Times where characters are given minimal supplies to accomplish their goals with in Films.
Animated Films:
- Zootopia: Police Chief Bogo gives rookie cop Judy Hopps 48 hours to solve a missing person case, and gives her no leads, resources or help from her colleagues, with only her meter maid jacket and car. If she fails, she's fired. This is despite the rest of the police department making no progress on the case in two weeks. Nick Wilde calls the Chief out on this once he finds out, realizing the Chief was making a pretense to fire Judy.Nick: Look, you gave her a clown vest, and a three-wheeled joke-mobile, and two days to solve a case you guys haven't cracked in two weeks? Yeah. No wonder she needed to get help from a fox. None of you guys were gonna help her, were you?
Live-Action Films:
- A few of the weapons randomly distributed at the beginning of Battle Royale (for which the point is to be the last one alive on the island) include a pot lid, binoculars, a paper fan, a megaphone, and boxing gloves. Two end up useful, one ends up getting the owner killed, and the other two are used for one-off dark jokes.
- At the start of Enemy at the Gates, the protagonist is one of the unlucky ones handed bullets (and only bullets) instead of a rifle before facing an enemy onslaught. "The One with the rifle shoots! The one with the bullets follows him! When the one with the rifle gets shot, the one with the bullets picks up the rifle and shoots!" The man in front of him doesn't need his for very long though. Actually a reversal of the real situation in Stalingrad at the time, where there were weapons aplenty,note but not usually anywhere near enough ammunition for them.
- In Momentum hi-tech thief Alex is being pursued by assassins after a data drive in her possession. Hoping to tool up, she visits her contact Raymond at his loft safehouse. Unfortunately, he has no weapons except one shotgun (which he keeps for himself), and he's Hopeless with Tech so doesn't have a computer. The only assistance Raymond does offer is a landline telephone which Alex uses to contact her dead partner's wife. Then to make matters worse, the assassins raid the safehouse and use the phone's redial function to locate the wife, putting her in danger. So Alex finishes up completely empty-handed with a hostage to save.
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Trope Namer: King Arthur and Sir Bedevere are forced to go and find a shrubbery by the deadly Knights Who Say Ni — "Those who hear them seldom live to tell the tale!". After recovering a shrubbery from Roger the Shrubber, the Knights Who Until Very Recently Said Ni ask them to find another shrubbery, and challenge them to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest, wiiiiiiith... A Herring!note Arthur decides that this is silly and, upon learning that the word "it" hurts the Knights' ears, bypasses them entirely.
- Two of the characters facing down bloodthirsty aliens with future tech in Predators are armed with a scalpel and a prison shiv. This is actually justified, however, as everyone grabbed by the Predators comes equipped with the weaponry they are most familiar with. Whether or not that weaponry is practical for combating Predators. So when everyone else draws their guns (including a custom assault rifle, a sniper rifle, dual nickel-plated pistols, and even a freaking minigun, this one guy looks down at his shiv and laments at length the fact that he has no gun.
- Similarly played for laughs in Shaun of the Dead, where the protagonists take on zombies with cricket bats, tennis racquets, pool cues, patio furniture, and - for no real reason other than Rule of Funny - some of the hero's record collection. "The Batman soundtrack?" "Throw it."
- In Sword Of The Valiant, Sir Gawain was recently knighted by King Arthur to face The Green Knight, who gives him a year before he will return to cut off Gawain's head (long story). King Arthur give Gawain his personal, shiny silver armor (after taking the gold crown off) to wear on his quest. Unfortunately for Gawain, it was shiny because it was Artie's "dress armor" and about as thin as aluminium foil. Gawain only finds this out when his first adversary crushes one of the gauntlets like paper.
- The World's End is about 5 friends taking on an alien invasion and trying to save humanity, while completely drunk and with no idea what's going on.
