Unorthodox Reload: Difference between revisions

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* Alucard from ''[[Hellsing]]'' uses his teeth to pull back the slide on his pistol and chamber a round (either one) after setting in a magazine. Unless you have jaws of steel, don't try this at home kids.

** In the [[Gecko Ending|finale]] of TV series he also used telekinesis to pull a magazine from across the room. He didn't catch it - it went straight into the gun.

* Rally Vincent in both the Manga and Anime of ''[[Gunsmith Cats]]'' has at least one scene in either version of the series in which she reloads her CZ-75 pistol by dropping a fresh magazine onto her foot (a necessity in the manga, with one broken arm as the result of an accident) and then kicking it up into the magazine well of the gun before popping the slide release to chamber a round.

* In ''[[Appleseed Ex Machina]]'', the cyborg Briareos stores spare magazines inside his [[Artificial Limbs|cybernetic forearms]] making reloading his [[Guns Akimbo]] a trivial matter.

** While still firing at her opponents with the other one. Now that is [[Badass]].

* Signum of ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]'' casually flicks a Cartridge - basically something that resembles a bullet but is just storage for an extra burst of magic - into the chamber of her weapon in the second episode of the second season.

** Swapping cylinders was a reasonably common way of reloading at some points in history, for those gunfighters who could afford spare cylinders. Particularly those who favored the Remington 1858 New Army. [[Clint Eastwood]] reloads that way in ''[[Pale Rider]]'' (using an aforementioned 1858, albeit one converted use cartridges). Probably the fastest way to reload a six-gun until the invention of the speedloader.

* [[Private Military Contractors|Mana Tatsumiya]] from ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' does a [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v30/c276/6.html magic reload].

* Subverted by [[The Gunslinger|Kanna]], of ''[[Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto]]'', who [[Guns Akimbo|dual wields]] [[Revolvers Are Just Better|revolvers]], and reloads using speedloaders.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In ''[[The Rundown]]'', the character played by Dwayne Johnson flips [[Guns Akimbo|two shotguns]] up-side down and backwards and then snaps them between his arms and torso to pump them in an instant.

** Earlier in the movie, he inverts this by ejecting a magazine to make his target slip on the floor.

* ''[[Equilibrium]]'' deals with this by having the main character have mechanisms under his sleeves that loads his pistols with fresh magazines. This does not explain how exactly the mechanism works however, or how many magazines it holds. He also has sort of elaborate decoy magazines (mags with specially weighted bottoms that he tosses to the floor). When he needs to reload he brings his guns down on the mags.

** Presumably the sleeve system works only once, otherwise he wouldn't have bothered with sliding the weighted magazines on the floor or getting the assault rifle for the final burst.

* The T-800 in ''[[Terminator]] 2: Judgement Day'' would cock a lever-action shotgun by flipping it over his fingers while using the other hand to handle a motorcycle. You can tell they used two different props for that scene: one with a larger loop to flip and another with a regular sized loop to fire with. In real life, flip-cocking would snag the wielder's fingers and probably break them (this almost happened during filming), though it's obviously not a problem for a [[Hollywood Cyborg]] with a titanium steel endoskeleton.

** Chuck Conners used the flip-cock method for his rifle in ''[[The Rifleman]]''.

*** It should be noted that the rifle had a custom, circular loop to facilitate the flip-cock.

** Possibly in a [[Shout-Out]] to this, Jill in ''[[Resident Evil|Resident Evil 3]]'' can obtain the Western Custom, which she reloads each shot in this manner. It actually makes her a [[Badass Normal]].

** Ditto for the Model 1887 Akimbo Shotguns in ''[[Call of Duty|Modern Warfare 2]]''. It appears the weapon is based on the John Wayne custom design. A single Model 1887 is cocked properly.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BxbTSaxduA This video] shows two different [[Unorthodox Reloads]] of the T2 style shotgun being performed with success (the difficulty and awkwardness is evident). Note that the gun shown does not have a large loop and in fact has no trigger guard. The half cycle spin method appears to be a more practice one-hand method. Also note that the person actually lets go of the gun entirely then catches it during the full cycle reload. The video also demonstrates full cycles with another model of shotgun that appears much less difficult to cycle in this manner.

