Nothing Up My Sleeve
A character will have a weapon hidden in his sleeve. Usually extracted by a device attached to his arm that will eject the weapon into his hand when the situation calls for it.
Typically it's a knife or a small gun, though there are other options.
Westerns, such as Louis L'Amour novels, use this occasionally. Often called a "palm gun", a "sneak gun", a "gambler's gun", "gambler's draw", etc. Apparently this type of weapon was common among Mississippi riverboat gamblers.
Derringers were, of course, the preferred weapon for this as you can actually hide it up your sleeve. Western Femme Fatale Action Girls are often armed with this type of gun. (Girl Next Door Action Girl types usually use a rifle or shotgun.)
Sometimes the sleeve is a good way to access Hammerspace. Mousse, the Master of Hidden Weapons from Ranma ˝, would be the mascot for this version of the trope.
A knife in the boot is another variant.
A common line for Magicians, as a way to assure the audience that he has no hidden devices that would help him perform the trick. Don't expect characters hiding a weapon to say this line, though.
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Examples:
*The Big Bad of the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Red Heat uses a derringer hidden in his sleeve.
*During the killing spree that marks the climax of Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle uses a small-caliber pistol hidden up his sleeve, which is drawn using a special rig that he made himself. He empties the weapon into the face of one of the men he kills.
*John Preston from Equilibrium is the master of this trope—not only does he sneak a pair of fully-automatic pistols through a polygraph test this way, but he keeps a pair of reloading devices in his sleeves and the ammo to feed them.
*In the Reverand's CMOA in the film Hot Fuzz He says to the protagonist "Oh, F### off grasshopper!" and shoots him with a pair of revolvers he had up his sleeves.
*Darth Sidious in Star Wars 3 had his lightsaber hidden in his sleeve (that or he used the force to pull the lightsaber to him)
*Bat Lash had a small gun hidden up his sleeve in Justice League that came into play after his cheating at poker was revealed.
*In Trigun, Meryl had literally dozens of single-shot derringers hidden in her coat.
I don't think Meryl had guns in her sleeves, though, they were on the inside of her coat. Ditto for Millie's stun gun.
*Ezra from The Magnificent Seven TV series had one of these.
*That guy in the fourth Alien movie had these built into his arms.
*Jim West in the The Wild Wild West TV series often had a Derringer up his sleeve, which he sometimes used as a Grappling Hook Pistol.
*The Mariachi from Desperado used dual Ruger P89s that he drew from his sleeves. He uses this twice, once during the Tarasco Bar shootout, and the other during the final showdown with Bucho.
*Also, in the final showdown of Sin City's A Dame To Kill For, Dwight unloads on Manute, Ava's bodyguard, with a snub revolver hidden up his sleeve. He hits with all six rounds, but Manute is still standing. Shoulda aimed for the head, buddy.
*Mara Jade in the Star Wars novels
Truth In Television: the tradition of shaking hands came about as a way for people to check if the other person had a dagger in their sleve. (Um....it's to show you have no weapons in your hand, so this is half correct)
*I'm pretty sure Wesley did this at least once in Angel.
*Fabiola Iglesias ('mini killer-maid') from Black Lagoon has two guns (MAG-7) hidden in her sleeves and EX 41 grenade launcher on her back.
*In the first episode of Gunsmith Cats, Rally had a derringer up her sleeve, which she gives away in a disarming sequence.
*Not guns, but in his last appearance on Yu-gi-oh Bandit Keith has a remote armature up his sleeve to feed him cards. Earlier appearances just had him pull the cards out from his wristbands.
*I remember on at least one occasion in The Batman Joker had empty hands, but big baggy straightjacket sleeves covering his hands. Arms up, sleeves flap down, and presto! He has razor-sharp playing cards in his hands!
*The Joker has a tendency to do this, in fact- he keeps a knife up his sleeve (with hidden ejecting mechanism) in The Killing Joke.
*In The Dark Knight the Joker is an outright Knife Nut. He conceals a blade in at least one shoe, and when he's arrested and searched, the cops find "Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint." *Plus, early on when he visits the mobsters and they try to attack him, he reveals the inside of his coat is lined with grenades and he's rigged them to be detonated all at once if need be.
*Yomiko Readman from Read Or Die keeps pieces of paper up her sleeves.
*In The Fifth Elephant, Vimes realises that the clerk assigned to him for the journey is more than he seems in part because he feels the palm dagger under his sleeve when he grabs his arm.
*Rastalin from Dragon Lance kept a dagger up his sleeve.
*In a variant in Tango And Cash, one of the cops (Cash, I think) had a gun concealed in in boot that let him fire when he put his feet up on a table.
*Anonym, a sinister nun from the fighting game Akatsuki BK, fights with revolvers that fall from her sleeves in her opening animation.
*Angel used to keep stakes in his sleeves on Angel. Wesley gets a collapsible sword that comes out of his sleeves during his darker period in Season 4 (this is parodied during the episode where they all revert to a teenage state of mind), but he pulls a grappling hook out of there at the end of the season. The device is not seen again until his Hope Spot in the final episode.
*Undercover Brother. During his final fight with the title character, Mr. Feather extended a wicked looking clawed blade from each sleeve.
*In The Dark Knight, Batman had a weapon on his sleeves. The armor spikes look decorative, but could launch off and imbed into enemies.
*Mai of Avatar The Last Airbender, who uses both throwing knives and stiletto-launchers hidden under her sleeves.
*Access to hammerspace version: Admittedly both Hansel and Fabiola Iglesias from Black Lagoon are able to pull two battle-axes and grenade launcher respectively from the back of their clothes.
*Shizune of Naruto has several spring-loaded needle launchers that she uses by pulling back a cord and letting go of. She has particular long sleeves to help hide them.
*Governor Tekagi from Freelancer kills Ozu with a blade hidden on his sleeve.
*From Guilty Gear, we have Baiken, who uses a whole assortment of gizmos hidden in her sleeve along with her katana.
*In the Stargate SG-1 episode The Devil You Know has returning Big Bad Apophis kill two Jaffa guards with a blade that appears out of his sleeve, although it stays fixed on his wrist rather than falls into his hand.
*In Bleach, a picture drawn by Kubo Tite shows Nanao drawing her as-of-yet-unseen-in-the-manga sword from her sleeve.
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Alien: Resurrection on Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:59 pm
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