Line #51 Main/NotSoFakePropWeapon


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13	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/WhatsNewScoobyDoo https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/no_so_fake_prop_weapon.jpg]]]]
14	[[caption-width-right:350:"These weapons are real!"\
15	"I think that's the point."]]
16	->''"This one ain't rubber!"''
17	-->-- '''The Conductor''' brandishing a knife, ''Videogame/AHatInTime''
18
19	A [[MysteryFiction Murder Mystery]] trope.
20
21	The victim and the attacker are both actors, rehearsing or acting out a scene with a {{Prop}} weapon. Unbeknownst to either, a third party has switched out the prop weapon for a real weapon, and the attacker kills the victim before realizing the switch.
22
23	SubTrope of AccidentalMurder. For the accidental version of this, please see FatalMethodActing. When inverted, see ReplacedWithReplica. Compare AndYouThoughtItWasAGame.
24
25	----
26	!!Examples:
27
28	[[foldercontrol]]
29
30	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
31	* Toyed with in ''Manga/CaseClosed''. An {{otaku}} shoots himself in the head with a ''real'' gun in public, apparently thinking it was a fake one. For worse, he had just shot a cosplayer under the same belief. [[spoiler:This is intentional: the cosplayer who was shot is the one who tricked that {{otaku}} into first shooting him (he was wearing protection as a part of his outfit) and then shooting himself, in revenge for having caused the death of his younger brother.]]
32	* Played straight in ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'': One case got kicked off as an actress died from drinking a glass of wine that has been poisoned. [[spoiler:Later averted when in the same case, a prop has been switched with a murder weapon that was about to be used but the would-be victim blocked it in time.]]
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Comic Books]]
36	* In ''ComicBook/TheMazeAgency'' story "The Death of Justice Girl", the actress playing Justice Girl is killed when the murderer swaps out a pistol loaded with blanks for one loaded with live ammo.
37	* ComicBook/TwoFace's most famous "imposter", [[https://about-faces.livejournal.com/17502.html Paul Sloane,]] was scarred for real when he starred in a TV docudrama of Dent's life and a spiteful prop-man swapped in ''real'' acid for the prop. (Interestingly, this was {{Bowdlerized}} in an early reprint of the story, where he's scarred by a genuine accident with one of the studio lights.)
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Fan Works]]
41	* Inverted in ''Fanfic/VowOfNudity'' when Spectra is ordered by Iaqo to kill Gloria. Spectra tricks him by swapping her magical rapier into a theatrical saber (complete with a collapsible blade) before "stabbing" Gloria in the chest.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
45	* ''Film/AnimalHouse'': As a prank, Bluto and D-Day get Flounder to shoot Neidermeyer's horse in Dean Wormer's office, the two formers assured that there are blanks in the gun. Flounder doesn't have the heart to shoot the horse so he aims it in the air and fires. The horse promptly drops dead of a heart attack. Bluto and D-Day panic when they hear the horse fall with a thud and see it dead on the floor.
46	--> '''Bluto:''' Holy shit!\
47	'''D-Day:''' There were blanks in that gun!\
48	'''Flounder:''' I didn't even point the gun at him!\
49	'''Bluto:''' Holy shit!\
50	'''D-Day:''' ''[checks the chamber]'' They ''were'' blanks!\
51	'''Flounder:''' He must have had a heart attack!\
52	'''Bluto:''' Holy shit!\
53	''[all scream and run away]''
54	* In ''Film/TheClonesOfBruceLee'', the gold-smuggling director's yes-man suggests using this to kill the BruceLeeClone they suspect to be a secret agent. As [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] pointed out in his review, this is '''very badly''' HarsherInHindsight, since Bruce's son Brandon was killed on the set of ''Film/TheCrow'' by a weapons malfunction.
55	* In ''Film/CurseOfTheHeadlessHorseman'', one of the re-enactors is wounded when a real bullet is placed in the chamber of one of the stage guns and wings him in the arm during the daily shootout.
56	* A variation in the Soviet comedy ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZjCmwvICW4 Deja Vu]]''. The prop guns ''are'' fake, but the assassin shoots the actor with a silent gun from the box at the exact moment he's "shot" by the firing squad on the scene. This way the assassin has enough time to leave before anyone realises the actor is actually dead, and then, hopefully, the investigation would assume that one of the prop guns was to blame and waste time checking that version.
