A bullet is fired and you don't want it to reach its target, so what can you do? You couldTake The Bullet yourself, of course, but if you areThe Gunslinger, there's no better way to show off yourImprobable Aiming Skills than toShootThat Bullet instead. TheRule of Cool will make that happen, rest assured.

Examples of bullets fused by (accidental) head-on collision have been found onAmerican Civil War battlefields, so the idea in general is not impossible, just so improbable it requires two armies' worth of fired ammunition to result in a few collisions. The idea ofdestroying projectiles, however, is regularly used on amuch bigger scale:anti-ballistic missiles andlasers have been put into service for the purpose of destroying incoming nuclear missiles before they could detonate, and smaller variants exist for shooting down smaller projectiles like tactical missiles and artillery shells.Naval vessels now commonly make use ofgatling-typeor other types of Close In Weapons Systems to defend themselves against low-flying aircraft and missiles, and are definitely notPoint Defenseless. Tank-based systems are also being developed, as a counter to RPGs and anti-tank missiles.

A related trope isBullet Catch. CompareDestructible Projectiles, in which this is a normal gameplay mechanic instead of anextraordinaryfeat.

Not to be confused with theTouhou game of the same name.

Anime andManga

• Madlax does it to save Elenore.
• Rushuna fromGrenadier does thisall the time. At one point, she even stops an entiremachinegun salvo with a single revolver bullet (by making it ricochet).
• Vash the Stampede fromTrigun can do this - but he alsotakes it a step further into insanity by deflecting bullets byflicking pebbles at them.
  • He keeps his eyes closed/squinted, and blinks them open right when he throws. You can tell by the sound that he's flicking before the shot is fired. The deflected bullet always hits the intended target non-fatally. Since he's interfering with a duel, he might be doing this to both bullets with two rocks, or he might deflect one bullet into a path that willdeflect both bullets into non-fatal or missing paths.
• InGhost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex this is tried twice, but doesn't succeed in both cases.
• Gandolfini, one of the mage teachers inMahou Sensei Negima, intercepts Mana's time-displacement bullet in this way with his handgun. Unfortunately, he did it a tad too late as the displacement magic's area of effect was still large enough to swallow him up.
  • Yuuna Akashi does this with Fate'spetrificationdarts, with some help fromAko'sartifact.
• Lyrical Nanoha
  • InMagical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Nanoha is shown drillingTeana in the art of doing this consecutively as part of herTraining from Hell. This pays off in the final battle,where Teana KOs Wendi by shooting one of her bullets, causing it to explode and the others to go off in a chain reaction.
  • InMagical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force, Arnage uses herGatlings to take downBeam Spam instead of bothering to dodge.
• Batman does this inGotham Knight, except since he doesn't use guns, he simply punches the bullet out of the air with the armored part of his gauntlet (because, you know, a batarang wouldn't be half as badass). A bullet fired from a high powered sniper rifle, from a train moving at full speed, towards a moving target.
• InEcole Du Ciel, Asuna does this in a practice duel. In aHumongous Mecha. Withbeam rifles.
  • Done earlier by Kamille Bidan and Jerid Messa inZeta Gundam, during the AEUG's operation in Jaburo.
  • Also done byUso Evin to defend fromKatejina's beam riflewhile he is fightingChronocle Asher for the last time. Also, note that all the previous examples were done by newtypes, who can sense theintention to fire before the actual shot rather than simply react with impossible speed.
• InZipang, the crew of the Mirai use the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow point-defense system to shoot down 18 inch shells fired by the battleship Yamato. In one case, they even cause a chain-reaction that takes out anentire salvo withone missile.
• Sho does this unconsciously in an early episode of theGuyver OVA, when one of the bad guys tries to shoot his friend. Justified because he is wearing a suit of biological armour that can shoot laserbeams from its forehead, and that is automatically responding to protect Sho and his friends.
• Train Heartnet fromBlack Cat does this a lot in his fights.
• Several vampires inHellsing shoot projectiles out of the air. Alucard and Seras are impressive enough, but Tubalcain Alhanbra really takes the cake by shooting a 30mm depleted uranium shell out of the airwitha playing card.
• Panty andScanty can both do this inPanty & Stocking with Garterbelt. At one point, Panty does it with a sniper rifle.
• Kinji fromHidan no Aria does this in the final episode toredirect an ally's bullet to hit a different target. Using it to parry bullets aimed for him becomes a virtual trademark of his in the light novels.
• InMy-HiME, Natsuki uses her Element to shoot down many of the projectilesShiho's Child fires at Mai.
• Naruto often uses this with kunai or shuriken, the most notable occasion being part of the battle between Sasuke and Itachi in Shippuden. Since both are equipped withSharingan, each deflects the other's dozens of shuriken, which pile on the floor between them.

