History Main / BangBangBANG

* Played straight in ''Film/TheGodfather'': as Mike prepares to hit Solozzo and [=McClusky=], Clemenza explains the loudness of his gun: "Yeah, I left it noisy - that way it scares any pain-in-the-ass innocent bystanders away."

* Played with in ''Franchise/StarWars'' - when Luke and Leia are about to swing over the gap [[NiceJobBreakingItHero because Luke shot the bridge control panel]], Leia fires a shot from a blaster - and a ''.44 Magnum'' sound effect plays instead of the usual blaster sound. This came down to a production error. The Stormtooper blaster rifles are cosmetically altered real guns (British-built Sterling sub-machine guns), firing blank rounds for smoke effect. They simply forgot to dub over the pop of the the blank in that scene, and apparently never corrected it.

* Both ''Film/{{Shane}}'' and ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' deliberately made the gunshots much louder than the rest of the noises in a given scene, specifically to make them much more shocking. One anecdote has Redford at the British premiere of Bonnie and Clyde noticing the gunshots aren't loud enough, so he rushes to the projection booth. Sure enough, the projectionist had a chart marking the time for each gunshot, and was manually turning down the sound at those moments. He is purported to have said, "This is the worst sound editing I've heard since Shane, all the gunshots are too loud."

* The MG 42 was infamous for its [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ptqNMGg948 distinct sound]], due in large part to its [[MoreDakka high firing rate]] - the human ear is almost entirely incapable of distinguishing the individual gunshots when there's upwards of 20 of them going on in one second. Almost every nickname it earned was due to the sound it made. American troops called it "Hitler's Zipper", while the Germans themselves were known to call it the "Buzzsaw".

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' averted this with the 9mm USP Match. Which had a rather disappointing (but fairly realistic) "PAFF PAFF" sound.
** The original ''Half-Life'' played it totally straight with the Colt Python.

* The Rifle power for blasters in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' is ''all about'' classic movie gun sounds -- with a different one for each "power" your rifle gains.
** As is the [[GunsAkimbo Dual Pistol]] power set.

This is not to say gunshots are ''not'' loud; quite the opposite, a gunshot is the loudest normal sound a human being is likely to hear, which is why ear protectors are mandatory in firing ranges. Hollywood gunshots are usually much too ''quiet'' relative to other sounds, with a character in one scene able to shout as loud as a shotgun blast in another. This is really an AcceptableBreakFromReality; most shooting enthusiasts will suffer from some degree of sound-induced hearing loss due to their hobby, and movie sound systems typically aren't designed to output noise above the human pain threshold anyway. Therefore we are given [[TheCoconutEffect standard sounds that represent gunfire]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}'' averted this with the 9mm USP Match. Which had a rather disappointing (but fairly realistic) "PAFF PAFF" sound.

* ''Franchise/StarCraft'': The Marines are outfitted with "Gauss Rifles" that, based on the name, should accelerate bullets using electromagnetic coils yet, for some reason, make generic rat-a-tat sounds as if they were propelled by gunpowder.

* According to the DVD commentary for the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' movies, the sound used for Indy's handgun was actually a 30/30 rifle, to make it sound more impressive. Astute viewers will note that these movies adhere to the "distinctive gunshot per character" motif as every handgun Indy uses ''always produces the same sound.''

Characters in fiction never seem to flinch or be in pain from the sound of gunshots, even when firing fully automatic weapons in confined spaces. People on TV never experience tinnitus or hearing loss, even temporarily. TV characters have the ability to [[AcousticLicense fire their weapons and also hear tiny noises or whispers at the same time]].

* An accidental example in ''Franchise/{{Halo}}: For ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', Creator/{{Bungie}} mastered the weapon sound effects with an LFE component (the .1 in 5.1 surround sound). For most parts of a recording, this sound-effect-to-LFE transition ("bass management") is actually meant to be performed by the home user's sound system, so in this instance the bass on the guns was doubled-up. This was corrected for ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'', leading to a more accurate sound which initially seemed weaker. Strangely enough, the silenced SMG in ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'' is ''louder'' than the original version.

