Line #103 Main/StagedShooting


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6	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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13	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheLivingDaylights https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_living_daylights_573.jpg]]]]
14	[[caption-width-right:350:"It is the first time [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre I've]] ever been grateful that Film/JamesBond is a good shot!"]]
15
16	-> '''Nicolas Mason:''' ''"Corn syrup."''\
17	'''Ziva David:''' ''"Blanks."''
18	--> -- To a dumbfounded BigBad, "Worst Nightmare", ''Series/{{NCIS}}''
19
20	When a character appears to have been fatally shot, but it is ultimately revealed that the shooting was fake and the "victim" is still alive.
21
22	Often used when the audience is supposed to learn that the [[HitmanWithAHeart hired killer actually has a conscience]]. Typically, the killer will take a job only to realize later on that he can't kill the target for "ethical reasons" (he's a good father, he donates to charities, doesn't kill women, etc), and agrees instead to fake the death.
23
24	Also used when the writers need the someone to "retire" from a job that would otherwise be [[ResignationsNotAccepted impossible to resign from]].
25
26	Not to be confused with BaitAndSwitchGunshot. Also see FakeKillScare, where someone's death is faked to frighten a loved one. Obviously, this trope involves FakingTheDead.
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28	----
29	!!Examples:
30
31	[[foldercontrol]]
32
33	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
34	* In ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot'', Moran shoots Moneypenny with a paintball gun to trick their targets into thinking he'd killed her.
35	* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
36	** Done with a knife by Nami to save Usopp from Arlong and his murderous crew during the Arlong Park arc.
37	** Also during the Wano arc, Kyoshirou, in reality Denjiro, pretends to execute Komurasaki, aka Kozuki Hiyori, claiming that it's for disrespecting Shogun Orochi during court. They had planned it beforehand, with Hiyori carrying fake blood on her person in wait for such an opportunity to remove herself from the public eye.
38	* In ''Anime/SoundOfTheSky'', the soldiers of the Clocktower Fortress stage one of these with Seize's local boozerunners in order to scare off a few members of the mafia who are sniffing around looking to expand their territory.
39	* In an episode of ''Anime/{{Trigun}}'', Vash (known for his ''very'' strict policy against killing anyone or anything) is hired to kill two stowaway children for a very high price. He shoots the children without batting an eye and takes the money. Then he gives it to the kids after they get up from being hit with rubber bullets.
40	** He wasn't even hired to ''kill'' them, but to bring them back alive. Since he felt sympathetic to their desire to escape, he decided to play the part of the insane killer he's been saddled with and basically bluffed that he would kill the entire convoy if he didn't get his pay, even though he went completely contrary to the agreement.
41	** Another instance was when Vash and Wolfwood entered a quick draw contest and they made it to the finals. When they would've been pitched against each other, Wolfwood attempted to withdraw his participation so that they get the money without having to actually fight. However, the sponsor of the contest blackmailed him into going up against Vash on the grounds that if he manages to kill him, he gets a share of the bounty. Wolfwood informs Vash about the situation and the two stage a fight where they appear to shoot each other and collapse into a puddle of blood. The bad guy's henchmen go to check the "corpses"... who quickly disarm them with well-placed shots and reveal that the blood was fake, stored in the booze bottles they emptied last night.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Comic Books]]
45	* One-shot Franchise/{{Batman}} foe Michael Baffle enters the story by being executed by firing squad. It transpires that he has bribed the soldiers to load their rifles with blanks, and bribed the officer to forgo the usual inspection of the rifles before the execution.
46	* In an issue of ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'', the Squad uses this trick to fake the death of radical agitator William Hell.
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
50	* On ''WesternAnimation/Cars1'', [=McQueen=] thinks he's being shot at by the sheriff. It's actually the sheriff's tailpipe backfiring. [[FridgeLogic How on earth he could have shot at him at all with no limbs is a good question.]][[note]]''WesternAnimation/{{Cars 2}}'' answers that question, depicting cars with retractable guns built into their wheels.[[/note]]
51	* In Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}'', Tarzan has Clayton at gunpoint with his own rifle. Clayton dares him to shoot and "be a man", then cringes as a shot is heard. It was actually Tarzan imitating the sound of a gunshot.
