History Main / PutDownYourGunAndStepAway

-->-- '''Michael Westen''', ''Series/BurnNotice'', on the reality of this trope.

* Played unfortunately straight in the RS arc of ''Manga/PokemonSpecial''. Wallace's Pokemon are fighting Maxie's and Archie's until the two reveal that they have his love interest, Winona, who is being strangled by a Tentacruel. Wallace returns his Pokemon to their Pokeballs and the buttons are swiftly melted off so he can no longer fight. [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown He then gets brutally thrashed (Not his Pokemon, ''HIM'').]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' Bellatrix Lestrange does this to Harry and Ron with Hermione as the hostage . She's crazy enough that she probably would have done it, too.

* [[spoiler: Shih-na takes Kay Faraday hostage]] after being discovered in ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations''. Cue a double CrowningMomentOfAwesome, as [[spoiler: Detective Badd appears behind Shih-na with a gun to her head]] followed by [[spoiler: Lang jumping in between them and grabbing Shih-na's gun arm, taking Badd's bullet to the leg in the process.]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Eighth Doctor, in a very [[TechnicalPacifist Doctorish move]], escapes from a cop by stealing the guy's gun and holding himself hostage. Even fans who don't like the movie [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome like that scene]].
* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire:'' During [[ColdSniper Richard Harrow]]'s assault on the brothel in the season three finale, one of Gyp Rosetti's henchmen tries this as he holds Richard's surrogate son Tommy [[InfantImmortality at gunpoint.]] Richard [[ExactWords slowly crouches down and sets his rifle on the floor]]--and then [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome angles it upwards and shoots the guy]] [[CallBack through the eye]], at which point Tommy [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming runs into his arms for a hug.]]

* The obscure Charlie Sheen film ''Film/TheChase''

:: The scene ends with both hostage ''and'' villain telling Luger to drop his gun, as he becomes stricken with a flashback upon holding the weapon and starts acting erratically.

* In ''Film/FaceOff'', Castor Troy (under the guise of his arch-nemesis [[Creator/JohnTravolta Special Agent Sean Archer]]) is facing off against Archer (under the guise of [[Creator/NicolasCage Castor Troy]]). Then Archer's rebellious teenage daughter walks in. Archer grabs her and holds her at gunpoint. Unfortunately for him, she uses a butterfly knife to stab him in the thigh, precisely how [[HoistByHisOwnPetard he himself taught her a few days before]].

* The phrase is parodied in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' when Shego comes to retrieve a "nano-tick" attached to Kim's nose, which Ron is about to burn off with Diablo Sauce:
-->'''Shego''': Put down the hot sauce and step away from the nose.

* in ''Serpent Tide'', the big bad does this, both to get weapons away from her "son's" kidnappers (read: his real family), and to get the kid to come with her. She takes his aunt hostage...too bad said aunt is a black belt...

--> '''Yahiko:''' If you kill me, what's to stop him from killing ''you?''

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[[folder:Film]]

* A reverse occurs in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'', where Bond has the hostage in the embassy and is surrounded by guards with guns. He calmly gives up his gun and returns the hostage. Of course, he's still got an ace in the hole...Namely that Bond didn't give up ''his'' gun, but the gun he took off the bad guy he's holding hostage.

* ''Dirty Harry''
** The Scorpio Killer in ''Film/DirtyHarry'' grabs a boy as a hostage; Callahan responds by shooting him in the shoulder (the boy escapes unscathed) and delivering his "Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya', punk?" line before finally taking him out.

* A subversion happens in the ''Film/MiamiVice'' film. A white supremacist took a hostage, and is being aimed at by a female cop with an assault rifle. The bad guy says "You pull the trigger, and I kill her!" Then the cop tells him a bullet can reach a speed of 500 meters per second, which gives him absolutely no time to pull the trigger. Since he refuses to believe that, the woman shoots him in the head.
* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'' Will Turner does this to ''himself'', and it works, because [[spoiler:he's the only son of Bootstrap Bill Turner, and without his blood the pirates can't lift their curse.]] Of course, it only works after he reveals his name. Before he does that, Barbossa seems bemused at why he should care that some kid offs himself.
* ''Franchise/RoboCop'' series
** In [[Film/RoboCop1987 the first movie]] Robocop aims between the hostage's legs and shoots the bad guy's crotch.
** In ''Film/RoboCop2'', the titular character orders his partner to put her gun away to stall for time and lull the hostage taker into complacency. He then holds his gun off to the side and shoots the bad guy in the head with a carom shot.

* ''Franchise/IndianaJones''

* The ''Film/IronMan'' movie subverts this. Stark is facing a group of terrorists who have taken human hostages, and he apparently can't hit them with his arm repulsors without harming the civilians. Not at once, at least. Instead, [[spoiler: he targets each individual terrorist and shoots them with precision shoulder-mounted shots simultaneously.]]
* In ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' movie, a villain grabs Mina Harker and holds a knife to her neck. The rest of the League reluctantly puts down/away their guns so he won't hurt her. However, Mina is more powerful than she seems. She handily wrestles the villain into submission, [[spoiler: bites his neck and drains his blood.]] It turns out she's a [[spoiler:vampire]]. Poor villain!

