History Main / RockBeatsLaser

* When ComicBook/TheLosers need to steal some data from a MegaCorp, they send [[PlayfulHacker Jensen]] to get the data. When the network proves too well-protected, he resorts to "analog hacking": Grabbing a [[AnAxeToGrind fire axe]] and [[{{Pun}} hacking]] his way into their server room to physically steal a hard drive.

** Also the page quote that is from a classic monster horror movie that was made on a planet inhabited only by robots. It had the robots as heroes (obviously) and a human as the monster that resisted even their most powerful magnetic pulses, but dies by falling into a stick.

* Realistically {{averted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/Medieval2TotalWar'', but played straight in the LowFantasy total conversion mod ''VideoGame/{{Thera}}''. If you're playing as the Aztec-themed Paynal Empire or the Warriors of Kukulcan, you can expect to go up against the advanced armies of the Faustian Reich, the Ducado and the Privateers, as these factions all start on a western continent analogous to the Americas. The latter three have late-renaissance armies of musketeers, cannons and cavalry in steel plate armour, while the former two haven't yet invented metalworking or the wheel. It's also very possible for the former two to win.

* It's a fairly common tactic for [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk the Hulk]] to use a blunt object against technologically advanced foes. This is presuming that he can't simply tear them metal limb from metal limb with his bare hands (which he usually can). Granted, the Hulk pretty much applies this tactic to any foe, regardless of the level of technology at their disposal. This is quite in line with real world physics; you can destroy anything in the universe, ANYTHING at all... if you hit it hard enough. And who could possibly hit harder than an enraged Hulk? .

** 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. They may reconstitute if enough "blocks" are left intact, but on average two gunned-down replicators leave just enough for another to spring up, which can still get blown up too, so that's still a much better ratio than energy weapons.

* Though not quite as far apart technologically, in ''Film/TheLastSamurai'' the Samurai army [[KatanasAreJustBetter universally favors "honorable" weapons like katanas, spears, and bows]] instead of the firearms of the regular Imperial Army of Japan. They win their initial battles against poorly trained soldiers armed with rifles, and only lose their climactic final battle after killing over two-thirds of the second, better-trained and armed army, who outnumbered them six to one. This is somewhat of a subversion. In the end the Samurai win a moral battle by showing the newer army that traditional values, especially courage against overwhelming odds, should be respected. This may have been their goal all along.

'''[[{{Munchkin}} Pete]]:''' We should totally be using these [[UpToEleven against the star destroyers in the space battle]].

SubTrope to NatureVersusTechnology. Compare ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge, CoolButInefficient, GoodOldFisticuffs, KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter, GunsAreWorthless, BreakOutTheMuseumPiece, MugglesDoItBetter, OlderIsBetter and ScissorsCutsRock. One of the things to watch for in JustForFun/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. Can be justified if [[ZergRush the primitives have a huge numerical superiority]].

Compare ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge, CoolButInefficient, GoodOldFisticuffs, KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter, GunsAreWorthless, BreakOutTheMuseumPiece, MugglesDoItBetter, OlderIsBetter and ScissorsCutsRock. One of the things to watch for in JustForFun/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. Can be justified if [[ZergRush the primitives have a huge numerical superiority]].

* ''Computer War'' by Creator/MackReynolds has a force of saboteurs attacking a government building using bows and arrows, which as well as being silent can't be picked up by sensors designed to detect or back-track energy weapons. The June 1967 Magazine/{{Analog}} cover has a man with a bow and arrow forcing the surrender of a massive tank, but [[NeverTrustATrailer this doesn't actually happen]]; it's RuleOfSymbolism for how the protagonists are using asymmetrical warfare to defeat an invasion.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', this is actually justified - while laser weapons do exist, kinetic energy weapons are more effective shot-for-shot. Thus even in the future, we're still using guns that fire bullets; although now that gun has nearly limitless ammo and is capable of freezing you, setting you on fire, punching through your armor, destroying your shields, increase their mass... That said, in close-range ship-to-ship combat, lasers will literally melt enemy warships, since point-defence lasers ignore kinetic barriers. The series zigzags it--the most technologically advanced weapons are not lasers, but streams of molten metal fired like one. It is absolutely played straight in the third game, however; [[spoiler:the protagonists release a giant SandWorm to distract the resident technological Eldritch Abomination, and the creature does them one better and manages to kill it. Without assistance.]].

