History Main / ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon

* In one episode of ''PersonOfInterest'', John Reese goes up against an ageing [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheStasi Stasi]] agent who's spent the whole episode tracking down his own former teammates then torturing them for information before murdering them. You'd think that Reese, an ex-CIA and Special Forces agent, would grasp the danger, the need for caution, ''and'' the way to use distance to his advantage when going up against the guy. Indeed, Reese gets him at gunpoint... and then slowly closes to melee range, allowing the man to easily knock him out, tie him up, torture him for information, and very nearly kill him.[[note]]Given Reese's suicidal and self-harming tendencies, which have been evident since the pilot episode, this may have been on purpose (consciously or subconsciously); the agent's backstory hit close to home, and Reese may have felt like he deserved such a fate.[[/note]][[/folder]]

** Martha uses a walker on a catch-pole to threaten a survivor armed with an automatic rifle. The survivor is fearful that shooting will draw more walkers, but she could run from them while easily ending the threat against her.[[/folder]]

In a nonmilitary context, this is pretty much TruthInTelevision. Based on various law enforcement agency data, [[https://www.luckygunner.com/lounge/the-true-distance-of-a-typical-gunfight/ the vast majority]] of fatal shootings involving civilian-on-civilian and cop-on-civilian violence in the United States take place under 15 meters (with the FBI citing 3 meters as typical), despite even handguns, shotguns, and submachine guns on full auto typically all having a 25-50 meter effectice range, with rifles having ranges of several hundred. There are various reasons for this, ranging from a lot of these instances being point-blank ambushes, to untrained or lightly trained shooters (civilians and police) often having their alreaay-unimpressive accuracy to to dirt during stressful situations, to police trying to deescelate situations by getting close enough to speak to suspects, to some of those civilian-on-civilian incidents being preceded by verbal arguments.

To a certain extent, this happens in virtually every science-fiction show featuring futuristic vehicles or starships. Rule of thumb: if you can see the enemy ship, you're close enough to be instantly vaporized. Because 1 km was not far even for WWII artillery and it's point-blank range for [[SpaceBasedWeaponHasCutoffRange space weapons]]: to be useful even in ICBM interception, let alone defense from spaceships, they must be effective at least up to 100–1,000 km. Of course, that doesn't make for particularly entertaining viewing, which is why we have nice things like DeflectorShields.

Commonly shows up when using a [[ShortRangeShotgun shotgun]] or a [[NonFatalExplosions hand grenade]]. May result in a NoScope kill with a SniperRifle. Contrast SniperPistol, where the weapon has range far better than what it's supposed to have in RealLife, and ArbitraryMinimumRange. And don't confuse with NoRangeLikePointBlankRange, where getting up close and personal with a long range weapon is a conscious effort.

** Many weapons can now be used to hit targets way beyond throwing distance, but enemies still don't go out of their way to keep the distance in between the player and them. Some will switch to more appropriate weapons as they or the player gets close, but many will cheerfully keep using laser and sniper rifles at spitting distance. However, most weapons are rather ridiculous in terms of how much the shots spread from the point you're aiming at, keeping this trope in effect to an extent. [[JustifiedTrope Though it probably has been a while since when those weapons were made]]. However, this is even worse than you think: many weapons, the sniper rifle included, actually have an ArbitraryMaximumRange, and will deprive you of your perfectly-placed BoomHeadshot to punish you for foolishly trying to use a sniper rifle to hit someone from long range by having your bullet inexplicably disappear from the game. Worse still, the sniper rifle actually has a shorter range than an ''ad-hoc crossbow'' made at your tool bench out of a paint gun, a toy car, some medical tubing, and radscorpion venom; the best long-range weapon in the game is a lever-action rifle ''with iron sights'', because it does a lot of damage and has a spread of 0.

