"I've never fired a gun before, but I can't miss at point-blank range."
— Takashi Komuro, Highschool of the Dead
Guns are inherently awesome in their ability to make things significantly less alive from a distance. But every once in a while, firing from a distance just doesn't cut it. Maybe your opponent is really good at dodging bullets, or keeps putting up some kind of barrier, or your knowledge of guns is a bit... challenged. Never fret, for there is always one range that you can be sure will be effective against any opponent: two inches from their face.
This can obviously apply to things other than guns. While "point blank" has specific meanings in both ballistics note and forensics, note anything sufficiently close qualifies for this trope.
May not apply to graduates of the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy.
The phrase "point blank" originates as an artillery term for when the target is so close the gun isn't elevated to compensate for distance. (It comes from the French "blanc", meaning white, referring to the white point in the center of the target and was typically found experimentally, by test-firing a given weapon and adjusting the sights so the user has a reliable midpoint to aim with.)
Also take note that firing blank rounds can still be harmful or even lethal at close ranges - they may not have proper projectiles but the pressure from the gunpowder detonation is sufficient to cause significant harm or even death at very short rangesnote . Also of note when it comes to "contact range" - pressing the barrel against the target - is that in some semiautomatic pistols, doing this can push the slide back slightly and may as a result put the weapon out of batterynote , at which point it may misfire, jam, fail to feed the next round, or - if the weapon has safety features specifically designed to prevent it being fired out of battery because of the attendant risk - fail to fire at all.
Often overlaps with *Click* Hello. Compare Short-Range Long-Range Weapon for when you're not supposed to use guns at close range, but do anyway. Contrast Arbitrary Weapon Range. See Short-Range Shotgun for a class of guns that people expect to be this trope. See also Boom, Headshot!.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Berserk, Gut's Arm Cannon is usually used point-blank, often as a fallback when he can't use his sword.
- The Big O has a very satisfying one during Roger's fight with Big Duo Inferno. After several minutes of getting the crap kicked out of it, Big O finally palms the other megadeus' face, brutally slams it into a nearby skyscraper, and then blows the hell out of it with its O Thunder.
- Code Geass R2
- In R2 Turn 18 (Episode 43 of the overall series), Luciano Bradley, the Knight of Ten, tries to fire a surprise Slash Harken on his Percival's head at Kallen Kozuki's new Guren S.E.I.T.E.N., intending to hit her at extremely close range. Unfortunately for him, catching Slash Harkens with her Guren's fork knife is something she's done before. This gets Luciano killed, too, as Kallen responds by grappling the Percival and frying it into exploding with her Guren's Radiant Wave Surger.
- In Turn 22 (Episode 47), however, Suzaku Kururugi and his Lancelot Albion successfully attempt this against Monica Krushevsky, the Knight of Twelve, in his Curb-Stomp Battle against the Knights of the Round. Monica doesn't even get the chance to finish Suzaku's name before he blasts her Florence into oblivion with the Albion's V.A.R.I.S. Rifle.
- Dragon Ball Z
- After failing to make much headway against Perfect Cell, Goku flies into the sky and starts charging a Kamehameha, which would destroy the Earth if fired from there. Cell assumes he's bluffing, then starts to actually consider it - and then Goku teleports right in front of him and fires, vaporizing Cell's entire upper torso. It would have worked if only Cell had needed his head to regenerate.
- Subverted twice, one in the first Broly movie and second as an homage to said scene in Super, in which a point-blank Kamehameha becomes The Worf Barrage.
- Played straight in Dragon Ball Super, where Ultra Instinct Goku knocks Kefla (the fused Kale and Caulifla) out of the Tournament of Power with a Kamehameha fired from about three feet away.
- Exagerrated in Durarara!!. Aiming a gun at people, from any other distance will usually result in either the gun never going off, barely doing damage or missing entirely. Mikado actually has a gun that can only fire on contact and they even need Celty to reverse the damage after Mikado uses it to shoot Masaomi in the leg and himself in the head.
- In the first story arc of Full Metal Panic!, Kurz finds Gauron's unusual Arm Slave too agile and elusive to get a clear shot at, so he fakes being out of ammo in order to lure Gauron into close-range combat so that he can hit him in the face with a round from his giant mech's rifle. Damn Lambda Driver...
- Godzilla: Singular Point: Anguirus is able to block incoming projectiles using his precognitive energy shield, so Goro takes a harpoon gun and rams it right up against the skin before firing it, preventing Anguirus from being able to deflect it.
- The Gundam franchise has a few examples of this trope:
- In Mobile Suit Gundam's backstory (as detailed by the MSV design line), there's a Zeon Ace Pilot named Brenev Auggs, "The One-Shot Killer"; he accomplishes this feat by using this trope, pressing his gun's muzzle against the enemy machines' fuselages.
- In Stardust Memory Kou Uraki swings the Dendrobium Orchis' anti-ship cannon towards Cima Garahau's approaching Gerbera Tetra, impales it, and blasts a big hole into it, breaking the latter mech in half and killing Cima.
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam has a non-gun example with Argo's Gaia Crusher; normally it's a Dishing Out Dirt attack that creates giant spires of rock, but he can also use it directly on enemy machines; Super Robot Wars even dubs this variation "Point-Blank Gaia Crusher".
- In After War Gundam X, Garrod gets around the fact that beam weapons don't really work underwater (due to the water dissipating the heat and energy very quickly) by pressing his beam rifle's barrel right up against his opponent's mobile suit.
