History Main / ReliablyUnreliableGuns

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* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', guns occasionally discharge if they are dropped for any reason. Occasionally, they may even discharge when their wielders fling it around after being hit themselves. Sure, he could also be pulling the trigger in reflex, but even semi-automatic weapons discharge multiple times (and it is impossible that a reflex would enable the shooter to pull the trigger several times in a row).
** A scripted example happens when chasing down Playboy X. Having been firing clumsily over his shoulder, his pistol jams when he's cornered, and he throws it away to beg for his life. Since the normal rules take over at that point, it's possible for the discarded gun to discharge on hitting the ground.
* In ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'', your gun can jam if you reload incorrectly. The consequence is that you have to take a moment to clear the jam before you can resume firing.
** It should be noted that this is only if ''you'', the player, press the reload button while reloading at an incorrect time, and so, if someone never attempts the 'active reload' minigame to reload their gun, it will NEVER jam (active reloading is specifically mentioned as skipping the proper reloading method to load the gun faster, but chancing a misfeed). It's done to reload the gun faster (a life saver in mutliplayer) and [[BellisariosMaxim get a damage boost]].
* ''VideoGame/AmericasArmy''. Yep, in the official computer game your weapons can jam. Tap a key to clear the jam, with a tap to the bottom of the magazine followed by the forward assist.
* Similarly, in ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'', damaged guns can jam... but can be cleared by reloading. Keep using them, though, and eventually they won't be able to go through a full magazine without a jam, to the point where they'll probably end up getting you killed more often than they kill what they're pointed at. Eventually they'll just break completely. In the two later games, or in the first with the proper {{Game Mod}}s, you can have guns repaired for a cost, or find the extremely rare repair kits with, again, the right mods. Justified in that weapon cleaning and maintenance kits are something that regular stalkers aren't skilled enough to use and as such most don't carry them, but gunsmiths, mechanics and technicians obviously do as part of their trade.
** Special mention goes to the [[{{AKA47}} IL 86]], or what is known in the real world as the [=L85A1=] rifle, [[TruthInTelevision which is a hilariously unreliable]] piece of shit that starts to have problems after only a few magazines. There's really nothing like trying to clear a jam out of your shoddy British rifle while you are being chased down a tunnel by a pack of terrifying, blood-sucking mutant predators.
* In ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', your guns are not only likely to jam at the drop of a pin; repairing a jam is an extremely complicated technical operation involving detailed cybernetically-enhanced skills, a consumable nanotech-based resource, and a small minigame. Then again, given that ''laser rifles'' can somehow jam in this game...
** Enemy weapons aren't immune either, no matter how quickly you kill the shotgun-armed mutants that come after you, you'll always find the gun they had on them had conveniently jammed by the time you were ready to loot their corpse.
** [[http://irrationalgames.com/insider/five-cut-features/ Word of God]] is that there was supposed to be an in-game explanation for this: basically The Many had released a corrosive gas that only affected mechanisms into the environment. Unfortunately, the audio log explaining this was left out of the finished game. On the other hand, given that not only would the spaceship's life support but also ''the Many's own cyborgs'' be just as affected by that gas, it's probably for the best that it was left out.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'':
** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', Ocelot stovepipes his own semiautomatic pistol when he tries a fancy move he'd heard of for the first time[[note]]Basically, copying a move he'd heard about from Middle East fighters, which involves working the action of your gun after reloading, every time. This is to ensure that the gun always has a round loaded, no matter if the chamber was empty or not. However, because he hadn't practiced the maneuver, he works the action too fast, resulting in the aforementioned stovepipe[[/note]]. Ocelot then attempts to [[PistolWhipping pistol whip]] Naked Snake with his gun instead of clearing it, despite the fact that Snake has just taken down half a dozen of his men with little more than his bare hands. Clearly it was his turn to hold the IdiotBall. Snake easily counters, and when Ocelot drops his gun the cartridge pops out, clearing the jam. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItvclICnwgI Snake then explains this to Ocelot]] (and the audience), attributing it to the latter's faults and inexperience. Since the game is a {{prequel}} it establishes why he's ''Revolver'' Ocelot in the present/near-future storyline.
** In the introduction cutscene of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', Snake tries to fire an AK-102, but it jams after two shots. He does try to cycle the action manually and clear it, but it won't budge, and he ends up tossing it to the ground; a Codec call to Otacon reveals that the ammo in that magazine was of poor quality. He lampshades the lack of jams in actual gameplay by noting how rare that specific type of jam is[[note]]Basically, abnormal combustion caused the cartridge to stick to the chamber rather than cycling the action as normal[[/note]].
** This is also {{invoked|Trope}} as a gameplay mechanic in most of the games. All firearms used in combat in most of the games have identification locks built in, hence why the player can't just break the neck of the first guard they find and use his assault rifle for the whole game. ''[=MGS4=]'' in particular shows that the older varieties of locks from the original ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' (and presumably ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty MGS2]]'') simply stopped the user from being able to make the trigger-pulling motion with their finger, while more modern locks instead make the gun itself act like the epitome of this trope, failing to fire on pulling the trigger even with a full magazine loaded and a round in the chamber (ironically, this is the game that introduced a character who can launder ID-locked guns for you to use). ''[=MGS3=]'' is set in 1964, long before ID-locks and nanomachines, so the explanation there is that Naked Snake would prefer to take a fresh, never-fired weapon from an armory that is guaranteed to work how it should, rather than steal one from an enemy in the field and risk getting a poorly-maintained one that could jam when he needs it and get him killed.
* Similarly, this trope is used to justify UnusableEnemyEquipment in ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' with both the [[{{BFG}} Fuel Rod Gun]] and even the [[CoolSword Energy Sword]] exploding shortly after being dropped. It is however subverted in the [[AllThereInTheManual Expanded Universe]], which claims this is an intentional anti-theft device used by the Covenant rather than the weapons being ridiculously fragile, so the ability to use them in later games is either a [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness weird recursive example]] or it was not a widely-used feature.
** The expanded universe also claims this trope to be the reason that the Assault Rifle's magazine capacity was lowered in ''VideoGame/Halo3''. Allegedly, the [=MA5B=] version from the first game was very prone to spring failure when fully loaded (a problem which can and has been very much TruthInTelevision for some real guns), and so they lowered the capacity down for subsequent iterations such as ''Halo 3''[='=]s [=MA5C=].
** ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' also gives [[TheGoomba Grunts]] an IdleAnimation where they appear to be clearing a jam on whatever weapon they are currently using.

