History Main / ConvenientMisfire

* A scene in ''Film/SchindlersList'' in which a Nazi officer attempts to execute a Jew, but his pistol misfires. He calls over another soldier to execute the Jew, but ''his'' pistol misfires as well. They give up on the idea. Due to the nature of the story, this was probably based on a real incident.

* An episode of ''Series/Daredevil2015'' opens with a hitman attacking a mafioso in a bowling alley. As he raises the gun, the show cuts to the previous day, where the hitman is assured that the gun the arms dealer is selling him will never, ever, ''ever'' jam. Cut back to the hit-in-progress, and of course, the gun jams, turning the hit into a savage brawl.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' plays with this at the beginning of the climax [[spoiler: with Ron's wand of all things. Professor Lockhart tries to use Ron's wand to wipe Ron & Harry's memories, completely unaware that the wand is damaged. It backfires, and wipes his memories instead.]]

* The episode "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE7Harlequinade Harlequinade]]" of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' originally ended with one of these, where Harley Quinn has a machine gun pointed at the Joker (because she was pissed that he was willing to let their pets die in his latest scheme). Joker makes it clear that he doubts she has the guts to shoot him, but she does... only for a flag reading "RAT TAT TAT" to pop out, to her surprise. According to the commentary, originally there was simply going to be a click, but the flag was added to soften the blow.

* In ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'', Bob accuses Brian who is [=GMing=] of doing this to save BA's and Sarah's characters when Bob's character's gun misfires during a gunfight in a ''Cattlepunk'' game. Bob points out that the character's gun is a cheap revolver that's just been submerged in a horse trough.

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* In the ''Literature/{{Gate}}'' fanfic ''FanFic/HereWeGoAgain'', the titular tank engages the flame dragon and manages to wound it. The killing blow is averted when the tank encounters a bad shell and the crew has no time to remedy the issue before the dragon mounts their vehicle, damaging it as well as knocking the crew senseless. Luckily, [[BigDamnHeroes Itami's squad comes to their rescue in the nick of time]].

* President UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson survived an assassination attempt when ''both'' of the would-be assassin's pistols misfired. Interestingly, both pistols were examined and determined to be in working order. [[{{Website/Cracked}} Guess the bullets were just scared of Jackson]].

** It's also possible that the guns are fine, and the frequent jams are from poor-quality ammunition, not implausible since they probably bought both the weapons and ammo as black market surplus of unknown age or manufacture.

* While attempting to turn Tony Stark[=/=]IronMan in ''Film/TheAvengers'', Loki's spear fails to penetrate Tony's arc reactor.

You can also think of it this way: does this gunshot have the power to end the plotline? If yes, and if the plot isn't at its actual end, it's fairly likely that it won't go off [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle quite right.]]

Of course, when real guns jam or misfire, it's fairly easy to fix (depending on the gun and the era, of course.) That said, if it comes down to timing, a misfire or jam may make or break a gunfight. It's also much more common in period pieces, as modern weapons are much more reliable than, say, 19th century revolvers.

* ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}''. William Munny enters the saloon where Little Bill Daggett and his deputies are celebrating the death of Ned Logan. He confronts Little Bill and prepares to kill him for torturing Ned Logan to death. Watch it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccqdEhytKOk#t=2m25s here]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Mafia}}'': Sergio Morello is one lucky bastard. The third assassination attempt on him has the [[CoolGuns/SubmachineGuns Tommy Gun]] jam when Pailie tries to gun down the target in front of the Rainbow Garden Testaurant.

-->''Carbon fiber, .28 caliber. Made in China. If you want to kill a public servant, Mr. Maroni, I recommend you buy American.''
-->--'''Harvey Dent''', ''Film/TheDarkKnight''

* In ''LeTueur'', the killer's gun misfires right as he's about to kill himself with it. Of course, once he's fixed it, the suicidal urges have evidently passed.

* Author JTEdson disliked it when guns jammed or misfired for no reason in movies, so whenever it happened in his novels he would give a detailed explanation of what caused the gun to jam. That said, it still happened several times when it was convenient for his heroes. The short story ''Jubal Branch's Lucky B.A.R.'' was one example.

* In ''CSIMiami'', Speedle's nearly killed when his weapon jams from lack of cleaning. [[spoiler: He doesn't learn his lesson and gets Killed Off For Real when it jams again.]]
* In ''PrisonBreak'', a DefectorFromDecadence has his gun jam on him when he tries to blow his brains out. He tells his sister that the only other time that ever happened was in his army training. Ironically, his Drill Sergeant told him that if that ever happened for real, he'd be dead.

* The episode "Harlequinade" of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' originally ended with one of these, where Harley Quinn has a machine gun pointed at the Joker (because she was pissed that he was willing to let their pets die in his latest scheme). Joker makes it clear that he doubts she has the guts to shoot him, but she does... only for a flag reading "RAT TAT TAT" to pop out, to her surprise. According to the commentary, originally there was simply going to be a click, but the flag was added to soften the blow.

* President AndrewJackson survived an assassination attempt when ''both'' of the would-be assassin's pistols misfired. Interestingly, both pistols were examined and determined to be in working order. [[{{Website/Cracked}} Guess the bullets were just scared of Jackson]].

* Aversion: in ''TheWayOfTheGun'', Longbaugh's shot gun jams in the middle of the shootout. Instead of editing around it Benecio del Toro clears the jam and keeps firing.

* During the MexicanStandoff in ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End]]'', it turns out that none of the guns work because they all got wet, thus conveniently avoiding having to kill off four main characters at once.

* Averted in ''GetShorty''. Ronnie is not intimidated when Bones points a gun at him because he states the model is notorious for always jamming at the wrong times. Bones promptly shoots him four times rapidly.

* A scene in ''SchindlersList'' in which a Nazi officer attempts to execute a Jew, but his pistol misfires. He calls over another soldier to execute the Jew, but ''his'' pistol misfires as well. They give up on the idea. Due to the nature of the story, this was probably based on a real incident.

* ''Operation Daybreak''. An SOE assassin steps out in front of the car carrying Reinhard Heydrich and pulls the trigger on his Sten submachine gun, only for it to jam. This scene was TruthInTelevision; Heydrich would have survived if his driver had sped off, but instead the driver pursued the gunman who'd [[RunOrDie thrown down the Sten and fled]], leaving Heydrich to be fatally wounded by a bomb thrown by a second SOE agent. Apparently the jam was caused by the weapon being packed in straw, which got into the weapon (not that the Sten gun was particularly reliable anyway).
* ''The Sicilian''. A carabinieri corporal draws a hidden gun and tries to shoot Salvatore Guiliano, but it misfires. Guiliano then ejects the faulty cartridge and fires the pistol into the roof. This is regarded as a miracle by his followers, and the corporal joins his band. This becomes DramaticIrony when Guiliano tries to assassinate [[BigBad boss-of-bosses]] [[TheMafia Don Croce Malo]], only for his pistol to misfire too.

May overlap with ReliabyUnreliableGuns. Similar to MyCarHatesMe.

May overlap with ShurFineGuns. Similar to MyCarHatesMe.