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
55	* In the 1945 film adaptation of ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'' and almost all other successive film adaptations, [[spoiler:Vera's shooting of Lombard is revealed to have been a faked one staged to trick the murderer into revealing himself]].
56	* A classic one in ''Film/{{Bandits}}''. The movie opens on the frame story of [[{{Expy}} Larry King]] presenting his evening program as a retrospective following the death of 'Sleepover Bandits' (termed for their habit of taking the bank manager hostage the previous night and using him to gain early entry to the bank,) in a more conventional bank robbery, having kidnapped 'Larry' and forced him to interview them that evening. The movie goes along being fairly conventional lines: the duo meet love interest quarrel over said love interest etc. It all comes to a head at the bank robbery, surrounded by the cops with a room full of hostages, their emotions get the better of them and they wind up shooting and killing each other. It's faked by their special effects buddies: but the real twist comes later [[spoiler: The quarrel was real, but the ensuing breakup was faked, allowing the love interest to tip-off (and claim the substantial reward for) the police to the 'Bandits' next target. Oh and the bodybags were stuffed with cash. The final scene has them relaxing at a hotel in Mexico as the radio continues to broadcast news of their deaths.]]
57	* In ''Film/{{Blooded}}'', the RLA seemingly executes Lucas by putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger. It turns out there was a blank in the gun and the whole thing was staged to show Lucas what would happen if he did not comply with their demands. Ben and Charlie, who are watching, [[FakeKillScare do think he has been killed]].
58	* Happens early on in ''Film/TheBrothersBloom'' and [[spoiler: subverted by Stephen in the end, leading both his brother and viewers to think it's this, when it's not]].
59	* The final scene of ''Film/{{Circus}}'' reveals that [[spoiler:Lily]]'s shooting and death had been staged (although anyone familiar with ConMan films was probably suspecting it by this point). The shooting of [[spoiler:Bruno]] was real, however.
60	* Used at the end of ''Film/CitySlickersIITheLegendOfCurlysGold'', except the target is so startled that even ''he'' doesn't realize he wasn't shot.
61	* Used in the 2004 Paul Haggis film ''Film/{{Crash}}''. A gun store owner tracks down the man he believes responsible for robbing his store. He confronts the supposed assailant in front of his house, and when he fires the gun at the man and his daughter (who's jumped into her father's arms), the gun fires blanks. The storeowner's daughter switched the ammunition in the gun, believing her father might hurt someone.
62	* ''Literature/{{Inferno\|2013}}''. [[spoiler:After witnessing a doctor gunned down by an assassin at the hospital, Professor Langdon flees with the help of Dr Sienna Brooks. It turns out the whole thing was a set-up with blanks and bloodbags, designed to make him trust Sienna.]]
63	* ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile''. Somewhat different though, because the fake-shootee [[spoiler:later inflicts a real wound on himself to fool everybody else that he is indeed injured by the shooter - whom he is actually in cahoots with, and that he knows that a doctor is coming to check up on him so he doesn't have to worry about serious injuries.]].
64	* ''Film/{{Foolproof}}'': Leo and Rob force Kevin into an elevator and crash it. When they go to retrieve the bonds, Sam shoots Rob, then Leo shoots Sam. With the three friends dead, Leo leaves with the bonds. [[spoiler:It is later revealed that the friends had switched Leo's gun, giving him one loaded with blanks. Sam and Kevin get up and are greeted by Rob.]]
65	* This sets up the plot of ''Film/FXMurderByIllusion''. A movie special effects man is hired by the FBI to [[FakingTheDead fake the death]] of a Mafia boss going into witness protection. When the FBI tries to murder him afterwards, he has to face the possibility that someone switched his fake bullets for real ones.
66	* Double subversion in ''Film/TheGame1997'' when Nicholas [[spoiler: thinks he has a hold of a real handgun that The Game missed. He shoots his brother, who we now think is dead. Nicholas then proceeds to jump off the roof only to crash through breakaway glass into a party held in his honor. Here he discovers that his brother is alive, and more importantly, that ''he'' has ''lived'']].