Comic Books

• Green Arrow did it with arrows against his robot doppelganger.
• Hawkeye has also been known to do this with arrows, such as one instance where he couldn't dodge an arrow with dynamite strapped to it without getting caught in the blast range, so he shot it in midair instead. Naturally, when he andGreen Arrow meet up in Marvel/DC Crossovers, they do it to each other quite often.

Fan Works

• InLight and Dark - The Adventures of Dark Yagami, Dark tries to shoot Near from the top of the "Eyfal Tower", but Nearshoots away his bullets and shoots off his scope with a Nerf gun that fires real bullets.

Film

• Wanted! The movie is freakingfull of bullets hitting each other.
• In theHeroic Bloodshed movieFull Contact, Chow Yun-Fat shoots Simon Yam's bullet out of the air during the nightclub scene.
• This happened in the movie adaptation ofThe Shadow.
  • The looks on the character's faces when it happens is the film's Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
• Alluded to inStar Trek:Teleporting from a ship moving at warp speed to another is compared to "trying to shoot a bullet with a smaller bullet, blindfolded, while riding a horse".
• Happens during the final duel inVersus, when KSC2-303 and The Man pull guns on each other during the sword fight and empty their clips at each other, followed by a shot of the collided bullets falling to the ground.
• A character inRED shoots an RPG out of the air. The fact that he survives while the shooter dies demonstrates the director likelydidnotcare how a shaped charge actually works.
  • The Mythbusters also examined this scene, and found that it would have killed just the target, but only if it were a faulty warhead for a couple of reasons. First being a shaped charge it would have sprayed forward anyway. Second, and RPG round is only armed after 60 feet, when it's reached a certain velocity. It is possible to shoot it out of the air though.
• The Heroic Trio has more than one scene in which Anita Mui's character knocks bullets out of the air with a thrown blade.
• Disney'sRobin Hood adaptation has one with arrows. In the archery competition, the sheriff has just scored a bullseye (by cheating). To make sure Robin (in disguise) can't win, the sheriff taps Robin's bow as he releases. The arrow goes in a high arc. Undaunted, Robin nocks another arrow and fires at the first arrow. It hits, changing its direction such that it too hits a perfect bullseye,right through the sheriff's arrow.
• Missile-to-missile version inthe 1985Godzilla film, a Japanese ground-launched missile is sent to intercept an incoming Russian space-launched thermonuclear missile. It succeeds, but the radiation cloud created revives an unconscious Godzilla.

Literature

• A particular sect of theJedi are specifically trained to do this. They want to prove a point about relying too much on one weapon, so instead of blocking plasma bolts with lightsabers, they learn to shoot them down with a blaster pistol.
• This happens often inDale Brown books with missiles getting shot down, sometimes with other missiles, sometimes withFrickin' Laser Beams. Sometimes, though, it fails.
• In theStar Trek novelDreadnought, some Klingons are firing torpedoes at theEnterprise from long range and Kirk asks Sulu to try and hit the torpedoes and detonate them before they reach the ship. Sulu protests that that's never been done. Of course, havingImprobable Aiming Skills, he does manage to hit at least one out of the three of the salvoes.
• InThe Alloy of LawWax confronts a villain who's holding a human shield in front of him, preventing Wax from getting a clean shot. So Wax fires a bullet a little to one side of the villain, then fires asecond bullet that collides with the first, changing its trajectory so that it hits the villain from an angle that doesn't go through the hostage. Granted,time was slowed downfor Wax when this happened, butstill!
• A realistic version occurs in one of theSharpe novels. Hagman,The Squad'sFriendly Sniper, tries to take down a fleeing enemy spy. Unfortunately, at the same time, a cannon fires a load of grapeshot that intersects with his shot and knocks it awry.