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', this is actually justified - while laser weapons do exist, kinetic energy weapons are more effective shot-for-shot. Thus even in the future, we're still using guns that fire bullets; although now that gun has nearly limitless ammo and is capable of freezing you, setting you on fire, punching through your armor, destroying your shields, increase their mass... That said, in close-range ship-to-ship combat, lasers will literally melt enemy warships, since point-defence lasers ignore kinetic barriers. The series zigzags it--the most technologically advanced weapons are not lasers, but streams of molten metal fired like one. It is absolutely played straight in the third game, however; [[spoiler:the protagonists release a giant Sand Worm to distract the resident technological Eldritch Abomination, and the creature does them one better and manages to kill it. Without assistance. After being hit with one of its weapons nearly point-blank]].

** When the Avengers fought Kang the Conqueror, a villain with 41st century tech, Cap and Iron Man have to pull out all the stops just to stay alive. However, when The Hulk arrives, he smashes Kang's shields with nothing but his fists. ''However'', Kang's [[CoolChair hover chair]] has an even stronger shield that not even Hulk can break, and Kang laughs at Hulk for thinking that throwing rocks will be enough to break his shield. '''''However''''', Hulk reveals that even though Rock can't ''beat'' Laser, Rock can certainly ''distract'' Laser, and Black Panther uses this opening to attack Kang from behind, buying time for Iron Man to hack the hover chair.

** When the Avengers fought Kang the Conqueror, a villain with 41st century tech, Cap and Iron Man have to pull out all the stops just to stay alive. However, when The Hulk arrives, he smashes Kang's shields with nothing but his fists. ''However'', after Kang warps himself and the entire team to a BadFuture, he ups his shield power, meaning brute strength stops working, and Kang laughs at Hulk for thinking that throwing rocks will be enough to break his shield. '''''However''''', Hulk reveals that even though Rock can't ''beat'' Laser, Rock can certainly ''distract'' Laser, and Black Panther uses this opening to attack Kang from behind, buying time for Iron Man to hack Kang's [[CoolChair hover chair]].

** When Kang the Conqueror comes back from the future with advanced weapons, Cap and Iron Man have to pull out all the stops just to stay alive. However, when The Hulk arrives, he smashes Kang's shields with nothing but his fists. ''However'', after Kang warps himself and the entire team to a BadFuture, he ups his shield power, meaning brute strength stops working, and Kang laughs at Hulk for thinking that throwing rocks will be enough to break his shield. '''''However''''', Hulk reveals that even though Rock can't ''beat'' Laser, Rock can certainly ''distract'' Laser, and Black Panther uses this opening to attack Kang from behind, buying time for Iron Man to hack Kang's [[CoolChair hover chair]].

* In ''Fanfic/PowerRangersMythos'', the Rangers learn that their main enemy, the alchemist Avanth, is passing instructions to his minions on paper because nobody would think to look for such messages in the year 2600.
* Discussed in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7512124/1/Lessons-With-Hagrid Lessons With Hagrid]]'', where Hagrid tells Harry that he should always keep a brick in his pocket since there quite a few magic-resistant creatures in the world. [[spoiler:At the end, Harry manages to sneak up on a dazed Voldemort and knock him out by hitting him over the head with a brick.]]

