History Main / OneBulletLeft

* The opening cutscene of ''VideoGame/ThePunisher'' video game starts out with Frank only having one shell left in his automatic shotgun, and a squad of bad guys blocking his way to the exit. Frank shoots one of the them, and stalks towards them, the goons being too terrified to act. He then [[HeyCatch throws his empty gun at one of them]] and uses a knife to kill several of them, taking one of their guns in the process.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' and ''WesternAnimation/MerrieMelodies'': A common gag in various shorts where the antagonist uses a gun to try to shoot his prey, the gun becomes jammed and, upon investigating, is shot point blank (ergo, the gun chamber is freed). Most famous example is the hunting trilogy classic "Rabbit Fire", where an irritated Elmer tries to shoot Daffy Duck, but the gun locks up. Elmer remarks there were "no more buwwets" left in the gun -- a point that Bugs picks up and calls Daffy out on -- and the overconfident duck grabs the gun to make sure. Sure enough, there was "one buwwet left!"

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo'': During the fight between Mista and Sale, Mista is left with only one bullet. Proudly announcing it as if he was going to take full advantage of this one shot, Mista is, in fact, aiming to use Sex Pistols on Sale's own bullet to defeat him.

*** This makes Claptrap potentially devastating with something like a Ravager shotgun, as with the right shotgun grip he will always benefit from One Last Thing on all two shoots of the magazine.

* ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' has Claptrap's skill "One Last Thing", which on paper, appears as a carbon copy of Salvador's "Money Shot" from the previous game. However, as Claptrap lacks any ammo mitigation measures in a form of a skill like Inconceivable, it is incapable of continuously chaining shots for massive amounts of damage. But despite this, Claptrap's One Last Thing Bonus Damage is based on whenever the pellet or splash damage is present on the final round, meaning that guns with both impact damage and impact damage will get their respective bonus on the final and penultimate shot. This is because splash damage is created after the shot is fired, therefore it registers as being on the final shot when hitting an enemy [[https://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/t/guide-one-last-thing-analysis/4201]]. This makes Claptrap potentially devastating with something like a Ravager shotgun, as with the right
Shotgun grip he will always benefit from One Last Thing on all two shoots.

* ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' has Claptrap's skill "One Last Thing", which is basically a carbon copy of Salvador's "Money Shot" from the previous game. Unlike Salvador, he doesn't get any ammo mitigation to let him chain the effect.

* ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad''. Max has a scoped SKS rifle with only three rounds, and aims into the night toward the oncoming searchlight of the Bullet Farmer's vehicle (who, as his name indicates, has plenty of ammo). He uses two shots to no effect, so hands the rifle to Furiosa, who braces the rifle on Max's shoulder and fires a shot that shatters the searchlight, blinding the Bullet Farmer.
* An Australian movie ''The Last Bullet'' (1995) is about the SoleSurvivor of an Australian unit in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII versus the Japanese ColdSniper who killed the others, each down to only one round.
* In ''Film/{{Dredd}}'': Dredd, when cornered by [[spoiler:corrupt Judges]] and out of standard ammo, takes a desperation shot with his last remaining round: a [[StuffBlowingUp Hi-Ex]]. The victim's [[YourHeadAsplode head explodes]], making sure he won't be a problem. Unfortunately, this also clues in the last one that his gun is now empty.
* Doubled in the final battle in ''Film/BattleLosAngeles''. The final shot in the artillery barrage is coming into to destroy [[spoiler:the AttackDrone command center]], an alien ship is moving to intercept it, and Tech Sergeant Santos has a one shot [=AT4=] to try and destroy ''it''. [[spoiler:She shoots it down, and the artillery shell destroys the commander center]].
* ''Film/FinalJustice'', an [=MST3K=] fodder film, plays with this when Palermo and Sheriff Geronimo have their excessively long chase sequence. Both of them have six-shot revolvers and fire potshots at each other near the start, but as the chase continues Geronimo tells another agent - "We're both out of bullets. I'm gonna try and bluff him." Later on, they take aim at each other in an empty street - and both guns click, leading to the ''next'' part of the chase scene...

