History Main / RockBeatsLaser

* During the NATO operations in the former Yugoslavia, only two [[RealLife/CoolPlane F-117 stealth aircraft]] were lost (one was shot down; one was hit and amanged to return to base, but never flw again). This was due to, among other things, old radar sets that operated on a wavelength that the aircraft weren't so stealthy against, combined with prodigious application of [[MoreDakka anti-aircraft cannons]] and [[MacrossMissileMassacre SAM spam]]. Notably the same battery scored both.

* The US Navy's air division spends incredible amounts of time on "FOD" control-- that is, making sure there's not so much as a pebble or an earring where it could, possibly, by any chance be thrown into the engine of a jet. It is amazing how a tiny object can utterly destroy a sufficiently advanced bit of equipment.
** Contrast this with what the USSR did in designing the MiG-29: They gave it alternate air intakes on TOP of the wings, so that it could close the forward intakes on launch and landing on poorly maintained, rough, or damaged runways do it didn't risk ingesting debris. (They never could quite match US technology, but they had some DAMN clever engineers.)
*** The A-10 Thunderbolt II used a similar system, where the engines were placed above the wings and near the rear of the craft so it could stationed at forward airbases.
* The ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Bismarck Bismarck]]'' was attacked by a small squadron of the obsolete [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Swordfish Fairey Swordfish biplane]], outdated and primitive even before the war started - though not [[JustPlaneWrong as is occasionally assumed a World War I design]], having been designed in the 1930s. The planes crippled the battleship by taking out her rudder and screws with a torpedo hit. The ''Bismarck'' couldn't track and hit the slow-moving, low-flying biplanes since she had been designed with medium-velocity C33 105mm anti-aircraft guns but these had been changed while under construction for the more modern high-velocity C37 105mm. Nobody told the fire control designers about the change and the fire control system was still optimized for the C33. As a result, the fire control system unerring pointed the guns at the wrong place. By some incredible chance five Swordfishs were damaged but none shot down..

* Averted in ''Fanfic/FinishingTheFight'' which has Master Chief and the UNSC crushing their [[NeverwinterNights medieval-level enemies]] with great ease. Even their armor is far superior.

* ''Film/PacificRim'':
** Stacker Pentecost was previously the co-pilot for Coyote Tango, before [[spoiler: he quit after his cancer worsened and was pulled from flight status by his doctors.]] And as seen in the trailers, he resumed piloting after [[spoiler: one pilot from Striker Eureka is injured]].
** Raleigh retired after [[spoiler: the death of his brother]], only to be [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive called back to duty]] by Penetcost when they are in desperate need for pilots.

* One prime fictional example is ''Series/StargateSG1'', where Human-made bullets are more useful than Asgardian high-tech weapons against Replicators: they absorb the energy of energy blasts, but bullets blow them apart. Also, it was shown that BigBad Apophis' personal shield could easily deflect fast moving bullets, but was powerless to stop a relatively slow moving arrow (not unlike personal shields from Dune). The implication throughout the series is that AppliedPhlebotinum is often AwesomeButImpractical.

** Played with all the more when Apothis turns up with a shield, which is immune to both bullets and staff blasts, but which doesn't protect him against arrows.
*** When SG-1 gets captured by a BountyHunter named Aris Boch, O'Neill tries to throw a knife at him through the shield. The knife hits the shield and drops to the ground. Boch reveals that he has improved on the Goa'uld design so that slow objects no longer pass through the shield.
*** To be fair, if a thrown knife worked, SG-1 could've ''walked'' out of the shield. As Boch put it, that kind of shield doesn't work very well as a trap.

* Heavily, ''heavily'' averted in ''Fanfic/FinishingTheFight'' which has Master Chief and the UNSC crushing their [[NeverwinterNights medieval-level enemies]] with great ease. Even their armor is far superior.

