Leap and Fire - Television Tropes & Idioms

Danny: Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?
Nicholas: No.
Danny: Have you ever fired one gun whilst jumping through the air?
Nicholas: No.

— Hot Fuzz

Quite simply, a slow motion shot of a person throwing themselves to one side, firing as they go. Often with two guns. In real life, firing while jumping not only reduces accuracy, but is a serious waste of energy. And that's if you don't hurt your shoulder when you land. In the media, it either looks impressive or looks overdone.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

Black Lagoon.
Gunsmith Cats.
Gunslinger Girl. Justified in that girls' cybernetic enhancements allow them to do this without losing accuracy or hurting themselves.
Transformers Cybertron: Optimus Prime does this on a few occasions, and it looks pretty damn cool.

Comic Books

Taskmaster does this in his mini-series.
- Which is allowable, given the nature of his super-powers.
- Now if only he had some doves and a slow-mo button.
Dwight does it a lot in Sin City. Miho has also done it on the rare occaision when she brings out the bow and arrows.

Film

Hot Fuzz. Danny constantly asks these sorts of questions of Nicholas - ironically, either Danny or Nicholas end up doing every one Danny asks except firing one gun while jumping in the air, unless that's a subset of firing two guns while jumping in the air.
- At a preview screening, Nick Frost—who played Danny—actually offers some insight why in some circumstances, even assuming Improbable Aiming Skills, it might not be a good idea to do so.
  Questioner: What was it like to fire two guns whilst jumping through the air?
  Nick: The thing is—I don't know if any of you bitches have ever fired a nine before—but even with blanks, the casings come out hot as you like, and they land on the mat they set out to cushion the fall. And then you land on it. And then the casings roll in towards you...
Steven Seagal does this quite a bit. The Soup parodied it by taking a clip from one of his recent movies (where he does this and then slides while shooting) and doctoring it so he appears to be sliding for yards on end, firing all the while.
William H Macy, of all people, pulls one of these at the end of Cellular.
With all of the Guns and Gunplay Tropes in The Matrix, who'd be surprised to see this trope pop up in the movies?
Popular with John Woo, for obvious reasons.
The Brandon Lee Heroic Bloodshed film Legacy of Rage is the Ur Example of this trope.
A slight variation, the cover of Kevin Smiths DVD An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder shows him leaping to the side in what would be the usual two guns jump except instead of guns he has microphones. This might be a parody of the cover to The Transporter which had the image played straight.
Played with (like most other gunplay tropes) in Shoot 'Em Up, where Smith uses a puddle of oil on the floor to extend the dive into a slide the entire length of the warehouse he's in.
The concept is lampshaded in The Boondock Saints after the McManus brothers have cleared a room full of Russian mobsters:
Murphy: There's always that one guy who dives from behind a couch or somethin'.
Connor: Aye, and ya gotta shoot him like ten fuckin' times, too.
Better than most examples, the detective in I Robot was forced to do this to save himself; he was surrounded on three sides by enemies descending on the narrow platform he stood on.

Live Action TV

The moment when Ultimate Force jumped the shark.
Not only does Power Rangers use this trope virtually every episode, but it is usually accompanied by physics-defying leaps to boot. Power Rangers Dino Thunder's Ethan particularly loved shooting directly at the screen while in midair.
- During the police-themed Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger (and Power Rangers S.P.D.), the Megazord could do it. It was also Unnecessary Combat Roll-capable.
- The gunner form of the Getter Robo-esque Timeranger Robo/Time Force Megazord also does this.
- It did not, however, come up much in the Mighty Morphin era, due to the blasters seeing relatively little use even in the Zyuranger footage compared to martial arts and their Power Weapons.
Logan does this in one of Dark Angel's series finales.
Gwen in Torchwood: Children of Earth.
Wesley does this in Joss Whedon's Angel after taking a level. It was then shown in the Title Sequence.
Mythbusters briefly tested this while testing Wanted myths. Tory (the tester) actually hit his target, but he landed on a mat, and they emphasized that it would be very unlikely to pull off successfully in real life (although it is a good way to catch your opponent off-guard, if you dive through a doorway).
Zoey, mistress of superfluous combat maneuvers pulls this off in the cold open to an episode of Firefly.
Abed's introduction in Community episode Modern Warfare, Badass.

Video Games

In the Max Payne games, this move is known as a "Shootdodge." (And it's trademarked.)
Total Overdose has lots of names for it, depending on whether it's leaping forward, leaping backward, spinning 90/180/360 degrees, backflipping off a wall or walking sideways up it, leaping from a vehicle. There's even a separate name for using a grenade launcher while doing it.
Interesting Aversion in Devil May Cry, where Dante pulls off nearly every "trick shot" except this one. Firing while jumping upwards simply halts his ascent and players cannot make him fire while rolling aside.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion allows you to use your weapon while jumping if you have sufficient skill in Acrobatics. Notably, this includes drawing and firing your bow.
Diddy Kong in Super Smash Bros. Brawl With guns made out of wood, that shoot peanuts.
- Falco too, but with 2 laser guns.
This is the primary defensive technique in the action shooter MMO Gunz, so much so that most players are seen leaping like loons instead of running normally, unless they've got their swords out.
- Then it gets into a whole different territory.
This is the main purpose of the Stunt key in the Half-Life mod Action Half-Life.
This is one of the ~~available~~ main tactics of gun fighting in Wet. Special mention go to some of Rubi's other moves; shooting while sliding along the ground, and shooting while sliding upside-down down a ladder. All while Dual Wielding and shooting at multiple targets.
In Resonance of Fate, one of the two primary methods of attacking is jumping 50 feet in the air and emptying multiple clips into your enemies before you land.
In the original Command and Conquer: Renegade trailer, Havok did this constantly. He dove into doorways, dove over a stream of fire, and, and one point, shot at some bad guys behind him by leaping straight up into the air and firing as he turned. The actual game? Not so much.
- To get an idea of how strange the "jump and fire" maneuver looks, think of what a Battlefield gamer calls "bunny-hopping." Jump, turn, fire.
Wanted: Weapons Of Fate had the player be able to do this. You have the option to go into Bullet Time, then jump out of cover, shooting.