* All guns in ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance'' and its sequels have a percentage condition rating and a rating of reliability for both the gun and the ammo. The more reliable guns work better at low condition than other guns and wear slower. Guns in good condition are impossible to jam, while guns with 50% or less condition will jam every other shot. Guns below 10% or so are useless hunks of metal.
** ''Jagged Alliance 2'' adjusts things slightly. A gun always has a ''chance'' to fire, no matter how degraded it is, but if it gets to 0%, it will ''never'' work again, regardless of repair. The lower the condition of the gun, the more likely that it will jam, and the chance to clear the jam by refiring the gun drops significantly.
** Also, when a jam does occur, there's only about a 50/50 chance you'll be able to clear it and re-fire the gun before you run out of time units. Presumably simple malfunctions that can be cleared with a tap and a forward assist are abstracted for simplicity's sake.
* While all guns operate perfectly in normal conditions in ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'', one of the insanity effects makes one character drop a flintlock pistol to the ground while reloading [[GunsAkimbo his other one]], causing it to discharge and kill him. [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness He doesn't actually die though]].
* The late-90s ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator'' PC game featured occasional and very subtle jamming of the [[ASpaceMarineIsYou Marine's]] pulse rifle. This was essentially just the same dry-fire sound as a magazine running dry; the weapon would resume working after the trigger was released. Only really a problem when firing on full auto... and if you were past the point of "short controlled bursts" you were probably [[NintendoHard doomed anyway]].

* During the IdleAnimation in ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'', the player character will toy with the gun. Depending on which gun, he will occasionally break off a piece by accident, pause in confusion, and then stick it back on. However, considering that half the weapons are [[ScavengerWorld cobbled together from several other guns and industrial tools]], it's a bit more forgivable.
** The guns themselves will never jam, but several of them are hand-made from pieces of scrap, like the Bastard Gun (which is little more than a piece of metal with a firing pin and a barrel). In addition, you have two choices for ammunition: "dirty" ammo, which is plentiful but not very powerful due to inferior gunpowder, and military-grade ammunition, which is significantly more powerful but [[MoneyToBurn also used as money]].
* In ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'', you interrupt the trial of your partner Johnny Gat and hold up a bailiff. At your command, the bailiff drops his gun, which goes off, prompting everyone (except for Gat) to duck for cover, with Gat's lawyer popping back up for a moment to ask if anyone got hit and needs his expertise.
* ''Terrorpods'' extends a variant to missiles. Some of the documentation implies that you may miss and hit a friendly installation. In the actual game, your missile has a manual guidance system where you need to keep the drift indicators within the shown reticule. If it drifts outside the reticule even by one pixel, the missile won't detonate. Given that the target is usually larger than the reticule, the usual result is that missiles that hit won't cause damage (which is much more punishing if your computer is too fast).
* While the blaster rifles used by sand people in an early level of ''VideoGame/JediKnightJediAcademy'' will sound off as though they are being fired multiple times when you're in range of an enemy using one, they will only actually launch a bolt maybe one in seven times. Justified in [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends the old Expanded Universe]], as the Sand People are rather primitive, tending to steal their rifles from settlers and having no concept on how to use a ranged weapon beyond "point in general direction of bad guy and pull trigger", which doesn't lend itself to good maintenance practices.

* In ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail II'', when hunting, there is a [[LuckBasedMission random chance]] that you will accidentally shoot yourself, possibly resulting in [[OneHitKill instant death]].
* ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'':
** None of the guns jam, but this trope is played with by two of the [[TheAestheticsOfTechnology gun manufacturers.]] Bandit guns are made from scrap, covered with spikes and stupid-but-cool paintjobs, and have misspelled and grammatically incorrect names. They have huge mag sizes and decent power, but low accuracy and the slowest reloads. Tediore guns are inexpensive, plastic and boxy with drab or cheesy colour schemes and names that sound like bargain-bin-product adverts. They're below average on almost all stats, but they're dirt cheap and have a unique trait - instead of reloading, the guns are [[ThrowAwayGuns thrown away]] and explode like a grenade before reappearing in the owner's hand, giving them the fastest reloads (though with the added loss of you losing all the ammo that was left in them, since that's what powers the explosion - tossing a gun with a nearly full mag will do much more damage than one with an empty mag). The explosion is actually a flaw of the digistruction procedure that remakes them, but they [[PolishTheTurd advertise it as a perk.]]
** PlayedForLaughs with two guns in the series: "Miss Moxxi's Crit" in the ''Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep'' DLC falls out of your hands one reload in every ten and has to be recovered, and the Tediore "Boxxy Gunn" in ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' is prone to exploding in your hands if reloaded prematurely.
* ''Videogame/Borderlands3'' replaces Bandits with the "Children of the Vault", who as a gun manufacturer aside from maintaining most of the aesthetics replaces the Bandit guns' signature high magazines with an {{Overheating}} mechanic: Their guns technically have BottomlessMagazines, but if fired for too long you'll have to go through a lengthy animation of replacing a broken gun part or even literally cooling off the gun with a water pistol.
* The humorous ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' GameMod "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeKH6xVurOo Extreme Weapon Pack]]" turns some weapons into these. The shotgun fails to fire literally 95% of the time, and once it does fire it takes several seconds of trying to work the rusted action to actually chamber the next shell. The super shotgun has one of its barrels broken off, and the remaining barrel has so much recoil that it spins you around every time when fired. The chaingun takes forever to spin up, pushes you backward at great speed, and is very inaccurate once it begins shooting. The BFG takes about a minute to charge up each time you try to fire. The exception is the pistol, and that's because the player character, apparently very wary of this problem, takes great pains to clean it after every single bullet.

* In the first ''[[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996 Crash Bandicoot]]'' game, this trope comes into play during the boss fight with Pinstripe Potooro. Pinstripe's method of attack is to shoot at Crash with a tommy gun. However, at points the gun will jam or he will have to reload, allowing Crash to hit him.

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx'', Russel tosses a gun he claims is unloaded to you, only for it to [[https://youtu.be/O2W0N3uKXmo?t=40 go off when it lands on a car's hood]]. Without missing a beat, he notes that it's ''definitely'' unloaded now.
* In ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'', guns deteriorate over time, affecting their performance. You have to head to a gunsmith or clean it yourself with gun oil to restore your gun's stats. Any gun you pick up from an enemy will be labeled as "worn" and come with reduced stats.

* ''VideoGame/IntoTheRadius'' requires players to keep their guns ''and'' magazines well maintained. Poorly maintained magazines won't be able to hold the max amount of cartridges, while a poorly maintained gun is likely to give false positives or jam while firing, requiring manual operation of the slide.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/Iraqveteran8888 Iraqveteran8888]] once tried to make a video showing them shooting a Calico SMG with its unique helical magazine. What actually was posted was them showing you the fragments after the thing blew, and injuries to Barry's hand.
* This happening is the crux of Studio C's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u88qziTQ1U Zorro's Misfire]]", where a discarded gun just keeps firing every few seconds, each time invariably hitting Zorro.

