History Main / InstantSedation

* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'': ZigZaggingTrope in one episode. Stuck on a world where {{Gendercide}} has rendered men a valuable commodity, Quinn and Arturo are both hit by tranq darts. Quinn starts to fumble, but with Arturo's urging manages to will himself far enough to get some help from a sympathetic passerby. Arturo, who is not only shot later but is also significantly heavier than Quinn, drops in under a minute, just long enough to pointlessly threaten the attackers with a tree branch he's grabbed as a weapon.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Played dead straight a million times.
* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': AvertedTrope in the episode "A Scandal in Belgravia". Irene Adler surprise injects Sherlock with some sort of sedative she [[{{Dominatrix}} normally uses on her clients.]] Although Sherlock is almost immediately physically compromised, he remains conscious and lucid for quite a few seconds, arguing with her even as he sinks to the floor and adamantly refusing to hand over the [[MacGuffin phone she wants]] until he finally drops it because, due to his sedation, ''[[{{Determinator}} his fingers can no longer grip it]].'' He ends up on the floor on his back, but is still semi-conscious and keeps trying to get up, albeit unsuccessfully. ''Eventually'' he slides into a [[DreamSequence weird dream coma]] and wakes up in bed some time later, so he did finally lose consciousness, but John mentions that he "wasn't making much sense" and that Lestrade had time to film some of his inane babbling on his phone, despite the fact that Lestrade was presumably ''on his way'' at the time that Sherlock was drugged, implying that Sherlock was ''still'' partially conscious and animated (if completely confused and spouting gibberish) for several minutes after the injection.
* ''Series/{{House}}'':
** Often seen. The protagonist should be considered an ImprobableWeaponUser; he never misses a vein, and the drug is the exact amount needed for the specific person. Sure, it's Gregory House, but it's still amazing.
** ''House'' does feature a subversion in the episode "One Day, One Room", when he takes down a patient that's freaking out and injects him with something. Cuddy is initially surprised that the patient still has his eyes open, and House gleefully announces that he didn't use a sedative, but a paralytic, meaning the patient is still in pain. And will stop breathing quite soon.
** In the episode "Last Resort", when his hostage-taking "patient" insists his medication gets tested on one of the hostages first, House chooses the fat one in the hope his higher body mass will keep him conscious long enough for him to inject the gunman.
** Very much played for laughs in "Living the Dream", where House sedates a soap opera star with a syringe to the neck while having an unrelated conversation with Wilson.
-->'''House:''' It's all about her and whatever hapless salesman wanders into her sights. She's going to lie, steal and trade your testes to get whatever she wants -- hold on, I've got to do something before he dials his second '''1''' ''(stabs man in the neck with syringe before continuing)'' -- you're going to end up holding her purse, humiliated, and going home to sleep on a mattress you hate.\\
'''Wilson:''' (''watches man fall unconcious to the floor'') What the hell are you doing?\\
'''House:''' He needs an MRI.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': SubvertedTrope in one episode, where Sayid is shot twice with tranquilizing darts. He pulls one dart out and we're led to believe that the trope is playing straight until he surprises the shooter, who approached him to confirm unconsciousness. Played straight in a lot of other episodes, featuring darts, gas and chloroform. Namely, some episodes in this respective order are: "Live Together, Die Alone", "Left Behind" and "Something Nice Back Home".
* ''Series/MissionImpossible'': Common, where the need for anesthetics that worked instantly was frequently a plot point.
* ''Series/TheManFromUncle'': InstantSedation is often used by both U.N.C.L.E. and THRUSH in such situations. Most common varieties: various forms of tranquilizer darts (the U.N.C.L.E. Special [[{{Handguns}} handgun]] was early established as being capable of firing "sleep darts" as well as conventional bullets, but on at least one occasion THRUSH operatives used similar darts to capture a target of their interest) and knockout gas (often lobbed, grenade style, in spherical glass containers, into the midst of a group of {{Mooks}} needing disablement).
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** The episode "The Broca Divide" has both sides of this: early in the episode, they have to tie a thrashing character down and wait for the sedative to take effect; later, they go into another thrasher's isolation room, hold him steady, and inject him, making him stagger within 10 seconds.
** In "In the Line of Duty", when Sam/Jolinar gets tranqued twice, the first case with "enough to knock out an elephant," it takes a minute before she's out.
** In one episode Daniel shoots Osiris with a tranq dart, and she pulls it out, looks annoyed, goes and activates some transporter rings, then leaves in a spaceship. The last shot of her shows that she's just a tad off balance, and that's about two minutes after getting shot. He's using a Goa'uld-specific sedative.
** In the later seasons, people are using tranq darts all the time and they often knock the victim out in less then a second, and occasionally cause the victim to throw themselves away from the dart.
* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': This is played with. Even the Wraith stunners, which were probably engineered to produce an electrical shock to take out the target instantly, allow those hit to react for several seconds before they fall, and that's the characters without resistance. The resistant characters can take two or three hits before falling.
* ''Series/TheRedGreenShow'': Subverted Trope once. Ed Frid once shot himself in the foot with a tranquilizer dart and remained conscious long enough to calculate how long he would sleep, give Red instructions on how to deal with the animal they'd captured and lay down comfortably.
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'':
** Used to nearly OnceAnEpisode frequency. Although in this case, they reveal the name of the sedative, which is an animal tranquilizer that really does work that fast. It also causes significant damage to the kidneys and frequently stops hearts, but given these people won't be alive for long....
** The one time it takes the tranquilizer longer to work, the target is an animal control worker who is holding a tranquilizer gun loaded to take down an alligator. He has enough time to shoot Dexter with it before he collapses. Dexter also has a bit of time to pull the dart out before losing consciousness. They both wake up in an ambulance with some really worried [=EMTs=].
** Another time Dexter is forced to inject himself with his own syringe and goes down almost instantaneously. [[spoiler:He was faking it.]]