- The Final Battle of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom sees Shinn Asuka kill Griffin Arbalest of the Black Knights this way, using his Destiny Gundam Spec-II's high-power energy cannon to blast the Emerald Rud.ro-A from behind.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam 00 season 2, Lockon operates by the following: "Even though I'm underwater, if I stay close enough, I can't miss!"
- He repeats this during the Final Battle, with a heavily-damaged Cherudim against Revive Revival. With just a second of Trans-Am left. Straight through the cockpit.
- Similar to the Gundam 0083 and Gundam 00 examples above, Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE has Hiroto Kuga do this with the Uraven Gundam's beam sniper rifle, which he fires after having essentially stabbed his opponent's mobile suit in the face with it.
- Heavy Metal L-Gaim: In episode 12, a mecha is equiped with a deflector shield that stops L-Gaim's rifle beams, so Daba picks a bazooka and shoots its head at blank point range. It works.
- In Highschool of the Dead, Takashi is just an ordinary high school student who knows next to nothing about handling a firearm. So when he does get a gun, he uses this strategy more often than not.
- In Kamen Rider Spirits, Riderman circumvents his arch-nemesis Marshall Armor's...well, armor by drilling a hole in it with his Drill Arm, then swapping over to his Machine Gun Arm and firing into it. Even worse for him, the armor keeps the bullets from actually leaving his body, making them ricochet around and turn his internal organs into salsa.
- During her battle against The Book of Darkness in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, Nanoha charges her opponent using Strike Flame, pierces their barrier, and fires a Wave-Motion Gun directly at their face. It doesn't even leave a scratch.
- Mazinger Z: In his battle against Debira X1, the flying Mechanical Beast was too quick for Kouji hitting, so Kouji waited as the Mechanical Beast lunged at him until the robot was at point-blank range to blast it with Mazinger's Breast Fire. Kouji used this tactic sometimes when an enemy was too fast or too sturdy.
- Naruto: Bee does this twice in the series. The first is when he fires his Bijuudama at Suigetsu who's protecting Team Taka. He's lucky there was plenty amount of water in the surrounding area and that his jutsu allows him to become intangible. Otherwise, there would've been nothing left of him afterwards. The second time he uses it is against the Juubi. He fires his own Bijuudama against its charged up Bijuudama right down its throat.
- Similarly in the original series, Neon Genesis Evangelion, when Armisael attacks Rei's Unit 00, she grabs it and presses the muzzle of her sniper rifle against it and fires repeatedly. As with the Rebuild example above, it does nothing.
- In Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Panty, who uses a gun, often finishes off foes this way or fights foes who use melee attacks this way.
- Surprisingly played straight in Promare: When Deus refuses to follow Kray’s ambitions to eradicate the Burnish, Kray coldly shoots him in the head in this fashion.
- In Pumpkin Scissors, the main weapon of the 901st Anti-Tank Troopers is a 13mm handgun that can penetrate the weakest parts of a tank's armor, killing the operator(s). The catch is that the only way to make effective use of the gun is to basically walk right up to the tank and blast away at point-blank-range. For obvious reasons, the weapon is considered too impractical (not to mention suicidal) for a normal human to use, but the 901st aren't normal humans anymore.
- Incidentally, said handcannon is called the "Door-Knocker"; as in "Knocking on the door to Hell".
- In Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 / 2.22, Mari Makinami, using Eva Unit 02, launches a diving attack against Zeruel with a handheld Pile Bunker, which doesn't manage anything, except bringing Unit 02 to within spitting distance of the Angel. So, she uses a spike launcher hidden in the right shoulder fin! And in the English dub, she even accompanies this with the words: "Point blank, shit-head!!!", but alas, it still doesn't break the AT Field.
- Rebuild World: It's a frequent necessity for Akira to get closer to enemies to increase the damage output of his guns. Actually, using them like this frequently results in either a Wrecked Weapon or losing An Arm and a Leg, which eventually prompts Akira's transition to Sword and Gun as well as getting gun models with their own Deflector Shields. In one notable case, due to Gravity Screw effects of a type of gas used by the enemy that slows down bullets, Akira realizes that the gas doesn't go down the barrel of his guns and executes opponents like this.
- In Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire, Ricky manages to eliminate a zombie with one gunshot while firing his gun sideways via grabbing his target by the hair from behind before firing the shot in point-blank range.
- Mikan from Rising × Rydeen can fire powerful lightning blasts from her hands. The blasts have a lot range but instead of firing them from afar she uses her Super-Speed to teleports right behind her opponents and electrocute them at point bank range. Most of her enemies don't have time to react and go down in one hit.
- What is Sailor Venus' last stand against the DD Girls in Sailor Moon? Why, blasting one of them into oblivion with a Crescent Beam straight to her face, of course.
- In Soul Eater, when Kid fights Crona, he ends up ramming Crona midair to fire both of his handguns into their face.
- In Speed Grapher, Saiga encounters an opponent whose sonic abilities block his explosive photographs. So he does what any good war photographer does to get a better picture; he moves closer.
- Defied in Trigun. Dominique the Cyclops tries this on Vash the Stampede not once but three times by using her Demon's Eye to dazzle him. However, each time, Vash's superhuman reflexes allow him to avoid getting killed, only getting grazed the third time. She would've tried again if Vash hadn't figured out her secret and turned the trope against her, shooting out her eye shutter to prove it doesn't affect him anymore.
