History Main / HollywoodSilencer

* ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen''. PsychoForHire Anton Chigurh uses a silenced shotgun that's apparently quiet enough to fire in a small town, at night, with no one coming to investigate.

* The sniper in the movie ''Film/{{Shooter}}'' uses a bottle as a makeshift silencer for his rifle. The bottle itself is stuffed with material to help muffle the sound, so the plastic bottle isn't doing the silencing, but rather the combination of paper, tissues, and possibly aluminum and/or water inside the bottle. Also, the rifle in question is firing .22 Long Rifle, which is fairly quiet to begin with -- more of a loud pop than a boom, and quiet enough on their own that it's possible (but not recommended) to shoot ithout hearing protection. It's still a Hollywood Silencer, because the sound would be muffled, but not complete silenced, and especially if the bottle was filled with something to aid in suppressing it, that would affect its range as well.

* The [=SilencerCo=] Maxim-9 is an integrally-suppressed 9mm handgun. Unlike most pistols, it uses a delayed-blowback system and has a fixed barrel, which improves accuracy. The pistol has a chunky, [[Film/RoboCop "Auto-9"-esque]] suppressor on the front end which features removable baffles to reduce its size.

* In ''Film/{{Inception}}'', Cobb's silenced pistol does indeed make the "fwip" sound. However, he's only seen using it in the dream world so it can be assumed that Cobb simply imagined the Hollywood-esque one. Also subverted in that when he uses it, he catches the bodies before they hit the ground as to not attract attention. He also catches the shell casings in midair, nicely accounting for the noise they'd ordinarily make when they hit the ground.

* The SilencerCo Maxim-9 is an integrally-suppressed 9mm handgun. Unlike most pistols, it uses a delayed-blowback system and has a fixed barrel, which improves accuracy. The pistol has a chunky, [[Film/RoboCop "Auto-9"-esque]] suppressor on the front end which features removable baffles to reduce its size.

* Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, seems to have been a victim of this trope. In a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130910061946/http://www.kk.org/streetuse/archives/weapons/ diary]], he expressed disappointment that his homemade silencer "only" reduced the noise of a pistol to about one-third. If his diary is accurate, then his homemade silencer must actually have been better-crafted than most.

* The original 1962 ''Film/TheManchurianCandidate'': "Is that a silencer?" Yes, and it's on a revolver.

* Parodied in ''Film/AScannerDarkly'', when Creator/RobertDowneyJr's character creates a home made silencer. When tested, it explodes, amplifying the sound considerably and partially deafening Downey Jr.

A black cylinder that screws [[GunAccessories to the end]] of any gun, from tiny pistol to massive rifle, and reduces the bang to a soft "[-fwip-]" that nobody will hear. This sound is an example of TheCoconutEffect.

Basically, silencers control the discharge of gases that occur when a bullet is fired, which produce much of the sound. It's the RuleOfCool: the smooth assassin can make his hit, then [[StealthExpert melt into the night with nary a sound]].

"Real" silencers as used by governmental agencies do indeed muffle the sound of a gunshot to the same degree as seen in films and television, but these are custom designed weapons rather than aftermarket add-ons. In addition, they're still not exactly ''silent'', sounding like a loud cough.

See also PillowSilencer, when pillows are used in this fashion.

* ''VideoGame/GhostRecon''

** ''Future Soldier'' changes the rules for sound detection around, where if you use a silenced weapon to shoot someone, if you kill them in one shot and none of his buddies see or hear the body drop (why the sound of a body hitting the ground is louder than the gunshot that put it there is a question for another day) or end up passing by it later, they won't notice regardless of distance. If you don't make that one-shot kill, though, you're generally going to get detected - if you missed, he'll notice the bullet passing by him and try to alert his comrades. Take more than one bullet to kill him and his buddies will generally hear or at least notice something and investigate, at which point they're likely going to find the body, unless you can kill them before that without anyone else seeing.

%%* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'' - In this firearms-heavy anime and manga series, one of the characters, Henrietta carries a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_P90 Fabrique Nationale P90]] as her standard weapon (in a violin case, just to be cute). Later in the storyline she uses it with a silencer (or more properly a suppressor).

* The ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series tends to play this straight, with optional silencers on pistols, rifles and submachine guns turning the noise into the usual 'thwip' without degrading weapon performance - though depending on the game you can use less effective silencers that only limit the sound instead of removing it.

