Briefcase Blaster

A gun concealed inside or in the shape of a briefcase.

Most of the examples under IKEA Weaponry pack away into a briefcase when disassembled, other than those deliberately disguised as something even more innocuous.

Turns out to be a case of Truth in Television. The CIA, as well as American government and military bodyguards, do actually use submachine guns concealed in cases (just like the one depicted). The case is built with a trigger on the handle that allows it to be fired without removing the weapon.

See also Senseless Violins, when weapons are concealed in an instrument case, and Handbag of Hurt, when the briefcase itself is used as a melee weapon.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Black Cat has the Sweeper Sven Vollfield, who carries a machine gun (amongst other assorted items like a net launcher) inside his briefcase which he carries at all times.
• Black Lagoon: Roberta uses a machinegun briefcase in her initial appearance.
• This is the preliminary weapon of The Invaders in Gate Keepers, to go with their identical suit-and-tie motif.
• Kazuki in Ga-Rei -Zero- dual-wields anti-demon machinegun briefcases. Also, this trope is somewhat similar to Senseless Violins, except that the carrying case is the weapon.
• Used by a pair of bodyguards in the opening scene of Ghost in the Shell (1995). The briefcases also make an appearance in the manga and at the end of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex being carried by the American Empire agents who are accompanying Gouda in the final episode of season 2. Interestingly, the different versions of the story show different versions of this trope — the original manga has the briefcases being full-blown machine guns that open up the necessary holes in their case-shaped shells when it comes time to fire, while the anime has the guns concealed within cases that fall apart when the users press a button on the handle, freeing the gun all ready to fire.
• Manako from Monster Musume has a briefcase that unfolds into a sniper rifle. The bonus chapter at the end explains that it's Awesome, but Impractical.
• One-Punch Man: Genos has a briefcase that transforms into a pair of arms for him to use to fire powerful blasts of energy.
• A variant is used in Tokyo Ghoul. Early on, Kaneki is warned to report to the manager if someone carrying a briefcase ever enters the cafe. That's because Ghoul Investigators carry their weapons in innocent-looking silver briefcases, which could hold anything from a BFS or a BFG to a spiked whip or a Sinister Scythe. These weapons are deployed automatically into the user's hand with a click of a button concealed on the handle.

Comic Book

• The Punisher: One A Day in the Limelight short story for "Micro" Lieberman had Micro dealing with a bunch of drug dealers that were harassing a friend of his by bringing a silenced MAC-10 inside of a briefcase to their den. The case has also armored, allowing him to use it as Deployable Cover.

Films — Live-Action

• The protagonist of The American is given the job of building such a weapon for a female Professional Killer, who wants a silenced automatic rifle that can fit in a small space. He modifies a Ruger Mini-14 and even prepares the briefcase that carries it in stripped-down form.
• The security forces that come alongside the Weyland expedition pack its assault rifles like this in AVP: Alien vs. Predator. Obviously they think it comes in handy, but against the Xenomorphs and the Predators, well...
• The Scorpio killer in Dirty Harry carried his disassembled sporterised Arisaka rifle and an MP 40, plus several magazines, in a suitcase.
• How Sal smuggled his S&W M76 into the bank in Dog Day Afternoon. Similarly, Sonny smuggles his M1 Carbine in a large wrapped present.
• Faster: The unnamed Professional Killer is shown packing a suitcase with strapped-in guns and knives.
• In Iron Man 2, Tony has a briefcase that converts into an entire suit of armor. This is straight out of the comics too (although there, the armor is usually stored inside the briefcase). To really get into this trope, one action figure of this armor — the Mark V — has a briefcase that becomes a missile launcher.
• James Bond:
  • The Trope Codifier may be Bond's briefcase in From Russia with Love, which is the first real Bond gadget. Amongst its other tricks, it features a rifle folded up inside and a tear gas booby trap.
  • The Living Daylights showcases a rocket launcher concealed within a boombox. Q says that it was designed for the CIA and agents assigned to North America, and says it's called "The Ghetto Blaster".
• In Judge Dredd, a prison warden hands Rico a small case containing Rico's old badge. Rico quickly reveals that the case itself is a reconfigurable handgun in disguise. Why the warden handed his most dangerous prisoner a package without inspecting what was inside it is a Wallbanger that is never explained.
• Eggsy's weapon to assault Poppy's Compound in Kingsman: The Golden Circle which consists of a Machine Gun, Rocket Launcher, and a Riot Shield.
• In The Lookout, Chris shoots Bone with the shotgun hidden inside the duffel bag full of cash without taking it out of the bag.
• Highlighted in Lord of War, when Yuri quips how easy disguising weapons in camcorder cases was in the 1980s due to the size of camcorders.
• The latter two installments of Robert Rodriguez's Mariachi Trilogy feature Mariachis wielding a wide variety of weapons disguised as guitar cases, including machine guns, rocket launchers, flame throwers, and a bomb.
• In More Dead Than Alive, the attorney Karma, who has been following Cain for most of the film, pulls a gun from his attache case and casually shoots Cain dead.
• Prime Cut: Irish gangster Lee Marvin conceals a sub-machine gun in his leather briefcase.
• In The Replacement Killers, the back-up hitmen used the MP5 briefcase described below.
• RoboCop 2. As Hob is escaping he's carrying what appears to be a small metal briefcase. When confronted by Officer Lewis he unfolds it into a machine gun and tries to shoot her. It's an actual weapon, the Ares FMG
• In the Jet Li film Romeo Must Die, the bodyguard of the Corrupt Corporate Executive keeps an assault rifle in a briefcase. The handle of the briefcase is actually the rifle's rear sights and a hidden button causes the briefcase to open and fall away.
• The Soldier: During the mission briefing, the Soldier opens a suitcase with everything they need enclosed neatly in foam sections, from a Tranquilizer Dart-firing automatic weapon to folders containing the nuclear launch codes.