Live-Action TV

• Done in the episode "Gunmen of the Apocalypse" ofRed Dwarf within an artificial reality environment. The outtakes video features a several-minutes-long montage of the multiple attempts to film the bullets falling out of the air.
• Get Smart had the anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-missile-missile, which wasExactly What It Says on the Tin.
  • That's just silly.We all know that there must be only one more "anti" than "missile" or nothing happens. Clearly,Get Smart had the anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-missile-missile-missile-missile.
• A standard part ofDekaRed's fighting style.
• MythBusters tested a version of this, specifically if two Minié balls collided, would they fuse together. The answer was eventually yes but trying to get the two rounds to hit deliberately proved to be near impossible. Their plausible conclusion was reached on the basis that it might have happened by accident given the volley fire tactics of the period the Minié came from.
  • They did however prove you could fuse two Minié balls together.
• Done in the "Modern Warfare" (1.23) episode of Community, the getsBritta and Chang out when their paintballs collide in midair, spraying them both with paint.
• Done inBabylon 5 several times. Station weapons, when set to "intercept" mode, automatically target incoming energy blasts and take them out with their own.
• In the series of made for TV movies following theRobocop TV series, aGuns Akimbo version of Robocop is design, when it's inevitably hijacked and sent against the real Murphy he's obviously outgunned, asRobo Cable tries to shoot two of Murphy's friends, how does he get out of it? By shooting Cable's first bullet and causing it to ricochet the second off course as well.

Tabletop Games

• InExalted, Dragon-Blooded archers have several techniques for shooting down projectiles with their own arrows. At higher levels of skill, they can use this to protect their allies, or hit the attacker with their counter-arrows.
  • Lunars have a similar ability... except they can use their bare hands to make the deflection. This also explicitly allows them to use the ability onattacks of pure essence.
• GURPS:Gun Fu has a perk that allows the character to try doing this. Of course,GURPS is pretty unforgiving when it comes to actually hitting that bullet.

Video Games

• Dante from theDevil May Cry series is a pro at this. InDMC3, he does it during the cutscene where he and Lady find the body ofArkham. InDMC4, he uses his handguns to cancel out Nero's revolver shots.
  • Indeed you can do it duringher boss battle by firing when she does, which also gives you a nice Style boost.
• InDisgaea 3: Absence of Justice, Salvatore's "Duel!" attack has her do this to her target's bullet to misdirect it so that it ends up missing, while hers still connects.
  • The Bullet Kiss gun skill inDisgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten has the user do this with theirown bullet, which ends up creating an explosion when the two bullet collide head-on in the target's proximity, as well as with the Deadly Pierce gun skill, which has the user headshot multiple targets by shooting the initial bullet that gets lodged in the skull of the first victim so that it flies into the head of the next, and repeating until all of them have been hit.
• Virtua Cop 3 gives youVery-High-Velocity Rounds with which to do this.
• The firstQuest for Glory game has what might be considered a low-tech variant on this. One of the puzzles involves somehow procuring a tiny seed that's being launched between several plants, and one of the solutions is to intercept it mid-flight... by throwing a rock and knocking it out of the air.
• InViewtiful Joe, the player can punch or kick bullets and missiles back at targets while using slow motion, and can shoot them while in the Six Machine. This is crucial for defeating several bosses, including the Helicopter, Harrier Jet and both tanks.
• During a siege in Chapter 2 ofTales of Monkey Island, if you ever try to fire your cannon at your opponent, he will counter it with his own cannon.
• Paranoia let you do this with blaster shots.
• Happens inSpace Invaders. Very annoying when you wanted your bullet to go on and into the enemy.
  • InSpace Invaders Extreme, shooting a bullet or laser won't add to your combo, but it will reset the combo timer.
• Not quite bullets, but in many fighting games projectiles will cancel each other out—your Hadouken can knock down your enemy's Sonic Boom inStreet Fighter II, while flaming paper fans inSamurai Shodown 2 will knock away a summonned demon.
  • InMarvel vs. Capcom 3,Deadpool andDante do this in the first opening. In gameplay, if two Dante players pull off Million Dollars at the same time,they get to shoot each others bullets avertingGameplay and Story Segregation.
  • Sonic Hurricane'ssh/f Super Fireball Battle provides dozens of examples of fighting game projectile attacks harmlessly cancelling each other out
  • Exceptions: if there's something 'special' about the weapon (Samurai Shodown 2: throwing your main weapon overrides someone else's projectile), or if you're playingMortal Kombat (both shots just sail on through each other).
• Although it does not involve fighting bullets with bullets, inTeam Fortress 2, the Pyro'sflamethrower's alternate fire shoots out a gust of air that can deflect a soldier's fired rocket, bouncing it right back where it came from.
  • However, the Sniper's arrows can break if they hit another arrow.
    • Or a rocket.
• Doesn't involve bullets either, but in theShoot'Em UpIn the Hunt, you can use your submarine's torpedoes, anti-air weapons and depth charges to destroy most enemy projectiles.
• In theory, you can shoot down incoming missiles inEscape Velocity: Nova by hand. It's nigh-on impossible, though, unless you purchase one of the point-defense turrets (which works out shooting them down without any input from you).
• A variation inMetal Gear Solid 3; When Volgin fires his electricity atOcelot,Ocelot manages to deflect the electricity by firing a bullet at it. The metal bullet conducts the the electricity, sending it safely off course.
• InResident Evil 4 you can shoot crossbow bolts out of the air. And more reliably Molotov cocktails.
• Wild Guns allows you to do this. Keep doing it enough and you'll fill out that gauge at the bottom of the screen which gives you temporary invincibility and an awesome weapon.
• Do Don Pachi Dai-Fukkatsu introduces a new mechanic to theDonPachi series: purple enemy lasers. You can shoot these withh your laser to block them. When you go intoHyper Counter mode, you can use your shots to cancelbullets.
• MASK de Smith fromKiller7headbutts a bullet out of the air.
• It's one of the main game mechanics inBattle City series.
• This is a trait seen in varying amounts in almost everyshoot-em-up developed byCompile.
  • Virtually every bullet inZanac series is destroyable. The most common type not with main gun and non-fully upgraded default weapons though.
  • InSuper Aleste, the spinning oval bullets can be destroyed with any weapon, you can use the Laser to blunt certain bullets, and the Circle can block just about any bullet.
• InFallout 3, it was possible to target missiles and grenades in midflight with VATS; a patch removed this.
  • Its not like the feature was all that useful. Unless the timing was absolutely perfect, it just plain and simple wouldn't work. VATS has a slight aiming delay, which when combined with grenades being used only up close and missiles traveling very quickly meant that it simply wouldn't be able to hit them on time. Being very small targets with typically poor hit chances didn't help. Grenades can still be shot and detonated while the enemy is still holding them, but thats another trope altogether.
  • It was brought back for Grenades and Dynamite in Fallout New Vegas. Easier with a shot gun, though in the hand it would often kill the user.
• Intercepting and shooting down anti-warship torpedoes is an essential skill in theFree Space series and is vital to successfully completing anEscort Mission. Fortunately torpedoes are fairly large and slower than most fighters.
• In theTouhou gamesShoot the Bullet (appropriately enough) andDouble Spoiler, you can knock bullets out of the air by taking pictures of them with acamera.
  • Using spellcards (read:Smart Bombs) also cancels bullets that come in contact with it.
• The NES port of1943: The Battle of Midway has a spread-shooting special weapon, which in its upgraded form can blunt enemy bullets.
• Heavy Weapon has your tank able to shoot down incoming enemy missiles.Required againstAtomic Bombers, because if their bomb manages to hit you or the ground,you're toast no matter how many shields you have!
• TheSuper Robot Wars series has the ability "Shoot Down", created as a gun-based counterpart to"Sword Cut"; however, it only works on missiles, grenades, andAttack Drones.

