A photomanipulation depicting a mexican standoff.

A Mexican standoff is a stalemate or impasse involving more than two people. It is distinct from a normal standoff in that it involves more than two opposing parties. Unlike a normal, two-sided conflict, the asymmetrical nature of a Mexican standoff means that - in the event of conflict - each party will face a tactical decision as to which other party to strike first. Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Photomanipulation, as the name suggests, is the art of taking a normal (often digital) photograph, and then using computer programs, or other methods, to alter the image. ... Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move has no legal moves but is not in check. ... Bargaining impasse occurs when the two sides negotiating an agreement are unable to reach agreement and become deadlocked. ... Symmetry is a characteristic of geometrical shapes, equations and other objects; we say that such an object is symmetric with respect to a given operation if this operation, when applied to the object, does not appear to change it. ... A tactic is a method employed to help achieve a certain goal. ...

In popular culture, the Mexican standoff is usually portrayed as multiple opponents with guns aimed at each other at close range. Exacerbating the tension is that neither side wants to put down its weapons for fear that its opponents will shoot them. Popular culture, sometimes abbreviated to pop culture, consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. ... This article is about the video game. ...

This expression came into usage during the last decade of the 19th century, most likely originating in the American Southwest. There are many songs or corridos written about famous duels in Mexico and Southwest. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Regional definitions vary from source to source. ...

Popular culture

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The Mexican standoff is now considered a movie cliché due to its frequent use in Spaghetti Westerns and action movies. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name in A Fistful of Dollars Once Upon a Time in the West, in true Sergio Leone style, ends with an extended shootout scene between Harmonica (Charles Bronson) and Frank (Henry Fonda). ... Look up Action film in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly climaxes with the famous three-way standoff (a truel) in the cemetery between the protagonists (Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach).

• The comedy series Stella parodied the Mexican Standoff in the episode "Camping".

• The Stephen King book Wizard and Glass, notable for its heavy Western influences, features a six-way Mexican standoff.

• Quentin Tarantino, who makes no secret of his borrowing from the Western genre, has shown a particular affection for the Mexican standoff.
  • His feature-film debut, Reservoir Dogs, includes two standoffs: one between Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), early in the film (parodied by The Simpsons, between Bart and Mr. Burns) and the final climax: a classic three-way Mexican standoff between Mr. White, Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn) and Joe (Lawrence Tierney).
  • Pulp Fiction, his most famous film, also ended with a variation of a Mexican standoff, between the characters Vincent Vega, Jules Winnfield, and Honey Bunny.
  • True Romance, written by Tarantino, features a tense standoff between police, a drug dealer's bodyguard, and a group of mobsters.

• The Wachowski Brothers incorporated a Mexican standoff in The Matrix Revolutions. Trinity, Morpheus, and Seraph are attempting to bargain for Neo's life with the Merovingian in Club Hel. When made an offer they cannot accept, Trinity begins a brawl, grabs a gun, and points it directly at the Merovingian's forehead. All others in the room have a gun pointed at them, one at another.

• John Woo incorporates Mexican Standoffs in most of his films, allowing it to become a trademark of his movies (as in Face/Off where John Travolta and Nicholas Cage end a long running gunfight with their pistols pointed at each other at close range). In the John Woo Stranglehold (video game) the player, in several instances throughout the game, is caught in a Mexican standoff, which is played in slow-motion (mostly to aid the player, but also for effect).

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest involves a Mexican-style standoff/swordfight between characters Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Commodore James Norrington, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End features a 4 way dual-wielded Mexican Standoff, this time between Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, and Hector Barbossa.

• British band Elbow has a song called "Mexican Standoff" on their 2005 album, Leaders of the Free World.

• Steven Spielberg has occasionally incorporated Mexican standoffs in his films, prehaps most notably in Munich. In Munich, there was a brief (and probably fictional) Mexican standoff between a Black September terrorist and an Israeli athelete who somehow managed to take an AK-47 from another terrorist, and was resolved when the terrorist fired first, killing the Israeli.

• On the television show Veronica Mars, a sleep-deprived Veronica (Kristen Bell) mentions having a Mexican Standoff with the Sandman.

• In the video game Final Fantasy X-2, three Crimson Squad ex-teamates twice find themselves in a Mexican standoff. In the first viewed instance, a possessed Nooj threatens to shoot a recently depossessed Baralai. Gippal raises his gun against Nooj, telling him to put his gun down, only to have Baralai make the same at-gunpoint demand of Gippal.

• The climax of The Siege includes a Mexican standoff between FBI Agents and U.S. Army soldiers under the command of the corrupt Major General William Deveraux (Bruce Willis), which ends when the General finally orders his men to stand down.

• In R. Kelly's hip-hopera "Trapped in the Closet," when Sylvester, James, and Bridget point guns at each after James finds out that Bridget has been sleeping with Big Man.

