History Main / BlastOut

* Double subverted in SavingPrivateRyan, during one scene an American soldier accidentally knocks down a wall by leaning on a log, only to reveal a squad of Germans on the other side, both the Americans and Germans scream and point weapons at each other, and right when the viewer thinks both sides will start firing...[[spoiler:''another'' American squad of soldiers, who are off screen, open fire and kill the Germans.]]
* In Peter Jackson's adaptation of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The Two Towers]]'', Saruman's forces reach Helm's Deep and there is a tense moment while the Uruk-hai pound their spears on the ground in unison. and the defenders of Rohan prepare to loose their arrows. Suddenly, one of the archers, an old man, loses his grip on his bowstring and lands an arrow in an Uruk-hai neck. After a moment of stunned silence, the battle begins, though contrary to this trope's usual context, there's no way in hell that legion of Uruk-hai would have allowed a peaceful solution.

* Double subverted in {{Saving Private Ryan}}, during one scene an American soldier accidentally knocks down a wall by leaning on a log, only to reveal a squad of Germans on the other side, both the Americans and Germans scream and point weapons at each other, and right when the viewer thinks both sides will start firing...[[spoiler: ''another'' American squad of soldiers, who are off screen, open fire and kill the Germans.]]

* How [[spoiler: John Marston]] meets his end in RedDeadRedemption.

* The grande finale of ''RanmaOneHalf'' has Soun Tendo attempting to force Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo to be married at last, having stolen a cure for Ranma's GenderBender curse that was sent to the dojo as a reward for Ranma's attempts to save Jusenkyo and intending to blackmail Ranma and possibly Akane into going along with the wedding. Ranma promptly tries and steal the cask of Nanniichuan back, his other fiancees show up and start slinging explosives around to prevent the wedding, and his father, Ryoga and Mousse all show up to try and take the Nanniichuan for themselves. How does it end? [[YankTheDogsChain The reception (both the party and the hall) has been blown to hell and back, and Happosai's drunk the Nanniichuan water.]] Nobody gets married, cured, or makes any serious attempt towards sorting out the LoveDodecahedron.
* In one episode of ''ProjectAKo'', the entire clientele of the alien warship-turned-restaurant turns out to be agents from different special intelligence agencies. This naturally results in a massive free-for-all brawl and shootout.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in an episode of ''BurnNotice'', when the VillainOfTheWeek is tricked by Michael and his friends into thinking that one of his henchmen is a traitor. This later results in a MexicanStandoff/argument between the villain, the "traitor", and some {{Mook}} who has no idea what the hell is going on. Sam, who is outside posing as a corrupt cop (long story), then fires his gun into the ground and then we hear a few off-screen shots, the villain begging for his life, and then [[CoupDeGrace one final shot.]] Michael even lampshades this when he says that arguments with guns drawn are not a good idea since everyone is tense and ''anything'' could set it off.

* In one Allied mission in ''SilentStorm'', your team arrives to investigate a group of Allied soldiers suspected of being Nazi spies. However, they all think ''you'' are the spies. Everyone is cramped in a small room with guns loaded (and submachineguns are deadly at close range). This is a turn-based game, though, and you get the first turn. Otherwise, the game may have been over then.

* One of the best examples of this in ''SurvivalOfTheFittest'' is the MexicanStandoff between David Jackson, Jacob Starr, and Peri Barclay. To cut a long story short, Jacob snaps and starts shooting and a large fight ensues. Remarkably, very few people were injured.

* Parodied in the Huck Finn episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', a saloon undergoes a blast out when everyone pulls derringers out from a variety of hiding places, including from ''within the barrel of a larger gun'', and starts firng wildly... and they are revealed to be unable to even damage glass. "These derringers sure are weak, Tom." "Powerful weak." One bounces off someone's eyeball, not even causing them to blink.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' storyline "War Games", the gang kicked war kicked off when Stephanie Brown organised a metting of Gotham's gang bosses in an attempt to unite them under "Matches" Malone. When Matches did not show, the meeting grew increasingly tense. Then one of the bosses made the mistake of reaching into his jacket for his cigar case in a room full of nervous gang boses and their trigger happy bodyguards. A firefight quickly erupted.

* The grande finale of ''RanmaOneHalf'' has Soun Tendo attempting to force Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo to be married at last, having stolen a cure for Ranma's GenderBender curse that was sent to the dojo as a reward for Ranma's attempts to save Jusenkyo and intending to blackmail Ranma and possibly Akane into going along with the wedding. Ranma promptly abandons Akane at the altar to try and steal the cask of Nanniichuan back, his other fiancees show up and start slinging explosives around to prevent the wedding, and his father, Ryoga and Mousse all show up to try and take the Nanniichuan for themselves. How does it end? [[YankTheDogsChain The reception (both the party and the hall) has been blown to hell and back, and Happosai's drunk the Nanniichuan water.]] Nobody gets married, cured, or makes any serious attempt towards sorting out the LoveDodecahedron.

* Season 2, Episode 4 of ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' ends with either Clementine or Kenny shooting Rebecca, who had began to turn into a walker, which triggers the group of Russian survivors to start blasting away with assault rifles. Cue SmashToBlack.

[[folder" Comic Books]]

* DavidWeber's HellsGate series includes this. Two populations have been exploring the multiverse for decades without encountering anyone, so neither side is prepared when they both enter the same universe at the same time. Two scouts meet in the forest, we see the situation from both their perspectives - they're justifiably tense - and then the story cuts away so not even the reader knows what happens. Both end up dead, and a series of mistakes, bad decisions, and lack of communication sends things FromBadToWorse.

