'': The District Attorney *thinks* he has a smoking gun, in the form of Roxie's diary being read into evidence by Velma Kelly. {{spoiler|Oops. Turns out it was a [[Xanatos Gambit]] by Billy Flynn. He gave the DA the diary in plea bargain to save Velma. Regardless of what happened in the courtroom, he saved at least one client.}}

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

*** This is doubly subverted in case 3 of game 3, where {{spoiler|Gumshoe gets the fingerprints on a bottle of medicine owned by the victim tested and confirmed to be that of the witness, Furio Tigre, and this occurs at the very last second. However, since the witness has already admitted that he met with the victim, the fingerprints are just redundant evidence that don't prove that the witness actually murdered the victim. Then Phoenix pulls the old trick of [[I Never Said It Was Poison|lying about the evidence in order to trick the witness into revealing knowledge about the murder]]. So the evidence was crucial after all.}}

** Subverted in additional case of first game against {{spoiler|Damon Gant}}. Presenting certain piece of evidence that wasn't introduced to the court will cost you the case and end up with instant game over. First You have to {{spoiler|trick Damon Gant, who happens to be Chief of Police, to approve of this unregistered evidence, then show it's real meaning to the world}}.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* [[Karate Bears]] found [http://www.karatebears.com/2012/02/smoking-gun.html the smoking gun] they had it.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In one episode of ''[[Gargoyles]]: The Goliath Chronicles'', Goliath clears his name of jewelry theft by conning a confession out of the real thief and getting it on tape, then arriving in the courtroom with the thief and the tape.

* A repeated Christmas special by [[Cartoon Network]] [[Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer]] has the grandson Jake clearing Santa's name with surprise evidence and no backing from anyone other than his own knowledge by proving the real culprit {{spoiler|his Cousin Mel. To do this, he enters the courtroom, states that Cousin Mel gave the cake that grandma had "Reindeer Nip", which caused the reindeer to make a U turn and slam into her. That, along with a note that says essentially "It's okay, I'm Santa, I'm going to take your grandmother to the north pole to heal, causes his cousin to confess and get herself arrested.}} Almost as if the writers knew this was impossible, the prosecution attempts to object, and the judge never acknowledges that he said anything and let's Jake keep talking.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Surprise Tropes]]