- This happens in YuYu Hakusho during the dark tournament saga when Yusuke is facing Jin. Jin is using wind to deflect Yusuke's spirit gun blasts, so Yusuke blasts him point blank into a tornado swirling around Jin's arm.
- This almost ends up killing them both which Jin then quickly lampshades by yelling, "You don't make bombs go boom in your face!" Hilarity Ensues.
- Yusuke tries it again, though, this time using the Spirit Wave for the first time; somehow, he correctly figured that he couldn't use the technique at a distance (it would hit, but it would lack the force he needed), so he instead waited to uncork until right as he connected with a gut punch for maximum impact. It works, KO'ing Jin.
Comic Books
- Subverted in Batgirl (2000), when Cassandra Cain can finally arrest CIA agent that was behind killing political activists. She allows him to grab his gun, press it against her forehead and shoot until he empties the magazine. And then dodges every single bullet.
- In the first Gargoyles comic series,note Elisa uses this against a ninja, knocking him to the floor and sticking her gun in his face. While she doesn't fire, she tells him that she bets his 'fancy footwork' won't let him dodge a shot this close.
- Preacher: this is how Tulip finally killed Starr at the end of the adventure. Unlike what happened in their first shootout, Starr ran out of bullets first and immediately Tulip hammed her gun under his chin and pulled the trigger, blowing his brains out. Even so, Starr managed to say a last, disgusted "Ah... shit." before falling down dead, ending his revenge crusade once and for all..
- Silver Sable and the Wild Pack: In #13, Silver Sable knocks the Immune to Bullets Luke Cage to the ground and, before he can get up, holds her pistol a fraction of an inch from his eyeball, and says that—at this range—she is willing to bet that his eye is not as invulnerable as the rest of him, and then asks if he is willing to bet she is wrong.
Fan Works
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Godzilla fires his Atomic Breath at Keizer Ghidorah at close range a couple times, not unlike during his Boston battle against Ghidorah in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). Keizer at one point during their battle attempts to return the favor.
- The Bridge: Humanity's Stand: Godzilla Junior finally kills Demon King Gabara by chomping down on the oni's throat and firing his Breath Weapon directly into the bite until the beam shot out the other side of the now thoroughly dead Gabara's neck.
- Evangelion 303: During her aerial duel against Shinji, Asuka got extremely close to him to shoot him down. This is because he was tremendously slippery and she did not want to miss.
- The Forgotten Past of The Earthling Saiyan: Kakarot kills Dumpli by snatching her gun and shoving it in her mouth before pulling the trigger.
- The Lightning Strike basically uses this when Skye is facing Corvus Glaive and Harry and his lovers face the Black Order. Having chosen her target, Skye gets up close and hits Glaive with her vibratory blasts right up against his head; Harry observes that Skye has basically liquified his brains in his skull.
- My Hero Academia: Unchained Predator:
- The Slayer kills a few Saber soldiers with his gun at point-blank range during the I-Island arc.
- Likewise, he shoves Nine's Taurus revolver down his throat before pulling the trigger.
- Saruman of Many Devices:
- During a battle when the Easterling cavalry manages to get into melee range, Private Ugblag parries a saber with his bayonet, immobilising his opponent for a moment — and then the trooper next to Ugblag puts his rifle to the man's chest and fires.
It didn't matter what was up the spout at that range. The dehgan was blasted away as much by gases that didn't have time to dissipate as the bullet, leaving a ragged hole through his armour and torso surrounded by a ring of armour scoured mirror-bright.
- More by circumstance than conscious effort, when a Fell-beast and its Nazgûl rider end up landing among the White Hand ranks, one gunner manages to depress his artillery field gun enough to fire it point-blank at the Nazgûl, hitting it with a full load of canister shot and blasting its black robe to shreds.
Kerkú: Well, I don't know if that's killed it, but it'll certainly hurt in the morning!
- During a battle when the Easterling cavalry manages to get into melee range, Private Ugblag parries a saber with his bayonet, immobilising his opponent for a moment — and then the trooper next to Ugblag puts his rifle to the man's chest and fires.
- The Second Try: When Zeruel struck, Asuka was armed with a gun, but rather shooting him she sprinted towards Zeruel to fight at close quarters because she knew that shooting from far would do nothing.
- Shinji and Warhammer40k: As he was fighting Samshel, Shinji picked a rocket launcher and shot it point blank to make sure he would not miss.
- This Bites!: Very narrowly subverted in the Enies Lobby Arc. Spandam, after Robin insulted his father, gets mad and nearly executes her this way. This forces Vivi to awaken her Sovereign's Will and save Robin, which is the only reason Robin survives.
- Thousand Shinji: When Asuka fought Zeruel, shooting at the Angel from a distance was doing nothing due to his force-field, so that she rushed at him, shoved a melta up against its core and fired at point blank range.
- Which One Direction member will kill you?: Harry Styles kills the protagonist by shooting her with a gun pressed up against the back of her head.
Films — Live-Action
- In the climax of 6 Days, S.A.S Corporal Rusty ventilates a terrorist in the stomach when the latter is caught trying to escape disguised as a hostage. Seeing as they were escorting hostages down a flight of stairs and the terrorist in question was revealed to have a grenade in his hand, this is justified.
