History Main / ItWorksBetterWithBullets

* On ''Series/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 "Two Dead Men", Frank Castle is torturing Carson Wolf for information, but Carson is able to escape his bonds and snatch the [[PantsPositiveSafety pistol tucked in the front of Frank's pants]]. After gloating over Frank's reversal of fortune, and in the process revealing a lot more than he had under torture, Carson goes to shoot Frank...
--->'''Frank:''' Gun's empty, asshole.

* ''Series/{{Daredevil 2015}}'':

* ''Series/{{UFO}}'' episode "Survival". While on the surface of the Moon, Paul Foster is captured by an alien. He manages to grab his gun back from the alien, only for the alien to open his hand to display the weapon's ammo clip.
* In ''{{Series/Wallander}}'', the eponymous character pulls this on himself: after the trauma of shooting a dangerous suspect dead, Wallander removes the bullets from his magazine. Then a [[DepravedHomosexual psycho suspect]] takes [[spoiler: his daughter Linda]] hostage at gunpoint.

-->'''Neal''': [[DoesntLikeGuns Dammit. I've never been a gun guy.]]

* ''Series/DarkMatter''. Three (who has GunsAkimbo) and Four are in a MexicanStandoff with the rest of the crew, but Five says that Three's guns are both empty because she slipped into his room and stole all his bullets (it's made even funnier by Three's non-verbal realization that he really should've noticed the difference in weight). Everyone just points their weapons at Four [[KnowWhenToFoldThem who then surrenders]].

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': During some heated negotiations with the Transport Association in "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E03ADayInTheStrife A Day in the Strife]]", a heckler challenges Sheridan, calling him a coward for hiding behind his security. Sheridan takes a PPG from one of his security men and shoves it in the heckler's pocket, telling him to go ahead and shoot. The heckler doesn't reach for the gun and backs down. He retrieved the gun and returns to the table. His second, Ivanova, calls him nuts for doing this. He smirks and toys with the power cap he'd palmed.

* ''Film/{{Blackthorn}}'': When they reach the [[GhostTown abandoned mine settlement]], Eduardo pulls a gun he thinks Blackthorn doesn't know he has. Blackthorn tells him the pistol won't do him much good when the posse catches up with them, and holds up a handful of bullets. It turns out Blackthorn had discovered the pistol ten minutes earlier and unloaded it.
* ''Film/{{Blackwood}}''. Eduardo has Blackwood at gunpoint until Blackwood holds up a handful of bullets. Subverted later when it's revealed that those were Blackwood's bullets and Eduardo's gun was loaded the whole time.

* Gloriously defied in the Taiwanese drama, ''The Kid from Heaven''. Da-Gui, the friend of protagonist XIng-he, decide to confront the loan shark who's making their lives hell with a BriefcaseFullOfMoney. The loan shark agrees to meet Da-Gui alone in his penthouse, but had a gun with him; when the villain puts down his gun to open the case, Da-Gui then snatches his gun and point it at the loan shark, only for the latter to take out a magazine and gloat to Da-Gui that the gun is empty. After a moment of disbelief, Da-Gui instead pulls out a switchblade and stab the loan shark.

* In the 1998 scifi B-Movie ''Film/{{Legion'}}', the protagonist--a soldier awaiting execution--overpowers his guards and bursts into a room waving a pistol, only to find his former commanding officer waiting for him. Unsurprisingly the gun is empty. "Good! I had to see if you still had the edge. Two years hard time can break any man's spirit." The soldier lunges at him only to be disarmed and PistolWhipped by his aide, a female officer played by Creator/TerryFarrell.
* In the opening scene of ''Film/TheLastRitesOfRansomPride'', Ransom is selling automatic pistols to gang of Mexican bandits when their leader [[BallisticDiscount decides it would easier just to kill Ransom with his own gun]]. Unfortunately for him, Ransom wasn't foolish enough to hand his a loaded pistol.

* In the 1998 scifi B-Movie ''Legion'', the protagonist--a soldier awaiting execution--overpowers his guards and bursts into a room waving a pistol, only to find his former commanding officer waiting for him. Unsurprisingly the gun is empty. "Good! I had to see if you still had the edge. Two years hard time can break any man's spirit." The soldier lunges at him only to be disarmed and pistolwhipped by his aide, a female officer played by Creator/TerryFarrell.

* ''Film/ThisIsTheEnd'': When Franco and the other actors offer to throw [=McBride=] out of the house for being a nuisance, [=McBride=] uses the gun Franco gave him to shoot the rest of the actors, only for Franco to reveal it was just a prop gun with no real bullets. [=McBride=] is appalled that Franco would give him a fake gun, but Seth rightfully points out that he tried to shoot them all with said gun.
-->'''[[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk McBride]]:''' Thank you, James. It means a lot to you and I appreciate that you gave [the gun] to me. [[MoodWhiplash You stupid...]] '''[[SuddenlyShouting STUPID MOTHERFUCKERS!!]]'''
-->''([=McBride=] shoots at the gang, but fails to kill them as there were no real bullets)''

-->'''[=McBride=]:''' You were gonna send me out there with a fucking gun filled with blanks?!

Compare NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont. Often coupled with WeaponForIntimidation. Also see CountingBullets where people, er, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin count the bullets fired]]. The accidental version of this trope is DramaticAmmoDepletion.

