History Main / PutDownYourGunAndStepAway

** Inverted in ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', with Indy being the one holding the gun (or in this case, the RPG launcher), and Belloq calling his bluff to blow up the Ark of the Covenant (with the {{Nazi}}s present strongly objecting).

* ''Manga/BananaNoNana'': the hostage taker was trying to get an edge on the girl who defeated her; said girl's ability is manipulating bananas. [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/banana_no_nana/v01/c001/43.html Which leads to this line]].

* Subverted in the anime ''Manga/DetectiveConan''. During the clock mansion case, the villain captures Ran and threatens her with a deadly weapon. Kogoro and Conan quickly shout that this is a poor idea on the villain's part, immediately before Ran knocks him out with her karate.

->''"In a hostage situation, you have to be cruel to be kind. The more you care, the more leverage they have. Like buying a car, you have to make them think you can walk away."''

* In ''Film/TheUntouchables'', at the end of the shoot-out in the train station, a bad guy threatens to kill his hostage. Eliot Ness puts his gun away, but promptly tells partner George Stone to kill him, which he does with a bullet between the eyes. It was established in Stone's first scene that he is one of the best shots in the police department.

* In Kathryn Lasky's ''Literature/GuardiansOfGaHoole'' series, [[spoiler:Striga]] is holding Bell hostage and tells the fighters to drop their weapons. She forgot [[spoiler: about a fighting style called ''danyar'' that doesn't need weapons]]

* In yet another Franchise/StarTrek novel, ''Imzadi'', a Sindareen raider has taken Deanna hostage and makes Riker drop his phaser. Riker complies, and then tells the raider that he brought a fully-armed team of SpaceMarines as backup. Once the raider is distracted by a bit of movement in his peripheral vision, Riker attacks him so that Deanna can escape. (It later turns out that Riker was bluffing - he was using remote-controlled drones to simulate the presence of hidden troops.)

* Jack West, Jr. in Six Sacred Stones subverts this twice in as many nanoseconds, headshooting two hostage taking guards before they finish their line, while wearing [=NVGs=] in a pitch black room.

* In the bodice-ripper ''Whisper To Me Of Love'', as the villain hold's the heroine hostage and orders the hero, her husband to "Throw down your pistol at once!", the hero practically laughs at this, knowing full well that if he obeys, he's a dead man. He instead takes the shot and kills the bad guy.

* ''Literature/FeetOfClay'': Three hapless thieves try to rob a bar, only to find out that this particular bar is where all the police officers drink. When the coppers pull weapons on them, the thieves grab a woman sitting nearby as a hostage and make it clear that unless the police put their swords away and let the thieves leave, the hostage gets it. Unfortunately for the thieves, their hostage happens to be Constable Angua, the Watch’s resident werewolf. The police quite happily comply with the thieves instructions and put their swords away, and the rest of the scene consists of the coppers making awkward small talk while Angua terrorises her attempted hostage-takers by herself in the background.

* In the pilot episode of ''Series/BreakoutKings'' the US Marshals corner the escaped convict only to find out that he is wired a little girl to a bomb and is holding the detonator. The senior agent orders his partner to lower his gun and when he does [[spoiler: the senior partner shoots the criminal in the arm which causes him to drop the detonator.]]

-->'''Dobson:''' I'm not playing any more. If anyone makes so much as ''* BLAM* ''

* The obscure Creator/CharlieSheen film ''Film/TheChase'':

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop''

* ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo''

* ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu''

* A {{Mook}} in Chapter 274 of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' attempted to pull this off when he [[StandardFemaleGrabArea grabbed Konoka]] and ordered Setsuna to stand down, proudly stating that he had investigated [[BodyguardCrush Setsuna's weakness]]. He was... [[BerserkButton a little off on that assessment]]. A few seconds later, Setsuna had {{Flash Step}}ped behind him, sliced his armor to pieces along the way, and rescued her beloved ojou-sama.

* A catchphrase of Joseph Seed to the protagonist in ''Videogame/FarCry5'':

* Subverted, partially played straight in the GDI ending of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer: Tiberian Sun''. Michael [=McNeil=] charges into the Temple of Nod to find Kane with a knife to Umagon's neck and a gun pointed at him. She says "Kill him! Forget about me!", which makes sense because Kane is soon to slip away (with the ICBM launchers destroyed, the world-altering tiberian missile could be intercepted by the space station Philadelphia by this point) and probably find another way to destroy the space station and launch his missile. [=McNeil=] keeps his pistol trained on Kane at all times, allowing a brief HannibalLecture, when a luckly-timed bomb detonation nearby gives Umagon the distraction she needs to escape Kane's clutches.

