History Main / HollywoodSilencer

* In the book ''Vengeance'', which chronicles the creation of the Mossad in retaliation for the 1972 massacre in Munich, spends time explaining the creation of the "assassin bullet," which was a 22 caliber bullet with roughly half the grain count of a normal round. This kept the muzzle velocity low, and helped to cut the noise to a loud pop, described as no louder than a champagne cork being popped. In the first use of this bullet, [[spoiler: the driver of the getaway car has to confirm with the assassin that the hit has been carried out, as he couldn't hear the noise made inside the lobby of the apartment building he was sitting in front of.]]

* ''RedFaction''
** ''Red Faction'' - The silencer in this FirstPersonShooter makes your pistol both inaudible to guards and more accurate. Granted, the game takes place in the future, but other than that there's not even a LampshadeHanging or a HandWave to justify it.
*** Actually, silencers/supressors can slightly increase the accuracy of weapons by lengthening the barrel. Depends on weapon and bullet and yadda yadda but that's the least far fetched aspect of the gun (many games do the exact opposite).
** ''Red Faction 2'' has a silenced SMG which seems to the player to be only slightly quieter than the pistol. It also seems to be useless, however, since the majority of the game involves head-on attacks with no need for stealth - and given the insane firing rate of the SMG (which releases a five-round burst with a single tap of the Fire button), it seems difficult to believe that any guard would have difficulty locating the shooter if that guard had the ceaseless muffled coughs of a silenced SMG to go off.

* Parodied in ''Film/LesTontonsFlingueurs'', a 1963 French movie. There is a gunfight scene, involving at least half a dozen people, each one wielding a silenced gun making a different sound, including one of a bottle being uncorked. ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4Uwm6zWl_A the scene]])

* ''Film/ConAir'' - When NicolasCage's character stumbles on a betrayal plot, he tells a would-be gunman that if he fires his weapon, others would hear the shot come and investigate. The other man wordlessly replies by attaching a silencer to his pistol, to which Cage delivers the classic line: "Well hoo-ray for the sins of fucking silence!"

* Inexplicably, ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' played this trope straight and then averted it in the same episode. A silenced pistol is so quiet that nobody even notices anything until blood starts spreading on Stephanie's dress. Later, [[spoiler: Diane Simmons]] is about to kill [[spoiler: Lois]](with an unsilenced weapon), you hear a bang, [[spoiler: Diane]] drops dead, and [[spoiler: Stewie]] is seen with a smoking sniper rifle, which clearly has a silencer. Interestingly, the guns work [[RuleOfDrama exactly as they need to for each scene to work.]]
** The played straight example can be argued. The silenced pistol was fired at the same time that Brian popped the cork on a champagne bottle. So it is possible that either the gunshot was covered up by the pop of the cork or that the gunshot was mistaken for the pop of the cork.

** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps2'' features a revolver that fires shotgun shells - and despite both of those things, you can attach a suppressor to it.

* ''Film/ConAir'' - When NicolasCage's character stumbles on a betrayal plot, he tells a would-be gunman that if he fires his weapon, others would hear the shot come and investigate. The other man wordlessly replies by attaching a silencer to his pistol, to which Cage delivers the classic line: "Well hoo-ray for the sounds of fucking silence!"

* ''{{Payback}}'' uses the pillow version of this with a revolver.

* In ''SpyHard'', the trope is parodied: baddies use a pillow to silence the noise of the machine gun used to execute prisoners, who were ''mimes'' that "refused" to talk.
* Averted in ''Film/RoboCop''; Clarence Boddicker has a fairly large silencer on his pistol when he visits Bob Morton, and it doesn't make the "fwip"; it does what a real silencer does and turns a sharp crack into a dull thud that's still pretty loud.

** Yet another JamesBond aversion in ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'': On the stealth ship, Bond's suppressed Walther P99 sounds probably just a little less loud then it would without the suppressor.

* ''GunsmithCats''

** Subverted in ''[[GunsmithCats Gunsmith Cats: Burst]]'' when Misty customizes a Python revolver to accept a suppressor, only to be chewed out by Rally because (with the weapon being a revolver) the suppressor has no effect.