* Downplayed in Larry Vickers' video on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVhf0uKhfds an Iranian G3]], which functions perfectly fine in semi-auto but consistently fails to fire more than one bullet in full-auto. Slow-motion shots confirm that the bolt bounced just slightly after every cycle, enough to only lightly strike the primer of the second shot every time they tried to fire full-auto, which Larry concludes was most likely the result of the gun being stored in a warehouse with the bolt locked open for years, loosening some tension on the recoil spring.
* Another harrowing example of "shooter gets blown up by their firearm", or in this case, an RPG-7 rocket launcher, [=YouTube=] channel ''Ballistic High-Speed'' had an incident where one of its presenters shooting off an RPG-7 had it blow up on him. Thankfully, he survived with recoverable injuries. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASE0e5DkFkE The post-mortem with him and another presenter]] suggested that the problem was that the specific launcher they used was a de-militarized version that had a significant chunk of the launch tube cut out. To re-activate it, the gunsmith welded a patch to fill in the gap. While they had no reason to suspect the patch-job was done poorly, they surmised that no matter what, a patched-up tube is always weaker and riskier to use than a tube that wasn't cut up.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'':
** Despite the page quote, this is oddly averted, despite the character's twin habits of carelessness with his tools and causing embarrassing and accidental injuries to his coworkers. Indeed, later in the scene quoted, after a call girl has been struck with a poison dart fired from a pen, Archer tells Cyril that the belief that if something would happen, it would come from the .25 [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov Pistol]] is an incredibly facile argument.
--->'''Woodhouse:''' [[LampshadeHanging Also woefully esoteric]].
** One incident does occur in "Sea Tunt: Part II". Archer smuggles a pistol onto the underwater platform inside a camera. He claims that the safety is on, but notes that [[MadScientist Krieger]] tends to make some strange modifications to ISIS issue weaponry. Sure enough, Archer's pistol goes off, causing the place to flood.
** Another example happens during "White Nights", when Archer's stolen pistol fails to fire at a ''very'' bad time. Strangely, the pistol in question is the normally [[MadeOfIndestructium ultra-reliable]] Tokarev TT-33.
--->'''Archer:''' Piece of-! How are you a superpower?!
* In the 1953 ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "WesternAnimation/BullyForBugs", the bull Bugs is fighting at one point ends up swallowing a rifle Bugs was planning to shoot him with. He very quickly discovers he can [[BulletSeed fire bullets from his horns]] by smacking the end of his now-rifle-shaped tail against the ground -- but then after he runs out of bullets, he attempts to reload by swallowing a box of high-powered rounds, with [[ExplosiveOverclocking disastrous results]].

* This is a major plot point in Valentin Pikul's novel ''The Riches'' (Богатство). A misfiring rifle kills [[TheLancer Ispolatov's]] love interest.

* This is why [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]] only uses older weapons like revolvers: his magical aura interferes with any kind of technology, and the better the tech, the faster he breaks it. Revolvers are functionally simplistic, and can't jam. Notably, he doesn't use his magical hex on handguns, likely because a handgun failing doesn't mean it ''won't'' shoot.
** In the first book, this applies during the final confrontation. Harry disrupts the villainous warlock's huge spell, sending an overload of magical energy all over the place. The warlock's accomplices open fire with an Uzi that quickly jams, and Harry notes they're probably lucky it didn't explode. When they resume fire, it's with a revolver.

** In ''Cold Days'', he gets a somewhat-temporary upgrade to a lever-action rifle and has no trouble using it, and by ''Battle Grounds'', he has an absolutely massive revolver again, [[spoiler: but the incredible concentration of magic power all over Chicago as a result of the Formor invasion has absolutely zero effect on the many, ''many'' guns being used by everyone else, lending credence to the idea that Harry's problems are psychosomatic.]]

* This is central to the plot of the short novella ''The Rifle'', about a civil war era rifle being passed from owner to owner for over a century, with nobody even thinking to check if the rifle was loaded. It ''was'', and this is discovered when the rifle is knocked from its wall mounting at the book's end, causing it to discharge and kill a young neighbor.

* Subverted in the series finale of ''Series/UglyBetty'' -- Wilhelmina is accidentally shot by an alcohol-fueled Tyler. As a final favor to Claire, Wilhelmina lies to the press and tells them she was shot when she dropped her gun while cleaning it. The reception is dubious but her lie still works.
* Mentioned in an episode of ''Series/FatherTed'' where John shows Ted that he has bought a shotgun to protect his shop and has it cocked and ready. Ted asks if that's not somewhat dangerous, to which John says that it would only be if you dropped it or something. He then slams the gun down on the table, causing Ted to jump and John to just laugh. The gun is confirmed to be loaded, as we hear it go off offscreen after Ted leaves the shop when Mary attempts to wrestle it from John's grasp.
* Subverted in ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' When John is at a military school, his classmate's rifle has a stovepipe jam, and John, having been raised CrazyPrepared by his mom, clears the jam in about ten seconds, all while teaching his fellow student the drill to do so.
* In one episode of ''Series/TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr.'', our hero is struggling with an assailant while his lady friend prepares to hit said bad guy with a nearby pistol. Brisco tells her to stop, beats the bad guy, then demonstrates that the impact would've caused the flintlock to go off. Into ''her''.
* Same network, different decade and genre: An episode of ''Back To You'' [[HowWeGotHere opens with a news report]] featuring a gunshot going off during a hostage crisis. It transpires that this is the result of Chuck Darling fumbling the hostage taker's gun after he's taken it from him.
* ''Series/WarOfTheWorlds1988''. Actor Richard Chaves (playing Lt. Col. Paul Ironhorse) had his assault rifle jam during an action scene. Being a Vietnam veteran, Chaves just cleared the jammed blank as he would a real round and kept firing.

* Averted in the reimagined ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' when Adama demands Starbuck's sidearm, chambers a round, presumably flicks off the safety and tosses the weapon on the table, where it bounces quite a bit but does not go off.
* Jams happen periodically in ''Series/BandOfBrothers''. The characters usually get to work clearing them, sometimes having trouble with it and sometimes not. All the actors were trained in [=WW2=] weapons handling (as their characters would have been) so, as in real life, the ability to sort out a jam would depend on the actor's own weapon skill. Not to mention their concentration. Many of the times that jams weren't quickly handled occurred under fire, when [[EnforcedMethodActing both actor and character would find it hard to focus]].
** A particularly notable example is in the second episode, during the assault on Brecourt Manor. Lt. Compton rushes into a trench to attack the soldiers guarding an artillery cannon, and his Thompson fails to fire[[note]]The book notes that it wasn't his gun; he found it after losing his during the combat drop, and hadn't had time to fire it or inspect it properly to determine the condition[[/note]]. Fortunately, Lt. Winters attacks from the other side at the same time, and the enemy soldiers are routed before anything can happen to Buck. He's later shown exclusively using an M1 Garand for the rest of the series.
* In one episode of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', a perp drops his recently fired gun while surrendering. Tony proceeds to flip out on the guy. Still averted, as the gun didn't fire. And also averts ArtisticLicenseGunSafety, as roughly handling a loaded weapon with a round in the chamber is still a stupid thing to do.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. In "Flooded" Buffy reprimands a security officer for using a gun on a demon, tosses it aside and winces at the subsequent discharge sound.
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', Martin's gun from his police days (not seen in the episode, but identified as an M1911 in ''She's the Boss'') is brought out from its storage "under the bed" still in a shoebox. The shoebox is knocked off a table and, naturally, the gun goes off, shooting up at an improbable angle to damage the apartment decor.
* In an episode of the ''Series/{{Lovejoy}}'' TV series ("The Axe-Man Cometh") an antique flintlock which had been used solely as a display item for ''decades'' was apparently loaded, since when it was grabbed and used to try and bluff the eponymous axe-man it actually went off leaving him with an AshFace.
* [[JustForFun/TropesExaminedByTheMythBusters Many cases of this trope have been tested]] -- and busted -- by the Series/MythBusters. One notable exception involves an urban legend where an explosion in a room caused some Russian SKS rifles[[note]]which have a free-floating firing pin rather than a typical spring-loaded one[[/note]] therein to go off -- the [=MythBusters=] were able to get one of the four to go off. Earlier, they had failed to set off any SKS rifles with a boom-car stereo at full volume.

