History Main / MexicanStandoff

* In Richard Ellis Preston Jr.'s ''Romulus Buckle & the Engines of War'', Goethe declares that Sabrina is Sabrina Fawkes, and must come with him, in the middle of the Imperial stronghold. Both the Imperials and the Crankshafts face off against Goethe's guards. Romulus diffuses it with a challenge to a DuelToTheDeath.

** The movie ''Film/ReservoirDogs'' features a few instances of the trope. Toward the beginning, an argument between Mr. White and Mr. Pink gets heated, and the end up pulling guns on each other. They hold for a moment, then both lower their guns. At the climax, an undercover cop and three villains are caught in a tense three-way standoff. Bad guy one shoots the cop, bad guy two shoots bad guy one, bad guy three shoots bad guy two and bad guy two returns fire. In the end, Mr. White holds Mr. Orange at gunpoint, while the cops (off-screen) point guns at Mr. White.

** In the climax of ''Film/PulpFiction'', the two hitmen and the two robbers have each other at gunpoint.

* QuentinTarantino loves this trope.

* In a memorable moment in ''Film/TheMatrix Revolutions'', Morpheus, Seraph, and [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend Trinity]] confront the Merovingian at his nightclub to secure freedom for a limbo-ridden Neo. When the Merovingian demands "the eyes of the Oracle" in return, Trinity decides she doesn't have time for this shit and points a gun at his head. Merovingian calls off the standoff with no bloodshed after he realizes that the trio aren't going to back down.
** Also worth mentioning is that there were easily at least 20 people involved.
** Also near the end of the first movie, when Neo and Agent Smith have their guns to each others' heads, only to find [[spoiler:that both their guns are empty.]]

* Incorrectly named in ''MyImmortal''. [[strike:Enoby]] Ebony yells out in one of the last chapters: "they're having a Latin standoff!" Considering this ''is'' ''MyImmortal'', it's likely a parody, though.

* The StarWars EU refers to this as a Rodian Standoff. It doesn't show up as often as you might think.

* In JimButcher's DresdenFiles novel ''Turn Coat'', Harry thrice goes into his apartment to find [[spoiler:Morgan, Molly, and Mouse -- with Luccio, twice]] in some form of a Mexican Standoff. He defuses the situations.

* Done in the ''{{Redwall}}'' novel ''The Bellmaker'', where Mariel is threatening to kill the commander of a troop of rats. One rat has an arrow pointed at her head. This goes on for at least a few hours before the good guys are finally rescued.

* JossWhedon seems to like subverting this a lot:

* The "Sitting War" that occurred near the beginning of WorldWarTwo.

* The ColdWar was one of these, with two superpowers and their allies [[MutuallyAssuredDestruction pointing enough nuclear weapons at each other to end human civilization if either one fired first]]. The notable exceptions being the KoreanWar, VietnamWar, and the SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan--and bear in mind that while the US directly fought in Korea and Vietnam, and the USSR in Afghanistan, the other side did not officially commit troops to any of these (although in practice they did provide clandestine support to their allies).

** Even with the end of the ColdWar, nuclear weapons will keep the standoff going in perpetuity. A ''Time'' [[http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1929553,00.html?iid=tsmodule editorial]] considers this preferable to the level of bloodshed the pre-nuclear World Wars exemplified.

* The video game ''FearEffect'' has one of these between two playable characters at a climactic moment. You get to [[MultipleEndings choose who fires first]], if either.

* Happens in ''EnemyOfTheState'' on a grand scale. Apparently played for laughs, too, since you know both parties are unsympathetic and are being [[TwoDialogsOneConversation suckered big time.]]

* Happens in ''EnemyOfTheState'' on a grand scale. Apparently played for laughs, too, since you know both parties are unsympathetic and are being suckered big time.

** John Woo is fond of these kinds of standoffs. Apart from the standoffs between Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee from ''TheKiller'', and between Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai in ''{{Hard-Boiled}}'', there's also the moment in ''Film/FaceOff'' where Sean Archer and Castor Troy end up in a standoff at a church, with Sean's former FBI agents and family on one side, and Castor's family and crew on the other, which is made very dramatic by the fact that both hero and villain are wearing the other's face and both sides are trying to convince the other which is which. When the stalemate is finally broken, the shootout that commences is the most memorable of the entire movie.

* There's a crossover fanfiction wherein [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]], {{Blade}}, [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]], [[Series/TheXFiles Mulder, and Scully]] find themselves in one of these. When a swarm of vampires suddenly show up, the Doctor -- the only one involved without a weapon -- remarks that things are starting to get a bit ludicrous...

* There's a crossover fanfiction wherein [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]], {{Blade}}, [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]], [[TheXFiles Mulder, and Scully]] find themselves in one of these. When a swarm of vampires suddenly show up, the Doctor -- the only one involved without a weapon -- remarks that things are starting to get a bit ludicrous...

* One ''{{X-Files}}'' season finale contained enough plot twists to briefly lead to a three-way stand-off between ''the good guys'' -- it's resolved without bloodshed and with a slight degree of embarrassment on all parts.

* One episode of the SitCom ''{{Taxi}}'', Bobby has a fare talk himself into the front seat, then pull out a gun in an attempted robbery once they've reached his destination (the middle of nowhere-in-particular), foiled once Bobby pulls his own, kept for just such an emergency. This trope is then played straight for something like ''eight hours'', subverted when the thief complained that his arm's getting tired and convinced Bobby to swap his much larger pistol for the latter's much lighter one... revealing afterwards that ''his'' gun was never even loaded, and resuming his crime from square one.
* ''{{Wiseguy}}''. When Vinnie Terranova gets framed due to a GovernmentConspiracy, his [[TheHandler OCB handler]] Frank [=McPike=] tries to get an eccentric billionaire (who's cut himself off from society for decades) to help. The meeting takes place in a ski-lift, with the billionaire holding a cocked LAAWS rocket. At one stage he points out that it's not a good idea to threaten a man armed with a bazooka, whereupon [=McPike=] whips out his snubnose .38 and says: "Big hole, little hole; either way we're just as dead." The billionaire is so impressed with [=McPike=]'s chutzpah he does eventually come forward to clear Vinnie.