** Ramón Rojo in ''[[A Fistful of Dollars]]'' casually does the half-cycle spin at the beginning of the final showdown.

* This very style is parodied in ''[[Hot Shots]] Part Deux'': Ramada pumps and shoots her shotgun [[One Handed Is Cool|with one hand]]. When she pumps it for the third time, however, the gun rips off the grip and flies off-screen.

* During the hospital shootout in ''[[Rush Hour]] 3'' Zhang Jingchu picks up a magazine and somersaults over a mook to give the magazine to Jackie Chan who then jumps on and rides on a cart in order to load the magazine into Chris Tucker's gun.

* Two characters do this in ''[[Pom Pom And Hot Hot]]'', an unusually titled 1992 Hong Kong film. Shooter Yin, the boss of the two leads, does near magical reloads on two separate occasions. On the first, he empties a revolver of spent shells, than grabs six loose bullets and throws them all at once perfectly into the chambers. Later on, he has a gun magazine knocked out of his hand, so he flips his leg sideways and kicks it back up - straight into his pistol. A villain in the film manages to SPIT a bullet into the chamber of his revolver at another point in the film.

* Expert marksman and [[Gun Fu]] practitioner Agent Zero from ''X-Men Origins: Wolverine'' solved the dilemma of reloading while dual wielding by kicking up two magazines into the air, then simultaneously feeding them into both of his pistols...IN SLOW MOTION.

* In ''[[Kick-Ass]]'', Hit Girl, while fighting in a corridor, throws two new magazines out in front of her, then, while running, and slides her pair of guns over the new magazines that are more-or-less hovering in the air and happen to have rotated perfectly to be pointed to lock into place.

* In ''[[Hawk the Slayer]],'' the character Ranulf loses a hand, rendering him unable to reload his crossbow in a normal fashion. He compensates by using a self-loading crossbow with an entire magazine of bolts. This isn't your garden variety (i.e. real world) [[wikipedia:Repeating crossbow|repeating crossbow]] though, this is your terrible B-movie repeating crossbow - basically a submachinegun that fires arrows.

 

== Literature ==

** This is theoretically possible if you drop it into a hip holster that can hold a break-top revolver while it's open. If anyone's [[Badass]] enough to do that while under fire without dropping rounds everywhere, Roland probably is. We should assume this is maybe the most efficient way to reload a revolver, but takes maybe 20 years of obsession to be able to learn.

* Subverted in [[Nation]] when Mau takes note that Cox must reload with two hands.

* [[Prince Roger]] in John Ringo's "We Few" does a quick reload in a hyper-real MMFPS that fools his potential allies into thinking he used a cheat. Actually {{spoiler|he palmed the replacement magazine.}}

 

* In "The Big Bang Job" episode of ''[[Leverage]]'', Eliot secures the magazines of his [[Guns Akimbo|twin pistols]] by pressing them against his hips and pulls back the slides by holding one pistol upside down over the other so he can hook the rear sights together and pulls the pistols in opposite directions. This example is made even more interesting by the fact that Eliot [[Doesn't Like Guns]].

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** It is technically possible to do this in 3rd edition as well, with two feats (rapid reload and quickdraw). According to a literal interpretation of the feats, you put one crossbow away, reload the other, put that away, take the first one out, reload it, and pull out the second crossbow. [[Super Speed|All in the time it takes]] [[Talking Is a Free Action|to discuss combat tactics]].

 

== Video Games ==

* Nero in ''[[Devil May Cry|Devil May Cry 4]]'' has a similar revolver-reloading technique to Rushuna (above), substituting his gun hand for the cleavage because the other arm is immobile in a sling.

** Lady was into this trope first. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgrTU241hzI See?]

** There are several popular theories among ''Marathon'' fans as to what this mechanism is. The best is that spinning the shotgun around its lever generates electricity, which is used to teleport shells into the chamber.

