History Main / StabTheScorpion

* ''TimeSplittersFuturePerfect'' plays with this. In the second Haunted Mansion level, after the mine cart sequence, a future version of Cortez charges toward your version of Cortez, wielding an oversized gun. He fires a beam of red energy behind "your" shoulder. Turns out there was a ghost behind you, and Future!Cortez has a "ghost gun" that can get rid of them.

* Done in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' with Hol Horse and Boingo, the latter of which has a comic book that predicts the future. It foresees Hol Horse kicking a woman, something he denies doing, even though it claims he will be rewarded with a great deal of treasure. Turns out said woman had a scorpion on her back, and Hol Horse did it immediately upon realizing what would happen otherwise.

* ''TitanAE'':
--> '''Cale''': You're never gonna have a better shot, Korso.\\
'''Korso''': No. I won't.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH'' sees Mrs. Brisby, a frightened mouse, entering a Great Owl's den. At the mercy of her natural predator, she is then additionally stalked by a GiantSpider...before the Great Owl appears and crushes the spider. Partially subverted in that even after crushing the spider the [[OminousOwl Owl]] is still terrifying.

* ''Series/DoctorWho''. The cliffhanger for episode 3 of ''Trial of a Timelord'' involves Merdeen seemingly firing his crossbow at the Doctor. However, the reprise in episode 4, reveals he was actually aiming at the traitor Grell, lurking behind the Doctor and Peri.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" probably counts. The Doctor seems to be forced into shooting either Rassilon or the Master in order to save the universe. Finally he seems to settle on the Master, and aims the gun at him... then says "Get out of the way", and shoots the machine behind him instead. A minute later, the Master does the exact same thing, telling the Doctor to get out of the way so he can attack Rassilon himself.
** The older Amy's introduction in "The Girl Who Waited" involves stabbing a Handbot over Rory's shoulder.

A mysterious character, sometimes a temporary ally or enemy, sneaks behind the protagonist. We see as they lift a knife, take careful aim at the hero, and STAB.

The more BadAss version of PetTheDog. Can be parodied in more mundane series with a mosquito.

See also StabTheSalad, BaitAndSwitchGunshot, and TheBlofeldPloy. Compare AttackHello.

This trope has been used so often, however, that it is something of a cliche - particularly cringe-worthy when the scorpions appear for no apparent reason other than to get stabbed.

* Revy and Dutch from ''Anime/BlackLagoon'' manage to pull this one each other ''simultaneously'' when Dutch is chewing her out for acting [[AxCrazy unprofessionally]] and they're [[MexicanStandoff ideally pointing their guns at each other]] when more Neo-Nazis try to sneak up on them. Both mention they thought the other was really going to shot him/her, though Dutch said he was joking.

* In ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'', Anya pulls a gun on JamesBond, only to shoot the top off a champagne bottle.

* ''RomancingTheStone''--Jack and Joan are waiting out a rainstorm in South Ameria in the wreckage of an old plane. He whips out his machette and cuts the head off of a very long snake that was right behind Joan. Then he cooks it for them.
* MegRyan does this during an argument with Lou Diamond Philips in ''CourageUnderFire''. Tragically, [[spoiler: he believed that she was shooting at him, and he shoots her in the stomach]].
* ''TheSting'', when a man steps around the corner into an alley and fires a silenced gun, apparently at Hooker. [[spoiler: He kills Loretta, the waitress from the diner, then reveals that she's actually the assassin Loretta '''Salino'', who's been assigned the hit on Hooker and was about to kill him]].

* ''Film/HotShots Part Deux''. But with a screwdriver and squeaky bed. Yeah...

* ''{{Holes}}'': Stanley (Caveman) is returning to his sleeping quarters after a late night of digging early on in his stay at Camp Greenlake. He turns to find Mr. Sir pointing his revolver seemingly at him, and thinks it's all over when Mr. Sir fires. Mr. Sir was not aiming at him, however, but at the deadly and extremely poisonous yellow spotted lizard that had snuck up behind him. Earlier in the movie and in the book, Mr. Sir says, when Stanley is seen eyeing his revolver nervously, "This is for yellow spotting lizards. Don't worry; I wouldn't waste a bullet on you."

* ''ParadiseRoad'' has a scene in which a Japanese prison guards dramatically holds up a sword as though about to decapitate Cate Blanchett's character after subjecting her to a day and night of torture, but brings the sword down and slices off a lock of hair instead.