* ''GunslingerGirl'' - In this firearms-heavy anime and manga series, one of the characters, Henrietta carries a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_P90 Fabrique Nationale P90]] as her standard weapon (in a violin case, just to be cute). Later in the storyline she uses it with a silencer (or more properly a suppressor).
* Averted in HighschoolOfTheDead. Hirano hands Saya an [=MP5=], warning her that even with a suppressor, any shots will still be audible enought to be heard by [[NotUsingTheZWord them]].

A video game-specific version of this is when a suppressor [[ArbitraryGunPower reduces the damage]] of the weapon.

* Another Ukranian video game, ''{{Metro 2033}}'' from 4A Games features a successor of the ''Vintorez'' and ''Val'' - the ''VSK-94'' silenced sniper rifle.
** ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'' also has the option to buy suppressed versions of standard weapons, and these behave more or less realistically. They don't outright give away the character's presence the way an unsuppressed weapon would, but nearby foes will notice the noise and start actively looking for the player if they were previously idle or patrolling.
*** However, the game also features a supressed revolver which draws a similar level of attention.

** It also averts this in one other case: a Varmint Rifle with the suppressor modification will be ignored by enemies other than the one you shoot (if he survives), but the unique Ratslayer variant, which comes with the same modification, will alert enemies near your target. This is technically a bug, although it does make sense anyway - the Ratslayer is coded to [[LudicrousGibs remove body parts with killing shots]] (the Varmint Rifle is not), which would naturally be louder and more suspicious than someone just dropping normally.

** There are also subsonic 9mm rounds that are significantly quieter than regular 9x19mm pistol rounds, especially when used in conjunction with a silencer. Most firearm rounds travel at very high velocity, breaking the sound barrier, and a silencer can't affect the sonic boom of a bullet that's already left the barrel. Subsonic rounds remove the "crack" of the bullet breaking the sounds barrier, leaving only the small explosion which, inherent to the process, occurs in the chamber of a weapon that is being fired... and ''that'', a silencer can, well, silence. Somewhat.

* The famous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingram_MAC-10 Ingram MAC-10]] was originally designed for use with a highly advanced two stage suppressor that reduced the sound of the subsonic .45 ACP projectile firing to below that of the action cycling. Inverting the trope this weapon is almost always encountered in media without the suppressor, which makes it somewhat awkward to fire given its highly compact length. The threading on the short belies the intended configuration.

* ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' has the famous VSS ''Vintorez'' sniper rifle and AS ''Val'' assault rifle that use special subsonic cartridges and a highly effective integral suppressor -- it gives a report similar to BB-gun as well as metallic ''clank'' from the action. Another Ukranian video game, ''{{Metro 2033}}'' from 4A Games features a successor of the ''Vintorez'' and ''Val'' - the ''VSK-94'' silenced sniper rifle.

** It is so silent because it doesn't fire the grenades very fast for a weapon (76m/s, 249ft/s). The MGL depends on the explosives of the grenade to do the damage, rather than sheer kinetic energy like a bullet uses. And no silencer on Earth or anywhere else can silence the Boom.

* In the {{Batman}} story ''TheLongHalloween'', the main assassin uses the teats from baby bottles as one-shot silencers. This is apparently ''somewhat'' effective with small, low-powered rounds in RealLife.

* Made light of in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Marge finds that a pre-made pancake mix bottle makes farty noises, and proceeds to attach a silencer to it, giving it the trademark "phut" sound.
** And again in the episode when Homer buys a gun, as the salesman informs him about the various accessories on offer:

* There actually exists a cannon silencer, or more percisely [[http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/10/16/worlds-largest-gun-suppressor/ a sound suppressor used on an atillery firing range to make accomodations to nearby residents.]] In this case, it doesn't so much reduce the noise, but to channel the sound into the air and away from people.

** In the original three games, the "SC Pistol" (an FN [=Five-seveN=]) has a suppressor that is (semi-)realistically (in)effective. Most enemies will notice the suppressed sound, unless they are standing very far away, or the sound is drowned out by heavy machinery.
** ''Conviction'' went the other direction: suppressed weapons are impossible for enemies to hear, even that suppressed fully automatic assault rifle you're firing from five feet away. Of course, if you're shooting more than two bullets from ''anything'', you're going to be spotted unless you kill the targets you're shooting at. Taken to fully ridiculous levels when, through pre-order bonuses, you can acquire a suppressed SPAS-12 semi-automatic ''shotgun'', and still retain the shotgun qualities of the weapon (bullet spread, etc.).

