Line #55 Main/GanglandDriveBy


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16	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/GangsterSquad https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gangster_squad_drive_by.jpg]]]]
17
18	->''Tell them motherfuckers 'bout this here Dark Side!\
19	Roll up on your planet, Death Star drive-by!''
20	-->-- '''Emperor Palpatine''', ''Star Wars Gangsta Rap II''
21
22	A character is shot by somebody in a moving vehicle, usually either a car or a motorcycle with an armed pillion passenger. The stereotypical example takes place in a "street-level" crime drama and involves somebody firing an assault rifle or submachine gun out of a kerb-crawling car full of GangBangers. It also shows up quite a bit in older gangster films, where it's probably carried out by TheMafia and/or bootleggers with tommy guns.
23
24	In fiction (and also unfortunately in real life), due to the challenges of firing a weapon out of a moving vehicle, the fact that the shooters tend to be twenty-year-olds with no firearm training, and their use of inaccurate machine pistols, this frequently involves ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy standards of accuracy, with bullets flying everywhere and innocent bystanders in grave danger of [[MurderByMistake dying as well as or instead of]] the intended target. On the positive side for the perpetrators, it means that the killers can easily make a quick getaway.
25
26	This can result in a MultipleGunshotDeath in the case of messier examples.
27
28	A form of HitAndRunTactics. See also CarChaseShootOut, VehicularAssault and HorseArcher.
29
30	----
31	!!Examples:
32
33	[[foldercontrol]]
34
35	[[folder:Comic Books]]
36	* ''ComicBook/ButtonMan'': Ugly John tries to kill Harry several times, at one point by driving up to him in a car and firing a machine gun at him in a city street.
37	* ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'': One of the inmates Frank kills in "The Cell" has a LongerThanLifeSentence because he had the brilliant idea to pull a drive-by shooting next to a kindergarten.
38	* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'':
39	** Happens to Barnaby in the album ''[[Recap/TintinTheSecretOfTheUnicorn The Secret of the Unicorn]]'' when he tried to betray [[spoiler: the Bird brothers]]. He is shot down on Tintin's doorstep, the latter barely avoiding it.
40	** It happens to Tintin himself in ''[[Recap/TintinTheBlueLotus The Blue Lotus]]'', but he was fortunately saved by a young man [[spoiler: working for the Sons of the Dragon]].
41	* This was how the character Sway in the ''ComicBook/XMen'' mini series Deadly Genesis lost her parents when they were in the wrong place at the wrong time when it occurred (her powers kicked in which saved her life from the bullets).
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
45	* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': One strip shows one of the cartoon figures partially erased, with a woman nearby saying, "My God, it could have been any of us!" The caption reads, "Drive-by erasings".
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
49	* ''Film/AnalyzeThis'': Surviving a drive-by (that kills his old friend) is what gives Paul Vitti the massive nervous breakdown that drives the main plot.
50	* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': In [[BadPresent 1985-A]], a truckload of gang members shoot up Strickland's house. Strickland responds with a shotgun.
51	-->'''Strickland:''' Eat lead, SLACKERS!
52	* ''Film/BloodBrothers2007'': One scene had Fung, the main character and his girlfriend Lulu nearly getting riddled by bullets from a vehicle full of rival mobsters. Worse of all is that leading the shooting is none other than Hu, the former blood brother of Fung who had performed a FaceHeelTurn.
53	* ''Film/BoyzNTheHood'' features several, but the most famous is the one that claims the life of Ricky.
54	* ''Film/{{Brannigan}}''. There's a hitman stalking Creator/JohnWayne's title character. While he's staking out Brannigan's hotel he mistakes Brannigan's partner for him, and starts driving down the street with the barrel of his Broomhandle Mauser sticking out the window. Brannigan happens to see this from his hotel room, smashes the window and opens fire. The hitman switches his Mauser to full-auto and fires back while driving off. Cut to Brannigan getting a roasting from DaChief of New Scotland Yard for turning the streets of London into a shooting gallery.
55	* In ''Film/BridgeOfSpies'', a gang drives by to shoot at the Donovan house for defending a Soviet spy.[[note]]In RealLife, however, the Donovans weren't actually home, unlike in the film, due to RuleOfDrama.[[/note]]
56	* Invoked for laughs by ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} in his [[Film/Deadpool2016 2016 movie]] when he farts on his blind roommate Al while saying "[[HashtagForLaughs #DriveBy]]".