* In the manga of ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy Metroid Prime 2: Echoes]]'', the first chapter has Space Pirates attacking a freighter. Samus arrives and kills them all, but the last Pirate takes an old man and a young boy hostage. The Pirate demands that Samus lower her weapon. She refuses. The old man then chimes in and yells at her to do the same, saying that she's endangering their lives. [[http://www.metroid-database.com/manga/mp2_aether_en/ch_0001/scaled/sc_1.23.jpg Samus still refuses]], and calmly explains to the hostages that if she ''does'' lower her weapon, the Pirate will kill them anyway. [[spoiler: The Pirate then ends up throwing his hostages at Samus, intending to use his scythe blade to kill all three at once, but in an example of perfect timing, Samus grabs the boy and throws him further up and simultaneously jumps off of the old man, knocking him to the ground. The Pirate's swing misses everyone, and Samus shoots him in midair and catches the boy before the Pirate's corpse even hits the ground.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Subverted in the webcomic ''WebComic/RipAndTeri''. Secret agent Rip Dustin is rampaging through the SupervillainLair because the villain has his girlfriend captured. So the villain gets on the loudspeaker and announces, "Attention, Dustin. [[IHaveYourWife I have your woman]]! Surren-- AAA!" The last bit is because said woman has just clocked him from behind with a lamp.

** Subverted in an episode where the hostage was a cop (although the roles are somewhat muddy; he may have been the hostage, but he's more a villain than his opponent, who was just trying to stop him). He obeyed the order, but carefully left himself close enough to the gun that when the hostage taker reached for it, he was able to grab her arm and disarm her.

* ''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.

[[AC:It's best to give examples of when this trope is played with]]

* A variation occurs in ''Film/{{Dredd}}''. [[BigBad Ma-Ma]] threatens Dredd and Anderson with an explosive detonator and orders Dredd to put his gun down, as killing her would detonate enough explosives to take out Peach Trees. [[AvertedTrope Dredd shoots her and tosses her out a window anyway.]]

* Subverted in all the first episode incarnations of ''Anime/{{Hellsing}}''. When Seras is taken hostage by a vampire, [[FirstEpisodeSpoiler Alucard simply shoots through her, killing them both. He then turns Seras into a vampire to save her.]]

* ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'': Three hapless thieves try to rob a bar, only to find out that this particular bar is where all the police officers drink. When the coppers pull weapons on them, the thieves grab a woman sitting nearby as a hostage and make it clear that unless the police put their swords away and let the thieves leave, the hostage gets it. Unfortunately for the thieves, their hostage happens to be Constable Angua, the Watch’s resident werewolf. The police quite happily comply with the thieves instructions and put their swords away, and the rest of the scene consists of the coppers making awkward small talk while Angua terrorises her attempted hostage-takers by herself in the background.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'''s anime when Mitsuhide attempts to use Mori Ranmaru as a HumanShield against Kojyuurou, counting on that his attacker, being one of the heroes, WouldntHurtAChild. Kojyuuro's reply is that, child or no, Ranmaru is still a servant of [[BigBad Nobunaga]] who has killed lots of people and is therefore fair game. Then he charges.
* Subverted in ''New Anime/DominionTankPolice''. In the opening of the first episode, Leona and Al corner a crook in a bar when he takes the owner hostage. Leona informs the crook that the hostage is his only protection and if he kills him, she'll open fire on him. She gives him to the count of ten to surrender or be shot at by her tank. The criminal takes the wise choice and surrenders only to be outright ignored by Leona. HilarityEnsues.

* Played unfortunately straight in the ''Ruby/Sapphire'' arc of ''Manga/PokemonAdventures''. 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).]]

* Subverted by Franchise/{{Tintin}}, who had this to say about being told to drop his gun: "So you can shoot us down like rabbits? No we're keeping (our guns)"

* 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.
* Subverted in the beginning of ''Film/{{Speed}}''. But since the bad guy is loaded to the gills with explosives, Jack can't exactly shoot him... so he shoots the hostage [[OnlyAFleshWound in the leg]] instead. It works; no casualties. The bad guy gets wiser at the end of the movie, though.

* A subversion happens in the ''Film/MiamiVice'' film. A white supremacist takes 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.

** In [[Film/RoboCop1987 the first movie]] [=RoboCop=] aims between the hostage's legs and shoots the bad guy's crotch.

* In ''Film/TheUntouchables'', at the end of the shoot-out in the train station, a bad guy threatens to kill his hostage. Eliot Ness puts his gun away but promptly tells partner George Stone to kill him, which he does with a bullet between the eyes. It was established in Stone's first scene that he is one of the best shots in the police department.

** Played straight as a whistle in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. Colonel Vogel is holding Dr. Elsa Schneider at gunpoint and tells Indiana "Put down the gun or the Fraulein dies." Henry Jones (Indy's father) warns Indiana that she's a Nazi but Indy doesn't believe him. Indy puts down the gun and is captured. Dr. Schneider then takes Henry Jones' notebook from Indy and tells him "I'm sorry, but you should have listened to your father," thus admitting that she is a Nazi.

* 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!