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** Especially ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'', has [[SFDebris magic off-button]] hyposprays that knock people out almost instantly. Justified by being set 400 years in the future; they clearly have new drugs that provide safe, rapid means of anaesthesia.
** Averted Trope in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "The Wire". Garak injects himself with a sedative in an attempt to dull the pain he's in. When Bashir has a look at the dose, it's apparently "enough to anaesthetise an Algorian mammoth". Not only does it not dull the pain Garak's in, but it doesn't slow him down and he tries to give himself a second dose which would almost certainly kill him. By the end of the scene (which lasts for several minutes), Garak never acted as though the sedative had ever worked... probably justified as the pain he's in is caused by a malfunctioning brain implant that's wrecking havoc with his blood chemistry and which had given him an endorphin addiction for two years. It's also possible that, as part of his Obsidian Order training, he's built up an immense resistance to anything that someone might want to inject him with.
* ''Series/TheATeam'': Must have had a ton of it, with how often they knocked out B.A.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Willow's vampire EvilTwin is instantly sedated. Also, said EvilTwin is a vampire, and thusly has no pulse to spread the sedative.
** Happens whenever Oz's werewolfishness is involved. The first time they need to sedate him Giles says he has loaded up the tranquilizer gun with enough phenobarbital "to sink a small elephant", but the amount has absolutely no ill effect on Oz (whose mass is decidedly less than that of a small elephant).
** Giles is shot with a tranquilizer dart meant for Oz in "Beauty and the Beasts":
-->'''Giles:''' Ow!\\
'''Buffy:''' Oh! Sorry!\\
'''Giles:''' Oh, right. Bloody priceless. ''(instantly unconscious)''
** The chloroform version is used by Xander, on Dawn, when Buffy wants him to get her out of town before the final battle with the First. She's not happy with him when she wakes up, [=TASERs=] him, and drives them back to town.
* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'': Equips Taggert, the Crocodile Dundee-esque dogcatcher, with these. Used twice, to take down FishOutOfWater Marshall Jack Carter, and inadvertently, the owner of the town's biggest (and possibly only) café.
* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': Subverted Trope, where trapped with a pair of lions, Malcolm shoots down the zoo personnel's idea of tranquilizing them on the grounds that the beasts would have just enough time to get angry and tear them apart (the show puts it at three minutes, which is almost certainly selling the lions short, but it's the thought that counts).
* ''Series/{{Mash}}'':
** In one episode, Trapper tries to subdue a sleep-deprived Hawkeye with a syringe. He accidentally injects Frank Burns, and a few seconds later he drops to the ground, passed out.
** In another, an unrestrained combative patient grabs a syringe of anesthetic and threatens the staff. Col. Blake tries to talk him down and then grabs the syringe. He gets a handful of the needle.
-->'''Col. Blake:''' Ninety nine, ninety eight... *thump*
** A humorous aversion n ''A Full Rich Day'', Hawkeye attempts to drug a troublesome Turkish Soldier by spiking his drink with chloral hydrate and having Radar pretend to drive him back to the front until he passes out. A noticeably disoriented Radar drives off with the Turk in a stolen Jeep, only for the Turk to return several hours later to dump the unconscious Radar off before driving away.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Possible subversion in the serial ''The Talons of Weng-Chiang''. The title villain uses an unspecified knockout drug on a cloth to capture Leela, and she goes down fast... but she has enough time to tear the villain's mask off. Given the time period, it was probably either chloroform or ether.
** Played straight in "New Earth", with a spray bottle of sedative that works [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZIYTcYKbSo&feature=related ridiculously quickly]] (you can see it in action at 5:59; don't blink or you'll miss it). Possibly justified either by improvements in tranquilizer technology (the episode takes place about five billion years in the future) or by the differences between human and Time Lord physiology.

* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'': Every time tranquilizers are used, unless the victim is BadassNormal Casey. When they have to tranquilize Jeff and Lester, Lester goes down instantly but Jeff takes multiple darts and a few minutes to lose consciousness. Jeff is a bigger guy and his past drug use made him more resistant.
* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': The Franklin puppet soaked in ether can immediately knock people out.
* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete'': Subverted Trope in the ChristmasEpisode; Little Pete shoots the Garbage Man with a tranq (actually hitting a major vein!), and it takes a couple minutes of real-time to start taking effect.
* ''Series/ThePrisoner'':
** In the opening title sequence, the title character is sent promptly into unconsciousness by KnockoutGas.
** A doctor's hypodermic needle carries a sleep drug in "A Change of Mind".
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Subverted Trope when Phoebe is shot in the backside with a dart. She never passes out, though she does comment that her buttock is asleep (and that the other one has no idea). The dart was intended for a very small monkey, so there probably wasn't much juice in there anyway.
* ''Series/WonderWoman'': Happens to the title character in several season 1 episodes. "The Nazi Wonder Woman": a Nazi spy knocks her out with a chloroform soaked rag.
* ''Series/TwentyFour'': There is an episode where the guy actually acknowledged that he has used a paralytic on the president's husband. However, it was in a drink (the slowest way to get any kind of drug to work, since it needs to go through the digestive system first) and took a minute, max, to completely paralyze the victim everywhere, even the vocal cords. In spite of being that complete of a general paralytic, for some reason, it didn't touch the president's husband's lungs, as evidenced by his ability to, well, ''live'' a good hour or so while he was still under the influence of the paralytic.