57	* Happens in the Music/ElvisPresley film ''FrankieAndJohnny1966'' with a prop gun that's been loaded with real bullets.
58	* ''Film/TheGallows'': On October 29, 1993, Beatrice High School student Charlie Grimille is accidentally hanged and killed after a prop malfunction during a presentation of the play ''The Gallows''. His parents, along with the whole audience, witness the tragic event.
59	* In ''Film/GameNight'', after being it was not AllPartOfTheShow, her brother-in-law was kidnapped, Annie goes "This gun is real? Oh, bang bang..." and to her shock, shoots a bullet on the ceiling. And worse, the shock makes her drop the gun, which [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns fires again, this time hitting her husband's arm!]]
60	* In ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'', Lyle has a small pistol and an identical-looking cigarette lighter. At one point, the Swahili guides get them confused and give him the gun when he asks for the lighter -- which has serious consequences when [[BrandishmentBluff he aims the "lighter" at George as a bluff]] and [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace pulls the trigger]]. Fortunately, the ensuing gunshot wound isn't fatal (as the narrator explains, George is TheHero, so [[PlotArmor he can't die]]), but Lyle still goes to prison.
61	* In ''Film/GetOverIt'' Kelly playfully brandishes a crossbow found in a high school prop room, which turns out to be a functional weapon, as she learns the hard way when she accidentally [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace shoots Berke in the arm]].
62	* In ''Film/HereComeTheGirls'', during a performance of [[ShowWithinAShow the titular in-universe play]], serial killer Jack the Slasher tries to use this as an opportunity to murder actor Stanley Snodgrass. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope He uses the actual telescoping prop knife by mistake]].]]
63	* {{Downplayed}} in ''Film/AKnightsTale''. Count Adhemar explains that while tournament lances feature blunted tips to make them less lethal than lances used in combat, "accidents happen." During the finale, [[spoiler:Adhemar himself]] puts a fake tip on his lance made of "spun sugar and boot-black" that conceals a steel point, which seriously injures Will.
64	* ''Film/JamesBond'': In a deleted scene of ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'', Kidd and Wint fire a BangFlagGun at Shady Tree, and then the second shot is a live bullet.
65	* {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d and then [[spoiler:{{Inverted\|Trope}}]] in ''Film/KnivesOut''. [[spoiler:Ransom tries to stab Marta in the chest, only to realize that the knife is a prop knife.]]
66	* The [[ShackleSeatTrap shackle bed trap]] in ''Film/{{Madhouse\|1974}}''. The shackles are supposed to be breakaway, and the [[DescendingCeiling descending canopy]] has a cutoff switch, but both of these safety features have been disabled.
67	* In ''Film/TheManWhoKnewTooLittle'', Wallace gets embroiled in a political assassination plot, [[AndYouThoughtItWasAGame but thinks it's all experimental, interactive theatre]]. Plenty of BlackComedy comes from him casually threatening people with a real gun which he thinks is just a prop. He actually does shoot a wall and a phone, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint and mistakes the bullet holes for really good special effects]].
68	* In ''Film/MurdersInTheRueMorgue1971'', Marot was scarred when the fake acid in a prop bottle on the stage was replaced with real acid, and Madeline's mother tossed it into his face during a performance.
69	%%* This is the central plot point of ''Franchise/PerryMason: The Case of the Shooting Star''.
70	* In ''Film/ThePrestige'', Cutter warns that a bullet-catching trick where the (bulletless) gun is fired by an audience member is still dangerous because the volunteer can slip something down the barrel and fire it for real. Guess what happens.
71	* In ''Film/RoguesOfSherwoodForest'', King John's henchmen fix a faulty protective cap to the Flemish Knight's lance, who has challenged Robin, the Earl of Huntingdon, to a joust.
72	* In ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'', not only is the rifle displayed at the Winchester pub real, but it's also loaded.
73	* In ''Film/TheShow'', the Greek's plan to murder Robin involves sneaking into Robin's performance -- a staging of the Theatre/{{Salome}} story -- and replace the prop sword with a real sword, thus lopping off Robin's head. The actress playing Salome notices this at the last second when she sees the Greek's dress shoes.
74	* In ''Film/SistersOfDeath'', the murderer swaps the dummy bullet used in the InitiationCeremony for a live round.