** Early during the Earth-Minbari War, the more advanced Minbari ships usually had the advantage on their Earthforce counterparts, as the more advanced technology make them faster, better armed, and hellishly difficult to hit. Once the Alpha Quadrant forces enter the scene and provide Earth Alliance with sensors that break through Minbari stealth, however, Earthforce ships have the advantage due their crews' superior skill and ability to get the drop on them, especially when [[TheDreaded railgun-equipped cruisers]] (nicknamed [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast killcruisers]] by the Minbari ''before'' the new sensors appeared) are involved;

** Early during the Earth-Minbari War, the more advanced Minbari ships usually had the advantage on their [=EarthForce=] counterparts, as the more advanced technology make them faster, better armed, and hellishly difficult to hit. Once the Alpha Quadrant forces enter the scene and provide Earth Alliance with sensors that break through Minbari stealth, however, [=EarthForce=] ships have the advantage due their crews' superior skill and ability to get the drop on them, especially when [[TheDreaded railgun-equipped cruisers]] (nicknamed [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast killcruisers]] by the Minbari ''before'' the new sensors appeared) are involved;

** Played straight when the [=EarthForce=] army fights the Minbari one. Human weapons are mostly [=BiL-Pro=] (that is, improved ''firearms'') or missiles, with the only advanced weapons being vehicle-mounted energy machine guns, [[SlowLaser laser cannons]] for use against enemy aircrafts and [[ShootTheBullet artillery shells]], and newly-introduced tank railguns, and their ground vehicles move on tracks. Minbari weapons are mostly energy except for their artillery, that fires {{Antimatter}}-loaded shells by gravity manipulation, and their vehicles [[HoverTank move the same way]]. On the other hand, the former designed their equipment basing themselves on battlefield experience and are quite good at using it, while the Minbari, in their arrogance, took a long series of stupid decisions (their main tank is criticized for having its main gun fixed forward, an heat signature that makes it impossible to hide to anyone with even the most primitive heat-seeking missile, the gravity-manipulating equipment put in an unarmoured fin, and the armour plating being mechanically fragile and vulnerable to kinetic energy weapons that on the ground are used by pretty much everyone, while the antimatter-firing artillery is called out on the impracticality of only using antimatter as the shell filling) and didn't train their soldiers adequately, who had to learn how to fight effectively on the field. This results in [=EarthForce=] resisting the Minbari invasion of Cyrus for ''years'' in spite of the latter having [[OrbitalBombardment orbital superiority and limited starship support]], and once the starship support is eliminated the Minbari get [[CurbStompBattle annihilated]].
** Partially {{subverted|Trope}} by the Windsword assault tank, that is explicitly better armed and armoured than anything in the [=EarthForce=] arsenal in spite of being just a ''FlawedPrototype'' rushed into production (the final product would be much superior). This comes from another instance of the trope being played straight: over two centuries earlier, Minbari analysts warned that their ground equipment was outmatched by what the Centauri and Orieni had for the same reasons it's outmatched by [=EarthForce=] equipment but were ignored until the Windsword clan, to shut them up, decided to verify and [[OhCrap saw they were right]], at which point they started a development program for a new tank with improved protection and a better and turreted main gun, with the assault tank having been literally cobbled together from the still incomplete new technologies at the start of the war to have something not completely outmatched by [=EarthForce=] vehicles;

* Said but not shown on ''Series/BabylonFive'': the reason energy weapons are used on the station and on starships is that the [=BiLPro=] weapons ('''Bi'''nary '''L'''iquid '''Pro'''pellant, firearms with extremely powerful liquid propellant that is partly stored in the round and partly in the gun in the form of two inert liquids) issued to [=EarthForce=] infantry for planetside combat are ''too powerful'' and have an unfortunate tendency to rupture the weaker sections of the hull and cause collateral damage with the ricochet from hitting the stronger parts of the hull (the ricochet will ''always'' happen with more conventional and less powerful firearms), whereas handheld energy weapons don't do either. The ExpandedUniverse explains that [=EarthForce=] is still using [=BiLPro=] as small arms for planetside combat as well as for artillery and tank guns, even if [[MagneticWeapons gauss cannons]] are starting to take over as tank guns.