* ''Series/BurnNotice'':
** In an episode, Michael narrates that injecting someone with a sedative might not knock them out right away so it is best to approach from behind and physically subdue them while the sedative takes effect. This was then subverted when [[spoiler:the target spots them and they end up simply tackling him and tying him up]].
** In another episode, Michael has to knock out a group of CIA agents so he pumps in a powerful KnockoutGas into the building. The catch is that anyone affected by the gas will have their hearts stop if not injected by a counter-agent within a few minutes after the gas takes effect. Micheal knows that he is taking a big risk of killing one or more people if he is too slow in administering the counter-agent once he breaks into the building.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': Averted Trope. A mentally unstable suspect has a psychotic break in the interview room, Benson and Stabler have to restrain him while Dr. Huang injects him with a sedative, the man is even more unhinged, and Dr. Huang says it will take at least ten minutes to work.
* ''Series/{{Batman}}'':
** InvokedTrope ''constantly''.
** "The Bookworm Turns": The sleeping gas released by the Bookworm's booby-trapped book renders Robin unconscious in seconds.
** "While Gotham City Burns": The Bookworm uses a package booby-trapped with sleep gas to render Alfred and Aunt Harriet unconscious so he can steal a book from the Wayne Manor library.
* ''Series/{{Longmire}}'': Another aversion in , in which a load intended to knock out a bear still takes a minute or so to work on Vic. Notably, she has time to attack the guy who shot her.

* ''Series/{{MANTIS}}'': Averted Trope: The hero's darts cause instant ''paralysis'', not sedation, so it's more of a temporary AndIMustScream kind of thing. Interestingly, the darts' mechanism changed when the TV Movie became a series -- in the TV Movie, the agent was a poison from a South American creature; in the series, it was a man-made chemical that worked alongside an electrical current.

* Zig-zagged in an episode of ''Series/{{Sliders}}''. Stuck on a world where {{Gendercide}} has rendered men a valuable commodity, Quinn and Arturo are both hit by tranq darts. Quinn starts to fumble, but with Arturo's urging manages to will himself far enough to get some help from a sympathetic passerby. Arturo, who is not only shot later but is also significantly heavier than Quinn, drops in under a minute, just long enough to pointlessly threaten the attackers with a tree branch he's grabbed as a weapon.
* Played dead straight a million times in ''Series/{{Smallville}}''.
* Mostly averted in the ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' episode "A Scandal in Belgravia". Irene Adler surprise injects Sherlock with some sort of sedative she [[{{Dominatrix}} normally uses on her clients.]] Although Sherlock is almost immediately physically compromised, he remains conscious and lucid for quite a few seconds, arguing with her even as he sinks to the floor and adamantly refusing to hand over the [[MacGuffin phone she wants]] until he finally drops it because, due to his sedation, ''[[{{Determinator}} his fingers can no longer grip it]].'' He ends up on the floor on his back, but is still semi-conscious and keeps trying to get up, albeit unsuccessfully. ''Eventually'' he slides into a [[DreamSequence weird dream coma]] and wakes up in bed some time later, so he did finally lose consciousness, but John mentions that he "wasn't making much sense" and that Lestrade had time to film some of his inane babbling on his phone, despite the fact that Lestrade was presumably ''on his way'' at the time that Sherlock was drugged, implying that Sherlock was ''still'' partially conscious and animated (if completely confused and spouting gibberish) for several minutes after the injection.
* Often seen in ''Series/{{House}}''. The protagonist should be considered an ImprobableWeaponUser; he never misses a vein, and the drug is the exact amount needed for the specific person. Sure, it's Gregory House, but it's still amazing.

* ''Series/{{ER}}'', too. At least one episode zigzags the trope, though. A drug-addict takes a hostage in order to get IV Demerol, which the ER attending provides, but the nurse intentionally overdoses. Subverted in that he was actually cooperating with her attempt to administer the injection IV; played straight in that he just barely made it past the triage desk before pitching over.
* Subverted in an episode of ''Series/{{Lost}}'', where Sayid is shot twice with tranquilizing darts. He pulls one dart out and we're led to believe that the trope is playing straight until he surprises the shooter, who approached him to confirm unconsciousness. Played straight in a lot of other episodes, featuring darts, gas and chloroform. Namely, some episodes in this respective order are: "Live Together, Die Alone", "Left Behind" and "Something Nice Back Home".
* Common on ''Series/MissionImpossible'', where the need for anesthetics that worked instantly was frequently a plot point.
* In ''Series/TheManFromUncle'', InstantSedation is often used by both U.N.C.L.E. and THRUSH in such situations. Most common varieties: various forms of tranquilizer darts (the U.N.C.L.E. Special [[{{Handguns}} handgun]] was early established as being capable of firing "sleep darts" as well as conventional bullets, but on at least one occasion THRUSH operatives used similar darts to capture a target of their interest) and knockout gas (often lobbed, grenade style, in spherical glass containers, into the midst of a group of {{Mooks}} needing disablement).
* ''Series/StargateSG1''

