History Main / StagedShooting

Not to be confused with BaitAndSwitchGunshot. Also see FakeKillScare, where someone's death is faked to frighten a loved one. Obviously this trope involved FakingTheDead.

* A surprisingly elaborate one in ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception''.

* Used in the climax of ''Film/TheSting''- Shaw shoots Hooker for selling him out to the feds, then the federal agent shoots Shaw, at which point [[DirtyCop Snyder]] hurries to get [[BigBad Lonigan]] out of the room. After they're both gone, Hooker and Shaw both get back up and it's revealed that the "fed" was actually another conman. The shooting was one final con- with the bad guys thinking that they're dead, they don't have to worry about them coming back for revenge. Viewers might have noticed that Hooker was putting something into his mouth (a blood packet) several scenes before.

* Done with a knife by Nami to save Ussop from Arlong during the Cocoyashi arc in ''Manga/OnePiece.''
** Also during the Wano arc, Kyoshirou, in reality Denjiro, pretends to execute Kumurasaki aka Kozuki Hiyori for disrespecting Orochi during court. They had planned it beforehand, with Hiyori carrying fake blood on her person in wait for such an opportunity to remove herself from the public eye.

* In the ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "Unsafe Speed", [[spoiler:a Texas DPS Trooper agrees to have Gage and Sydney do this to him so they can pass their initiation into [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels the Raptors]] so they can infiltrate their meth lab. Good thing he wore a BulletproofVest for this job.]]

* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', a freeside bodyguard for hire makes a killing with repeat business by staging attacks on his clients, where 4 thugs attack and drop "dead" as he fire blanks. With a high enough intelligence, you can point out he fired 3 times, and with a high enough medicine skill, you can find out the thugs are PlayingPossum.
* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' has a reverse case like this where [[spoiler: Edgeworth is framed for murder due to him having a meeting with Hammond, who was in fact murdered. Yogi, disguised as Hammond planned the meeting in a boat at a lake, where he fires into the air and then falls into the lake.]].
** In ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'', [[spoiler:this happens ''twice''. In case 3, the fake gunshot is intended to frame the shooter - the killer gave his girlfriend a gun that fired blanks and masqueraded as the victim, provoking her into "shooting" him and convincing her that ''she'' was the killer. Then, in case 4, the killer uses the sound of a gunshot on security footage of a shooting to fake the sound of the murder thirty minutes after it actually happened in order to establish an alibi.]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'', [=McQueen=] thinks he's being shot at by the sheriff. It's actually the sheriff's tailpipe backfiring. [[FridgeLogic How on earth he could have shot at him at all with no limbs is a good question.]][[note]]''WesternAnimation/{{Cars 2}}'' answers that question, depicting cars with retractable guns built into their wheels.[[/note]]

* On ''Series/{{Wiseguy}}'', undercover agent Vinny is ordered to establish his gangster's credentials with Sonny Steelgrave by [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten assassinating a federal court judge]]. He alerts his bureau contacts about the hit on the sly, and the judge secretly wears a bulletproof vest when Vinny shoots him.

** The show's final episode starts with [[InMediasRes Ford being interrogated]] about a failed heist, in which the interrogator (and the audience) is led to believe until near the end that the rest of the cast, other than Ford, was killed. (The heist was actually successful: the team needed to pretend to be dead so they could sneak in as part of the investigation of the first, fake, heist.) One part of selling the deaths: a security camera caught Eliot being shot several times. The scene really happened, but the gunshots were of course acted.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''; Wash does this on a Recovery mission, bringing Agent [[spoiler: South]] off the Freelancer roster. Subverted; [[spoiler: she]] had planned it with [[spoiler: Freelancer Command]].

** "Patterns of Force". A female Nazi fires a gun at a Resistance member and kills him. After Kirk and Spock grab the Nazi the Resistance member gets up, revealing that her gun was filled with blanks.

* ''Film/TheQuickAndTheDead'' has Russell Crowe's character shooting his {{Love Interest|s}} (played by Sharon Stone) in a DuelToTheDeath in a shooting contest arranged by her ArchEnemy. Later, he turns out to be alive - they [[FakingTheDead faked his death]].

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'', [=McQueen=] thinks he's being shot at by the sheriff. It's actually the sheriff's tailpipe backfiring. [[FridgeLogic How on earth he could have shot at him at all with no limbs is a good question.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars 2}}'' answers that question, depicting cars with retractable guns built into their wheels.

* Double subversion in ''Film/TheGame'' when Nicholas [[spoiler: thinks he has a hold of a real handgun that The Game missed. He shoots his brother, who we now think is dead. Nicholas then proceeds to jump off the roof only to crash through breakaway glass into a party held in his honor. Here he discovers that his brother is alive, and more importantly, that ''he'' has ''lived'']].

* ''Series/{{Quiller}}''. In "Any Last Request", a British spy is captured and will face the firing squad, and Quiller is assigned to rescue him. The problem is that a rescue would be all but admitting the man was a spy, so Quiller is ordered to fake his execution and ''then'' rescue him. This involves working out a reduced charge that will cause a bullet to strike the target and not penetrate, arranging for those bullets to end up in the firing squad's weapons while Quiller simultaneously fires an air rifle loaded with a blood-filled cartridge to provide the blood splatter. They get the reduced charge wrong and end up breaking a couple of ribs.

Not to be confused with BaitAndSwitchGunshot. Also see FakeKillScare, where someone's death is faked to frighten a loved one.

* ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile''. Somewhat different though, because the fake-shootee [[spoiler:later inflicts a real wound on himself. Apparently not caring that he might kill himself through the blood loss by this way]].

* In ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile'', Simon Doyle's alibi for the murder of his wife -- an attack by an ex-lover in which he was shot in the foot, thus making him barely able to walk -- was, in fact, staged.

[[caption-width-right:350:''It is the first time I've ever been grateful that James Bond is a good shot!'']]

** Another one occurs in "Fugitive" when Bodie is pretending to be an ArmsDealer; this time it's Doyle who pretends to be dead.