* ''Literature/TheHobbit'': Bard shoots the dragon with the only arrow he has left. Although more justified in this case, as the one left is also a special one inherited through generations, and just before the shot Bard is told the dragon's weak spot.
* In the novel ''Literature/TheRescuers'' by Margery Sharp, Bernard (a mouse) attempts to stop the human villain from climbing a ladder. Having failed with a sword and an axe, he throws the last weapon in his arsenal, a tiny dagger. The sharp sting of the knife causes the villain to lose his grip on the ladder and come crashing to the ground.

* In ''Stalin's Ghost'', a character has to reassemble a damaged automatic pistol while Literature/ArkadyRenko fights for his life against an assassin. He can't find a missing piece which means the weapon can't chamber another round once the first has been fired, so he has to make it count.
* ''[[LightNovel/ASimpleSurvey A Simple Monitoring]]'' has a death game in which each contestant receives a handgun with one bullet, with the last one standing being the winner. This forces them to use various tricks such as playing a recording of a gunshot to make the others think they've used their one bullet, pretending that an empty gun is still loaded, or [[spoiler:faking their own death by changing their one bullet into a blank.]]
* In the Dean Ing novel ''Cat House'', a compilation of short stories he wrote for Creator/LarryNiven's ''[[Literature/KnownSpace Man-Kzin Wars]]'' books, a human picks up a Kzinti energy rifle, smearing blood over the 'insufficient charge' light to hide it, and captures a Kzin. Having [[IGaveMyWord given his parole]], the Kzin asks about the rifle. The human says "It's not charged," and points it upward, pulling the trigger to demonstrate. As they watch the hut burn from outside, the Kzin mentions that there is a world of difference between ''insufficient'' charge and ''no'' charge.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
** Subverted in "Tabula Rasa", when many of the Losties think the marshal should be euthanized. Sawyer remarks on the appropriateness of there being one bullet left in the gun. Unfortunately, Sawyer shoots the marshal in the ''chest'', which doesn't kill him and makes his suffering worse.
** When Sawyer, Michael and Jin are captured by the Tailies, Sawyer's gun had a single bullet left over from the shark incident. Turns out to be very important several episodes later [[spoiler:when Ana Lucia uses it up (accidentally) shooting and killing Shannon.]]
* At the end of the episode "Revelations" of ''Series/CriminalMinds'', Reid pulls this trope off with a ''revolver''. (It's thematic, and also lampshaded.)
* Taken UpToEleven in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', with two full seasons of buildup. The heroes are hunting "the yellow-eyed demon" armed with six blessed bullets. By the time they catch up to the demon with the gun, they're down to one. [[spoiler:[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Dean doesn't miss.]]]]

* In ''Series/{{Bones}}'', episode "The Mummy in the Maze", Booth has a fight with a guy using a shotgun who has infantry military experience. Booth is using Brennan's gun because "it's too big for me," and we get this exchange: "How the hell does a guy with military training miss with a scattergun? What were you, Navy?" "Infantry! Which is how I know you're carrying the .50 caliber 500. That's 5 shots... and by my count, you only got 1 left!" A minute later, cue Booth killing him with the last shot.

* ''TabletopGame/StarblazerAdventures'', based on the 1980's British science fiction ComicBook. A character with the One Shot Left stunt may declare at any time that their ranged weapon only has one shot left. This gives their next shot a +3 bonus. (This is the ''same'' stunt as in ''TabletopGame/{{Spirit of the Century}}'' above, right down to the exact wording; the two games share the same basic system, although with ''Starblazer Adventures'' being a slightly later iteration there are some differences in detail as well as genre-specific add-ons.)

* The ''VideoGame/SilentScope'' series always does this at the end, forcing the player into a situation, such as shooting out a pane of bulletproof glass, where he must waste all but the last bullet of his existing magazine (or, if there's only one or two bullets left already, the last bullet of his next magazine) before confronting the last boss. As such, you ''have'' to get a headshot on him, or it's [[NonStandardGameOver game over with the bad ending]].
** Exception: ''Silent Scope 2'' forces this situation ''after'' the last boss is killed. Your last target is the handcuffs that connect him to the DamselInDistress.
** In ''Silent Scope EX'', the first two bosses are like this; failure to headshot will yield a big LifeMeter penalty and you'll be forced to repeat the mission.