- Aliens:
- Corporal Hicks jams a shotgun right into a xenomorph's mouth. Of course, the creature's acidic blood spatters everywhere, burning him and several other marines.
- Vasquez manages to pin a Xenomorph's head against the wall and kill it with point blank pistol rounds, but the acid burns her ankle and incapacitates her.
- Battleship (2012): Although the 16 inch guns of the Missouri can easily engage at over 20 miles away, the battleship is practically spitting distance from the alien craft when they actually attack. Having only a small handful of shells, however, plus an undersized crew they could hardly afford to waste shots getting the range for a longer ranged engagement.
- During a hostage situation in a restaurant in the action film Big Bullet, The Bird shoots a woman in her temple from point-blank range for crying when he tells her not to.
- The Corruptor has the titular Anti-Hero, Nick, executing more than one triad mook in this fashion, firstly in the opening shootout when he blows a mook's face from less than an inch away and later in a brothel shootout where he sneaks up on another mook and shoots him in the temple from up close. Word of God states that the director of photography is inspired by a certain Vietnamese photograph.
- The climax of Double Indemnity, when Walter shoots Phyllis in the abdomen at point-blank range. Walter himself had just been shot and walks closer to Phyllis, encouraging her to fire again. Surprisingly she doesn't, and he kills her during a Deadly Hug.
- Hard Boiled (1992) opens with a heated gunfight in a teahouse which concludes with Cowboy Cop Tequila pinning down his last opponent, his pistol shoved into the other guy's forehead. And then Tequila, still pissed over his partner's recent death, decides to pull the trigger (leading to a Gory Discretion Shot where the audience sees a spray of blood from the other guy hitting Tequila's face).
- Inglourious Basterds has a scene where two men have guns pointed directly at each other's testicles.
At this range, I'm a real Frederick Zoller.
- John Wick will often pointblank his enemies in crowded situations like in the big nightclub shootout, often using sambo grappling techniques to take down his foes prior to either a finishing Boom, Headshot! or a Double Tap with his pistol.
- In Kill Bill, The Bride and Karen Kim have this exchange with their guns pointed at each other.
The Bride: You any good with that shotgun?Karen Kim: Not that I have to be at this range, but I'm a fucking surgeon with this shotgun.The Bride: Well, guess what, bitch? I'm better than Annie Oakley and I've got you right in my sights, so let's talk.
- The climax of Killers on Wheels has the protagonist killing one of the biker punks assaulting his villa by shooting the punk from an inch away ... with a Harpoon Gun. It's a Gory Discretion Shot though.
- Much like the Burn Notice example below, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang demonstrates how flawed this can be. When menaced by a man sticking a gun into his back, Perry points out that professionals keep at least five feet away, to avoid them having their gun taken away... then proceeds to do exactly that to his would-be kidnapper.
- The Matrix:
- Trinity's famous "Dodge this." scene. Even an Agent can't dodge a bullet◊ fired 2 inches from his ear. Well, technically he can, but only in a very roundabout way. Unfortunatly, the poor person that the Agent had overridden doesn't fare well. Though the bullet hole right between the eyes would say he certainly tried...
- Subverted later when Neo and Agent Smith fight in the subway. They dive at each other, blasting away and missing until they are locked with their empty pistols at each other's heads. But they are both empty.
- Trinity's famous "Dodge this." scene. Even an Agent can't dodge a bullet
- MonsterVerse:
- Godzilla (2014): Godzilla to the female MUTO. By forcing her jaws open and launching an Atomic Breath attack straight down her throat.
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Played With during Ghidorah's fight with Rodan, when Ghidorah's side-heads restrain Rodan and Ichi (the middle head) blasts his Gravity Beam point-blank at Rodan's chest (bear in mind Ghidorah's Gravity Beams are a rather devastating long-range attack). It immediately takes Rodan out of the fight.
- In Napoléon (1955), a Cossack who tries to assassinate Napoléon Bonaparte ends up neutralized and shot point-blank.
- In A New Hope, Greedo and Han Solo just happen to be conversing at a close enough distance for Han to shoot the bug-eyed green guy square in the abdomen to save his own skin. Amusingly, the infamous "Greedo shoots first" alteration to the George Lucas Altered Version has Greedo shoot at Han first and Han manages to somehow dodge at this distance. In the 2011 Blu-Ray re-release, they fire at each other more or less simultaneously and Han still dodges, all still at point-blank range.
- Deconstructed in Nobody. A gangster attempts to kill David by shoving a gun in his face, which is close enough for David to grab the gun and stop the hammer from falling with his finger.
- Presumably the logic behind the Jaegers in Pacific Rim. They're built to physically wrestle Kaiju, but frequently use ranged weapons at point blank as a Finishing Move. Presumably the weapons have huge damage falloff, and the Jaegers exist to get them to effective range.
- Pandorum features a non-lethal riot gun capable of blowing a person across a room. Now, the whole "non-lethal" aspect assumes that you're firing it from a safe distance away. If you're not, well...
- Pulp Fiction: subverts this trope when Jules and Vincent are surprised by someone hiding in the bathroom when retrieving Wallace's briefcase - he bursts out of the bathroom, fires his .44 Magnum six times and then keeps dry-firing - and then the camera shows Jules and Vincent, unharmed, looking behind him at the bulletholes in the wall. Jules thinks that what happened was so unlikely that he takes it as a sign from God. After, of course, both Jules and Vincent raise their guns and demonstrate to Mr. Hand Cannon what "hitting your target at point blank" looks like.