** Taken to absurd lengths in "A Town Called Mercy", when Amy has multiple accidental discharges with a single-action revolver, which should require the hammer to be manually drawn back before each shot.

* ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'': "Rabbit in a Snowstorm" opens with John Healy, a hitman working for Wilson Fisk, about to shoot a gang boss in a bowling alley. Just as he pulls the trigger, we flash back to 36 hours earlier, when he's buying the gun from Turk Barrett. Turk guarantees that the gun will not jam. We then return to the present and sure enough the gun jams, and Healy is forced to beat his target to death. A previous episode established that the gun was part of a larger batch of illegal guns Turk is smuggling into the city. It's worth noting that Turk removed it directly from the storage crate. It's implied the gun was probably some low quality knock-off that was not stored and maintained properly after it left the factory, so Healy only had himself to blame for not personally test firing it before the hit. Season two establishes that Turk specializes in selling extremely cheap and unreliable guns that are at their deadliest when used to bludgeon someone to death.
* ''Series/CSICyber'': The first VictimOfTheWeek in "Ghost in the Machine" is killed when he is startled into dropping a customised .22 concealed inside a drill case. The gun goes off when it hits the ground, discharging and killing him.
* ''Series/{{Fortitude}}'': After Yuri has tricked Eric into dropping his gun in the season 1 finale, his gun misfires, allowing Eric to attack him hand-to-hand.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS9E4 Down Among the Dead Men]]", two suspects are arguing over a shotgun when they slam it down on the floor and it goes off, blowing a hole in the ceiling. Particularly egregious as the gun in question is a Purdey, generally regarded as the finest shotguns ever made.
* ''Series/TheFBI'': In "The Impudents", the VictimOfTheWeek appears to have been murdered: shot from the opposite side of his cabin. However, Jim eventually discovers that the victim had been planning murder himself, but changed his mind and threw the gun across the room. The gun went off when it hit the vent and shot him through the heart.

* The entire music video for Korn's "Freak on a Leash" begins with this trope. The video starts off with a bunch of animated children sneaking out at night so they can play on private property. A security guard pursues, trips and his gun falls, landing on its magazine, which causes it to fire. The remainder of the video is the camera following the bullet around until it returns to the animated scene.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', standard-issue weapons [[BlatantLies certainly don't malfunction]] [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial 5% of the time]]. Maybe they were sabotaged by [[RedScare Commie]] [[{{Mutants}} mutant]] [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot traitors]]. ''You'' aren't a Commie mutant traitor, [[WitchHunt are you?]]
** Generally, the more destructive the weapon is when it works, the more destructive it is when it doesn't. And the harder it is to fix. (Or just prevent it from blowing up. Or just unstrap yourself from it and [[OutrunTheFireball outrun the blast radius]].) And if it was only assigned to you for the duration of the mission, then the more expensive the fine for allowing valuable mission equipment to be damaged.
** As for those experimental weapons that the Troubleshooters were field-testing for [[MadScientist Research and Design]]... Well, perhaps the Troubleshooters didn't maintain them properly. What's that, you say? [[TheKeyIsBehindTheLock The maintenance instructions aren't available at their security clearance?]] Huh, go figure.

** In ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'', however, firearms have misfire rules in every edition: In 1st editions misfires were a 50/50 chance of the gunpowder either needing to be re-ignited or re-filled (the former wasting a turn and the latter requiring a re-load) but no jamming, 2nd edition firearms straight-up jammed 5% of the time and needed a gunsmith to clean them up, 3rd edition guns exploded when misfiring, harming their user ''and'' breaking down until repaired, and in 4th edition firearms' chance of a [[CriticalFailure Fumble]] is greatly increased.

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' has rules for malfunctions, with an attack roll that lands on or above a specific number indicating that the weapon malfunctioned (with unreliable guns having a lower target number and highly reliable guns having such a high one that only a critical failure will cause them to jam). The ''High-Tech'' sourcebook, having a thick GunPorn section, also includes information on certain guns having a reputation for firing when dropped and mentions the dangers of old single-action revolvers as detailed in the Real Life section. Damage to the gun (deliberate or otherwise) can also have a variety of effects, from lowering the malfunction number (i.e. making it more likely to jam when fired) to decreasing the accuracy or damaging the weapon's frame or stock itself.
* ''TabletopGame/HeroSystem'''s optional rules for weapon malfunctions avert "Jammed = Broken". The worst case scenario, a character with no Weaponsmith skill and a misfire, only calls for two phases to clear the weapon with no chance of the round going off while being cleared.
* [[CriticalFailure Roll a 100]] in ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', and your gun explodes in your hands. Not only does it get destroyed, it also hurts the wielder.
** [[DependingOnTheWriter Depending on the]] [[GameMaster Keeper]], this can also occur with heavy artillery, car/plane engines, spells, and ''high explosives''. All guns and many other non-melee weapons have a Malfunction Number, usually around a 96 to 100. Generally, if you critically fail - anything above the gun's malfunction number - the gun will just jam and need to be repaired for a few rounds. [[KillerGameMaster But again, it does depend on the Keeper...]]

* In ''TabletopGame/PlanetMercenary'', weapons with Failure Prone will explode if triples are rolled. This includes rolling all 6s, [[https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/111239/10867 which also may guarantee double damage]]. Certain Mayhem cards may result in weapons running out of ammunition (or getting stuck in targets for weapons such as knives) or being damaged enough to require repair out of combat to unjam them.

* Justified in ''Anime/LupinIIIOperationReturnTheTreasure''. [[TheGunslinger Jigen]] shoots his opponent to deliberately cause a jam, then kills him before he has the chance to clear the jam.
* Type 1 is played straight in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'': Cagalli[[labelnote:*]]Whose experience with firearms may amount to a crash-course in the desert about a month before[[/labelnote]] throws a pistol in frustration, causing it to discharge. Athrun[[labelnote:*]]Who ''has'' received military training with pistols from ZAFT[[/labelnote]] very nearly gets hit by the stray round and immediately chastises her for being stupid enough to throw a loaded and cocked pistol.

* Averted in the first season finale of ''Anime/AldnoahZero''. Slaine fires off about 10 rounds from his pistol [[spoiler: shooting up Saazbaum after he headshots Asseylum]] before a stovepipe occurs. However, he pulls the slide back and clears the malfunction, then [[spoiler: uses the same gun to shoot Inaho in the face.]]