* In ''VideoGame/SyphonFilterTheOmegaStrain'''s first bonus mission, Stone has a sniper rifle with only one bullet, and must kill enemies by [[NeckSnap snapping their necks]] until he finds the target.
* ''VideoGame/GHOSTSquad'' has a variant of this for the boss of mission 2: You get only one shot to headshot him, but that's because if you miss, he'll set off a grenade, not because it's your last bullet.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' uses this with some subtlety. Raynor always carries [[RevolversAreJustBetter his pistol]] around, but never uses it. It's not until later in the game when he [[spoiler: launches a boarding action on Mengsk's flagship]] that he checks his pistol and we see it loaded with only a single cartridge in the six-chamber cylinder. He simply clicks the cylinder back in place and holsters the gun, implying he only carries that single bullet for use against that one, specific target. In reality the bullet was more symbolic of setting right the past and redeeming his mistakes, [[spoiler:thus why he uses it in the GrandFinale to [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl Save the Girl]]]].
** In the beginning of the game, Raynor shoots the bar TV when Mengsk appears on it, but it's impossible to tell if that was his only shot.
* ''VideoGame/PointBlank'' does these with its infamous "sniping" challenges, where the player is given one shot to take down a small, moving target, such as a falling leaf or a tossed coin.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'' awards players a medal for destroying the last enemy vehicle in the battle with their last shell.

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}''
** The Gunzerker's "Money Shot" ability gives the last bullet in the magazine a damage bonus. While weapons with small magazines don't get much of a boost if any, he can still get far more consistent use out of the skill than you might expect by pairing it with "Inconceivable", which gives his shots a chance to not consume ammo, which means that last bullet can last him a while.
** [=Zer0=]'s "0ne [=Sh0t=] 0ne Kill" skill inverts this: the ''first'' bullet fired from a full magazine gets a big damage bonus.
* ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' has Claptrap's skill "One Last Thing", which is basically a carbon copy of Salvador's "Money Shot" from the previous game. Unlike Salvador, he doesn't get any ammo mitigation to let him chain the effect.
* ''VideoGame/Borderlands3'' has Moze's skill "Click, Click", which increases her gun damage as her magazine empties, with the final shot receiving the greatest bonus.

* ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' secretly makes the final bullet in a magazine do extra damage, in order to help create moments like this trope.
* ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'' has a medal for when this happens in a multiplayer match called “Last Shot.”

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' and ''WesternAnimation/MerrieMelodies'': A common gag in various shorts where the antagonist uses a gun to try to shoot his prey, the gun becomes jammed and, upon investigating, is shot point blank (ergo, the gun chamber is freed). Most famous example is the hunting trilogy classic "Rabbit Fire", where an irritated Elmer tries to shoot Daffy Duck, but the gun locks up. Elmer remarks there were "no more buwwets" left in the gun -- a point that Bugs picks up and calls Daffy out on -- and the overconfident duck grabs the gun to make sure. Sure enough, there was "one buwwet left!"
* Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' where a bulldozer is heading straight for a tree with a tree house the kids are in. They throw everything in the house including the sink (seriously) in its path but nothing stops it. Arnold grabs a coffee mug and throws it hoping to hit the brake lever. It misses by a good deal.
* ''WesternAnimation/MightyMax'': In "The Maxnificent Seven", one of the four heroes who goes with Max, Virgil, and Norman to the center of the earth to destroy Skullmaster's Crystal of Souls is Native American warrior and master archer Yona-Ya-Yin. He winds up having only one arrow left, which he uses to save the lives of Max, Virgil, and Norman [[spoiler: by tying a rope to his last arrow, with Norman tying the other end to himself, and shooting a dragon that was flying towards where the escape portal was.]]

