Please help me identify this Russian Roulette movie/television scene.

Cafe Society
1

My friend and I both recall watching a scene that goes as follows.

Somebody wants information from someone else. They take a gun, load up a single bullet, and threaten to play Russian Roulette on the victim until either he talks or the gun goes off. What the victim can’t see is that the questioner has actually tilted the gun in such a way that the bullet slides right out of the cylinder, and the gun is actually unloaded.

We think this is fairly recent (within the last year), and probably more likely TV than film.

Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

Thanks,
thwartme

2

It’s very familiar but not enough so that I can give the movie title or the actor doing the “interrogating.” I’m going to suggest it was somebody like Mel Gibson, Mark Ruffalo, Val Kilmer, maybe even Travolta. Police procedural or military situation. Definitely recent, within the past 5 years or less. Sorry to be of such meager help.

3

It was parodized in Starsky and Hutch - the catch being that the bullet slipped back into the gun, unbeknowst to the interrogator, but the interrogatee saw what happened and kept trying to explain.

4

I have yet to see S&H so even if it’s in there as a parody, there’s still a recent “for real” version to be identified. I seem to think maybe Samuel L. Jackson may be involved.

5

Thank you, CandidGamera , Starsky and Hutch is what I was thinking of.

Unfortunately, it turns out that it’s not the one that my friend is trying to remember. He provides a few more details:

Any help?

thwartme

6

I’m still not 100% sure of what’s sticking in my memory, but doesn’t L.A.Confidential feature Russell Crowe getting tough in an interrogation with a gun with supposedly one bullet in the cylinder? That’s a bit older than “recent” but that may be what I’m trying to reconstruct.

BTW, the scene you descibe, thwartme, doesn’t ring any bells for me.

7

187 with Samuel L. Jackson had a similar scene, however it has been a while since i’ve watched it I don’t really recall the bullet swap thing.

8

“Malcolm X” had a scene like this, and although Shorty later asks Malcolm if he palmed the bullet we never actually see the bullet being palmed. And it wasn’t an interrogation scene, but rather “I’m a bad-ass crazy mutherfucker” scene.

9

Could it be Training Day?

10

The scene where Denzel and Ethan visit Scott Glenn and “persuade” him to exit this existence?

11

Wasn’t there a scene like this in the original Lethal Weapon?

12

That’s the one I’m thinking of.

13

I tried an IMDB plot search for “Russian Roulette” and didn’t get much help. The ones listed were (except for a couple) things I haven’t seen. There must be dozens of movies with some variation of what we’ve been grasping at. I keep seeing an interrogation situation, a room with several authority figures, a “rogue” who needs answers from the guy in a hurry, a gun shoved into the guy’s mouth or up his nose, several empty chambers clicked, the guy pissing himself and eventually giving up the needed data.

Of course, the unltimate RR scene is in The Deer Hunter but this is definitely more recent than that. I have this vague sensation that some TV series like The Shield or 24 might include a similar scene. I don’t think The Sopranos offers much hope.

That’s about all I can add at this point. Damned intriguing query!