Boomerang Comeback: Difference between revisions

'''Wrecker:''' Not even a little.

'''The Mighty Thor:''' Then you should be familiar with attacking a foe from behind!

 

The Hero is on the ropes, getting his butt kicked by the villain. In desperation, the hero pulls out a weapon [[Throwing Your Sword Always Works|and hurls it]].

 

See also [[Exactly What I Aimed At]].

 

* In ''[[Mazinkaiser]] vs. Ankoku Daishogun'', a badly-damaged [[Great Mazinger]] kills the Warrior Beast generals attacking New York like this.

* Subverted in episode 3 of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]''. Kamina throws Simon as a [[Fastball Special]] while fighting Viral. Viral dodges; Kamina expects to win the fight when Simon comes back again from behind, but Viral dodges the second attack as well. Mind you, the previous episode played it straight.

* Done in the Saiyan Saga of ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. Goku gives Krillin the energy for the [[Combined Energy Attack|Spirit Bomb]] to use against Vegeta. Krillin throws it, Vegeta dodges and the bomb flies at Gohan, who then repels the attack back towards Vegeta. He thinks he's in the clear, but then Vegeta gets broad-sided by the attack.

 

* ''[[DC Vs Marvel]]'' shows a fight between Bane and [[Captain America (comics)]], with Cap missing a shield toss, and Bane closing in and grabbing him, only to get struck by the returning shield before he can break Cap's back.

* There's also the ''[[Captain America (comics)]]'' comic where Cap is fighting Hydra agents, stands on a pile of them, takes off a glove and licks a finger to hold up, throws his shield up into the air, and looks at his watch. "Two... one..." The last standing Hydra agent shows up with a hostage and goes into a standard Hydra rant about the organization's plans. He stops when he realizes that Cap is without his shield, Cap tells him that "It'll come if I whistle for it", the agent pulls a gun, Cap whistles... and his shield arcs down to hit the Hydra agent, leaving the hostage standing. That issue is full of him doing things like that; naturally, it's also the issue where it is lost.

* Subverted in ''JLA Avengers'', where Hawkeye fires a boomerang arrow at Flash, who easily catches it on the return and remarks that he's had a little experience with these things before.<ref>The aforementioned Captain Boomerang is one of Flash's [[Rogues Gallery]]</ref>

 

* In ''[[Jingle All the Way]]'', the main character—in a Turbo Man costume that [[Crazy Prepared|includes all the weapons]]—throws what is a high-tech boomerang. The villain lets go with one of his hands, while the other hangs on. He grabs the Turbo Man toy out of the boy's backpack and shouts "Victory is mine!", before the boomerang hits his other hand, causing him to fall. He lands on a parade float and is promptly arrested.

* Occurs in ''[[Captain America (comics)]] II: Death Too Soon'', a made-for-TV film from 1979 starring Reb Brown as [[Captain America (comics)]], where the Captain foils a mugging attempt by tossing his trademark shield at a perpetrator, missing him at point-blank range, and the thug gives his shield enough time to curve back and knock himself out.

* In ''[[The Brothers Grimm (film)|The Brothers Grimm]]'' movie, there is the magic handaxe seized from the lycanthrope woodsman, that can come back to the thrower. Toward the end, Jakob Grimm uses it to fight the French general's aide-de-camp, and miss—but the soldier is struck in the back by the axe returning before he could kill the hero.

 

* Variation in the infamous scene in ''[[The Goodies]]'', where Bill is proving "Ecky Thump" is superior to other martial arts. Graeme misses with a boomerang, but later when Tim has disarmed Bill with some bagpipes, it comes back and clouts Tim from behind.

 

* In ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Jedi Outcast and Academy]]'' this is a useful trick, as a saber throw is easily blocked going forward, but impossible to block when it hits the enemy from the back.

* Shown in the [[Cutscene Power to the Max|very first cutscene]] in ''[[Ty the Tasmanian Tiger]]''. Unluckily, though, it's the very beginning of the game and the setup to the actual plot, so [[It Got Worse|it gets worse]].

* One of your new tricks in [[Batman: Arkham City]] is to do this with Batarangs. The first example is in a hostage situation in a cutscene; following that, you can do it to thugs at will. It comes in handy with Predator battles because mooks will tend to focus their search in the direction the ''hit'' came from rather than where you actually are.