** The game Stratego has the same mechanic, where the Scout can defeat the Marshal if it attacks first.

Compare CoolButInefficient, GoodOldFisticuffs, KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter, GunsAreWorthless, BreakOutTheMuseumPiece, MugglesDoItBetter and OlderIsBetter. One of the things to watch for in HowToInvadeAnAlienPlanet. Contrast LowCultureHighTech, where a low tech culture uses superior high tech devices. See also SuperweaponSurprise when natives have something up their sleeves that could reasonably be expected to beat the invaders, or InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien when the invaders themselves really don't have anything that could reasonably be expected to beat the natives. See SchizoTech for low tech and high tech used together.

* In PoulAnderson's "Time Lag", Vaynamo isn't even that primitive, though it lacks industry. The heavily overpopulated Chertkoi assumes it will be easy because it is still heavily rural.

** Even more jarring, in many fps games, eg, Goldeneye on Wii, meleeing someone with the butt of an assualt rifle is more deadly than shooting someone with a bullet from [[ArbitraryGunPower said rifle]]. It will take just one or two melee hits, but many AK47 shots to kill someone[[note]]Unless you [[BoomHeadshot aim for the head]], in which case it takes two or three bullets[[/note]]. This is mostly just to get the player out of tight spots, as actively trying to rush and melee will get you killed pretty quickly. And the above-mentioned GoldenEye example explains as the enemies being knocked out rather that killed.

* In SkyFall, the villain is a ruthless cyberterrorist who can hack any defense system. Bond defeats him with shells in the floorboards, shrapnel in the light fixtures, and a hunting knife.

* This occasionally happens on ''{{Leverage}}'' against high tech security systems. In "The Last Dam Job" this happens twice. As their antagonist has recognized them and knows them enough to predict what they will do they are forced to be somewhat creative. [[spoiler: Hardison and Eliot use Mussels(an invasive species) to shut down an opposing dam instead of a more complicated computer intrusion. Later, Hardison and Chaos plan to give Archie and Parker a bunch of high-tech doodads to break into a vault. Archie thanks them, but notes all they need is flour, milk, eggs, and sugar. With the only advanced tech involved being Archie's tazer cane and a bomb, it works perfectly.

* In ''TheBible'' we have David killing the spear-armed giant Goliath with a simple slingshot fired precisely at his head.
** Also, Samson slaying 1000 soldiers with the ''jawbone of an ass''.

* At one point in AlanDeanFoster's novel ''A Call to Arms'', a company-sized unit of alien tanks is immobilized, then defeated by a band of Seminole Indians wielding mud, bows and arrows, and paint-ball guns. Of course, by that time in the story, it's been revealed that human beings are the most bad-ass fighters in the known galaxy.

* In an episode of TheMuppetShow where MarkHamill was guest staring as [[StarWars Luke Skywalker]] was about to vaporize [[ParodyName Derth Nader]], only to find that Nader had disabled his blaster with a [[DiabolusExMachina technobabble plot device]]. Thankfully, since "Derth Nader" was really just Gonzo the Great in a silly mask, Chewbacca proved more than capable of giving him a beatdown. Unfortunantly, even Chewbacca was useless against the [[SarcasmMode awesome might]] of [[DreadfulMusician Angus McGonoggle, the Argyle Gargoyle gargling gershwin]].

*** It could be noted that the ''Gotland'' managed to do well ''without'' being sunk (as opposed to the 1960s examples) partly because it used various technological tricks new at the time of commissioning (which, as an aside, ''significantly'' enhanced the ''Gotland's'' operative range compared to previous diesel-electric submarines) -- in other words, laser-enhanced rock beats laser.

* ''StarCraft'': a Protoss Dragoon is a massive SpiderTank with an antimatter cannon. A Zergling is a lizard with teeth and claws. Dragoons can quite easily be ripped to small pieces by a standard-issue ZergRush. The sequel is taking this to an even higher level by giving the Dragoons' successor, the Immortal, shields that can stop a nuke...but which offer no protection against light attacks, like those of said Zerglings and Marines.