** In the Battle of Coruscant in ''Film/StarWarsRevengeOfTheSith'', the Separatist dreadnought ''The Invisible Hand'' and the Republic Star Destroyer ''Guarlara'' engage each other with artillery pieces [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/b/bf/Naval_style.png/revision/latest?cb=20130211071132 at a range that calls to mind 17th Century naval broadsides.]]

[[caption-width-right:350: Only a complete '''lunatic''' would use a bazooka that close to the targ— [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker oh, yeah. Right]].]]

* Firearms in ''VideoGame/SymphonyOfWar'' can only be used against adjacent enemy units, making them essentially indistinguishable from melee weapons in the game. Even longer range weapons such as bows can only be used against an enemy one tile away (except when the range is extended by terrain or structural factors). The tier 3 upgrade of archers does extend their range to two tiles away though

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. Though many characters own sniper rifles, they rarely use them for long range combat, preferring to just use their scopes as makeshift telescopes. Donut once asked Sarge why they never just shoot the enemy if they can get them in the rifle's sights, to which Sarge responded that that was the coward's way out. As for the blue team, Caboose is too dumb to use one properly, Tucker didn't have one for most of the series and Church? [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy Well...]] Lopez {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this in the third episode of the ''Where There's a Will, There's a Wall'' miniseries.

* ''VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany 2'' treats its sniper rifles much the same way as every other gun in the games - that is, the default sniper scope doesn't ''have'' to be attached to it. You can go for a red dot sight and use it just like you would a battle rifle. Games starting from ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield 3}}'' even allow you to forego an optic entirely and use the regular ironsights.
** ''Bad Company 2'' goes to the other extreme in one instance during its campaign - a section where you are to defend yourself in a wooden shack from enemies who start out only fifteen to twenty meters away is seen as adequate justification to hand you the biggest bolt-action sniper rifle (with attendant slowest bolt-cycling animations) in the game, thus making the section [[ThatOneLevel far, far more difficult than it needs to be]] until you can get your hands on an assault rifle again.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', offensive spells has a maximum range after which they stop doing damage. If you throw a firebolt at a deer standing too far away, the shot will just pass right through, then possibly cause a harmless burst of flame if it hits the ground or a stationary object. For some reason, the target still reacts as though it was attacked (said deer will run off, a bandit will attack you back).

* One of Joker's finishing moves in ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' involves shooting his opponent at point blank range both with a big gun and a ''bazooka''.
** Aside from Joker, any character with ranged weaponry will inevitably play this straight, as the characters are rarely more than fifteen feet away from each other. Notable examples include Deathstroke and Comicbook/GreenArrow shooting opponents right a few feet away with a sniper rifle and a bow, Lobo firing an absurdly ShortRangeShotgun that has only a little more range than his melee attacks, and Lex Luthor using ''[[DeathFromAbove an orbital laser]]'' to blast an enemy right next to him.

* This is a standard trope for soldiers in many monster movies. All gunfire is done at close enough range for the monster to use his claws and fangs. Tanks, artillery, ships, and aircraft use their weaponry, capable of striking targets from miles away, close enough to the monster to get grabbed by his paws or jaws or melted by his radioactive flame breath. ''Film/KingKong'' and ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' are the ur-examples of the trope.

** The original ''Film/KingKong1933'' manages to avoid this fairly well. A few planes are downed, yes, but they get him. And a lot of the firepower directed at Godzilla in his debut was from far away. It's just impossible to kill the bastard.

* ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'': Apparently the best way to attack a group of trained mercenaries armed with automatic weapons and backed by what are essentially tanks is for the Gotham Police to group up in a large blob, Foley to lead the charge from only ONE direction, and charge into hand-to-hand combat - ''double straight'' in that Bane's mercenaries shoot for a second, cause FAR less casualties than they should have, and then charge into hand-to-hand themselves. Although Batman did take care of the tanks, Bane's mercenaries should have taken out the police with the amount of firepower they had (and automatic weapons are NOT close combat weapons).

* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' played with this trope with the DeflectorShields in common use for the military: they deflect long-range ordnance and energy weapons cause them to have a CriticalExistenceFailure in the form of a nuclear-scale explosion. Therefore, the only reliable weaponry that can be used in soldier-to-soldier combat are things that can move slowly enough to pass through them which requires being very up close and personal with your foe. However, on Arrakis, DeflectorShields can't be used, since they attract {{Sand Worm}}s, so guns become useful again. In fact, when attacking the Atreides in the first novel, Baron Harkonnen brings back old-fashioned artillery, since the Atreides can't use shields to block the exploding rounds.
* In the ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel ''The Armour of Contempt'', being able to connect with a "tread fether" anti-tank missile at 300 meters is considered great. Problem is, even back in 'Nam the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPG-7 RPG-7]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M72_LAW LAW]] were good up to 200 meters. In contrast, 1990s technology like the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGM-148_Javelin Javelin]] is good up to 2500 and guided to boot. Unless the Guard has regressed to 'Nam levels of technology, less than 300 meters is awful. Considering the [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 setting]], however, that explanation is entirely plausible.

* The ''Franchise/FarCry'' games have a maximum range at which you can damage enemies. It's usually not that apparent, as most of the time you're in heavily-forested areas and will only be able to attack from close range even if you sneak around and take them by surprise, but when you get out of that forest and into a clear area, like the deserts of ''VideoGame/FarCry2'' or the much-clearer second island of ''VideoGame/FarCry3'', it can be a real eye-opener when you try to fire a sniper rifle at someone from atop a nearby hill and accomplish nothing. The third game also has the recurve bow, which obviously has a shorter range than the various guns and requires you to compensate for gravity affecting your fired arrows; there's even an achievement for managing to kill someone from a hundred meters away, really only possible with some combination of a marksman sight, a stationary enemy, and/or a lot of luck.

* ''VideoGame/MutantYearZeroRoadToEden:'' Shotguns have a base range of 8 tiles. Assault rifles have a base range of 10 tiles. Grenades have a base range of 10 tiles (yes, further than a shotgun). One tile is about six feet or two meters.

** ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' features an actual justified case of this, where Lando orders the rebel fleet to engage the Imperial fleet at extremely close range. This is due to the Death Star being present at the battle--if the fleet is bunched up next to their enemies, then the Death Star can't shoot without risking friendly fire.

* The final battle in ''Film/{{RED}}'' counts, because although not at such close range as some of the other mentions, the range it actually happened at is below (or on the borderline of) the arming range of an RPG-7.

** Partially explained in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', through liberal application of AppliedPhlebotinum that screws with long-range sensors and targeting. The creator realized that futuristic space combat would most likely NOT involve giant robots and sword fights, so he came up with the [[MinovskyPhysics Minovsky Particle]] - when spread out over an area, the aforementioned particles destroy unshielded circuitry (making guided missiles useless) and refract all beams and signals pointed through it (so no lasers, guidance beams, or sensors.) Thus the [[HumongousMecha Mobile Suit]], which is big enough to carry electronic shielding and tough enough to take on the enemy at close range where sensors are unnecessary, becomes the most effective weapons platform. Though they tend to be armed with all sorts of powerful gun-type weaponry (one episode of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam'' featured a long-range shootout between two Mobile Suits ten kilometers away), they are primarily designed to fight things they are close enough to see, thus invoking this trope.

* Averted in ''Film/CadillacMan'' where Larry takes Joey O'Brien prisoner in a hostage stand-off. Joey complains about the rifle being shoved into his neck: "It'a a gun, Larry. Bullets come out of the end."[[/folder]]

* ''Film/{{Ultraviolet}}'' has some of the most blatant uses of this trope, ever. When entering the stronghold at the end of the film, Violet kills dozens of {{Mooks}} with assault rifles in the reception area. The next area is a room filled with soldiers with swords. She kills them too. Then a room of guys with more [=ARs=], which have her in a perfect crossfire. They even have ''cover''. Violet kills them too. Walks across a bridge, then reaches the final room before her objective, which is shaped like a tube. One entrance, one exit. The soldiers near the entrance are the ones armed with swords, while the ones in the rear have the rifles. You'd think they'd have the sword guys in the back where they wouldn't block their allies' fire, or even ''pick her off with sniper fire'' while she was crossing the ''long, exposed bridge''.

