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Barrier-Busting Blow: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:F1374.jpg|link=Friday the
Most of the time, heroes have the choice of "fight or flight" when faced with their enemies... except, if that enemy is an [[Implacable Man]] or an [[Immune to Bullets]] monster, it's really more like "momentarily inconvenience while risking death by fighting or flight", or more commonly "'''hide''' or flight". This is why 90% of [[Slasher Flick
▲Most of the time, heroes have the choice of "fight or flight" when faced with their enemies... except, if that enemy is an [[Implacable Man]] or an [[Immune to Bullets]] monster, it's really more like "momentarily inconvenience while risking death by fighting or flight", or more commonly "'''hide''' or flight". This is why 90% of [[Slasher Flick|Slasher Flicks]] are spent (wisely) running the eff away from these menaces and hiding breathlessly in highly insecure locations.
Which leads us to this trope. Once the hero relaxes while hiding behind a wall or in a closet, and thinks the danger is past, '''''a hand will break through the wall and grab him!''''' This very effectively demonstrates that their enemy has [[Super Strength]] and a grasp on how to use it unconventionally. Usually, the villain will either punch the hero or ''pull them through the wall!'' Much like a [[Cat Scare]] ([[Dissimile|if cats could jump through walls]]), the audience will be scared along with the hero.
Variations include the newly risen zombie [[Ankle Drag]], busting through a [[Beehive Barrier]], and [[Vertical Kidnapping]]. Sadistic slasher villains will use the [[Sinister Scraping Sound]] to freak out hiding characters before pulling this. Depending on the barrier, can be a variation or a subversion of [[Concealment Equals Cover]]. See also [[There Was a Door]].
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Advertising ==
* See the first stunt in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuQp2Wnnyok this Reebok commercial], where professional football players pitch themselves for the fantasy football draft. Whether these stunts are real or movie magic is a subject of lively debate.
== Anime
* In the [[Martial Arts and Crafts|Martial Arts Figure Skating]] battle in ''[[Ranma
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Ed has knocked out several soldiers who were looking for him. The last one in the squad hides next to a door and waits for him to walk through. Ed punches through the wall with his automail arm and grabs the guy in a stranglehold.
* Invoked by Guyver 1 in ''[[Guyver]]'' after regenerating in the Chronos Japan HQ. When at first several blows fail to remove the blast doors quickly enough, try, try again with the [[Wave Motion Gun|Megasmasher]] [[No Kill Like Overkill|to take out the whole floor!]]
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** And again by the Guyver in vol.16 of the Manga: when the Guyver, in Gigantic mode, is fighting the Zoalord Purgstall, the latter encases himself in a personal force field. The Guyver then starts hammering away at it with his fists until he breaks through.
** And yet again in vol.25, when the Guyver Gigantic in Exceed mode is facing off against the Draglord and erects a forcefield around himself to deflect incoming missiles, only to find to his chagrin that the missiles will actually ''drill'' through the force field and then explode ''inside''.
* In the ''[[Trigun]]'' anime, Monev the Gale used a variant of this. Breaking into a jail to capture Vash, rather than using the cell door Monev punched through a wall and grabbed Vash by the throat, all in one move.
* Happens in ''[[GTO]]'' once. After {{spoiler|Teshigawara snaps}}, Onizuka taunts him unseen until he backs against a wall, then Onizuka busts through it with one hand and drags him through.
== Comic Books ==
* Batman does this twice in ''[[The Dark Knight Returns]].'' The first time he hides under the floor, shoves his hand up through the floorboards, grabs the ankle of a nearby mook and pulls him down and probably beats on him even more. The second time he rams his arm through a wall (looks to be made of concrete, though the art makes it difficult to tell) and pulls a mook through it and beats them up more.
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* Near the end of ''[[
* Ash gets his back up against a door in ''[[Evil Dead|The Evil Dead]]'' when suddenly... you know the rest.
* Pretty much every ''[[Friday the
* In ''[[The Rock]]'', Goodspeed is trying to dodge a pair of soldiers and hides behind a really flimsy wooden wall. Cue the soldiers smashing through the wall to grab him.
* In ''[[Iron Man (
* Agent Smith punches through a wall to grab Neo in ''[[The Matrix]]''... only to be saved by Morpheus's self-sacrifice.
* Used by [[
* ''[[Shaun of the Dead]]'' has David apologize while moving back towards a window... cue the zombies breaking through the barricade and pulling him away to be eaten.
* Subversion: in ''[[The Wall]]'', Pink tries to escape the wall in this manner... and fails miserably.
* The opening [[Nightmare Sequence]] in ''[[Day of the Dead]]'' {{spoiler|when hundreds of zombie arms break through a white wall to grab the female protagonist.}}
* In ''Live Free or [[
* ''[[
* ''[[Dog Soldiers
* In ''[[
* ''[[Phantasm (Film)|Phantasm]]'' and its sequels love this trope.
* In ''[[Dagon]]'', Paul quickly learns not to rely on aging wood in old hotels, especially when an angry mob is outside.
* The famous axe-through-the-door scene from ''[[The Shining]]''.
* Subverted in ''[[Sunshine (
== Literature ==
* One of the ''[[Dirty Harry]]'' novels has the hero doing this. Inspector Callahan looks through a large hole in the wall of a basement and sees a rape in progress. He reaches through, grabs the punk by his long hair and says, "Do you remember what it was like to be born?" then forcibly pulls him back through the hole.
* ''[[
== Live-Action TV ==
* Happens in the Angels and Demons episode of ''[[
* ''[[
* On ''The Shield,'' a punk tries to evade Vic Mackey by running down an alley and climbing over a wall made of wooden boards. Mackey simply crashes through the wall and tackles him.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. In the finale of Season 5, Xander pulls this one on a god, no less, with a wrecking ball.
* In ''[[Beauty and
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* Sam Fisher can do this in ''[[Splinter Cell]] CT''.
* In ''[[Resident Evil]] 2'', the [[Implacable Man]] Mr. X has a habit of busting through walls. And in one hallway, zombies can grab you through the boarded-up windows.
* Happens in [[Left 4 Dead]] with the Witch in the opening cutscene.
* Abobo from ''[[
* You can do this to people in ''[[Stubbs the Zombie]]''.
* The scissor man from ''[[Clock Tower (
* One of [[Player Character|Adam Jensen's]] signature moves in ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution
** Frustrating and somewhat humorous to someone going for a [[Pacifist Run]] is that while Jensen will ''always'' snap their neck if they're on the other side, taking it down with ''a bomb'' tends to do just knock them unconscious.
* Batman in [[Batman: Arkham City]] can do this as a takedown, although it only works on weak walls.
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== Web Comics ==
* ''The Omega Key'': Subverted [https://web.archive.org/web/20110810232432/http://omega_key.comicdish.com/index.php?pageID=90 here]
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== Western Animation ==
* In the ''Transformers: [[
* In the ''[[Batman:
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