- Red Wolf overlaps this with Shoot the Hostage Taker when the protagonist, Alan, sneaks behind a terrorist mook holding Lai at gunpoint. The mook sneers that Alan isn't going to shoot since he has a hostage, but Alan pulls the trigger anyway and puts a bullet through the mook's temple. With Lai getting some red on her face in the process.
- In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the assassins who killed Gorkon are themselves killed using a phaser on stun setting, which is still lethal when fired right into someone's head (a phaser on high setting would have triggered an alarm).
- In X-Men: First Class, as requested by Erik, Charles holds the gun a couple of inches from his friend's forehead, but he can't bring himself to pull the trigger. Erik then grabs the barrel and places it right on the surface of his own skin, but Charles objects to the exercise and moves the firearm away.
Literature
- In The Alice Network, a very drunk Eve tells Charlie she will kill her if she isn't gone before Eve wakes up while pressing a Luger between her eyes. She doesn't make good on the promise, however — her man of all work, Finn, tells Charlie that she probably doesn't remember anything that happened while she was drunk — and we later find out that Finn takes the bullets out of her gun each night, so it probably wasn't even loaded.
- When A Brother's Price Jerin finally uses that derringer he's been mentioned to have at intervals throughout the book, it's at such a range. Then he freezes in horror.
- Discussed in Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits. Coming into close range when wielding a gun gives up one of its main advantages: Attacking without risking a melee counterattack.
- In Inkheart, many of Capricorn's mooks carry shotguns or pistols, but in all the times someone has one pointed at them, it's never from more than about a foot away since hardly anyone knows how to handle them properly. Most memorable is when Elinor shakily jabs Basta in the ribs with his own shotgun. "I may have never held a gun before, but I'm sure I can manage to pull the trigger."
- In Kidnapped, David Balfour kills an attacker who tries to ambush them by jumping down directly in front of David's gun. He's still pretty shaken up by it.
- The Zombie Survival Guide advises keeping a pistol as a back-up weapon, to be used only in short-range encounters; it takes a professional pistol marksman to headshot a zombie at most ranges, but even a novice can put a pistol to a zombie's head at point-blank and pull the trigger. It also mentions getting closer to them can break the nerve of anyone, causing you to miss the critical headshot, get bitten, and be doomed to undeath. Of course, then you still have another option with them.
Live-Action TV
- Burn Notice:
- One episode advises against this, noting that pressing a gun against your target's head negates the single greatest advantage that a gun gives you: distance from retaliation. Michael demonstrates by slapping his enemy's gun off target and then disarming him.
- In another episode, he deliberately does this to a hostage in order to allow the hostage to disarm him and appear to be the hostage-taker when the SWAT team bursts in. He notes in his voice-over that spies are trained in specific measures to take to avoid having their guns stolen by their enemy, unless they're deliberately letting them take them without being too obvious.
- Season One of Heroes:
Thompson: What am I thinking now, Parkman?HRG: (cocks pistol) Your last thought. (Pulls trigger)
- In an episode of Human Target, Winston shoots an enemy at close range to save Chance.
- The Final Battle of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger is decided by the heroes quite literally shoving their BFG into the Big Bad's gut and pulling the trigger. This was because Akudos Gills had already taken enough damage to kill most villains several dozen times over and wouldn't stay down.
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: In the first season's finale, Godzilla fires his Atomic Breath directly at the Ion Dragon while it's literally close enough to his head for him to have his arms wrapped around it.
- The final battle of Power Rangers Lost Galaxy ends with Leo using his Super Mode armor's claw to grab Trakeena and hold her in place for a point-blank blast. The other Rangers aren't sure he survived until he climbs out of the rubble with a Broken Faceplate.
- A thug from Smallville attempted to use this on the Flash, but was stopped by Clark before he could.
Tabletop Games
- BattleTech: The game's rules have a "point-blank attack" available for hidden units. If a unit moves adjacent to a hidden unit, the hidden unit can choose to reveal itself and fire one or more of its weapons immediately at the target. The attack occurs immediately during the movement phase rather than waiting for the weapon phase, and the defender does not get its normal target movement modifier (so it's easier to hit) because it's too surprised to react. Depending on the ambusher and target, this can quite possibly destroy the target before it can react.
- D20-style games allow a ranged weapon to deliver a 'coup de grace' attack (instant critical, can kill instantly) when up close and personal. The 'Point Blank Shot' feat (or similar) usually gives a bonus to attacks within 10m or so.
- In Call of Cthulhu shooting from point blank range doubles your skill for that roll (with d100), making it somehow impossible to fail in system designed for it.
- In Dark Heresy, firing point-blank is a +30 to your to-hit chance (in a system where most characters try to roll less than 35-40 on a dice ranging from 1-100). It is also the default way of using shotguns, who only get their signature 'scatter' damage point-blank.
- In Pathfinder, the ratfolk have a unique version of the gunslinger class developed for fighting in close warrens. They get bonus damage at contact range and the flash is used to throw off the opponents attacks a bit. Now, when you fire a ranged weapon at contact range, the target normally gets a free swing at you, and this doesn't negate that on its own, so it's a bit of asking for trouble.
Video Games
- From Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood on, your Finishing Move animations include these.
- In Alpha Protocol one of the lategame upgrades for the melee skill branch lets you complete a melee combo by pulling a gun and shooting the target up close.
