Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

When the irredeemably evil villain just needs to be [[Freud Was Right|run through with a big rod]]. Bigger is better in [[Big Bad|bad]]. The defining element is the shock value of the impalement. Imaginative impalements qualify. Death by bladed weapon ([[Knife Nut|knife]], [[Katanas Are Just Better|sword]], [[Sword Fight|foil]], [[Laser Blade|lightsaber]], [[Off with His Head|beheading]]) generally does not qualify. Garden-variety vampire stakings, ''à la'' [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]], don't count, but extraordinary stakings do count. Often appears with [[Anvilicious]] symbolism.

When a person is impaled through their... ahem... alimentary canal (starting at either end), it qualifies as a [[Cruel and Unusual Death]]. If the victim is impaled through their neck, it's an [[Impromptu Tracheotomy]]. If the victim is impaled multiple times, you have an example of [[Human Pincushion]].

 

 

* This happens fairly often in ''[[Naruto]]'':

** Kakashi uses his Raikiri against a held-in-place Zabuza, only for Haku to [[Taking the Bullet|take the blow for him]]. [[Bowdlerize|In the anime]] this gave him a sizable stomach wound, but in the manga, Kakashi's forearm ''went most of the way through his abdomen''.

** Negi has ''Jaculatio Fulgoris'' and ''Titanoktonon'' spells, both having shape of spears [[Shock and Awe|made of lightning]]. ''Titanoktonon'' is actually [[BFS|huge enough]] to leave the target hanging a few feet above ground.

** It's also subverted in chapter 225. Dramatic use of black makes it ''look'' like Setsuna got impaled by a stone spike, but it really just ripped her suit.

** Haji redeems this trope when he turns the tables on the villain Amshel in the penultimate episode by dramatically impaling him on the tip of a skyscraper. Which is then struck by lightning. It slows him down for about ten minutes.

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', this is also how Marcoh tries to kill Lust early on in the manga. Too bad she's immortal.

* ''[[Taimanin Asagi]]'': Asagi kills off her [[Arch Enemy]] Oboro in this way at the end.

* Happens to {{spoiler|[[Class Representative]] Yukari Sakuragi}} in ''[[Another]]''. In a very odd fashion: {{spoiler|she was running down a flight of stairs with an umbrella, but tripped up [[Death by Falling Over|and fell over]] -- then the umbrella opened in the worst moment possible... and poor Yukari ended up ''[http://kuromayo.tumblr.com/post/16408231999 impaled through the neck]'' with the sharp end.}}

 

* Also not bad guys, but there are two examples from ''[[Elf Quest]]''. In the first Lord Voll and his giant bird get run through by a giant ground-to-air crossbow bolt. Since the bird is in flight at the time and also carrying Cutter and Ember, this gives them a bumpy landing. Shortly afterward in a climactic battle scene Cutter gets speared through the gut and subsequently lives. Artist Wendy Pini once joked that she did it so they could put a pencil sharpener in the character's action figure.

** The elf Redlance owes his ''name'' from having done this to save his chief from a rampaging monster.

* ''Wormwood''. Just... Wormwood. At the climax, to prevent armageddon, the title character runs Satan (a badass horned devil) and God (a masturbating, levitating old man) through with the Lance of Longinus. They stay that way. Shish-kabobbed together, floating through space, forever.

* Subverted in the early 1990s ''[[Sleepwalker]]'' comics when a villain attempts to impale the alien hero on a roasting spit and appears to succeed. After the villains leave, Sleepwalker gets up, revealing that he merely warped the spit around his body to make it look like he'd been skewered, as a means of getting the villains to leave so no [[Innocent Bystanders]] would be hurt by their fight.

* Most of [[Wolverine]]'s enemies die like this.

* Dee Tyler (also known as Phantom Lady) was killed by Slade Wilson (also known as Deathstroke the Terminator) this way. See [http://www.comicvine.com/dee-tyler/29-29468/all-images/108-218630/95686-sandra-knight/105-306016/ here].

* Ryan Choi (also known as Atom) was killed by Slade Wilson (also known as Deathstroke the Terminator) this way. See [http://www.comicvine.com/ryan-choi/29-2352/all-images/108-218227/death/105-1227823/ here]. Is this Slade's modus operandi or something?

* Angela del Toro (also known as White Tiger) was killed by Lady Bullseye this way. See [http://www.comicvine.com/white-tiger/29-1925/all-images/108-199481/dd_0018b/105-624450/ here]. She was revived soon after though.

* [[Elektra]] eventually returned the favour to Bullseye. See [http://www.comicvine.com/elektra/29-1802/all-images/108-204335/picture_5/105-853226/ here]. Sweet revenge!

