History Main / NailEm

** ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'', true to tradition, has a usable model as well. However, besides being rather consistent in its accuracy from the start, it can be modded so that [[{{Roboteching}} the nails can home in on the target]]. Even around corners.

* In the ''Film/PrinceOfPersia'' film, one of the Hassasains, specialised weapons users, has what amount to primitive nail guns strapped to his wrists. He fires spikes from these over great distances to great effect.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' has a slight variation in the Railway Rifle, that doesn't shoot nails as much as railroad spikes. Similar to the Penetrator in ''F.E.A.R.'', the spikes pin body parts to walls.

* Nail guns in ''VideoGame/{{Cataclysm}}: Dark Days Ahead'' are good early-game weapons since ammo is extremely common (just take apart some furniture). You can also use them to craft nail rifles, which are more powerful.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Contagion}}''. The nailgun is not a weapon, it's an item used to barricade entrances. Its "ammunition" is wooden planks.
* In ''VideoGame/DeadIslandRiptide'' nail guns are basically a holdover until you get real guns later on, though they do have the advantage of recoverable ammo from the enemies you kill with them.
* Your main weapon in ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceExtraction'' is also a rivet gun. ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' also features the Javelin Gun, which is more of a spear gun that can pin enemies to walls. ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'''s weapon-crafting system also offers lots of options for rivet guns, including rivet shotguns, rivet machine guns, and rivets that explode.
* ''VideoGame/EscapeFromHell'': Josef Stalin (yes, really) has one when he joins your party.

** The ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' {{D|ownloadableContent}}LC ''Lonesome Road'' adds H&H Tools nail guns, which work like silenced submachine guns. Its damage is fairly low (though it does more SubsystemDamage than normal, like the Railway Rifle), especially for an add-on that raises the level cap to 50, but its resale value is incredible.

* One of the new [[ImprovisedWeapon Resolver weapons]] in ''VideoGame/FarCry6'' is an improvised nail guns made from [[MacGyvering jury-rigged materials]] called El Susurro.
* The ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]'' games have the HV series of rifles,[[labelnote:*]]HV Penetrator, HV Hammerhead, and S-HV Penetrator[[/labelnote]] which fire [[AntiArmor high-speed metal spikes designed to penetrate armor, but are less effective than regular guns against unarmored targets]]. As an added bonus, when close to a surface, [[PinnedToTheWall the HV can stake enemies to said objects with the killing shot]].
* The aptly-named Nailgunner Piers in ''VideoGame/FightLeague'' uses a nail machinegun as her primary weapon.

* The manual for the first ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' states that Judy Nails got her nickname from an incident with a nail gun. [[NoodleIncident Further details are not given]].

* In ''The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest'' the heroine is in a fight with by a large unstoppable man who is unable to feel pain. She turns this against him by using a nail gun to stick his feet to the ground without him noticing.

* ''Film/LethalWeapon2''. Sergeant Murtaugh is attacked by South African agents and defends himself with a nail gun (being used to renovate his house), ending it with him invoking the trope name as a BondOneLiner.

* In Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/DiplomaticImmunity'', an automated hot riveter is used (after bypassing several safety interlocks) as an improvised automatic slugthrower. Miles, being Miles, says "You might say he riveted my attention."
* In ''Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy'' novel "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest", [[spoiler:Lisbeth uses a nail gun to affix Ronald Niedermann's feet to a warehouse floor, then calls some old enemies to come and kill him]].
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' novel ''Literature/SmallFavor'', [[ActionMom Charity Carpenter]] uses a nail gun against the gruffs in the opening chapter, followed by beating their skulls with a heavy contractor's hammer. Since the gruffs are Fae, they are extremely vulnerable to the touch of ColdIron, and retreat very swiftly.

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* In an episode of ''Series/GetALife'', Chris gets a job with the ancient brotherhood of construction workers [[WidgetSeries (just roll with it)]] and by the end has gotten into a tool duel with one of them. The opponent seems to have the upper hand when he brings out the ultimate tool duel weapon, a staple gun, but Chris is able to force him to surrender by utilizing a construction worker's greatest weakness and [[spoiler: threatening to pour out the last beer.]]

