# Movies in which someone is shot after a gun is pointed at them **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 24, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649 "2009-03-24T21:46:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/1 "2009-03-24T21:46:27Z")
It sometimes seems to me the safest place to be in a movie is being alone with another person and having a gun pointed at you. Usually, there will be some sort of dialogue and exposition but I don’t seem to recall many instances in which the scene ends up with the person being shot. Sure, people are shot a lot when they’re surprised by a gun or a shot comes out completely from left field but not when they know a gun is being pointed at them. Can anyone think of any counter-examples? ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/2 "2009-03-24T21:48:40Z")
There’s a Mexican standoff in Reservoir Dogs that ends with all three parties being shot and eventually dying. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/3 "2009-03-24T21:55:32Z")
Wasn’t a movie, but the Ivan episode of Magnum PI featured that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/4 "2009-03-24T22:22:13Z")
Well, Colonel Strausser probably wishes he’d put down that phone (_Casablanca_). ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/5 "2009-03-24T22:32:44Z")
Payback has a pretty good scene where Mel Gibson is pointing a gun at some crime boss who looks fairly certain that he won’t get show. Until he does. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/6 "2009-03-24T22:35:26Z")
“American Gangster” uses the scenario you describe to great surprising effect. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/7 "2009-03-24T23:38:49Z")
Very few people are shot _without_ a gun being pointed at them, if that helps at all. edit: I suppose Paul Giamatti in _Shoot 'Em Up_ would qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/8 "2009-03-25T00:22:31Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Well, Colonel Strausser probably wishes he’d put down that phone (_Casablanca_). And I bet Skinny DuBois probably wishes he hadn’t decorated his saloon with the body of William Munny’s friend (_Unforgiven_). ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/9 "2009-03-25T00:24:49Z")
One of my favorite scenes in _Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang_ is when the habitual loser played by Robert Downey, Jr. is holding a gun on a hired killer whom he’s just seen murder a girl. Killer starts in with the, “You don’t have the guts to shoot a man,” speech, but doesn’t get more than a few words into it before Downey emptys the gun into him. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/10 "2009-03-25T01:27:45Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > One of my favorite scenes in _Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang_ is when the habitual loser played by Robert Downey, Jr. is holding a gun on a hired killer whom he’s just seen murder a girl. Killer starts in with the, “You don’t have the guts to shoot a man,” speech, but doesn’t get more than a few words into it before Downey emptys the gun into him. One of _my_ favourite scenes in that movie is the bad math Russian roulette, which also ends up with someone getting shot. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/11 "2009-03-25T01:38:21Z")
> [@Idlewild](#): > > One of _my_ favourite scenes in that movie is the bad math Russian roulette, which also ends up with someone getting shot. Perry: What did you just do? Harry: I just put in one bullet, didn’t I? Perry: You put a live round in that gun? Harry: Well yeah, there was like an eight percent chance. Perry: Eight? Who taught you math! Stranger ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/12 "2009-03-25T01:40:46Z")
Pulp Fiction counts, surely? The minor-league drug dealer shot by Jules. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/13 "2009-03-25T02:12:11Z")
**Batman** (the Tim Burton one) has several people shot after a gun is ostentatiously pointed at them, most notably Bruce wayne’s parents, and Bruce Wayne himself. **Serpico** begins with the titular Serpico getting shot (just as in real life) **Yellow** , the HBO movie with Kirk Douglas and his son Eric, where Eric is on the receiving end of a firing squad. And these are just cases where a major character gets shot after being at the barrel of the gun for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/14 "2009-03-25T02:14:42Z")
_In Bruges_, where Ralph Fiennes’ character shoots Brendan Gleeson’s character in the bell tower. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/15 "2009-03-25T02:25:44Z")
And how many times does one guy point a gun at another, and only sometime later does he rack the slide, revealing that there wasn’t a round in the chamber, and his victim could well have disarmed him? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/16 "2009-03-25T02:43:14Z")
I saw _Unforgiven_ last night: lots of people died after having guns pointed at them. \*Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it. \* ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/17 "2009-03-25T08:43:34Z")
Thelma & Louise. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/18 "2009-03-25T09:56:50Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Perry: What did you just do? > Harry: I just put in one bullet, didn’t I? > Perry: You put a live round in that gun? > Harry: Well yeah, there was like an eight percent chance. > Perry: Eight? Who taught you math! > > Stranger Thank you for reminding me of that. I need to see this movie again. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/19 "2009-03-25T12:45:20Z")
The start of **Casino Royale** “The second one is ea…” BANG! ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649/20 "2009-03-25T13:42:48Z")
Near the end of Saving Private Ryan. The cowardly American soldier who’s not fighting ends up having a small group of nazis surrender at gunpoint. The groups leader recognizes the American as the coward, smiles, and says something in german to the others, and “POW” the American shoots him dead. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-someone-is-shot-after-a-gun-is-pointed-at-them/490649.md?page=2)