Literature

• A duffel-bag variation shows up in American Assassin.
• The Executioner: while posing as a drug dealer's bodyguards, Able Team are each equipped with a briefcase with an Uzi inside and a steel trauma plate for protection. "If you see a bullet coming, just block it."
• In Force Ten from Navarone by Alistair MacLean, Petar's guitar sounds horribly out of tune because its interior actually contains a hidden submachine gun, which he uses in the climax to kill several German soldiers and save the commandos' plan from certain defeat.
• Adele's servant Tovera routinely carries one in the RCN series.
• In Snow Crash, Reason is mounted inside a suitcase, though it does have a heat exchanger coming out of the side.
• In the Jack Higgins novel The Wrath of God, our introduction to the Father van Horne involves him removing a Thompson submachine gun from his Gladstone bag and killing a bunch of federales who were about to hang the protagonist.

Live Action TV

• In one episode of Arrow, an assassin takes out his targets by posing as a lawyer and shooting them through his open briefcase.
• On Boardwalk Empire, Al Capone walks into Dean O'Banion's flower shop and is seconds away from killing him when Van Alden walks in, carrying a briefcase full of electrical clothing irons. Van Alden works as a door-to-door salesman and these are just his samples. He does not know O'Banion and is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. O'Banion quickly gets Capone to back down by convincing him that Van Alden is his bodyguard and has a gun in his briefcase that he's perfectly willing to use if Capone doesn't back down.
• Deadliest Warrior: One of the weapons used by the CIA in CIA vs. KGB is a Walther PPK hidden in a briefcase with a pulley system (terminating in a string looped around the finger) attached to the trigger. The agent assigned to test it manages to shoot all three targets perfectly while carrying the case normally.
• Dennou Keisatsu Cybercop: Each weapon used by the Cybercops (with the exception of their standard personal firearms) comes in a standard suitcase.
• Get Smart: Maxwell Smart had one of these once, as did his inspiration, James Bond. Though it’s first seen being used by a KAOS-affiliated hitman played by Leonard Nimoy.
• Crops up in a few Kamen Rider shows:
  • Kamen Rider Faiz gets his final upgrade in the form of a briefcase that unfurls into a BFG, which also gives him his final form while wielded. The gun can also transform into a sword.
  • Kamen Rider Decade had a card case that could extend a handle and barrel to be used as a gun. It could also extend a blade to be used as a sword.
  • Kamen Rider Zero-One has three, the Attache Calibur, Attache Shotgun, and Attache Arrow, used mainly by Zero-One, Vulcan, and Horobi, respectively. While each has a primary user, the briefcases have a habit of finding their way into the hands of other Riders frequently in battle.
• Person of Interest: In "The Day the World Went Away", a Samaritan agent assembles a DRD Tactical CDR-15 rifle from his backpack, a weapon specifically designed to be carried that way and quickly put together when required.
• The Professionals. In "Blackout", CI5 discovers that a team of assassins have purchased three briefcases along with umbrellas and bowler hats, so they can enter a financial office disguised as accountants. Turns out they have the components of an anti-tank launcher in them—though we only see it fully assembled, probably as it's a MILAN launcher and tripod that would never have fit in three briefcases! (The scriptwriter was likely thinking of the AT-3 Sagger, which had gained fame in the recent Yom Kipper War and was conveyed in large fibreglass suitcases that also served as a launching platform.)