 

 

* Double subverted in ''[[Errant Story]]''. When Sarine throws her dagger, her opponent [[Genre Savvy|knew Sarine was trying this]] and blocked it with her sword. Which is why [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|Sarine charged it with lightning beforehand.]]

 

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': In the second episode, Sokka throws his boomerang at Zuko, who dodges it. Sokka then charges with a spear, Zuko blocks it, breaks it, pokes Sokka on the head with it, and ''then'' it comes back and smacks him in the back of the head.

* In the [[Batman Cold Open]] of an episode of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', Batman pulls this off against KGBeast.

 

 

* ''[[Gaston Lagaffe]]''

** Parodied in volume R5, page 14: Gaston's boomerang shatters a window. An angry neighbor brings back the boomerang and throws it directly at Gaston's head while Fantasio says, "Gaston ! Ça revient toujours à celui qui l'envoie !" ("Gaston! It always comes back to the one who throws it!").

** Also in volume 14, page 24: Prunelle throws through a window a wooden coat hanger which lost its hook (and happens to be shaped exactly like a boomerang) and it comes back in his face, to Gaston's hilarity.

 

* Parodied (what isn't?) in the movie ''[[Airplane!]]'' when Striker throws his jacket off-screen in a Disco, preparatory to a John Travolta Disco routine, only to have it fly right back at him.

* An example from an action movie, although still comedic in nature: in the first ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'' film, Frenzy is beheaded by one of his own CD-shuriken ricocheting wildly.

{{quote|'''Frenzy:''' Oh shit!}}

 

* It's stated that this is likely to happen to [[Lensmen]] without the Sense of Perception who use energy weapons on the planet Trenco. Because the entire planet is so energistically charged, even sight is unreliable and energy beams have been known to enter the backs of the people who fire them. Perceivers are able to sense and correct for the distortion, knowing where the target really is and how not to shoot themselves.

* ''[[The Hunger Games (novel)|The Hunger Games]]:'' This is how {{spoiler|Haymitch}} won his game. {{spoiler|He made it to the edge of the arena, where he discovered there was a force field that reflected back everything that was thrown at it. The other remaining competitor caught up with him, threw an axe, Haymitch ducked, the axe bounced back, and killed the thrower.}}

 

* One episode of ''[[Blackadder]] II'' has Edmund giving a boomerang to the Queen as a present from his expedition around the world. She's unimpressed by it, and tells Percy to throw it away. He lightly tosses it out the door behind him, and a few seconds later, it miraculously emerges to strike Percy on the head. (Which, of course, amuses the Queen immensely.)

* ''[[Sherlock]]:'' A side case in "A Scandal in Belgravia" involves a man found dead from a blow to the head by the bank of a stream. He had been seen standing there, all alone, with no one anywhere near him, seconds before he was seen dead. {{spoiler|he had received a boomerang as a gift, and had been experimenting with it. He had just thrown it, when he was distracted by a car backfiring, turned to look, and was hit in the back of the head. The boomerang landed in the stream, and floated away.}}

 

 

* This is a very common phenomenon in ''[[Tron 2.0]]''. If you throw your disc at an enemy and miss, there is a pretty good chance it will hit the enemy on the return pass. The effect is even better with the sequencer subroutine.

 

* ''[[Xkcd]]'' plays with this as a long-term running gag: [http://www.xkcd.com/445/ 1] [http://xkcd.com/475/ 2] [http://xkcd.com/939/ 3]

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Coding]]'', when Kuros finds the Axe of Agor, he discards the Knife of Throwing, forgetting that it always returns until it stabs him in the back.

* ''Dark Intruder'': The one throwing the boomerang isn't the one hit, but as Smart Girl points out, [http://www.interrobangstudios.com/di/display.php?strip_id=9 he's still in trouble].

 

* The ''DungeonVerse''-inspired site ''Les Parchemins Anodins'' invented the no-return boomerang: a magical boomerang which always comes back, decapitating the launcher. Ouch.

 

* In an episode of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', Captain Boomerang sends a swarm of boomerangs flying at [[The Flash]], who catches them and throws them back. They turn around and fly back at him (suggesting that these boomerangs are ''so'' good that it doesn't take any skill to use them, they return whether you want them to or not). Upon seeing them going back towards him, Flash's response is a "DUH!"

* ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' shows us that the hero of ''[[Krull]]'' has had this problem with the Glaive.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Zany Cartoon Tropes]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]