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Fanning the Hammer - TV Tropes

  • ️Thu Jul 18 2024

Fanning the Hammer (trope)

Fanning the Hammer refers to a technique where one fires a single-action revolver, not by pulling the trigger, but by pulling back and releasing the hammer with their free hand, using a fanning motion to do this many times in quick succession. When performed properly, this greatly increases the fire rate of the revolver, letting you unload a six-shooter in just a few seconds—and if you do this while shooting from the hip, you can unload all those shots before your opponent(s) get the chance to fire even once. A staple of gun shows everywhere, skilled gunslingers will fan the hammer of their guns to show off Quick Draw skills and impress onlookers with their dexterity.

In an actual shootout, doing this is inadvisable at best and self-destructive at worst. Shooting from the hip is not conducive to accuracy, while the fanning motion means you're at risk of slapping the gun away from your intended target (or worse, toward yourself) if performed incorrectly. The maneuver also puts wear and tear on the gun, as it was never designed to be used this way. Because of this, modern-day gunslingers use custom guns made specifically to fan the hammer for competitions and shows but never for self-defense. Gunmen like Wyatt Earp looked down upon the technique, claiming that anyone using it in a fight would be quickly felled by those who aimed carefully and pulled the trigger once, and scant records of anyone successfully using it in a fight lend credence to this opinion (indeed, most fanning gunmen wound up dead). The myth that it was a common sight in shootouts during the The Wild West was perpetuated by the comics and film industries.

But in Fictionland, the Rule of Cool reigns supreme. The best gunslingers will not only use their Improbable Aiming Skills to shoot accurately from the hip, but they'll fan the hammer to quickly mow down multiple opponents before the poor saps can even draw a bead. Some gunslingers will even perform this several times in rapid succession, complete with an Unorthodox Reload to continue firing nearly continuously.

Sub-Trope to Firing One-Handed. This is an ever-present trope in The Western genre, a favored move of The Gunslinger, and a leading cause of the Multiple Gunshot Death. You'll frequently see this trope paired with the Quick Draw. See also More Dakka, when you riddle someone with many more bullets than a six-shooter is likely to have. Not to be confused with Fanning the Knives.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga 

  • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Hol Horse's Stand is Emperor, a revolver with Bottomless Magazines and bullets that he can control with his mind. While scheming to murder Jotaro, Hol Horse fires Emperor repeatedly by fanning the hammer while guiding the bullets down a drain pipe to hit Jotaro in the head at the other end.
  • In Mission: Yozakura Family, Momo Yozakura, the former patriarch of the Yozakura Family, wields a single-action revolver as his primary weapon. He's implied to have fanned the hammer of his gun while bumping into Taiyo in Chapter 46, doing this so quickly and silently that his victim didn't even realize he was shot until several seconds later when the wounds started bleeding.

Films — Live-Action 

  • Angel and the Badman: Quirt Evans fans the hammer when caught in a gun battle in the opening credits sequence. It's never stated whether he actually hit anyone: he empties the weapon at his assailants seemingly just to keep his foes' heads down before he runs for his horse.
  • In The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Buster can be seen using his left hand to fan the hammer of his six-shooter to kill all the other crooks in the cantina while they're busy trying to pull their guns out. But this is played more realistically than most examples as there's a noticeable pause between shots.
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
    • During the poker game where Sundance is accused of cheating, he fans the hammer on his gun while shooting another gun on the floor to impress his opponent.
    • During the battle against the police in Bolivia, Sundance fires a gun at the police while fanning the hammer on it to increase his rate of fire.
  • In Django Unchained, Django fans the hammer to mow down a group of gunmen who bust through the door after Schultz shoots Candie in a shootout at Candyland.
  • In The Expendables, Barney Ross is a fan of fanning his Colt SAA to either kill multiple targets in rapid succession or riddle a single person with bullets throughout the films. He almost always uses it when he's outnumbered, letting him quickly even the odds in combination with his Quick Draw skills.
  • In A Fistful of Dollars, the Man With No Name demonstrates his deadly gunfighting prowess by fanning the hammer to shoot four men dead before they can even get their guns out of the holster, including the three men who insulted him on his way into town.

Literature 

  • The Hardy Boys: Discussed in 1928's Hunting for Hidden Gold. The Hardys are on a case in Montana and encounter a spy for the opposition who goes by the moniker "Slip Gun". When they query a local named Bart Dawson on what this means, he explains it as a revolver modified to fire on a pull of the hammer instead of the trigger, which he contrasts with fanning the hammer as slower but more accurate.