Tabletop Games

• GURPS has briefcase weapons (most notably the MP5K briefcase) in a few supplements. However, they're Awesome, but Impractical, as they're incredibly hard to shoot from the case itself, and the cases have a high weight and cost a lot.
• Hot Chicks RPG. The Trick Case can fire a weapon while it's inside the briefcase. The Discarding Case has a hidden switch that causes the case to fall away, leaving the weapon in the user's hand.
• Rifts introduced a briefcase assault rifle and shotgun in Triax 2.
• One of the Shadowrun splatbooks had a briefcase that contained an SMG. It could even be fired without taking it out of the briefcase by pressing a switch on the case handle, though this would exacerbate the recoil from firing. If the gun had a Smartlink modification, there wouldn't even be a switch to press, since it was all cybernetically controlled.
• Top Secret, Polyhedron #32 adventure "Operation Butter-Up".
  • One of the bodyguards of an Arab sheik has a briefcase with an Uzi submachinegun stored inside of it. The Uzi can be triggered to fire while it's still inside the briefcase.
  • One of the pre-generated Player Characters has an attache case with an Uzi inside it. The Uzi can be fired while it's still inside the case.

Video Games

• 007: From Russia with Love replaces this with the Briefcase Turret (see the "Phoenix Ronin" entry below). It's Q's briefcase, but with an automated turret and photoelectric sensor. The kicker: once deployed, it cannot be retrieved.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 adds the Magpul FMG-9 (see Real Life below) as a secondary weapon. It works much the same as the Glock 18 does, though with the player character unfolding it for the initial-pickup animation.
• The Pandora gun in Devil May Cry 4 is carried around like a briefcase. It can turn into a crossbow, a bazooka, a laser cannon, a minigun-version of the more realistic version of this shown above, a blade boomerang, and a mobile missile launching fortress, and when opened, it produces a brilliant flash of light that instantly destroys all enemy shields in addition to damaging them. It also has 659 other forms as well, but naturally, you'll never actually see any of them in gameplay. See more here.
• The 'Sniper Case' from the Hitman games allows you to carry a disassembled Sniper Rifle around in a briefcase without suspicion, as sniper rifles are too large to be concealed in 47's jacket. There are also a few other suitcases for other types of rifles, which come fully assembled. Also a subversion as these suitcases are so long that somebody should be asking questions.
  • In Hitman: Blood Money, various containers found in levels (i.e. briefcases and toolboxes) can be used to carry a wide variety of small items including pistols. This feature makes a return in Hitman (2016) and Hitman 2, even allowing you to preemptively bring your own briefcase.
• NightFire has the Phoenix Ronin, a minigun concealed inside of a briefcase that can be set down as an automated sentry gun or operated by remote.
• No One Lives Forever has the rocket-launcher briefcase.
• Perfect Dark had the laptop gun, which could also double as a turret.
• Eikichi from Persona 2 has as his signature weapon a gatling gun concealed as a guitar case.
• Natasha, one of the characters the player can choose in Rusty Hearts, can use the 'Weapon Bag' which takes this trope to its logical conclusion as it can change into a minigun, RPG, and even a small personal bunker lined with cannons depending on what skills the player chooses to pick up.
• Secret Agent Clank goes one step further and gives us the Blowtorch Briefcase.
• In The Simpsons Game, one group of enemies are lawyers wielding this type of armament.
• In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, having a Mii Gunner wear the Business Suit will give them a gun shaped like a briefcase.
• Warframe: Some Tenet weapons use the "Granum attaché system", which lets them fold up into a briefcase-like shape when unequipped. Ranged weapons automatically reload while holstered like this, while melee weapons pause their combo counter duration.
• Zenless Zone Zero has Nicole Demara's briefcase. It's mostly used as a blunt instrument, whacking enemies to death, but it also has machine gun barrels and a cannon inside it, capable of shooting all around her at once or firing an energy blast that sucks in foes for easier dispatching.
• Zombie Revenge featured the two guitar-case weapons from Desperado.

