Breaking the Bonds: Difference between revisions

* In an early episode of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing|Gundam Wing]]'', Heero brute-forces one hand out of some hospital restraints—in spite of the fact that it turns his wrist into a bloody mess.

* When the main group of ''[[Hatenkou Yuugi]]'' get arrested, Alzeid breaks his cuffs as if they were made of paper.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* [http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=23959 This cover] launched [[The Bronze Age of Comic Books]] in ''[[Superman]]''.

** And it was a [[Shout-Out]] to his most iconic [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] image.

** Of course, that's usually a [[Most Common Superpower|female superpower]].

* [[The Punisher]] does this in "The Long, Cold Dark" arc, having been incapacitated by his nemesis Barracuda, who in addition to fulfilling this trope, also exhibits [[Bond Villain Stupidity]]. Barracuda {{spoiler|intends to kill the Punisher's daughter-he-didn't-know-he-had right in front of him}}, thus giving the Punisher the [[Unstoppable Rage]] he needed to burst out of the cuffs.

** Note that the entire sequence is not as shown as alluded. The destruction of the ship shown only outside the ship (in sepia colors, no less) without actually showing Scrooge doing anything. Meanwhile the narrator gives increasingly ridiculous alternate explanations to events as they are shown [[Lampshade Hanging|as opposed to the extreme unlikelihood of Scrooge suddenly going]] [[Power Levels|Super Saiyan]] in a relatively realistic setting. In the end the narration comes to the conclusion that there is no knowing what really happened that day except that it was ''[[Take Our Word for It|epic]]'' enough to spread through the North within months and turn Scrooge into a stuff of legends.

** Inverted in many cases when Huey, Dewey and Louie are captured: They keep their lungs full of air in a false act of bravado while they're being bound, and then breathe out to loosen the ropes.

 

== Fan Works ==

{{quote|“Youse broke the ''neut cuffs?!''” the cop shouted, his voice jumping an octave on the last two words. “Youse broke the neut cuffs!” }}

 

* Quasimodo gets one at the end of Disney's ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''. The [[Ominous Latin Chanting]] in the background sings of [[Bilingual Bonus|breaking free of death]].

* In ''[[How to Train Your Dragon (animation)|How to Train Your Dragon]]'' Stoic The Vast wrenches apart {{spoiler|the harness that Toothless was trapped inside}} while ''underwater''.

* [[King Kong]], folks.

* Morpheus in ''[[The Matrix]]'' breaks through his handcuffs despite Agent Smith's best efforts to break him when Neo arrives to rescue him.

* In ''[[Artemis Fowl|Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code]]'', Arno Blunt apparently "ripped those handcuffs apart as though they were links in a paper chain."

* ''[[Discworld]]'':

* In ''[[Codex Alera]]'', Kitai shatters a chair she is tied to.

 

* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'', G'Kar breaks out of his bonds when paraded before Emperor Cartagia. The conspiracy to assassinate the Emperor had arranged for him to be given weak chains, so that he can break them and create a distraction at the right time. Then the chains are replaced with strong ones, and he breaks them anyway.

** [[The Caligula|Cartagia]] [[Tempting Fate|actually mentioned]] that the chains were "unbreakable". [[Determinator|Not that that's going to stop G'kar]], mind you.

** Not a hero, but this is the first thing the Dalek in ''Dalek'' does after tricking Rose into touching it.

* During the big showdown between Faith and Buffy in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Buffy handcuffs them together. Faith then breaks the cuffs. Interestingly, a few episodes earlier when they were both arrested, they knocked out a cop and stole his keys to unlock their handcuffs, instead of breaking them.

* ''[[The X-Files]]'' ("Revelations"). A religious fanatic escapes from Scully and Mulder by diving out a window, then breaking his handcuffs after he hits the ground.

