History Main / ChandlersLaw

* This is very common advice for [=GMs=], newbie and veteran alike. Any GM of any description has experienced the awful feeling of their table group starting to screw around and make their own fun because they've grown bored with the plot. This is the smart GM's cue to have a surprise, unkown antagonist leap into the king's throne room and immediately start cracking heads or, if the party is bored of constant fighting instead of talking, to suddenly have the monster's boss walk in, surrender and attempt to talk it out.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' uses this a lot, the episode starts with Mordecai and Rigby taking part of something plain or mundane, then before you know it, an EldritchAbomination comes out of nowhere, a normal person exhibits supernatural powers, a normal object comes to life...and more.
[[/folder]]

* Season 6 of the aforementioned ''Buffy'' has a literal example; they beat the bad guys, and Buffy and Xander are happily reuniting in her garden after the stresses of the last few weeks, and Willow and Tara are back together after the stresses of the last few ''months''... then Jonathan turns up with a gun and starts shooting.

* Discussed on ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-book-marketing-stunts-that-backfired-spectacularly/ here]] at entry #5 where the author Ray Dolin was using his [[WalkingtheEarth hitchhiking across America]] experiences to write a book up until a mysterious man shot him in the arm on a drive by shooting, creating a whole new turn of events. [[spoiler: It turns out the mysterious shooter never existed, Dolin had just shot himself on the arm to either draw publicity to his upcoming book or because he needed a plot twist to make his story more interesting. ]]

* Chandler's successor, Robert B. Parker, used this trope often with ''Literature/{{Spenser}}''. Being [[BoringInvincibleHero Spenser]], he usually turns the tables on his attackers. He ran into this so often that you kind of started to think that if the bad guys had just sat tight, Spenser wouldn't have had any leads to follow.
* In Creator/StephenKing's book on writing appropriately titled ''On Writing'', he mentions the use of this rule to overcome a serious case of writer's block when working on ''Literature/TheStand'', namely, by having [[spoiler: Harold and Nadine place a bomb and kill several of the main characters, including Nick Andros.]] And then [[spoiler: another bomb, this one nuclear, killing tons more characters.]]

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

--> Then -- out of the blue -- ninjas attack.\\

[[folder:Film]]

* Used in Creator/RaymondChandler's Literature/PhilipMarlowe novels, [[TropeNamer naturally]]. Even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] viciously in ''Literature/TheLadyInTheLake'' when Marlowe confronts a character and they pull a pistol:
-->[[MediumAwareness "I've never liked this scene,"]] I said. "Detective confronts murderer. Murderer produces gun, points same at detective. [[JustBetweenYouAndMe Murderer tells detective the whole sad story, with the idea of shooting him at the end of it.]] Thus wasting a lot of valuable time, even if in the end murderer did shoot detective. [[PlotArmor Only murderer never does.]] Something always happens to prevent it. [[DeusExMachina The gods don't like this scene either. They always manage to spoil it.]]"
* In Creator/StephenKing's book on writing appropriately titled ''On Writing'', he mentions the use of this rule to overcome a serious case of writer's block when working on ''Literature/TheStand'', namely, by having [[spoiler: Harold and Nadine place a bomb and kill several of the main characters, including Nick Andros.]] And then [[spoiler: another bomb, this one nuclear, killing tons more characters.]]
* LawrenceBlock also does this. In a book on writing, he illustrated how to maintain conflict between a protagonist and a grizzly bear until the protagonist starts escaping down the river. "Then you give the bear a canoe..."

