History Main / ThrowingTheDistraction

* Happens twice in ''Film/{{Apache}}''. When returning to the mine, Massai throws a rock to draw one of the soldiers out of hiding so he can shoot him. Later, while hiding in the cornfield, he throws his empty rifle to distract Sieber, and the tackles him.

* ''ComicBook/UltimateWolverine'': Black Box threw the video will of Wolverine during the fight with Wildchild, modified to display several holograms of Wolverine at once instead of one. This distracted Wildchild for a second, enough for Jimmy to destroy his artificial claws.

* [[DoubleSubversion Triply subverted]] humorously in ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}:'' the GAP [[http://www.goblinscomic.com/11262006/ try to distract the Brassmoon City gate guards]] [[http://www.goblinscomic.com/11272006/ by throwing a rock,]] but instead of going to investigate the noise, one of them shouts "Someone's throwing rocks at us from the woods!" However, the guards still go to investigate the place whence the rock was thrown, and [[IdiotBall start arguing]] there. Being distracted, they let a couple goblins enter the city (a double subversion). But then, the distraction doesn't last long enough, and the last two members for the GAP are spotted while trying to get in (a triple subversion!).

* ''Videogame/HalfLifeAlyx:'' A must when confronting [[FluffyTheTerrible Jeff]], who hunts through hearing but is both completely blind and relatively stupid. Since he's found around a waste processing unit, there's thankfully a bunch of empty beer bottles to toss around and shatter to keep him off your way. Just [[OhCrap watch when you open something and one of them falls off before you can catch it]].

Easy: you pick up a rock and toss it past him. When it lands, the noise will catch his attention, and he'll go to investigate, giving you ample time to slip past. This trick is what we call Throwing The Distraction. Alternatively if you're making an action movie, you can pass on the low budget rock and use a [[StuffBlowingUp grandiose explosion]] or a [[HollywoodFire massive fire]] instead. It's less likely to be dismissed and looks cooler.

* In ''Disney/{{Bolt}}'', Penny (the character on [[ShowWithinAShow the show]]) likes to roll an actual penny into the field of vision of whomever she's trying to sidestep. Eventually, Bolt (in reality) would try the same trick -- yes, it really does work.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'': In "The Fellowship of the Ring", Frodo, Merry, Pippin and Sam are hiding from a black rider (Nazgûl/Ringwraith) under some tree roots. As the rider is peering overhead, and it seems they are close to being discovered, Merry throws his and Pippin's sack of (stolen) vegetables, which gives the four of them enough time to escape the scene.

* This is one of the uses of the Bat-Shuriken in ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga''. *thwing* "Huh, what was that? Oh, it's a little metal ba-" [{{Vertical Kidnap|ping}}]

* An episode of ''Series/KungFu: The Legend Continues'' does this -- earlier, Kwai Chang is showing Peter how to blow a candle out using the gust of air from a palm strike. Later, when facing sentries in the woods, Peter sarcastically asks, "what are we going to, throw a rock and divert their attention?" as Kwai Chang performs a palm strike and rustles a bush instead to distract the guards.

* Used by Johan in ''ComicBook/JohanEtPirlouit'' while going around bad guys in a darkened cave. He even refers to it as "a trick as old as the world".
* ''ComicBook/UltimateWolverine'': Black Box threw the video will of Wolverine during the fight with Wildchild, modified to display several holograms of Wolverine at once instead of one. This distracted Wildchild for a second, enough for Jimmy to destroy his artificial claws.

* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'': Very early on, Al does this with a skateboard. Justified in that it does create an audible crash, and the person he's distracting (Andy's mother) isn't a highly trained guard.

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptureTheFlag'': Amy distracts the night guard at the retirement home with a rock so she and Mike can get inside and meet Mike's grandfather. The guard ignores the first rock, but investigates the second one (which hits a lamp post), and when doing so discovers 3 residents secretly working on their own model rocket.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Obi-Wan uses the Force to pop a gasket to distract two guards, allowing him to sneak away from the tractor beam controls.

* ''Film/TheGunsOfNavarone''. Andrea and Mallory have reached the top of the cliff, but there's a German sentry guarding it. Mallory tosses a piton to distract the guard. A variant because they end up killing the guard.
* ''Film/TheDecalogue'': Majka, while hiding behind a wall, throws a small wooden ball down the stairs, thus distracting an old woman watching over the entrance to the back of the stage.
* ''Film/DungeonsAndDragons'' has the heroes distract a patrolling Beholder -- a creature covered in eyes -- with a thrown rock.
* This is one of the uses of the Bat-Shuriken in ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga''. *thwing* "Huh, what was that? Oh, it's a little metal ba-" [{{Vertical Kidnap|ping}}]
* Something similar happens in the comedy ''Film/{{Water 1985}}''. Creator/MichaelCaine's character sees a mercenary attaching limpet mines to the oil well, so he throws a bolt, then sneaks up behind the mercenary while he's pointing a gun in that direction and hooks a crane hook into his belt, lifting him into the air.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'': In "The Fellowship of the Ring", Frodo, Merry, Pippin and Sam are hiding from a black rider (Nazgûl/Ringwraith) under some tree roots. As the rider is peering overhead, and it seems they are close to being discovered, Merry throws his and Pippin's sack of (stolen) vegetables, which gives the four of them enough time to escape the scene.

