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Stick 'em Up

 Stick 'em Up
type
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 Stick 'em Up
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Stick 'em Up
 Stick 'em Up
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StickEmUp
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comment
Ever notice how in hostage situations, someone just has to jam the gun into the person's back for them to know you mean business? The victim can't see the weapon, so sometimes a resourceful, desperate, and usually good person takes advantage of that by using some random stick or anything that remotely resembles the shape of a barrel to hold someone at "gunpoint".
Sometimes the deception extends beyond the victim to the audience as well. Until The Reveal, anyway.
It can work with knives too, but guns seem to be the preferred choice when an option. Sub-Trope of Brandishment Bluff. Not to be confused with Finger Gun.
 Stick 'em Up
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2024-03-25T03:17:24Z
 Stick 'em Up
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2024-03-25T03:17:24Z
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DBTropes
 Stick 'em Up / int_13b8ca79
type
Stick 'em Up
 Stick 'em Up / int_13b8ca79
comment
Used in Suika, aka Wet Summer Days. Kamishiro Souji is attacked by some local toughs who tell him of their intention to have their way with his girlfriend, the daughter of a local artist (who is believed by some to have killed his wife). Cue the girl's father coming up from behind and pressing a bit of metal into one of their backs, telling them it's his pallet knife, and then describing how his knowledge of anatomy as an artist gives him the knowledge to be a most efficient killer.
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In one episode of The Adventures of Superman, Clark Kent does this with his finger.
 Stick 'em Up / int_13d2e7c3
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Antihero for Hire: Dechs uses his finger at one point; this is seen as a major development, since Dechs always uses his gun.
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Stick 'em Up
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In Sarah's debut episode of lonelygirl15, "Crazy Emo Chick", she introduces herself to Daniel by putting lipstick to his back, announcing that it's a gun, and demanding that he puts his hands in the air, and that Bree and Jonas turn off the camera. It turns out she's just playing a practical joke.
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White Collar: Neal threatens to shoot a man by jamming a birdhouse against his back.
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Stick 'em Up
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In Batman Begins, Batman used a stapler for the barrel and the clicking noise to simulate a gun cock.
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Stick 'em Up
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Accidental example in The Sucker: During a gun fight against the Italian mobsters, Mr. Saroyan walks backward into the pointed finger of a stone statue, which he mistakes for a gun. He drops his own gun and raise hands, before swirling around and trying a karate-chop on the statue's arm — to painful results.
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Stick 'em Up
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An early Trigun episode plays the "finger" version straight.
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Stick 'em Up / int_3bce4381
 Stick 'em Up / int_4ada408f
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Stick 'em Up
 Stick 'em Up / int_4ada408f
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Standard procedure in Alan Ford due to the lack of funds of the T.N.T. Group, forcing the agents to routinely keep people under the threat of broomsticks, pipes, makeshift guns or, if out of options, index fingers with added verbal threats of implausible calibers. Sometimes, the villains are smart enough to figure out in time.
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 Stick 'em Up / int_4efed37e
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Stick 'em Up
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In Disney's Robin Hood (1973), Little John saves Robin from being executed by pointing a dagger at Prince John's back and making him to let Robin go.
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 Robin Hood (1973)
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Stick 'em Up
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Nick Velvet: In "The Theft of the Lopsided Cobweb'', a girl sticks a length of copper pipe in Nick's back, convincing him it's a gun and forcing him to accompany her.
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Stick 'em Up
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John Dillinger uses an improvised wooden prop gun to escape prison in Public Enemies. Truth in Television too.
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Stick 'em Up
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Parodied in "Buckaroo Bugs" and many other Looney Tunes cartoons.
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In No Rest for the Wicked, a flashback shows Clare holding up a man by pointing her metal finger into his back and calling it a knife. When her baby wailed, it really ruined the effect.
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The Adventures of Lano and Woodley used fingers in the episode "Game Show God".
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One episode of The Flintstones involved Fred trying to play superhero to thwart a couple of burglars. Barney instead keeps suggesting this trope—surprising them from behind and faking guns to their backs with his bare hands, complete with saying "Stick 'em up!"—to subdue them. Fred keeps rebuffing his suggestion as he continues to try and foil the burglars with his superhero act, with disastrous results. After one failure too many by Fred, Barney swoops in and just goes through with his feint, which works and scares the burglars into surrendering on the spot.