* ''ComicBook/AllNewUltimates'': One of the Skull's guns got jammed during the fight. His friend told him to throw it away, then.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* From ''Film/TrueLies'' comes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBIrQV9PxHg this]] epic example: Helen attempts to use a MAC-10 machine pistol and promptly [[LawOfInverseRecoil loses control of it]] and drops it down a flight of stairs, where it continues firing ''all by itself'' as it tumbles down, taking out nearly every {{mook|s}} in the terrorist camp. To put just how unreliable this is into perspective, the film's armorer used a ''plastic zip-tie'' to strap down the trigger for these scenes. This scene took several takes, as the time it would take to strap down the trigger and drop the weapon is almost as short as the time taken for the M-10 to empty its 30-round magazine: it fires more than 20 rounds per second.
* In ''Film/SchindlersList'', Göth is about to execute a worker, [[SociopathicSoldier as he has done several times before already]], but his Luger jams. As his lieutenant tries unsuccessfully to clear the jam, Göth takes out another pistol (a CZ 27) and tries to shoot him again... but the backup pistol also jams. Göth, after multiple attempts to shoot are foiled in this manner, eventually {{pistol whip|ping}}s the worker and then leaves in a huff. [[TruthInTelevision Like much of the film, this was based on a specific real-life incident]].
* In ''Film/{{Help}}'', the [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain idiot]] "[[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate scientist]]" and his assistant have a [[RunningGag recurring problem:]] none of their equipment works when it needs to, leading the assistant to invariably blame whatever country the object in question came from. As a result, this trope pops up twice: once with a "cheap" English pistol, leading them to bemoan their lack of a Luger, and once with their time-slowing ray, leading them to curse "American rig."

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'':
** Marty is saved repeatedly from being shot by Libyans because their rifle jams. They are shooting an AK-47, which are famed for their reliability even under the harshest conditions. However, we do see them simply trying to clear the jam rather than abandoning the gun immediately.
** And then Doc's own gun fails to fire, too. The gun -- a Single Action Army revolver -- uses one of the simplest repeating actions in existence, so it could be either that the round was a dud, or Doc [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets never loaded it in the first place]].
* Seen in ''Film/HotFuzz'', where one of the heroes intentionally throws his shotgun at the cobblestone street while surrendering, causing it to go off and hit a bad guy. Surprisingly semi-accurate; the shotgun they drop, a Winchester 1300, is a model that isn't listed as drop-safe in real life.
* In ''Film/TheUntouchables1987'', one gangster's Thompson jams during a fight. [[TruthInTelevision This was a problem real Tommy guns were frequently subject to]], which is one of the reasons it was never as widely used as gangland movies would have you believe. To the gangster's credit he tries repeatedly to clear the jam, but he gets so distracted doing this that it gives the [[BadassBookworm mousy accountant]] among the Untouchables time to get close enough to [[PistolWhipping KO the gangster with the butt of his shotgun]].

* In ''Film/LordOfWar'', VillainProtagonist and ArmsDealer Yuri is nearly executed by a pair of thugs in Africa. One aims his AK-47 ([[KarmicDeath which was sold to the thug's boss by Yuri, naturally]]), pulls the trigger... [[KarmaHoudini nothing.]] Clears the jam, sticks it in Yuri's face again, pulls the trigger... [[OverlyLongGag nothing]].[[note]] The film had earlier pointed out the famous reliability of the [=AKs=], but the thug is mishandling it in a way which [[TruthInTelevision really can cause an AK to jam]]. [[/note]] Yuri (who is both completely stoned and suffering the effects of a VillainousBSOD to the point where [[DeathSeeker he'd willingly embrace death]]), points out that they'll do that sometimes and offers to fix the jam for him... the thug [[PistolWhipping just hits him with the butt]] and knocks Yuri out. Well, it was worth a shot, anyway.
* Misfiring guns feature prominently in both the backstory and the climax of ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'', which is more appropriate for the time period, in which lower quality guns and ammo were more common. The rainy night of the climax might also have played a factor.
** Little Bill, when telling W.W. Beauchamp the real story about how English Bob killed Two-Gun Corcoran, explains that Corcoran's Walker Colt exploded on him, allowing Bob to get the drop on him. [[ShownTheirWork This was a problem that Walker Colts really had.]]

* Franz Liebkind's Luger in the 2005 version of ''Film/TheProducers'' jams and fires when dropped, with great comedic timing. The classic Luger's toggle action [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting actually is somewhat temperamental]].
* In ''Film/TheLastDinosaur'' big game hunter Masten Thrust throws away his hunting rifle after it jams while trying to shoot a Tyrannosaur that's about to attack them. Not only does he make no effort to clear the jam, but he never even tries to reacquire the rifle later, instead only taking the scope to attach to his new crossbow. The fact that he's both a lifelong hunter ''and'' a firearms collector makes this all the more implausible.

* In the sci-fi comedy ''Film/{{Sleeper}}'', a RunningGag involves a different part of a laser cannon blowing up every time they try to fire it at Creator/WoodyAllen.
* The villain of ''Film/DoubleTake'' [[spoiler:manages to dispatch himself this way]]; bragging about his shooting skills when about to kill the protagonists, [[spoiler:he ends up falling down a long flight of stairs with his gun going off several times. He hits the floor with a GoryDiscretionShot (pun unintended for once) with the gun clearly pointing at his head before the switch.]] One character comments: "He was right, he didn't miss ''[[ExactWords once]]''!"
* Averted in ''Film/TheHardWay''. Creator/MichaelJFox's character, a spoiled naive actor researching a cop role with a tough cop played by Creator/JamesWoods, gets lucky in a shootout where a man firing at him seems to run out of bullets. The cop demonstrates that it had merely jammed by knocking the gun against a newsstand to clear the jam, and then shooting into the newsstand with that gun.
* In the finale of ''Film/TheWarriorsWay'', one of the outlaws has a machine gun braced on another's shoulder. After he has his arms cut off, the gun starts firing on full auto, pivoting on the corpse of the partner and neatly stitching across a horde of outlaws ''who were standing behind him''.
* In ''Film/{{Taps}}'', a dropped M16 sparks a firefight when it discharges accidentally.

* In ''Film/TradingPlaces'', Winthorpe (played by Creator/DanAykroyd) tries to kill himself with a Colt .45 automatic that he just purchased from a pawn shop; the gun fails to fire. Disgusted, Winthorp throws the gun away. It promptly discharges when it hits the ground.
* Near the end of ''Film/JurassicPark'', Alan Grant uses an SPAS-12 shotgun against the raptors trying to break into the control room, but drops it and runs after firing only a few shots. The problem turns out to be a simple stovepipe jam, which he could have cleared simply by pulling the spent shell out of the ejection port - assuming he would have known enough about the weapon to do so. There's really nothing in the film to suggest he's ever handled or fired that type of weapon before, much less in a life-or-death situation.
* In ''Film/AlanPartridgeAlphaPapa'', Alan attempts to fling Pat's shotgun into the sea. It lands on the pier railing and goes off, shooting Pat.

* Played for laughs in ''Film/ImGonnaGitYouSucka'': when Isaac Hayes slips on a dropped bullet after draping a ludicrous number of guns on his person, seemingly every single one of those guns discharges in one long, slow, agonizing sequence
* This nearly caused an IJustShotMarvinInTheFace moment in ''Film/HeartbreakRidge''. One member of TheSquad claims that his M16 is jammed, and starts [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety waving it around]] to demonstrate to his sergeant. The sergeant in question grabs the gun and frantically tries to move it so it's not pointed at anyone, and just as he does so the gun goes off, nearly hitting several people including the base's commanding officer.

