He's Got a Weapon!
"He's got a weapon!" is the cry of panic made when someone who had appeared to be or make an empty threat shows, intentionally or otherwise, that he can back his threats up. He's not harmless; he has a weapon.
This cry is also used if someone has something that only looks like a weapon. Expect such people to become the targets of preemptive strikes before the mistake is noticed. People who truly have weapons don't get this treatment: they either dominate, or there will be a true Fight Scene.
The exact cry tends to include the name of the weapon. "He's got a gun!" "He's got a bomb!"
Compare I've Got an X and I'm Not Afraid to Use It. May turn into Shoot Him! He Has a Wallet! if he didn't have a weapon after all.
Advertisement
- Commercial:
Guy: Should we pick him up? He has Bud Light.
Girl: He has an axe!
Guy: But he has Bud Light.
Girl: And an axe!
Anime and Manga
- In the dub of the Memory World arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yugi when Bakura materializes a Duel Disk. "He's got a Duel Disk!"
Comic Books
"Is that a monkey?"
"HE'S GOT A GUN!!!"
Film
- Super Mario Bros: "He's got a bob-omb!"
Bob-omb...
- Star Wars:Return of the Jedi: "He's holding a thermal detonator!"
- It was used in Shrek 2 for comic effect, when Shrek and Donkey first encounter Puss in Boots:
"Shrek, look out! He's got a piece!"
- And in Shrek The Third:
"Look out, Shrek! He's got a piano!"
- The Big Bus, a Disaster Movie spoof: early in the film we see the driver in a bus driver bar, and there's a fight. One guy grabs a quart carton of milk and bashes the end off, threatening someone else with it. "Look out! He's got a milk carton!" The other guy grabs a candle and breaks the end off of it. "Look out, he's got a candle!"
- Crocodile Dundee:
"Mick, give him your wallet."
"What for?"
"He's got a knife."
Guard: Look out! He's got a sword!
Rasoul: You idiots! We've all got swords!
- Even funnier when they're panicking because it's a teeny, tiny MONKEY with the sword - that's three times his size.
- The Lion in Winter:
John: He has a knife, a knife!
Eleanor of Aquitaine: Of course he has a knife! I have a knife. We all have knives. It's 1183 and we're all barbarians!
- Santa With Muscles: "Look out! He's got a candy cane!"
- Wrongfully Accused: "He's got a leg!"
- In Lethal Weapon, Murtaugh suddenly notices that a man in the police station has pulled a gun. He immediately charges out to tackle him, only to discover that the madman waving a gun around is his new partner.
- In The Hurt Locker when Sgt. James returns to the base after trying to avenge Beckham's death, he is stopped by the soldiers standing guard there.
Guard: Get on the ground!
James: I have a weapon!
Guard: (searching him) GUN!
James: (exasperated) Like I said...
- Spoofed at the end of The Naked Gun, when the villain is very visibly brandishing a semi-automatic weapon, and his hostage announces "He's got a gun!"
Literature
- Making Money: "Look out, he's got a daisy!" To elaborate: The patrician has engaged in some questionable acts that will only go overlooked as long as he maintains his personal authority and dignity - which is also the only way the main character can hope to survive. Vetinari then engages in conversation with a clown, who in close range has a tendency to wet the converser via squirt-flower. Thus, "Look out, he's got a daisy!"
- The Fifth Elephant: Averted by Sam Vimes. When he is imprisoned by the dwarves, someone smuggles a single-shot crossbow into his cell. Vimes notes that if you want to help someone escape, you send them a key - sending someone a weapon will only get them killed via this trope, which is exactly what the sender had in mind.
Live Action TV
- Frasier episode "Ham Radio":
(Frasier, Roz, Niles, Bulldog, and Bulldog's dyslexic girlfriend Maxine are doing a radio play)
Maxine: Look out, he's got a nug!
- Garth Marenghi's Darkplace episode "Skipper the Eyechild"
Thornton Reed: (complete monotone) Look out, he's got a stick.
- Police Squad!! episode "Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood)"
Jill: Look out, he's got a knife!
(Leo charges Drebin, who fends him off)
Jill: Look out, he's got a club!
(Rocky runs at Drebin but is punched in the face)
Jill: He's got a signed Picasso!
(Leo uses the Picasso as a shield but Drebin punches him in the stomach)
Jill: Look out, he's got herpes! He's got cold sores.
(Rocky runs at Drebin with his face forward, Drebin makes sure not to come too close)
- Blackadder III:
Prince Regent: He's got a bomb!
Blackadder: It's not a bomb, your Highness, it's a sponge.
Prince Regent: Oh. So it is. Well, get it out of here before it explodes.
Music
"It's a thingie! A fiendish thingie!"
- Julie Brown, The Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun
Radio
- Radio: The Goon Show episode "The Silver Dubloons" has the following:
Eccles: Look out, he's got a knife!
Bluebottle: And a fork!
Eccles: And a spoon!
Bluebottle: He's gonna eat you, Neddy!
Theater
- Used in Forbidden Broadway's spoof of Ragtime:
Sarah: I know! I'll ask the President of the United States for help! Yoohoo, Mr. President? My fiancee won't marry me, and I've got a son!
Aide: Look out, she's got a gun!
Sarah: No, no, I said I've got a son. A son.
Video Games
- While fighting the Robo-Pirates in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, one of the pirates will say this when you switch weapons.
- Splicers in BioShock (series) may say "He's got a gun!" when they see you, even if you're holding your wrench.
- Justified: Splicers are insane and some of them have issues with perception that makes it a wonder that they can even perceive you.
- Not in so many words, but the guards' reaction to a female City Elf Warden getting her hands on a sword at the beginning of Dragon Age certainly gives this impression.
Web Original
- Asdfmovie: Right in the first scene, one guy "steals" another one's nose.
Man: Got your nose.
Police officer: *bursts trough the door with a gun* "Watch out, he's got a nose!"
Western Animation
- In one of the early Treehouse of Horror episodes of The Simpsons, Kang runs past in the background yelling, "He's got a board with a nail in it!" He's being pursued by Moe, who does indeed have a board with a nail in it (Earth had previously achieved world peace and disarmed, allowing K&K to invade with even less effective weapons).