Conveniently-Placed Sharp Thing: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:bd-shirt-macguyver.jpg|frame|Where did she get that sharp thing?]]

 

Whenever someone is tied up, the bad guys often leave something sharp in the room that the victim can use to cut herself free. Even if tied to a chair, she can move the chair to the object to cut the ropes. This is as unrealistically common in serious drama as it is in adventure, action and other genres that don't take themselves seriously.

 

{{examples}}

* In an episode of [[Spice and Wolf]], some thugs beat up Lawrence, tie him up, then leave him in the woods to die. Lawrence uses the embers of his camp fire to escape, but he does burn his arms in the process.

 

* ''[[Batman]]''. All the damn time.

** Except in ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', where it's rather subverted. Harvey Dent {{spoiler|attempts to do the chair-hop, but ends up simply falling over, knocking over an steel drum and landing in a gushing pool of gasoline. [[Two-Faced|This doesn't end well.]]}}

** A memorable example in ''[[Batman Beyond]]: [[Return of the Joker]]'', Batman starts to cut himself free with a switchblade. But when he sees that Joker has {{spoiler|brainwashed Robin into "Little J.J."}}, [[Breaking the Bonds|he finishes freeing himself through sheer force]], and then throws the knife at Joker's face. He ducked, but jeez.

 

* In ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]'', the conveniently-paced burning object (the lucky charm shamrock lighter) fails to be properly used, leading instead to a [[Disaster Dominoes]] sequence.

** In the Lucasarts adventure game based on the movie, you instead use a convenient polearm held by a set of armor.

* ''Both'' versions are simulated by Riddick in ''[[The Chronicles of Riddick|Pitch Black]]''. He dislocates both shoulders (eat your heart out, Riggs!), and slips his cuffs through some [[Benevolent Architecture|Conveniently Placed Starship Damage]] before cutting them off with a [[Laser Blade|Conveniently Placed Plasma Cutter]].

* The American president (played by [[Harrison Ford]], no less) from ''[[Air Force One (film)|Air Force One]]''. The film's rating permits showing that using a glass shard cuts you while you're cutting the rope.

* In [[The Lord of the Rings]]: [[The Two Towers]], the Orcs and Uruk-hai carrying Merry and Pippin are attacked by the Riders of Rohan, allowing the hobbits to crawl to a nearby sharp rock to cut the ropes binding their hands.

* In the sci-fi movie ''Xchange'', the conveniently placed sharp thing is a spool of monofilament line capable of cutting through basically anything. And it shows that when a nervous person is working with monofilament behind their back, [[Fingore|someone's apt to lose a thumb]].

 

* [[Older Than Feudalism]] example: One of [[Aesop's Fables]], "The Lion and the Mouse".

* Frequently averted, subverted, and lampshaded in ''[[Discworld]]''. Particularly noteworthy is in ''Feet of Clay'': "Sometimes, and against all common sense, people inconsiderately throw their bound enemies into rooms totally devoid of nails, handy bits of sharp stone, or even, in extreme cases, [[Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard|enough pieces of old junk and tools]] to [[The A-Team|make a fully functional armored car]]."

* In the second ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' novel, Merry and Pippin are captured and tied up by [[Our Orcs Are Different|Orcs]]. There are two Orc factions present, and they start fighting over where to take the prisoners... one dead Orc falls on Pippin with his sword in convenient reach of the hobbit's bonds.

* In Edmond Hamilton's ''Star Kings'', the main hero, while prisoner on the enemy ship, manages to escape and draw his own side ship's attention. The bad guys are victorious in the battle, and they tie him up in a chair. However, the battle forces a crash landing, which cracks the chair just enough for the hero to saw through his bindings after half a day or so.

'''Jorian:''' So much the worse for them. }}

 

* Parodied in ''[[Police Squad!]]!'', where a kidnapped woman begins sawing away at her bonds on the requisite sharp object, wipes her forehead with her hand from the strain of it all, and then puts her hand back into the ropes to continue sawing away.

* Subverted on ''[[NCIS]]''. Jenny, while tied to a chair, spends considerable effort edging a flat shard of metal towards her with her foot. Then the guy kicks her out of range. (Yes, kicks ''her'' out of range, not the convenient sharp object. Ouch)

* In ''[[Hawaii Five-O]]'', a serial killer who has Max tied up creates his means of escape by smashing several objects with a golf club, then leaving the room for a minute. Max tips his chair over and uses a glass shard to cut the rope. He's not done yet; {{spoiler|he gets back in the chair and pretends he's still bound, and when the killer raises the club to cave in his skull, he runs him through with the shard}}.