** ''[[VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin Silent Assassin]]'' had five suppressed weapons, each with a suitably AKA47-ish name. Of them, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMT_Hardballer Baller SD]] was massively [[HandCannon overpowered]], the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HK_MP5 SMG-SD6]] was fairly useful for mook-sweeping due to having the highest magazine capacity among suppressed weapons, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_MK_II .22 SD]] was [[LittleUselessGun so weak]] that sometimes ''not even a headshot was fatal'' (it's seriously more useful for silently breaking things or deliberately grabbing someone's attention by shooting near them), and the Custom Rifle (custom-modified Walther WA2000) was audible for at least 20 meters. As for the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta_M9 9mm SD]], it was probably the most useful weapon in the whole game due to having nice damage, very high magazine capacity for a handgun (15 bullets), easy concealibility and plentiful ammo (guards always carry either this or an assault rifle).

* The ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'' games feature a cousin of the Vintorez and Val, the VSK-94 silenced sniper rifle, known as the VSV in-game. ''2033'' also has the option to buy suppressed versions of most standard weapons, and these behave more or less realistically: they don't outright give away the character's presence the way an unsuppressed weapon would, but nearby foes will notice the noise and start actively looking for its source if they were previously idle or patrolling. They also ([[TruthInTelevision realistically]]) increase the accuracy of the guns they're attached to in exchange for less powerful shots. ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight'' keeps those mechanics, but make the silencer an attachment instead of classifying a gun with one in its own market tier. Even shotguns can be suppressed, with a brutal power tradeoff for the lower noise and tighter spread.

Spotting a silenced ''revolver'' is almost always a definite sign that the work is not [[{{Pun}} gunning]] for realism. However, some revolvers like the Nagant Model 1895 ''can'' be suppressed because they are designed to seal the cylinder gap when firing.

* The otherwise brilliant movie ''Film/TheSting'' features the silenced revolver mistake.

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* In the Franchise/{{Batman}} story ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween'', the main assassin uses the teats from baby bottles as one-shot silencers. This is apparently ''somewhat'' effective with small, low-powered rounds in RealLife.

* ''Series/TheAndromedaBreakthrough''. The assassin for [[MegaCorp Intel]] uses a .25 Beretta with a miniscule silencer that makes so little sound it can be [[CacophonyCoverUp covered by a camera flash]].

* Silenced pistols in ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' make the standard soft *Fwip!* sound. In one episode, a character uses a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welrod]] pistol, which is almost silent when used.

* The third season of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' gives several characters homemade suppressors constructed from flashlights and baseball bats. The shows makes them seem pretty effective. For instance, Carl's baseball bat suppressor completely silences his weapon, and it looks awesome too.

* ''[[Series/WonderWoman1975 Wonder Woman]]'': In "Death in Disguise", assassins are sent to kill [[SecretIdentity Diana Prince]] using silenced guns. They even make the classic ''twip, twip'' sound.

* The Literature/SherlockHolmes story "The Empty House" features an air gun that can silently fire a revolver slug and is wielded with deadly accuracy by the story's antagonist Colonel Sebastian Moran.

* In ''Fanfic/ASadStory'', Uncle Vernon uses one on his ''shotgun''. [[AluminiumChristmasTrees These actually exist]], but they serve only to reduce the report of the weapon just enough to eliminate the need for hearing protection; it's clearly audible and identifiable as a gunshot from at least a hundred yards away.

* ''Film/JohnWickChapter2'' has John Wick himself and [[spoiler:Cassian]] using silencers so powerful they can have a gunfight with their guns hidden, with bullets bouncing off the walls, while casually walking through a crowded subway station and [[ApatheticCitizens ''no one else notices'']] there's a gunfight going on right next to them.

* ''Film/JohnWickChapter2'' has John Wick himself and [[spoiler:Cassian]] using silencers so powerful they can have a gunfight with their guns hidden, with bullets bouncing off the walls, while casually walking through a crowded subway station and ''no one else notices'' there's a gunfight going on right next to them.

* Talbot from ''Film/SpecialForces'' prefers using a silenced pistol as his weapon, which he uses effectively in various infiltration missions without alerting any nearby guards. Becomes a hilarious case of HollywoodTactics, however, when he continues using said silenced weapon in large-scale shootouts, despite Talbot's partner, Bear, using shotguns and explosives in every scene (thereby negating the silencing function in the first place!).

* In the Hong Kong film ''Film/YesMadam'', an assassin kills a target in a hotel, from point-blank range, by using an ''apple'' shoved into said target's mouth as a silencer.

** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'' features an enormous revolver that fires 28 gauge shotgun shells – and despite both of those things, you can attach a suppressor to it. Why you'd ''want'' to in a series that embodies ShortRangeShotgun so well that you have to shove the barrel of said revolver down a guy's throat to kill them in one shot with it, even without the suppressor, is a different question.

* ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'' did this a bit differently. Guards would notice if you fired the gun, so long as you were close enough or fired it multiple times. "Close enough", however, generally means "same room". This got complicated in more open levels, where enemies would either be able to hear you from the other end of the map, or arbitrary sound cutoffs would stop enemies hearing you ten feet away in one direction but not thirty feet away in another. ''Perfect Dark Zero'' went full-on for this trope, however, with the rules for detection instead mattering on whether anyone sees your target drop, hears the bullet hitting something, or finds a body on their patrol route. Particularly jarring in one level filled with spider-bots that will, if you don't take care of them by other means, come after you in large numbers and blow you up if you make ''any'' noise within the areas they're in - firing a burst from your silenced SMG to ventilate the guy manning their control panel, standing just five feet away from one of said spider-bots, evidently doesn't count.

* Averted by ''Film/TheBourneIdentity'' where the Treadstone operative that kills [[spoiler:Conklin]] uses a silenced pistol that sounds rather accurate. Although this is all the more confusing due to the fact that all the other silenced pistols in the movie had used the traditional [[TheCoconutEffect Coconut]] sound effect. However, the suppressor on the Professor's rifle appears to be a Hogue [=OverMolded=]™ free-floating handguard for the AR-15/M16 rifle and is simply slid over the barrel, which even if functional would do nothing to the muzzle report without being physically attached to the barrel.

* Averted in ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'', in which Snake Plissken has a MAC-10 with a colossal silencer and the sound is more like "CHOOM" than "fwip". Also, by the time Snake is captured by the Duke, the silencer is no longer effective, as evidenced by the scene where the Duke toys with the president by [[ATeamFiring shooting around him]].

** Semi-averted in the very first scene of the first film, ''Film/DrNo'', in which the silenced pistols are still relatively loud, and sound like someone offscreen banging on the hood of a car. There's just nobody else outside to notice, and it's not loud enough to hear from across the parking lot. Later, however, other silenced pistols play the trope straight, in particular the one used to execute Dent; the only sound heard is that of the bullets hitting the man's body.
** Another aversion; in ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'' the gangster assassin from the opening scene has a silenced weapon, but you wouldn't have guessed based on the noise it makes.

** Semi-averted in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006''. Characters are alerted to a shooter in the next room by the ''fwip'' sound. Makes you wonder why the gunman bothered, if they heard him coming any way from the next room over through a shut door.

%%* Pretty much averted in ''Film/MrBrooks''.

* Averted, at least in one instance, in ''Film/NurseBetty''. When one of the hitmen goes to the other room with his silenced pistol into the adjacent room to Betty to commit suicide with the door closed, the "thump" of the gun is loud enough to make Betty jump. Ironically, this is a movie about a person that had trouble separating soap opera characters with real people.

* Averted in ''Film/RoboCop1987''; Clarence Boddicker has a fairly large silencer on his pistol when he visits Bob Morton, and it doesn't make the "fwip"; it does what a real silencer does and turns a sharp crack into a dull thud that's still pretty loud. Since he destroys the house with a bomb anyways, it's questionable why he uses a suppressor.

* Averted in ''Film/USMarshals''. The Chinese spy Chen fires an assault rifle fitted with a suppressor at Deputy Marshal Sam Gerard at a cemetery. Gerard immediately reacts to the only slightly muffled gunfire, and shouts and screams are heard from funeral attendees away from the action.
* Averted in ''Film/TheWildGeese''. Suppressed pistols are only used for their intended purpose (eliminating lone sentries away from other people). Acknowledging a suppressor's limits, quieter means (poisonous gas and poisoned crossbow bolts respectively) are used to eliminate soldiers in a barracks and tower sentries.

* Averted by the ''Literature/AlexRider'' books, which tend to describe a silenced shot as sounding like a "cough" or similar.