* DoubleSubversion in the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' episode "Homefront". Artemis is the last remaining member of the team standing, has one arrow left in her quiver, and needs to make a million-to-one shot. She takes the shot, misses, and runs away to come up with a new plan. Inevitably, when she's ready to try the new plan she's only found one replacement arrow, giving her one shot. It works.

* ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'': Vash has used up five of his six shots to make a giant projectile veer off course from a group of incapacitated civilians. Vash ejects the empty cartridges (even saying "Only one bullet left, doc."), spins the barrel, locks it without looking, and shoots - he picked the right chamber. Somewhat {{justified|Trope}} in that [[spoiler: Vash isn't really human and may or may not have psychic powers]].
** Used epically in the FinalBattle; both Vash and [[spoiler: Knives]] end up with one bullet each in a random chamber of their respective revolvers, and [[spoiler: proceed to play an odd variation of Russian Roulette with their guns in each other's faces]].
* Is a major part of the ''Anime/GoShogun'' movie.
* In ''Manga/GunBlazeWest'' during a gun duel, Viu ''deliberately'' empties his gun of all but a single bullet in the belief that because he only has one bullet, his focus will improve and make that one shot count more than the others. It does.

* ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'': During their fight with the Grand Gundam, Chibodee runs out of bullets in his Gundam's revolvers, and George is down to a single AttackDrone. He provides the distraction while Chibodee uses the Attack Drone ''as'' a bullet to make the million-to-one shot that takes out the Grand Gundam.

* Subverted in Miyazaki's "Anime/CastleInTheSky". Deep in the floating city Pazu and Muska face each other down with guns raised. The observant, however, already knows ''both'' our hero's and the villain's guns are empty.
** However, Muska has reloads. [[spoiler:Fortunately, the battle isn't decided with guns.]]
* ''Anime/GunxSword'' has an exaggerated example. Wendy's revolver, inherited from her brother, starts out with one bullet... and stays that way for [[UpToEleven the entire series]]. [[spoiler: Fittingly, she uses it on said brother in the finale]].
* In ''LightNovel/{{Gosick}}'', Victorique, of all people, ends up with a single bullet left in a gun; though she needs it not to kill someone, but to [[spoiler:disable the bomb her train is heading towards]]. Halfway-subverted, though, because both she and Kujo know that there's absolutely no chance of the shot missing. In fact, she may have [[InvokedTrope wasted the rest of the bullets on purpose]]...
* Observant viewers who count the number of shots fired in the final episode of ''Anime/PsychoPass'' will know that there is only one bullet left in the revolver when Akane needs to [[PopTheTires disable]] the BigBad's escape vehicle. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome She makes the shot.]]

* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', Sasha Blouse ends up facing a Titan armed with only a bow and arrows. After missing the first two shots and taking out one of its eyes with the third, she has one arrow left. Rather than risk firing it and missing, she leaps up and stabs it in the other eye with the last arrow, then escapes.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'': A running theme during the movie. When he first arrives in town, Rango lies about killing seven men with one bullet, and then manages to (accidentally) kill the hawk using just one bullet. Then, during the climax of the film, Rango confronts Rattlesnake Jake with only one bullet left in his gun. [[spoiler:After Rattlesnake Jake backs down, the mayor forces Rango to hand over his gun, but Rango stealthily removes the bullet. He ends up using it to free himself and Beans from the bank vault they've been locked in.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' when Mulan fires the last rocket at Shen Yu, it goes over him. "He was three feet in front of you!". [[ExactlyWhatIAimedAt She was in fact aiming for the mountain behind the Huns]] in an attempt at starting an avalanche. It works.