* Averted in ''Film/DeathWish2018'' when Paul Kersey's Glock stovepipes during a one-on-one shootout. He attempts to clear the jam while being shot at and able to continue firing. It shows Kersey's limited experience with guns also given that he suffered from a "slide bite" injury on his thumb from an earlier shootout.
* In ''Film/TheAsphaltJungle'', Eddie is shot when the watchman drops his gun after being slugged by Dix. The gun hits the floor and discharges; shooting Eddie in the stomach.
* ''Film/ABCsOfDeath2'':
** In "A [[spoiler:is for Amateur]]", the assassin manages to complete his assignment when his corpse falls out of the air duct, and his gun goes off when it hits the floor; shooting the coke dealer in the forehead.
** In "F [[spoiler:is for Falling]]", the Arab teen is killed when he drops his rifle from the tree and goes off, shooting him.
* A non-gun example. In ''Film/Midway2019'', the US sailors don't have a good opinion of their torpedoes, and indeed the sole American torpedo to actually hit a Japanese ship breaks apart on impact without detonating. This is TruthInTelevision: Depression-era budget cuts meant the torpedoes weren't tested nearly as thoroughly as they should have been, and so the ones available in the early war were simply ''awful'', prone to running too deep, [[MisguidedMissile circular runs]], and detonator failures. In contrast, the Japanese Type 93 "Long Lance" is regarded as the finest torpedo in the world at the time.
* ''Film/{{Quicksand}}'': While fleeing from the cops at the pier, Dan drops the gun he took off Mackey. the gun fires when it hits the ground,causing the cops to think he is shooting at them.
* ''Film/RemoWilliamsTheAdventureBegins'': The plot of the film is driven by a corrupt defense contractor trying to knowingly fob off substandard rifles on the US Army. A soldier is badly wounded firing one on the range early on.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "Down Among the Dead Men", two suspects are arguing over a shotgun when they slam it down on the floor and it goes off, blowing a hole in the ceiling. Particularly egregious as the gun in question is a Purdey, generally regarded as the finest shotguns ever made.
* ''Seires/TheFBI'': In "The Impudents", the VictimOfTheWeek appears to have been murdered: shot from the opposite side of his cabin. However, Jim eventually discovers that the victim had been planning murder himself, but changed his mind and threw the gun across the room. The gun went off when it hit the vent and shot him through the heart.

* In ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'', your guns are not only likely to jam at the drop of a pin; repairing a jam is an extremely complicated technical operation involving detailed cybernetically-enhanced skills, a consumable nanotech-based resource, and a small minigame. Then again, given that ''laser rifles'' can somehow jam in this game...

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', Ocelot stovepipes his own semiautomatic pistol when he tries a fancy move he'd heard of for the first time[[note]]Basically, copying a move he'd heard about from Middle East fighters, which involves working the action of your gun after reloading, every time. This is to ensure that the gun always has a round loaded, no matter if the chamber was empty or not. However, because he hadn't practiced the maneuver, he works the action too fast, resulting in the aforementioned stovepipe[[/note]]. Ocelot then attempts to [[PistolWhipping pistol whip]] Naked Snake with his gun instead of clearing it, despite the fact that Snake has just taken down half a dozen of his men with little more than his bare hands. Clearly it was his turn to hold the IdiotBall. Snake easily counters, and when Ocelot drops his gun the cartridge pops out, clearing the jam. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItvclICnwgI Snake then explains this to Ocelot]] (and the audience), attributing it to the latter's faults and inexperience. Since the game is a {{prequel}} it establishes why he's ''Revolver'' Ocelot in the present/near-future storyline.

*** This is also {{invoked|Trope}} as a gameplay mechanic in most of the games. All firearms used in combat in most of the games have identification locks built in, hence why the player can't just break the neck of the first guard they find and use his assault rifle for the whole game. ''[=MGS4=]'' in particular shows that the older varieties of locks from the original ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' (and presumably ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty MGS2]]'') simply stopped the user from being able to make the trigger-pulling motion with their finger, while more modern locks instead make the gun itself act like the epitome of this trope, failing to fire on pulling the trigger even with a full magazine loaded and a round in the chamber (ironically, this is the game that introduced a character who can launder ID-locked guns for you to use). ''[=MGS3=]'' is set in 1964, long before ID-locks and nanomachines, so the explanation there is that Naked Snake would prefer to take a fresh, never-fired weapon from an armory that is guaranteed to work how it should, rather than steal one from an enemy in the field and risk getting a poorly-maintained one that could jam when he needs it and get him killed.

** In multiplayer, both the M14 and FAL will jam if fired too quickly, not out of any sort of reputation for doing so in reality (only [=FALs=] used by the Israelis were ever known to jam particularly often) but as a balancing measure to curb people using modded controllers turning the rifles into GameBreaker[=s=].

Since this one's so common, it'd be easier to just list especially JustForFun/{{egregious}} examples and subversions. Also see ConvenientMisfire. See RecklessGunUsage, JugglingLoadedGuns and IJustShotMarvinInTheFace for when danger is caused by user carelessness or stupidity.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX73uXs3xGU The AK]], for instance, is famous for being reliable in the sense that it's not sensitive to an average conscript not taking care of his rifle, but the moment you throw something more substantial than dirt or sand into the receiver - which is easy to do because of the loose tolerances and the large opening for the bolt's charging handle to move - it stops being reliable, as the parts easily get gunked up and unable to move with all the mud. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAneTFiz5WU The AR-15 family of rifles]], in contrast, are practically sealed from the elements, including a dust cover to keep anything from touching the bolt, and because the gas escapes from the side of the bolt out the ejection port, the rifle does "self-clean" that portion should there be mud there.[[labelnote:*]]A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhFjUliSvVc later test of the SIG MCX SPEAR]], after it was accepted into the US military as the [=XM5=], saw that it performed similarly well when the dust cover was closed before dumping mud on the gun, but when it was left open all bets were off - its gas piston design means the vent holes are at the front in the gas block rather than the side of the bolt where they could self-clean the gun, and its addition of a side-mounted charging handle also adds another path of ingress for mud to get into the working parts.[[/labelnote]]
** Short-stroke gas pistons are all the rage for their combination of reliable performance in normal conditions and low recoil, but they're generally incredibly sensitive to mud contamination. A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIkye_o3bGc test on the FAL]], with its large ejection port and sand cuts in the bolt carrier to give loose debris like sand a place to be pushed out of the way, turned out to invite mud in where it can interfere with the weapon's operation: the rifle jammed after two shots, with the bolt refusing to go into battery with a live round in the chamber, and after the mud had time to dry it ''completely'' locked up. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amwDejsJAro Two]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbG6fHtz9D0 separate]] tests of the AUG saw it fail similarly, the first time jamming after a few shots and the second, where they set its gas system to the "adverse" setting by Steyr USA's behest, failing to extract on the first round, before the charging handle locked up completely both times. And while the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FFLFa7-bTo VHS-2]] performed admirably, getting through most of a magazine before it started failing, the open channel for its charging handle just above the trigger group resulted in those failures quickly and suddenly progressing from the gun ejecting properly but not picking up a new round without Karl manually cycling it again, to the trigger going dead and the safety lever locking up completely. Roller-delayed blowback, conversely, is one of the most violently fast cycling actions ever devised, having almost no way for gas to escape until it's pushed the bolt back and paired with a suitably strong recoil spring at the back, meaning that unless the bolt is completely immobilized or the hammer's movement is interfered with, it is basically guaranteed that it will fire and cycle properly. A test on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYdoG4_Hmyc the G3]] saw it failing to eject after every shot, requiring the stock to be smashed against the ground while pushing down on the charging handle from above, but the bolt still consistently went into battery when it was manually operated in this fashion, and after giving the mud time to dry the gun went back to working properly, with only the mag release giving them trouble. A test of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzlYUcfqG08 CETME Model L]] performed even better, only even starting to give them minor problems once they dumped mud into the charging handle's travel path and then manually cycled it, which came out to a single time where the bolt failed to go into battery before another yank of the handle got it working again.
** Handguns generally perform the same, seeing better results with enclosed systems that either move fast enough to overcome any contamination or have simpler designs giving them fewer internal areas for mud to get in and interfere with the operation. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_IeAaR5AmU Luger P08]] performed flawlessly, due to its sealed toggle-lock action and that it outright requires high-pressure ammo to reliably function, while [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZreJ6BIDLj4 the M1911]] with its external hammer jammed after a few shots, though eventually got back to mostly-working order after brute-forcing the slide open again, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsUJNtmAxgY the FK BRNO]] failed to fire even ''one'' round because of mud blocking the hammer from either dropping with enough speed to fire or pulling back far enough to re-engage the sear. Both the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNw179rHxkQ Glock 19]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPr_OoPR4WY Hi-Point C9]] jammed early despite their more closed-in mechanisms, but the straight-blowback Hi-Point got off more shots and was brought back to life by a quick rinse of water, while the short-recoil Glock only got off one shot before jamming to the point where even dousing it with water couldn't get it working again, which Karl assumes was because of mud getting into the locking lugs on the barrel - locking lugs which the Hi-Point doesn't have - and preventing it from fully seating into battery.