57	* ''Film/BurningAmbition'' have an attempted gangland assasination halfway through, where the heroine (played by Creator/YukariOshima) [[HeroicSacrifice pushes her mob boss father out of the way]] from a car full of assassins. She gets pumped full of lead in her father's place.
58	* ''Film/FallingDown'': D-Fens gets into a scuffle with Hispanic gangsters when they try to rob him. They come back for revenge by performing a drive-by shooting on him. Unfortunately for them, [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy they're such poor shots]] that they injure several other people but miss him completely before crashing the car.
59	* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious2001'': Near the end, after the heist scene, the crew returns to Dominic's house but Tran and his cousin zip by on motorcycles, spraying bullets, [[spoiler:and killing Jesse]].
60	* In ''Film/{{Friday}}'', when Smokey fails to meet the deadline for his weed payment. His employer, Big Worm, sends some hit-men after Craig and him via a drive-by shooting. They actually managed to see it coming and hide, but later the car comes back around and catches them. The two are ''barely'' able to avoid being shot.
61	* In the Italian film ''Film/{{Gomorrah}}'', a haute couture tailor is secretly advising a Chinese garment factory that's competing with Camorra-controlled firms. He's smuggled to and from the factory in a car, but apparently this ruse is detected because it's ambushed in a drive-by motorcycle shooting.
62	* A group of German officers sitting outside a cafe are the victims of a drive-by carried out by the French Resistance in ''Film/TheGreatEscape''. An escaped British officer is spared because the cafe owner receives a warning telephone call a minute before.
63	* Some of the deaths shown in the DeathMontage that opens the 2008 Italian movie ''Il Divo'', notably those of General Carlo Chiesa and his wife.
64	* ''Film/MenaceIISociety'': [[spoiler:The main character]] is killed in a drive-by shooting at the end.
65	* In ''Film/MissMeadows'', it is eventually revealed that the source of Miss Meadows trauma was a wedding in which she was a flower girl where the entire bridal party, except her, was wiped out by a drive-by shooting, including [[spoiler:her mother]]. Why they were targeted isn't revealed (assuming this wasn't accidental).
66	* In ''Film/NewJackCity'' after a member of an Italian mob pretending to be a photographer mows down several people at a [=CMB=]-related wedding, Nino later executes the responsible member and numerous other mobsters this way as they are sitting at an outdoor café.
67	* ''Film/OctoberSky'': During a dispute between the mine and the miner's union, someone fires a shot at John while he's in the kitchen, followed by the sound of tires squealing as the shooter drives off.
68	* ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService''. After Tracy rescues Bond, he has her drive him to the nearest payphone so he can alert London about Blofeld's EvilPlan. Unfortunately, a carload of mooks led by Irma Blunt drives up and opens fire on him before he can make the call. [[spoiler:This foreshadows Blofeld and Irma attempting to kill Bond with a drive-by shooting at the end of the movie; this time Bond is in the car with Tracy (whom he'd just married) and the burst kills her instead.]]
69	* In ''Film/{{Peppermint}}'', Riley North's family is gunned down by thugs working for [[BigBad Diego Garcia]], who ordered the hit targeting her husband to be public as an example of what happens when you try to cross him.
70	* In ''Film/Revolver1973'', an oil company executive walking in the street, talking to his secretary, is murdered when a man rides up behind him on a motorbike and shoots him in the back.
71	* ''Film/{{Scanners}}'': As Cameron and a group of friendly 'Scanners' attempt to flee from Revok's hitmen in a van, they are attacked by another van filled with more gun-toting hitmen. The good guys' driver is killed in the process, causing them to crash into a record store.
72	* The ending of ''Film/ShanghaiGrand'' has Ding-lik (Creator/AndyLau) getting killed by surviving mooks loyal to his former friend, Man-Keung (Creator/LeslieCheung) pulling up in a car and firing pistols on him, mere minutes after he shot Man-Keung dead.
73	* ''Film/SilentNight2023'': A drive-by shooting between two gangs trying to kill each other ends up carelessly killing a young boy in the crossfire, and the rest of the movie is about the enraged father seeking vengeance on them.
