Principle of Evil Marksmanship

The Principle of Evil Marksmanship (also known as the Stormtrooper Effect) states that enemy marksmen in action films are often very bad shots and almost never harm the main characters. The term was coined by film critic Roger Ebert in the 1980s, as part of his "Little Movie Glossary", ["Ebert's Glossary of Movie Terms", from Roger Ebert's Video Companion. ND. [http://academic.sun.ac.za/forlang/bergman/tech/glossary/ebert_glos.htm] ] and defined as:

The theme is commonly seen in cowboy films, action films, martial arts films, and comics, and is often a source of mockery by critics, satirists and fans. Ebert often uses the term in his reviews. [Roger Ebert's review of "Rapid Fire" [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19920821/REVIEWS/208210303/1023] ]

The Stormtrooper Effect

Imperial Stormtroopers in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, despite overwhelming numbers, professional military education and training, full armour, military-grade firepower, and noticeable combat effectiveness against non-speaking characters, were incapable of seriously harming or indeed even hitting the films' protagonists. Obi-Wan Kenobi even comments to Luke Skywalker, when the pair finds the destroyed Jawa sandcrawler, "These blast-points... Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise." Additionally, in "Return of the Jedi", stormtroopers (a legion of the Emperor's best troops no less) are easily dispatched by the technologically inferior Ewoks, who are primarily armed with primitive weapons such as slings, rocks, sticks, and bows and arrows.

The GURPS roleplaying game makes reference to an "Imperial Stormtrooper School of Marksmanship", whose graduates are inexplicably poor shots; for example, "The Nazis in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" must all have studied at the Imperial Stormtrooper School of Marksmanship." ["GURPS Special Ops" by Greg Rose, p. 123. Published 1989 by Steve Jackson Games] The game system includes optional rules titled "Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy" designed to make large numbers of nameless characters ineffective.

One-at-a-time Attack Rule

Ebert also refers to the One-at-a-time Attack Rule:

This can traditionally be observed in many martial arts movies. During a typical fight, the hero will engage against one opponent. Upon knocking that man out, another will attack. The surplus enemies will circle the fighting two striking fearsome poses, indicating the willingness to fight in a second's notice, yet the unwillingness or incapacity to help the current aggressor attack the hero.

In "", Austin's father, Nigel Powers is being held captive by Doctor Evil. Nigel quickly knocks out the guards, and when more begin to surround him he orders them to stop and says, "Oh, come now, is this your first day on the job? All right, look ... you all attack me, one at a time, and I knock you out with a single punch." They immediately do so and he knocks them all out. This is quickly followed by Nigel advising another guard to just fall down and save him the trouble, pointing out that "You don't even have a name tag!" making the guard a stock character.

Because of this apparent unfairness, Terry Pratchett dedicated his novel "Guards! Guards!" to those guards whose only function is to show how good the good guy really is.

ee also

*Redshirt (stock character)
*Character shield
*Cannon fodder

References