* Possibly the worst incident of this trope ever recorded on Website/YouTube has to be the incident involving [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1449kJKxlMQ Kentucky Ballistics]], originally recorded on April 9th, 2021. When Scott was testing the durability of a fire hydrant from multiple .50 BMG rounds (fired out of a Serbu Firearms RN-50 breech-loading single-shot rifle), the firearm could not handle the continuously-building pressure of an [[HairTriggerExplosive unstable and unusually-hot]] SLAP round[[labelnote:note]]Saboted Light Armor Penetrator[[/labelnote]] to the point where it literally '''exploded''' in front of his face and body. As a result, not only did he get a broken arm and nose, but the shrapnel from the gun lacerated his jugular vein to the point he almost died from blood loss. Thankfully, his dad, who was recording the video, was able to take him to the hospital. The picture of him bloodied and [[NightmareFuel hospitalized]] was not exactly pleasant to say the least.

*** He subsequently [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsw70VfSFFw went back and fired the rest of the rounds from that batch]] - with a wall of concrete blocks between him and the gun, firing it by pulling on a string wrapped around the trigger - and most of them were bad, often requiring mechanical aid to unscrew the barrel cap and withdraw the bullet due to overcharging the bullets. However, the gun didn't outright fail until he loaded a ''deliberately'' measured overcharged bullet to, as Mythbusters would put it, duplicate the result. And, damage-wise, the recreation was almost a carbon copy of the accident.

* Another harrowing example of "shooter gets blown up by their firearm", or in this case, an RPG-7 rocket launcher, [=YouTube=] channel ''Ballistic High-Speed'' had an incident where one of its presenters shooting off an RPG-7 had it blow up on him. Thankfully, he survived with recoverable injuries. The post-mortem with him and another presenter suggested that the problem was the specific launcher they used was a de-militarized version that had a significant chunk of the launch tube cut out. To re-activate it, the gun smith welded a patch to fill in the gap. While they had no reason to suspect the patch-job was done poorly, they surmised that no matter what, a patched up tube is always weaker and riskier to use than a tube that wasn't cut up.

*** He subsequently [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsw70VfSFFw went back and fired the rest of the rounds from that batch]], and most of them were bad, often requiring mechanical aid to unscrew the barrel cap and withdraw the bullet due to overcharging the bullets. However, the gun didn't outright fail until he loaded a ''deliberately'' measured overcharged bullet to, as Mythbusters would put it, duplicate the result. And, damage-wise, the recreation was almost a carbon copy of the accident.
** Scott's use of a thumb to stem the bleeding became a minor meme, and he soon came out with [[https://www.kentuckyballistics.com/products/kentucky-ballistics-put-a-thumb-on-it-t-shirt "Just Put A Thumb In it"]] t-shirts to capitalize on the meme.

** While not in gameplay, FlavorText in the Data Vault from ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII'' mentions that the 48 Dredge, an LMG that fires in 6 round bursts, has a tendency to jam when fitted with aftermarket trigger groups that allow [[MoreDakka fully-automatic fire]] (as some nations are said to do), and that the weapon itself is also limited to six-round bursts because the seventh bullet on would almost invariably go wildly off-target. This trope also appears with the "Mass Weapon Lockout" Cyber Ability, which effectively automatically jams up to 4 (when fully upgraded) enemy weapons. However the enemies will try to and can unlock their guns, with [[EliteMooks Warlords]] doing so in seconds.

* Averted in ''Film/TheWayOfTheGun''. At one point Benicio Del Toro's character is firing a pump-action shotgun and it suffers a stovepipe malfunction. He simply takes a moment to clear the jam and resumes firing. The film was notable for the accuracy of its depiction of firearm usage. The director's SWAT team brother served as an advisor.
* An inversion in ''Film/TheKiller1989'' where [[HitmanWithAHeart Ah Jong]] angrily throws his cocked and loaded [[CoolGuns Beretta 92]] into the back of the truck he was driving. By all means, Hollywood logic dictates it should've gone off.
* Averted in ''Film/TheHurtLocker''. The protagonists are called upon to fire a .50 Barrett rifle, which jams due to blood in the magazine. The rounds are removed from the magazine, individually cleaned, breech-loaded and fired as normal. It's unlikely that fresh blood on its own would have caused such a misfire, but [[{{Squick}} tiny bits of flesh]], which more likely would, are implied to be mixed in with it.

* In the first ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' game, this trope comes into play during the boss fight with Pinstripe Potooro. Pinstripe’s method of attack is to shoot at Crash with a tommy gun. However, at points the gun will jam or he will have to reload, allowing Crash to hit him.

* A hunter in one of the ''VideoGame/HunterTheReckoning'' video games is shown to suffer stovepipe jam in his handgun when fighting, and mentions having to use his knife instead. It takes far less time to rack the slide of a pistol than to switch to a knife.

** This is more of a case of "Reliably Unreliable ''Ammunition''", as the firearm itself was up to regulations and built to withstand high pressures to chamber the powerful .50 BMG round and its variants (Serbu Firearms were no strangers to the said round, as the RN-50 was the third .50 BMG-capable rifle in their stable). Some analysts have pointed to the particular SLAP round Scott used as the culprit, somehow producing [[MadeOfExplodium more than twice the pressure of what the factory proof-loaded .50 BMG rounds can provide]], due to poor aging or being tinkered with at some point. On top of that, there's no outward indication to use for gauging how safe it is to use one, so the best approach to prevent an accident like this is to check a round's history and simply never take, keep, and use ammo from old armories.