* The end of the shootout/rescue scene near the start of ''Film/MissionImpossibleIII''. Of course, Hunt had been shooting excellently up into that point anyway, and wouldn't have checked his ammo if Ferris hadn't asked him how much he had left.
-->'''Farris:''' How many bullets do you have left?\\
'''Ethan:''' Enough. *shoots the last goon* Now I'm out.
* Clint Eastwood's ManWithNoName does this at the end of ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars''. He has one bullet left in his six-shooter, while the bad guy has one bullet in a rifle. Clint might have been lucky, but considering how badass the MWNN is, he was probably just that good. The point was that both of them have one bullet, but they have to load their weapons of choice first. And Clint's six shooter is faster to load than the BigBad's rifle. [[RuleOfCool Or So I Heard.]]
* Subverted in ''Film/TopGun'', in which [[AcePilot Maverick]] is sitting on one missile and facing 3 [=MIGs=] at the end of the climactic air battle... And then the [=MIGs=] retreat.
* From the 2000 film ''Film/ThePatriot'', Benjamin Martin deliberately saves a special bullet made from one of his murdered son's lead soldiers especially for the BigBad who killed him, Colonel Tavington. Subverted in that while he does get his final, poetic justice-y shot in on Tavington, a cannonball landing nearby throws off his aim and merely wings the villain, leading to a rather fierce duel between Benjamin and the now ''very'' pissed-off Tavington in the midst of the battle.

* The pipe bombs in ''Film/{{Tremors}}''. Val kills the last Graboid with the last pipebomb, although he uses it in a slightly different way than expected.
* Subverted in ''Film/Tremors2Aftershocks'': the heroes are trying to reach the last working vehicle in the area and escape a Shrieker pack, only to find the route blocked by one of the creatures. Burt Gummer has only one (enormous) bullet left for his (equally-enormous) rifle. He successfully shoots the Shrieker, but the bullet then punches right through a stone wall, several barrels, and wipes out the escape-vehicle's engine.
* ''Film/TheHost'', [[spoiler:where it is subverted. Turns out there were ''no'' bullets left, Gang-du just miscounted.]]
* ''Film/ShanghaiNoon'' has this in probable {{homage}} to ''A Fistful of Dollars''. [[spoiler: Roy O'Bannon has one bullet left in his gun, and says as much to his [[DirtyCop corrupt sheriff]] nemesis. Out of a "sense of fair play", the bad guy mimes emptying his still fully-loaded revolvers, leading to a final shootout with Roy's one bullet vs. the bad guy's 12. Roy gets him right through the heart -- and [[PocketProtector through his badge]].]] By the way, [[spoiler:this is the only time in the movie Roy successfully shot ''anything''. When he tells Jackie Chan's character, he doesn't believe him at ''all''. Roy notes that the baddie's bullets all went through the robe he was wearing without leaving a scratch on him.]]
-->'''Bad Guy:''' Now how the hell did that happen? ''[collapses]''
* The climax in ''Film/DirtyHarry''. Apparently the Scorpio Killer ''did'' feel lucky, that ''punk''...[[spoiler: he wasn't]].
--> '''Harry Callahan''': Ah-ah. Now, I know what you're thinkin'. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I kinda lost track myself. But bein' as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head ''clean off'', you've got to ask yourself one question: "''Do I feel lucky?''" Well, do ya, ''punk''?
* At the end of the western ''Film/BadGirls'' Kid Jarrett is apparently out of ammo, so Cody pops one bullet out of her gun and gives it to him, saying "Pick it up, put it in, die like a man."