* Justified and Lampshaded in Jasper Fforde's ''[[Literature/ThursdayNext The Well of Lost Plots]]'': early in the book, Thursday purchases a 'Suddenly, a shot rang out!' plot device from one of the Well's wordsmiths. Later, when she's in a situation she can't get out of, she cracks it open...and Suddenly A Shot Rings Out! The Bookworld being what it is, there's also a logical, in-universe reason for this to happen, besides Thursday using the device.
* In ''[[Literature/{{Changes}} Changes]]'' from ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', Harry has been strapped to a bed by his friends (ItsALongStory, and ''not'' what it sounds like), and a hit-man, presumably sent by the vampires, walks in. Naturally, the shit hits the fan almost immediately.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]
* In the American version of ''[[Series/TheOfficeUS The Office]],'' Michael Scott misuses this trope constantly at his improv class. Any time he is called to act in a scene, he pulls out a gun to increase drama because "you can't top it". Of course, nobody can top it and it ruins every improv exercise the class attempts.
** In fact, improv classes usually state as one of the first rules of scenework that pulling a gun is a "weak choice" -- as pointed out above, it keeps everyone else in the scene from contributing anything. Not to say it never happens, of course, or that it can't work when it does happen.
* {{Lampshaded}} in ''Series/ThePretender''. Jarod narrates that when in doubt, have a man walk in with a gun. A man walks in with some ice cream. As he corrects himself in the narration, the man asks Jarod whether he is Dick Dickson (who Jarod is currently pretending to be). When Jarod answers in the affirmative, the man promptly draws a gun.
* Creator/JossWhedon has been quoted as saying that whenever they needed to add to the drama in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', they'd get someone to point a gun at [[TheHeart Kaylee.]]

** In "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", Ian holes up with a group of survivors and things are looking quite optimistic for him, so he and the others are promptly attached by a horrible flailing monster called a Slyther that apparently the Dalek Supreme keeps as a pet. At around the same time, Susan is attempting to go through sewers with resistance members and is attacked by some [[StockFootageFailure stock footage of a rather small alligator.]]
** "Genesis of the Daleks" has a truly amazing sequence where the Doctor and Harry are being about five minutes too efficient at infiltrating Davros's lab, and so get attacked by a giant orange polystyrene land clam when [[IdiotBall Harry steps in it after the Doctor points out to him that it should be avoided]]. The clams are apparently one of Davros's experiments, but what purpose they could possibly have is never explained.
** "The Big Bang" has the stone Dalek that chases the characters around the museum, handily breaking up exposition ''three times''. Its existence is a plot-relevant clue, at least.
* Creator/JimHenson once commented on his pre-Muppet puppet sketches that when he couldn't think of how to close a sketch, he'd either have an explosion or have one character eat the other. It's pretty clear that this carried over to ''Series/TheMuppetShow''.
* ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' has Alan, while writing a movie in a coffee shop, getting writer's block several times and solving it by having a meteor hit the characters.
* Occurs in the ''Series/BreakingBad'' episode, "Dead Freight". Walter, Jesse, Mike, and new NiceGuy Todd, rob a train to get a massive amount of methylamine. The robbery goes off without a hitch, but as the crew are celebrating they see a young boy on a dirt bike watching them. Cue seemingly NiceGuy Todd calmly pulling out a gun and [[WouldHurtAChild executing the kid with no warning whatsoever]], to end the [[WhamEpisode episode.]]

* Subverted on ''Series/{{Cheers}}''. One eleventh season episode opens with Norm and Cliff lazily wondering what they're going to do since they're rather bored. While they're thinking this over, Andy Schroeder [[note]]The mentally unhinged man who tried to kill Diane during a performance of ''Othello''.[[/note]] bursts in wearing a belt made of dynamite and demands to see Diane. After Woody informs him that Diane hasn't worked there in years, Andy just leaves and Norm and Cliff go back to discussing what they're doing that day.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E19Manhunt Manhunt]]", Captain Picard indulges in a holodeck session as Dixon Hill, but he's only there to relax and kill time, not to engage in a story. Despite his objections, the holodeck interrupts his reverie with increasingly disruptive plot hooks--the last of which is literally a thug bursting through the door with a Tommy gun--because "the flexibility of the program is limited to the parameters of the Dixon Hill novels". Raymond Chandler was a major influence on the Dixon Hill "franchise".

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Film/{{Aquaman}}'': Several moments of dialogue are cut off by a huge explosion or attack of some sort.

