History Main / PillowPistol

This handy accessory goes under your pillow, allowing you to be fully armed in the event of strange nocturnal noises. The pillow is also a handy silencer! Just be careful not to shoot yourself or your sleeping partner. Or [[RudeAwakening anyone trying to wake you up]].

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* Momochi Zabuza from ''{{Naruto}}'' had a kunai under his pillow.

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* In the movie adaptation of FrederickForsyth's ''The Fourth Protocol' the KGB agent played by Pierce Brosnan and the female Soviet weapons expert have just finished having sex. She rolls over in bed and sees the imprint of Brosnan's latest orders on a notepad: KILL HER. Brosnan promptly shoves a pillow against her chest and fires his Makarov pistol through it.

Compare HiddenSupplies, CantBatheWithoutAWeapon.

* There was a magazine article a few years back that made mention of this, stating that if you need to get a weapon out and ready to fire that quickly, it'll already be too late to effectively do anything with it.
** Plus, FridgeLogic induced by experience dealing with anybody who has just been startled awake (or indeed, most people first thing in the morning in general) would suggest that a person who needs to use a gun kept under their pillow would be in no condition to effectively [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace or safely]] use firearms. It might be better to keep the gun locked away such that the person would have time to properly wake up and shake off the grogs before using the gun. Good locks on the door and some kind of alarm (dog, pile of empty beer cans, whatever) would go a long way towards helping buy the sleeper that time.
*** Human biology doesn't work that way. "The grogs" can last quite a while if you awake normally, but if you're startled awake by potential immediate danger you will be alert within ''seconds''. Animals that weren't able to fully wake up immediately when a predator came upon them didn't get to reproduce.
**** This is probably a part of the above comment about "safely" using firearms. When you are startled awake, you are in pure instinct mode, without rational thought. Sure, you'd grab a gun and blow the guy away, but is that ''really'' what you want to do in that situation? Would you actually give the person time to surrender, or wait to make sure they even 'have' a weapon (in some places, it is illegal to shoot someone unless they have a weapon and/or threatened you with physical violence)?
**** If you just buy a pistol and toss it under your pillow, that almost certainly applies. But if you practice and become familiar enough with your weapon's operation and safety, responsible handling really can become a matter of instinct.

This handy accessory goes under your pillow, allowing you to be fully armed in the event of strange nocturnal noises. The pillow is also a handy silencer! Just be careful not to shoot yourself or your sleeping partner.

* The Mariachi from ''Desperado'' does this with one of the two Rugers that he always uses. As his buddy Buscemi tells him, "One day, you're gonna [[ShurFineGuns lay down too hard on that thing and blow your brains out]]."

* Momochi Zabuza from ''Naruto'' had a kunai under his pillow.

* In TheFilmOfTheBook ''[[TheChroniclesofNarnia Prince Caspian]]'' the queen has essentially a Pillow Crossbow.

***** ''that situation'' is when someone breaks into your bedroom at night. Do you really think they are going to ''surrender'' just because you are waking up, or that you should care if they have a weapon or not? (BTW, I have children in my house and have made a choice to NOT be armed at night, for the obvious reason.)

**** This is probably a part of the above comment about "safely" using firearms. When you are startled awake, you are in pure instinct mode, without rational thought. Sure, you'd grab a gun and blow the guy away, but is that 'really' what you want to do in that situation? Would you actually give the person time to surrender, or wait to make sure they even 'have' a weapon (in some places, it is illegal to shoot someone unless they have a weapon and/or threatened you with physical violence)?

* In ''Discworld/{{Mort}}'' Princess Keli, expecting an assasssin, slept with a knife under her pillow. Upon being woken in the night by a suspicious total lack of the noise of anyone moving around the room, she found that it had slipped behind the headboard.

* Lily Dillon (Anjelica Huston) in ''The Grifters''.

Compare HiddenSupplies.

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<<|GunsAndGunplayTropes|>>

->"Tell me James, do you still sleep with a gun under your pillow?"
->-- Paris Carver, ''TomorrowNeverDies''

* Michael Tree, the heroine of the ''MsTree'' comics, makes a habit of doing this. Given the number of times someone has broken into her bedroom in the middle of the night planning to kill her, it seems a sensible precaution.

* In Disney's ''{{Pinocchio}}'', Gepetto, of all people, keeps a loaded flintlock pistol under his pillow.
* Towards the end of the movie ''[[CarlitosWay Carlito's Way]]'', crooked lawyer Kleinfeld has been put in the hospital by a mob assault, and is sleeping with a revolver under his pillow. Carlito comments on the stupidity of this because, especially in the hospital bed, there's no way Kleinfeld will be able to reach it and aim in time when someone comes for him.
** Later on, he does manage to draw it in time, but [[spoiler: Carlito unloaded it. Bye bye, Counselor.]]

* Midway through ''MillersCrossing'', a gang of {{mooks}} storms former-mook-turned-mob-boss Leo O'Bannion's house in the middle of the night as part of an attempted coup. The first two get taken out with one of these. For the others, [[MoreDakka he's got a Tommy gun in his wardrobe]]. [[ImprobableAimingSkills And damn if he ain't still an artist when using it, too]].

--> "For over twenty years he had slept with a loaded nine millimeter FN-pistol under under his pillow. And then, one night, [[ShurFineGuns it has fired]]. [...] An eyepatch covered the empty eyehole where the left eye had been."

* CiaphasCain, due to his [[strike: extreme]] extremely healthy sense of paranoia, always keeps his laspistol and comm-bead underneath his pillow.

* Sarah does this in ''{{The Sarah Connor Chronicles}}''. [[CrazyPrepared She also keeps a shotgun behind the wallpaper, and lines the easy chair with Kevlar]].

--> '''Miss Parker''' (discovering the firing pin on her gun has been removed, rendering it inoperable): I sleep with this gun under my pillow.
--> '''Jared''': And you drool out the left side of your mouth.

<<|GunsAndGunplayTropes|>>

* Levi Kroll from the AlexRider series deserves a special mention on this one:

* CiaphasCain, due to his [[strike: extreme]] extremely healthy sense of paranioa, always keeps his laspistol and comm-bead underneath his pillow.

--> '''Miss Parker''' (discovering the firing pin on her gun has been removed, rendering it inoperable): I sleep with this gun under my pillow