67	* ''Film/GoldenEye'' opens with [[spoiler:Alec Trevelyan]] faking his death by gunshot to the head from General Ourumov.
68	* ''Film/TheGreenHornet'' has a nonlethal variant. Britt is painfully but nonlethally shot during the climax, and needs medical attention. Since a public figure going to the hospital for a bullet wound the day after a massive shootout would look suspicious, he holds a press conference the next day and has Kato shoot a blank at him so that he can go to the hospital.
69	* Subverted in ''Film/{{Heathers}}'', when [[AxeCrazy J.D.]] tells Veronica that the bullets in the guns he's provided for a "prank" are fake-but-realistic-looking tranquilizer darts; but which turn out to be very real and very deadly. This is [[BlackComedy played strictly for laughs]].
70	* In ''Film/HighHeelsAndLowLifes'', Shannon fakes the shooting of Frances as part of a scam to convince Mason she is willing to kill him.
71	* In ''Film/HotFuzz'', [[spoiler:Danny]] does this to get Nicholas safely away from the murderous [[spoiler:townsfolk]].
72	* Used in ''Film/HudsonHawk'' as Hawk apparently shoots and kills Tommy, but in the next scene Tommy gleefully explains that the blood was only ketchup.
73	%%* Part of the DrivenToMadness ploy in ''Film/HushHushSweetCharlotte''.
74	* Done by the villains of ''Film/InsideMan''. [[spoiler:Because all of their guns are fake, they stage a hostage execution scene using fake blood in order to continue convincing the police that their bank heist carries real threat for the hostages.]]
75	* ''Film/IronMan3'' features a scene in the end credits that reveal [[spoiler: that the man "shot" by Trevor Slattery (AKA the fake Mandarin) is just fine.]]
76	* Used to fake General Pushkin's "death" in the [[Film/JamesBond Bond]] film ''Film/TheLivingDaylights'', although what is really happening is hinted at beforehand and it is likely that the audience is not supposed to be fooled.
77	* Used in ''Film/LuckyNumberSlevin'', although the killer wasn't the one who set it up - his partner warned the person scheduled to be killed beforehand.
78	%%* Used in ''Film/MickeyBlueEyes'', both in the main plot and the TwistEnding.
79	* ''Film/Movie43'': This is the climax of "The Pitch" framing device when film executive Griffin Schraeder is shot by his manager Bob Mone.
80	* Played straight then revealed in ''Film/NorthByNorthwest'' when Eve "shoots" Roger. The gun is later discovered by the chief henchman to be loaded with blanks. [[FunnyBackgroundEvent Pay no attention to the boy with powers of precognition who plugs his ears before the gunshot]].
81	%%* The climax of ''Film/PhoneBooth''.
82	* Used at the beginning of the movie ''Film/ThePunisher2004'', to set up Frank's "retirement".
83	* ''Film/TheQuickAndTheDead'' has Russell Crowe's character shooting his {{Love Interest\|s}} (played by Sharon Stone) in a DuelToTheDeath in a shooting contest arranged by her ArchEnemy. Later, she turns out to be alive-- they [[FakingTheDead faked her death]].
84	* In the movie ''Film/{{Salt}}'' [[spoiler: Evelyn Salt shoots the Russian President Boris Matveyev. Later it is revealed the death was actually staged by Evelyn by using a spider venom filled projectile to cause a temporary paralysis resembling death.]]
85	* ''Film/ASimpleFavor'': As Stephanie looks deeper into Emily's life after she disappeared, she finds more and more of it is fake. [[spoiler:At the climax, in an attempt to get Emily to admit to her various crimes, Stephanie fakes a breakdown and pretends to shoot Emily's husband, Sean, to emotionally compromise Emily. Emily calls their bluff and shoots him for real.]]
86	* Used in the climax of ''Film/TheSting'' - Shaw shoots Hooker for selling him out to the feds, then the federal agent shoots Shaw, at which point [[DirtyCop Snyder]] hurries to get [[BigBad Lonigan]] out of the room. After they're both gone, Hooker and Shaw both get back up and it's revealed that the "fed" was actually another conman. The shooting was one final con- with the bad guys thinking that they're dead, they don't have to worry about them coming back for revenge. Viewers might have noticed that Hooker was putting something into his mouth (a blood packet) several scenes before.
87	* ''Film/VelvetGoldmine'' begins with glam rock star Brian Slade being assassinated on stage. We later learn that this was just a publicity stunt staged by Slade (and not a well-received one either, the backlash sending him on a downward slide into drugs and obscurity).
88	* One of the main plot-device gizmos in ''Film/XXx''. Xander is given a special gun that simulates firing a real bullet but is actually just firing tranquilizer darts with built-in blood squibs that perfectly simulates a real shooting. He is, of course, almost immediately given a situation requiring precisely this kind of device in the course of his mission (pretending to kill a good guy to earn his way into the evil organization).
89	** An extremely literal variant of ChekhovsGun.
90	* ''Film/{{Zeppelin}}'' (1971). During UsefulNotes/WW1 a FakeDefector is boarding a boat so he can be smuggled to Germany when a sniper gives him OnlyAFleshWound so his cover will be more convincing. Apparently [[WithFriendsLikeThese he hadn't been informed of this aspect of the plan]].
91	[[/folder]]
92
93	[[folder:Literature]]
94	* Used in the ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' series when Artemis rescues his father from the Russian Mafia, using a hollow bullet filled with Artemis' own blood.
95	* Mentioned as a possibility in Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls''. A man is shots and collapses in front of the main character, and then the body is quickly removed. After first assuming the man had been shot, the protagonist realizes it could have easily been faked ([[spoiler: It wasn't]]), which would explain why the body was removed so quickly.
96	* In ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile'', [[spoiler: Simon Doyle's alibi for the murder of his wife -- an attack by an ex-lover in which he was shot in the foot, thus making him barely able to walk -- was, in fact, staged. She intentionally missed, and with everybody rushing out to either get the doctor or take the shooter away, he had time to quickly run to his wife's cabin, shoot her, run back to the saloon, shoot himself for real, and throw the gun overboard.]]
97	* In ''Literature/{{Renegades}}'', Ingrid and Nova scheme to fake a MutualKill - with Ingrid blowing up Nova while Nova shoots her - to fake their deaths and throw the Renegades off their trail. [[spoiler:Except Ingrid intended to kill Nova from the start, and Nova has to actually shoot her to save herself.]]
98	* In ''[[Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat The Stainless Steel Rat for President]]'', "Slippery Jim" diGriz runs for and wins the presidency of the planet Paraiso-Aqui. But he doesn't want to actually ''be'' President of Paraiso-Aqui, so he arranges to be publicly "assassinated" right after he's announced as the President-elect, which makes the well-qualified Vice-president-elect the actual President.
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
102	* Variant: In the fourth season of ''Series/TwentyFour'', Tony Almeida "shoots" Jack Bauer, and Jack is then examined and found to be dead. Thirty seconds later, Tony jabs a syringe full of adrenalin into Jack's heart to revive him from artificially-induced death.
103	* ''Series/BarbaryCoast'': In "Funny Money", Jeff stages one: tricking the mark into thinking he shot killed and him. Arrested by a DirtyCop as he tries to flee, the banker collects CounterfeitCash from his stash to pay off the cop, and is busted by the Secret Service.
104	* On ''Series/TheBlacklist'' Reddington gets a Russian hacker to cooperate by rescuing him from an FBI task force and shooting an FBI agent dead. As soon as Reddington and the hacker run off, the 'dead' FBI agent gets up since Reddington is working with the FBI and the entire thing was staged.
105	* In an episode of ''Series/BurnNotice'' Michael is trying to scare a timid corrupt executive into leaving the state/country, and does so by making him think someone wants to kill him. The executive isn't as easily scared as he thought, so Michael works with him to "hire" his friends Sam and Fiona to take out the assassin. Then, through some clothing-embedded blood splatters, all three are shot down by unseen gunmen, successfully sending the executive running for the hills. Then they get up, and [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Sam and Fi start critiquing each others' performances]].