* An inversion in ''Film/TheKiller'' where [[HitmanWithAHeart Ah Jong]] angrily throws his cocked and loaded [[CoolGuns Beretta 92]] into the back of the truck he was driving. By all means, Hollywood logic dictates it should've gone off.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'':

** Short-stroke gas pistons are all the rage for their combination of reliable performance in normal conditions and low recoil, but they're generally incredibly sensitive to mud contamination. A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIkye_o3bGc test on the FAL]], with its large ejection port and sand cuts in the bolt carrier to give loose debris like sand a place to be pushed out of the way, turned out to invite mud in where it can interfere with the weapon's operation: the rifle jammed after two shots, with the bolt refusing to go into battery with a live round in the chamber, and after the mud had time to dry it ''completely'' locked up. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amwDejsJAro Two]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbG6fHtz9D0 separate]] tests of the AUG saw it fail similarly, the first time jamming after a few shots and the second, where they set its gas system to the "adverse" setting by Steyr USA's behest, failing to extract on the first round, before the charging handle locked up completely both times. Roller-delayed blowback, conversely, is one of the most violently fast cycling actions ever devised, having almost no way for gas to escape until it's pushed the bolt back and paired with a suitably strong recoil spring at the back, meaning that unless the bolt is completely immobilized or the hammer's movement is interfered with, it is basically guaranteed that it will fire and cycle properly. A test on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYdoG4_Hmyc the G3]] saw it failing to eject after every shot, requiring the stock to be smashed against the ground while pushing down on the charging handle from above, but the bolt still consistently went into battery when it was manually operated in this fashion, and after giving the mud time to dry the gun went back to working properly, with only the mag release giving them trouble. A test of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzlYUcfqG08 CETME Model L]] performed even better, only even starting to give them minor problems once they dumped mud into the charging handle's travel path and then manually cycled it, which came out to a single time where the bolt failed to go into battery before another yank of the handle got it working again.

** Handguns generally perform the same, though the speed of the action tends to matter more. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_IeAaR5AmU Luger P08]] performed flawlessly, due to its sealed toggle-lock action and that it outright requires high-pressure ammo to reliably function, while [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZreJ6BIDLj4 the M1911]] with its external hammer jammed after a few shots, though eventually got back to mostly-working order after brute-forcing the slide open again, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsUJNtmAxgY the FK BRNO]] failed to fire even ''one'' round because of mud blocking the hammer from either dropping with enough speed to fire or pulling back far enough to re-engage the sear. Both the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNw179rHxkQ Glock 19]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPr_OoPR4WY Hi-Point C9]] jammed early despite their more closed-in mechanisms, but the straight-blowback Hi-Point got off more shots and was brought back to life by a quick rinse of water, while the short-recoil Glock only got off one shot before jamming to the point where even dousing it with water couldn't get it working again, which Karl concluded was likely because of mud getting into the locking lugs on the barrel - locking lugs which the Hi-Point doesn't have - and preventing it from fully seating into battery.

* Averted in ''Lightnovel/FullMetalPanic: The Second Raid''. In "Her Problem," Yu Lan's silenced pistol jams when she tries to shoot Kaname. She just clears the jam and quickly resumes firing.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX73uXs3xGU The AK]], for instance, is famous for being reliable in the sense that it's not sensitive to an average conscript not taking care of his rifle, but the moment you throw something more substantial than dirt or sand into the receiver - which is easy to do because of the loose tolerances and the large opening for the bolt's charging handle to move - it stops being reliable, as the parts easily get gunked up and unable to move with all the mud. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAneTFiz5WU The AR-15 family of rifles]], in contrast, are practically sealed from the elements, including a dust cover to keep anything from touching the bolt, and because the gas escapes from the side of the bolt out the ejection port, the rifle does "self-clean" that portion should there be mud there.[[labelnote:*]]A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhFjUliSvVc later test of the SIG MCX SPEAR]], after it was accepted into the US military as the [=XM5=], saw that it performed similarly well when the dust cover was closed before dumping mud on the gun, but when it was left open all bets were off - its gas piston design meant the vent holes are at the front in the gas block rather than the side of the bolt, and its addition of a side-mounted charging handle also adds another path of ingress for mud to get into the working parts.[[/labelnote]]
** Short-stroke gas pistons are all the rage for their combination of reliable performance in normal conditions and low recoil, but they're generally incredibly sensitive to mud contamination. A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIkye_o3bGc test on the FAL]], with its large ejection port and sand cuts in the bolt carrier to give loose debris like sand a place to be pushed out of the way, turned out to invite mud in where it can interfere with the weapon's operation: the rifle jammed after two shots, with the bolt refusing to go into battery with a live round in the chamber, and after the mud had time to dry it ''completely'' locked up. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amwDejsJAro Two]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbG6fHtz9D0 separate]] tests of the AUG saw it fail similarly, the first time jamming after a few shots and the second, where they set its gas system to the "adverse" setting by Steyr USA's behest, failing to extract on the first round, before the charging handle locked up completely both times. Roller-delayed blowback, conversely, is one of the most violently fast cycling actions ever devised, having almost no way for gas to escape until it's pushed the bolt back and paired with a suitably strong recoil spring at the back, meaning that unless the bolt is completely immobilized or the hammer's movement is interfered with, it is basically guaranteed that it will fire and cycle properly. A test on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYdoG4_Hmyc the G3]] saw it failing to eject after every shot, requiring the stock to be smashed against the ground while pushing down on the charging handle from above, but the bolt still consistently went into battery when it was manually operated in this fashion, and after giving the mud time to dry the gun went back to working properly. A test of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzlYUcfqG08 CETME Model L]] performed even better, only even starting to give them minor problems once they dumped mud into the charging handle's travel path and then manually cycled it, which came out to a single time where the bolt failed to go into battery before another yank of the handle got it working again.
** Handguns generally perform the same, though the speed of the action tends to matter more. The sealed toggle-lock of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_IeAaR5AmU Luger P08]] saw it perform flawlessly, in part because the toggle-lock action outright requires high-pressure ammo to reliably function, while [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZreJ6BIDLj4 the M1911]] with its external hammer jammed after a few shots, though eventually got back to mostly-working order after brute-forcing the slide open again, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsUJNtmAxgY the FK BRNO]] failed to fire even ''one'' round because of mud blocking the hammer from either dropping with enough speed to fire or pulling back far enough to re-engage the sear. Both the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNw179rHxkQ Glock 19]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPr_OoPR4WY Hi-Point C9]] jammed early despite their more closed-in mechanisms, but the straight-blowback Hi-Point got off more shots and was brought back to life by a quick rinse of water, while the short-recoil Glock only got off one shot before jamming to the point where even dousing it with water couldn't get it working again, which Karl concluded was likely because of mud getting into the locking lugs on the barrel and preventing it from fully seating into battery.

* ''Film/RemoWilliamsTheLegendBegins'': The plot of the film is driven by a corrupt defense contractor trying to knowingly fob off substandard rifles on the US Army. A soldier is badly wounded firing one on the range early on.