History Main / FalseRoulette

* Mac does this on ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' to force information out of one of the guys who was involved in kidnapping Mac's girlfriend, Christine.

* Mac does this on ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' to force information out of one of the guys who was involved in kidnapping Mac's girlfriend, Christine.

* Played straight in ''Film/LAConfidential'' during the interrogation of the three Night Owl murder suspects, when [[{{Determinator}} Bud White]] realizes the suspects have kidnapped and raped a woman who's still being held hostage. However, in the film, we never actually see if Bud takes the last round out of his .38...

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'': The Gandors pull one of these on a traitorous subordinate, confronting him with their knowledge of his betrayal and then presenting him with a fully-loaded revolver, with which, they inform him, he must now [[LeaveBehindAPistol "play Russian roulette"]]. When he panics and tries to shoot Keith Gandor, he quickly discovers two things: the revolver was loaded with harmless empty cartridge casings, and the whole production was actually a SecretTestOfCharacter.

'''Harry''': [stammers] Well yeah, there was, like, an 8% chance--!\\

* Upgraded in the ''Manga/GunsmithCats'' manga. Rally Vincent puts in the bullet ''without'' palming it, spins the chamber, pulls the trigger FIVE TIMES in a row rapidly, and finally fires the gun into the wall (right over the perp's head) to prove the bullet wasn't palmed; she's so good with guns that she can time the spin and lock the chamber so she knows where the bullet is when it stops. After demonstrating her prowess she puts in another bullet and points the gun at the perp. Naturally this scares the perp even more than a regular Russian Roulette.

* In an episode of ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'', an extended shootout ends with Luke running out of bullets and Jack Dalton having one left. Jack suggests Russian roulette. After failing to shoot the hero he hands over the gun and starts shivering in mortal fear. Realizing Jack is too preoccupied to keep an eye on him, Luke deftly empties the gun, puts it against Jack's head and shouts '''"BANG!!"''' Jack, believing he's been shot, passes out from the shock.

* Played straight in ''Film/LAConfidential'' during the interrogation of the three Night Owl murder suspects, when [[{{Determinator}} Bud White]] realizes the suspects have kidnapped and raped a woman who's still being held hostage. However, in the film we never actually see if Bud takes the last round out of his .38...

* There's a short story where a young man plays Russian roulette and finding that he cannot lose assumes that he is invincible and attempts to use this power to fight a enemy army. He dies and the narrator explains that the man had been using a well-oiled Nagant revolver (see Real Life below) for the Russian roulette and gravity had made the bullet end up the bottom every time.

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[[folder:Film]]

* Used as recently as the {{pilot}} for USA's ''Series/{{Kojak}}'' remake.

* Used in reverse in the 2004 ''Film/{{Starsky and Hutch}}'' movie. Starsky lifts the gun up while he loads one bullet and lets the bullet fall into his sleeve. Then he puts his arm down before closing the chamber and the bullet falls back into the gun. The perp being questioned sees the whole thing and HilarityEnsues as the perp (who knows the false roulette trick, and would therefore not ordinarily be intimidated) tries to keep Starsky from blowing his own head off with the really loaded gun.

* Series/{{Bosch}}: Played with; Bosch, while undercover, is forced to play russian roulette with his own gun. Fortunately, he sabotaged the gun beforehand specifically to prepare for such a situation; however, the antagonists have no idea and think he's playing for real.

* Used in reverse in the 2004 ''Film/{{Starsky and Hutch}}'' movie. Starsky lifts the gun up while he loads one bullet and lets the bullet fall into his sleeve. Then he puts his arm down before closing the chamber and the bullet falls back into the gun. The perp being questioned sees the whole thing and HilarityEnsues as the perp tries to keep Starsky from blowing his own head off with the really loaded gun.

* [[http://youtu.be/vHkSDJmSgqo?t=2m7s Subverted hilariously]] in ''Film/KissKissBangBang'': The lead character is an ex-magician, so the audience expects him to palm the bullet. However, he has no idea he is supposed to do this, puts one bullet back in the gun, spins the chamber per usual, threatens the suspect by firing a shot, and the suspect is killed. When his partner says WhatTheHellHero, he says that he thought there was only an "8%" chance.
--> '''Gay Perry''': 8 percent!? Who taught you math!?

* A variation occurs in ''Manga/BlackLagoon''. Revy and Dutch, after shooting their way through a small army of Neo-Nazis, have the leader cornered, alone, and sobbing. They make a cryptic bet with each other -- Revy choosing "black" and Dutch choosing "white" -- and toss one of Revy's Berettas to the Neo-Nazi. He slowly brings it up to his own forehead, and then at the last moment turns the gun on Dutch and pulls the trigger. Naturally it's empty. It turns out Revy and Dutch were betting on whether or not the Neo-Nazi would pull the trigger on himself ("white") or Dutch ("black"). Needless to say, the Neo-Nazi buys it soon after.
* Upgraded in the ''Manga/GunsmithCats'' manga. Rally Vincent puts in the bullet ''without'' palming it, spins the chamber, pulls the trigger FIVE TIMES in a row rapidly, and finally fires the gun into the wall (right over the perp's head) to prove the bullet wasn't palmed; she's so good with guns that she can time the spin and lock the chamber so she knows where the bullet is when it stops. After demonstrating her prowess she puts in another bullet and points the gun at the perp. Naturally this scares the perp even more than a regular Russian Roulette.