* In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' this is played with. Even the Wraith stunners, which were probably engineered to produce an electrical shock to take out the target instantly, allow those hit to react for several seconds before they fall, and that's the characters without resistance. The resistant characters can take two or three hits before falling.
* Subverted once on ''Series/TheRedGreenShow''. Ed Frid once shot himself in the foot with a tranquilizer dart and remained conscious long enough to calculate how long he would sleep, give Red instructions on how to deal with the animal they'd captured and lay down comfortably.
* Used in nearly every episode of ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' as well. Although in this case, they reveal the name of the sedative, which is an animal tranquilizer that really does work that fast. It also causes significant damage to the kidneys and frequently stops hearts, but given these people won't be alive for long....

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}''
** Averted: during a routine treatment for injury, Simon covertly injects Jayne with a sedative when he begins to show signs of planning to take command of the ship, but several minutes pass before Jayne gradually loses consciousness (mid-takeover rant, no less).

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'', especially ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'', has [[SFDebris magic off-button]] hyposprays that knock people out almost instantly. Justified by being set 400 years in the future; they clearly have new drugs that provide safe, rapid means of anaesthesia.
** Averted in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "The Wire". Garak injects himself with a sedative in an attempt to dull the pain he's in. When Bashir has a look at the dose, it's apparently "enough to anaesthetise an Algorian mammoth". Not only does it not dull the pain Garak's in, but it doesn't slow him down and he tries to give himself a second dose which would almost certainly kill him. By the end of the scene (which lasts for several minutes), Garak never acted as though the sedative had ever worked... probably justified as the pain he's in is caused by a malfunctioning brain implant that's wrecking havoc with his blood chemistry and which had given him an endorphin addiction for two years. It's also possible that, as part of his Obsidian Order training, he's built up an immense resistance to anything that someone might want to inject him with.
* ''Series/TheATeam'' must have had a ton of it, with how often they knocked out B.A.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''

* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' equips Taggert, the Crocodile Dundee-esque dogcatcher, with these. Used twice, to take down FishOutOfWater Marshall Jack Carter, and inadvertently, the owner of the town's biggest (and possibly only) café.
* Subverted in ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', where trapped with a pair of lions, Malcolm shoots down the zoo personnel's idea of tranquilizing them on the grounds that the beasts would have just enough time to get angry and tear them apart (the show puts it at three minutes, which is almost certainly selling the lions short, but it's the thought that counts).
* ''Series/{{Mash}}''

* ''Series/DoctorWho''

* Played hilariously straight in the fourth season of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' where the bad guys use tube of chemicals administered nasally to sedate and disable the powers of the specials, which turned them out like a light when inserted. Used in reverse during the numerous escape and rescue scenarios, where even after days or weeks of sedation a simple removal of the tube had the heroes instantly up and ready for anything.
* ''Series/{{Chuck}}''. Every time tranquilizers are used, unless the victim is BadassNormal Casey. When they have to tranquilize Jeff and Lester, Lester goes down instantly but Jeff takes multiple darts and a few minutes to lose consciousness. Jeff is a bigger guy and his past drug use made him more resistant.
* On ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' the Franklin puppet soaked in ether can immediately knock people out.
* Subverted in ''Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete'''s ChristmasEpisode; Little Pete shoots the Garbage Man with a tranq (actually hitting a major vein!), and it takes a couple minutes of real-time to start taking effect.
* ''Series/ThePrisoner''

