History Main / ImprobableUseOfAWeapon

* In the final cutscene of ''UnrealTournamentIII'' [[spoiler: the protagonist kills the BigBad by clubbing her to death with a rocket launcher]].

* The [[AscendedExtra Bandana Dee]] in {{Kirby}} [[KirbyReturnsToDreamland Returns to Dreamland]] [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning twirls his spear like a helicopter to fly.]]

Compare ImprobableWeaponUser for when something that clearly isn't a weapon is used as one. See also: ImplausibleFencingPowers, ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks, ThrowingYourShieldAlwaysWorks, BulletholeDoor, GangstaStyle, SliceAndDiceSwordsmanship. Not to be confused with the novel ''[[TheCulture/UseOfWeapons Use of Weapons]]''.

* The [[DrunkenMaster Demoman]] from ''TeamFortress2'' uses a potato masher as a weapon. Not the kind that[[ExpospeakGag delivers massive crushing force on a certain south american vegetable]], but the World War two grenade that was basically an explosive on the end of a stick. It's classified as his melee weapon

* The [[DrunkenMaster Demoman]] from ''TeamFortress2'' uses a potato masher as a weapon. Not the kind [[ExpospeakGag delivers massive crushing force on a certain south american vegetable]], but the World War two grenade that was basically an explosive on the end of a stick. As a ''melee'' weapon (the first time it's used it explodes, damaging him and his target, after that it does less damage than the default bottle weapon).

* The [[DrunkenMaster Demoman]] from ''TeamFortress2'' uses a potato masher as a weapon. Not the one kind [[ExpospeakGag delivers massive crushing force on a certain south american vegetable]], but the World War two grenade that was basically an explosive on the end of a stick. As a ''melee'' weapon (the first time it's used it explodes, damaging him and his target, after that it does less damage than the default bottle weapon).

* The [[DrunkenMaster Demoman]] from ''TeamFortress2'' uses a potato masher as a weapon. Not [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_masher this]] kind, but [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_24_grenade this one]]. As a ''melee'' weapon (the first time it's used it explodes, damaging him and his target, after that it does less damage than the default bottle weapon).

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Soul-eater-death-the-kid-armas_2119.png
[[caption-width:250:[[TwoStupidDogs Well, isn't that badass... but it's WRONG!]]]]

* The [[AscendedExtra Bandana Dee]] in {{Kirby}} [[KirbyWii Wii]] [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning twirls his spear like a helicopter to fly.]]

* The Imfamous curving bullets from ''{{Wanted}}''.

* The Imfamous curving bullets from ''Film/{{Wanted}}''.

* The Imfamous curving bullets from Wanted

* Mightily Oates' axe in ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'' fits vaguely into the second type, normally it wouldn't do overmuch to a vampire, but then he blesses it.

* While it's possible to swing the blade of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusari-gama kusari-gama]] by the chain (Wikipedia calls this the "Houten Ryu style"), doing so has a tendency not to work very well, and the chain is just used for swings aroud the weight. Except in fiction, which by {{Rule Of Cool}} almost always has it used like that. Also tends to occur with [[SliceAndDiceSwordsmanship specialized swords like sabers and rapiers]]. Oh, and see {{Throwing Your Sword Always Works}}.
** It helps that, unlike real ones, most fictional kusari-gama have fairly short handles, or blades that are attached to the chain instead of the handle.

* Death The Kid in ''SoulEater'' holds [[GunsAkimbo Liz and Patty]] upside down and pulls their triggers with his pinkies. This might be because he uses them something like tonfa in close combat (so holding them the way he does would give him more torque) but that just [[JustifiedTrope justifies]] one example with another.

** Yeah, he's literally holding the gun upside. Granted, it's a tiny gun. After figuring out that it actually fires something, he still holds it upside, pulling the trigger with his pinkie.

* In ''TheMummy Returns'', they have flashback sequences to ancient Egypt, where two female characters duel with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_(weapon) dual sai]]. Not only did the sai originate as a weapon in around the seventeenth century AD in East Asia instead of 2000 BC Egypt, but sai were typically blunt truncheon-type weapons mostly used for blocking and breaking swords instead of sharp knife-type weapons. This is not the only show where sai are used incorrectly, of course, but it is possibly the most {{egregious}}.
** Actually, sai are very much OlderThanTheyThink, with some examples that do indeed date back to ancient Egypt. The Egyptian sai had a slightly different design (including a sharpened central blade/tine), and the weapon had pretty much disappeared by the rise of the Roman empire, so archaeologists' best guess is it's an example of convergent design. That's not to say the technique in the duelling scene is accurate, mind you.
** And honestly, [[{{Fanservice}} who was looking at the sais in that duel]]?