* In an episode of VoltronDefenderOfTheUniverse, the Voltron Force frees a slave and meets up with the woman who leads the rebellion against the BigBad on some DeathWorld where the population is being forced to mine a dangerous substance through slave labor. The slave knows the layout of the enemy base, but he initially refuses to help and reveals he was a traitor and a soldier for the bad guys. The rebel leader draws her laser pistol and tells him not to move, and he tells her to go ahead and kill him. She then fires - and kills the roughly two foot scorpion on the wall behind him.

* In ''Manga/RisingXRydeen''when Aria first introduces herself to Takara she kicks dangerously close to his head. The next panel shows that she was aiming for a bee right behind him.

* In ''Manga/RisingXRydeen'' Aria first introduces herself to Takara she kicks dangerously close to his head. The next panel shows that she was aiming for a bee right behind him.

* ''Film/LandOfTheDead''. While in the countryside, accomplished sharpshooter Charlie starts to menacingly point his rifle at Slack, but fires just past her ear. Then we see the zombie that was standing behind her fall to the ground.

* During the ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' three-parter "One Shall Rise", Unicron attempt to use his connection with Megatron to get the Decepticon leader to murder Optimus. While it at first appears that he's going to kill Optimus from behind, Megatron simply shoves him out of the way so he can destroy one of Unicron's antibody drones.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH'' sees Mrs. Brisby, a frightened mouse, entering a Great Owl's den. At the mercy of her natural predator, she is then additionally stalked by a GiantSpider...before the Great Owl appears and crushes the spider. Partially subverted in that even after crushing the spider the {{Owl|BeDamned}} is still terrifying.

* In one {{Tintin}} adventure (''Secret of the Unicorn''), Captain Haddock (who by now was well-established as a friend of Tintin) charges with a whiskey bottle raised. Tintin assumes that the captain is coming for ''him'', possibly drunk or crazy, until the bottle flies and hits a thug about to shoot Tintin.

* During the [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Club of Heroes]] reunion that turned sour with the murder of host John Mayhew, el Gaucho literally stabbed the robot scorpion creeping up on the Musketeer, recognizing it not only as deadly, but as the calling card of his enemy Scorpiana.

* Happens (almost literally) in ''The Legend of Red Wolf'' by Enrique Villagrin. Jessica Hartmann and her maid are [[TwoPersonPoolParty having sex by the swimming pool]] when Red Wolf creeps up on them. Instead of attacking them, however, he crushes a scorpion that was about to sting them.

* Lampshaded in the German police-spoof ''Film/DerWixxer''. The protagonist was trapped in a bathtub and was attempted to kill á la ''Film/{{Saw}}''. He manages to defeat the trap, upon which a suspect (whom the building belongs) enters the room, sternly glancing at the protagonist, approaches him slowly and ominously, pulls up his sleeves, complete with a Now-I'm-Going-To-Finish-You-Off - expression. Then, totally out of the blue, he quips, "Jesus Christ, what's going on here?!" and helps him out of the tub.

* Rennie does this to Wick in ''The Crush''. "Move and you're a dead man." Of course he does move, prompting Rennie to shoot the bobcat about to pounce on Wick from behind.

* Happens in ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', almost literally. Daenerys is given a box from a stranger. She opens it, when an old man hits her hands with a staff, knocking the box out of them. It turns out that the box contained a manticore, a highly venomous, (possibly) scorpion-like creature.

** For impact, the setup to this -- them aiming weapons at each other -- was the episode's ColdOpen, and it was followed by an entire episode of Castle showing up in suspicious circumstances near a bunch of murders that seemed to have been perpetrated by him. [[spoiler:They weren't, of course.]]

* In Disney's ''Disney/{{Tarzan}}'', the title character is presented with one in regards to bullish rhinos that have forcefully moved into the apes' territory after being driven out of their homes by human civilization. After learning that he purchased large amounts of dynamite to resolve the rhino issue, Jane and the others rush stop Tarzan from doing the deed, which turns out to be blowing up a new section of river. Aware that he could've killed them all if he wanted to, the rhinos accept their new home.

* During the [[{{Batman}} Club of Heroes]] reunion that turned sour with the murder of host John Mayhew, el Gaucho literally stabbed the robot scorpion creeping up on the Musketeer, recognizing it not only as deadly, but as the calling card of his enemy Scorpiana.