74	* ''Film/TalesFromTheHood'': Several hit and run shootings appear in a montage about gang violence when Crazy K is being {{Mind Rape}}d.
75	* ''Film/{{Thunderheart}}''. Ray Levoi, the FBI-agent protagonist, is questioning a witness when men in vehicles shoot up her house. He pursues them only to find that they're not the radical American Indian group he's investigating, but vigilantes aiding the federal government.
76	* ''Film/TianDi'', another gangster film set in 1940s Shanghai starring Andy Lau, have the villain Paul Tai ordering a drive-by hit on Lau's protagonist. Though his mooks only succeeds in killing Lau's pregnant wife.
77	* ''Film/YearOfTheGun'' (1991). Creator/SharonStone plays a journalist who, in her introductory scene, has been tipped off about a Red Brigade assassination involving two masked men on a motorcycle doing a drive-by shooting with an Uzi. At one stage they're firing at her as well [[NervesOfSteel as she takes pictures]].
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Literature]]
81	* ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresBloodHarvest Blood Harvest]]'', set in Prohibition-era Chicago, has a variation. A passing car rolls down a window and sprays machine gun fire through the windows of a restaurant where a gang boss is eating. Nobody is killed, but that's part of the plan: the idea is to lure the boss and his men out onto the street where a second car can get them more easily.
82	[[/folder]]
83
84	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
85	* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': In "Muse of Fire", Oliver Queen's mother is [[MurphysBullet hit by a stray bullet]] aimed at a mafia boss by female vigilante ComicBook/{{Huntress}} who is firing from a motorcycle at the time. Hoping to guide Huntress away from her murderous ways, Oliver tries to show her TheStraightAndArrowPath but it backfires as this simply makes her a more efficient killer.
86	* ''Series/TheBlacklist'': At the end of the Season 9 episode "Andrew Kennison", the crooked PI who was involved in setting up [[spoiler: Elizabeth's murder]] at the end of the previous season is sprung from custody in the Post Office by his AmoralAttorney. As they exit the building, a motorcyclist drives by and guns them down [[HeKnowsTooMuch before Reddington can grab them and make them talk]].
87	* One takes place in ''Series/{{Engrenages}}'', when a man is gunned down in front of Pierre's house by a motorcycle pillion passenger, because of Pierre's flirtation with being a gangster-servicing AmoralAttorney. This leads Pierre to a moral crisis.
88	* ''Series/TheFBI'': "The Assassin" opens with a Filipino police lieutenant on his way to a DoomedAppointment with an FBIAgent at the American embassy being machine-gunned from a passing car as he crosses the street.
89	* ''Series/HaleAndPace'' featured a sketch parodying ''Series/SesameStreet'', called ''Reality Street'', where Norman counted off the number of friends they had as puppet characters showed up [[spoiler: Their friends were less talking bird and friendly furry monster, and more junkie and bikie]].
90	-->'''Norman''' It's Drive-by Shooter! Now we have five friends!
91	-->Norman goes down with the sound of automatic fire
92	-->'''Gareth''' [grinning] -''Four'' friends!
93	* ''Series/{{Hightown}}'':
94	** In the Season 3 opener a young black woman, Little Sal, is murdered by two {{tattooed\|crook}} WhiteGangbangers after they drive up acting like they just want information on buying drugs, then one guns her down with a headshot from the car (though after several misses). It turns out they come from a rival gang and murdered her in a fight over the local drug trade.
95	** Osito is shot a few episodes later by the same pair, although he's armed as well and so returns fire, killing one, but nonetheless gets gravely wounded.
96	* ''Series/HitlerTheRiseOfEvil''. ThePurge montage includes a drive-by shooting of a man getting his milk delivery, by an SS officer using a Bergmann submachine gun.
97	* In ''Series/KluenCheewit'', a motorcycle pair try an assassination attempt at a funeral.
98	* Happens to a priest in ''Series/{{Lucifer\|2016}}'' who was involved in a murder/drug case. The shooter missed him however [[spoiler: as he was was only trying to scare him, being the true drug dealer and a former protege of the priest]].
99	* Used to great effect in ''Series/TheMandalorian'' by IG-88 using a speeder bike. Unlike other examples the shooter in this case is an [[RobotsAreJustBetter extremely efficient droid assassin]] who lands every single shot taken exactly where it is intended without harming a single bystander in the process.