* [[Daredevil]] ended giving this treatment to Bullseye. See [http://www.comicvine.com/bullseye/29-4647/all-images/108-199551/darkness_is_growing/105-1263561/ here]. Bullseye will [[Never Live It Down]] when it comes killing [[Elektra]].

* Magik does this to Karma. See [http://www.comicvine.com/magik/29-8303/all-images/108-214540/untitled2/105-1590871/ here].

 

* In ''Dracula Has Risen From The Grave'', the Count {{spoiler|falls off his castle and is impaled on a large wooden cross.}}

* In a deleted scene of ''[[Donnie Darko]]'', Donnie is impaled on a rafter when the plane crashes through his bedroom roof.

* The ''[[Underworld (film)|Underworld]]'' series:

** ''Underworld: Evolution'' - Marcus impales Kraven to a wall with his wings while extracting information from him; he also fights Michael and seemingly kills him by shoving him onto a raised and sharpened piece of debris-- {{spoiler|Michael later heals from this}}; later, Seline rips one of Marcus's spiked wing pinions off and impales him through the head with it before shoving him into a helicopter's rotating blades.

** Also happens to Harry Osborn in the third film. [[Like Father, Like Son]].

* Mr. Han from ''[[Enter the Dragon]]'' meets his end when Lee kicks him right into a spear sticking out of a wall, a spear that [[Chekhov's Gun|Han threw at Lee to try to kill him in the adjoining chamber earlier on in the fight]].

** Something similar to the above example happens to [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|the Captain]]; in the last stand he's impaled on a Persian's spear and a couple swords, so he hacks at the soldiers holding the swords, then pulls himself up the spear to finish off its (at this point terrified) wielder.

* Top Dollar meets his end in ''[[The Crow]]'' this way after living through [[Mind Rape|"thirty hours of pain" all at once]] courtesy of Eric Draven.

** Mere minutes earlier in the same film, Michael impales David on the horns of a stuffed antelope head.

* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Exit Wounds]]'' died this way. What added to the "ouch" factor was the girth of the pipe he fell on and that it wasn't sharp.

* ''[[The Rock]]'': one of the rebel soldiers falls on a stake after being pushed by a rocket ("[[Pre-Mortem One-Liner|Well, I only bring it up because, uh, it's you. You're the Rocket Man.]]").

* ''[[Hollow Man]]'' has the [[Invisible]] lead doing a non-fatal impalement with a crowbar.

* ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]''. Just before Sir Robin and company meet the three headed knight they pass by the evidence of his combat ability: three knights impaled on a lance which is stuck into a tree.

 

* ''[[The Bridge On the Drina]]'' features a slow, harrowing impalement, although in this case it's the Turks punishing a would-be saboteur.

** Just to make this clear, they carefully inserted a long wooden spike trough the guy's rear end, while carefully avoiding all vital organs. He was then left dying in agony ''for days''. The executioner's pay depended from the time the victim stayed alive. The longer, the better.

* The heroic demise of {{spoiler|Oy the billy-bumbler}} in ''[[The Dark Tower]]''.

* A character in ''[[The Lost World (novel)|The Lost World]]'' finds skeletons of victims who were obviously thrown onto bamboo trees from the plateau.

 

* On ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'', Gabby's evil mayor husband ended up impaled by a white picket fence. Symbolism anyone?

* One particularly tough [[Locked Room Mystery]] in ''[[Jonathan Creek]]'' appeared to be caused by a suit of samurai armour stabbing someone through the chest. It was actually caused by [[Animal Wrongs Group|animal rights protesters]] sending the victim an envelope laced with a hallucinogen. When he licked the envelope, the delirium caused by the drug drove him to climb his bookshelf, slip, and fall onto the raised katana of his lovingly restored samurai armour, the whole thing being one giant [[Necro Non Sequitur]].

** This was based on a similar incident that happened to Cordelia's actress, [[Charisma Carpenter]].

*** The same thing happens to Angel on his [[Angel|own show]]. A [[Continuity Nod]] is made.

{{quote|'''Angel:''' Do you have any idea how much it hurts to get a piece of rebar through your chest?

'''Cordelia:''' Actually, yes. }}

** Also, most vampires, generally in a fairly perfunctory fashion. The Master and Kakistos got the more dramatic version. Angel also got repeatedly impaled, always non-fatally.

*** Well, except that one time, though in that case it wasn't the impalement that killed him. It was a metal sword after all. And probably not through his heart.

* In the ''[[Lost]]'' episode "The Other 48 Days," Ana-Lucia discovers Goodwin is [[The Mole]]. He attacks her, flinging himself onto the pointy walking stick she's been carrying around all episode. Because of [[Anachronic Order]], we actually see the grisly result in the episode ''before'' that one.