* Averted quite consistently in Creator/TomClancy's novels, which isn't surprising considering the amounts of ShownTheirWork involved.
** John Kelly of ''[[Literature/JackRyan Without Remorse]]'' home-builds a suppressor for his Colt .45, but that requires a full-blown Navy machine shop, several years' of special forces experience, and a caliber conversion kit to bring his Colt down to .22 caliber. He later does the same to a bolt-action .22 rifle after a few techniques for suppressing rifles' noises, too. Another scene from the same novel features a Navy chief building a suppressor for his assault carbine on the Boxwood Green mission: the gunfire could "only" be heard out to a hundred yards, as opposed to several hundred unsuppressed.
** Clancy is also at pains to point out that a silencer does not totally silence the guns, but makes the noise carry less far and, in the case of non-automatic weapons, means that anyone not in the know is more likely to mistake it for something else. Also, he points out that no silencer can stop the occasionally rather loud mechanical noise of the gun cycling, which, thanks to Hollywood, people don't mistake for harmless noise.
** Played completely straight at least in ''Literature/DeadOrAlive'' where a special forces operative uses a silenced sidearm to quickly dispatch six insurgents sleeping in a small cave. None of them wake up in the process.
* Averted nicely in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. A hitman uses a silenced .22 (which Harry specifically mentions uses subsonic ammunition) and says that the silencer makes the shots sound like "someone slapping a heavy dictionary against a desk." The gunshots get louder as the silencer begins to give out.
** In ''Literature/{{Changes}}'' when someone attempts to assassinate Harry from a passing car. The gunshot sounds are so muffled that, because Harry's duster saves him, no one else even realizes he was being shot at.

* Averted in the second episode of ''Series/{{Alcatraz}}''; Cobb uses a sniper rifle fitted with what appears to be a silencer, but it still makes a fairly loud noise when he fires it.

* Averted indirectly in ''Series/{{Castle}}'', in which the detectives work out that in order to murder a man in the middle of Grand Central Station without being heard, a killer must have not only used a silencer, but also waited until a train was passing. And despite these precautions, someone still heard him.

* Averted in ''Series/{{Chuck}}''. Guns with silencers still make noise, and it's more of a realistic 'crack' than it is a 'thwip', and at one point was shown to be audible through a flight of stairs and a closed door. Played straight in other parts of ''Chuck'', most notably when Casey practices shooting pictures of bin Laden and Hitler with a silenced gun inside his own apartment.

* An episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' had an aversion of this trope as a plot point. The victim -- a cochlear implant surgeon embroiled in a battle with the Deaf community -- was killed with a gun fired through a potato (with the intent of silencing it), which Goren noted was an UrbanLegend that wouldn't work in reality. When the same method shows up a second time, Goren realizes that it clearly points to the shooter being a member of the aforementioned Deaf community, because any hearing person would have known after the first time that the technique didn't work.

* ''Series/ThePunisher2017'': Averted with the [=PMCs=] who go after Frank and Gunner in the forest. All of their guns are outfitted with suppressors, but they only slightly dampen the sound.
* An episode of ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'' averts the trope, showing suppressed pistols as making 'pop pop' noises. It goes even further, making the characters put their hands over their ears when shooting off a lock in an enclosed space with the same pistols.

* Partly averted in ''VideoGame/BreachAndClear'', where you can attach suppressors to your rifles. They sound more like firecrackers than like guns, although it takes a little longer for enemies in other rooms to react to your shots (though not to the normal sounds from your enemies shooting back).

* Averted in ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' where close proximity to an enemy makes your stealth pistol audible. Very noticeable in the "Rescue Tiffany" mission. Tiffany is typically toast.
** Further averted in ''[[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution Human Revolution]]'', as even silenced weapons generally take a good distance or a wall to keep from alerting enemies, and you cannot put a silencer on the revolver.

** Oddly enough, some of the silenced guns actually ''sound'' completely accurate, but [=NPC=]s will still ignore the rather loud sounding shot.
** It also averts this in one other case: a Varmint Rifle with the suppressor modification will be ignored by enemies other than the one you shoot (if he survives or you miss by a small enough margin), but the unique Ratslayer variant, which comes with the same modification, will alert enemies near your target. This is technically a bug, although it does make sense anyway – the Ratslayer is coded to [[LudicrousGibs remove body parts with killing shots]] (the Varmint Rifle is not, since it was originally coded to use the tiny and weak .22 LR ammo, and nobody changed the gibbing rules for it when it was upchambered to 5.56), which would naturally be louder and more suspicious than someone just dropping normally. Then again, the larger-caliber sniper rifle can also accept a suppressor, will also lop off body parts with killing shots, but is still ignored by enemies near your target.

** ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' and on play the trope very straight, allowing the same model of Hollywood silencer to attach to almost every weapon with no apparent downsides, other than that the player has to choose between that or another attachment like a better sight or an extended magazine. Particularly jarring is that none of the weapons have unique suppressor models - the tiny 9x18mm [=6P9=] and the massive .50 BMG Z93 sniper rifle can fit the same suppressor model, and it's just as effective on both of them. The same rules for detection as in ''2'' apply, however - the only true silent long-range kill is the recurve bow or its alternates in later games. Enemies can get a pretty good approximation of where you shot from if they see someone die to your silenced gun, though if you shoot someone out of view of the rest of the group and they stumble upon the body later, they'll only be more alert in their patrolling.