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'' has a particularly interesting one, involving five people (one of whom isn't even directly related to the argument and pulls out his guns because everyone else does), each with two guns pointing at two other people. During the course of a conversation, they constantly switch who they are pointing their guns at. The whole thing becomes moot when [[spoiler:Jack tries to shoot Barbossa, and the shot is a dud. This prompts everyone else to fire at each other, with the same result. Turns out that all the guns were waterlogged.]]

*** Also used in the second film, where Norrington, Jack, and Will engage in a Mexican standoff -- but with swords. Norrington points to Will, Will to Jack... and Jack doesn't know who to point to, deciding to point, late, to Norrington.

* In an early episode of Torchwood, Owen's got the villain at gunpoint, when the villains' accomplice reveals himself and points a gun at Owen. Gwen is shocked, and lifts her gun toward the accomplice.

This trope can be constructed in a number of geometries: one against one, three or more to a side, [[MeleeATrois free-for-all]], or army against army. Frequently ends in a BlastOut when someone gets twitchy, or [[WhatAnIdiot figures the odds differently]] than everyone else and decides they have an advantage. [[KingmakerScenario Entry of]] [[TheCavalry a third party]] can also end things, since those already there are fixated on each other.

* ''MassEffect'' is littered with Mexican standoffs with all sorts of people; whether they end peacefully, with someone getting shot in the face, or with a BlastOut depends mostly on the player's choices. In the most notable example, Shepard and [[spoiler:one of his/her own party members, Wrex,]] get into a standoff over [[spoiler:blowing up a lab containing a cure for the krogan race's infertility, which is slowly killing them off]]. Getting out of the situation without [[spoiler:killing Wrex]] earns the player an Achievement for resolving "an impossible situation" with diplomacy.
** No better way to break a standstill than to have your buddy gun down your other buddy [[{{Backstab}} from behind him]] when things start getting hairy...

* A three-way version in Comicbook/{{Hitman}} with Tommy Monaghan, a random {{Mook}}, and {{Batman}}. Tommy has two guns, Batman ([[DoesNotLikeGuns of course]]) doesn't have any, and I think he had his arms tied behind his back as well. Tommy talks the mook into pointing his gun at Batman, then leaves since nobody is pointing a gun at him. Batman later disarms the mook, because he's Batman.

* Happens in ''EnemyOfTheState'' on a grand scale. Apparently played for laughs, too, since you know both parties are being suckered big time.

* In this PowerRangers [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1910801/1/Constants fan-fiction]] fanfiction, it's referenced by name.

* In HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban, there was a stand off between Harry, Hermione, Ron, Professor Lupin, and Sirius Black. It was then calmed, then when Snape entered the picture, the stand off began again.
* This happens twice in [[HisDarkMaterials The Amber Spyglass]] between Lyra, Will, Tialys, and Salmakia.

* Actually OlderThanTheyThink: Quoth Scott Higgins' article in Cinema Journal 47, No. 2: "Brewster and Jacobs invoke Sheridan’s parody of this warhorse of situations in his 1779 play ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic''. Sheridan mocks melodramatic convention by having a fictional playwright concoct a scene in which two women hold the man they both love at dagger’s point; the man, in turn, draws two daggers and holds them on the women, at which point their two uncles enter and draw their swords against the lover. The standoff is resolved when, unexpectedly, a Beefeater enters and orders "In the Queen’s Name, I charge you all to drop your swords and Daggers."

** Which is weird, 'cause everyone in Mass Effect is wearing shields capable of taking anything less than a sniper rifle to the head, and yes this rule does hold up in dialogue, cutscenes, etc.
** Well, there is an in-universe explanation that if the gun is very close to the person you are targeting, the bullet goes through without the shields even activating.

* A Mexican Standoff is a heightened version of what is sometimes referred to as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbesian_trap Hobbesian Trap]] (After the [[HobbesWasRight philosopher]], not the [[CalvinAndHobbes tiger]]). When two (or more) parties are both able to do harm to the others, and afraid of ''being'' harmed ''by'' the others, the trap is set. A great deal of effort has gone into providing ways to safely back out of the trap, at least on the national level; "Honor", where making a pre-emptive strike causes the nation to become a pariah; mutual defence treaties, where another nation will avenge any pre-emptive strike made against their ally, in order to discourage agressors; and international organisations like the U.N., who provide a way for nations in a Hobbesian trap to reduce their conflict to a war of words rather than arms. All three were considerations during the Cuban Missile Crisis, remarked on below[[note]]America did not want to be seen as a bully blasting a neighbouring nation back into the stone age; the U.N. provided a highly visible means of pointing out that the Soviets were being disingenous about what weaponry they had provided to Cuba; and the mutual defence treaties... actually made things a lot worse, as it set up a worldwide game of DisasterDominos[[/note]].

** Short ones often occur in ''MagicTheGathering'' when either player making a move would give the other an opportunity to kill them. It generally lasts until one player draws the right card.

In a [[http://www.metacafe.com/watch/hl-60147834/saturday_night_live_the_stand_off_season_38/ filmed sketch]] on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' three gangsters have one of these which lasts for days; they sleep together, shower, go to a Thanksgiving dinner, go ice skating, even attend one of them's son's soccer game. Finally, one of them says that the last few days have been the best of his life; the other two immediately shoot him, then go back to a standoff with each other.