-->'''Lucky:''' "Not ''you'', Dusty!"
-->'''Dusty:''' "Sorry!" ''(retrieves gun)''

--> '''Tom''': Lay down your arms or we'll rip his off!

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Subverted in the pilot of ''Series/{{Castle}}''; Richard Castle finds himself in one of these situations, but manages to extricate himself. It helps that [[NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont the safety was on]], but Castle is nonetheless justifiably impressed with himself.
--> '''Castle:''' ''[Excitedly]'' Tell me you saw that! You're gonna put that in your report, right?!
** He was also probably more than a little worried about his fingerprints now being all over the hostage taker's gun.

-->'''Mook:''' If I so much as ''twitch'' I'll kill her!
-->'''Crockett:''' Maybe...you won't...even...''Twitch''. ''* BLAM *''
** A Shout Out to this scene is made in the more recent Michael Mann movie. See the Film section.
* In ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' they play this trope straight at multiple times (with the ranger powers replacing guns of course).
** Other seasons of Franchise/PowerRangers have examples as well (always played straight).
* Subverted in the ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode "Child's Play". A man is holding a young girl hostage and demanding that the team "back off" or he'll shoot her. The team refuses to, and Gibbs calls to Ziva to see if she has the shot. The hostage taker claims that she'll miss. Gibbs glibly asks the girl, who has been playing through war scenarios as a tactical advisor in a military program, what the odds are of Ziva missing. She calculates various variables and comes up with 97.6%. [[spoiler: Gibbs orders Ziva to take the shot. Ziva nails the hostage taker in the forehead.]]
** Also in the episode where the mole at NCIS is dealt with. One of the agents is taken hostage, and the hostage taker orders Gibbs to drop his gun. Gibbs is shot [[spoiler: in the hand, but is able to shoot through the agent, who told him to.]]
* In the ''Series/{{Numb3rs}}'' episode 'Jacked', the team refuses to do so during the final standoff, calling the hijackers' bluff. [[spoiler:They pull this off mainly because the hijackers are carting blanks, and faked shooting a hostage earlier. The team simply brings out the 'dead' hostage, encouraging the real hostages to run away.]]
* Much 'fun' is had with this in ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles''. When a criminal mastermind takes John Connor hostage and threatens to shoot him, Derek Reese responds by [[spoiler:taking the criminal's little girl hostage with the implied threat that he will shoot her. But whoops!, turns out she's not the criminal's kid, and he couldn't care less. So Derek simply shoots him in the head]]. The thing that is consistent across the entire ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' universe is that Terminators do not take hostages, they just shoot.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'' has this in the first season finale. The good guys hold Skaara hostage with a weapon that needs two shots to kill him. The baddies outnumber them and have a clear shot on Teal'c. Obviously, O'Neil puts down the gun as his good-guy duty despite there being nothing hindering the Jaffa and their Goa'uld master from killing them right there (considering there are a few seasons beyond the first, they obviously didn't, but...). What would have hindered the Jaffa in question from pointing out that regenerating the Goa'uld in the sarcophagus in the very same room wouldn't be too much trouble and thus the heroes actually had no power over their hostage, leading to the viewer ''not'' considering O'Neil bloody stupid?
** A third shot, which disintegrates the corpse or something similar. Even if Jack didn't realise it (I don't remember when the throwaway disintegration Zat ability was introduced, but I have a feeling it was in the same episode).
*** Which has wisely been disused, and was eventually [[RetCon Retconned out of existence]] according to WordOfGod; the producers and writers declared they regretted ever introducing it in the first place.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E22AllHellBreaksLoosePartTwo "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part Two" (S02, Ep22)]], Jake insists the others put down their weapons or he will make Ellen shoot herself in the head.

* Usually defied throughout ''{{Series/Flashpoint}}''. The SRU team usually doesn't put down their guns when told to by the subject; at most, whoever's negotiating (usually Greg) will ''holster'' their weapon, while other SRU officers continue to cover them and the subject.
** There have been two exceptions to this ("Haunting the Barn" and "Custody"), but in both cases the subjects were not actively threatening civilians, and both Ed and Greg were immediately called out for doing this.

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* The final chapter of ''Manga/CityHunter'' has a rather unusual take. The villain has a dozen {{Mooks}} and orders Ryo to show himself and surrender his gun or he'd kill Kaori, [[GenreSavvy both knowing that Ryo's gun, being a revolver, has only six shots so he couldn't kill the mooks]]. Ryo does that... And pulls ''two [=RPG-7s=]'' whose grenades have been emptied of explosive and shoots six mooks with those while they're still [[OhCrap shocked and terrified at the sudden reversal]] and in a convenient line, before recovering his gun and finishing the ones still standing.