** Note also that a single tap of the trigger is apparently inaudible too. They could ''only'' notice multiple gunshots in a burst; a single shot from any weapon (with the possible exception of the shotguns, which fired multiple projectiles per trigger pull) would count as totally stealthy no matter how loud the weapon itself, provided no enemy saw the shot impact.

* Averted in, of all games, ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' where one of the starting weapons you can find is a MAC-10 with a suppressor attachment. It still sounds pretty loud, but at the same time regular infected sometimes will take a while longer to realize you're firing at them with it.

** In the original game and ''Rogue Spear'', silencers were only available for pistols and specific primary weapons, usually submachine guns like the [=MP5=]. In ''Raven Shield'', which switched to a system for attachments that could go onto most guns, almost any gun could be fitted with a silencer. In any case, every suppressed weapon averted this trope: damage and range were decreased by the use of subsonic ammunition, and nearby enemies could still hear them.

* Notable aversion: In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'''s "Mercenaries" minigame, Albert Wesker packs a pistol with a silencer (the only one of its kind in the entire game). Rather than the stereotypical "pyoo" sound, there is instead the sound of the gun's mechanism cycling and a barely-audible pop, making it one of the more realistic silenced guns sounds of recent.

* Averted in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' for the Sega Genesis, the silencer only gives the benefit of not setting off the alarms when you fire your weapons inside corporate offices. Every NPC will still hear you firing your gun regardless of being equipped with a silencer or not.

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* Averted in ''Webcomic/{{Marilith}}'', where the titular character explains to her apprentice that silencers are [[ThisIsReality not as effective as in television]].
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* Oddly both averted and played straight in Creator/FreddieWong's ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRTP2IZ2nOo Duct Hunt]]''. The silenced gun makes a reasonably loud sound, [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy but the guards don't hear a thing]].

* Averted in the ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack'' cartoon where J eventually gets a silencer for his Noisy Cricket. Its purpose is actually to cut down the blaster's massive recoil rather than making it more silent. It's also kind of a play on the gun's name, putting a ''silencer'' on the ''Noisy'' Cricket.

** Used straight in the anime, as a rare exception to otherwise [[ShownTheirWork showing their work]] with recordings of the exact weapons shown. Rather excusable, as the gun in question was [[RareGuns the extremely rare Welrod]], not something the range they used could have rented them. And the Welrod ''is'' one of quietest firearms ever made.

** ''[[VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin Silent Assassin]]'' had five suppressed weapons, each with a suitably AKA47-ish name. Of them, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMT_Hardballer Baller SD]] was massively [[HandCannon overpowered]], the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HK_MP5 SMG-SD6]] was fairly useful for mook-sweeping due to having the highest magazine capacity among suppressed weapons, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_MK_II .22 SD]] was [[LittleUselessGun so weak]] that sometimes ''not even a headshot was fatal'' (it's seriously more useful for silently breaking things or deliberately grabbing someone's attention by shooting near them), and the Custom Rifle (custom-modified [[RareGuns Walther WA2000]]) was audible for at least 20 meters. As for the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta_M9 9mm SD]], it was probably the most useful weapon in the whole game due to having nice damage, very high magazine capacity for a handgun (15 bullets), easy concealibility and plentiful ammo (guards always carry either this or an assault rifle).

* [[http://thefederalist.com/2017/01/09/progressives-dont-understand-how-gun-silencers-work-here-are-some-facts-to-help-them/ More than a few gun-control-advocating politicians have fallen prey to this trope.]] One wonders about their grades in physics class...

* The now rather famous VSS Vintorez sniper rifle (and its siblings, the AS Val and SR-3 Vikhr) uses other special purpose cartridges, the 9x39mm SP-5 and SP-6 (AP). The rifle has a highly effective integral suppressor similar in concept to the [=MP5SD=]. Combined with low-velocity rounds using a heavy steel-core bullet, it is both capable of penetrating military-grade body armor and is silent enough to make its operation the loudest part of the report. But, owing to the semi-automatic action, it is ''still'' not "Hollywood Silent", and gives a report similar to a BB gun as well as a metallic ''clank'' as the bolt moves forward and back. Its subsonic and suppressed nature also gives it a lower effective range than other dedicated sniper weapons, at only about 400 meters (barely further than the effective range for a regular assault rifle), meaning it's used for counter-insurgency operations in urban areas, where getting to take a shot from further than a city block or two is a rare occurrence.