* In ''Film/{{Freejack}}'': Descending in an elevator to escape the building, the hero and his girl knows they will face guards on the way out. He looks at his [[ViewerFriendlyInterface LED ammo counter]], sees it read "01", and remarks, "Think I can get them all to stand in a line?". Cut to a scene of the {{Mooks}} all lining up. [[SubvertedTrope But, at the last second]], the elevator is called to the BigBad's penthouse.
* A different take on this is shown in ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'' (2004), where [[spoiler:the Plucky Girl Reporter has one shot left in her roll of film. In the end, however, she forgoes the chance to photograph the scoop of the century to instead take a shot of her LoveInterest...only for him to reveal [[CameraObscurer she's left the lens cap on her camera]].]]
* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'', Captain Jack Sparrow was given a gun with a single bullet inside (all guns back then would have been single-shot) by Barbossa and the ship's crew after they mutinied against him and marooned him on an island, so he that could commit suicide. By the time the storyline begins, Jacks hasn't fired the gun for 10 years, [[ChekhovsGun because he's saving the bullet specially for Barbossa]]. It's a ''literal'' ChekhovsGun!
* Chow Yun-Fat embodies this trope in ''Film/TheReplacementKillers'' when, at the end of a Hong Kong-style gunfight, he comes face-to-face with his former employer and slaps his last clip in which has just One Bullet Left -- the [[MarkedBullet dragon-marked bullet]] that he promptly uses to end him.
** Another Chow Yun-Fat movie, ''Film/TheKiller'', has hitman Ah Jong living by these words: "I always save the last bullet, either for myself or for my enemy." The first time he says this, it's when he's demanding of his handler Fung Sei to know who took out the ContractOnTheHitman, and after a shootout in his apartment where Ah Jong defends himself and Fung Sei, it's revealed that he indeed had one more bullet. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:later on when Fung Sei goes to [[BigBad Wong Hoi]]'s residence to get Ah Jong's money and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown gets the living shit kicked out of him]], he ''doesn't'' keep a final bullet, and Ah Jong has to MercyKill him when he is gunned down by Wong's men at the church]].
* DoubleSubverted in ''Film/WildWildWest'': Artemis Gordon has a derringer with only one shot and only one chance to make an impossible shot to save Jim West's life. He fires, and misses. The villain delays killing West to mock Artemis for his failure, especially after the 'can I kill someone?' soul-searching he engaged in beforehand. Unfortunately, for the villain, [[ExactlyWhatIAimedAt Artemis wasn't aiming directly at him]].
* In ''Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix2004'', the protagonists have 5 cartridges to start the rebuilt plane's engine - the first three times it stalls, the fourth cartridge is expended to clean out the cylinders, and the last one, shockingly enough, works perfectly. (The [[Film/FlightOfThePhoenix1965 1965 version]] subverts this by having the engine start with the sixth cartridge of seven.)
* A different take on this trope is in ''Film/EightMM'' when the hero, whose gun has been unloaded and left on a table, only has time to load a single round in the chamber. And he's facing two criminals. While handcuffed to a desk.
* An InvokedTrope in ''Film/TheQuickAndTheDead''. Creator/RussellCrowe's character, preacher and ex-outlaw Cort, is always given only one bullet before each gunfight... so he won't try to shoot his way out of town and escape.

