# Please help me identify this Russian Roulette movie/television scene. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2006, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208 "2006-01-09T20:22:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/1 "2006-01-09T20:22:33Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/2 "2006-01-09T20:28:59Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/3 "2006-01-09T20:31:51Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/4 "2006-01-09T20:36:28Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/5 "2006-01-09T21:33:52Z")
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: > [@RR](#): > > Okay, here’s the other details I remember. > > It isn’t an interrogation scene. > It happens in a house. > There are 2 men. > The one who ends up killing himself is the one who owns the gun. > It is loaded when they sit down with it. > The first man takes all 6 bullets out of the gun and lines them up on the table. > He then takes one and pretends to put it into the cylinder, but really ends up palming it. > Spins the cylinder, cocks the gun, puts it to his head, pulls trigger, nothing. > He chuckles some. > Then shows the man all 6 bullets on the table again. > He has another bullet, of the correct kind mind you, tucked into the rolled up sleeve of his long sleeved shirt. > He secretly loads this bullet into the cylinder, and rotates it so the other guy can’t see the bullet. > Hands it to him and says why don’t you try it? > You can see all 6 bullets are on the table. > > Other guys replies he would never do this type of thing etc. > Finally puts gun to head, pulls trigger, and blamo, blows his brains out. Any help? thwartme ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/6 "2006-01-09T21:51:37Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![AFAIKnow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@AFAIKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AFAIKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/7 "2006-01-09T22:07:16Z")
> [@thwartme](#): > > 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 _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. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/8 "2006-01-09T22:25:49Z")
“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. ---
**Author:** ![monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monster)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/9 "2006-01-09T22:32:09Z")
Could it be Training Day? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/10 "2006-01-09T22:34:38Z")
> [@monster](#): > > Could it be Training Day? The scene where Denzel and Ethan visit Scott Glenn and “persuade” him to exit this existence? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/11 "2006-01-09T22:48:23Z")
Wasn’t there a scene like this in the original _Lethal Weapon_? ---
**Author:** ![monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monster)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/12 "2006-01-09T22:51:30Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > The scene where Denzel and Ethan visit Scott Glenn and “persuade” him to exit this existence? That’s the one I’m thinking of. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-identify-this-russian-roulette-movie-television-scene/339208/13 "2006-01-09T23:00:07Z")
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!