History Main / RockBeatsLaser

Historically, industrialized nations regularly steamrolled over the armies of pre-industrial nations or tribes. Occasionally, pre-industrial forces won battles, but rarely wars, and even then this would typically be more because the more advanced armies were [[WeHaveReserves badly outnumbered]] or [[GeneralFailure poorly led]], or their troops made up of [[{{Conscription}} press-ganged conscripts]] with low morale or of otherwise [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores low quality]]. In the rare cases where the technological underdogs managed to preserve their independence, they generally received a crash course in development and won with at least somewhat modern weapons of their own, rather than BambooTechnology.[[note]]Interestingly, "bamboo spear tactics" is an actual Japanese term for fighting against a technologically-superior adversary.[[/note]]

* On the Crossover fiction ''Just Won't Die'' by Jeffrey Keith Wong, multidimensional shenanigans have caused [[Anime/RanmaOneHalf Ranma Saotome]] and [[Anime/BubblegumCrisis Nene Romanova]] to arrive on [[Franchise/GhostInTheShell Newport City]], and needing information, Nene starts to hack around. Lacking the cerebral-cortex computer implants that are so ubiquitous to the ''Ghost In The Shell'' universe, Nene has to make do with "turtling" (using a computer with a manual keyboard), which is very slow comparatively... but unfortunately for Major Motoko Kusanagi, all of her info-warfare expertise is specialized in tossing firewalls and viruses that, if the hacker she was attacking ''was'' using said implants, would give him a fatal electrical jolt or would destroy his mind... but all Nene needs to do to get rid of the glitches that the attacks trigger on her computer is to just reboot it. As a result, Nene ends up nearly-relentlessly [[MindRape Mind Raping]] the Major.

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

* ''Film/TopGunMaverick'': Maverick manages to shoot down two top-of-the-line Su-57 stealth fighters in a forty-plus-year-old F-14A that he and Rooster stole from a maintenance hangar, using trickery and a lot of luck.

** The [[RankScalesWithAsskicking Ga'r King]] can easily take on the Raad and their combat vehicles with just a [[DropTheHammer huge battlehammer]] and by throwing very painful chunks of ice at them. He's also defensively capable of tanking their laser and plasma attacks and healing from them via eating a huge chunk of meat.

* ''Film/IndependenceDay'': No, seriously, the aliens come down to Earth, they glass a portion of the planet, they blow up some of the most advanced fighter planes in the world (and their elite pilots) and even nukes can't stop them... but a combination of ''Morse Code'' and a ''computer virus'' '''''can'''''?! It was even worse in the original cut of the movie. Russell is denied permission to fly one of the remaining F-18's, so he shows up to the final battle and destroys the enemy ship ''with his crop-dusting biplane'' with a Sidewinder missile ''taped to its side.''

** In the same series, Wakandan technology is superior to pretty much everything, thanks to their strongly implied usage of {{Magitek}} and the fact that the spears and arrows are outfitted with heads made of Vibranium (the ultimate {{Unobtainium}} of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse -- to put this into perspective, the Adamantium used on Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} is Vibranium's ''second-rate, inferior copy'').

* Characters/{{Daredevil|MattMurdock}}, having failed to defeat [[Characters/MarvelComicsUltron Ultron]] by [[http://the-isb.blogspot.com/2006/05/badass-panels-volume-seven-daredevil.html crashing a truck into him]], knocks the robot's head off with a stick. And not one of those he always uses. An ''ordinary wooden stick''. Then again you need to consider that the only reason he could do that was because [[WorfHadTheFlu Ultron 13 was an amalgamation of contradicting personalities and conveniently/literally tore himself apart]]...

* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': It's a fairly common tactic for 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? .

* ''ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}'': In ''ComicBook/Hawkeye2012'', ''The Tape'' arc revolved around Clint trying to recapture a videotape of him murdering someone. [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]] notes that criminal organisations are using more and more analogue technology since digital information is much more easily traceable.

* In one ''ComicBook/IronMan'' arc, Tony Stark fired up a virus that erased all information of him from the Internet and memories from everybody around the world. Tony later had to infiltrate Latveria and found out the hard way that Doctor Doom still remembered him and was not happy about his memory being tampered with. Doom then reveals that the amnesia virus was not able to make him forget that he had written a diary by hand (so it could not be hacked for deletion) that mentioned Stark.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':

** The [[DiscOneNuke Combat Shotgun]] in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' is more powerful than any energy weapon you'll get until the end of the game.

** In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'':

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' does this: