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Two hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. We're gonna have to earn it.
Marie: Why don't you both put your guns down and go home? Harry: Don't be stupid! This is the shootout.
A stalemate where everyone has a weapon pointed at them. All the threats are equally balanced; no one is walking away from this standoff with what they came for. Unless, that is, someone figures the odds differently and initiates a Blast Out. This trope can be constructed in a number of geometries; one against one, three or more to a side, or army against army.
When this kind of standoff happens in Heroic Bloodshed movies or more recent Hollywood fare, it usually takes the form of two characters with their guns in each other's faces at point blank range. It was first used in John Woo's A Better Tomorrow II, but gained fame because of its use in his later masterpiece The Killer. As a result, this variant of the Mexican Standoff is called the "John Woo Standoff."
According to critic and writer Bey Logan's audio commentary for the John Woo movie The Killer, the Mexican Standoff as used in modern movies and TV was inspired by the classic Mad Magazine comic strip, Spy vs Spy. (It's even older than that; it's old enough to be parodied in the play "The Critic", first staged in 1779.) The term itself, however, originated in the 19th century - possibly in Australia, of all places - regarding perceived political indecision in Mexico.
Geometrical opposite of Back To Back Badasses. See also Melee A Trois. When the characters involved in a Mexican Standoff have a discussion during, said discussion is known as Gunpoint Banter.
Unsurprisingly, Mexicans don't refer to this as a Mexican standoff. In fact, no quippy Spanish equivalent seems to exist at all.
Examples:
Advertising
- Parodied in a banned Xbox 360 commercial
 , where an entire subway station spontaneously erupts into a Mexican Standoff, then a giant shootout... Only nobody is carrying any guns. They're just pointing fingers at each other and yelling "Bang!"
- Rifles, shotguns and even a grenade all make an appearance at some point. If only real life was this spontaneous...
- This is uncannily similar to a scene in the British sitcom Spaced.
Anime and Manga
- Vash and Knives, in their climactic showdown in the finale of Trigun, have a very protracted (and very dramatic) one-on-one standoff, where every attempt to break the stalemate by one character is instantly copied by the other.
- Also happens in an earlier episode in a multi-person standoff, consisting of Wolfwood, Zazie, Hoppered, Midvalley and Legato all holding multiple guns to each other. It was kinda awesome to watch. Them Millie had to go and ruin the whole thing.
- Code Geass's first season ends with a Mexican Standoff that's resolved after the Fade To Black. One of the big mysteries going onto the Oddly Named Sequel is what exactly happened, since all parties involved are shown to be alive and well one year later (not to mention the protagonist's little sister has been replaced by a little brother). There's another standoff much earlier, but that one is possibly disqualified by the fact that one side consists of two men with pistols while the other is a Humongous Mecha with a supersized gun bigger than both men combined...
- Subverted earlier in the season, when C.C. pulls a gun on Lelouch, threatening to shoot him in the leg, in order to stop him from leaving. Lelouch responds by drawing a gun of his own, but since C.C. is immortal and needs him alive to fulfill their contract, he points his gun not at C.C. but at his own head, threatening to kill himself if he isn't allowed to leave.
- Spike and Vicious engage in a Mexican Standoff in the fifth episode of Cowboy Bebop. Spike's got a gun, and Vicious holds a katana to the space cowboy's chest. They both attack each other, and Spike nearly dies, revealing flashbacks about both men's pasts.
- Repeated in the final episode. Interestingly, the standoff is a result of each man disarming the other. Spike has Vicious's sword, Vicious has Spike's gun. They give them back and then both die.
- In the third episode of Berserk, Guts and Griffith have their first fight, which ends with Guts and Griffith presumably in a standoff, neither able to move without putting themselves at a disadvantage. However, Griffith manages to pull an ingenious move and win the day, which is very Badass.
- Happens at least twice - so far - in Black Lagoon. Once during Revy's epic battle with Roberta, and then again (with three participants) in Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise.
- There's also the short standoff between Revy and Dutch during the Nazi arc following Revy getting the Whitman Fever and trying to gun down the noncombatant contractors on board the ship along with her Nazi quarry.
- Baccano! has a fun standoff as three separate groups simultaneously try and hold up a dinner car on a train. Two groups have guns and the third has a knife. The guy with the knife quickly apologizes, closes the door, and walks away.
- Futakoi Alternative has a hilariously awesome three-way Mexican Standoff.
Comic Books
- In one issue of Marvel Team-Up, The Punisher and Blade(the comicbook version), have a gun and katana to each other's heads, respectively. Blade suggests they both stand down, and lowers his weapon. Punisher doesn't move. Blade: "..." He then turns away, and Punisher shoots him in the back.
Fan Fiction
- Incorrectly named in My Immortal.
Enoby Ebony yells out in one of the last chapters: "they're having a Latin standoff!" Considering this is My Immortal, it's likely a parody, though.
- In Undocumented Features, a three-way standoff is described as a "Carggian standoff." Another character replies, "Well, we moved from Mexico when you showed up."
Film
- Quentin Tarantino loves this trope.
- In one of the Pink Panther movies, a soldier is shooting at the baddies. A baddie sneaks behind the soldier and puts a knife to his throat, telling him not to move. Another soldier gets behind him and puts a gun to his throat, telling him the same thing, creating a sort of blade-based Mexican Standoff. As they are all there unmoving and unsure about what to do, a grenade drops nearby and blows them all up. (note: it has been many years since this troper has seen that movie. The soldier/baddie parts might be inverted.)
- In an arguably memorable moment in The Matrix Revolutions, Morpheus, Seraph, and Trinity confront the Merovingian at his nightclub to secure freedom from a limbo-ridden Neo, only for talks to degenerate into a Mexican Standoff after the Merovingian demands "the eyes of the Oracle" in return. Merovingian calls off the standoff with no bloodshed after he realizes that the trio aren't going to back down.
- Also worth mentioning is that there were easily at least 20 people involved.
- Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End has a particularly interesting one, involving five people (one of whom isn't even directly related to the argument and pulls out his guns because everyone else does), each with two guns pointing at two other people. During the course of a conversation, they constantly switch who they are pointing their guns at. The whole thing becomes moot when one man tries to shoot another, and the shot is a dud. This prompts everyone else to fire at each other, with the same result. Turns out that all the guns were waterlogged.
Pintel: We can still use 'em as clubs!
- Also used to interesting effect in the first movie. The cursed Pirates have a sword to Elizabeth's throat, while Will Turner has a gun to his own head (If he kills himself there, the pirate can never lift the curse.)
- Near the conclusion of Lust in the Dust, a 1985 film, nearly everyone is pointing guns at each other over a chest of gold. Marguerita (Lainie Kazan) is the lone character without a gun - she exclaims, "This is not fair!" The others give her a pistol out of fair play.
- A particularly well-done and tense Mexican Standoff is done in the latter half of The Rock, as seen here.
- John Woo is fond of these kinds of standoffs. Apart from the standoffs between Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee from The Killer, and between Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung in Hard-Boiled, there's also the moment in Off where Sean Archer and Castor Troy end up in a standoff at a church, with Sean's former FBI agents and family on one side, and Castor's family and crew on the other, which is made very dramatic by the fact that both hero and villain are wearing the other's face and both sides are trying to convince the other which is which. When the stalemate is finally broken, the shootout that commences is the most memorable of the entire movie.
- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly climaxes in a very, very long three-way Mexican standoff in a graveyard.
- In the Hitman movie, the main character is in an Mexican Standoff with three assassins out to kill him. Why the assassins are pointing guns at each other and not just at the guy they're supposed to kill is a good question, but it is quickly overshadowed by the fact that they decide to "die with a little dignity" by ejecting the magazines from their guns, dropping their guns, and each pull out a pair of mini-katanas and after another brief standoff in which the 4 assassins cross their swords a la the 3 musketeers they then have a swordfight.
- As for why they're pointing guns at each other, I'd reckon it's because the guy who kills 47 is the only guy who gets paid.
- Delta Farce: "Here, we just call it a standoff."
- The Departed: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Anthony Anderson, and two other guys (if my memory serves me correctly), in an abandoned apartment building. Sort of a delayed Mexican Standoff, though, because Anderson walks in when casualties have already begun.
- Done much more simplistically in the film The Departed is based on, the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs. Only three people, rather than the addition of another two a bit later one.
- Lampshaded in the Jackie Chan movie Shanghai Noon. The corrupt sheriff comes in during the ransom money trade-off and pulls out dual pistols, aimed at Jackie and Owen Wilson. He quips, "Looks like we have a Mexican standoff... except we don't have any Mexicans."
- The first James Bond film, Dr. No has Bond outwitting a would be assassin by hiding behind the door while the assassin attempts to kill him in his room. Bond has the assassin drop his gun on a rug and sit down while he interrogates the man. Bond would occasionally take a drink during the conversation, which the assassin used to slide his gun closer to him by dragging the rug. Eventually the assassin regained his gun and pointed it at Bond, saying that they are now at a standstill, which Bond casually shrugs and simply shot the guy.
- It should be noted that the assassin had used all of his bullets earlier shooting the bed which he believed contained Bond. As Bond knew this fact, it was easier for him to react calmly to a gun pointed at him.
- The film Time and Tide has two characters, a regular soldier and a special-ops mercenary, pull pistols on each other simultaneously. The soldier says "Now we are equal," and the mercenery shoots him immediately, then spits on his body, saying "I only speak with my gun."
- In Bruges has Ray and Harry getting into one of these in the middle of the bed-and-breakfast. Harry is too principled to get into a gunfight with the pregnant landlady is right there in harm's way, and she refuses to leave, so they hilariously argue about how they can continue the fight elsewhere.
- The film version of Stardust has Tristan and Septimus getting into the knifey-equivalent to this.
- In the film of Prince Caspian, Caspian confronts Miraz and puts a sword to his throat. Then Miraz' wife points a crossbow at Caspian. Then Susan walks in and points her bow at Mrs. Miraz.
- Done between a squad of Army rangers and Sector Seven agents in the 2007 Transformers movie. Broken up by Defense Secretary Keller, who suggests the agents do what the rangers say. "Losing's not really an option for these guys."
- Branded Yo Kill features a very odd subversion, almost a Deconstruction. The Number One Killer pulls a gun on the the Villain Protagonist, who responds in kind as dictated by the trope. Then the Number One Killer says "We'll have to split the bed." They stand next to each other for days, as the Heroic Sociopath goes crazier and crazier. The Number One Killer is unfazed.
- Subverted in Rik Mayall Presents - The Big One. Contains a five way mexican standoff. The guns are aimed this way and that, while three of the five people involved run off as soon as no-one is aiming at them. The two people left aiming at each other are on the same side.
- Parodied many times in The Mummy Trilogy.
- Happens often enough in Blood Meridian, one memorable one being after Glanton's horse bites the ear off an Apache chief's during a meeting, and moments later everyone on both sides is fixed in a web of gunsights.
- Assassins (1995). Two hitmen are on either side of a bulletproof divider in a taxicab after an unsuccessful Not My Driver ploy. Neither can get out of the taxi without being killed, so the younger (and more crazier) hitman breaks the stalemate by threatening to shoot an innocent bystander unless he starts driving. Then follows a car chase to avoid pursuing police vehicles while at the same time each hitman is trying to kill the other.
Literature
- In keeping with the series’ Western roots, Wizard And Glass of the Dark Tower novels involves the main character's friend training a fatal slingshot round on a corrupt deputy harassing a mentally handicapped boy, who then has a gun put to his head from behind by another one of the corrupt deputies… who then gets a knife put up against his back by one of the first boy's friends… who gets a gun put to his head by the leader of the lawmen… who suddenly finds the main character’s knife against his throat, in what may be the most over-the-top example of this trope played straight.
- Played straight in an earlier book, as well, between Eddie and Roland in The Drawing of the Three. Notable in that Eddie actually refers to the standoff by name as a Mexican standoff.
- The novel Dance of the Voodoo Handbag by Robert Rankin uses a Mexican Standoff in which an increasing number of characters arrive pointing guns at each other in an argument over the titular Mc Guffin. However, the main character realises noone's threatening him, so steals the handbag and escapes in the confusion.
- Subverted in Popcorn, one of Ben Elton's earlier books, when a very film-savvy criminal gets caught in a one-on-one standoff and remarks "I never got why people didn't just stop yakking and shoot the other guy" before shooting the woman he's facing in the chest.
- Literary example: in the novel Something Rotten of the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, Thursday find herself in one of these: for the better part of the book, Thurs has been trying to find a way to gently break it to her friend and colleague Spike that his cute, perky wife Cindy is secretly a contract killer with a contract out on Thursday. When she finally confronts Cindy in Spike's presence, Thurs draws her gun on Cindy (who she believes has a concealed weapon) only to have Spike - who refuses to believe her - draw his gun on her. The standoff ends when a random grand piano falls out of a window above them, and the piano bench lands on Cindy; she collapses, revealing said concealed weapon. The author has said that he had no idea how to end that scene, so he Took A Third Option. Astonishingly, by the end of the book he actually Justifies it.
- In Dan Abnett's Gaunts Ghosts novel Ghostmaker, after Corbec tackled a figure who turned out to be a Volpone Blueblood, the Bluebloods surrounded him with guns; he let the major up, and the major drew a gun on him; Gaunt appeared, pointing a gun at the major and declaring that if he shot Corbec he would be dead before his men could shoot; more Ghosts appeared, with their guns drawn. . . . It was a good thing that the Inquisitor Lilith showed up, all in all.
- The Star Wars EU refers to this as a Rodian Standoff. It doesn't show up as often as you might think.
- It partially happened in the movie.
- Played with in Trevanian's The Eiger Sanction. The hero is only holding up his hand in a gun shape while he's under a sleeping bag.
- In Terry Pratchett's Guards Guards, when neither dragon can get an advantage, the narration notes that this is "the well-known Klatchian standoff".
- In Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novel Turn Coat, Harry thrice goes into his apartment to find Morgan, Molly, and Mouse — with Luccio, twice in some form of a Mexican Standoff. He defuses the situations.
Live Action TV
- Joss Whedon seems to like subverting this a lot:
- In the Buffyverse comic book miniseries Fray, Melaka and one of the two random goons after the same prize end up pointing laser pistols at each other, causing the goon to state "It appears we have a standoff." Melaka's response? "What standoff?" BLAM.
- Also subverted rather beautifully in the original opening two-parter of Firefly, where River is taken hostage by the Alliance mole, who has a gun to her head, and Mal is walking back up from their latest illegal dealing. Considering he, Jayne and Zoe just came back from an outing during which they were all heavily armed, and considering the fed had allegedly called for backup, this could easily have led to a Mexican standoff, especially given that Jayne is prone to betrayal at the drop of a hat if given enough money. Instead, Mal and the others almost completely ignore the man's threats, with Mal simply shooting him in the face as soon as he catches sight of him without even slowing his pace or being fazed one bit.
- Serenity, the Big Damn Movie of Firefly. This happens twice between Captain Mal and River Tam: the first time in the bar after River has demonstrated her martial arts abilities, and the second after River escapes custody and goes to the bridge.
- The second time isn't quite a standoff, though, since Mal isn't armed.
- Life On Mars: Gene's superior officer and mentor, recently found out to be corrupt, is cornered by Sam and Gene in a corridor. All three produce guns. The mentor begins to challenge the two to break the stalemate, remarking that none of them are getting out of this unharmed - but doesn't get to finish, because Gene bluntly shoots him in the leg while he's still talking. Gene, of course, was a bit pissed about the whole 'corrupt' thing.
- Battlestar Galactica does this at least twice.
- One X-Files season finale contained enough plot twists to briefly lead to a three-way stand-off between the good guys — it's resolved without bloodshed and with a slight degree of embarrassment on all parts.
- In the Heroes episode "Landslide", HRG and Mohinder get into one. However, HRG isn't pointing his gun at Mohinder, he's pointing it at Molly Walker, a little girl whose power happens to be The Company's new "Walker" tracking system, and the biggest threat to the heroes' security.
- One episode of the Sit Com Taxi, Bobby has a fare talk himself into the front seat, then pull out a gun in an attempted robbery once they've reached his destination (the middle of nowhere-in-particular), foiled once Bobby pulls his own, kept for just such an emergency. This trope is then played straight for something like eight hours, subverted when the thief complained that his arm's getting tired and convinced Bobby to swap his much larger pistol for the latter's much lighter one... revealing afterwards that his gun was never even loaded, and resuming his crime from square one.
- Wiseguy. When Vinnie Terranova gets framed due to a Government Conspiracy, his OCB handler Frank McPike tries to get an eccentric billionaire (who's cut himself off from society for decades) to help. The meeting takes place in a ski-lift, with the billionaire holding a cocked LAAWS rocket. At one stage he points out that it's not a good idea to threaten a man armed with a bazooka, whereupon McPike whips out his snubnose .38 and says: "Big hole, little hole; either way we're just as dead." The billionaire is so impressed with McPike's chutzpah he does eventually come forward to clear Vinnie.
- Tim and Duane have a paintball standoff in the fourth episode of Spaced.
- A recent episode of Burn Notice has a group of criminals in a standoff situation after being manipulated by Michael into believing they were being betrayed by each other. None of them actually wanted to start shooting, but Sam sneaks up behind the building and fires his gun into the ground. The noise makes the criminals panic and kill each other, in what is either crossing the Moral Event Horizon or a Crowning Moment Of Awesome for Sam depending on the viewer.
- Considering that Sam is a former Spec-Ops leader, if one is going with Moral Event Horizon, it's probably the least of his sins.
New Media
- It doesn't get more dramatic than Pete and Brian's "Showdown". Hilariously done, with some Stock Phrases to boot.
Other
- In the card game The Good The Bad and The Munchkin there is a card called Mexican Standoff which does indeed balance the sides in any given battle.
Real Life
- The "Sitting War" that occurred near the beginning of World War Two.
- Arguably the Cold War was one of these, with the notable exceptions of the Korean and Vietnam wars.
- The Cuban Missile Crisis especially.
- Arguably, the standoff didn't end with the Cold War; nuclear weapons will keep it going in perpetuity. A Time editorial considers this preferable to the level of bloodshed the pre-nuclear World Wars exemplified.
Video Games
- Subverted in the second chapter of the video game Killer7: a group of diplomats are playing mah-jongg when one is accused of cheating. All four men stand up, pull their guns... and then shoot each other without a second's pause.
- Before they reach for the weapons, one even expresses irritation that they're about to all die.
- The video game Fear Effect has one of these between two playable characters at a climactic moment. You get to choose who fires first, if either.
- Final Fantasy X 2 features a three-way Mexican Standoff between Gippal, Nooj, and Baralai. Actually, it happens *twice*, if you go around getting the optional scenes.
- There's also a very brief Mexican Standoff between Yuna, Rikku and Paine when the latter two are temporarily possessed by Shuyin in the Den of Woe. Probably not a true Standoff in the way that at least one party had no intention of harming the others.
- Mass Effect is littered with Mexican standoffs with all sorts of people; whether they end peacefully, with someone getting shot in the face, or with a Blast Out depends mostly on the player's choices. In the most notable example, Shepard and one of his own party members, Wrex, get into a standoff over blowing up a lab containing a cure for the krogan race's infertility, which is slowly killing them off. Getting out of the situation without killing Wrex earns the player an Achievement for resolving "an impossible situation" with diplomacy.
- The prologue chapter of Wild ARMs 3 has a "Select a Character" screen consisting of three of the player party pointing guns at each other while the fourth watches. This is how they all first meet.