* The protagonist in [[Advent Rising]] apparently reloads all guns by twirling them around Western-style... including ''rocket launchers''.

* In the ''[[Killzone]]'' games, virtually ALL of the Helghast weapons have an interesting or unusual reload animation (especially evident in ''Killzone 2'') because the Helghast seem to prefer large cylindrical magazines over plain straight or curved magazines. For just one example, the magazine of the StA18 Pistol is identical that of the to a Russian-made PP-19 Bizon submachinegun, as is that of their SMG.

** To their credit, the Helghan weapons hold ''significantly'' more ammunition than the equivalent Allied weapons. While the standard assault rifle holds 30 rounds, the Helghan assault rifle holds ''75'' (or 60 depending on the game). However, this is offset by the fact that the recoil for the Helghan weapons is cylindrical instead of straight up (that is, when you shoot, the bullets will eventually go ''around'' the target instead of ''above'' it), also helghan automatic weaponry is less accurate at longer ranges compared to their ISA counterparts.

* In the game ''[[Stranglehold]]'' the only time Inspector Tequila ever reloads is when he is about to unleash his barrage attack.

* The ''[[Half Life]]'' mod, ''The Specialists'', made with an action movie flavor, features several different kinds of guns that can be taken akimbo. The more unusual reload animations include putting both guns into one hand to load new magazines simultaneously, or simply dropping the guns and pulling new ones out from off-screen.

** Simlarly, the mod SMOD for Half-Life 2 brings in a [[Matrix]] feel. Including dual pistols and SMGs. They reload the same way, in which the character will ''spin the guns around their fingers'' and use centrifugal force to pull the spent mags out, and then ramming in new ones. [[Memetic Badass|Pretty damn badass.]]

* In ''[[Max Payne 2 The Fall of Max Payne]]'', both Max and Mona can reload their weapons when they're in [[Bullet Time]] by spreading their arms out and doing a quick 360-degree spin to eject the used magazine. This is the only way to quickly reload many slow-loading guns, such as the sawed-off shotgun (which normally takes a long time when you're slinging lead with bad guys).

** Also, you reload your dual pistols by simply tossing them away and drawing another pair. Unusually for a videogame, this does waste any ammo in them.

** Also of note, in a late-game shootout, a retired mobster, who is missing his legs and 1 arm and thus can't fight, is still helping by loading guns for you. He chambers the first round using his teeth. It's impressive to see, honestly.

** Except KAEDE. In fact, this is one of her two balancing measures (alongside [[Glass Cannon]]): she deals good damage and has a scope, letting her nail the enemy's weak spots from long range with consistency, but she reloads at a realistic pace - which in this game means it takes forever. It takes forever and a ''day'' if you reload while still aiming, as she fumbles the reload.

** Some [[Truth In Thelevision]]. In the American civil war, soldiers would frantically reload their muzzle loader muskets at point blank range and even when clearing trenches, since trying to stab an enemy with the bayonet would also mean being in range of the bayonets of all his buddies.

** Back to ''3'': Rather than reloading the M37 a shell at a time, Naked Snake pulls a cylinder full of shells from his hip, places one end into the shotgun, slides his hand up the length of it to load the shells into the gun, and then pumps it to remove the cylinder.

* ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' features the [[AKA-47|Broken Butterfly revolver]] which Leon reloads in a pretty badass way. Since it's a break-open revolver, he flips down the barrel to break it open, unloads the spent bullets over his shoulder, ''throws'' three bullets into it (regardless of how many he actually has to reload) and flip-snaps it shut. What makes it awesome is that, even without a reload speed upgrade, that procedure takes about ''two seconds''.

** It returns in ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'', and you can see that Chris is actually loading the bullets two at a time.

* The now-defunct MMORPG ''[[Tabula Rasa]]'' generally used fairly realistic reloading animations, but a few months before it was canceled they added [[Guns Akimbo|dual pistols]] based on popular demand. They were reloaded by simply spinning them, Western style.