[[caption-width-right:350: Only a complete '''lunatic''' would use a bazooka that close to the targ— [[ComicBook/TheJoker oh, yeah. Right]].]]

* In the ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel ''The Armour of Contempt'', being able to connect with a "tread fether" anti-tank missile at 300 metres is considered great. Problem is, even back in 'Nam the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPG-7 RPG-7]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M72_LAW LAW]] were good up to 200 meters. In contrast, 1990s technology like the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGM-148_Javelin Javelin]] is good up to 2500 and guided to boot. Unless the Guard has regressed to 'Nam levels of technology, less than 300 metres is awful. Considering the [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 setting]], however, that explanation is entirely plausible.

** Fairly averted in ''{{TableTopGame/Infinity}}''. A standard Combi Rifle has a maximum range of 48 inches on the tabletop. This (extremely roughly) equates to 85 meters, or 280 feet. What this means is that in most games of Infinity, your basic models can and ''will'' be able to shoot clean from one side of a table to another. Additionally, Infinity is a game based around close-quarter warfare, and the flavor information on the above mention Combi Rifles being specifically optimised for "extra precision at short and medium distance". This also means that the 96" maximum range of a sniper rifle or other long-range weapon, plus the ability to react in your opponent's turn, requires ''a lot'' of terrain to permit the game to not end in a hail of bullets on turn 2.

** Also strangely inverted as well, as the standard hunting rifle, one of the more effective long range weapons (slightly less than the sniper rifle's range) lacks iron sights entirely. This would make the weapon near impossible to aim at anything further than very close range in real life. The hunting rifle model was given proper iron sights in ''New Vegas'', which was required as that game introduced the ability to actually look down them. However, the sights added to the hunting rifle – both the default iron sights and the optional scope – are unfortunately off-centre (almost all of the returning weapons from ''3'' have wonky or otherwise barely-usable sights because they weren't designed for actually using them, or modified to fit the game that lets you).

* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', the Archer class of Servant is supposed to specialize in long-range combat. But the Archer summoned in this particular Holy Grail War prefers to fight with [[DualWielding two shortswords]]. To be fair, though, these are special ''[[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks throwing]]'' swords with an explicit [[BoomerangComeback boomerang property]]. He can also fire tracking, exploding arrows at a machine gun-like rate of fire and velocity, but only does this a few times in the game. [[spoiler:The OTHER Archer, Gilgamesh, also fights up close, though to his defence Gates of Babylon is relatively short-ranged and Gilgamesh is the type of person who likes to see his enemies crumble at his feet]]. In practice the Servants' class names often only make sense when we see their [[LimitBreak ultimate attacks]]. The name "Archer" is something of a misnomer, however - "Archers" focus more on close combat, apparently being a justification for why they can dual wield.\\

* All ''Videogame/MechWarrior'' games. Long range missiles can hit about a kilometre away (don't even ask about short range ones), as can large lasers (apparently the concept of coherent light doesn't work too well in the [=BattleTech=] universe). Machine guns are limited to 200 metres, and in a bizarre violation of elementary ballistics heavy, large-caliber autocannons have drastically shorter ranges than low-caliber ones. Want a sniper weapon? Well, there's the Gauss rifle – a coil gun of impressive power and with very limited ammunition that, like autocannons, bizarrely becomes longer ranged the lighter it is, up to a whopping 1200m for the Light Gauss Rifle, and a pathetic ~600m for Heavy Gauss rifles.