* Subverted in ''Manga/EatMan'', when a bad guy gives Bolt a gun belonging to another character. When Bolt pulls it out on him later, he brags about having removed all the bullets first. Bolt shoots him with [[OneBuwwetWeft another bullet]] he caught in his teeth earlier.

* ''Film/TheGrayMan2002''. Miranda, standing on a hospital ledge, calls for Sierra Six to throw up a shotgun to her. She only realises it's unloaded when she attempts to fire at Lone Wolf. When she calls out Six, he points out that throwing a loaded gun is insanely reckless and questions why she'd assume a highly trained black ops operative such as himself would engage in such a flagrant violation of gun safety. This becomes a BrickJoke when Six--facing a hostage situation--is called to throw away his gun. He unloads it first, saying no-one throws a loaded gun.

* ''film/JacksBack'': During their fight, Jack grabs Rick's gun and attempts to shoot him with it, only for nothing to happen because the guy who sold it to him didn't sell him any bullets.

* Creator/TomClancy's ''Literature/JackRyan'': ''Executive Orders'' subverts this: The Secret Service agents guarding the President want a sleeper agent to try and kill him, but ''don't'' replace the bullets with blanks, as he'd notice the difference in weight. They switch out the magazine in his weapon for one loaded with real bullets that have had the gunpowder removed. They explain it, and even ''mock him'' by pointing out the cute little noise the primer makes.

* DoubleSubverted in a scene at the end of an ''Series/AdamTwelve'' episode. Malloy and Reed get separated responding to a warehouse robbery, and Malloy gets the robbers they haven't shot cornered at gunpoint with an intimidating expression. Reed catches up, and Malloy asks him to take over covering the suspects while he reloads his revolver.

* In ''Fanfic/ThisBites'', Cross is running for his life from Mr. 13 through [[OutlawTown Mock Town.]] In a quick move, Cross steals another man's pistol and trains it on Mr. 13... only to discover it isn't loaded.

* ''Film/TheWolfman2010''. Sir John Talbot has a loyal servant with a cache of {{silver bullet}}s to be used on him if he escapes confinement during the full moon. In the climax, Lawrence Talbot borrows some of the cartridges to use on his father, only for John Talbot to smile and say that he removed the powder from them years ago.

* In ''Film/TheWolfman2010'', Laurence sneaks back into his home and borrows the Loyal Servant's cache of silver shotgun bullets. He finally confronts his father and pulls the trigger... [[spoiler: only to have his father smile and say "I removed the powder from those cartridges years ago."]]

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' and every game in the series since you can point your gun at a guard to shake them down for items. It works just as well whether you're fully loaded or out of ammo for the gun, but if you try to pull the trigger in the latter case, shit quickly hits the fan.

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Demon]] Crowley trades the Colt, a magic weapon that can kill almost anything, to the Winchesters in exchange for [[spoiler:their promise to use it on his BadBoss Lucifer]]. As soon as they get the Colt, they try to shoot him with it, whereupon he asks if they'd like the bullets from him too.

* Twisted gloriously in ''Film/BallisticEcksVsSever'', After Gant's kid is stolen by Sever, the agent who was watching over him was handed a gun and told to blow his brains out. He decides it'd be better used to shoot Gant. It doesn't work because [[spoiler: the gun's been modified to shoot backwards, so if he'd actually tried to suicide he would have been okay. Instead he got shot in the face.]] One of the (very) few good moments in the movie.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater''. Ocelot fires multiple times into the air to catch Snake's attention, then points the gun at him. Snake tells him "You don't have what it takes to kill me." Ocelot pulls the trigger, but finds that his gun was already empty; he had switched to a six-shot revolver when he had been used to his ''eight''-shot service pistol.

* In ''ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron'', 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, RuleOfFunny.

** A serial rapist has captured Jo, and makes a show of pushing each bullet out of the magazine of her gun before tossing it to her. She then says, "They always forget the one in the chamber," and shoots him. He gets back up, and she picks a second bullet up off the floor, chambers it, and puts him down for good.
** Used when Mac catches up to the gangsters who [[spoiler:kidnapped Christine]]. He wounds one and plays a game of Russian roulette to get the other to talk. [[spoiler:We find out at the end that the gun was empty and that he'd used sleight of hand to make the gangster, and us, ''think'' he was loading it. As he tells Jo later, "Not much of a game when the gun's empty.]]

* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow''. Barney Fife never keeps bullets in his gun. Because Andy won't let him as [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety every time he has a loaded gun Barney accidentally discharges his gun]]. Barney is allowed to keep one bullet in his pocket in case of emergencies.

* Subverted in ''Series/{{CSINY}}''. A serial rapist has captured Jo, and makes a show of pushing each bullet out of the magazine of her gun before tossing it to her. She then says, "They always forget the one in the chamber," and shoots him. He gets back up, and she picks a second bullet up off the floor, chambers it, and puts him down for good.
** Used when Mac catches up to the gangsters who [[spoiler:kidnapped Christine]]. He wounds one and plays a game of Russian roulette to get the other to talk. [[spoiler:We find out at the end that the gun was empty and that he'd used sleight of hand to make the gangster, and us, ''think'' he was loading it.]]

* John Woo's ''Film/TheKiller'' has the title character doing this to his handler Sidney Fung 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 Johnny Weng 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.