- You can get one of these in Pokemon with Wobbufett vs. Wobbufett or Ditto Vs. Ditto. Or for that Matter, Ditto vs. Wobbufett. Or a ghost type pokemon with all Ghost-Type moves and a Normal type, with All Normal Type Moves
- In Resident Evil - Code: Veronica, Steve and Alfred get into a brief fight concluded when they get into a stalemate with Steve on the ground with both machine guns aimed at the latter and Alfred standing over and pointing his rifle at the face of the former. Steve breaks the stalemate in a snap by unloading his guns into Alfred anyway. Who [[LargeHam probably didn't want to break the tension of the moment.
Webcomics
Web Original
- This happens once in Survival Of The Fittest version one, between David Jackson, Jacob Starr, and Peri Barclay. By this point, Jacob's mind has become dangerously unstable due to the guilt and trauma he's experienced over the game's course clashing with the morals his police officer father taught him his whole life, so the situation devolves into a Blast Out when he suddenly turns on Peri and attacks him, leading to one of the most intense gunfights of the game.
- Another happens in version 3, this can be best described as 'Bobby Jacks vs. Everyone', as at one point the aforementioned villain character had no fewer than six people pointing guns at him, whilst he reciprocated by pulling out both of his guns and returning the gesture. Fortunately, the situation was eventually diffused.
- Is this the same one as where Lenny holds Heath and James hostage, when Bobby pulls his gun on Lenny, Shameeca sneaks around and aims her gun at Elizabeth's back, while James stands in the middle, and Anna, Lauren and Lulu are watching from the bushes? The one that ends with James, Heath, and Lauren dead, Lulu and Anna kidnapping Elizabeth, Lenny going a little overboard, and Shameeca all alone again?
- A Challenge Round is resolved like this in season one of The Leet World. Ellis drops down behind Leeroy and takes aim, only to be held at gunpoint by Westheimer, who is in turn menaced by Cortez. It ends with a Blast Out (luckily, Death Is Cheap).
Ellis: *Click* "Hold it right there, Bo. Reach for the sky."
Westheimer: *Click* "Hands up, perp!"
Cortez: *Click* "Prepare to die, Dog."
Western Animation
- Maggie gets caught in the middle of an Italian-American Mexican Standoff in the climax of the "Moe Baby Blues" episode of The Simpsons. Luckily Moe is there to save the day. Yes, Moe.
- Subverted in King of the Hill when Dale turns bounty hunter and faces his target. Both drop their rifles and put their arms up... Then stand there until their arms get tired.
- Parodied in Drawn Together, "The One Wherein There is a Big Twist, Part 1", where a minor issue between the housemates flares into a standoff. Then Wooldoor leaps into the fray and produces a ridiculous amount of guns (in a ridiculous amount of arms), even going as far to shout "I'M NOT AFRAID TO DIE!" before pointing yet another gun at himself.
- GIJoe plays with this bit when Shipwreck is confronted by Destro and the Dredknoks just after he dumped a chemical that makes water explode down the drain. To hold them off, Shipwreck has a lit match and threatens to ignite the treated water. Destro confidently tells him that's pointless since a triggering explosion is needed to set off the water. Shipwreck calls it a bluff and Destro dares him to find out. Shipwreck does and drops the match down the drain, only to learn he was not bluffing as nothing happens. Now with the Joe's trump card now worthless, the Dredknoks open fire, but Shipwreck dodges and that weapons fire provides the triggering explosion to set the water off.
- Avatar The Last Airbender has one at the start of the Melee A Trois between Aang, Zuko, and Azula.
- Stan Smith in American Dad references this, as it's part of the procedure of arguing with his wife. Though here, he refers to it as a "John Woo stand-off."
- Sealab 2021 took this trope to comedic excess in the episode "Let 'em Eat Corn", which climaxed in a 5-way Mexican Standoff, with each faction armed with a nuclear missile. It then anti-climaxed when they find out the nukes (all bought from the British) are duds.
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