* ''[[COPS (series)|COPS]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQTXawaAKNA "I can break these cuffs!" "You can't break those cuffs."] {{spoiler|He doesn't.}}

** "Abandoned" had Clark chained to a chair next to a furnace with kryptonite flames and savagely tortured by [[New Gods|Granny Goodness and the Female Furies]]. He uses his [[Super Breath]] to freeze a chain and make a lead sheet fall on and smother the furnace. Once the kryptonite flame is out, he instantly regains his strength and breaks free.

* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': In the final battle against Globbor, after the spell darkening the sky is broken Ninjor breaks free of his chains (as well as the [[Synchronization]] link to Globbor) and grows to giant size to aid the Megazords.

 

== [[Music]] ==

* The [[U2]] song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" has the verse: "You broke the bonds/And you loosed the chains".

 

* The [[So Bad It's Good]] [[Dokken]], "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQb1t_Yw0S8 Breaking the Chains]".

 

* In a Greek legend told by Aristoxenos (4th century BCE), Pythias was convicted of conspiring against the tyrant. Damon volunteered to take Pythias's place so that Pythias could make arrangements for his family before his execution. Pythias made the arrangements and hurried back so that Damon would not be executed. Bandits captured him and left him tied to a tree. Pythias frees himself by Breaking the Bonds and arrives just in time to prevent Damon 's execution. (The tyrant was so impressed by the [[Power of Friendship]] that he pardoned Pythias.)

* The ending of the story of Samson in [[The Bible]] (making this at least [[Older Than Feudalism]]).

* Fenrir from [[Norse Mythology]] did this with every chain the Aesir used on him, except for the ribbon Gleipnir. It looked like any other ribbon, but was made from impossible things—the sound of a cat's footfall, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, the breath of a fish, and the saliva of a bird. Therefore, it was unbreakable.

* In one myth about [[Hercules]], Hercules traveled to Egypt, where the Pharaoh captured him and was going to sacrifice him to the Egyptian gods. However, Hercules broke the chains binding him to the altar, scared the Pharaoh into hiding, and escaped.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' also has rules for characters of a sufficient strength breaking through their bonds automatically. At higher values of strength (or weak bonds), it can even happen as a free action, effortlessly.

* ''[[Hero System]]'' defines handcuffs and other restraints with the Entangle power, which has "use my Strength to break free" built into it.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* You do this at the start of the ''[[Syndicate]]'' remake.

 

* We don't see how Tip escapes from his bonds in the ''[[Skin Horse]]'' storyline "Dead Dogs"; all he says is "Please, like I've never been chained to a bed before."

* Parodied in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]''. [[It Makes Sense in Context|Food Service Commando]] Jud Shafter wrote in his memoirs that he broke free of his bonds after he realized they were only toilet paper. What he didn't mention was that it took him 15 minutes.

* In ''[[The Specialists]]'', when Question Mark offers to take them off as a gesture of good will, [http://thespecialistscomic.com/page-41/ Hartmann demonstrates] that he was the [[Play-Along Prisoner]].

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* In the ''[[Lonelygirl15]]'' episode "What The Hell?!??!", Jonas appears to have broken free from some ropes of his own accord, but this turns out to be a slight subversion since it is revealed shortly afterwards that Daniel loosened the ropes for him.

* [[Supergirl]] breaks her bonds in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OWjNpXR8m4 this fan video].

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* During an episode of ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'', the threat of [[Evil Twin|Evil Clones]] popped up after Jackie's clone was found, so the rest of the J-team willingly strapped themselves to chairs for an interrogation. When an actual evil clone appears and Jackie is the only one free, Tohru and El Torro both burst out of their bindings, [[Classy Cat Burglar|Viper]] slips out of her rope, and Captain Black... well, the poor guy ''tries'' to get out.

 

* Most handcuffs are rated to resist 495 lbs (about 2200 newtons) of force for 30 seconds. This is one of the reasons they are considered "temporary" restraining devices.

 

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[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]