Tabletop Games 

Video Games 

  • Borderlands:
    • Jakobs is a weapons manufacturer specializing in Simple, yet Awesome guns designed like classic revolvers, and starting from Borderlands 2, all player characters fire Jakobs handguns by fanning the hammer, reflective of how these guns have the absolute best firing rates of any gun brand, being able to fire as fast as you can pull the trigger.
    • Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!: One of Nisha's skill trees is called "Fan the Hammer", which focuses on mowing down her opponents during her "Showdown" action skill, which invokes a Quick Draw scene and matches her Wild West-themed, revolver-favoring character. She even gets further bonuses for wielding Jakob's revolvers, which the Vault Hunters fire by fanning the hammer.
  • Call of Juarez: If the player opts to fight with a single revolver instead of going Guns Akimbo, they can choose to hold the revolver with both hands, with the left hand over the hammer, increasing their rate of fire.
  • In Fate/Grand Order, famed outlaw Billy the Kid utilizes this during his Noble Phantasm, challenging his opponent to a Quick Draw before fanning the hammer so quickly that three bullets hit his opponent nearly simultaneously.
  • In Hearthstone the "Fan the Hammer" card from the Showdown in the Badlands expansion is a 4 mana Demon Hunter spell that deals 6 damage split among the enemies with the lowest health. It depicts a demon hunter gunman fanning the hammer of a magical gun to shoot a green beam of energy before him.
  • In Honkai: Star Rail, Boothill's Skill, Sizzlin' Tango, makes Boothill challenge his opponent to a duel, causing both him and his foe to take increased damage. This also replaces his basic attack with Fanning the Hammer, shooting the entire clip of his revolver in a split second. His feature trailer also shows him fanning the hammer to quickly gun down the IPC's goons.
  • The VR game Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades lets you do this with any single-action revolver by physically flicking your off-hand controller over the hammer and pulling the trigger in quick succession.
  • In Live A Live, the Sundown Kid's Brushfire attack is described as fanning the hammer to send a hail of bullets at his foes. His later skills have him shooting even more bullets, implying that he's fanning his revolver even faster to the point that he's shooting more bullets than a six-shooter can logically hold.
  • Metal Gear:
    • Ocelot, the resident revolver user of the series, uses this technique on a few occasions. In the Tanker chapter of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, he pulls it off against a squad of Gurlukovich's soldiers to gun them all down in one swoop, while in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater he uses it to fire a hail of bullets to deflect a blast of electricity shot at him by Colonel Volgin.
    • In MGS3, Snake also makes use of this method with the SAA once he acquires one himself through natural story progression (upon being imprisoned at Groznyj Grad), or if you unlock it for a New Game Plus run (allowing him to start with it at the beginning of the game), with hip-firing taking the form of him literally holding it at his hip with his left hand hovering over the hammer to quickly recock it after every shot.
  • In Overwatch, Cassidy's Alternate Fire causes him to fan the hammer of his gun to unload his entire clip inside a second. While this can deal tremendous burst damage at close range, this move is woefully inaccurate beyond that due to the recoil rapidly pushing the gun upward. This renders the move useless in long-range encounters, especially against multiple foes. His ultimate, Deadeye, has him instead keep his elbow near his hip to hold his gun steady while locking onto foes in his line of sight. Pressing the trigger will have him shoot all fully locked-on targets dead when he fans the hammer.
  • In Outlaws, the Alternate Fire for the revolver has the player character fanning its hammer, resulting in fast but inaccurate shots.
  • In Red Dead Redemption 2, you can fan the hammer to shoot multiple enemies down in quick succession in classic Western fashion. The game normally tries to assist you with this with its Dead Eye Targeting system, slowing down time and auto-targeting enemies you drag your crosshairs over. But you can perform this without the auto-targeting feature if you want to challenge yourself.
  • In the original Resident Evil 2, one of Claire Redfield's Bonus Costumes is a cowgirl outfit that comes with an Old West six-shooter. Its lower bullet capacity is compensated by a quicker reload time and yes, much faster firing speed thanks to hammer-fanning. Ada Wong uses the same gun in the Updated Re-release's Extreme Battle mode, with the same firing method.
  • Trepang2 allows you to pull this off with the Revolver added in the "Bladekisser" DLC by holding the fire button, provided you aren't currently dual-wielding it.
  • Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: Fanning is an alternative firing mode for the Colt Anaconda, which sacrifices accuracy for firing speed.
  • Warframe:
    • The Pandero revolver has an Alternate Fire which makes the user fan its hammer, quickly discharging the whole magazine.
    • The Incarnon form of the Vasto revolver has your Warframe fan the hammer, turning its primary fire into a six-round burst while removing the ability to aim down sights.
  • In West of Loathing, "Fan Hammer" is a Snake Oiler skill that allows you to fire your pistol three times, with an increasing damage bonus tied to your skill level. At level 5, it gains a fourth shot. It can be set to fire at the last enemy in a row, allowing it to chew through encounters if you have the MP to use it consistently. It's so effective that it had to be changed to a mid-game skill.

Western Animation 

Real Life