History Main / MuzzleFlashlight

* Some ''Franchise/StarWars'' games. Energy weapons AND lightsabers. What darkness?
** The darkness in ''VideoGame/JediKnightIIJediOutcast'', is what. Manage those night-vision batteries well, 'cos you're gonna need 'em.
** Back in the earlier portion of the ''VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga'', darkness was a fairly common obstacle with three solutions: burn your batteries to power the headlight or night vision goggles, bumble around in the dark, or start firing your blaster pistol at random and see who comes by while you navigate the darkness. Thanks to the pistol's BoringButPractical efficiency and the ubiquity of blaster ammo, this is not as stupid a suggestion as it might sound.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Unreal|I}}'', just about every projectile weapon has some sort of glow around its shots. The Bio Rifle's sticky projectiles can act as short-term flares, rockets can illuminate a large area for a brief moment, and the Dispersion Pistol can fire flare-like projectiles almost non-stop, as it recharges on its own. The ''Nali Chronicles'' fan-made campaign takes it one step further with ''spell'' flashlights: spells like lightning and fireball can produce considerable light that doesn't depend on how charged the spell is (so you can use as little charge as necessary to make it count as a spell and not a failed casting), and your ManaMeter recharges on its own given a bit of time.

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife1: Opposing Force'', the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon provides a shitload of illumination, which is especially useful in the Voltigore tunnels.
* ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'''s second expansion, ''Perseus Mandate'', houses an interesting variant of the trope in the LP4 [[LightningGun Lightning Arc Weapon]]. You don't need to fire it to have light ([[TooAwesomeToUse not that you'll be firing it much even for a good reason]]); its muzzle glows a faint blue light when you have it equipped, and while it doesn't reach very far, it ''is'' enough to find your way around, and unlike [[TenSecondFlashlight the Sergeant's headlamp]], [[InfiniteFlashlight it'll never go out]], even when you're out of ammo for it. The effect is generally not very useful outside of the scary setpieces that temporarily rob you of your light.

* Bit of a twist on it in ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' with the Plasma Pistol -- the flashlight [[TenSecondFlashlight has a habit of running flat]] even when they supposedly made it an InfiniteFlashlight in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', so [[ChargedAttack charging up]] the plasma pistol to get the muzzle glow can solve the problem (except in ''3'', where this slowly consumes ammo to counter the previous game's "Noob Combo"). From ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' and onward, the Energy Sword emits a blue light that can act as a lantern as long as the sword has power.

* ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'''s second expansion, ''Perseus Mandate'', houses an interesting variant of the trope in the [[{{BFG}} LP4]] [[LightningGun Lightning Arc Weapon]]. You don't need to fire it to have light ([[TooAwesomeToUse not that you'll be firing it much even for a good reason]]); its muzzle glows a faint blue light when you have it equipped, and while it doesn't reach very far, it ''is'' enough to find your way around, and unlike [[TenSecondFlashlight the Sergeant's headlamp]], [[InfiniteFlashlight it'll never go out]], even when you're out of ammo for it. It's generally not very useful outside of the scary setpieces that temporarily rob you of your light.

* ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'''s second expansion, ''Perseus Mandate'', houses an interesting variant of the trope in the [[{{BFG}} LP4]] [[LightningGun Lightning Arc Weapon]]. You don't need to fire it to have light ([[TooAwesomeToUse not that you'll be firing it much even for a good reason]]); its muzzle glows a faint blue light when you have it equipped, and while it doesn't reach very far, it ''is'' enough to find your way around, and unlike [[TenSecondFlashlight the Sergeant's headlamp]], [[InfiniteFlashlight it'll never go out]], even when you're out of ammo for it. It's generally not very useful outside of the scary setpieces that temporarily rob you of your light, basically being a weaker and shorter-ranged version of the Type-7 Particle Weapon.