* Accidental video game example: for ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', Bungie mastered the weapon sound effects with an LFE component (the .1 in 5.1 surround sound). For most parts of a recording, this sound-effect-to-LFE transition ("bass management") is actually meant to be performed by the home user's sound system, so in this instance the bass on the guns was doubled-up. This was corrected for ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'', leading to a more accurate sound which initially seemed weaker. Strangely enough, the silenced SMG in ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'' is ''louder'' than the original version.

* Averted in the first person shooter series ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', the guns sounding pretty realistic as long as you turn the volume loud enough.

* ''VideoGame/{{Counter-Strike}}'' also plays this with the [=H&K USP45=] and the Glock 18: since the Glock eats 9 mm parabellum rounds and the [=USP45=] uses the more powerful .45 ACP rounds, they basically made the USP's bang more low-pitched to make it feel more powerful. This may be an [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Acceptable Break From Reality]] though: remember video games must also give some feedback to the player, and in this case, the user knows the difference between the Glock and the USP's power by the detonation.

* It is customary for the sound volume of individual shots to be inversely proportional to rate of fire. A minigun tends to sound like "prrrrrrrrrr" (see the one in ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'') while a pistol goes "'''BANG BANG'''".

* In Vietnam, some US soldiers took to stealing AK's from dead NVA/VC soldiers. Aside from souvenirs, they did this because the AK has a rather distinct sound among assault rifles, so they could use them against the Viet Cong to sow confusion amongst them in battle. Unfortunately that tactic was more harmful than beneficial in some cases since, upon hearing the distinctive report of AK-47s, U.S. soldiers would often assume the fire was of enemy origin. This led to some UnfriendlyFire incidents.

* The MG 42 was infamous for its [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ptqNMGg948 distinct sound]], due in large part to its [[MoreDakka high firing rate]]. Almost every nickname it earned was due to the sound it made. American troops called it "Hitler's Zipper", while the Germans themselves were known to call it the "Buzzsaw".
* An example of how gunshots aren't always recognizable is the assassination of Reynaldo Dagsa, a Filipino politician who became famous for inadvertly capturing his killer in a family photo. The assassin was standing right behind the victim's family when he fired the fatal shot, but they just saw Dagsa fall down and didn't immediately realize he had been shot. Namely, the assassination took place during New Years' celebrations, and they mistook the sound of the assassin's .45 caliber handgun for a firecracker.

** The same goes for the Magnum in ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'', which uses a [[StockSoundEffects stock sound]] often used for shotguns. In fact, the shotguns in this game use the same sound.

* In the second ''VideoGame/{{Turok}}'' game, all of the guns that both the player and enemies use have unique sounds, though none resemble anything that would be realistic. The two biggest offenders have to be the Firestorm (a plasma [[GatlingGood gatling gun), which essentially winds up from the aforementioned "minigun purr" to something that sounds like ''screams'' as it fires, and the Cerebral Bore, which makes sounds unpleasantly like a dental drill. Which is arguably fitting, since it fires homing needle-pods that ''drill out the victim's brains''.

* The German [=MP40=] (also called the Schmeisser) has been described as sounding like "the scariest sewing machine you'll ever hear". [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQo9yZT_m8w Listen for your self]]; you need to take the volume down a bit to eliminate the high range that would not carry over any significant distance. The quote probably dates to a time when most people would be more familiar with the sound of a sewing machine than automatic gunfire, and refers only to the regular nature of the sound rather than the precise sound of the shots.