Web Original

• Played for Laughs by Glennz in Professional, with a Briefcase NES Zapper.
• RWBY: Coco of Team CFVY has her handbag, which transforms into a rotary cannon when the need arises.

Web Videos

• FPSRussia: The Suitcase Gun

Western Animation

• Samurai Jack: in "Jack and the Labyrinth", the stranger carries a multipurpose briefcase that has a machine gun inside as well as a lighter.
• In the SWAT Kats episode "The Dark Side of the SWAT Kats", the evil Mirror Universe version of Deputy Mayor Briggs had a gas gun in her briefcase. She used it to knock out two guards so she could release what she thought were her universe's evil Swat Kats.
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: A number of Alchemax employees in the company's cafeteria have suitcases that transform into guns that they use as they pursue Peter and Miles.
• Young Justice (2010): Red Arrow uses a compound bow version of this to stop an assassination attempt.

Real Life

• Truth in Television: Heckler and Koch makes a special briefcase for their MP5K, as seen in the page image. Here's a video.
• Magpul made a concept product (the FMG-9) that looked similar to a small briefcase that housed a Glock and a flashlight and could easily fit into your back pocket. All you had to do was flip it open and you'll be ready to go. Magpul also makes a near-identical kit for airsoft guns, but the real one never reached the production stage.
• The CETME Ameli is a light machine gun, 5.56mm caliber, capable of fitting inside a briefcase. Unlike the above examples, it does have to be removed and assembled before use, but that is surprisingly quick.
• During the assassination attempt on former President Ronald Reagan, Agent Robert Wanko pulled an Uzi out of his briefcase in order to cover the President's evacuation to the hospital moments after the President had been shot.
• The Ares FMG appears to have this idea in mind.
• The Nerf Deploy CS-6 is a pump-action blaster that can collapse into a compact "briefcase" form.
• Beyond 2000 featured a concept of a very rapidly firing submachine gun with a Laser Sight, the AM-180A, based on the American 180 submachine gun (distinctive for its saucer-shaped pan magazine mounted on top of the weapon and the secret to its very high rate of fire), which not only made for deadly accurate shots but also fired so rapidly it could shred most materials to bits and even penetrate bulletproof vests. A concealed version was developed in parallel, being built in to a briefcase that even included the Laser Sight, and like the pictured weapon above, could be fired with the case closed (in fact during the show, the briefcase version was used to demonstrate that a bulletproof vest was futile in protecting the victim from this weapon).
  • The standard/non-concealed version of the AM-180A also happens to be IKEA Weaponry, and was designed to be easily assembled in complete darkness.
• While SMGs and the like really do utilize this trope, one way fiction often misrepresents it is with long-range sniper rifles that disassemble to fit in a briefcase. Such weapons are very precisely fine-tuned and the disassembly and reassembly process would throw even an experienced sniper off - it doesn't take much to miss when firing at a target thousands of feet away. The very few true rifles that can be disassembled in this fashion are generally used with iron sights only at ranges of 500 yards or less, usually for hunting small game in an emergency.
• DRD Tactical's Paratus-16 rifle series is a family of assault rifles designed to be stored in 3 segments inside specially designed briefcases that can be assembled in less than a minute. A semi-auto civilian version is readily available, but with a $5,000 price tag (as opposed to $800 to $1,500 for an FAL, $2,000 for an AR-10, or $3,000 for a SCAR-17S) and no real advantages over other .308 rifles outside of its takedown feature, it hasn't exactly caught on.
• MAC, or Military Armament Corporation, made an operational briefcase for their M10 submachine gun. The case allows for an M10 to be fitted with a suppressor and features room for two magazines and the buttstock. However, unlike the H&K briefcase listed above, there is no safety at all. Once the gun is cocked and loaded, you have a ready to fire gun pointing at anyone who crosses the muzzle.Here’s a video

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