History Main / ItWorksBetterWithBullets

To be entirely honest, the chambered bullet may be manually extracted and slide lock disengaged with but a thumb. More accurate works will actually display that. Ironically, the supposedly wacky comedy TheBigLebowski has it right in the only 10-seconds gun scene of the movie, while many action flicks are epitome of DidNotDoTheResearch here despite having at least one firearm present in each and every frame.

** Something similar happens at the end of Season 8, when Jack gets [[TheLancer Cole Ortiz]] to defect and assist him in saving TheMole. After agreeing, Cole demands a weapon, which Jack provides him. Then, upon preparing to [[StormTheCastle Storm The Warehose]], Cole goes to chamber a round, and... (Same FridgeLogic applies, since Cole is also a CTU field agent. He ''has'' mostly been sitting in a car since he got the gun, though.)

* On ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'', the normally infallible Detective Goren informed a the murderer that her gun was empty. She responded by firing a shot into the air. Unfortunately for her that one in the chamber was the only one left.

* In TheMentalist Jane has given the killer a weapon, the killer turns the weapon on Jane and...click. No bullets. The killer smiles and pulls out a knife instead. Thankfully the rest of the team burst in an arrest him.

* In ''TheTexasChainsawMassacre'', the sheriff gave his gun to one of the good guys in order to demonstrate the suicide they saw in the beginning of the movie. When he stuck the gun in his mouth as a demonstration, the sheriff told him to pull the trigger. The victim instead, not wanting to suicide himself, pointed the gun at the sheriff and pulled the trigger. The barrel was empty. The sheriff got him for attempted murder.

* In {{TheMentalist}} Jane has given the killer a weapon, the killer turns the weapon on Jane and...click. No bullets. The killer smiles and pulls out a knife instead. Thankfully the rest of the team burst in an arrest him.

* In the film ''{{Taken}}'', Liam Neeson's character points out to a {{Face Heel Turn}}er that he's been out of the field too long, since he should have been able to tell the difference in weight between a loaded and an unloaded pistol.

** In MGS3: Subsistence, they include an out-take reel where Snake says the same thing in one scene. Turns out, yes, yes he did have what it takes.

Depending on how this is used, it can be a case of DidNotDoTheResearch, as most handguns without loaded bullets will have a noticable imbalance and difference in weight when compared with a fully loaded weapon. A professional who is familiar with the weapon being used can notice the difference. In addition, the lack of a magazine in a pistol or of rounds in revolver chambers is clearly visible. Most automatics have the slide lock back on an empty magazine as well. Additionally, many automatic and semi-automatic weapons pre-load one bullet into the chamber before firing, so removing the magazine still leaves one live round in the chamber.

* In an episode of ''MacGyver'' [[BigBad Murdoc]] removes the shells from a shotgun and takes the person who later tries to use it on him hostage.

* In the XWingSeries comics, this happens twice in one arc. [[http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/6130/blz19cx4.jpg Here]], the Sullustan pilot tells the student that it's no use threatening anyone with an empty blaster - see the diode flashing? [[http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/6171/blz13cb8.jpg Here]], the Sullustan pilot and the students are on the same side and pull the trick on someone else. Perfectly legitimate in the first case, not so much in the second. Gade may not have been a soldier or anything, but he was a bit more familiar with weapons. But hey, [[Rule Of Funny rule of funny]].

* In the XWingSeries comics, this happens twice in one arc. [[http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/6130/blz19cx4.jpg Here]], the Sullustan pilot tells the student that it's no use threatening anyone with an empty blaster - see the diode flashing? [[http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/6171/blz13cb8.jpg Here]], the Sullustan pilot and the students are on the same side and pull the trick on someone else. Perfectly legitimate in the first case, not so much in the second. Gade may not have been a soldier or anything, but he was a bit more familiar with weapons.

* In JohnScalzi's ''[[OldMansWar Old Man's War]]'' series, the standard weapon of the Colonial Defence Forces - the [=MP35=] - will only fire if held by the soldier it's been programmed to be used by [[spoiler: as discovered by an unfortunate recruit and an even more unfortunate Rraey]].

To be entirely honest, the chambered bullet may be manually extracted and slide lock disengaged with but a thumb. More accurate works will actually display that. Ironically, the supposedly wacky comedy BigLebovsky has it right in the only 10-seconds gun scene of the movie, while many action flicks are epitome of DidNotDoTheResearch here despite having at least one firearm present in each and every frame.

To be entirely honest, the chambered bullet may be manually extracted and slide lock disengaged with but a thumb. More accurate works will actually display that.