 

* ''[[King's Quest V]]'' there is a mouse you save really early on in the game. If you don't, you lose about 300 turns later on when you are tied up and nothing rescues you.

* This is an option in the video game ''Darklands'' when you are tied up by devil worshipers in a hamlet. The game features an illogical subversion; it can be easier to break the ropes with brute force if strong enough than it is to cut them.

* ''[[Nightshade]]'' on the NES has this or a variant in a couple points. Right at the start of the game, you use a Conveniently Placed Candle (The game even notes it's there "For no explainable reason" when you examine it) to free yourself from a chair. Later, one of the continue scenarios has you use some sharp metal protruding from the wall as part of your escape.

* The first ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'' has an unusual variant; the protagonist is tied to a particularly flimsy and battered chair, and simply pulls steadily on his bonds until it breaks.

 

* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', it is [[Chekhov's Gun]]-ed and [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040227 Subverted]:

{{quote|'''Othar:''' I escaped using naught but my wits!

'''Gil:''' ''And'' something my father left within your reach, right? }}

 

* Johnny Rocketfingers

 

* This also occurs in the "Big Top Trap" episode of ''[[The Perils of Penelope Pitstop]]''.

* An episode of ''[[Captain Planet]]'' had Gi tied to a chair in a room used to gather coral from a reef. One sharp piece falls conveniently nearby and we all know what happens after that...

* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', Aang uses the [[Spikes of Villainy|ludicrously spiky helmet]] of ''his own guard''.

 

 

* ''[[Lupin III]]'''s titular protagonist does this quite often, through wrist dislocation rather than crushing his hand.

** In the manga he also escaped his bonds by means of a razor blade hidden under his fingernail.

* In the seventh ''[[Kara no Kyoukai:|Kara no Kyoukai]]'' {{spoiler|Shiki}} manages to one up most of the examples on this page by {{spoiler|''chewing her own thumb off''}} to get out of handcuffs. Of course, {{spoiler|the thumb in question is on her [[Artificial Limbs|artificial left arm]]}} but it just shows how hardcore the character is.

 

* In ''[[Saw]] III'', Detective Eric Matthews escapes the infamous bathroom by breaking his ''foot'' to get it through the manacle.

* Similarly, in ''[[Lethal Weapon|Lethal Weapon 2]]'' Mel Gibson's character is chained up and thrown into the sea. He dislocates his arm at the shoulder to get out. This is actually a [[Chekhov's Gun]], as he does this to escape a straitjacket earlier in the film, on a bet.

** It was revealed in the extra features reel on the DVD that Vin Diesel very nearly ''can'' do that move in real life. Not quite, but close.

 

* [[Miles Vorkosigan]] ''used'' to be able to do this easily when his bones were still brittle enough that he could crush them with his own muscles. The bones were replaced with unbreakable synthetics by the time of ''Komarr'', so that he was unable to escape no matter how hard he tried.

* In ''[[Dragaera|Issola]]'', Vlad considers how to get friends out of ceramic wrist bindings. He rejects the break-the-hand approach primarily because he doesn't have the oil he'd need to slide the hands out afterward.

* In [[The Dresden Files]], this is how Harry manages to escape from the anti-magic handcuffs one villain locks him in before he's auctioned off on eBay to his highest bidding enemy.

* ''Mindstar Rising'', a sci-fi novel by Peter F. Hamilton, has the protagonist and his fellow captive stomping their hands to crush the bones so they can pull them through the handcuffs. Even though he can create neurohormones to dull the pain, it still severely squicks them both.

 

* How [[Dexter]] escapes the Skinner in season 3 - rocking the table over to land on his hand.

* [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles|Sarah Connor]] manages to be even ''more'' [[Badass]]: after breaking her hand bones, she ''bites her wrist open'', giving her the necessary slipperiness.

* Casey tells ''[[Chuck]]'' about this trick (breaking one's own thumb), but Chuck's far too pain-averse. [[Chekhov's Skill|Casey himself pulls it later on.]] Still later Morgan does it, only to discover he didn't need to.

 

* In ''[[Get Medieval]]'', Torquel escapes by ''dislodging'' his thumb rather than break it.

* In ''[[Errant Story]]'', Sara dislocates one of her thumbs to slip that hand out of a pair of [[Anti-Magic]] manacles and gets bonus badass points for using her injured hand to grab Meji and run off.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Bound and Gagged]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]