75	* ''Film/TheUncanny'': In 1936, in Hollywood, the actor Valentine De'ath replaces [[PendulumOfDeath the blade of a fake pendulum]] to kill his actress wife, and give his young mistress and aspiring actress a chance. The cat of his wife avenges her.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Literature]]
79	* This trope can also apply to blunt instruments. In the non-fiction book ''The Art of Coarse Acting'' by Michael Green, which sounds like it ought to be a guidebook for starring in an AwfulBritishSexComedy but is actually a combination memoir and AffectionateParody of amateur dramatics tropes, author Michael Green expounds on the importance of viewing realistic-looking coshes and blackjacks supplied by the props department with grave suspicion.
80	* Happens in the Joanne Fluke / Literature/HannahSwensen mystery ''Cherry Cheesecake Murder'', when the director of a movie shoots himself with a supposed-to-be-not-loaded prop gun, to attempt to demonstrate the emotion required in the scene to the actors.
81	* Creator/CarolineGraham's novel ''Death of a Hollow Man'' has the actor playing Salieri in a performance of ''Amadeus'' fatally injured when someone removes the protective tape from the blade of the prop razor that the character cuts his throat with. This stayed the same when the story was adapted into an episode of the ''Series/MidsomerMurders'' TV show also written by Caroline Graham.
82	* The Polish book ''Dwie "Kobry"''. A character in a live TV production is supposed to be killed by a faulty electrical socket, but someone had the socket secretly connected to the electrical grid and the actor is actually electrocuted.
83	* Creator/NgaioMarsh used this trope several times:
84	** In ''Enter A Murderer'' has a prop gun used for an on-stage killing loaded without the actors' knowledge.[[note]]This was a rare fictional work to acknowledge the real-world hazards of blank ammunition: because of the very close on-stage range of the shooting the pistol wasn't meant to be loaded with anything and the bang would have been provided by an off-stage sound-effect.[[/note]]
85	** ''Swing Brother Swing'' uses a sneaky variation of this. It's suggested that a musician was murdered during an on-stage gangster routine by a dart, not a bullet, being loaded into a blank-firing pistol. But actually [[spoiler:he acted the death as planned but was surreptitiously stabbed to death afterwards while playing dead before the scene ended, so everyone thought the on-stage killing had been real]].
86	** ''Literature/LightThickens'' has a loose variation, in which the fake severed head of Macbeth is replaced on the end of a pole with the head of the decapitated murder victim.
87	* Done by accident in a ''Selby the Talking Dog'' short story, where Selby accidentally glues up a retracting knife and then has to save Mrs. Trifle from it.
88	* The latest ''Literature/SpySchool'' book has a scene where Ben and the others review the secret files of [[AncientConspiracy Croatan]] and find out that they tricked John Wilkes Booth into assassinating Abraham Lincoln while thinking it was AllPartOfTheShow, and that his gun wasn't loaded.
89	* In ''There Was an Old Woman'' by Creator/ElleryQueen, one man challenges his brother to a pistol duel, so friends replace all the bullets with blanks, but somebody else puts bullets back in the gun before the duel.
90	* A NoodleIncident in the ''Literature/TheThirteenProblems'' has former police commissioner Sir Henry describe a case where someone pulled an antique pistol off the wall and jokingly pointed it at someone else and pulled the trigger. It was fully repaired and loaded. The investigation had to look at who had the opportunity to tamper with the weapon, and who brought the conversation round to the point where this seemed like a good idea.
91	* The initial murder in ''[[Literature/InDeath Witness in Death]]'' is accomplished in this manner during a stage production of ''Film/WitnessForTheProsecution''. [[spoiler:It's subverted when it turns out that the actress who did the stabbing was the one who switched the prop knife with the real one, and knew very well what she was doing when she stabbed him. AssholeVictim: He also was a womanizer who slipped date rape drugs into the drinks of the women he slept with and after the murderer told him that a young actress in the production was their daughter [[MamaBear in hopes that he would not commit incest]], he [[MoralEventHorizon not only went right ahead and sleeps with his own daughter, he suggested to the mother that they have a threesome!]] That drove the actress to switch the knives.]]
92	* The ''Literature/JudgeDee'' short story "The Wrong Sword" has a family of street performers who used a fake sword with a retracting point and a hollow blade filled with pig's blood in one of their acts. Before somebody swapped it for a real sword and caused the father to stab his son in the chest.