106	* ''Series/{{Columbo}}'': Nelson Hayward in "Candidate for Crime" fires a gun to put a hole in the window and the wall of his office. He later uses a firecracker to fake a gunshot to make it look like someone had just tried to shoot him. Too bad for him [[spoiler:Columbo had inspected the room in the interim, found the bullet and removed it from the wall]].
107	* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': A sleazy newspaper magnate gets his own son to shoot at him during a press conference in order to gain sympathy from the public when he feels the NYPD, and Mac in particular, have a vendetta against him in "[[Recap/CSINYS05E21 The Past, Present and Murder]]."
108	* On ''Series/TheEvent'', when DamselInDistress Leyla gets the drop on DarkActionGirl Vicki, Leyla manages to take her gun and fires, seeing Vicki tumble down the stairs from the impact. Later in the episode it is revealed that Vicki had previously loaded the gun with blanks, as part of a gambit to make her think she escaped so that she would call her boyfriend, who Vicki's superiors are trying desperately to locate.
109	* ''Series/FatherBrown'': In "The Flower of the Fairway", someone attempts to set up an alibi for the murderer by establishing a fake gunshot. They do this by [[spoiler:tying a firework to golf ball and driving it over the clubhouse]]. This not only makes it appear the murder happened later than it did, but obfuscates the method because [[spoiler:the victim was not shot but stabbed through the throat by a broken golf club]].
110	* Rare sword example: In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' it looks like Hiro has stabbed his friend Ando, but we later find out he stopped time, got a prop sword and fake blood, and set the whole thing up so that the bad guys would think he was one of them. [[spoiler: and left a real sword in a Japanese joke store.]]
111	* Invoked in ''{{Series/Highlander}}'' by the reporters and police who see Duncan shot onscreen only for him to appear alive later. In reality, he convinced the hostage taker to shoot him because, being immortal, he could come back from it and hunt down the bad guys.
112	* Happens in several occasions in ''Series/{{Hustle}}'', in order to scare the mark into taking off and not coming back for his money (it's an old con trick, but something of a FridgeLogic moment these days, as even if the mark left the country they would undoubtedly look up on the internet to find out what the police were saying about the non-existent shooting). Subverted on one occasion when the mark gets caught up in the emotions of the moment, draws his own firearm and fires a couple of ''real'' bullets into the 'victim' as well! [[spoiler:Fortunately, he survives.]]
113	* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'':
114	** Done twice in the same episode: first, "gunshots" were fired at a CorruptCorporateExecutive to convince him that he had hitmen after him, and he should go to the cops. Then, when that plan backfired spectacularly, a protagonist got "shot", and [[FakingTheDead played dead]], as the villains of the episode were ''actually'' going to shoot him.
115	** The show's final episode starts with [[InMediasRes Ford being interrogated]] about a failed heist, in which the interrogator (and the audience) is led to believe until near the end that the rest of the cast, other than Ford, was killed. (The heist was actually successful: the team needed to pretend to be dead so they could sneak in as part of the investigation of the first, fake, heist.) One part of selling the deaths: a security camera caught Eliot being shot several times. The scene really happened, but the gunshots were of course faked, complete with hidden "blood" packets.
116	* Jane does this at least twice in ''Series/{{The Mentalist}}''.
117	** In "Cackle-Bladder Blood", Jane has his former brother-in-law pretend to shoot and kill him in order to frighten a murderer into confessing.
118	** In "The Crimson Hat", Jane "shoots" [[spoiler: Lisbon]] of all people and takes the body to present to Red John as a gift of friendship.
119	* Both the TV incarnations of ''Series/MissionImpossible'' featured Fake Gunshots, as well as fake stabbings and any other means of getting an agent to "die" in front of the IM-Force's latest mark.
120	* The ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode "Worst Nightmare" provides the page quote.[[labelnote:spoiler explanation]]Nick Mason's former black ops teammate had a [[TheAtoner crisis of conscience]] and started killing his teammates to "make amends". To that end, he took Mason's granddaughter hostage to lure him out. Team Gibbs fakes the shooting in front of the BigBad to get him to release the granddaughter, then Mason gets back up.[[/labelnote]]
121	* On ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', a meeting is disrupted by a gunshot... that turns out to be the ringtone of Ron Swanson's cell phone.