* One of the best examples of this in SurvivalOfTheFittest is the MexicanStandoff between David Jackson, Jacob Starr, and Peri Barclay. To cut a long story short, Jacob snaps and starts shooting and a large fight ensues. Remarkably, very few people were injured.

* In one episode of ProjectAKo, the entire clientele of the alien warship-turned-restaurant turns out to be agents from different special intelligence agencies. This naturally results in a massive free-for-all brawl and shootout.

* The climax of ''{{City On Fire}}'', a 1987 Hong Kong film that influenced ''Reservoir Dogs''.

* ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean: At World's End'', Jack pulls the trigger during a MexicanStandoff, but it [[SubvertedTrope turns out the powder in all their guns is wet, so none of them go off]].
* ''TrueRomance'' a bloody shootout occurs between TheMafia, the LAPD and two HiredGuns and the protagonists, all in the same room.
* The movie ''{{Tombstone}}'' portrays the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral as a [[MexicanStandoff tense standoff]] before a sly wink from Doc Holiday to Billy Clanton turns it into a full blown BlastOut.
* In the film version of ''ChildrenOfMen'', [[spoiler:the battle between the military and the rebels is cut short when the hero comes through, holding the first baby in nearly two decades, as everyone looks on in awe, not wanting to harm it and quite possibly starting to cool down in general. Not long after he's cleared the battlefield, though, someone fires their gun and the whole thing starts again. Then the carpet bombing starts, more or less rendering the exercise moot anyway.]]

* In ''LockStockAndTwoSmokingBarrels'', the gangs of Rory Breaker and Dog stumble upon each other with guns drawn, both expecting to find someone else. They start shooting anyway.

* One MexicanStandoff between four Mah Jhong players in Killer7 winds up with all four men pulling the triggers simultaneously and all dying at once.

* Parodied in the Huck Finn episode of the Simpsons, a saloon undergoes a blast out when everyone pulls derringers out from a variety of hiding places, including from ''within the barrel of a larger gun'', and starts firng wildly... and they are revealed to be unable to even damage glass. "These derringers sure are weak, Tom." "Powerful weak." One bounces off someone's eyeball, not even causing them to blink.

* In Peter Jackson's adaptation of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The Two Towers]]'', Saruman's forces reach Helm's Deep and there is a tense moment while the Uruk-hai pound their spears on the ground. and the defenders prepare to fire. Suddenly an old Rohirric archer loses his grip on his bowstring and lands an arrow in an Uruk-hai neck. After a moment of stunned silence, the battle begins, though contrary to this trope's usual context, there's no way in hell that legion of Uruk-hai would have allowed a peaceful solution.

* In Peter Jackson's adaptation of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The Two Towers]]'', Saruman's forces reach Helm's Deep and there is a tense moment while the Uruk-hai pound their spears on the ground. and the defenders prepare to fire. Suddenly an old Rohan man loses his grip on his string and lands one in an Uruk-hai neck. After a moment of stunned silence, the battle begins, though contrary to this trope's usual context, there's no way in hell that legion of Uruk-hai would have allowed a peaceful solution.

* The Battle of Lexington, where the question of "who fired the first shot" is a historical mystery. Whoever did fire the first shot, the "Shot Heard 'Round the World", it marked the beginning of what would become the American Revolution.

* The Battle of Lexington, where the question of "who fired the first shot" is a historical mystery. Whoever did fire the first shot, it sparked the whole damn American Revolutionary War.

* ''TrueRomance''.

-->--'''Castor Troy''', ''Film/FaceOff''

* The ending of ''{{Reservoir Dogs}}''. Mr Orange, Mr White, Nice Guy Eddie and Joe Cabot are pointing guns and yelling at each other and then it's over very quickly.
* ''InglouriousBasterds'':

* And again in ''DjangoUnchained''. Tarantino loves this trope.

* The ending of ''TheWildBunch''. A literal MexicanStandOff between The Bunch and The Mexican Army ends with everybody(women, children, livestock, etc.) getting killed in a hail of bullets, [[MoreDakka complete with a heavy machine gun blazing]].
* The end of the Will Smith movie ''EnemyOfTheState'', in which Will Smith hides under a table during a MexicanStandOff. It devolves into a BlastOut between the Mafia and the evil government agents, and nearly everybody dies.
* The movie ''Desperado'', where the main character gets into a BlastOut with an entire bar full of Mexican gangsters and somehow manages to survive. We never even ''see'' how he manages to survive a shoot-out with an entire casa full of goons!

* In {{Basic}}, this [[RashomonStyle occurs several times]]

--> '''Hicox''': "There's just one thing left to do."
--> '''Maj. Dieter Hellstrom''': "What's that?"
--> '''Hicox''': "Stiglitz?"
--> '''Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz''': "Say ''auf wiedersehen'' to your '''worthless''' Nazi balls!"

* In Peter Jackson's adaptation of ''[[{{TheLordOfTheRings}} The Two Towers]]'', Saruman's forces reach Helm's Deep and there is a tense moment while the Uruk-hai pound their spears on the ground. and the defenders prepare to fire. Suddenly an old Rohan man loses his grip on his string and lands one in an Uruk-hai neck. After a moment of stunned silence, the battle begins, though contrary to this trope's usual context, there's no way in hell that legion of Uruk-hai would have allowed a peaceful solution.