History Main / ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy

** Somewhat less justified in ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', when four main characters go up against an entire squad of Klingon warriors. The Klingons don't get a single hit in. At most, they might have managed to kill the two {{Red Shirt}}s that accompanied Kirk's team, but [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse even that isn't clear]]. They fare a little better when they switch to melee weapons, but that doesn't stop Khan from [[OneManArmy slaughtering them all singlehandedly]].

This trope involves a degree of TruthInTelevision, in that by far most shots fired in firefights or combat are misses. Some sources report that in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the average soldier needed to fire two hundred rounds for every hit scored on an enemy. So the fictional bad guys don't necessarily actually suffer from unrealistic inaccuracy; rather, the heroes' fictional performance would probably count as ImprobableAimingSkills in real life. To make matters worse, though, most fictional bad guys exhibit lousy trigger discipline, always firing from the hip and in long bursts, even when firing at a lone target that sometimes isn't even shooting back, instead of looking down the sights and ''aiming''.

* 'Series/MrAndMrsSmith2024'': In the finale, John and Jane tear up the house with bullets but neither is able to land a shot on the other. [[spoiler:Subverted — under the influence of truth serum, they admit that neither really wanted to kill the other, and so were missing on purpose.]]

* '"Series/MrAndMrsSmith2024'': In the finale, John and Jane tear up the house with bullets but neither is able to land a shot on the other. [[spoiler:Subverted — under the influence of truth serum, they admit that neither really wanted to kill the other, and so were missing on purpose.]]

'''Dalek Cheese and Wine:''' YOU COULDN'T HIT A COW'S ARSE WITH A BANJO!\\
'''Dalek Darius:''' IF YOU FELL OVER, YOU'D MISS THE FLOOR!\\
'''Dalekky Bill is How Much This Month?!:''' [BrutalHonesty YOU DON'T AIM GOOD.]]\\

'''Dalek Yurtle:''' WELL THAT LAST ONE WAS A LITTLE ROUGH, BUT I GET WHERE THEY'RE COMING FROM.

* The enemies in the Arnold Schwarzenegger AffectionateParody movie ''Film/TrueLies'' fit this trope perfectly. Even when using submachine guns at close range they cannot hit the hero, ([[ImprobableAimingSkills while the hero manages to take them out with a pistol]]). At one point, the guards jump through the air, on skis, ATeamFiring, and hit ''nothing''. Meanwhile, Arnold's character is able to roll backwards through the snow and fire perfectly aimed shots before hitting the ground. His wife fares even better, managing to kill a dozen enemies simply by dropping her [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns Mac 10]] down a staircase. There's also the part where Gib uses a ''light pole'' as cover while standing straight up, à la ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'', and the BigBad standing several feet away doesn't hit him, even though he empties a submachine gun magazine at him (though to be fair, he does hit the lamppost several times).

Obvious SubTrope of ATeamFiring. DodgeTheBullet is the inverse of this. For the bladed weapon variation, see NeverBringAKnifeToAFistFight. The flip side of ImprobableAimingSkills. The use of MoreDakka can either overcome this, or [[ATeamFiring make it even sillier]]. When the bullets don't just spray around the target, but consistently hit where the target was a moment ago, it's a case of HeroTrackingFailure. See also PlotArmor for the ''reason'' the bad guys are such [[OnlyAFleshWound lousy shots]]. When the enemies vastly outnumber the heroes, their incompetence is a symptom of ConservationOfNinjutsu. Compare PowerfulButInaccurate, when the inaccuracy is a property of the weapon rather than the wielder. See also AmusinglyAwfulAim.

* In ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest IV'' the Sequel Police Cyborgs are lethally accurate most of the time, but still suffer occasions of Stormtrooper Syndrome [[PlotInducedStupidity when the plot calls for it]].

* Justified in ''Series/{{Castle}}'', when Castle and Beckett test out antique flintlock pistols allegedly used as a murder weapon. They each take one, go out to the firing range, and miss. There's even a montage just showing dozens of impacts on the padded area behind the paper targets. The justification is that flintlock pistols were often inaccurate, and the ones used were worse than most. Not only that, the cop right next to Castle goes to help him after all Castle's shots kept messing with his own target practice. This goes from the cop giving Castle stable platforms to shoot from, to strapping a scope and a laser pointer on the pistol, taping it down zeroed on the center of the target, and pulling the trigger with a string. Still misses, with the only hit being to the target ''next'' to the one aimed for. [[spoiler:This is all used to prove that the weapon was highly unlikely to have been the murder weapon. In fact, the two guys specifically dueled with them in order to "satisfy their honor" without anyone actually being harmed. The real culprit is someone using a modern smoothbore weapon with an old-fashioned steel ball.]]

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!

This trope involves a degree of TruthInTelevision, in that by far most shots fired in firefights or combat are misses. Some sources report that in WWII, the average soldier needed to fire two hundred rounds for every hit scored on an enemy. So the fictional bad guys don't necessarily actually suffer from unrealistic inaccuracy; rather, the heroes' fictional performance would probably count as ImprobableAimingSkills in real life. To make matters worse, though, most fictional bad guys exhibit lousy trigger discipline, always firing from the hip and in long bursts, even when firing at a lone target that sometimes isn't even shooting back, instead of looking down the sights and ''aiming''.

Named for the obvious ''Franchise/StarWars'' reference, in which setting the mooks all seem to be visually impaired, though there is [[http://imgur.com/gallery/xgnot one explanation]] for their seeming ineptitude and [[https://youtu.be/P2TA9coGLzM?si=bbxRdIHUZ37kC3o6 analysis of their accuracy]] indicates they’re actually ''really'' good -- but for the Trope ''[[TropeNamers Namer]]'', see the Tabletop Games section below.

* The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' gives you a percentage chance (which is usually believable) to hit any specific limb of the enemy. Should you miss that limb, your shot will miss the enemy altogether. Two things make this worse: first, even if the enemy is ''shoving his head into the barrel of the gun'', your character still has that [[CriticalFailure 5% chance of missing]] (there is no guaranteed hit in VATS). Second: if you somehow (*cough*cheater*cough*) manage to have enough Action Points to have a long series of attacks, it still uses the exact probabilities given to you when you set up your shot sequence, even if the enemy has managed to ''get out from behind cover, walk right in front of the player, and done everything short of sticking his/her/its finger-analogue down the gun's barrel''. Want to hit that person right in front of you? Don't use VATS. Concentrated Fire gives your character a 5% higher to-hit chance for each consecutive time you target a limb in VATS. Without cheats, this can give your last shot a 71% chance to hit an enemy from 10 kilometres away.
** [[VideoGame/Fallout4 Averted in the sequel]]; the hilarious miss chance is meant to lull your enemies into a false sense of security while your ultimate charges. Said ultimate is a wall-hacking aimbot super-crit, as in, it '''never''' misses, laws of physics be damned. You can also ''store'' ultimate charges with the right perk and use them whenever you want.
* ''Anime/FateGrandOrder: The new Grand Assassin Tezcatlipoca is an Aztec god fascinated with modern guns, but he has horrible aim despite being so powerful. Only one of four bullets will hit the target, which forces him to continue his combo at close range, which is where he actually excels at.

* ''Film/{{Belly}}'': An [[FacelessGoons entire hitsquad]] of more than a [[RedshirtArmy dozen guys]] equipped with [[LaserSight laser sights]] failed to land a single shot on a drug kingpin they were trying to kill even when he is in the prone position with no cover and have him cornered.