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Friends}}'' when Phoebe is shot in the backside with a dart. She never passes out, though she does comment that her buttock is asleep (and that the other one has no idea). The dart was intended for a very small monkey, so there probably wasn't much juice in there anyway.
* Happens to the title character in several ''Series/WonderWoman'' season 1 episodes. "The Nazi Wonder Woman": a Nazi spy knocks her out with a chloroform soaked rag.
* In ''Series/TwentyFour'', there is an episode where the guy actually acknowledged that he has used a paralytic on the president's husband. However, it was in a drink (the slowest way to get any kind of drug to work, since it needs to go through the digestive system first) and took a minute, max, to completely paralyze the victim everywhere, even the vocal cords. In spite of being that complete of a general paralytic, for some reason, it didn't touch the president's husband's lungs, as evidenced by his ability to, well, ''live'' a good hour or so while he was still under the influence of the paralytic.
* Played straight in an episode of ''Series/{{Leverage}}'', in which Parker asks an auctioneer the traditional question, "does this rag smell like chloroform to you?", and knocks him out in about two seconds.
* Happens a few times in ''Series/{{Monk}}'', with the most notable being when Adrian is being drugged with chloroform. He grabs the cloth, sticks his face into it, smells it, and repeatedly asks "Is this chloroform?"
* ''Series/BurnNotice''

* Averted in ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''. A mentally unstable suspect has a psychotic break in the interview room, Benson and Stabler have to restrain him while Dr. Huang injects him with a sedative, the man is even more unhinged, and Dr. Huang says it will take at least ten minutes to work.
* ''Series/{{Batman}}'' invoked this trope ''constantly''.
** "The Bookworm Turns". The sleeping gas released by the Bookworm's booby-trapped book renders Robin unconscious in seconds.
** "While Gotham City Burns". The Bookworm uses a package booby-trapped with sleep gas to render Alfred and Aunt Harriet unconscious so he can steal a book from the Wayne Manor library.
* Another aversion in ''Series/{{Longmire}}'', in which a load intended to knock out a bear still takes a minute or so to work on Vic. Notably, she has time to attack the guy who shot her.
* Taken to ridiculous lengths in ''Series/SeaQuestDSV''. In the episode "Meltdown", the crew of the ''Sea Quest'' resolves to capture a prehistoric crocodile by sedating it with liquid nitrogen and hauling it back to the polar ice cap where it woke up from. After having Darwin lure it close, the ''Sea Quest'' fires a syringe-converted-torpedo into the thing's hide. It's out in less than five seconds. ''This thing is one-fifth the size of the ''Sea Quest'', which then has to haul it!!''
* ''Series/{{MANTIS}}'' averts this: The hero's darts cause instant ''paralysis'', not sedation, so it's more of a temporary AndIMustScream kind of thing. Interestingly, the darts' mechanism changed when the TV Movie became a series -- in the TV Movie, the agent was a poison from a South American creature; in the series, it was a man-made chemical that worked alongside an electrical current.

-->-- ''Film/{{XXX}}''

* In one of the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye4kqjLOY7M Barclaycard ads]] starring Creator/RowanAtkinson that inspired the movies ''Film/JohnnyEnglish'', agent Richard Latham shoot himself in the leg with his spy-gadget pen, and is immediately paralyzed.

** Averted in the Shooting Star manga. In order to fulfill a mission, Spike has to take someone down alive and is given a tranquilizer gun by Jet to do so.[[spoiler: However, just as Spike is about to shoot the target, Ed discovers that the target is fatally allergic to sedatives.]]

* [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Batarangs]] tipped with knockout drugs are common, especially in post-FrankMiller stories.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

** Just to show how CrazyPrepared Sparks really are, Gil recently pulled this off against Franz [[spoiler: who is a giant green dragon [[OurDragonsAreDifferent with Heterodyne-grade cyborg enhancements]] ]]

* Averted in ''{{Webcomic/Unsounded}}'': after being hit by a tranq-disc, Sette is able to run across town to her LoveHotel room (ItMakesSenseInContext) before she loses consciousness.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/CareBears1980s Care Bears]]'' episode "Bedtime for Care-a-lot" uses magic dust to put the Care Bears to sleep. No Heart makes the sleeping dust, and Beastly and Shreeky sprinkle it onto bears in Care-a-lot. They miss Bedtime Bear, who was just taking a nap. So [[ADayInTheLimelight it's up to Bedtime Bear]] to find a way to wake the other bears.

