Railing Kill: Difference between revisions

Even [[No OSHA Compliance|OSHA compliance]] is no guarantee of safety. A [[Mooks|mook]] (usually) standing behind a railing, usually about waist-height, on an elevated surface who is shot during a firefight will invariably fall forward and flip over the railing, falling to his (presumed) demise, probably [[Stock Scream|Wilhelm]] screaming on the way down. Conversely, someone standing in front of a railing will flip ''backward'' over the railing. This occurs even if the mook was [[Blown Across the Room|shot from the direction of the railing with a weapon that normally throws people violently backwards]]. The phenomenon that causes this is called ''Ledge Gravity'', and specifies that [[Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress|people will tend to fall]] in the direction they'll fall furthest because there's more gravity that way.

 

 

If the ledge is high enough, a [[Disney Villain Death]] may occur.

{{examples}}

 

== [[Film]] ==

* The same technique is used in ''Le Viager'': a man saws through the wooden railing of a second story window in a summer house, hoping to kill the owner. The first person to go on the balcony isn't the owner but the would-be-killer's wife.

* Happens in ''[[RoboCop]]'' during the particularly one-sided shootout in the drug factory.

** When the ''Enterprise'' self-destructs. As the bridge is exploding around him, one Klingon is thrown violently over the railing in the middle of the bridge. Does it count as a railing kill when even the railing doesn't survive?

* Subverted twice in the [[James Bond]] parody ''[[Our Man Flint]]''; Flint fights two Mooks on an industrial catwalk, only one side has a railing, the Mooks go off the side that doesn't. Later, villain Rodney goes over a stairway railing, but survives the fall.

* A nameless Indian in ''[[The Last of the Mohicans|Last of the Mohicans]]'' is shot far into the air above a cliff because of [[Ledge Gravity]], uttering a [[Wilhelm Scream]] on the way down.

* Happens in ''[[Austin Powers]]'' a few times, which makes sense considering it's a ''[[James Bond]]'' parody.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** She doesn't feel ''too'' bad about it though, since the guy she killed has murdered dozens of people, and he was on the catwalk to arrange an "accidental" death for Ethan.

 

* The two-story saloon version is parodied in a dream/fantasy sequence in an episode of ''[[Family Matters]]'', in which Carl Winslow mortally wounds a bandit version of Urkel on the first floor of the establishment, who then dramatically makes his way around the set, climbing up the stairs, only to fall through the railing into a table on the ground level right next to where he started.

* Although he survives with minor injuries, this happens to Silar in the ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' episode ''Upgrades'', when Jack O'Neill accidentally pushes him off the stairs and over a railing. (Silar is also played by the series stunt coordinator)

* John Hart pulls one of these on Jack Harkness in ''[[Torchwood]]'', killing him. Jack, being Jack, comes back to life.

* Happens in the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode "War Stories", when the [[Mook]] whom Mal is fighting is [[No Kill Like Overkill|shot repeatedly by several of Mal's crewmembers]] and plummets to his death.

* Done by a ''zombie'' in episode 2.03 of ''[[The Walking Dead]]''.

 

== [[Magazines]] ==

 

== [[New Media]] ==

* Two words: [[Ledge Fighters]]!

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* In the ''[[Hitman]]'' series of games (Or ''Blood Money'' at least) pushing someone into a railing causes them to fall over it, and their death will be considered an accident by anyone discovering the body (no matter how many other 'accidental' or overtly-suspicious deaths may have occurred on the premises since your arrival). It kills them even when [[Death by Falling Over|the rail is three feet off the ground]].

* In ''[[Star Wars: Dark Forces|Jedi Academy]]'', one mission starts with Force-pushing a rock out of the way. The rock then flies right into someone who falls over a small ledge in this way.

** In ''[[Star Wars: Dark Forces|Jedi Outcast]],'' in the Nar Shadda level, shooting down a rooftop sniper will cause him to plummet from the roof down through a window on the building in front of him.

*** The game's coding would deliberately make any enemy near a cliff tumble off of it. This can have amusing results when a stormtrooper is incredibly far away from a ledge, but seems to leap off of it anyways.

** There are even several places in the second game where enemies stand looking out over the edge with their back to the direction you're coming from. The only way it could be a more obvious set up would be if you overheard one of them commenting on how much it would suck to get thrown over the ledge.

* [[Batman: Arkham Asylum]] gives you a few opportunities to do this with the Batclaw, which lets you grab an enemy with your grappling hook and yank him over the ledge. A few Predator challenges require you to do this. There's also the Ledge Takedown, where Batman jumps up from the ledge he's hanging from, grabs a henchman, and flips him over the railing.

* Possible in ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon]]'', most often due to the [[Wreaking Havok|wonky physics]]. There's even one Replica soldier who attacks you from a catwalk early on and is scripted to ''leap over'' the railing and fall down a pit when you kill him.

* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'': In Meet the Sniper, the BLU Demoman is hit in the eye by a piece of his bottle. He then stumbles around, blindly shooting grenades into the air, bumps into a railing and falls over it.

* Due to the conversion of overkill damage to momentum, any stealth/archer or destruction mage character in ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion]]'' or ''[[Skyrim]]'' is bound to get a railing kill or two as they make their way through the game.

** Also, anybody who uses [[Make Me Wanna Shout|Unrelenting]] [[Blown Across the Room|Force]] heavily will do this a lot, since blasting somebody off a cliff or balcony is an easy kill. FUS RO DAH!

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'' Agatha sent {{spoiler|Othar Tryggvassen, GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!}} over the board of an [[Cool Airship|airship]]. The embarrassing part of the incident is that she did it within a hour after yelling at Gil for doing [[Destination Defenestration|almost exactly the same]]. This guy "''does'' that to people".

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

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[[Category:Fight Scene]]