100	* In the ''Series/MidnightCaller'' episode "Take Back the Streets," an anti-drug protestor is gunned down by drug dealers from a van.
101	* ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'': Tig performs a drive-by shooting on Laroy (usually an ally of the Sons) in broad daylight while he's at a restaurant with his girlfriend because he--falsely--believed Laroy to be responsible for a previous hit on Clay. He misses Laroy and accidentally shoots the girlfriend instead, which both results in an immediate high-speed pursuit by an angry Laroy that Tig only survives with Jax's help, and later the girlfriend's father, a powerful drug kingpin, seeking revenge on both Tig and SAMCRO.
102	* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': "A Piece of the Action" has the crew on a planet who based their society on 1920's gangsters, complete with period weapons and vehicles. Minutes after the ''Enterprise'' lads beam down, a drive-by takes place right in front of them.
103	* In ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'', Sarah and a witness to suspicious events are fired on by a motorcycle pillion passenger with an assault rifle.
104	* Averted in ''Series/TopGear'' when our hosts try their Technical skills, e.g. shooting targets from the back of a moving pickup truck. They miss everything they aim at ([[RecklessGunUsage and hit a few things they shouldn't]]).
105	* ''Series/TheWire'':
106	** Subverted and subjected to a TakeThat in the fifth season. During one attack on a rival gang, one member of the Stanfield gang convinces [[TheBrute Snoop]] to do a drive by because of how cool it looked in ''Film/BoyzNTheHood'', ([[DoNotDoThisCoolThing obviously not having learned the intended message]]) and they promptly miss all the targets. Snoop manages to kill only a single target because she gets out of the car, carefully aims, and shoots one member of the fleeing gang.
107	** In season 3, a few members of Avon Barksdale's gang plot an ambush on a Stanfield corner involving a drive by, and to try to counter the loss of accuracy that is typical with drive bys, the guys in the car - Country, Bernard and Chipper - are only going to attack once Cutty and Slim Charles have struck the Stanfield gang and had them distracted. Gerard and Chipper, however, [[GloryHound are far too eager for glory]] and [[LeeroyJenkins decide to attack without waiting for the signal and to disregard all the tactics they had been told to use, including keeping their driver out of the line of fire]]. Unbeknownst to them, a lookout for the Stanfield gang spots them before they even try to pull it off, so the gang is armed and ready when their car goes by. The result is that Country and Chipper are killed, while Cutty, Slim Charles and Bernard barely make it out alive.
108	** Both Snoop and Chris each manage to pull off one successfully in the third season. Snoop's involves riding by Poot's corner on a motorcycle, stopping there, and then opening fire on Poot with a handgun before riding off, only succeeding in killing Rico, the Barksdale soldier accompanying Poot. Chris's is an episode later, when, suspecting that a woman named Devonne has seduced Marlo as a trap, he notices a suspicious car at the meeting place. Chris has his driver pull up alongside the other vehicle, at which point Chris puts a shotgun shell through the window, wounding Avon and killing a henchman named Tater, before driving off.
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Music]]
112	* Music/{{Gorillaz}}: The band's drummer, Russel Hobbs, was the sole survivor of such an incident, resulting in the ghosts of all his friends getting sucked into his head. Worst of all, it's all but stated outright that he saw the ''Grim Reaper'' in the back seat.
113	* [[Music/InsaneClownPosse Violent J]] is killed this way in [[Music/TheGreatMilenko "Just Like That"]]. On an album that puts so much emphasis on LaserGuidedKarma[=/=]PayEvilUntoEvil, it's [[KarmaHoudini never explained]] what happened to the shooter.
114	* MC Hawking, a {{Nerdcore}} rapper, professes a preference for this kind of shooting in the song "All My Shootings Be Drivebys". In this song, he avenges the murder of his friend Little Pookie at the hands of Massachusetts Institute of Technology goons by shooting down six of them while riding with his producer, Doomsday, an act that he calls "a Newtonian demonstration / Of a bullet, its mass, and its acceleration".
115	[[/folder]]
116
117	[[folder:Video Games]]
118	* ''VideoGame/EternalChampions'' features this as a stage fatality on the stage for Chicago Mobster Larcen Tyler. Surprisingly, it's actually one of the tamer fatalities the game has to offer.