- Back Stab have a special move where you disarm your enemy, pull out a gun, and shoot their craniums from an inch away.
- Forced aversion and double aversion in Chrono Trigger. Marle (crossbow) and Lucca (gun) will use melee attacks (buttstroke, hammer) if too close, unless it's a critical hit; in those cases, they do the normal two-round shot.
- In Darkest Dungeon the Highwayman class and the enemy Brigand Chieftains both have the Point Blank Shot skill, which can only be used when in the frontmost first rank on the enemy in their first rank. It deals extremely high damage and can knock the target back a rank, but when used by the Highwayman knocks him back too (which prevents you from spamming the ability, though it also puts him in a position to use skills with more flexible targeting). Many other classes who focus on ranged attacks are severely disadvantaged by being brought to the front rank though.
- Dawn of War: Most units have a ranged and a melee attack, where killing an enemy in melee will cause both units to become invulnerable and perform a special animation called a sync-kill. Some units use their guns during this animation.
- Commissars in melee mode do this as their sync-kill. The enemy folds in a Pose of Supplication, at which point the commissar gives them a bullet between the eyes at point-blank range.
- Tau are specialized in ranged combat and aren't meant to be in melee at all (their animation consists of whacking the enemy with their overpowered guns, with appropriately pitiful damage), but their Pathfinders do use their firearms during a sync kill by repeatedly shooting the enemy (much faster than their normal rate of fire).
- Ork Flash Gitz will impale an enemy on their bayonets, fling the unit away and shoot them, causing the corpse to rocket away.
- Devil May Cry series:
- One of Dante's signature moves is the "Stinger", a charging stab with his broadsword that closes the distance between him and his target. Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening introduced the "Gun Stinger", the same move performed with a charged shotgun blast in order to invoke the trope of shooting the target at point-blank range. Against smaller targets, knockback ensues from the blast. Its Crazy Combo variant is even aptly named "Point Blank", as Dante follows up with more blasts. "Gun Stinger" returns in the next classic continuity games.
- Unfortunately, Dante's version of "Gun Stinger" got nerfed in Devil May Cry 4 as he now lacks a follow-up blast after a point-blank shot. Lady's version of it in the Special Edition is named "Rush Hour" instead, and its follow-up is named "Ground Zero".
- Devil May Cry 5 returned to the move's original roots and improved upon it unlike the previous game, as Dante now has three follow-up offshoot moves after firing "Gun Stinger".
- Also in Devil May Cry 5, Nero and Dante's standard firearms deal more damage the closer they are to the target, and Nero invokes this by grabbing and shooting a Hell Caina right at its temple in point-blank range during a Buster sequence.
- For an important story event, Dante in Devil May Cry 2 finishes off Argosax this way.
- One of Dante's signature moves is the "Stinger", a charging stab with his broadsword that closes the distance between him and his target. Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening introduced the "Gun Stinger", the same move performed with a charged shotgun blast in order to invoke the trope of shooting the target at point-blank range. Against smaller targets, knockback ensues from the blast. Its Crazy Combo variant is even aptly named "Point Blank", as Dante follows up with more blasts. "Gun Stinger" returns in the next classic continuity games.
- In the Disgaea series, units with guns will eventually be able to learn the "Proximal Shot" ability, which allows them to fire at point blank range (i.e. in the next square, like most melee weapons) and blast themselves back to a safe distance with the recoil.
- Doom (1993):
- The BFG effectively works like a souped-up shotgun. One shot at point-blank range downs everything in the game except for bosses. Even then it is capable (with decent luck) of taking out the Spider Mastermind in a single shot at that range.
- Enemies with hitscan attacks become more and more accurate and aggressive the lower the distance. You might try and succeed at punching the Cyberdemon to death, but trying to do it to a Spider Mastermind will end badly because her hitscan mega-chaingun will eat you alive and render you unable to actually touch her because of knockback.
- In E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy, point-blank range attacks are only possible with single-handed pistols, as long-barreled weapons are, well, too long to use at point blank, and will result in the user lowering the gun and then blasting the target with a concussive Hand Blast from their free hand.
- Galaxy Angel: The second game, Moonlit Lovers, ends with Tact and his chosen Angel piloting Unit #7 together, and firing the Chrono Break Cannon at point-blank range to destroy Nefuria's O-Gaub. Justified because they had to get close enough to activate the Field Canceler and neutralize the O-Gaub's shield, as it would have otherwise shrugged off the attack like it did the first time.
- "Nearsighted" Jeego from Ghost Trick is a hitman who can always hits his target... as long as they are at point blank range.
- One of the many finisher moves in The Godfather video game. Scarface: The World Is Yours lets you do it, too, if you get close enough with most firearms.
- Guild Wars: Occasionlly comes up in discussions of Rangers (especially in PvP). Arrows, being projectiles, can often be dodged, so rangers will sometimes try to get close to a target to prevent this occurring.
- Hour of Victory have a cutscene near the end where a German officer blows away one of your British redshirt's cranium from point-blank with his Luger. Complete with the victim's helmet flying through the air.
- The Joker of Injustice: Gods Among Us in his Super Move finishes off his opponent with a bazooka aimed point black at their face.
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has Braig, Xigbar's Somebody, firing his crossbows repeatedly at Xehanort's head. All twenty shots are deflected at a range about half the length of his crossbow barrel; so he positions the bolt between Xehanort's eyes. In a subversion, he doesn't get the chance to fire before Xehanort levels his Keyblade at Braig's neck.