93	* Inverted in ''Literature/WyrdSisters'', when the Duke loses his mind and begins stabbing people, including himself, with a prop knife. No-one is hurt, but he's convinced that everyone he strikes is dead, and even insists he's now a ghost to Death himself. [[spoiler:The discrepancy is soon resolved when he attempts to use his ghostly powers to fly.]]
94	* In ''So Much Blood'' by Simon Brett, during a publicity photo shoot for a play about the murder of Mary Queen of Scots' secretary, David Rizzio, the actor playing Rizzio is stabbed with a dagger that turns out to be real.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
98	* One ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'' clip has a magician killed this way while performing the bullet catch illusion. A piece of his wand fell into the barrel when he tapped it, then was shot back out and into his neck when his assistant fired it.
99	* ''Series/BlackAdder'': The Black Adder tries this one, but changes his mind when he learns the victim has information he thinks can prove [[spoiler:he's the real heir]]. The information ends up [[spoiler:proving the opposite]].
100	* An episode of ''Series/{{Bonanza}}'' has Hoss getting framed for murder when the blank rounds from a prop gun get switched for real bullets and the blanks turn up in his saddlebag.
101	* Used in an episode of the 1994 revival of ''Series/BurkesLaw'', entitled "Who Killed the Starlet?" A woman is in the bath while listening to some music, when a killer sneaks in and drops her boombox into the bathtub, killing her. It turns out that the killer and lady are merely actors on a movie set, and they're filming a murder scene. Then it turns out the boombox had been plugged into a live outlet by an unknown party, and the actress in the bathtub really ''is'' dead. [[spoiler:But the boom box was plugged in after the murder; the victim was actually poisoned.]]
102	* ''Series/{{Castle\|2009}}'' had two variants:
103	** While the two guns used by the victim and the "murderer" were both real, they were so wildly inaccurate (as a disgruntled cop and a laser sight would attest) that there was no chance of one party hitting the other. The third party hid in a tree nearby.
104	** Another time this is played with when the murderer modifies an actual prop gun to fire bullets.
105	** And another one earlier in the series, also with a real gun but the shooter didn't know there was a bullet in the barrel.
106	* ''Series/ColonelMarchOfScotlandYard'': In "Passage of Arms", the killer removes the the safety cap on his fencing foil--revealing a sharpened tip underneath--and attempts to stab his opponent during a fencing bout.
107	* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' had a case that bore a few similarities to the RealLife John-Erik Hexum case. An [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin_(game) Assassin]]-esque game was going on around New York in which people eliminated each other from said game with water guns/balloons. One player, an aspiring actor, got extremely annoyed because the eliminator used a fake casting agency setup and made him go through the whole interview, thus humiliating him. He got back at the guy by hoping to scare him with a gun loaded with blanks. He didn't know that a blank gun fired at point-blank range can be as lethal as a gun with real bullets.
108	* ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' featured a morning show staging a shooting between the hosts as a publicity stunt. Someone switched the real bullets for blanks and the cohost gets shot.
109	* ''Series/ElleryQueen'': [[WhoWouldWantToWatchUs A movie is being filmed based on Ellery]] and the man playing Ellery is killed by a gun that was supposed to be filled with blanks.
110	* ''Series/GetSmart'': In "Hurray for Hollywood", Max and 99 go undercover as stage actors to find out how KAOS is smuggling scientific information out of the country. But KAOS learns the new actors (if one indeed can call Max an "actor") are CONTROL agents and therefore plots to kill Max by putting real bullets in the stage prop gun used in the play.
111	* A non-lethal version happens in ''Series/HogansHeroes''. When the Krauts capture a famous Hollywood actor, Hogan decides to concoct the making of a German propaganda film to pull off the destruction of a bridge. The explosives he swore were fake... weren't. [[BringMyBrownPants Same he didn't tell the actor this until just before the boom...]]
112	* In a Halloween episode of ''Series/HomeImprovement'', youngest son Mark, who is currently going a goth phase, makes a movie where he wants to film chopping off Tim and Jill's heads. Tim realizes in the last second that the machete is real, not a hard rubber one. Later, during the outro, Jill and Tim's heads are in the basket and Jill mentions she doesn't have any more back-pain.
113	* ''Series/LawAndOrder'' had a similar case, where an actor in a web video series is shot for real while filming an episode. The police investigate how the blanks could have been replaced with real bullets, and who would have done it. It turns out the gun really was loaded with blanks, and the death was just from poor gun safety: no one in the studio realized that blanks can still be deadly from that close.
