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In movies and television, a locked door, or a padlock on a cage is never an impediment so long as the Hero™ has bullets to spare. One or two shots is generally enough to destroy the lock, allowing the door to open.
Unfortunately, in real life — as shown by the MythBusters — this requires a high powered gun (such as a massive .357 Magnum pistol) at close range, which causes lots of very dangerous shrapnel. Only SWAT teams and soldiers ever do this in real life, and it involves a shotgun, Kevlar body armor, specialized ammunition (a powdered metal breaching round, often jokingly referred to as "Avon Calling"), and full face protection. Even then, the goal is not specifically to destroy the lock, but to destroy the surrounding door. The old standby "entry tool" (a small battering ram) is a better choice in most situations. That or a good, hard kick on an especially flimsy door.
The Speculative Fiction version is shooting the control panel for the automatic door or force field. Shooting it will always release allies or lock villains out/in, depending on the needs of the plot. (Note to villains: The Evil Overlord List recommends rigging yours to reverse this.)
Tested on 'The Box O'Truth'
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot5.htm
Examples:
Comic Books
- Scrooge McDuck does this in the Carl Barks comic "The Old Castle's Secret".
Commercials
- Subversion: Commercials for Weatherby ammunition would show a lock penetrated, but not completely destroyed, by a rifle cartridge.
- Subversion: For years, the Master Lock company ran TV commercials during the Super Bowl where they would shoot one of their own padlocks with a gun to demonstrate its durability. This is an interesting application of Reality Is Unrealistic, because its effectiveness is based on viewers' expectations that a lock will break when fired at. (This commercial is referenced in the Stephen-King-as-Richard-Bachman novella "Rage", when the narrator/protagonist puts his locker padlock in his shirt pocket, where it later saves him from a sharpshooter bullet in the heart. The narrator mentions later viewing that commercial, with adverse emotional effects.)
- Which is this troper's biggest objection to the Mythbusters episode on the topic: They only used locks from a company that specifically advertises that their locks can't be shot out.
Film
- Big Trouble In Little China
- Averted in Equilibrium. Right at the start of the movie a team of officers is about to bust the home of some sense-offenders. Three men arm their shotguns and realistically aim at point-blank range at the hinges and lock of the door. When the Grammaton Cleric is ready, they shoot the hinges off, and the Cleric kicks the door down with no trouble. This is how shooting down a door is actually done (although nobody would bash it in in a jump, of course).
- The weasels use a machine gun to shoot a hole around the lock on Eddie's door to open it in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- In No Country For Old Men, the villain (chillingly well-played by Javier Bardem) shoots off locks, but with an air gun that drives a metal spike through the lock and launches it into the next room.
- Luke does this in the first Star Wars movie to keep a door shut, cutting off pursuing Storm Troopers. Unfortunately, it also stops the bridge controls from working, making a heroic swing across a chasm (and a kiss that later becomes awkward) necessary.
- Subverted in the film adaptation of Phillip K. Dick's Paycheck. The hero and his girlfriend have sealed themselves inside a room, and she is about to smash the control panel for the door when he stops her and lets her know that will only keep them from opening the door from their side, not the bad guys.
- Played straight at the end of The Maskof Zorro.
Literature
- Spoofed in the Discworld novel Guards! Guards!, where Captain Vimes orders Sergeant Colon to shoot the lock off a gate...while Colon is armed with a longbow.
- Detritus later gets a siege crossbow called the 'Piecemaker' which can shoot out the lock...and the door...and the surrounding wall...and just about anything else in a 270-degree arc.
- There was a sci-fi book once where the variant seen in Star Wars - shooting it to keep it closed - was attempted, but it just jammed the door into "open". Don't remember the title, though.
Live Action TV
- Called out by MacGyver in "The Wish Child", where Mac, being a Technical Pacifist, explains that shooting a lock won't work. Instead, he empties powder from a bullet into the lock, then clubs the shell casing with the gun to blow up the lock from the inside.
- And the Mythbusters recently demonstrated that this won't work either. There isn't enough powder in one bullet (or even six) to sufficiently damage the lock.
- In the Deep Space Nine episode "Sacrifice of Angels," when Quark had to shoot the Jem'Hadar, leaving no one to let Kira and company out of their cell. Ziyal then shot the control panel, and down came the force fields.
- Both subverted and used (almost) correctly in Firefly. Jayne attempts to shoot out a lock with a futuristic stun gun, resulting in total indifference on the part of the door. However, seconds later, Mal does shoot at the lock with a rifle, doing substantial damage to the door itself.
- In the Chuck episode "Chuck Versus the Marlin," Casey shoots open the lock to free Sarah who had been locked in a freezer by an enemy spy.