- In the The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky trilogy, as an 11th-Hour Ranger in the second game, Josette Capua can use her unique Stampede ability to do this to an enemy, lowering their defense stat, and blowing them across the room.
- In Mass Effect 2, Thane Krios prefers to kill his targets up close (though he is pretty handy with a rifle too). Taken to extremes when he drops from the ceiling, kills some Mooks in hand to hand, then shoots a Corrupt Corporate Executive in the stomach from point-blank range. He puts off firing just long enough that she can realize what is about to happen.
- In Mass Effect 3, Kai Leng proves so adept at dodging bullets that Thane is forced to try to use this technique. It doesn't end well for him, but he was already actively dying at the time and thinks Leng should be ashamed it worked as well as it did.
- A discussed aversion in 3 when Garrus and Tali at one point discuss what the most difficult mission they've been on was. Garrus says it was the dead Reaper ship, and when Tali protests that ship was full of Husks which run right up to you to attack he points out the differences in their weapon of choice: while she uses a shotgun he uses a sniper rifle, not well suited for close-quarters combat.
- In Max Payne 3 Max caps off his Pistol-Whipping against enemies by pulling his gun on them. You can pull the trigger immediately or savour the look on the victim's face before firing. Only on standing enemies, though; if they're already on the ground, he just kicks them.
- In MechWarrior, players tend to get real close to their target and unleash the full barrage of their battlemech.
- One of the new moves of Metroid: Other M involves Samus blowing the hell out of some enemies by standing on them and blasting them thusly.
- Skeleton Krew ends with you defeating Moribund Kadaver's final form and finally lowering your blaster to his temple. The game actually offers you a choice to shoot or spare the villain (for some reason - your mission objective is to eliminate Kadaver); you're suppose to pick the first option and blow Kadaver's head off his neck from point-blank. Pick the latter and Kadaver will kill you with a concealed weapon on the spot.
- In Red Dead Redemption, approaching an enemy from the front with a gun out often shows Marson shoving his pistol straight into the chest or head of the enemy and killing them in one hit.
- The sequel continues this, with Arthur sometimes doing things like kicking the opponent then putting his pistol under their chin and firing.
- Using "The Shot" as a finishing move in Red Steel 2 turns it into this, with point blank shots from either the revolver, shotgun, Johnnygun, or the rifle, depending on which is equipped.
- Guilder from Skies of Arcadia will occasionally use his guns on an enemy right next to him. He also fires it Gangsta Style.
- Getting shot at point-blank range in Soldier of Fortune: Payback results in the player taking quadruple damage. This can be rather frustrating, as the enemy will sometimes banzai charge you just to melee you before remembering what their guns are for.
- In Son and Bone this is Sam's standard execution towards the dinosaur-humanoid mooks; bringing them to their knees, shoving his revolver to their foreheads, and pulling the trigger.
- Steam Slug has a cutscene where McRyan, after interrogating a mook at gunpoint, pulls the trigger a couple inches from the noggin'. It splatters half the lens with blood.
- In Super Robot Wars, a mech that normally specializes in long-range Beam Spam and Wave-Motion Gun attacks will have a short-range Super Attack that involves latching on to the enemy and unloading from point-blank range. It's usually called something like "Point Blank (name of weapon)".
- The TakeOver ends with the heroes Megan and Ethan interrogating Big Bad Freya at gunpoint, with Ethan pushing the barrel a little too close to Freya's temple. Depending on the choices, Ethan can spare Freya or pull the trigger, blowing off Freya's head... and losing the only clue that could help Ethan and Megan relocate their adopted child Vanessa, who's then lost for good in the bad ending.
- Team Fortress 2 strongly encourages this in gameplay: most weapons experience damage ramp-up the closer they are to their target, up to a maximum of 50% extra at point-blank.
- This is especially so for the Scout - his Scatterguns (barring the Shortstop) get a larger damage bonus from ramp-up (maxing out at a 75% bonus at point-blank). Combined with their short range and the Scout's Fragile Speedster nature, this encourages Hit-and-Run Tactics and point-blank ambushes.
- The Scorch Shot's tauntkill (aptly titled "Execution") has the Pyro adopting the same firing stance he used when killing the Scout in Meet the Pyro, then shooting a flare. At point blank the flare deals 420 damage, one-shotting anything short of an overhealed Heavy, but beyond 100 Hammer Units, the flare deals the normal 15 damage, as if you were firing normally instead of using the taunt attack.
- Total War: Warhammer II: Necrofex Collosus Mecha of the Ghost Pirate themed Vampire Coast have a melee animation that sees them doing this, even if they are technically out of ammunition.
- Total War: Warhammer III:
- Kislev Armoured Cossars and Strelski, being equipped with Sword and Gun and Bifurcated Weapon gun-axes respectively, have this as an attack animation, and they continue to fire while in melee (depending on their orders.)
- Skull Cannons of Khorne are mobile artillery pieces that fire their cannons while charging into melee while Multi-Track Drifting in Spin Attack maneuvers. They actually regain ammo like this, being daemonic engines.
- ULTRAKILL: Bathing in the freshly-shed blood of your enemies is the main way to heal in this game, so you'll spend quite a few moments springing up to point blank range to blast them open with your weapons, usually the shotgun. The dodge-nullifying aspect of it also applies with certain enemies, mostly the flamethrower-wielding Streetcleaners; get up in their faces and they get too distracted turning it on to try and dodge out of the way, not that they get enough time to react.