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 Stick 'em Up / int_891ea0e3
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Stick 'em Up
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In the original Castle Wolfenstein, the player can surprise guards and hold them at gunpoint, even with an empty gun.
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Murdoch Mysteries: In "The Murdoch Identity", Murdoch returns to a house in Bristol, England, in order to find out why two men there have been pursuing him (and shot him in the arm). As he's looking over photos and maps on a wall, he hears someone coming, hides behind the door, and seizes a smoking pipe. When one of his pursuers enters the room, he jams the pipe stem into the back of the guy's neck and acts as if it's a real gun.
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Stick 'em Up
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Done in Out of Sight, also with a highlighter or something.
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 Stick 'em Up / int_9e876c22
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Stick 'em Up
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Done by Anathema Device in Good Omens to get into an American air base. Used with a bit of Exact Words, as she told the soldier to put down his gun or else she will regret what she'll have to do. Her internal monologue continues with, "Because if you don't put down the gun, you'll find out this is a stick and then I will regret having to be shot."
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Stick 'em Up
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This happens in Tintin at least twice.
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Stick 'em Up
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In The Chase (1994), Charlie Sheen kidnaps Kristy Swanson with a Butterfinger bar.
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Stick 'em Up
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In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker there are whole missions where you must hold up all the guards in the level. Getting seen is an instant mission failure however, because you are armed with nothing but a banana.
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In an episode of the Scottish murder mystery series Taggart, a police detective used a piece of pipe to get an IRA killer to lower his gun. When he realised he's been fooled the IRA man couldn't help laughing.
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Stick 'em Up
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The First Doctor does this in Doctor Who with a branch. "The Time Meddler", a.k.a. the Meddling Monk, finds out... and the Doctor threatens to smack him upside the head if he doesn't behave.
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 Stick 'em Up / int_c94b3131
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Stick 'em Up
 Stick 'em Up / int_c94b3131
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In the silent film The Kid Brother the good guy gets the drop on the bad guy by pretending that a piece of pipe is a rifle barrel.
 Stick 'em Up / int_c94b3131
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Stick 'em Up
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Omar in The Wire does this in season 5. But being Omar, you would expect him to have a real gun.
 Stick 'em Up / int_ca08598f
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 The Wire
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Stick 'em Up / int_ca08598f
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Stick 'em Up
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Done in pant-wetting fashion in True Lies with a tube of lipstick under the chin.
 Stick 'em Up / int_cbe3e313
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Averted in Lady on a Train when Mystery Writer Detective Wayne Morgan jams his pipe into Danny's back and tells him it's a gun (something his hero does once per novel) only for Danny to sat "That's a pipe" and spin round and knock him out. Inverted later in the nightclub, when Danny sticks his gun in Wayne's back, only for Wayne to say "That's a pipe" and spin round and knock the weapon from his hand, only to realise with horror it had actually been a real gun.
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In Dead Winter, Lizzie pulls this on Clark the clerk at the Omni-mart.
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Stick 'em Up
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MacGyver's done this with a broomstick at least once.
 Stick 'em Up / int_f15f622e
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 MacGyver (1985)
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Stick 'em Up
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Referenced in Ratatouille: one version of what sous-chef Horst did to end up in jail is that he "once robbed the second biggest bank in France using only a ball-point pen."
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Stick 'em Up
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Bandits does this with a permanent marker, a bank security guard and Bruce Willis.
 Stick 'em Up / int_f7301199
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Stick 'em Up
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Parodied in Field of Dreams, with Ray trying to "kidnap" Terence Mann by faking a gun in his pocket. Terence responds with a crowbar.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Stick 'em Up
processingCategory2
Guns and Gunplay Tropes
 Stick 'em Up
processingCategory2
Improvised Index
 Stick 'em Up
processingCategory2
Weapons and Wielding Tropes
 Granblue Fantasy / int_a64e99ce
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Stick 'em Up
 Drowning In Your Depths / Fan Fic / int_a64e99ce
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Stick 'em Up
 Lady on a Train / int_a64e99ce
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Stick 'em Up
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Stick 'em Up
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Stick 'em Up
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Stick 'em Up
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Stick 'em Up
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Stick 'em Up
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Stick 'em Up
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Stick 'em Up