Western Animation

• Used inPeabody's Improbable History, in particular in that episode about a guy who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, but his gun was crooked so that made him a great shooter. However the gun got fixed just before the big competition, so Peabody shot hisown bullet to correct the trajectory in flight. Inverted theUnspoken Plan Guarantee and lampshaded the improbability of this trope while explaining the plan.

Real Life

• Close-in Weapons Systems do this, the most well-known of which is the American Phalanx CIWS. CIWS guns that use a hit-to-kill system actually track both the incoming projectileand their own outbound projectiles on radar and "walk" the bullets towards the target. Many modern CIWS guns have started to use explosive proximity rounds, rather than hit-to-kill penetrators, in order to conserve ammunition so they may not qualify as "shooting the bullet" (or missile, in this case.)
• On a larger scale, this is the basic idea behind PATRIOT systems that were deployed in Israel to protect it from Iraqi SCUD missiles that were launched by Saddam Hussein in the First Gulf War in an attempt to goad the IDF into attacking Iraq and causing the Coalition's Arab members to withdraw. The idea was that, when an Iraqi SCUD was detected, the PATRIOT would launch its own missile so that it would detonate when the two crossed paths and destroy the SCUD before it could reach its target. The US military touted it as a great success, but its effectiveness has been contested by outside experts.
• Also the YAL-1, Which is a 747 modified to contain a huge Laser that destroys missles. Some want to improve it to shoot down Fighter Jets and to destroy tanks!

• Trope
• Guns and Gunplay Tropes
• Bullet Index
• Shoot the Bullet