* In ''Film/TheIsland'', there is a particularly... [[BrainBleach disturbing]] example. Jordan and Lincoln are hiding in a bathroom waiting for one of the company's men to find them. The man finds them, and they lock the door. He punches through the brittle door and reaches over to unlock the door. Jordan nails his hand to the door.

* Nail gun injuries crop up frequently in the Website/DarwinAwards. (In one attempted suicide, a construction worker tried to end his life after he slipped and a saw chopped off a hand, finding the pain so unbearable. He wound up shooting himself multiple times in the head... and survived, [[ShaggyDogStory and doctors simply reattached the hand.]])
* Bolt pistols ([[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 no, not those]]), used in slaughterhouses to stun livestock and for in-the-field euthanasia of injured farm animals, operate on a similar principle to nail guns.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blunderbuss Blunderbuss,]] a spiritual ancestor to the SawedOffShotgun, was reputed to be remarkably undiscriminating about what one fired out of it. Old nails or rivets were frequently substituted for lead shot as a field expedient, although this wasn't terribly good for the barrel life and reduced the weapon's already poor effective range.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' Has two families of weapons that fire nail-like projectiles, the Grineer Twin Gremlins and the Tenno Bolto series (including the Boltor rifle, Bolto and Akbolto pistols, [[NamedWeapons "Telos"]] and [[SuperPrototype "Prime"]] variants). Both fire slower but higher damaging projectiles [[PinnedToTheWall that can pin enemies to surfaces on death]], damaging anyone in the corpse's trajectory.

* ''VideoGame/SeventySevenPEggwife'' has a miniature nailgun called the Stigmatic 7000 which fires on full-auto.

* The main character's wife is shot in the head with a nail gun in ''Film/{{Seed}}''.

** The first game has [[Music/NineInchNails Nine Inch Nail Guns]]. Contrary to most examples, they're some of the most accurate weapons in the game, and they're actual dedicated weapons: the super nailgun is essentially [[GatlingGood a gatling gun that spits out iron stakes]].

** ''VideoGame/QuakeII Mission Pack 2: Ground Zero'' introduced the ETF Rifle - despite the name, it's by all means the nail gun from ''Quake I'', stylized to fit the ''Quake II'' aesthetics, that ignores armor and shields. It even sounds like the original nailgun.

** ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'', true to tradition, has a usable model as well. However, besides being rather consistent in its accuracy from the start, it can be modded so that ''the nails can chase the target''. '''Even around corners.'''

* ''[[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness]]''

** In [[TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent]], the titular Demons ([[OurDemonsAreDifferent to be precise, the Unchained]]; the gameline itself acknowledges the fact that the Unchained are hardly the only beings referred to as “demons”) can have the demonic form ability Rivet Arm. If they had this ability from the beginning, it was likely a tool for building things back when they were angels, and while it ''is'' a useful ranged weapon as it’s part of your body and thus can’t be lost, plus [[BottomlessMagazines literally no ammo limit]], it can still be used for its original purpose as a mundane nail or rivet gun.

* ''[[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness World of Darkness: Armory]]'' includes rules for using a nail gun as an improvised weapon. Notably, they have to be modified to use them at range, and in doing so, you lose any sort of accuracy.

* In ''Film/RealMen'', SuperAgent Nick Pirandello constructs a projectile automatic-fire nail gun from supplies in meek mild-mannered Bob Wilson's garage, and proceeds to mow down multiple Russian agents with it.

* The final showdown of ''Film/TheEqualizer'' takes place in a hardware stall along with setting up other traps, McCall acquires a nail gun to use instead of a firearm. He uses it one-handed to fire nails like a pistol, flicking his wrist to cock it after every shot.

* In the ''{{Series/Heroes}}'' episode "The Fifth Stage", Peter, fueled by rage and grief over Nathan's death and the subsequent cover-up, gets into a nasty fight with Sylar in the hospital basement after gaining The Haitian's ability to block hiss powers. The fight ends with Peter straddling him onto a table, grabbing a nearby nail gun, and using the gun to pin his palms to the table and then fires a shot into [[GroinAttack his balls.]] Ouch.