- Unreal franchise has the Flak Cannon, which can dispatch unarmoured target into gibs with one point blank hit.
- Painfully, painfully subverted in Valkyria Chronicles II. Even if you are literally breathing on each other, there's still a chance that your target'll hit the deck and avoid all, or at least most, of the damage you just threw at their face. Particularly painful during certain missions that turn a normal Wake-Up Call Boss into That One Boss.
- Warhammer 40,000: Gladius: Units with the Rapid Fire trait (Guardsmen, Space Marines, Necron Warriors...) have a max range of 2 tiles but firing on an adjacent tile deals extra damage.
- In World of Tanks, heavily armored but inaccurate tanks can make up for the inaccuracy by getting right up in the opponent's face and making it almost impossible to miss weakpoints, which is often termed as "facehugging" once you start making contact. Also a favorite tactic of the ELC AMX (and occasionally the E 25), which is small enough that getting point blank often means the opponent cannot aim low enough to return fire. That and the gun's about as accurate as the aforementioned heavy tanks to begin with.
- It is possible for the artillery tanks to fire directly in this game but they're at a big disadvantage in terms of mobility, aim time and reload time and are often positioned somewhere alone, thus entirely unsupported. They do have massive damage and large aoe on their shots, often killing themselves when shooting at a tank at cuddle distance.
- In XCOM: Enemy Unknown and its sequels, most weapons get a hit chance bonus the closer the target is, with the shotgun getting a much bigger bonus at the expense of a range penalty over long distances and the Sniper Rifle getting a hit chance penalty at close ranges. In XCOM 2, the Laser Sight gun attachment also gives an increasing boost to crit chance the closer the shooter is to the target.
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, one of the powerful attacks available to the player characters is Reyn's Sword Drive, a single point-blank shot fired from his gunlance.
Web Animation
- On Red vs. Blue Church manages to subvert this trope hilariously in one episode of Reconstruction. Church normally uses the Sniper Rifle with comical inefficiency, but surely he couldn't miss using a pistol from a foot away, right? WRONG! Not only does he fail to kill the target, he manages to empty an entire clip of ammo without even grazing his target (who is standing still) once.
Webcomics
- Cyanide and Happiness: In this comic, Trelaf the Wise shoots a guy with a gun pointed directly at his forehead.
- In El Goonish Shive, an alternate Grace threatens Susan with pistols held just above her body.
- Girl Genius: Martellus repeatedly shoots Rerich from at most three feet away after blowing up the carriage he was in, attacking him with ten spark hounds, and injuring Rerich to the point that he is no longer able to get up.
- In The Order of the Stick, Xykon almost cast Meteor Swarm into V and O-Chul's mouths in a fit of rage.
- Nerf War rules according to Penny Arcade: When the opponent is cornered and out of ammo, it is acceptable to finish them off 'execution-style'.
Western Animation
- In the Avengers Assemble episode "Savage", Hammer tries to shoot Tony by pinning him down on the ground and shoving a Hammer 3000 in his face. However, because the magazine is positioned right at the business end of the thing, Tony just calmly smiles at him and pulls the cartridge out.
- Invoked and subverted in Transformers: Prime during Optimus Prime and Megatron's duel in "One Shall Fall", as both combatants repeatedly attempt to shoot each other at point-blank range with their BFGs in the midst of close combat, but they either outright dodge the shots or knock the other's aim off. The only time they succeed in shooting each other is when they aim their guns right down the barrel of the other gun and shoot at the same time.
Real Life
- Truth in Television. A gun's effective range begins at the muzzle, or "contact range." Guns become more lethal at close range thanks to increased accuracy, penetration, and bullet velocity. Additionally, the ability to get past a weapon's muzzle or control it is grossly overstated. Combine this with the crippling effect of fear and adrenaline on precision shooting, and modern firearms kill mostly at close range. Despite the accuracy of modern firearms giving them effective ranges in the hundreds of meters, most kills in modern combat occur within about 25 meters.
- Especially true in encounters between police and criminals. The average range of a firefight between the two is about 3 yards.
- Truth in Television example: During the Normandy landings, the Navy ships found they were unable to give effective fire support because smoke from the heavy gunfire on the beaches was obscuring their view of the battlefield. A commander of a Destroyer decided to break through the smoke by sailing his ship dangerously close to the shore, delivering broadsides from his five inch guns at what most naval commanders of the day would consider distance more appropriate for a knife fight. In terms of naval combat, a destroyer's five inch gun wasn't all that big, but compared to many of the guns the German defenders had to fight back with, it was more than enough.
- In the Burma campaign in 1945, attacking British forces were presented with a problem. Defending Japanese forces and their allies had entrenched themselves in a walled city with mediaeval fortifications more suited to an earlier age in warfare. Normal field weapons, including heavy tanks, were absolutely ineffective in breaching the defences. The British general decided he had to fight a battle more suited to Napoleonic siege, and brought forward some of the heaviest artillery weapons at his disposal - guns designed to fire from several miles away. These were advanced as near as he could get to the Japanese-held walls, and each gun was flanked closely by two tanks for close-in protection. The super-heavy artillery pieces then broke down the wall from two or three hundred yards away, firing over open sights, opening a breach for tanks and infantry to storm in a manner more suited to 1812.