114	* ''Series/MagnumPI'': Happens during a shoot for the InUniverse film adaptation of ''Tahiti Kill''.
115	* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'':
116	** Happens in the episode "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS1E2 Death of a Hollow Man]]", based on the novel above under Literature.
117	** And in "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS11E5 The Magician's Nephew]]", where the spikes inside an illusionist's 'Cabinet of Death' are coated with a fast-acting poison.
118	** Then there is "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS10E7 They Seek Him Here]]", where a film director dies via a guillotine being used as a movie prop, as does the second VictimOfTheWeek.
119	** And in "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS20E6 Send in the Clowns]]", the killer sabotages the retraction mechanism in a trick knife used in a sword cabinet routine, resulting in the volunteer from the audience being fatally stabbed. Subverted earlier in the same episode, where it appears that a clown has been shot dead as a result of a prop gun being replaced with a real one -- but it turns out that this was only done to scare the victim, and the gun was loaded with blanks. The real killer, who had learned about this plan, used it as cover by shooting the victim with a rifle at the same moment.
120	* ''Series/MissFishersMurderMysteries'':
121	** In "Framed for Murder", the killer swaps the prop knife being used in a movie for the real knife used for taking stills. When the director demonstrates to the actress how he wants her to stab the leading man, he stabs himself in the heart.
122	** In "Death Defying Feats", the killer sabotages the prop guillotine being used in a magic act to turn it into a real one.
123	* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' also did it. The weapon was switched [[spoiler:after the victim had already collapsed, due to peanut oil on the apple he had eaten]]. The actress accused of murder rightly points out that she would have been able to feel the difference in weight and balance between the prop knife and the real one.
124	* In the ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' episode "The Final Curtain", a gun loaded with blanks for a play has one live bullet, which really kills one of the actors in the final scene. Murdoch eventually realises [[spoiler:that while nobody had the opportunity to switch the bullet, the person who actually fired it was able to switch the entire gun]].
125	* ''Series/NewTricks'': In "Final Curtain", the UCOS team looks into the death of an actor who was shot dead during a performance of a play. The gun was loaded with blanks, but a piece of metal lodged in the barrel killed him.[[note]]This kind of killing is TruthInTelevision -- it was how Creator/BrandonLee died.[[/note]] The death was originally ruled an accident, but new evidence makes the team reopen the case.
126	* Done in ''Series/{{Oz}}'' during the [[PrisonerPerformance prison production]] of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', though with a shank. Keller promises both Beecher and Schillinger he’ll replace their prop knife with a real shank for their characters’ final battle. The real weapon goes to [[spoiler:Beecher]].
127	* ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'': In the episode "Movie Madness", the Rangers go to the filming site of a movie starring Jen's favorite actor Frankie Chang. When a stunt double gets injured, Wes volunteers to take his place. The scene involves him fighting Frankie Chang who's wielding a sword against him, and only when he suddenly sees an actual cut in his clothing (''barely'' missing his skin) does he realize Frankie Chang is actually trying to ''kill'' him.
128	* ''Series/{{Psych}}'' has used this plot, during a telenovela episode. Until Shawn is able to prove otherwise, everyone is convinced that the actor with the knife was obviously completely responsible (and dumb enough to stab someone in the chest on live television). In true ''Psych'' fashion, proving his hypothesis almost resulted in Shawn's own death by not-fake prop weapon, this time a [[NailEm nail gun]].
129	* An episode of ''Series/TheProfessionals'' centered around a gun used in a crime being dumped in the prop bin of a theater company.
130	* ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'': In "No More Drama in My Life", the VictimOfTheWeek is an amateur actor killed when the killer packs ball bearings into the blank round being used in a prop gun during rehearsal.
131	* ''Series/ShakespeareAndHathawayPrivateInvestigators'':
132	** In "Exit, Pursued by a Bear", someone laces the poison chalice in a production of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' with actual poison in an attempt to kill the actress playing Juliet.
133	** In "The Play's the Thing", someone switches {{LARP}} arrows with real ones.
134	* ''Series/SisterBonifaceMysteries'': In "Lights, Camera, Murder!", top television spy series ''Operation QT'' is filming at the convent, and when a real bullet is fired narrowly missing the leading actor, Sister Boniface investigates. Together with DS Livingstone, Sister Boniface works out the real target was the show producer Dick Lansky, who has many enemies on and off set and a roving eye for the actresses.