122	* ''Series/TheProfessionals''.
123	** In "The Untouchables", Bodie is pretending he's gone corrupt and at one point gets into a shoot-out with Doyle and Cowley. He trolls his partner by PlayingPossum after the witness has already fled the scene; Doyle then makes out he'd forgotten to load blanks in his gun.
124	** Another one occurs in "Fugitive" when Bodie is infiltrating a terrorist group. This time it's Doyle who plays dead; unfortunately another terrorist is watching from a distance and sees him get up again, blowing Bodie's cover.
125	** In "Kickback" they use real bullets when Bodie and an SAS undercover operative do a fake sniper hit on a Whitehall mandarin who's secretly wearing a BulletproofVest (which doesn't stop him from finding the experience rather painful).
126	* ''Series/{{Quiller}}''. In "Any Last Request", a British spy is captured and will face the firing squad, and Quiller is assigned to rescue him. The problem is that a rescue would be all but admitting the man was a spy, so Quiller is ordered to fake his execution and ''then'' rescue him. This involves working out a reduced charge that will cause a bullet to strike the target and not penetrate, and arranging for those bullets to end up in the firing squad's weapons, while Quiller simultaneously fires an air rifle loaded with a blood-filled cartridge to provide the blood splatter. They get the reduced charge wrong and end up breaking a couple of ribs.
127	* In ''Series/TheRockfordFiles'' episode "Joey Blue-Eyes", the heroes stage a scene where Joey shoots Jim in order to convince that episode's villains that Jim really had kidnapped Joey's daughter.
128	* ''Series/StargateSG1'': In a [[TrainingAccident training scenario the cadets didn't realize was a training scenario]], they were given guns loaded with blanks and "brainwashed" Stargate Command personnel equipped with squibs.
129	* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''
130	** Bones fakes Kirk's death in "Amok Time" (fooling Spock and the other Vulcans).
131	** Spock uses a [[FakeSpecialAttack phony "Vulcan Death Grip"]] on Kirk in "The Enterprise Incident" (fooling Bones and the Romulans).
132	** "Patterns of Force". A female Nazi fires a gun at a Resistance member and seemingly kills him. After Kirk and Spock grab the Nazi, the Resistance member gets up, revealing that her gun was filled with blanks.
133	* In the ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' episode "Yellow", the general's son is scheduled to be executed via firing squad for being a DirtyCoward on the battlefield. The general tells his son on the night before the execution that he put blanks in the rifles to fake his son's death and that he'll be able to start a new life somewhere else. All he asks is that his son face his "death" with dignity. The son agrees, and faces the firing squad with a convincing act of courage, knowing he'll live to see another day. [[spoiler:Until he sees his father looking away at the last second.]]
134	* In the ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E19UnsafeSpeed Unsafe Speed]]", [[spoiler:a Texas DPS Trooper agrees to have Gage and Sydney do this to him so they can pass their initiation into [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels the Raptors]] so they can infiltrate their meth lab. Good thing he wore a BulletproofVest for this job.]]
135	* ''Series/WhodunnitUK'': In "All Part of the Service", the killer murders the VictimOfTheWeek with a silenced pistol, then later fires a shot out of the window to make it appear the death occurred later than it actually did.
136	* On ''Series/{{Wiseguy}}'', undercover agent Vinny is ordered to establish his gangster's credentials with Sonny Steelgrave by [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten assassinating a federal court judge]]. He alerts his bureau contacts about the hit on the sly, and the judge secretly wears a bulletproof vest when Vinny shoots him. Given that this happens in the first episode, it leads to Fridge Logic when you think that the judge would have had to remain 'dead' for years just to keep up Vinnie's cover. Doesn't this guy have a career of his own?
137	* In ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "The Amazing Maleeni" this is used to [[spoiler:set up an armored car robbery. The guard's guns have had their bullets changed to blanks to make the robber seem invincible]].