* In ''VideoGame/RainbowSix: Vegas'' and its sequel, your character apparently has a HyperspaceArsenal full of silencers that will fit onto the barrels of pretty much ''any'' pistol, submachine gun, or assault rifle. You can't silence some of the weapons in those classes, however, and with the exception of the integrally-suppressed SR-25, ''none'' of the shotguns, [=LMGs=] or sniper rifles can be suppressed either. Your allies also avoid the hyperspace arsenal bit - they only ever carry two primary weapons, one of which is an [=MP7=] with a suppressor they never remove (if you tell them to go loud, they just switch to their other gun).

* ''[[FarCry Far Cry 2]]'' has the Dart Rifle. The Sniper Rifle thwipping puts enemies on alert without revealing your exact location, unless the round goes whizzing past someone's head, in which case they will immediately find you, the Silenced [=MP5=] is only slightly quieter than without silencer, however the same basic detection rules as with the Dart Rifle seem to apply. The Silenced Makarov [=6P9=] is complete with thwip, and has same rules for stealth.
** ''[[FarCry Far Cry 3]]'' plays the trope very straight, allowing hollywood silencers on almost every weapon with no apparent downsides.

* Played straight in ''[[VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany Battlefield Bad Company 2]]'' -- The two silenced semi-auto sniper rifles are completely silent, even if an enemy player is right next to you, and you fire past them, they can't tell where it is coming from until you hit them. The silencers on the submachine guns are fwippy, too. The gunshot sounds in that game are generally pretty accurate with echo and resonance, too.

* ''MedalOfHonor'' plays realistic takes on this one on-and-off: the first game has the silencer reducing the sound to a rather realistic muffled bang, whereas Allied Assault has a hand-loaded silenced pistol where all the sound comes from the mechanism. Either way, shooting it will cause any nearby Nazis to notice.

* Parodied in ''Les Tontons Flinguers'', a 1963 French movie. There is a gunfight scene, involving at least half a dozen people, each one wielding a silenced gun making a different sound, including one of a bottle being uncorked. ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4Uwm6zWl_A the scene]])

** John Kelly of ''Without Remorse'' home-builds a suppressor for his Colt .45, but that requires a full-blown Navy machine shop, several years' of special forces experience, and a caliber conversion kit to bring his Colt down to .22 caliber. He later does the same to a bolt-action .22 rifle after a few techniques for suppressing rifles' noises, too. Another scene from the same novel features a Navy chief building a suppressor for his assault carbine on the Boxwood Green mission: the gunfire could "only" be heard out to a hundred yards, as opposed to several hundred unsuppressed.

* In the first ''{{Jumper}}'' sequel, Reflex, a silenced pistol shot was described as being similar to someone stepping on a dry twig.

* Played straight in [[{{Crysis}} Crysis 2]] where a silencer can reduce the sound of a large pistol to a tiny click. Enemies are still alerted by this sound, though; the main benefit comes from not breaking out of stealth mode. Amusingly, the silencer works just as well when placed at the end of the shotgun.

** Played completely straight at least in ''Literature/DeadOrAlive'' where a special forces operative uses a silenced sidearm to quickly dispatch six insurgets sleeping in a small cave. None of them wake up in the process.

* In ''Film/{{Inception}}'', Cobb's silenced pistol does indeed make the "fwip" sound, however [[spoiler:did in fact only exist in the world of the dream so it can be assumed that Cobb simply used that to his advantage to make the silenced pistol actually be silenced]]. Also subverted in that when he uses it, he catches the bodies before they hit the ground as to not attract attention.
** He also catches the shell casings in midair, nicely accounting for the noise they'd ordinarily make when they hit the ground.

A black cylinder that screws [[GunAccessories to the end]] of any gun, from pistol to massive rifle, and reduces the bang to a soft "[-[[UnsoundEffect hwit]]-]" that nobody will hear. This sound is an example of TheCoconutEffect. RogerEbert likened it to a cat sneezing.