** 170 pounds is actually quite close to the average weight of a relatively skinny adult so it isn't really impractical as humans can easily lift their own body weight, so Ventura shouldn't have problems with carrying it.
* In ''{{Terminator}} 2: Judgment Day'', the T-800 uses the same GE M134 Minigun. The Terminator's use of it can be handwaved by being a super-strong cyborg, though one wonders why Sarah Conner kept a helicopter's weapon in her arsenal to begin with.
** [[CrazyPrepared Just in case.]] If you want realism, she might've planned to mount it onto a jeep or something. She was expecting ''death robots from the future'' after all. What she ''wasn't'' planning on, however, was that said robot would be fighting alongside her. So what do you do? Improvise.

* ''{{Underworld}}'' is notable in the instance where Selene uses a pair of fully-automatic pistols to shoot a circle around her feet, creating an exit through the floor in a building when she tries to evade the werewovles and retrieve Michael.

* In ''{{Discworld}}'' The City Watch Novels, Detritus's the troll WeaponOfChoice is a ballista. He is able to use it like a crossbow just because he's so damn big.
** Sometimes it's used to fire the iron spears it was designed to fire, but most of the time Detritus loads it with bundles of arrows. Which shatter from the force of being fired. Then burst into flames from the air friction. When Detritus test-fired it for the first time, it wiped out the training targets, the hill behind them, and some birds that happened to be flying ''directly above him''. He calls it the Piecemaker.
** In Night Watch, Vimes (who is separated from his usual subordinates, including Detritus, because he's gone back in time) is defending a rather large furniture barricade against the then City Watch. He reflects, "If I were attacking, how would I take down the barricade?" His answer is, "Say 'Detritus! Remove that barricade!' and make sure the defenders heard me."
** Mightily Oates' axe in ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'' fits vaguely into the second type, normally it wouldn't do overmuch to a vampire, but then he blesses it.

* Carlos Hathcock, a famed Marine Corps sniper (one of his famous achievements being a ScopeSnipe), once used a ''.50 machinegun'' [[http://www.bobtuley.com/50bmg914.jpg modified and mounted with a scope]] as an improvised sniper rifle. He set the record for the longest combat kill at 2,286 meters, a feat not surpassed until the Afghanistan war, in which dedicated sniper rifles firing the same .50 caliber round were employed. This counts as a trope example since the M2 was not designed for precision sniping, it just happens to be pretty good at it when not fired automatically.
** The M2 also doesn't actually have a semi-automatic mode. It's just that the rate of fire is low enough (relative to most smaller machine guns, that is) that a careful user can fire off a single round by very quickly pulling and releasing the trigger. This also contributes to making it difficult to use the machine gun as a sniper weapon: even with the gun being quite heavy and securely mounted to a tripod or armored vehicle,

** What ''else'' would that be used for?

* The [[DrunkenMaster Demoman]] from ''TeamFortress2'' uses a potato masher as a weapon. Not [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_masher this]] kind, but [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_24_grenade this one]]. As a ''melee'' weapon.

** The Sniper has a bow-and-arrow weapon ([[CaptainObvious for sniping]]), and he can also use the arrows as melee weapons.

* Of the four TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles, only Leonardo comes close to fighting appropriately with his weapon. Donatello is decent, but never uses half the techniques for a bo, Michealangelo is missing 95% of his nunchuku skills since he dual wields them, and Raphael uses his sai's as knives instead of defensive bludgeon tool.

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* While it's possible to swing the blade of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusari-gama kusari-gama]] by the chain (Wikipedia calls this the "Houten Ryu style"), doing so has a tendency not to work very well, and the chain is just used for swings aroud the weight. Except in fiction, which by {{Rule Of Cool}} almost always has it used like that. Also tends to occur with specialized swords like sabers and rapiers--I think there's a trope for that, but I can't find. Oh, and see {{Throwing Your Sword Always Works}}.

Compare ImprobableWeaponUser for when something that clearly isn't a weapon is used as one. See also: ImplausibleFencingPowers, ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks, ThrowingYourShieldAlwaysWorks, BulletholeDoor, GangstaStyle, SliceAndDiceSwordsmanship.

* The IMI Galil had wirecutters and a bottle opener built into it's bipod.
** The latter was included because of problems with conscript soldiers using magazines of other rifles as improvised bottle openers, damaging the magazine lips in the process. Rumor has it that the larger-than-usual ejection port of IMI's previous product, the Uzi submachine gun, was also used to open bottles.

* An episode of ''TheSimpsons'' had Homer buying a revolver, which he promptly uses to do things like opening beer cans and changing TV channels. [[DeconstructedTrope This recklessness causes Marge to leave with the children and gets him kicked out of the local NRA]].

* ''ShootEmUp'' is built around this trope. Smith uses his gun for everything from opening doors to delivering babies.

** Although you can always argue that sharpening a blunt edge is pretty easy

* In the final cutscene of ''UnrealTournament III'' [[spoiler: the protagonist kills the BigBad by clubbing her to death with a rocket launcher]].