135	* A ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' episode had someone put live ammo into a gun that was going to used to "shoot" the lead actress in a movie filmed in the town. The would-be murderer learned about Clark's powers when he somehow saw him catch the bullet.
136	* In the ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' episode "Yellow," a soldier caught deserting is told by the general (who is his father) that the firing squad will use blanks, the soldier can play dead and escape when the army leaves. At the last minute, when the soldier sees his father look away, he finds out this trope is in effect.
137	* In the 1980s version of the series ''Series/{{V\|1983}}'', when an alien member of LaResistance is sword-dueling with a human, the leader Diana turns on the plasma swords, making them lethal.
138	* ''Series/WhodunnitUK'': In "Before Your Very Eyes", a StageMagician's LovelyAssistant is murdered when the killer sabotages the sword cabinet, resulting in her being stabbed when the magician thrusts a sword through the cabinet.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
142	* The Honky Tonk Man almost killed Jake Roberts when the prop guy got a real guitar instead of a prop.
143	[[/folder]]
144
145	[[folder:Radio]]
146	* ''Radio/TheNewAdventuresOfSherlockHolmes'': In "The Adventure of the Notorious Canary Trainer", a criminal plans to [[FakingTheDead fake his suicide]] so he can disappear. However, his partner double-crosses him and replaces the blanks in his revolver with real bullets.
147	[[/folder]]
148
149	[[folder:Theatre]]
150
151	* ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' features this to close the play. Hamlet is offered a big handicap in a fencing competition with Laertes, but it turns out that Laertes’ foil is not only live, but coated with poison.
152	* At the climax of the stage version of ''Film/MoulinRouge'', Christian secretly loads the prop gun his character uses in the ShowWithinAShow with real bullets, planning to [[SpurnedIntoSuicide kill himself because Satine has rejected him.]]
153	* The climax Thomas Kyd's ''Theatre/TheSpanishTragedy'' centres on a play within a play, acted by the loved ones of a murdered man, as well as the murderers. The former stab the latter to death with real daggers instead of prop daggers.
154
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Video Games]]
158	* In one mission in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'', [[BigBad Cesare]] plans to have his [[TheDragon Dragon]] kill an actor who is having a relationship with his sister by using a real spear instead of a fake one to kill him during a play. Ezio and his assassins take the place of the actors and stop the plan.
159	* A case in a ''Series/{{CSI}}'' game involves an actress being killed on stage, supposedly by a prop gun. However, there are several inconsistencies: the man in charge of all props made the bullets and loaded them himself; the actress firing the prop weapon never actually pointed at the murder victim. It turns out the killer was the dead woman's husband, who found out that she was having an affair with [[LesYay the other actress]]. He fired a rifle from a balcony at the moment the prop gun was to go off.
160	* In the ''VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney'' mission "Curtains Down", Agent 47 has the option of switching a prop UsefulNotes/WorldWarI pistol for a genuine one in working condition to kill a target, who is to be executed in the play ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}''.
161	** For bonus irony points, the scene in ''Tosca'' in which this takes place involves Mario Cavaradossi, who is played by your target, being killed for real as a result of bastard police boss Scarpia [[YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo going back on his word]] that [[ScarpiaUltimatum he would let Mario live if Tosca slept with him]] and informing the firing squad to use real guns.
162	* In ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber'', at the end of the mission "Final Cut" an actor playing a serial killer is peppered with shots by the actress playing his victim. Turns out that the gun was real and the actor has really died, as he doesn't get up once the filming finishes and the NewGamePlus intro cutscene depicts his bullet-ridden corpse.
163	* Chapter 2 of ''VideoGame/MasterDetectiveArchivesRainCode'' features a school play involving two characters drinking wine after pulling the old PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo. Naturally, one of the prop glasses was actually poisoned, leading to the death of the actress.
164	* In the bonus chapter of ''[[VideoGame/MysteryTrackers Mystery Trackers 7: Blackrow's Secret]]'' it's revealed that director Alfred Richardson was in unrequited love with actress Emily Lockwood. Growing frustrated with her refusal of his advances, he switched the prop revolver with a real one, resulting in the fatal shooting of her fiancé Jeffrey Dean.