* {{Subverted}} in ''Vagabonds of Literature/{{Gor}}'': Tarl throws a stone and the guy he's trying to draw away from his position turns towards him.
* In the book and film of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Harry distracts some Ministry workers with a rambunctious Weasley toy in order to sneak into Umbridge's office. Justified, both because that's what the toy was built for and because, apparently, the Ministry sees that sort of thing fairly often.

* Subverted in an episode of ''Series/DarkAngel'', Max throws a stone to distract the guard, who goes to investigate where the stone came from.
* An episode of ''Series/KungFu: The Legend Continues'' does this -- earlier, Kwai Chang is showing Peter how to blow a candle out using the gust of air from a palm strike. Later, when facing sentries in the woods, Peter sarcastically asks, "what are we going to, throw a rock and divert their attention?" as Kwai Chang performs a palm strike and rustles a bush instead to distract the guards.
* Lampshaded on ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' when Apollo throws a grenade into a passageway, yelling for everyone to clear out (they do). It turns out he didn't pull the pin, and tells Starbuck that she would have thought it was a brilliant idea if she'd come up with it.
* In the ''Series/MidnightCaller'' episode "Wait Until Midnight'', Annie Driscoll, who is blind, manages to knock her attacker unconscious and steal his gun. After he regains consciousness, he throws his shoes past her, causing her to fire in the wrong direction.

* During a StealthBasedMission in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'', Link must invoke this trope to distract one guard who doesn't turn around when spoken to. What the guard says when spoken to is immortalized above as the page quote.
* ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series
** In the first mission of ''[[VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney Blood Money]]'', you're encouraged to toss a coin to distract some guards. 47 seems to have a Mint in his back pocket - a coin is always available in the inventory, no matter how many you've already thrown. You can even carry them through metal detectors without setting them off.
** In ''[[VideoGame/HitmanAbsolution Absolution]]'', you lose the coin but can pick up other random objects to throw around. It has the same effect, but you won't always have something to throw, and can only carry one throwable object at a time.
* All ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' games have some sort of variant. Can even be done with grenades, but enemies will freeze in terror or take cover, depending on the soldier. In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' and later, you can throw empty ammo magazines to distract guards. The only way to get one is to fire all the bullets in a full mag, which isn't very useful in a stealth game.
* The ''VideoGame/FarCry'' series gives the player an infinite amount of throwable stones. Just don't throw them in a trajectory that the mook you want to distract sees, because he'll figure out where it came from and beeline towards your position with his buddies.
** In keeping with its theme, ''VideoGame/FarCry3BloodDragon'' replaces the stones with throwable ''dice''. Being tounge-in-cheek they are refered to as "nerd rocks"... and Rex's onboard A.I. calls him a nerd for having them.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': The "Distract" skill Rogues have. It doesn't cause a monster or guard to walk toward the noise, but it ''does'' turn them around, leaving you free to [[{{Backstab}} stab them in the back]].
* ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' has this in spades, allowing you to pick up items for no other purpose than to throw them and distract the enemies. However, the AI is smart enough to register not only the point of impact, but also the trajectory they have seen, therefore, doing the same thing as on the image above would actually make any guard run towards you. Even if they ''don't'' find you, they'll be more vigilant.
** Of course, if you nail them in the head with the object, they simply get knocked out.
** In ''Conviction'', where there aren't any throwable objects, a silenced pistol can serve the same purpose, as pistols get unlimited reloads only in that game. Fire a shot and nearby guards will investigate the point of impact.
* ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' likewise has throwable objects. It also has noisemaker arrows, which do just that: cause a lot of noise upon impact. Even normal arrows can work as distractions if fired at a hard surface. However, trying this trick isn't always a good idea; while it may draw the guards' attention elsewhere, it will ''also'' make them alert for intruders, which mitigates the advantage to some degree.
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'': Can be done, as pointed out in the training mission by Anna Navarre.
* You can do this in ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'' with the disk-launcher, but the [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy guards are so stupid]] it's usually easier to just walk slowly around them.
* ''VideoGame/DeathToSpies'': This stealth game allows you to do this with cutlery and dishes. The mini-map even shows you how far the sound travels.
* ''VideoGame/{{Augustus}}'': You can toss coins in this stealth game, thought more often that not it would result in the guards running towards your hiding spot instead.
* ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever'': One of the gadgets Cate can equip for any mission is a few coins. That's all, just coins. Plain, ordinary currency. Not even enhanced in the usual ridiculous manner other common items are made into spy gadgets in this game. At first, it seems absurd that carrying a few coins in your pocket takes up an equipment slot that could be held by, say, lipstick grenades, until you see just how stupid the guards can be when a coin is chucked across the room...
* ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'' has the alarm clock gadget as Sly, trigger bombs as Bentley, and other guards as Murray.

* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' and ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' gives you grenades in the forms of pipe bombs and Boomer Bile. The Infected are distracted by the Loud beeping and/or scent and will chase after them, even if they were just clawing you apart a second ago.
* In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' you can fire an arrow into a room and any enemies present will visible on your compass while rushing to investigate it.
* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' has bricks, bottles, etc that can be thrown to distract/attract enemies or [[ImprovisedWeapon simply smack them in the head.]]
* ''VideoGame/EscapeFromStMarys'': A thrown bottle of tang does the trick.

* ''VideoGame/{{Sniper Elite V2}}'' and ''VideoGame/SniperEliteIII'' allow you to throw rocks to distract enemies. Like the ''Hitman'' example, you're encouraged to do so in the tutorial stage and have an infinite number of them in your inventory. ''Un''like most examples, this will only get the guards out of your hair for a second or two before they start searching the area just to be sure -- you have a pretty small window if you want to actually get past anyone that way.
* Early in ''VideoGame/SpiderAndWeb'', you throw [[spoiler:your electronic lockpick]] to sneak past a guard. [[spoiler:Subverted as part of the UnreliableNarrator theme of the game. You actually left the pick in a lock when the guard came along and you were forced to hide.]]
* This is an option in the Tenchu games. Throwing bombs, or shuriken, or rice balls can distract guards letting you sneak past them, or [[BackStab kill them]].

* Part of chapter 4 of ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'' requires you to distract the Butcher Gang by throwing empty cans of bacon soup.

* [[DoubleSubversion Triply subverted]] humorously in ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}:'' the GAP [[http://www.goblinscomic.com/11262006/ try to distract the Brassmoon City gate guards]] [[http://www.goblinscomic.com/11272006/ by throwing a rock,]] but instead of going to investigate the noise, one of them shouts "Someone's throwing rocks at us from the woods!" However, the guards still go to investigate the place whence the rock was thrown, and [[IdiotBall start arguing]] there. Being distracted, they let a couple goblins enter the city (a double subversion). But then, the distraction doesn't last long enough, and the last two members for the GAP are spotted while trying to get in (a triple subversion!).

* ''Webcomic/{{Stardroids}}'': Roll does this. What makes it unique, however, is that she does it in plain sight of the foes. Oh, and did we mention -- she's using a pair of her own panties. Slingshot-style.
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': This is the subject of one of "Tarquin's Tips", a handy guide distributed to all his guard patrols. "'''Sound in the Bushes:''' Someone is throwing a rock to distract you. Try looking in the opposite direction."

* In ''VideoGame/SpiderAndWeb'', the protagonist throws a lockpick into a dead end to distract some guards. [[spoiler:Except that actually, it didn't happen quite like that.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E14StrangerThanFanFiction Stranger Than Fan Fiction]]": While he and Rainbow Dash are Caballeron's prisoners, Quibble Pants throws a pin away to make a suspicious noise, alerting the goons. Quibble then pretends that it's Daring Do coming to rescue them. It works, and they disperse in search of their nemesis. As Quibble points out, they're stupid enough to leave nopony looking after the captives.
* ''WesternAnimation/BubbleGuppies'': In "The Puppy and the Ring", Molly and Gil, who are making lemon slushies, get chased by an army of soldiers sent by the episode's BigBad. They climb up a tree, and Gil throws a lemon on the ground to distract the soldiers.
-->'''Commander''': What was that?\\
'''Soldier''': It sounded like a lemon, sir!

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Obi-Wan uses the force to pop a gasket to distract two guards, allowing him to sneak away from the tractor beam controls.

* ''WesternAnimated/AceVenturaTheAnimatedSeries'': Toyed with -- Ace Ventura tries this by throwing a rock to distract the Burly Guard. The Guard looks over at the sound, ''turns to where the rock came from'' and shouts "I know you're over there and I'm coming to get you!" OhCrap!

* All ''Franchise/MetalGear'' games have some sort of variant. Can even be done with grenades, but enemies will freeze in terror or take cover, depending on the soldier. In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' and later, you can throw empty ammo magazines to distract guards. The only way to get one is to fire all the bullets in a full mag, which isn't very useful in a stealth game.

* ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'': Hawkeye causes an explosion outside of the Avengers compound in order to distract Vision. While the android goes investigating, Clint sneaks inside to join with Wanda and set up a trap for Vision.

* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'': Amanda has a few options for doing this, including lighting up a flare and tossing it, or MacGyvering up a noise-maker. These work on [[CrazySurvivalist various armed humans]] and [[MechaMooks Working Joes]], but they also work on getting the xenomorph's attention away from her. However, in its case [[ArtificialBrilliance it will not fall for the same trick twice in a row]], requiring her to mix it up with different methods of drawing it off.