[[caption-width-right:222:The readers will never [[{{Pun}} see this coming!]]

[[caption-width-right:222:The readers will never [[{{Pun}} see]] ''[[{{Pun}} this]]'' [[{{Pun}} coming!]] ]]

->'''Jay:''' I think Creator/ShaneBlack did some rewrites on this movie.
->'''Josh:''' He did such a good job that a truck explodes to stop [the protagonists] from talking.
->'''Rich:''' That's the screenwriter saying, "We've got to stop this banter immediately! Abort! Abort!"

* Happened during Season One of ''Roleplay/TheMassiveMultiFandomRPG''. The game stalled due to one of the players going VillainSue (there being little prior GM oversight regarding the players' power levels), attacking the other players and easily withstanding everything they threw at him. The GM resolved the stalemate by having a [[Franchise/StarTrek Borg Cube]] suddenly appear in the sky and crush the player character, not only getting rid of the Sue but also jump-starting a new plot arc with the Borg attacking the city.

* ''Film/TheBoondockSaints''
** While the film is practically made of "People Busting Through Doors and Shooting At People," there is one scene that particularly feels like this trope: The main characters are even bored, and the plot is kinda on hold; suddenly, their best friend kicks through the door and starts waving his gun around and screaming for everyone to pack their shit.
** It turns out the friend bursts in panicking because [[spoiler:he just shot and killed three people in broad daylight.]]
*** After they wrote about him bursting in, they asked themselves "now why did he burst in like that?". That's the whole point of the rule: it gives you a new direction to take and hopefully find yourself back on track. Sounds like it worked in this case.

->'''Jay:''' I think Creator/ShaneBlack did some rewrites on ''[Theodore Rex]''.
->'''Josh:''' He did such a good job that a truck explodes to stop them talking.

* In ''[[Literature/{{Changes}} Changes]]'' from ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', Harry has been strapped to a bed by his friends (ItsALongStory), and a hit-man, presumably sent by the vampires, walks in. Naturally, the shit hits the fan almost immediately.

* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' uses this a lot, the episode starts with Mordecai and Rigby taking part of something plain or mundane, then before you know it, an EldritchAbomination comes out of nowhere, a normal person exhibits super natural powers, a normal object comes to life...and more.

* ''Webcomic/MenageA3'' had perhaps fallen into something of a rut by the end of volume 5, although lead character Gary had at least just escaped from a protracted car-crash relationship. So the writers applied this principal twice over, perhaps even to excess. First, another of the lead characters' boyfriend came through a door (and into the middle of a lesbian orgy) with a startled expression, and then, one strip later, it turned out that Gary had just come through an international plane flight with a naked {{transsexual}} lingerie model.

-->-- '''''WebVideo/BestOfTheWorst''''' on ''Film/TheodoreRex''

-->--'''''WebVideo/BestOfTheWorst''''' on ''Film/TheodoreRex''

--> Then -- out of the blue -- ninjas attack.
--> Thank God.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* There was an issue of ''TheFlash'' where Wally was involved with an uncomfortable relationship talk with his girlfriend. The captions really sum it up best:

* Chandler's successor, Robert B. Parker, used this trope often with {{Spenser}}. Being [[BoringInvincibleHero Spenser]], he usually turns the tables on his attackers. He ran into this so often that you kind of started to think that if the bad guys had just sat tight, Spenser wouldn't have had any leads to follow.

* Happens in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'', when Bond is being tortured by Le Chiffre for information. Bond points out that he will never give up the information, and Le Chiffre can't kill him without it, so he decides to ''castrate'' Bond. [[spoiler: Armed men enter and kill Le Chiffre.]]

[[caption-width-right:222:[[HijackedbyJesus The readers will never]] [[{{Pun}} see]] ''[[{{Pun}} this]]'' [[{{Pun}} coming!]] ]]

[[quoteright:222:[[{{Jesus}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/JesusGunDoor.jpg]]]]

->'''Rich:''' That's the screenwriter saying, 'We've got to stop this banter immediately! Abort! Abort!'