It is also often encountered at funerals, as a sign of respect to the departed, typically for police officers or military personnel. Traditionally, of course, it was cannons, but rifles are considered acceptable. At military funerals it may also be accompanied by Taps, or The Last Post for Commonwealth militaries. See also Missing Man Formation.
The number of gunshots fired doesn't have to be twenty-one, but that's the highest number (traditionally reserved for heads of state) and tends to show up more often in fiction. The supertrope would be Due to the Dead.
Some relevant information from The Other Wiki on the 21-Gun Salute
and the 3-Volley Salute. They're not the same thing. Technically, most "21-gun salutes" are actually 3-volley salutes. A 3-volley salute involves a group of guns being fired three times; a 21-gun salute is twenty-one guns being fired (or one gun twenty-one times).
Supertrope to Three-Volley Flinch, which is a character reaction to this trope.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Mobile Suit Victory Gundam: When the Zanscare Empire executes Fuala via deep space ejection, they're given a rifle salute as a minor condolence for accepting their sentence (rather than being forcibly beheaded). Since this is done in a space ship, the rifles are dry-fired instead of loading blanks.
Fan Works
- Homecoming, 2026: When listing out the security members who have died, this happens:
Once they were in position, the security chief started his recitation of the names with "Caitlin McQuiston." The recitation of the names of the security members who passed ended with a 21-gun salute, before the proverbial clock started moving forward again.
Film — Animated
- In Despicable Me 2, Gru honours Dr. Nefario's years of service with a 21 fart-gun salute (although one of the minions makes it 22).
Film — Live-Action
- It is mentioned that rifles were fired at the funeral of Captain George Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man.
- The movie version of Clear and Present Danger cuts between Admiral Greer's funeral and the ambush of the special forces team. It comes to a head as the three volleys are fired at the funeral, cut against the distress calls and machine gun fire of the battle.
- A seven-man honour guard at the funeral procession for Commissioner Loeb in The Dark Knight. Except they're not the honour guard: they're the Joker and his henchmen using the real honor guard's uniforms and rifles to assassinate the mayor.
- The First Men in the Moon. The (not quite) first landing on the Moon is celebrated by artillery pieces being fired off back on Earth. This creates the unintentional impression among the audience that war has broken out over the issue.
- Parodied in Hot Shots!. Dead Meat is given one at his funeral and Admiral Benson, thinking that he's under attack, pulls out a sidearm and returns fire.
- Billy Glenn in Mars Attacks! is laid to rest after the Martians' attack.
- This is shown at the start of The Rock.
- You Only Live Twice. During the Burial at Sea of James Bond at the beginning of the movie, several sailors fire rifles as a salute.
- Zombieland: The main characters give a Three Volley salute to Bill Murray. Leads to some Mood Whiplash when it grinds to a halt as Columbus reloads his double barrel shotgun. The others even give him an incredulous look for such a poor gun choice.
Literature
- This shows up frequently in the Aubrey-Maturin series; fitting, as the tradition originated with the navy in the 17th century and this is a naval series set in the 19th. A captain gets a certain number of guns, an admiral a certain number more. After a particularly well fought battle in the first book, a number of ships fire off their guns as a salute to the HMS Sophie and her crew. One of the instalments is even named The Thirteen-Gun Salute, after the number which is due to the King's envoy, whom HMS Diane is carrying on board in this novel.
- Dragonlance: When Fizban is informed that he died in the previous book, he asks if he received a twenty one gun salute because he always wanted one. Tasslehoff has no idea what he's talking about, guns don't exist on Ansalon.
- The centaurs of the dark forest near Harry Potter's Hogwarts fire off a volley of arrows in honor of Dumbledore, at his funeral.
- In The Happy Return, Horatio Hornblower encounters a megalomaniacal Central American despot who demands a 23-gun salute. After agonizing over the impropriety, he decides that going above 21 renders the salute meaningless. When the despot later turns against the British, Hornblower is only too glad to give him a full broadside.
- Safehold: In Through Fiery Trials, a ship carrying both the Emperor and Empress of Charis receives a 24-gun salute.
- A version of this appears in Missee Lee from Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series, with gongs instead of guns. Taicoons Chang and Wu are saluted with ten strokes of the gong; Missee Lee herself, being the overall chief, is saluted with 21 strokes.
Live-Action TV
- One episode of The A-Team has the A-Team step in to give a funeral for one of their old military buddies who had tangled with the Villains of the Week. With Hannibal calling the orders, the other three fire their rifles several times in salute.
- Late in the 1982 miniseries The Blue and the Gray, the surviving members of the Geyser family are holding a funeral for two of the sons, one of whom died protecting the family farm alongside Confederate troops. A detachment of those troops arrives and their commanding officer offers to fire a volley in gratitude for the family's assistance at the battle. The father is reluctant to accept, but the mother interrupts him: "Fire your volley, Lieutenant. I'm sure the boys will hear it." The soldiers proceed with the volley.