** Valentin Zukovsky in ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'' has precisely one bullet in his walking-cane gun, and has to decide between killing [[BigBadDuumvirate Electra]] and freeing Bond. [[spoiler:He chooses the latter]].

* ''Film/IronEagle'': By the time that Doug Masters is forced to face his nemesis, Col. Nakesh, his F-16 is down to a few hundred rounds of ammunition and a single missile... which misses. Nakesh has just enough time for some EvilGloating before it is revealed that the missile is a heat seeker, which comes around for a second pass...
* One bad guy tries to invoke this in ''Film/TheSabataTrilogy'': thinking that Sabata has fired his gun dry, he makes a dive for his rifle... only to have Sabata shoot it away using a second gun hidden in the first one's grip.
* Thoroughly {{justified}} in ''Film/TheCrossing''. Bad weather has forced the Continental Army to use bayonets rather than shooting because the powder's all wet, except for one soldier who sealed his musket--a weapon that has one shot anyway--with candle wax. He's the ''only guy in the army'' who can shoot, and [[spoiler:he uses the shot on Colonel Rall, mortally wounding him and ending the battle]].

* ''Film/TheHobbit''. In "The Desolation of Smaug" it's revealed that Laketown has only a single bolt of black iron capable of killing the dragon Smaug. When last used, several bolts failed to penetrate Smaug's thick scales, though one did knock loose a scale [[AttackItsWeakPoint creating a vulnerability]]. If you can hit it on the first go...
** For bonus points, the black arrows can only fired from a wind lance and there's only one of those left too. [[spoiler:Smaug takes it out before it can be used, but Bard, the guy who kills Smaug, turns out to be pretty good at coming up with Plan Bs.]]
* In ''Film/DeadInTombstone'', Guerrero is pinned down and out of ammo during his gunfight with Snake. He finds one bullet left in his ammo belt and uses it to deliver a MoeGreeneSpecial to Snake.
* ''Film/TheKillingRoom'' (2009). Three men are locked in a room for a psychological experiment that quickly turns lethal. It's implied that only one man is to be left standing. At one stage, a gun is thrown into the room. One man grabs it to shoot the other two, who tell him to check the magazine. It's empty, so there's just one round in the chamber. [[spoiler:Turns out the reason there's one bullet is to identify the man who's willing to commit suicide in a HeroicSacrifice, as the whole idea is to brainwash people to become suicide bombers. When he tries to shoot himself the weapon won't fire and his companion is terminated instead.]]
* The climax of the 1967 spaghetti western ''Film/DeathRidesAHorse''. The hero has tracked down and killed the men who murdered his family when he was a child, except for one, who turns out to be his mentor, now out of bullets. The hero gives him one bullet, having a single bullet left in his own revolver. However the man just rides off in a PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou trope, and the hero's bullets kills another outlaw who'd been about to shoot him.

* ''Series/ThePunisher2017''. In "My Brothers Keeper", Frank Castle finds himself up against Billy Russo armed with an assault rifle with drum magazine, while Frank has only the round in the chamber of his weapon.

* In the first version of ''Series/{{Zorro}}'', there's one episode where the title character is faced with a gang of outlaws, and only has a single bullet. He manages to buy some time by asking them [[ArmorPiercingQuestion "Have you already decided which of you is going to receive it?"]]

* ''Series/Adam12'': Late in the series' first season, Reed has the lesson of the importance of following direct orders to the letter brought home to him when, during a stakeout of a warehouse burglary, he is asked to not shoot unless absolutely necessary or when told. When the whole standoff ends and the robbers are captured ... Reed's gun has just one bullet left. (The argument being that, any time it takes – however fast – for the officers to reload would give the suspected robbers the opening they need to shoot and kill the officers.)

* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'', Captain Jack Sparrow was given a gun with a single bullet inside (all guns back then would have been single-shot) by Barbossa and the ship's crew after they mutinied against him and marooned him on an island, so he that could commit suicide. By the time the storyline begins, Jacks hasn't fired the gun for 10 years, [[ChekhovsGun because he's saving the bullet specially for Barbossa]].

* ''Halo5Guardians'' has a medal for when this happens in a multiplayer match called “Last Shot.”

* Played with in the conclusion of ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan''. [[spoiler: Wounded and immobile, Captain Miller]] pulls out his sidearm and fires it at an incoming tank. The bullets bounce off harmlessly until he fires the last one and the tank explodes. He then looks up in disbelief and sees the close air support that had really taken out the tank.

* In ''Disney/{{Mulan}}'' when Mulan fires the last rocket at Shen Yu, it goes over him. "He was three feet in front of you!". [[ExactlyWhatIAimedAt She was in fact aiming for the mountain behind the Huns]] in an attempt at starting an avalanche. It works.

** ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'' plays with this, with the characters being GenreSavvy and arguing about how a "one in a million shot" always works. So they get rid of all their extra arrows, and set up an increasingly convoluted way to fire the arrow to make sure that the odds of success are exactly one in a million. [[note]]They missed. Luckily, the odds of their survival if that one shot didn't work were ''exactly'' a million to one.[[/note]]
** In ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime'', the newly incarnated Auditors are so unused to physical sensation that chocolate will kill them. After the heroes think they've run out of suitable sweets, Miss Susan notes that there is generally one left among the empty wrappers.[[note]]A sizable group of them kill one another trying to get it. It destroys the lone survivor. [[/note]]

** Another Chow Yun-Fat movie, ''Film/TheKiller'', has hitman Ah Jong living by these words: "I always save the last bullet, either for myself or for my enemy." The first time he says this, it's when he's demanding of his handler Sidney Fung to know who took out the ContractOnTheHitman, and after a shootout in his apartment where Ah Jong defends himself and Sidney, it's revealed that he indeed had one more bullet. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:later on when Sidney goes to Johnny Weng's residence to get Ah Jong's money and gets the living shit kicked out of him, he doesn't keep a final bullet, and Ah Jong has to MercyKill him when he is gunned down by Johnny's men]].

