History Main / PillowPistol

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': At least while acting as [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassie]]'s mentor and protector ComicBook/{{Artemis}} sleeps with her bow, quiver ''and'' sword.

* In ''Manga/AkagamiNoShirayukihime'' Zen, Mitsuhide and Kiki all sleep with their sword under their pillows, Kiki usually sleeps with hers in hand. Obi sleeps wearing all of his knives, but he often doesn't sleep in his bed and has fallen asleep in Zen and Mitsuhide's rooms. He's been caught sleeping in trees during the daytime, or really anywhere near his current charge whether it be Zen or Shirayuki.

* WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries: Recap/TangledTheSeriesS1E12BigBrothersOfCorona shows us that Cassandra sleeps with a sword next to her bed, and when a noise wakes her up, she reaches for the sword to fight the intruder at her room, her best friend Rapunzel.

* ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress2017''. On first entering the murder victim's room, Poirot notes the pistol ready under his pillow and the strange fact that he didn't try to defend himself with it while being stabbed multiple times. He quickly establishes the victim was drugged beforehand.

* In Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Discworld/{{Mort}}'' Princess Keli, expecting an assassin, 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.

* In Disney's ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}'', Gepetto, of all people, keeps a loaded flintlock pistol under his pillow.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Stager Barbara Stager]] tried to invoke this trope when she murdered her husband Russ. However, several things tore her story apart: her husband, a member of the US Army Reserves, would have known better than to leave a gun with the safety off under his pillow; the trajectory of the bullet and the location of the spent shell casing made it clear the gun was fired from the opposite side of the bed; and Barbara herself was unable to recreate the scenario she described to the police.

* Towards the end of the movie ''Film/CarlitosWay'', [[AmoralAttorney crooked lawyer]] David Kleinfeld has been put in the hospital by a mob assault and is sleeping with a revolver under his pillow. Carlito Brigante 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, Kleinfeld takes Carlito's advice about keeping the gun somewhere easier to get to and does manage to draw it in time, but [[spoiler:[[ItWorksBetterWithBullets Carlito unloaded it]]. Adios, Counselor.]]

In real life this is very risky and has caused some fatal accidents. DontTryThisAtHome, at least not without some kind of special mattress or pillow holster designed to prevent the gun from shifting and going off while you sleep. Even apart from that, somebody just waking up to investigate a disturbance is likely to have their senses and judgement dulled by grogginess, and might accidentally shoot a loved one by mistaking them for a home intruder.

* One ''ComicBook/{{Iznogoud}}'' story had the title EvilVizier buy a set containing a pair of magic shoes, a gun that would make their wearer run in a straight line when fired and a "finish" flag that was the only thing that could stop the shoes. The night before the big day, Iznogoud slept with the gun under his pillow, and bound with a wrist strap. [[spoiler:This doesn't stop a vengeful character from hiding the magic shoes within Iznogoud's baggy regular shoes.]]

* Towards the end of the movie ''Film/CarlitosWay'', [[AmoralAttorney crooked lawyer]] David Kleinfeld has been put in the hospital by a mob assault, and is sleeping with a revolver under his pillow. Carlito Brigante 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.

* ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress2017''. On first entering the murder victim's room, Poirot notes the pistol ready under his pillow, and the strange fact that he didn't try to defend himself with it while being stabbed multiple times. He quickly establishes the victim was drugged beforehand.

* The plot of ''Film/{{Inception}}'' involves industrial spies who use TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture technology to infiltrate their targets dreams. In the BatmanColdOpen the target is Japanese businessman Saito, who realises what is happening and wakes up to find himself not in his BigFancyHouse but lying in bed in his secret love nest. He immediately takes a gun from under his pillow and points it at Arthur, who's trying to drug him unconscious again.

* In ''Film/TheCarRoadToRevenge'', Talen's gang attempt to abduct Daria from her house, but are thwarted when she pulls a HandCannon out from under pillow and shoots several of them.

-->"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."

* In ''Chronicles of a Death Foretold,'' it is mentioned that Santiago's father once kept a loaded gun in his pillow, until one day it blew a hole in the wall when the maid was changing the bed. He still has an unloaded gun in his pillow, though.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** {{Lampshaded}} by Michael's mother Madeline, who was renting out a space in her home in Season 4 and told him that she would like to have more friends that didn't do this. At the end of the episode, she realizes she was kidding herself when she allows the new member of Team Westen, Jesse Porter, sleep there for free.

* ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'': In one episode, Carmen wakes up Jason in the middle of the night, causing him to spring from the couch, [[WakeUpFighting brandishing a baseball bat]], while shouting "[[WakingNonSequitur I DIDN'T TOUCH YOUR DAUGHTER, MR. LOPEZ!]]".

* ''VideoGame/Earth2150: The Moon Project'' describes that the Fang pilot needed to sleep with a pistol under his pillow, because he's unsure if he's going to get killed because of what he learned.

* Captain Lorca of the ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' sleeps with a phaser under his pillow. [[spoiler:The trope is deconstructed - the likelihood of him ever getting to use it against an enemy who infiltrates a federation starship and makes it to the captain's quarters are rather low. Instead, he pulls it on Admiral Cornwell [[WakeUpFighting when she wakes him]]. She considers it not as a sign of him being prepared, but of him [[MaskOfSanity being utterly broken and having cheated his way through his psych evals]]. However, the later revelation of him being a ruthless [[MirrorUniverse Terran]] suggests a different explanation: like every Terran officer, he's constantly paranoid of someone desiring a KlingonPromotion, hence the phaser and the reaction]].

** Vivienne ''Literature/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'' finds this out about Bond when he has to get up from bed to finish off one of the two bad guys for good. Earlier in the novel, he had adviced her to do the same.

* Film/JamesBond, and it was even used against him in ''Film/DieAnotherDay''.

* In the opening sequence of ''The Ipcress File'', Harry Palmer takes a gun out from under his duvet.

Worried about hostile burglars or people after your life? Haven't got a skimpy nightdress? Try the Pillow Pistol!

Compare HiddenSupplies, CantBatheWithoutAWeapon. Not to be confused with VictoriasSecretCompartment, or for PillowFight where the pillow ''is'' the weapon.

* Captain Lorca of the ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' sleeps with a phaser under his pillow. [[spoiler:The trope is deconstructed - the likelihood of him ever getting to use it against an enemy who infiltrates a federation starship and makes it to the captain's quarters are rather low. Instead, he pulls it on Admiral Cornwell [[WakeUpFighting when she wakes him]]. She considers it not as a sign of him being prepared, but of him [[MaskOfSanity being utterly broken and having cheated his way through his psych evals]].]]

* Variation: In the ''Manga/{{Appleseed}}'' anime, Deunan starts her first night in Olympus trying to sleep in a bed, but it's apparently been so long since she slept in one that she can't. She ends up curled up on the hardwood floor clutching her service pistol.