* In [[TheCulture Iain M. Banks]], ''Use of Weapons'', an assassin arrives at a king's house, while he's being taunted, the king pulls a gun and tries to fire. The assassin off handedly shows him the bullets and says "It works better with these."
** Bank's [[PlayingWithATrope plays with this]] in AgainstADarkBackground. The villain steals Sharrows gun and spare ammo, removes the magazine and gives it back. Sharrow realizes that gun has been unloaded, however she doesn't know if he rembered to check the chamber until she tries to fire [[spoiler: he didn't]].

*** given that this is a relatively routine Joker "joke" you'd think new lackeys would catch on, when the gun pops out that flag, run and zig zag.

* In the {{Western}} {{Shojo}} manga {{Manga/Miriam}}, protagonist Douglas is menaced by an enemy who stole his gun. The villain, who isn't particularly familiar with firearms, lets out an EvilLaugh and starts speechifying, before pulling the trigger several times to find an empty gun. When Douglas picks up the other guy's gun and turns the tables on him, he weakly insists that that gun, too, is empty, and Douglas knows he's bluffing because he can feel the difference.

* Happens in BreakBlade, in an unusually realistic case. The gun-pointer was a) a mech pilot, the wrong type of soldier entirely; b) using an unfamiliar model (and it probably helped that it was a quartz-firing gun, not a lead-firing one); and c) twelve years old. Her hostage (the queen, natch) played along, just to see how far she was willing to go (which happened to be all the way to pulling the trigger at an enemy she recognized).
* ZeroNoTsukaima: Fouquet steals the "Staff of Destruction", a legendary artifact, from the WizardingSchool. But she can't figure out how it works. So she arranges for it to be recovered by the main characters and attacks them with a golem. It goes according to her plan: Saito uses it against the golem, then Fouqet takes it from Saito and points it at him. He's not especially worried, since [[spoiler: the staff of destruction is really just a rocket launcher and he has just fired it at the golem.]]

* In ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'', the sheriff gave his gun to one of the good guys in order to demonstrate the suicide they saw in the beginning of the movie. When he stuck the gun in his mouth as a demonstration, the sheriff told him to pull the trigger. The victim instead, not wanting to suicide himself, pointed the gun at the sheriff and pulled the trigger. The barrel was empty. The sheriff got him for attempted murder.

* John Woo's ''The Killer'' has the title character doing this to his handler Sidney in an awesome scene in which he demands the money he was promised in order to have Jenny's eyes fixed and the name of the guy who had him ambushed at the beach following the job he did to raise that money. Sidney has been persuaded by the BigBad to kill him rather than give him the money, and the briefcase that was supposed to hold the money has nothing but worthless paper inside. When he puts his weapon down to open it, Sidney grabs the gun and points it at him, at which point the Killer starts laughing. Sidney pulls the trigger, only to have it click on an empty chamber, and the Killer reveals that he unloaded it when he shows Sidney the bullets, just before pulling his ''other'' gun on him.
* Tommy Lee Jones does it in ''US Marshals'': he checks his [[spoiler:villainous partner's]] gun and gives it back to him. When he comes to use it on him, there's no bullets.

* In the movie ''Shooter'', Bob Lee Swagger demonstrates that his rifle (planted by the bad guys, and seized by the FBI) could not have been the one used in the assassination because, before he left his home, he replaced the firing pin with one that didn't work as a security precaution.
* In ''F/X'', the BigBad takes the hero Rollie's SMG, only to discover that Rollie had emptied the gun and applied superglue to the handles. Rollie throws the villain out the door to face a squad of cops, who order him to drop the gun or they'll fire. It doesn't end well.
* ''Crimson Rivers'' : Max Kerkerian, cop, dramatically puts down his gun and badge to goad an aggressive skinhead into a fistfight. "There, no more cop." As the fight starts going badly for him, the skinhead tries to threaten Max with his own gun, only to get his face thoroughly broken. Max then shows him the magazine, which was in his pocket the whole time.
* In the film ''In the Line of Fire'' Clint Eastwood's character while working undercover is told to shoot his partner who's been identified as a Secret Service agent. He does so, knowing from the pistol's weight that the gun is empty. Afterwards his partner asks: "What if there'd been a bullet in the chamber?" Clint has no answer to this.

* Reversed, and combined with YouHaveFailedMe, in ''Push''. The BigBad makes one of his minions shoot himself in the soft palate by telepathically convincing him the gun is empty.

* ''Muppets From Space''. Clifford the Bear reveals he removed the ammo from Ed's {{BFG}}.
* ''Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues'': Professor Lockhart reveals he removed the ammo from Crenshaw's shotgun.