* ''VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense'' has incendiary rounds for some weapons that spray fire over a wide radius and provide much better illumination than the hand-thrown "electro-flares" that are intended for the job. Thanks to the hitscan mechanics, this ended up being their primary use.

* In ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'', the burning rags of Molotov cocktail, or the pilot light of the flamethrower can substitute reasonably well for the flashlight, which saves on batteries. But as a trade off, the flames provide less illumination.

* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}} II: The Chosen'' is pretty good at this, especially with its flare gun; while hitting a wall or floor with one doesn't do much for you, embedding one in an enemy makes for a good lantern for as long as the flare (or the enemy it's burning) lasts.

* The [[strike:lightsaber]] Dragon Tooth Sword in ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' could be used as poor-man's flashlight when your bio-energy was low.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'', muzzle flash will (slightly) illuminate the entire visible area for a split second, letting the chaingun act almost like a short-length flashlight. This is invoked in the ''[[Comicbook/{{Doom}} Doom Comic]]'' when Doomguy encounters a dark room.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'', this is pretty much the only way to see in dark rooms other than the extremely rare night-vision power-ups.

* In ''VideoGame/QuakeII'', the player starts with the Blaster. This gun is very weak, but it doesn't use ammo and its projectiles are slow-moving and glow brightly. This combination makes it useful for lighting up dark corridors, since there is no portable light source in this game.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Unreal|I}}'', just about every projectile weapon has some sort of glow around its shots. The Bio Rifle's sticky projectiles can act as short-term flares, rockets can illuminate a large area for a brief moment, and the Dispersion Pistol can emit light almost non-stop (as it recharges on its own). The ''Nali Chronicles'' fan-made campaign takes it one step further with ''spell'' flashlights: spells like lightning and fireball can produce considerable light that doesn't depend on how charged the spell is (so you can use as little as necessary to make it count), and your ManaMeter recharges on its own given a bit of time.

* TruthInTelevision: The muzzle flash of a good number of weapons is just plain [[RealityIsUnrealistic ludicrous]]. A Mosin-Nagant's flash can set people on fire. The Mini-14 sans flash suppressor can produce a flash as long as the rifle itself.

* In ''Machinima/FreemansMind'' Gordon at one point muses on how lucky he is that he doesn't have a TenSecondFlashlight, as otherwise he'd have to navigate via this trope which has its own problems.

* In the first SeasonFinale of ''WesternAnimation/XMen'', Wolverine battles a squad of Sentinels in a dark cave, with nothing to see with except the flashes from the Sentinels' [[SlowLaser laser blasts]].

** Others turn this UpToEleven; for instance, Dragon's Breath shotgun shells are designed to weaponize the muzzle flash itself by turning it into "muzzle 12-foot-gouts-of-flame". As one might imagine, this [[AwesomeButImpractical looks awesome, but is worse than useless in any kind of firefight situation and will quickly ruin your shotgun]]. For reference, a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnA9yyE2ma8 Youtube user tested the round]] and managed to accidentally create a grass fire behind the target that (thankfully) burned out on its own before it spread too much.

* Particularly easy to do in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'', as the game grants you infinite ammo as a core gameplay mechanic and your starting guns are always a pair of rapid-fire pistols.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* Variation in ''Film/SawI''. One photographer has to use his camera flash to try and see if there's an intruder in his house when the power gets cut. [[spoiler: There is.]]

* Guns in ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'' provide small amounts of light when shot, as do the bullets. Granted, there are melee weapons which do the same thing better for no ammo. Using the early-game 'Meteor' armor set and the 'Space Gun' weapon results in a FrickinLaserBeam pistol with BottomlessMagazines, just the thing to light up dark underground corridors and perhaps get a few early shots on enemies.

* In the first SeasonFinale of ''WesternAnimation/XMen'', Wolverine battles a squad of Sentinels in a dark cave, with nothing to see with except the flashes from the Sentinels' [[FrickinLaserBeams laser blasts]].