Shoot the Rope: Difference between revisions

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

 

 

You see, people may have only figured out how to do hanging consistently correctly in the nineteenth century, but then they started to do it the scientific way. Normal, "long drop" hanging kills by '''breaking the neck''' when done ''correctly''—that is, in a Robin Hood story the slowly strangling victim is not so implausible, because they haven't yet figured how much rope to use, and this often resulted in "short drop" hanging, where the body's energy is not enough to break the neck, and the rope just slowly strangle the victim.

* ''[[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.]]''}}

 

== [[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.

* 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''.

[[Category:Public Execution]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters]]