- In an episode of Bones Booth takes part in a 21-gun salute at his own funeral, which was staged in order to catch a perp who said that Booth would never see him again except at his (Booth's) funeral. Since Booth had gotten shot by a Stalker with a Crush at the end of the previous episode the FBI decided to use it.
- The Crown (2016)
- During the royal Commonwealth tour at a time when Britain was still a major naval power, fifteen A-class destroyers of the Mediterranean fleet greet the Britannia arriving at Gibraltar. It's also a show of strength at a time when threats have been made to the Queen's person by those who would rather see Gibraltar ruled by Spain.
- A twenty-one-gun salute from the Navy, a 41-gun artillery salute from the Army, and a flyover of Buckingham Palace by jet bombers herald the birth of Prince Andrew.
- In Home Improvement, Tim Taylor sets up a 21-nail-gun salute to the late Binford. As is to be expected from the show, the last row of nail guns doesn't exactly work correctly, and Hilarity Ensues.
- A 21-gun salute was shown on Magnum, P.I. during the episode with Thomas' father's funeral.
- Stargate SG-1: The episode "2010" has a 21-gun salute as part of a ceremony commemorating SG-1 and their contact with the Aschen ten years before in an Alternate Timeline.
- Walker, Texas Ranger: Shown during the funerals of many Texas Rangers and other fallen police officers, including C.D. during the ending of Season 9's "The Avenging Angel".
- One episode of The West Wing featured a military funeral complete with 3-volley salute for a homeless Korean War Veteran. The Pentagon granted the show rare permission to film at Arlington National Cemetery for the episode, with real military personnel performing the role of the honor guard and chaplain. Toby, the White House staffer who arranged the funeral, does a Three-Volley Flinch; it's possible it was not scripted.
- A fourth-season episode of White Collar featured a criminal who disappeared following conviction and the forfeiture of illegally gained assets and was presumed dead. His will required a 21-gun salute at his funeral.
Music
- Also referenced in the song "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" by AC/DC.
- Mentioned in Eric Bogle's song No Man's Land, the chorus of which asks a soldier dead in WWI "Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down [into the grave]?".
- Brantley Gilbert's "One Hell of an Amen" says a fallen soldier "went out twenty-one guns blazin'".
- Referenced in the title and chorus of the song "21 Guns" by Green Day.
Video Games
- The second mission of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare starts with Mitchell attending a funeral for his squadmate Will, who died in the previous mission. A 21-gun salute can be heard in the background as Will's father Jonathan talks to Mitchell off to the side, trying to convince him to join his group, the Atlas Corporation. The third and final volley of the salute acts as an auditory Match Cut into Mitchell's first training mission with Atlas: a rescue mission at Camp David on a stormy night.
- A 7-gun (3-round burst) salute is performed during the funeral at the end of Halo 3.
- Team Fortress 2: The Soldier's taunt with the Shotgun or Reserve Shooter has him doing this, firing three shots and saluting with a "Booyah!". After the tragic death of his voice actor Rick May in April 2020, servers were full of people playing Soldier and firing off the taunt in remembrance.
- A Way Out shows this at Vincent's funeral in the ending where he dies.
- In some Wing Commander games, the death of your character or one of your wingmen will be followed by a cutscene of their funeral, with a 21 laser rifle salute.
Web Animation
- In season 5 of Red vs. Blue, Sarge is given an impromptu funeral and asks for one of these. That task was delegated to Grif, who took it too literally thinking it required exactly twenty-one guns and failed to provide.
Western Animation
- Arcane: Enforcer funerals are like real world police funerals, complete with volleys.
- When Maude Flanders was killed by a gun that fires t-shirts on The Simpsons, there was a 21 t-shirt salute at her funeral.
- Looney Tunes:
- In the Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales short "Assault and Peppered", Daffy uses 21 cannons to celebrate a victory over Speedy. When he pulls the 21 cords to make the cannons shoots, he accidentally points them to make him their new target with Speedy observantly keeping count.
- In The Venture Brothers, when henchman #21 (no relation) buries another henchman, there is a salute at the funeral. Unfortunately, the rifles used by the henchmen shoot tranquilizer darts, which #21 realizes just as they rain back down upon him. He passes out sprawled across the grave.
Real Life
- Queen Elizabeth II had a 21-gun salute as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
- Presidential funerals include a 21-gun salute.
- At the 2000 US Golf Open, there was a 21-drive salute in honor of defending champion Payne Stewart, who died in a plane crash the previous October.
- In the British Raj, the number of guns used in a salute varied depending on the status of the person being saluted. 21-gun salute was limited only to highest ranking Indian princes and high ranking British generals and officials. However, the British viceroy was entitled to a 31-gun salute while the British king, as the emperor of India, was entitled to a 101-gun salute.
- Several gun salutes took place in England as Charles III was formally declared king after Elizabeth II's death. The salute in Hyde Park was 41 guns, while the Tower of London had a 62-gun salute.