* Used in the final standoff of Creator/JohnWoo's ''Film/TheKiller''. The triad boss Johnny Weng has taken Jenny, the Killer's girlfriend, hostage and orders him and his CowboyCop partner to lay down their guns. [[spoiler:The cop takes the wounded syndicate hitman, Paul Yau, hostage in turn and tries to get Johnny to let her go, only for Johnny to cross the MoralEventHorizon and put a bullet through Paul's head with a second gun before reaffirming his threat. The Killer and the cop lay down their guns, with their plan being the Killer pulling the spare gun out of the cop's pants and shooting the triad boss. Once the guns are down, Johnny shoots the Killer, the Killer falls, grabs the cop's spare gun and puts a bullet in the bad guy's gut, knocking him away from Jenny. Then the two of them have a shootout on the ground, but as the Killer only has one gun to Johnny's two, the Killer goes down with both of his eyes shot out and dies in a very tragic fashion, and the task of taking the triad boss down goes to the cop in one of the director's most tragic endings]].
* Subverted twice in ''Film/HotFuzz''

* Subverted in ''Film/TheUsualSuspects''. When rivals take Keyser Soze's family hostage and use them as human shields, Soze simply kills his family, then kills the hostage takers.

* Averted in ''Film/{{Taken}}''. The hostage taker [[spoiler: holding the hero's daughter at knifepoint doesn't even get to finish his line before being shot in the head.]] Which is precisely what a CombatPragmatist should do - [[spoiler:take the shot when the hostage taker drops his guard slightly to talk]].

* The obscure Creator/CharlieSheen film ''Film/TheChase''
** In the trailer, Sheen tells some guys to kick their guns over to him--they try, but miss by a mile. Sheen: "I said kick them over to ''me'', Pele!"

* Parodied and invoked by ''Film/LoadedWeapon1''

'''Mr. Jigsaw''': ''Drop'' the gun Mr. Luger!

* ''Film/FortyEightHours''

* Averted in ''Film/NavySeals''. When Charlie Sheen's character is confronted by a hostage holding terrorist on a ship, he motions as if he is going to place his MP-5 on the ground, but in the middle of the motion, he pulls the trigger, scoring a head-shot and killing him instantly.

* In ''Film/TheHobbit'', the trolls use [[spoiler: Bilbo]] to make the dwarves surrender.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Three hapless thieves try to rob a bar, only to find out that this particular bar is where all the police officers drink. When the coppers pull weapons on them, the thieves grab a woman sitting nearby as a hostage and make it clear that unless the police put their swords away and let the thieves leave, the hostage gets it. Unfortunately for the thieves, their hostage happens to be Constable Angua, the Watch’s resident werewolf. The police quite happily comply with the thieves instructions and put their swords away, and the rest of the scene consists of the coppers making awkward small talk while Angua terrorises her attempted hostage-takers by herself in the background.

* ''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 angles it upwards and shoots the guy [[CallBack through the eye]], at which point Tommy runs into his arms for a hug.

* Played with in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', wherein Crichton does this to hold off two mooks using his finger for a gun and himself for the hostage.
-->Back off or the white boy gets it!
** Which is a parody of a scene in ''Film/BlazingSaddles''. On Sheriff Bart's [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x17cw0_blazing-saddles-new-sheriff-in-town_fun arrival in Rock Ridge]], all the townsfolk draw on him the minute they realize he's black. He defuses the situation by holding his own gun to his chin, and saying "Next man makes a move, the nigger gets it!" The townsfolk then immediately plead for him not to shoot and Bart takes himself into the sheriff's office, all the while pleading with his 'kidnapper' for mercy.
*** Knowing the main character of ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', him getting it from ''Film/BlazingSaddles'' is probably canon, rather than it being considered an original idea within the ''Farscape'' universe.

This trope is mixed with ShootTheHostage to show either that a character is edgy and a possible AntiHero, or that they're Just That Good.

** Subverted in an episode where the hostage was a cop (a fairly despicable cop, but still trained accordingly). He obeyed the order, but carefully left himself close enough to the gun that when his opponent reached for it, he was able to grab her arm and disarm her.

* 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.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]'' plays this straight for once... and does a great job of showing one of the reasons you ''never'' do it in real life, as the hostage taker '''immediately''' turns to kill one of the hostages now that they can't stop him, and is only prevented from doing so by the timely appearance of reinforcements.

*** Averted in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones Fire Emblem:The Sacred Stones]]''. When one of the villains has a young girl, he tells Eirika to hand over her braclet (which she does, since she did not know of it's significance). But when they were told to drop their weapons, Seth says that dropping their weapons "Would be tantamount to suicide".

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', Kolyat tries this on Shepard, unaware that Shepard cares more about him than the hostage. Indeed, if Shepard ends up needing to shoot someone, (s)he can fatally ShootTheHostage while (s)he will [[OnlyAFleshWound only wound Kolyat]]. Alternatively, a paragon interrupt has Shepard shoot the ''lamp'' to startle the inexperienced Kolyat, and then move in fast and punch him.

* A non-gun example occurs in the anime ''Anime/{{Claymore}}'', Clare throws away her sword to save Raki when he's held hostage by a yoma. When it attacks, impaling her through the stomach, she grabs it and drags it along with her down the hill -- ending up, quite deliberately, right next to her discarded sword. She dispatches the yoma in seconds. Afterwards, she claims that she only threw away the sword [[IWasJustPassingThrough to fool the yoma and keep it from escaping]]. While she certainly ''was'' trying to trick the yoma into doing exactly what it did, it's easy enough to guess that she was also unwilling to let the thing kill Raki.