138	[[/folder]]
139
140	[[folder:Radio]]
141	* Used in ''Radio/TheLivesOfHarryLime'' episode "Horse Play". This episode uses almost exactly the same plot as ''Film/TheSting'' but predates it by twenty years. Both are based on the scenario described in the non-fiction book ''The Big Con''.
142	[[/folder]]
143
144	[[folder:Theater]]
145	* The Ira Levin play ''Theatre/{{Deathtrap}}'' has several versions of this trope.
146	* Subverted in the opera ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}'': the villain makes a deal with the heroine to let the hero go after a "fake" execution by firing squad... which turns out to not be fake.
147	[[/folder]]
148
149	[[folder:Video Games]]
150	* Done in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', with the twist that the knife stab ''you'' deliver to the victim is very real, but the dagger had been soaked in a poison that put the "victim" into [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation]], from which you later awaken him.
151	** Reused and ZigZagged in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', but this time [[spoiler: the so-called BigBad of the Thieves' Guild questline shoots you with a paralyzing arrow to avoid having to kill you. Your companion, the actual BigBad who let you take the lead throughout the entire dungeon, believes you dead... but realises afterwards that you heard the entire conversation, attempts to kill you, and fails because the paralytic stopped you bleeding out]].
152	* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', a Freeside bodyguard for hire makes a killing with repeat business by staging attacks on his clients, where 4 thugs attack and drop "dead" as he fire blanks. With a high enough intelligence, you can point out he fired 3 times, and with a high enough medicine skill, you can find out the thugs are PlayingPossum.
153	* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' opens with a botched heist during which Michael, a famous bank robber, is seemingly shot dead by a sniper. He's shown alive and well in the very next scene, as the shooting was a ploy for him to fake his death and escape his life of crime as part of a deal he made with the corrupt Agent Norton.
154	%%* A surprisingly elaborate one in ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception''.
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
158	* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' has a reverse case like this where [[spoiler: Edgeworth is framed for murder due to him having a meeting with Hammond, who was in fact murdered. Yogi, disguised as Hammond planned the meeting in a boat at a lake, where he fires into the air and then falls into the lake.]].
159	** In ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'', [[spoiler:this happens ''twice''. In case 3, the fake gunshot is intended to frame the shooter - the killer gave his girlfriend a gun that fired blanks and masqueraded as the victim, provoking her into "shooting" him and convincing her that ''she'' was the killer. Then, in case 4, the killer uses the sound of a gunshot on security footage of a shooting to fake the sound of the murder thirty minutes after it actually happened in order to establish an alibi.]]
160	[[/folder]]
161
162	[[folder:Webcomics]]
163	* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': While possessing Agatha, The Other steals one of the Wulfenbach troops' guns and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness uses it to shoot Tarvek Sturmvoraus in the back.]] Later she learns that the troops were equipped with stun guns, meaning Tarvek survived. Although, in later strips, we find that he's suffering some severe medical consequences now, in part because he left the hospital before he finishes healing.
164	[[/folder]]
165
166	[[folder:Web Original]]
167	* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue''; Wash does this on a Recovery mission, bringing Agent [[spoiler: South]] off the Freelancer roster. Subverted; [[spoiler: she]] had planned it with [[spoiler: Freelancer Command]].
168	[[/folder]]
169
170	[[folder:Western Animation]]
171	* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', Stan makes Roger, who to this point has been impersonating a foreign dictator, undergo a fake assassination as the treaty he signed makes said dictator no longer useful to the US (and, thanks to Stan, the real dictator was already dead). However, tired of being used by Stan, Roger immediately subverts it by getting right back up after his "assassination" in full view of everyone, after which he takes over the country proper.
172	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', in which Homer and Bart try to pull off a FawltyTowersPlot. Played with, in that the guy who fired the gun ''wasn't in on the plan''.
173	* Done in the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' episode "Summit". Miss Martian (disguised as Deathstroke) 'shoots' Aqualad and Artemis as part of a plan to extract an EngineeredPublicConfession out of the Reach and the Light. The 'deaths' are then revealed as special effects.
174	[[/folder]]

Context Main / StagedShooting