* Any movie in which there is a minigun. ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' had a powerful metal-like noise for its minigun, while the noise made by the one in ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' was more electric (ironically, the physical gun used in both movies is the same). Of note that those artificial noises always make the weapon sound like it's shooting far fewer bullets than it does in reality. A real electric Gatling gun's sound is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1xIGm5GYp0 completely different]]. The buzz-saw sound of a Gatling gun is so unusual that the sound effect is normally a gun shooting far SLOWER than an actual Gatling gun would shoot.
** One of the elements in the ''Terminator 2'' shotgun blast was a lion's roar. How BadAss is ''that''?
*** Other elements include ''two'' cannon shots laid on top of each other.
** One of the documentaries on the "Ultimate Edition" DVD mentioned how the sound technicians had to fabricate a new sound effect for the minigun because the thing just made a droning noise when recorded at its normal speed. As shown in the above-referenced Website/YouTube videos -- the sound effect used for miniguns in movies is a slightly-sped-up sound from a [=M2A1=] .50 caliber machine gun being fired. To hear what the weapon (commonly called a Ma Deuce) sounds like, it is shown on the History Channel series ''Mail Call'' being fired in a non-range situation.
** ''Terminator 2'' also featured a bit of an inversion, as the T-800 and Sarah Connor fired off their weapons (a shotgun and a pistol respectively) in the middle of an elevator, with no hearing protection, and seemed no worse for wear; however, the prop guns they were using obviously DIDN'T follow this trope, and since Linda Hamilton failed to put her hearing protection in correctly, she suffered permanent hearing loss as a result of the scene.

** This might be Justified in-universe by Clemenza giving Michael a pistol that really does sound that loud (as in a fairly large caliber snubnose) which WOULD have such an effect, particularly in the confines of a restaurant. The gun he DOES have in the film doesn't fit the necessary profile too well, though.
*** The gun in the film is most likely a .38, and the barrel was about an inch long, a revolver of that size would have an extremely loud cracking sound. General rule of thumb: the shorter the barrel on a gun, the louder the report, and revolvers as a whole are louder than most automatic handguns, since a large degree of the noise is caused by gas escaping through the gap between the cylinder and the barrel.

** In fact the sound of gunfire in the bank robbery gun fight in ''Heat'' is the original on site recording rather than dubbed in sound effects. That's the reason why the shots sound a bit scratchier compared to other scenes where guns are fired.

* Played with in ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead: Rave to the Grave'', in which the handguns used by the men in black suddenly shift from pistol sounds to ''machine-gun'' sounds when they start [[MoreDakka firing faster]].

* ''Franchise/StarCraft'' is horribly guilty of this. The Marines are outfitted with "Gauss Rifles" that, based on the name, should accelerate bullets using electromagnetic coils yet, for some reason, make generic rat-a-tat sounds as if they were propelled by gunpowder.
** Actually, a significant amount of gunfire's noise is generated by the bullet's sonic boom, and since the Gauss Rifles marines carry are specifically described as accelerating their projectiles to hypersonic speeds, they could easily retain the rat-a-tat sound effect.
*** Furthermore, the exact mechanism of the Gauss Rifles is unclear: they are magazine-fed and eject brass casings. It's entirely possible it's some sort of hybrid arm, with a gunpowder charge AND magnetic acceleration.
*** The intro cutscene in ''Brood War'' clearly shows that the rifles produce muzzle flash (never mind in-game), which a coilgun would not do (unless added as a visual aid for the Marines' benefit, maybe?).
*** The muzzle flash ''can'' happen with railguns, and in fact does with most modern working prototypes, but in the modern case it's friction-heat built up as the slug flies down a barrel designed to be mounted in at the least a large vehicle if not a small warship, banging along the sides the whole way. Both the shot AND the impact are much, much more pyrotechnic than you'd expect from a purely magnetic weapon, just because of the energies involved; they also tend to cause horrendous damage to themselves, and one of the primary obstacles to overcome is [[AwesomeButImpractical having to swap the barrel out after nearly every single round fired]].