- Kate successfully shoots a padlock in the Lost episode "Eggtown."
- Averted, subverted, lampshaded, and played straight on one episode of In Plain Sight, all within about a minute. The lead, Mary, and another cop are trapped in a burning building. The second cops wants to shoot the lock, but Mary informs him that it won't work; the shrapnel would just bounce back. She tries to find the key for the door on the huge bunch of janitor's keys she used to get into the building, gets impatient, and shoots the lock. No shrapnel, but the dents damage the lock enough for them to get outside. She's surprised that it actually works.
- Played straight in several episodes of the 60s spy series The Man From UNCLE.
- In an episode of The Green Green Grass, the Driscoll brothers use a pair of AK-47s and destroy every part of the door except the lock.
- Averted in an episode of Monk - When the gang are trapped in a bank vault with a limited air supply, Stottlemeyer wraps his hand in his suit jacket and attempts to shoot the padlock off a utility box that might contain a phone line so that they can get help. Multiple shots don't faze the lock.
Video Games
- In any video game featuring a door with a padlock which can be damaged in any way, you have this. Subverted in Resident Evil 4, where locks can be kicked down instead.
- Resident Evil 4 actually has several variations on shooting the lock. Blasting the padlock with a gun works. As does kicking the door itself, although that will generally take several attempts (Leon's strong, but he's not that strong). It's also possible to knife the lock open. In each case, shooting the lock is not strictly necessary; you can shoot the chain instead, if it's visible. And for doors that aren't locked at all, but that you don't want to open, you can blow large holes in them. Even with 9mm handgun rounds.
- Though not quite the same, several Star Wars games allow you to pop open a door simply by using your lightsaber to slice open an electronic lock. Seriously, just one swing and the doors open on their own. Of course, the movies subvert this, showing not only can you not do this, but it actually takes a while to cut through your standard ship door.
- At least the special, reinforced "blast doors" that people are always ordering opened and closed.
- If you're referring to the bridge door in Phantom Menace then he wasn't cutting through it, he was melting a several foot thick block of metal into slag. Jedi don't slice locks on doors, they slice right through them (except when it would get in the developer's way, I'm looking at you KotOR.)
- Hitman Blood Money finally introduced this feature to the series as an alternative to opening locked (or even unlocked) doors quickly, noisily, and with a gun aimed into the room beyond.
- In Golden Eye for the N64, you must shoot off a lock to open a gate. You can even do this with your hands. This editor recalls spending hours looking for the key. (Hey, it's a video game.)
- In Nightfire, this trope is averted, because while bullets don't work on locks, your watch has a rechargable laser on it which can cut through some, but not all locks (padlocks usually, but door locks are usually invulnerable to the laser watch.
- Considering your signature weapon is a crowbar, this is almost justified in Half Life. Though a bullet will still work, and regardless you just hit it with the crowbar once rather than actually using it.
- Don't bother shooting the Combine door locks though. Those can only be opened by people other than you. Or the Combine, who like to make them explode.
- The achievement "The One Free Bullet" on the Xbox 360 version of The Orange Box is unlocked if you complete the entirety of Half Life 2: Episode 1, firing exactly one bullet. Take a guess at what you have to use that one bullet for.
- Similarly, padlocks in Bioshock can be broken by bullets, or even the wrench.
- The Metroid series has an interesting variation. This is the only way to open a door, as your energy blasts somehow open doors. Architects must've been insane to build doors like this.
- Prime 2 explains this if you scan a door: It's a low powered force field, meant to keep the native (and not-so-native) critters out/in.
Web Comics
Real Life
- There was an interview with an Israeli sniper instructor in Soldier of Fortune magazine, where he mentioned a building entry technique where three snipers shoot at a lock at once, completely destroying it.
- Breaching, or Hatton shotgun rounds are designed specifically to do this relatively safely to the firer and anyone in the room behind the door. Though they're fired at the hinges equally, if not more often.
- Real life example of the SF version: In a video shown on Tru TV, an armed robber herded the employees of a store into the back room and attempted to cut telephone lines to prevent the victims from calling for help. Instead, he cut a wire controlling the door to the back room, preventing it from opening and trapping him until police arrived.
Western Animation
- Played with in an episode of Family Guy, when Peter rescues Lois from Mel Gibson. Mel proceeds to brandish a gun, which he uses to blast open the lock of a safe, inside which a slightly bigger gun lay.
- GI Joe Resolute: Duke shoots the electronic lock on Cobra Commander's emergency bunker. Cobra taunts him for thinking that would get him in. Duke replies that he didn't think it would get him in, just prevent Cobra from getting out, as it's revealed he activated the Self Destruct Mechanism.
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