165	[[/folder]]
166
167	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
168	* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
169	** Subverted in the first ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' game, done to distract the player. The victim is killed with a large prop used for the TV show he co-starred in. Phoenix tries to argue that if it's a prop, it shouldn't have worked, but we realize that the blade itself is actually reasonably sharp. Subverted further in that [[spoiler:the prop wasn't the murder weapon, it was a really sharp fence the victim fell on.]] The giveaway is that [[spoiler:the only possible suspects aren't strong enough to have shoved the prop into the victim's chest with any sort of force, ruling it out as a murder weapon]].
170	** Yet another subversion occurs in the second case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice''. The prosecution's case is that the defendant botched a magic trick and stabbed the victim with the real sword instead of the rubber one. Or worse, stabbed him with the real sword on purpose because the victim had declared his intention to reveal all of their dirty secrets live on stage. [[spoiler:The defendent, Phoenix Wright's adoptive daughter Trucy Wright, was set up by the show's producer, Roger Retinz. Trucy's assistants were all in on Roger's plan to "prank" Trucy on live television by having the victim of the case play dead when Trucy "stabs" him, only for his "corpse" to suddenly fly straight up into the air and off the stage. But Roger Retinz planted a blade into the cushion on the ceiling that he is supposed to fly into, stabbing him for real and allowing Roger to come in and clean up the crime scene when his show descends into chaos and the venue is vacated. Trucy's assistants think that she murdered the victim out of revenge when she discovered that they were planning to make a fool out of her, and are horrified when they learn that they were tricked into killing the victim on Roger Retinz's behalf.]]
171	[[/folder]]
172
173	[[folder:Web Comics]]
174	* [[InvertedTrope Inversion]]: In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', Gordito's father is killed during his gunslinger circus act because [[spoiler:PETA]] ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext sabotaged his guns before the performance.]]'' Had the [[spoiler:PETA]] assassin UNLOADED Gordito's father's guns, the veteran shooter would have noticed the weight difference and presumably halted the act or loaded them. He sabotaged the guns so they were fully loaded, but were incapable of firing. Played with, since [[spoiler:Gordito originally believed that he accidentally killed his father by forgetting to load his gun, and made up the story about PETA in order to sound badass. But then it turns out that PETA really ''did'' sabotage his father's gun, and he didn't notice for the reasons listed above.]]
175	* In a strip of ''Webcomic/{{Savestate}}'', Kade dresses up as a ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'' character, [[http://www.savestatecomic.com/2017/07/ittoryu/ complete with a prop sword.]] The sword ''is'' plastic, but Riley notices it's still got a sharp point. When Kade tries to demonstrate it's fake by drawing the point across his arm, he ends up cutting himself.
176	-->'''Nicole:''' Did you just cut yourself?\
177	'''Kade:''' [[BlatantLies No]].\
178	'''Nicole:''' Are you going to leave the sword in the car?\
179	'''Kade:''' Yes.\
180	'''Nicole:''' Do you need a bandage for your arm?\
181	'''Kade:''' [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial Maybe]]...
182	* Played with in ''Webcomic/NoNeedForBushido''. Yori accidentally steals a retractable trick blade from a shop. Later, he gets into a fight that ends with his opponent stealing the trick blade and 'stabbing' him with it. Everyone thinks he's dead until [[http://nn4b.com/comic/156 they examine the body]]. The 'nurse' reveals that the trick sword is still a weapon; its tip is blunted but the edge isn't, and while a 'stab' might not be fatal, it's still a heavy blow to the stomach.
183	[[/folder]]
184
185	[[folder:Western Animation]]
186	* The WesternAnimation/BugsBunny and WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck cartoon "People Are Bunny" ends with a passel of hunters in a TV studio opening fire on Daffy. Bugs assures us that they always shoot blanks on TV. Daffy shows up afterwards, his bill swiss-cheesed as he spits out a huge pile of lead shot.
187	-->'''Daffy:''' "Blanks," he says. Here. Have a handful of blanks! ''[tosses them in the air]'' Sheesh!
188	* ''WesternAnimation/WhatsNewScoobyDoo'': In "Large Dragon at Large", the villain is sabotaging a Renaissance Fair. One of the things he does is replace the prop lances with real ones just before a joust.
