Check out any poster for an action movie, almost regardless of the country and there’s one thing you’ll be almost certain to see (go on, prove me wrong with a famous example!) – a thing that goes bang. (The moderation system on here won’t let me use the actual word!) Usually wielded by a man, although occasionally by a woman, the thing that goes bang is a universal symbol of strength, power and success. It underpins almost any narrative, particularly in the cinema – yet apart from my own general problem withthings that go bang, I believe it’s a lazy deus ex machina that is used to dig the hero – and the plot – out of a hole. Indulge me for a few moments …

As a Brit, I still get a frisson of fear, or is it curiosity, when I see a police officer or military personnel with things that go bang. Although we more generally accept that those who take care of us need to have them, particularly when we are faced with external threats, there is still the underlying view that things that go bang breed others in a society and therefore we do our best to do without them.

A thing that goes bang is a terribly powerful tool and, in the wrong hands, wreaks all sorts of mayhem. Whether those hands are those of a criminal, intent on wrongdoing or those of a small child who stumbles upon the device that its parents have secreted, little good will come of that situation. We all see the stats about how many people die of things that go bang-related incidents in the US. Americans have made their choices and choose to interpret the Second Amendment in this way. Frankly, it’s the single thing that most persuades me not to visit the US – but I doubt anyone will weep a bitter tear about that.

No, the stats say that if your populace has things that go bang, then people will suffer by dint of that fact – it’s inevitable and I for one am grateful that we in the UK have maintained that people in general shall not carry them.

However, in our fiction, in drama on stage and screen and in our literature, our characters frequently resort to the thing that goes bang to solve their problems. In police dramas I can allow that – it is, after all, a fact of life that many police carry things that go bang on occasion in our country and all the time in other countries. My beef is that this is actually a very simplistic approach to plotting, “Caught you Jones, right in the act. Get your hands on your head,” (wielding the thing that goes bang wildly), “there’ll be no more of your dirty tricks.”

Jones of course, appears to submit but then, suddenly pulls out a hidden thing that goes bang from his ankle holster and a firefight ensues. (And please let’s not get into how many times they can go bang without a reload – that alone has my jaw dropping with incredulity.) Finally, something happens – probably another character wanders onto the scene with a bigger thing that goes bang and Jones, now out of the necessaries is bundled away, or dealt with or whatever fate may befall him. Great drama? Nope. Tedious, repetitive, unimaginative hogwash. 

We’ve seen this scene a thousand times and it still makes me want to turn off. From the days of cowboys in the Wild West poking their things that go bang from their covered wagons at the attacking locals to high-value scifi using the latest CGI, we still have, well, the thing that goes bang. Everywhere. Even a recent adaptation of Swallows and Amazons featured John wielding the thing that goes bang. (Almost as ridiculous in the context of the original as renaming Titty (short for Letitia) as Tatty, because …?)

Boring.

And insidious. And I guess that’s my main comment about this phenomenon – if the thing that goes bang is everywhere in our media, then we believe that the thing that goes bang should be everywhere in life. You can see why kids like model ones – it makes them look like their heroes. Yet, we’re creating a mindset that says “the thing that goes bang solves problems”. And they don’t. Not in any respect.

So, you say, “OK, Nick, have you used one?” And I will answer, “I most certainly have – and really enjoyed it.” Clay pigeon is great fun and I am reasonably good at it although I don’t get much practice. I have no problem with the thing that goes bang – they are necessary for our military defence; they are necessary for farmers to protect their livestock and they are a source of good recreation in sports. I can’t bring myself to use them on living things – I think there’s something really unmanly about that, despite the general opinion among heterosexual males that doing just that is good. However, that’s up to them and I’m not going to rant about it.

Nope. This is about our cinema, television and entertainment generally. If you can’t, as a scriptwriter, come up with something better than the hero whipping out the thing that goes bang, then you’re being lazy. There are exceptions though: military dramas necessarily centre around warfare; Andy McNab’s books would be a little tame without it; some police thrillers need coppers with things that go bang to go after the bad guys, since that is how it is in real life.

And yes, I get it, the villains have them too nowadays therefore so did we ought to reflect that? Really? Can we possibly imagine writing something where we consciously avoid this cliché – because cliché it is. Let’s think a bit harder and come up with something where brain power and strategy win the day. 

Can we give the thing that goes bang a rest please? 

I’ve tried to do this in my own work for teenagers. Check out Xalata Orbit and Melody Fret: The Hammer of Asttar and its sequel, The Simulant Swarm

I’m hoping for lots of comments – but no things that go bang, please!

© 2026 Nick Evans

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