* Played with in ''{{Spacetrawler}}''. Qwahntoo has Pierrot hostage, and threatens to kill him if his friends, Emily and Gurf, don't hand over their ship. (He doesn't even ask them to put their guns down--instead he just points out that he's impervious to their lasers.) Emily, however, knows exactly what's up: "I don't believe in threats like yours. Because if ''we'' give in, you'll just cut his head off ''anyway''... then kill us ''as well''." So she shoots Qwahntoo anyway. It doesn't kill him, but it does blast him backwards, knocking Pierrot out of his clutches.

* Parodied in ''Film/ThreeAmigos'' One of the Amigos takes the BigBad hostage and orders his henchmen to drop their weapons. Immediately, dozens of stone-cold killers kick their pistols towards him.

* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'' Will Turner does this to ''himself'',and it works, because [[spoiler:he's the only son of Bootstrap Bill Turner, and without his blood the pirates can't lift their curse.]] Of course, it only works after he reveals his name. Before he does that, Barbossa seems bemused at why he should care that some kid offs himself.

* In ''Film/FaceOff'', Castor Troy (under the guise of his arch-nemesis [[JohnTravolta Special Agent Sean Archer]]) is facing off against Archer (under the guise of [[NicolasCage Castor Troy]]). Then Archer's rebellious teenage daughter walks in. Archer grabs her and holds her at gunpoint. Unfortunately for him, she uses a butterfly knife to stab him in the thigh, precisely how [[HoistByHisOwnPetard he himself taught her a few days before]].

* John Dillinger showed why you should never give into a hostage taker's demands. On March 3, 1934, he broke out of the jail in Crown Point, Indiana (the strongest in Indiana, supposedly) by taking the janitor hostage with a fake gun carved from a piece of wood. He then successfully lured all of the guards up to the cell block, disarmed them, and locked them in a cell. Before grabbing two Thompson submachine guns and escaping in Sheriff Lillian Holley's car, he showed his hostages the "gun" he used.

* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire:'' An unnamed thug tries this on [[ColdSniper Richard Harrow]] in the season three finale as he holds Richard's surrogate son Tommy [[InfantImmortality at gunpoint.]] Richard [[ExactWords slowly crouches down and sets his rifle on the floor]]--and then [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome angles it upwards and shoots the guy]] [[CallBack through the eye]], at which point Tommy [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming runs into his arms for a hug.]]

* In one Bujold novel, ''[[Literature/VorkosiganSaga The Vor Game]]'', Miles Vorkosigan finds a different solution:
-->"Cavilo!" he shouted. "Deactivate your weapons and freeze, or I'll blow Gregor to atoms!"
-->Body language was a wonderful thing. It was amazing, how much expression could come through the blank shining surface of space armor. The littlest armored figure stood openhanded, stunned. Bereft of words; bereft, for precious seconds, of reactions. Because, of course, Miles had just stolen her opening line. ''Now what do you have to say for yourself, love?'' It was a desperate ploy. Miles had judged the hostage-problem logically insoluble; therefore, clearly the only thing to do was make it Cavilo's problem instead of his own.

* Parodied in the {{Archer}} pilot when TheMole takes Malory hostage and [[IdiotHero Archer]] responds to this... by taking Lana, his fellow agent, as a hostage ("classic misdirection"). The mole replies that it isn't a game and that he will kill Archer's mother, "Just picture her lying there dead in the street…", at which point Lana points out in disgust that she feels Archer's erection poking her back. Horrified, the mole lets Malory go but gets brutally gunned down before he can deliver a WhatTheHellHero.

* In the Spetznaz vs Green Beret episode of ''DeadliestWarrior'', the section detailing the Spetznaz ballistic knife has a Russian taken prisoner, and the hostage taker demands that another Spetznaz do this. The second Spetnaz pretends to comply and acts like he'll put down his gun, then shoots the blade from his knife at the hostage taker.

* Much 'fun' is had with this in ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles''. When a criminal mastermind takes John Connor hostage and threatens to shoot him, Derek Reese responds by [[spoiler:taking the criminal's little girl hostage with the implied threat that he will shoot her. But whoops!, turns out she's not the criminal's kid, and he couldn't care less. So Derek simply shoots him in the head]]. The thing that is consistent across the entire ''Film/{{Terminator}}'' universe is that Terminators do not take hostages, they just shoot.

* In Season 2 of ''Series/{{Graceland}}'', when the task force headed by CorruptCop Sid Markham go to bust the human smuggling/prostitution ring they had previously been protecting, (and kill every single member of the ring so they can't reveal the complicity of the task force) there's a standoff when one of the gangsters uses one of the women as a HumanShield, complete with him being crouched behind her so that only a couple inches of his head is exposed. The cop acts as if he's going to drop his guard, then does a kind of QuickDraw move and [[ImprobableAimingSkills hits the guy perfectly]]. His would be HumanShield is (understandably) completely freaked out, both due to having a dead guy's brains all over her and the knowledge of exactly how perfect the shot had to be to avoid killing her too.