** ''Mechwarrior Living Legends'' has the longest ranged weapons in the series with its dedicated artillery pieces – the [[DeathFromAbove Long Tom Artillery Piece]] has a roughly 1,600m range on flat ground (in standard gravity), and the Arrow IV cruise missiles cap out at 3,000m but can only achieve an independent target lock within 1,500m, requiring a TargetSpotter. Light autocannons can hit targets beyond 1,200m but they suffer from extreme damage dropoff past their indicated max range.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Majesty}}: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim'', heroes and monsters DO have decent ranges. A high-level Ranger can actually shoot farther than what you can see in a screen.(The Ranger will be outside the screen to the left, the target will be outside the screen to the right, you'll just be seeing a flying arrow.) However, when the enemy gets close enough to melee, heroes and monsters keep using ranged attacks or spells. They shoot enemies in the face while getting hit by swords. Units can hit, can run, but cannot do both at once. Once a unit decides he can't win the melee, he turns tail and runs off, never resuming combat unless something changes his mind (i.e. being healed, spell effects, etc). WordOfGod is that they put in hit and run at first, but it made ranged units just too strong, so they made them stupid instead.

* ''VideoGame/{{HAWX}}'' is slightly better than AC in this; for example, the [=MultiAA=] locks on at around 6,000 metres, which while still a third of the 18km max op range on the real-world Sidewinder, is a vast improvement over the AC range limit. That said, ''HAWX'' seems to take three times as long to lock onto irregularly-moving targets as ''Ace Combat'' does, so if the former's standard missiles have any longer range than the latter's, it'll be hard to notice in normal gameplay.

* In ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'', the standard assault rifle has a ''chainsaw bayonet''. [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality The issues with weight and fuel in real life don't appear in the game]] (though the protagonists are muscular and huge), as well as the probability of mucking up the rifle's barrel by getting blood and flesh in it, but as humanity's alien enemies, the Locust, have tough hides and favour swarm tactics, it just may be justified in-universe.

* ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland}}'' had its maximum range be about 30 to 40 metres. This was generally too far for any weapon, whether assault rifle or laser rifle.

* ''VideoGame/MutantYearZeroRoadToEden:'' Shotguns have a base range of 8 tiles. Assault rifles have a base range of 10 tiles. Grenades have a base range of 10 tiles (yes, further than a shotgun). One tile is about six feet or two metres.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Brawlhalla}}'', three weapons that typically would be used at long range (guns, cannons and bows) merely can be used to shoot at a pretty short distance. This is even refferenced in [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Xull's]] backstory.

* VideoGame/WargameRedDragon zigzags this trope. On the one hand, the weapons used by most land vehicles and infantry are realistically ranged. On the other hand, the ranges for aircraft, artillery, and shipboard weapons are painfully short compared to real life. This because the maps are sized to make a land battle both manageable and entertaining to watch close up, a few miles square at most. It would simply be harder to make the game entertaining if you could realistically rain naval gunshells on your opponent from 10 miles away. If you made the maps big enough to accommodate the actual ranges instead, the units would be unavoidably tiny.

* The ''VideoGame/FarCry'' games have a maximum range at which you can damage enemies. It's usually not that apparent, as most of the time you're in heavily-forested areas and will only be able to attack from close range even if you sneak around and take them by surprise, but when you get out of that forest and into a clear area, like the deserts of ''VideoGame/FarCry2'' or the much-clearer second island of ''VideoGame/FarCry3'', it can be a real eye-opener when you try to fire a sniper rifle at someone from atop a nearby hill and accomplish nothing. The third game also has the recurve bow, which obviously has a shorter range than the various guns and requires you to compensate for gravity affecting your fired arrows; there's even an achievement for managing to kill someone from a hundred meters away, really only possible with some combination of a marksman sight, a stationary enemy, and/or a lot of luck.

See also SeeTheWhitesOfTheirEyes, which is this trope for spaceships.