* Maria pulls this in one episode of the second ''VideoGame/SakuraWars'' OAV. Ohgami seems to consider it a sign of progress that she didn't load the gun (considering that she used to have no qualms whatsoever about killing).

* One issue of ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' has the title character playing a version of this with a paralyzed Bullseye. A version in which the cylinder of the gun is not spun after each pull of the trigger, meaning that someone ''is'' going to die by the time the trigger is pulled six times at the latest. At the end of the story with both still alive, Daredevil points the gun at Bullseye...CLICK. It was never loaded. "We're stuck with each other, Bullseye."

* Used in reverse in the 2004 ''Film/{{Starsky and Hutch}}'' movie. Starsky lifts the gun up while he loads one bullet and lets the bullet fall into his sleeve. Then he puts his arm down before closing the chamber and the bullet falls back into the gun. The perp being questioned sees the whole thing and HilarityEnsues as the perp tries to keep Starsky from blowing his own head off with the really loaded gun.
* In ''Film/MalcolmX'', Malcolm does this to a co-conspirator in a burglary to force him to accept his leadership. UsefulNotes/MalcolmX claimed to Alex Haley that he actually did this.
* A variant of this is used in ''Film/ThePunisher2004''. Frank captures low-level mook Mickey and strings him up by his ankles, tying his hands together. He then goes into a fantastic [[ToThePain description]] of how a blowtorch flame will affect him: it won't burn, so to speak. Instead, Mickey will smell burning flesh, but, because his nerve endings are being destroyed, all he'll feel is cold. After the appropriate one-liner ("Isn't science fun, Mickey?"), Frank then proceeds to use the blowtorch to burn a steak, and presses a popsicle against Mickey's back, causing him to [[EnhancedInterrogationTechniques react as though he's being burned]]. When Frank has given away all the information he has...he pops the popsicle in his mouth and lets him down.
--> "You're not a nice man."

* {{Subverted}} in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides''. Jack assumes this is what's happening, as even ''Blackbeard'' surely wouldn't risk his daughter's life as an interrogation method. Then Jack fires one to prove his point...

* ''Film/TheHeat'': Mullins, right there in the interrogation room at the police station. She's crazy enough to make the threat believable, and it brings about the desired result.

%%* The Creator/JamesPatterson novel ''Sail''.
* Subverted in ''Literature/LAConfidential'', where the cop in question apparently leaves at least one bullet in the revolver.

* ''Series/{{Justified}}'': A minor villain has addicts play for pills, getting a single pill for each trigger pull. One of them gets fed up and pulls the trigger on the villain several times, revealing that the gun was never loaded to begin with.
* Used by Doug in ''Series/TheRiches'', when he is trying to get hired as a lawyer.
* A bad guy in ''Series/FoylesWar'' tries this on with a burglar who has stolen something very incriminating from him; unfortunately, the burglar gets the bullet before the bad guy gets the information.
* Mac does this on ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' to force information out of one of the guys who was involved in kidnapping Mac's girlfriend, Christine.
* A variation used by [[FriendlySniper Aramis]] in episode 1 of ''Series/TheMusketeers'' when he and [[TheStrengthOfTenMen Porthos]] are interrogating one of the [[EliteMooks Red Guard]] about the name and location of a murderous captain. He goes through a long speech about how good he is with the musket and asking which vital organ he should hit, very slowly prepping it to fire... And 'remembers' just as he pulls the trigger that he forgot to put the bullet in. Needless to say, the Guard suddenly remembers the name before the bullet is even dropped into the barrel.
* Series/{{Bosch}}: Played with; Bosch, while undercover, is forced to play russian roulette with his own gun. Fortunately, he sabotaged the gun beforehand specifically to prepare for such a situation; however, the antagonists have no idea and think he's playing for real.

* Variant done in ''VideoGame/{{Killer 7}}''. Garcian Smith is forced to play a game of Russian Roulette (the "barrel is not spun" variation) against one Benjamin Keane, with the stipulations being if Garcian wins, Keane will teach him the secret to hitting on women with 100% success, but if Keane wins, Garcian has to kill the President. Keane goes into a great deal of dramatics as he picks up the gun and puts it to his temple... pulling the trigger and putting the gun down... Garcian meanwhile simply picks it up and methodically, almost robotically, picks it up, puts it to his head, and pulls the trigger. It's a revolver, and it comes down to the fifth pull of the trigger. It's Keane's turn. He shudders as he pulls the trigger - no bang. He chuckles and slides it to Garcian. "Well, I suppose I win, Guess you have to do what I say." Garcian, after a short moment, picks it up and just calmly pulls the trigger a sixth time. Click. "This gun holds ''seven'' bullets. I'm a ''professional''. You can't fool me, old man." Cue Keane killing himself after revealing the true secret to wooing women - [[spoiler:They're all the same.]]

* Variant from ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': Harvey Dent threatens one of ComicBook/TheJoker's {{mooks}} with a coin flip: Heads, he doesn't shoot him; tails, he does. Of course, he's using his two-headed coin, [[EnhancedInterrogationTechniques so the goon is in no real danger, but he doesn't know that]]. [[spoiler: Later on he uses the same coin for actual "games of chance," with one side damaged.]]