• In Shaun of the Dead Shaun (Simon Pegg), Ed (Nick Frost), David (Dylan Moran) and Dianne (Lucy Davis) argue over shooting Shaun's mother (Penelope Wilton), who has just been bit, holding broken bottles, a rifle, and a corkscrew at each other's throats until Shaun's girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield) reasons with the four.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italian: ) is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach in the title roles. ... A truel is a duel involving three mutual opponents (that is, each one for themselvevs, not two-against-one). ... This article is about the actor/producer/director. ... Lee Van Cleef (January 9, 1925 – December 16, 1989) was an American film actor, who appeared mostly in Western and action pictures. ... Eli Herschel Wallach (born December 7, 1915) is an American film, TV and stage actor. ... Stella was a television series that originally ran June 28, 2005 - August 30, 2005 on the American television channel Comedy Central, created by and starring Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain, the three members of the sketch comedy troupe of the same name and former cast members of... Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of over 200 stories including over 50 bestselling horror novels. ... Wizard and Glass is the fourth book in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. ... Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, actor, and Oscar winning screenwriter. ... For the video game based on the film, see Reservoir Dogs (video game). ... Steven Vincent Buscemi (born December 13, 1957) is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated American actor and film director. ... Harvey Keitel (born May 13, 1939) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor from New York City. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... Christopher Shannon Penn (October 10, 1965 – January 24, 2006) was an American film actor. ... Lawrence Tierney in Born to Kill (1947) Lawrence Tierney (March 15, 1919 – (February 26, 2002) was an American actor. ... Pulp Fiction is an Academy Award-winning 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote the screenplay with Roger Avary. ... Information Gender Male Occupation Hitman Family Vic Vega (Brother) Portrayed by John Travolta Created by Quentin Tarantino Vincent Vega is a character in Quentin Tarantinos Pulp Fiction, portrayed by John Travolta in an Academy Award-nominated performance. ... Jules Winnfield is a character in Quentin Tarantinos Pulp Fiction, portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in an Academy Award-nominated performance. ... True Romance is an American motion picture released in 1993, directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. ... Laurence Larry Wachowski (born June 21, 1965) and Andrew Andy Wachowski (born December 29, 1967) are American film directors and writers most famous for creating The Matrix series. ... The Matrix Revolutions is the third and last film in the The Matrix trilogy. ... For other uses, see Trinity (disambiguation). ... Morpheus in The Matrix Revolutions Morpheus as he styled himself in The Matrix Reloaded Morpheus is the name of a fictional character (played by Laurence Fishburne) in the science fiction films, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions. ... This articles section on its subjects history does not cite any references or sources. ... Neo (alias Thomas A. Anderson) is a fictional character in the Matrix trilogy: The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions. ... The Merovingian The Merovingian is a fictional character in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, portrayed by Lambert Wilson in both films. ... For other uses, see John Woo (disambiguation). ... Face/Off is a 1997 film starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage and directed by John Woo. ... John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor, dancer, and singer. ... Nicolas Cage (born January 7, 1964) is an American actor. ... Stranglehold (or John Woo Presents Stranglehold) is a third-person shooter developed by Midway Games (Chicago studio), for Windows, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360. ... Jack Sparrow is a fictional character in the Pirates of the Caribbean universe. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... James Norrington is a fictional character in Disneys Pirates of the Caribbean film trilogy. ... Elizabeth Turner is a fictional character in the Walt Disney Pictures Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. ... Hector Barbossa is a fictional character in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, being the primary antagonist in the first film of the series Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Leaders of the Free World is the third studio album from British band, Elbow, released in 2005. ... Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946)[1] is an American film director and producer. ... Munich is a 2005 drama film starring Eric Bana. ... This article is about the Veronica Mars television series. ... Kristen Anne Bell (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress who is best known for starring in the title role on the television show Veronica Mars. ... It has been suggested that Characters of Final Fantasy X-2 be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see The Siege (disambiguation). ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... The United States Army is the largest and oldest branch of the armed forces of the United States. ... Insignia of a United States Air Force Major General German Generalmajor Insignia Major General is a military rank used in many countries. ... Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955 in Idar-Oberstein, Germany) is an American actor and singer. ... Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois) is a multiple Grammy Award winning American Urban R&B singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. ... This article is about the R. Kelly series of songs. ... Shaun of the Dead is a zombie-themed romantic comedy (or rom zom com as it dubs itself) or zombie comedy released in 2004. ... Simon John Pegg (born 14 February 1970 in Gloucester) is an English comedian, writer and film and television actor. ... Nicholas John Frost (born March 28, 1972 in Romford, London) is an English actor and comedian famous for his work with Simon Pegg. ... Dylan Moran (born November 3, 1971) is a good (but not great) Irish comedian, actor and writer. ... Lucy Davis (born 2 January 1973) is an English actress. ... Penelope Wilton OBE (born 3 June 1946) is an English actress who is well known for appearing in the sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles and in Cry Freedom. ... Kate Ashfield (born 5 January 1972) is an award-winning English actress best-known for co-starring in the 2004 movie Shaun of the Dead. ...

See also

• Duel
• Mutual assured destruction (MAD)
• Battle of attrition
• Winner's curse
• Heroic failure
• Prisoner's Dilemma
• No-win situation
• Win-win situation
• Pyrrhic victory
• Chicken (game)

Look up Mexican standoff in
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A duel is a formalized type of combat. ... Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides would effectively result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. ... A battle of attrition is a military engagement in which neither side has any tactical advantage, so that the only result of the fighting is the loss of men and materiel on both sides. ... The winners curse is a phenomenon akin to a Pyrrhic victory that occurs in common value auctions with incomplete information. ... A heroic failure is a loss or losing draw, in which the losing side has actually gained the moral upper hand. ... Will the two prisoners cooperate to minimize total loss of liberty or will one of them, trusting the other to cooperate, betray him so as to go free? In game theory, the prisoners dilemma (sometimes abbreviated PD) is a type of non-zero-sum game in which two players... In general use, a no-win situation is one where a person has choices, but no choice leads to success. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... A Pyrrhic victory is a victory with devastating cost to the victor. ... For other uses, see Chicken (disambiguation). ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ...

External links

• Explanation of detailed mechanics and Suitable strategies at Everything2