* There is an almost-instant tranquilizer dart firing crossbow in ''VideoGame/Dishonored''; however, if the target is in combat, it takes longer to knock them out than if they are relaxed.

* There is an almost-instant tranquilizer dart firing crossbow in ''[[Dishonored]]''; however, if the target is in combat, it takes longer to knock them out than if they are relaxed.

* There is an almost-instant tranquilizer dart firing crossbow in ''VideoGame/Dishonored''; however, if the target is in combat, it takes longer to knock them out than if they are relaxed.

* There is an almost-instant tranquilizer dart firing crossbow in Dishonored; however, if the target is in combat, it takes longer to knock them out than if they are relaxed.

-->'''House:''' It's all about her and whatever hapless salesman wonders into her sights. She's going to lie, steal and trade your testes to get whatever she wants -- hold on, I've got to do something before he dials his second '''1''' ''(stabs man in the neck with syringe before continuing)'' -- you're going to end up holding her purse, humiliated, and going home to sleep on a mattress you hate.\\

* Zoo veterinarian David Taylor was a pioneer of safely sedating/anesthetizing wild animals of all types. He tells a tale in one of his autobiographies about using a blow pipe to shoot a dart full of a new, powerful agent, at a dose intended to bring down a very large hoofed animal. As he puts the pipe to his lip, he feels a small cold spot. When he put the dart into the blowpipe, the tip of the needle brushed against the edge, and the tiny bit of liquid deposited, absorbed through the skin of his lip, was so strong that he barely had time to grab the syringe of antidote (something he always kept nearby whenever using this agent, just in case) and inject himself with it before losing consciousness. Has he not been able to give himself that injection, he would likely have been dead within minutes.

* In one of his routines, BillCosby talks about how, as a child, he had his tonsils removed. He described being knocked out as the doctors telling him to count backwards from one hundred and him making it to about ninety-nine before passing out. He adds that he felt rather embarrassed about that, since he was sure that his alcoholic father could have lasted longer. Usually it takes less than 10 seconds though.

** Averted in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "The Wire". Garak injects himself with a sedative in an attempt to dull the pain he's in. When Bashir has a look at the dose, it's apparently "enough to anaesthetise an Algorian mammoth". Not only does it not dull the pain Garak's in, but it doesn't slow him down and he tries to give himself a second dose which would almost certainly kill him. By the end of the scene (which lasts for several minutes), Garak never acted as though the sedative had ever worked... probably justified as the pain he's in is caused by a malfunctioning brain implant that's wrecking havoc with his blood chemistry and which had given him an edorphin addiction for two years. It's also possible that, as part of his Obsidian Order training, he's built up an immense resistance to anything that someone might want to inject him with.

** Averted in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "The Wire". Garak injects himself with a sedative in an attempt to dull the pain he's in. When Bashir has a look at the dose, it's apparently "enough to anaesthetise an Algorian mammoth". Not only does it not dull the pain Garak's in, but it doesn't slow him down and he tries to give himself a second dose which would almost certainly kill him. By the end of the scene (which lasts for several minutes), Garak never acted as though the sedative had ever worked... probably justified as the pain he's in is caused by a malfunctioning brain implant that's wrecking havoc with his blood chemistry. It's also possible that, as part of his Obsidian Order training, he's built up an immense resistance to anything that someone might want to inject him with.
** Regular drug users develop significant resistances to those substances, including developing alternate metabolic pathways. Given that Garak has been using the implant for years it isn't surprising that it had little effect. It ''is'' actually possible to overdose this way, where the user administers multiple times to compensate and ends up with lethal doses. Plus this all assumes that the Obsidian Order doesn't have some sort of program that ensures resistance to common drugs in normal doses.