** The game ''Babylon 5 Wars'' has the Attarn, a race whose [[PlanetOfHats hat]] is exactly this: they originally armed their starships with large-scale [=BiLPro=] weapons because, being almost identical to normal firearms, they were faster and cheaper to develop than lasers and plasma weapons, but kept and continued developing them after their first interstellar war proved their superiority over the (admittedly primitive) laser, plasma and particle weapons of the Skand. Their largest ships are a tough foe even for [=EarthForce=] and Narn ships of similar size, and in their war with the Grome[[note]]a minor railgun-using race of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds that thought they could bully the primitive Attarn into a horrible trading agreement while the League was distracted by the Earth Civil War. They control a similar number of planets to the Attarn[[/note]] they [[CurbStompBattle quickly overwhelmed them]] before the intervention of the Hurr[[note]]another minor League race, armed with plasma and particle weapons. Similar number of planets to with the Attarn[[/note]] managed to fight them to a ''standstill''.
*** Also {{Subverted|Trope}}: [=BiLPro=] weapons aside, the Attarn are a technologically advanced race, whose ships are equipped with indigenously-developed ArtificialGravity (something Earth and Narn got only at the end of the Earth Civil War, and even then with technological help from the Interstellar Alliance and, for Earth, decades of study of alien technologies), armour comparable to the ludicrously-armoured [=EarthForce=] ships and sensors extremely superior to what the Grome and Hurr had, meaning their ships could survive more punishment than their opponents, hit them at longer ranges and ''sneak over six hundred fighters and attack bombers in the middle of the Grome fleet assembled over their homeworld'' (the opening strike of the war).

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'', when Captain Hunt tries to arm a peaceful settlement so they can defend themselves from space pirates, be brings along a load of force lances. But, what do you know, a religious extremist who'd rather see the people enslaved than lose their innocence explodes the box of force lances. So, Hunt has the natives sharpen sticks and throw them from the walls at the well-armed pirates, and they end up driving them back. The being said, Hunt is a relic of a bygone age when the Systems Commonwealth crews were some of the most badass men and women alive.

** Fighters too are equipped with firearms as their guns, and not only the smallers guns (apparently similar to current revolver cannons) are equivalent to the Gamilas fighters energy weapons, but the larger guns are more powerful;

-->'''Negotiator:''' Reyes! You could ''not possibly'' have co-ordinated with this "Bat-Man"! We monitored every ''electronic frequency'', every ''bandwidth'' you could use to reach him!\\

* ''ComicBook/ElEternauta'': Literally justified and used, as River Plate stadium is chosen because the big concrete walls are the best cover against the heat rays. Metaphorically averted, as alien tech is too big (although somewhat mundane) to be fighted straightly with seemingly "primitive" weapons (tanks, conventional artillery, even nuclear weapons). But if the tech itself is not absolute, the intelligent tactics of the Manos are.

* ''Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds'': The alien race dominates earth, but succumbs en masse to common bacterias as soon as they exit their machines.

* About half of ''Film/FirstBlood'' was made of this trope, when Rambo hadn't yet gotten ahold of a gun and had to use Nam-style mantraps against his pursuers.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' where Creator/MarkHamill guest-stars as [[Franchise/StarWars Luke Skywalker]], he is about to vaporize [[DarthVaderClone Dearth Nadir]] only to find that Nadir disabled his blaster with a [[DiabolusExMachina technobabble plot device]]. Thankfully, since "Dearth Nadir" is really just Gonzo the Great in a silly mask, Chewbacca proves more than capable of giving him a beatdown. Unfortunately, even Chewbacca is useless against the [[SarcasmMode awesome might]] of [[DreadfulMusician Angus McGonoggle, the Argyle Gargoyle gargling Gershwin]].

* ''Film/{{Eraser}}'': In the climax, John Kruger (Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger) and his mobster allies are up against several mooks who use deadly advanced [[MagneticWeapons railguns]] with InfraredXRayCamera. They get the upper hand on them with ambush tactics and normal guns.