** Phil gets a magnetically-thrown iron through his chest in the season 5 finale.

** {{spoiler|Bishop's staking Aidan in the second-last episode of Season 1 deserves special mention. Though it's unsuccessful, Bishop jumps ''through'' a window into the house uninvited (burning himself as a result), impaling Aidan and just missing his heart. The "extreme prejudice" part is covered for sure.}}

 

 

* Common enough in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', and not infrequently the victim is impaled on a ''chainsword''...

 

** Also a line in the first game, when a scholar is asked if an ancient temple is really cursed and the Maker will punish infidels who set foot inside it:

{{quote|''"After all, no one wants to hear 'Willie toiled for many a year to perfect the curious mechanisms that would sent a sharpened spike up the arse of the unweary intruder'."''}}

* In ''[[Bullet Witch]]'', Alicia is able to summon a small field of bloody spears that burst up from the ground and impale all foes within the area of effect.

* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', the geth impale their (not always dead) victims on spikes that turns them into zombies. {{spoiler|The geth are actually using [[Eldritch Abomination|Reaper]] tech.}}

* [[Adventure Quest Worlds]] has the DragonSlayer class. One of its class abilities is Impale. What makes it worthy of this trope is that the ability can be done with a fish.

** Not done ''to'' a fish, mind. ''With'' a fish.

* ''[[Dark Messiah of Might and Magic|Dark Messiah]]'' allows the player to kick enemies into spikes for instant-kills. So often in fact, that one review referred to the game as "Sir Kick-Alot Deathboot in the Land of the Conveniently Placed Spikeracks".

** Also, Arantir impales Sareth on a stone spike after there meeting in Asha's temple.

* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'': Menacing spike traps are hilarious about this. If a spike trap is activated while someone is standing on it, something bad will happen to that person. It gets worse for them as the material of the spike gets nastier. For added hilarity, falling from a higher level onto an active menacing spike - say, because the bridge the goblins were standing on was retracted - it counts as a successful activation too.

 

* In one of the endings of ''[[Fatal Hearts]]'', the vampire meets his end when {{spoiler|the PC channels mystical strength to drive her hand through his chest and PUSH his heart out of his body.}} That's a romance that did not end well. For bonus points, {{spoiler|it's implied that he ripped the heart out of a woman in the past in order to become a vampire in the first place.}}

* Several ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'' characters get this treatment. {{spoiler|Gilgamesh}} has an attack that launches hundreds of swords at one target; he uses it most memorably on {{spoiler|Archer}} in the Unlimited Blade Works route,, mirroring how that Servant's human life ended, and Caster in the Fate route. And in the anime, we see {{spoiler|Berserker}} impaled by dozens of swords after his fight with {{spoiler|Archer}}—this was not an easy win.

* On the third Episode of ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', {{spoiler|Maria and Rosa}} die this way in the second twilight. At the end of the fourth Episode's Tea Party, {{spoiler|Beatrice}} gets impaled by Battler's blue truth stakes after their duel. And at the fifth Episode, {{spoiler|Battler}} gets this from a red longsword. He gets back up on his feet later on, [[He's Back|and boy does he come back spectacularly]].

 

* [[Fafnir the Dragon]]: {{spoiler|Vlad Tepes}} does this to some of his opponents. "Just like the good old days."

* ''[[Goblins|Goblins: Life Through Their Eyes]]'': The sadistic Dellyn Goblinslayer {{spoiler|falls into a sharp, upsticking bit of broken pipe during his duel with Thaco the old goblin monk. Although the impalement doesn't kill him, he probably wishes it did shortly thereafter, as he finds he cannot pull himself free and is effectively stuck, and Thaco is advancing on him with sword in hand and murder in his eyes...}}

* A flashback in ''[[Twokinds]]'', shows a couple of examples from when trace went on a rampage in a wolf village.

 

 

* In ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'', {{spoiler|NOS-4-A2}} eventually suffers this fate - the only major villain to be [[Killed Off for Real]].

* The ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Anthology of Interest I" (with a section called "Terror at 500 Feet") has a 500 ft-tall Bender impaled on the Empire State Building.

* Has happened many times in ''[[Happy Tree Friends]]''.

 

* A not entirely uncommon, though very harsh, medieval punishment. A certain Wallachian Voivode named Vlad III, whose surname would later be used for [[Dracula|the lord of all vampires]], used this punishment to put the fear of god into his numerically superior enemies. And just anyone he hated. Or was annoyed by.

*** They may not have all been made up, due to the fact that the nickname his Turkish enemies gave him translates to "The Impaler Lord" and that according to history- the infamous "Forest of the Dead" he had created made a pursuing Turkish (a superpower in that era known for their own barbarity) army commander ''vomit'','' and then retreat in fear''.<ref>What's not commonly known is that Turkish commander was Vlad's ''own brother''.</ref>

* Indians of Northeastern America would impale captives, then burn them alive.