** Then again it ''is'' Virtual Reality.

* ''[[Gears of War]]'' has the Active Reload function, in which the player can reload their gun more quickly if a button is pressed at just the right moment, as well as gain a temporary increase in damage. If they miss however, the gun jams and reloading takes longer than usual. Note that the standard (long) reload is actually an orthodox reload, as the character goes through the motions of carefully inserting more ammunition. The active reload is the Unorthodoxy, where the character circumvents procedure for speed.

* As a by-product of ''[[Halo]]'' star Master Chief's ability to go Guns Akimbo, he can reload either gun at any time with one hand, ''even while firing his other gun!''

** What's more impressive is that he can do that [[Up to Eleven|while climbing a ladder]].

** Which does not explain the climbing a ladder in half ton armor while using your hands to reload and or shoot.

** Don't forget the Vanu and Terran rocket launchers; each one is about the size of your body, and you somehow manage to reload it when the magazines are on the ''back'' of the shoulder mounted launcher. Apparently, Vanu and Terran soldiers have rubber arms, else the rocket launcher would go through their head when reloading.

* In ''[[Western Outlaw]]'' and ''[[Darkest of Days]]'', you get equipped with a muzzle-loading revolver. Since muzzle-loading each individual round would take way too long for gameplay purposes, your character simply pulls out the cylinder and pops in a new one every time they reload.

* Any time the Boss dual-wields pistols/SMGs in ''[[Saints Row]]'', he (or she in the second one) just sort of flips them around without actually touching the mags or even any ammo. [[Rule of Cool|It's that kind of game.]] Reload animations in ''The Third'' all actually ''look'' like reload animations, but upgrades allow you to speed up how fast the animations play out and get back to the shooting quicker.

** The Scout reloads his pistol by dropping the magazine out, flipping it on his finger by the trigger, inserting a new mag in, and completing the spin. Also, he doesn't insert or eject anything from the Lugermorph when he reloads it, only pats the grip of the gun. He never actually reloads his scattergun, either, he only ejects the spent shells.

** The Soldier jams four rockets at once into the front of his tube-shaped launcher's barrel. He doesn't load any rockets into any of his other rocket-using primary weapons when reloading.

** When reloading the shotgun and Reserve Shooter, the Pyro doesn't insert any shells, appearing to flick the air underneath the gun.

** The Heavy pumps the entire shotgun when reloading the Family Business.

** When the Engineer reloads the Pistol (same pistol as the Scout's), he jams a new one in backwards. As with the Scout, he merely pats the grip when reloading the Lugermorph

* There was a button in ''[[The Punisher]]'' video game for the Xbox that let you kill practically any normal [[Mook]] with a melee/point blank attack with whatever weapon you're currently holding. For one of the shotgun melee kills The Punisher hits the barrel of the shotgun to the guy's gut and uses the victim's own terrified grip on the forearm to help him load another shell with another jab forward, to eventually blast the poor guy in the stomach.

* In ''[[Monday Night Combat]]'', the Sniper reloads both his sniper rifle and his SMG behind his back.

* Reloading the FAL in ''[[Call of Duty]]: [[Modern Warfare]] 2'' shows your character removing the old magazine by smacking the release lever with a new one before inserting that ([[Good Bad Bugs|with the new mag clipping through the trigger guard on the way]]).

* The MP7 in ''[[Red Steel]]'' has the same basic reload animation as the Mini-Uzi (replace the magazine, pull back the charging handle), except for this gun Scott decides to use his ''mind'' to pull the handle back (likely because the MP7's handle is in a different location than the Mini-Uzi's and [[They Just Didn't Care|they didn't want to put much effort in a different animation for it]]).

* [[Serious Sam]]'s revolvers are loaded by shaking the cylinder loose and then shaking it back into place. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that the revolvers have [[Bottomless Magazines|techno-magical ammunition replenishers]].

 

== Web Original ==

* This [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT9SFfnqMGQ particularly unorthodox reload] has to be seen to be believed.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Guns and Gunplay Tropes]]