History Main / OneBulletLeft

* ''VideoGame/GHOSTSquad'' has a variant of this for the boss of mission 2: You get only one shot to headshot him, but that's because if you miss, he'll set off a grenade, not because it's your last bullet.

[[TheHero The hero]] has stormed the enemy base. He has killed mooks, [[StuffBlowingUp blown stuff up,]] and said witty one-liners. This is it: the final showdown of Hero vs. BigBad. Mr Villain holds the heroine close, threatening to kill the DamselInDistress. She cries out to her beloved hero. The hero gathers his resolve and checks his pistol's magazine. He only has one bullet left.

Wait, what? One bullet left?

Oh never mind, he's totally gonna kill the bad guy.

This trope is named after the uncanny attempt at drama of giving the hero only a single chance to win the battle, i.e. one bullet left. You can be sure of it, you can count on it, you could bet money on it if anyone would actually take that bet. That shot is going to hit its target, even if it's a hard shot. It may have been actually suspenseful at some point, but by now [[DiscreditedTrope everyone has seen this one done and done again]].

One Bullet Left may also occur at a distance, as the bad guys are about to execute someone important to the hero, who has one shot left in their sniper rifle.

* In the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/32567947 The Storms of War]]'', Sharon is ambushed in a safe house by a group of mercenaries. [[UseTheirOwnWeaponAgainstThem She kills one of them and takes his gun]], afterwards the remaining men taunt her that she doesn't have enough bullets to take them all down, but she responds that she only needs one, firing at the kitchen stove, creating a massive explosion.

* Thoroughly {{justified}} in ''Film/TheCrossing''. Bad weather has forced the Continental Army to use bayonets rather than shooting because the powder's all wet, except for one soldier who sealed his musket--a weapon that has one shot anyway--with candle wax. He's the ''only guy in the army'' who can shoot, and he uses the shot on Colonel Rall, mortally wounding him and [[DecapitatedArmy ending the battle]].

** [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope That last bullet misses though.]] The [[AbnormalAmmo carrot-shaped trophy he sticks in his blunderbuss]] afterwards though? [[DoubleSubversion Guess.]] ]]

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'', where Victor the hunter has to kill the were-rabbit with a bullet made of pure gold ("[[JustForPun Twenty-Four Karat!]]") and only has three. He thinks he kills the were-rabbit with the first one, but it turns out that he shot a disguise instead. Once he realizes this, [[ShutUpGunshot he tries to calm down the crowd by firing his gun in the air...]]

'''XIII:''' Two empty chambers in the cylinder before the last bullet, amigo. Must be the most threadbare trick in the FarWest.

* ''Film/TheKiller'' has hitman Ah Jong living by these words: "I always save the last bullet, either for myself or for my enemy." The first time he says this, it's when he's demanding of his handler Fung Sei to know who took out the ContractOnTheHitman, and after a shootout in his apartment where Ah Jong defends himself and Fung Sei, it's revealed that he indeed had one more bullet. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:later on when Fung Sei goes to [[BigBad Wong Hoi]]'s residence to get Ah Jong's money and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown gets the living shit kicked out of him]], he ''doesn't'' keep a final bullet, and Ah Jong has to MercyKill him when he is gunned down by Wong's men at the church]].

* From the 2000 film ''Film/ThePatriot'', Benjamin Martin deliberately saves a special bullet made from one of his murdered son's lead soldiers especially for the BigBad who killed him, Colonel Tavington. Subverted in that while he does get his final, poetic justice-y shot in on Tavington, a cannonball landing nearby throws off his aim and merely wings the villain, leading to a rather fierce duel between Benjamin and the now ''very'' pissed-off Tavington in the midst of the battle.