I Can't Feel My Legs
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Dwight Hartman: I... I can't feel my legs! —Scary Movie 2, after the paraplegic Hartman has fallen out a window.
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A big battle is going on, and one of the good guys gets injured. Usually, it's not a main character, but rather a secondary one who utters the phrase "I can't feel my legs...". When this comes out of their mouth, you know that they're going to end up paralyzed in some way (usually for life). This is a common backstory for the Inspirationally Disadvantaged, Wheelchair Woobie, or someone with a Disability Superpower.
This trope is usually a spoiler, as well as a Stock Phrase.
This trope is Played for Laughs a lot nowadays, with the character saying "I can't feel my legs" already a cripple, and somebody reminding them that they couldn't before. For a related comedic trope, where this situation is Played For Slapstick, see Bits of Me Keep Passing Out.
Anime/Manga
- Havoc, from Fullmetal Alchemist, utters this in the anime after being stabbed by Lust.
Comic Books
- Rudi tries to pick up a woman at the supermarket by "accidentally" hitting her with his shopping cart. But he is nervous and uses too much power...
Film
- Tropic Thunder plays with it by having Tugg say the line after escaping an explosion and collapsing, only for Kirk to point out that it's because his legs are in a cold puddle.
- Played for Laughs in Silver Bullet, the film adaptation of Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf, after the kids have killed the werewolf, Jane asks Marty if he's okay, and Marty (who is paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair), says "No... I think something's wrong with my legs! I can't feel them!" Cue the Dope Slap in response.
- Donkey in Shrek:
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Donkey:"Oh, man! I can't feel my toes! [looks down at hooves] I don't have any toes!" |
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- The Usual Suspects. The following scene occurs at the beginning of the movie. Later, we hear that Keaton was shot beforehand.
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Keyser Soze: How you doing Keaton? |
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- Scary Movie 2. Dwight is paraplegic.
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Buddy: Are you okay, Dwight? |
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- In X-Men: First Class, Xavier says this after being shot in the back. Given the character is usually best known for A. his psychic powers, B. being bald, and C. being confined to a wheelchair, this is more or less a Foregone Conclusion.
- However, that does not make the moment any less of a Tear Jerker.
- Major Payne tries to tell a bedtime story. It does not end well.
- Played for laughs in The Social Network when Mark drags Eduardo outside in the freezing cold to talk about his early ideas for Facebook. When Eduardo says the line, Mark obliviously replies "I know, I'm totally psyched about this too."
- A very depressing (or very dark-humored) example from a kid's movie, no less. In Antz , as Z is holding his dying friend's severed head, said friend mutters the exact phrase.
Jokes
- An old joke has a guy waking up in the hospital after an accident:
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Patient: Doctor, I can't feel my legs! |
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Literature
- In the Dresden Files book Changes, Harry himself utters this after falling and breaking his back.
- Subverted in the beginning of Seekers of the Sky: after a crash landing, Ilmar discovers that he cannot feel his legs and thinks his back is broken. However, it turns out, they were simply numb from sitting in a cramped position with Marcus on his lap for a couple of hours.
- Subverted in the first True Blood novel. Sookie gets beaten almost to death and says that she can't feel her legs. However, Bill then heals her with vampire blood.
- In the Warrior Cats series, a tree falls in the camp and lands on the young cat Briarpaw. She cannot feel her hind legs. It turns out that her spine is broken and her hind legs are paralyzed.
Live Action Television
- Mad TV, parodying the Budweiser's "Bud-Bowl" advertising campaign, featured a skit where a beer bottle got injured and yelled out, "I can't feel my label!"
- Charmed episode "All Hell Breaks Loose". Piper has been shot.
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Piper Halliwell: Prue, I'm cold. I can't - I can't - I can't feel my legs. |
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- Stevie used this at least once as a joke on Malcolm in the Middle.
- Danny on CSI: NY, after the shooting at the bar where he was shot in the back.
- Mock the Week, "Unlikely things to hear in a war film"
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Frankie Boyle: "I can't feel my legs!" "That's because your arms have been blown off." |
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Theatre
- Defied in Journey's End when Stanhope keeps Raleigh, who's been hit by a shell talking so he doesn't realise that he's been paralyzed.
- In an episode of Mindfreak where they stage a decapitation illusion gone wrong, the man in the guillotine uses this line.
Video Games
- Laharl from Disgaea utters these words in Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories. However this is subverted- he's not paralyzed, he is just really hungry because he hasn't eaten any nutritious food in a long time.
- In Wet Simmons yells this after his car has crashed. It makes it impossible for him to flee when Rubi throws a lighter into the leaked gasoline.
Web Original
- In Klay World: Pancake Mines, A Klayman steps on a mine, which blows his legs off. He screams, "I can't... feel... my arms!" The Klayman's head then falls on another mine, setting off a chain reaction of explosions.
- After being paralyzed from being pushed off a cliff by Vriska, Tavros of Homestuck says the following:
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AT: aG JUST JUMPED ME OFF A CLIFF, |
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Western Animation
- In Extreme Ghostbusters, the local Handicapped Badass Garrett invoked this--Played for Laughs, of course, as he is one of the best-adjusted paraplegic around.
- The best part of this scene is the moment right after he says it, when both his teammates in the car look genuinely worried that something bad has happened to him. Then what he said sinks in.
- In Danny Phantom, Danny's clone and female counterpart Dani says this line as she begins to break down from genetic instability. At this point of her 'meltdown', she didn't even have legs anymore.
- The Simpsons: Falling asleep on a particularly long bus trip, Homer awakes and puts his hands on the blanket spread over his legs, then realizes he can't feel them. He starts punching them, screaming he can't feel his legs, when Marge groggily tells him they belong to the extremely tall guy behind him.
- Happens occasionally as a running gag in SpongeBob SquarePants.
- Xiaolin Showdown - Dojo, the team's dragon companion, says this while pinned under a boulder. Clay lifts the boulder and reminds him that he doesn't have legs.
- In one episode of Minoriteam, the paraplegic Dr. Wang tried to invoke this trope by staging an accident that he could file a big lawsuit over.