** This is actually a case of WriteWhatYouKnow. Many of the developers at Obsidian were really into guns before hand and had done lots of research on them for ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'' & ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', which couldn't really pull off this effect. This knowledge really got around the office too as Project Director Joshua Eric Sawyer was not a gun person at all (he's a very left-leaning guy) but over the course of development became a bit of a gun nerd and wrote an entire faction (the Mormon New Canaanites from Honest Hearts) with an accurate history to their relationship with guns and their militia (though most of this wasn't used in-game).

*** The sound of the bolt mechanism ejecting the shell.
*** Almost any semi-automatic rifle will have a very distinct metallic component to it due to the action (ringing of recoil spring, sound of the bolt hitting home, etc). Normally this can't be heard at a distance over the muzzle blast, but if you are the actual shooter, the action noise becomes a big part of the sound produced by a gun firing. Even if you had a [[HollywoodSilencer magic silencer that turns the muzzle blast into mouse farts]], the action noise on some weapons (such as an AK) is loud enough to leave your ears ringing.

* Black powder guns actually do tend to have a ''bit'' of the bass "booooom" effect that's added to most gunshot sound effects. Also, some of the smallest guns make the biggest noise. [[http://www.naaminis.com NAA minirevolvers]] in .22 magnum are known for sounding a lot like movie SFX.
** Shorter barrels translate directly to a bigger bang, since much of the gunpowder hasn't yet been consumed by the time the bullet clears the muzzle (it also explains another reason short barrels reduce projectile velocity; bigger bang means more powder going to waste).
* In Vietnam, some US soldiers took to stealing AK's from dead NVA/VC soldiers. Aside from souvenirs, they did this because the AK has a rather distinct sound among assault rifles, so they could use them against the Viet Cong to sow confusion amongst them in battle.
** Unfortunately that tactic was more harmful than beneficial in some cases since, upon hearing the distinctive report of AK-47s, U.S. soldiers would often assume the fire was of enemy origin. This led to some friendly fire incidents.

** Both an example and an aversion. While none of the survivors seem to suffer ill effects from the sound, the General screaming 'cease fire' at the top of his lungs goes unheard in the shootout.

** Partially averted in one scene where the T-1000 fires his police-issued sidearm; it sounds quite understated in comparison to your normal Hollywood gunshot.

* In ''TheMenWhoStareAtGoats'', a group of paranoid security personnel in Iraq start shooting up a market after mistaking a car backfiring for a gunshot.

* Averted, of all places, by SoBadItsGood CultClassic Irish martial arts movie, ''FatalDeviation''. [[KungFoley The punches and kicks are actually louder.]]

* Unsurprisingly, Homicide's themes tend to feature a lot of gun bangs, particularly in the International Wrestling Cartel and when he used 50 Cent's ''You're not ready'' in Wrestling/RingOfHonor. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiz4xAVzpf0 here's]] the theme Wrestling/{{Konnan}} did for him.[[/folder]]

* Hunting rifles being fired in the distance in a forest, will sound very similar to movies where guns are fired in the distance in some abandoned forest; a muffled, medium-high pitch crack, followed by a bassy echo. However, they will be exponentially louder in volume the closer you get to the source; a gun fired a mile away will be as loud as thunder rumbling a couple miles away. A quarter mile? A head on car collision. Within a few feet? As loud as a thunderclap hitting a tree a couple houses down from your house.

* The MG 42 was infamous for its [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ptqNMGg948 distinct sound]], due in large part to its [[MoreDakka high firing rate]]. Almost every nickname it earned was due to the sound it made. American troops called it "Hitler's Zipper", while the Germans themselves were known to call it the "Buzzsaw".

** The Russian SVD has a loud booming noise. However, the Chinese SVD (Type 79/85) ejects the shell extra hard. Their [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK3m_h0t0gE QBU-88]] also makes the same noise.

* Unsurprisingly, Homicide's themes tend to feature a lot of gun bangs, particularly in the International Wrestling Cartel and when he used 50 Cent's ''You're not ready''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiz4xAVzpf0 here's]] the theme Wrestling/{{Konnan}} di for him.[[/folder]]