189	[[/folder]]
190
191	[[folder:Real Life]]
192	* While performing a suicide scene in a production of ''Mary Stuart'' by Friedrich Schiller in Vienna, [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/11/actor-slits-throat actor Daniel Hoevels]] accidentally slit his own neck, as the theatre company's order for the originally sharp knife to be dulled for the stage was overlooked; a police investigation never determined who was responsible, or whether it was due to negligence or a deliberate attempt to kill or injure him. The wound was almost fatal, but Hoevels quickly returned to the stage after emergency treatment in the hospital.
193	* Never treat a blank in a gun as harmless. They can maim or kill you. Anyone who says otherwise is not your friend. Read the articles [[HollywoodBlanks here]] and here on UsefulNotes/GunSafety for more details. There have even been three sad cases listed in FatalMethodActing:
194	** Creator/BrandonLee, accidentally killed during ''Film/TheCrow'' because the crew left a cartridge in the barrel before loading the blanks, which then hit his spine.
195	** Actor Jon-Erik Hexum, who in-between takes of the show ''Cover-Up'', goofed around with a gun and by firing it into the side of his head. The blank caused enough trauma to shatter a quarter-sized piece of his skull and propel the pieces into his brain.
196	** On October 21, 2021, while filming Western film ''Rust'', Creator/AlecBaldwin discharged a prop gun that accidentally killed director of photography Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.
197	** Because of incidents like this, there has been a growing movement calling for film and television to stop using actual guns loaded with blanks and replace them with non-functional props that have firing effects added in post-production.
198	* More than 20 illusionists have been killed performing the 'bullet catch' trick. It is generally considered the most dangerous magic trick as so many things can go wrong. Some of those killed were murdered when someone (often their partner/assistant) substituted a live round for the blank or--in earlier days, when single-shot black powder guns were used--placed the ball back in the barrel after it had been removed.
199	* According to Creator/JackieChan, [[https://web.archive.org/web/19991003002314/http://www.randomhouse.com/features/iamjackiechan/excerpt_aches.html this happened]] while filming ''Film/SnakeInTheEaglesShadow'', and he was slashed by a sword that was supposed to have a blunt edge. [[ThrowItIn They used the footage in the film]].
200	* In 1919, comedian Harold Lloyd posed for some promotional photographs with what he thought was a prop bomb (a literal black ball with a long fuse) that he lit with a cigarette. Unfortunately the device blew up, mangling his right hand (he lost two fingers), burning his face and chest and temporarily blinding him in one eye. The photographer and prop man were also badly hurt by the explosion.
201	* Mass-produced, stainless steel katanas are quite popular in attacks and robberies. These cheap katanas have become quite common due to their popularity as a collector's item, so many of them naturally find their way into the hands of unscrupulous people who are prepared to use them to dangerous effect.
202	* While filming ''I, The Jury'' (the 1953 version) Creator/MickeySpillane befriended LondonGangster Billy Hill. As he relates it:
203	-->Now Billy asked if there was anything he could do for me, and we had this awful Spanish gun for Mike Hammer, so I asked him if he knew where we could find a .45, and next day he shows up on the set with a gunny sack, and he says "I got your pieces for you, where should I put them?" and he dumps about two dozen .45s there, and ammo, and the prop boy nearly hit the roof, "those are REAL GUNS". Bob Fellows the producer, knew this, but he didn't pay any attention, he just got them registered. The paperwork was incredible.
204	* This was a lamentably common occurrence on film sets, even big-budget film sets during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Paradoxically, blanks were more expensive than live ammunition[[note]]possibly due to economies of scale, many more real bullets were being made for every prop blank[[/note]], and so whenever possible, studios opted for cheaper real bullets when they could get away with it[[note]]i.e. saving blanks for shots where actors were being directly shot ''at''[[/note]]. This put actors in lethal jeopardy on a regular basis, as professional marksmen were employed to shoot as near as practically possible to actors. After having nearly been killed by the practice on the set of the 1931 film ''Taxi'', Cagney[[note]]by this time wielding considerable clout after winning a landmark lawsuit against Warner Bros for contract violations[[/note]] told Creator/MichaelCurtiz flat out that he refused to do a scene where a professional machine-gunner shot out windows just above his head for the 1938 film ''Film/AngelsWithDirtyFaces''. He demanded that his reaction and the actual shots be done separately and composited together to get the desired scene. This saved his life, as when the gunshots were filmed, one bullet richocheted ''right through where Cagney's head had been just minutes before'' when shooting his part of the scene. After that, he advocated for the practice to be ended.
205
206	[[/folder]]

Context Main / NotSoFakePropWeapon