* Played with in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. Shinigami have access to three tranquillizer drugs that they can use as necessary: shinten, gaten and houten. Shinten is used on targets with weak spiritual pressure whereas gaten and houten are used on much stronger opponents. [[PluckyComicRelief Hanatarou]] has been seen using shinten to knock out low-level guards when rescuing [[ActionGirl Rukia]]. [[{{Ninja}} Yoruichi]] uses either gaten or houten to knock out [[TheHero Ichigo]] and rescue him from [[PillarsOfMoralCharacter Byakuya]]. [[WarriorPoet Kira]] uses gaten to knock out [[UndyingLoyalty Yumichika]] during the fake Karakura Town battle. All the drugs work instantly but are also fantasy drugs made up for the setting and therefore able to work to whatever rules the author wants.

* The fairy tale "Literature/SleepingBeauty" uses a magic curse. When a spindle pricks the princess, the curse activates and the princess instantly falls asleep.

* A staple of covert operations in AlanDeanFoster's ''Literature/HumanxCommonwealth'' universe, Instant Sedation darts are most prominently used in ''Bloodhype'', when Kitten Kai-Sung, Mal Hammurabi, and Porsupah are infiltrating the [=AAnn=] enclave on Repler. Possibly justified by being in TheFuture, but it also fails NoBiochemicalBarriers. Oh, well.

* Averted rather heavily when Russian special forces solved a hostage situation by filling the theater they were being held in with gas, neutralizing the terrorists, but [[NiceJobBreakingItHero inadvertently killing 130 hostages]] (other sources give numbers up to 174). The causes of deaths were:

** The intention to use the gas was kept in secret. As a result medics did non know what happened to the unconscious people, that arrived to hospitals, and what to do with them.

* Averted rather heavily when Russian special forces attempted to defuse a hostage situation by filling the building they were being held in with gas meant to neutralize the terrorists. However, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero they ended up inadvertently killing hundreds of hostages with the gas]].

* A tranquilizer gun is part of Lara Croft's arsenal in ''TombRaiderUnderworld''. Shooting a full-grown panther with it will take the beast down in the blink of an eye.

* In one of his routines, Bill Cosby talks about how, as a child, he had his tonsils removed. He described being knocked out as the doctors telling him to count backwards from one hundred and him making it to about ninety-nine before passing out. He adds that he felt rather embarrassed about that, since he was sure that his alcoholic father could have lasted longer. Usually it takes less than 10 seconds though.

* An example not using chemical means: in ''The Law of Purple'', we discover that Wraithe can send electric shocks through soft tissue, strong enough to knock someone out almost immediately. Daimon does this to Blue [[spoiler:via ''kiss'']], though that method was used more for the psychological effect.

* Subverted in the ''WestermAmimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Sideshow". Killer Croc has just escaped from a train transporting him to prison, but not before being shot with a sedative in his upper arm. He manages to tussle with Batman, attempt to crush a downed Bats' head with a rock, run through the woods for, at the very least, several minutes, ''push down a full-grown tree'', and fight off Batman ''again'', all while only experiencing moderate dizziness from the sedative. He finally goes under after falling down a waterfall.

* The chloroform or diethyl ether on a rag technique does work in real life, in a fairly similar fashion to how it's portrayed in movies, and both where used as surgical anesthetics at one point. However what the movies tend to leave out is how dangerous these chemicals are, chloroform is highly toxic and it's rather easy to cause a lethal overdose, even with proper measured administration, and diethyl ether is highly combustible and emits a highly combustible vapor.

* The chloroform or diethyl ether on a rag technique does work in real life, in a fairly similar fashion to how it's portrayed in movies, and both where used as surgical anesthetics at one point. However what the movies tend to leave out is how dangerous these chemicals are, chloroform is highly toxic and it's rather easy to cause a lethal overdose, even with proper measured methods, and diethyl ether is highly combustible and emits a highly combustible vapor.