119	* In the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' on, the player can dispatch opponents by firing their gun from their car, and in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'', CJ can recruit friendly gangsters to act as gunmen (who will haul themselves out of the car to grab on to the roof if they're on the wrong side). The lack of accuracy is replicated, as doing so requires [[SomeDexterityRequired holding a button to stick your gun out the window, then pressing the fire button, all while maintaining your speed and steering the car at the same time]]. While driving a motorcycle from ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'' on, you can fire the gun ''in front of you'' without holding an additional button, making for an easier experience. Also, one of CJ's many possible girlfriends, Denise might request going on a drive-by as a date activity, coming equipped with a Micro-SMG.
120	** Drive-by shooting becomes plot relevant in ''San Andreas'' when one such attack leads to the death of CJ's mother, setting the game's story in motion.
121	* While shooting while driving is a part of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', it isn't ever used in a gangland context as such; in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoOnline'', however, drive-by's are more plot relevant. In the Lamar Davis "Lowrider" mission series, Lamar tries to use [[FalseFlagOperation players disguised as Vagos and Ballas]] to ignite a MobWar between the two gangs. The "Contract" DLC introduces the pay phone hit missions, where Franklin tasks the player with eliminating targets with specific methods, one being using a Ballas gang car and a Micro SMG to kill a pop star.
122	* One of the earliest examples of this found in video games is featured in ''VideoGame/Quarantine1994''. The player can fire out the side windows of his hover-cab by using an Uzi to destroy vehicles and kill pedestrians on site; this is made available once you enter a Weapon King shop and have the money to buy it, which comes in the form of an upgrade of your cab's hood-mounted machine guns.
123	* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' also features drive-by shooting mechanics that are even more robust than GTA's. It's not only easier to shoot while driving in most Saint's Row titles, you also have some missions and diversions where you end up riding shotgun for someone else and defend them from attackers on the streets and in cars. You can also summon Homies to accompany you while you're driving around, in which case they'll automatically shoot at any hostile enemies they see.
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Western Animation]]
127	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "There's Something About Paulie", Peter tries to get mafia leader Big Fat Paulie to call off a hit on Lois, but as he does, he gets killed in a drive-by shooting [[OverlyLongGag that lasts for about 20 seconds]].
128	-->'''Peter:''' ''Aw, Geez!''...[[ComicallyMissingThePoint Are you okay?]]
129	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': When Jimmy and Timmy want to join the Crips, they accidentally cause the death of a group of Bloods when a tanker truck crashes into their building. The Bloods retaliate by performing a hit and run on Jimmy's house. The front porch and living room are sprayed with bullets, but no casualties as his parents had just gone out.
130	[[/folder]]
131
132	[[folder:Real Life]]
133	* Drug Queenpin Griselda Blanco preferred to have her enemies assassinated in drive-by shootings conducted with motorcycles. Blanco herself was killed in a drive-by...[[DeathByIrony conducted from a motorcycle]].
134	* This tactic was quite common in Chicago during the "Bear Wars" of the 1920s. Among others, Creator/KenBurns covered this in his documentary ''Prohibition'', including images of a bullet-riddled taxicab.
135	* Famously, both Music/TupacShakur and Music/TheNotoriousBIG, the biggest names (and rivals) in 1990s GangstaRap and leaders of its West Coast and East Coast camps (respectively), were killed in drive-by shootings. Tupac was killed in a drive-by in September 1996 on his way from a boxing match in Las Vegas. Biggie was killed in another drive-by just six months later while visiting Los Angeles in March 1997 on a promotional trip for his latest album. While nobody has conclusively proven who killed these great artists, their ties to actual street gangs have led some to finger those as the most likely culprits, or at least as the most likely triggermen.
136	* In 2000, Music/FiftyCent was infamously shot nine times via this tactic; fortunately, he survived and the shooting is what gave him is unique voice.
137	* As mentioned in a fictional depiction in the Film section, Italian anti-terrorist and anti-Mafia carabinieri commander General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was murdered along with his wife and bodyguard in 1982, by gunmen on motorbikes who shot up their car.
138	[[/folder]]

Context Main / GanglandDriveBy