* In Star Trek IV, Chekov is captured by 1980-s US naval officers (who think he is a spy because of his accent), and while they are trying to get him to 'tell the truth' he grabs [[ChekovsGun his phaser]], points it at one, and threatens to stun them if they don't let him go. Of course, the phaser doesn't work, and he is forced to use the simple expedient of throwing the phaser at the guy and running.

* Early in ''Point of No Return,'' the still rebellious reluctant hero (Bridget Fonda) attacks her handler (Gabriel Byrne) and disarms him. She points the automatic at her unflinching handler, who merely looks at her calmly, and pulls the trigger. After [[spoiler: the pointless click, he takes the gun away from the stunned hero, and punches her, causing her to fall down. He then says something like "Lesson one: Never chamber the first round," and shoots her in the leg.]]

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by V in VForVendetta.

* Subverted in InBruges. Ray disarms the man trying to rob him and he finds out it's only loaded with blanks. He still manages to [[spoiler:blind him by firing a blank into his eye, though]].

* In JohnScalzi's [[OldMansWar Old Man's War]] series, the standard weapon of the Colonial Defence Forces - the [=MP35=] - will only fire if held by the soldier it's been programmed to be used by [[spoiler: as discovered by an unfortunate recruit and an even more unfortunate Rraey]].

* In Mickey Spillane's "The Twisted Thing" a murderer pulls this trick on MikeHammer, no less, by slipping out the magazine of his Colt .45 when giving him a "welcome back" hug. Mike didn't have the chamber loaded for safety reasons.

* ''Lois & Clark'' episode "Stop The Presses" - bad guy Ethan has kidnapped his brother Eric to make him help kill Superman. At one point Eric fights back and grabs the weapon they stole from the Pentagon and points it in Ethan's face. Ethan keeps telling Eric he's not man enough to do it. Eric pulls the trigger and, as in the description, nothing happens. Ethan gloats, "I disarmed it" and shows Eric the part he removed.

* On {{Angel}}, Faith took this trope to the next level. She tricked Angel into shooting her with a revolver, but the gun was loaded with a blank. Then she took the gun back and shot Angel, gloating that the bullets weren't all blanks.
* CoolOldGuy Sam Axe does this to an enemy with his own gun, working under the (correct) assumption that the enemy would steal his gun and turn it on him. This is also why Sam brought two guns.
* In {{Dollhouse}}'s 13th episode, "Epitaph One", [[spoiler: Iris has an unknown other person inside her head - she sees the machine as the way to get out into Mag's body, and pulls the gun that she was given earlier by Zone, trying to kill him. Turns out the gun was empty, and since she's in the body of an 11- or 12-year-old, Zone and Mag have a pretty easy time restraining her and wiping her.]]

* In the pilot film for DueSouth, Constable Fraser mentions early on that due to legal complications (Canadian law enforcement officer working in Chicago, with no authority or jurisdiction in the city outside of the Canadian Consulate), he carries a [[ChekovsGun sidearm]], but no bullets. During a fight with a hitman later on, the bad guy grabs Fraser's gun and immediately tries to shoot him with it, only for the hammer to click down on an empty cylinder.

** Similarly done in the BatmanBeyond movie: Return of the Joker, when Joker pulls the trigger on a scared mook and a bang flag pops out of the gun. Joker says he was only kidding. [[spoiler: Then he pulls the trigger again, which shoots the bang flag into the mooks chest. "Oops, no I wasn't."]]

*** Even stranger is that he pulled back the slide to load a round into the chamber (implying that he doesn't keep it fully loaded) but didn't actually look into the chamber while the slide was pulled back or check the magazine. Also, racking the slide on most, if not all empty pistols will cause it lock open. A corollary would be that [[FridgeBrilliance he hasn't touched his gun in so long that he doesn't even remember how to charge it properly.]]
**** Judging by the fact that the main character's extreme competence and the had been in the apartment for a while, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that he tampered with the slide of the other man's gun beforehand. However, that still does not explain why the aggressor did not notice the lack of bullets when trying to chamber a round.

**In MGS3: Substance, they include an out-take reel where Snake says the same thing in one scene. Turns out, yes, yes he did have what it takes.

* In the {{Western}} {{Shojo}} manga ''Miriam'', protagonist Douglas is menaced by an enemy who stole his gun. The villain, who isn't particularly familiar with firearms, lets out an EvilLaugh and starts speechifying, before pulling the trigger several times to find an empty gun. When Douglas picks up the other guy's gun and turns the tables on him, he weakly insists that that gun, too, is empty, and Douglas knows he's bluffing because he can feel the difference.