Bare-Handed Truck Stop

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Sorry, Truck-kun, she's not going anywhere.

You've Seen It a Million Times—it's the classic way to handle The Reveal that a character possesses Super Strength and/or Nigh Invulnerability. They stop a speeding vehicle by simply putting out their hands and halting it. Sometimes the momentum isn't entirely stopped cold, and they get pushed back a short distance, maybe even tearing up the pavement with their feet in the process.

Contrast Trainstopping, which is less a reveal and more a rite of passage. Subtrope of Cover-Blowing Superpower.

Examples of Bare-Handed Truck Stop include:

Anime and Manga

  • In World of Narue, one of the characters is revealed in-universe to be an android by stopping a truck that was about to hit one of the main characters.

Comic Books

Fan Works

Film

  • A variation is seen in Superman II: a taxi cab hits Clark as he's crossing the street. The cab is stopped cold, with a deep indent in the front. Clark is unmoved.
  • This happens in Twilight when a van almost crashes into Bella, so Edward jumps in front of her and stops the van with his bare hands, which leaves a massive dent in the vehicle. This results in Bella becoming suspicious that Edward is not completely normal.

Literature

  • As stated above, this happens in Twilight when Tyler's van almost crashes into Bella, and Edward stops it with his bare hands to protect her.

Live-Action TV

  • The title character doesn't even bother to raise her hands to stop a speeding 18-wheeler cold (and catapult its driver through the windshield) in the pilot episode of Supergirl.
  • In a flashback in the first episode of the Korean series Strong Girl Bong-soon the title character is shown stopping a speeding car with one hand when she is no more than 7 or 8 years old.

Web Animation

  • As seen in the page image, Penny halts a truck—getting pushed back only a couple yards amidst shattering asphalt—in Volume 2 Episode 3 of RWBY.

Real Life