** For bonus points, the black arrows can only fired from a wind lance and there's only one of those left too. [[spoiler:Smaug takes it out before it can be used, but Bard turns out to be pretty good at coming up with Plan Bs.]]

See Also: BottomlessMagazines & CountingBullets. If there is ''more than one'' target for said bullet, both of them critical, that's under SadisticChoice or FriendOrIdolDecision. Not to be confused with the trope where LeaveBehindAPistol, even though that pistol ''is'' usually left with a single bullet remaining.

See Also: BottomlessMagazines & CountingBullets. If there is ''more than one'' target for said bullet, both of them critical, that's under SadisticChoice or FriendOrIdolDecision.

** The Gunzerker's "Money Shot" ability gives the last bullet in the magazine a damage bonus. This amount is proportional to the magazine's size to a maximum of 12, and doesn't work for single-shot weapons, otherwise every shot would get a damage boost.

* ''[[LightNovel/ASimpleSurvey A Simple Monitoring'' has a death game in which each contestant receives a handgun with one bullet, with the last one standing being the winner. This forces them to use various tricks such as playing a recording of a gunshot to make the others think they've used their one bullet, pretending that an empty gun is still loaded, or [[spoiler:faking their own death by changing their one bullet into a blank.]]

* The recent {{NERFBrand Nerf}} guns tend to come with 'secret storage' for one more dart, either below the barrel or up the pistol grip. It's usually not one of the features on the box art.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty: World At War'' has a variant of this - the "Desparado" challenge has you kill an enemy with your magazine's last bullet.
** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' has one mission begin with you in a room full of mooks with one round left in your revolver [[spoiler: being forced to play Russian Roulette with one of your comrades]].
*** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' also features a multiplayer mode that has every player with a pistol (M1911 or PM), one bullet and ability to take one more bullet from a killed enemy. Missed the enemy? Your only hope now is a knife kill

* ''[[VideoGame/CounterStrike Counter-Strike: Source]]'' has the achievement "Magic Bullet" which involves killing an enemy with the last bullet you have loaded..
** The achievement points out that this has to be a non-sniper weapon.

* ''VideoGame/IAmAlive'' features this situation a lot—bullets are extremely rare. The protagonist starts out with a gun with no bullets and has to bluff people attacking him into backing off often with his empty gun—or threaten two or more people with a gun that has only a single bullet.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' and ''WesternAnimation/MerrieMelodies'': A common gag in various shorts where the antagonist uses a gun to try to shoot his prey, the gun becomes jammed and, upon investigating, is shot point blank (ergo, the gun chamber is freed). Most famous example is the hunting triology classic "Rabbit Fire", where an irritated Elmer tries to shoot Daffy Duck, but the gun locks up. Elmer remarks there were "no more buwwets" left in the gun -- a point that Bugs picks up on calls Daffy out on -- and the overconfident duck grabs the gun to make sure. Sure enough, there was "one buwwet left!"

* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'': in keeping with the CrapsackWorld SadistShow nature of the series, this is done a the end of a parody of ''Series/TheBachelorette'' in which Princess Clara tries to find the [[Literature/TheFrogPrince "true love's kiss" which will cure her]] of her [[VaginaDentata 'octopussoir']]. When TheAnnouncer (played by JerkAss roommate Spanky Ham), declares that she has 'one rose left' to give out, the winner turns out to be Prince Charming, who proceeds to sweep her off her feet, then at last kiss her. However, rather than curing Clara, his own genitals transform to match hers, [[WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}} Princess Fiona style]]. Horrified, Prince Charming shoots himself, at which point Spanky hands Clara the gun and announces that there is OneBulletLeft in the same tone he'd used for the roses.