Soft Glass: Difference between revisions

[[File:Glasss.jpg|frame|[[Don't Try This At Home|Don't try this at home.]]]]

 

 

[[Reality Is Unrealistic|Glass is harder than you think it is.]] It takes a lot of force to break a glass window, and, even if you succeed, you have many shards of sharp glass all over the place that are very likely to injure you. However, [[Rule of Cool|that isn't cool.]] It's so much cooler to have your [[Badass]] [[Action Hero]] effortlessly leap through a window and come out unharmed.

One of the many ways [[Television Is Trying to Kill Us]].

 

{{examples}}

== General ==

* Virtually all bar-fights in any [[The Western|Western]] series result in at least one cowhand going through a saloon window, often followed by him getting up and running back into the fray.

 

 

 

 

* Subverted in the first episode of ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]'' where Satou tries to break a beer bottle with a karate chop and cuts open his hand doing it.

* Subaru of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' has a tendency to smash through windows both intentionally and unintentionally, though {{spoiler|being a [[Hollywood Cyborg|Combat Cyborg]]}} certainly helps the plausibility of her doing this. Also, she's wearing a Barrier Jacket (essentially clothing with magical [[Deflector Shields]]), which have been shown to withstand some seriously impressive impacts with no damage to the wearer at all.

* Aversion in ''[[Naruto]]'': Kabuto does the preventive glass-breaking thing using shuriken when escaping Kakashi through a hospital window.

* So does Spike in the ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' movie in a subway.

* During the Water 7 arc of ''[[One Piece]]'', Luffy breaks into Galley-La headquarters by slingshotting himself through a window, and is completely unharmed despite the many large, dangerously sharp-looking pieces of glass on-panel and him using only his bare arms to shield himself. That said, Luffy is made of rubber and has a fair resistance from cuts and piercing (blunt damage is totally negated).

* Somewhat averted in the ''[[Fruits Basket]]'' manga, in that when Kyo punches a school window in anger, it does break, but he also is visibly injured by it.

 

** Also [http://mightygodking.com/images/Civil_War/cwp_05_07.jpg subverted by Spider-Man] in ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' #5, when he punches Iron Man ''through a wall'' and then is stopped dead trying to make his window exit. (Note that that's not the actual dialogue in the link...)

** In another issue of ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'', Peter and his family are staying at Stark Tower, which has been fitted with indestructible windows. After Wolverine taunts him and Mary Jane a bit too much, Peter demonstrates how indestructible they really are by tossing Logan through them. At least Tony got his money back.

* [[Averted Trope|Averted]] in ''[[Thieves and Kings]]''. While Rubel does go through a couple windows, in the first case he is just ''opening the window'', not breaking it, and in the second case, [[Discussed Trope|recognizing that going through a window can kill you]] but having no choice, he hides in a large iron pot.

* ''[[Watchmen]]''

** Played straight(-ish) later when Rorscharch is escaping the set-up at Moloch's home: he leaps through the window to escape the cops, and doesn't appear to be cut by the glass. He is damaged by the fall, however, and is quickly arrested. It's possible that his long-coat and mask protected him from the glass but, since they don't appear to be armoured at all, this is improbable.

* ''[[Bookhunter]]'' is all over the place on this one. Library Police SWAT teams are shown crashing through windows and are naturally unharmed, because they're wearing full armor. Then Agent Bay, a plainclothes [[Cowboy Cop]], leaps through a closed window onto a fire escape and isn't injured at all. And then Chief Spencer gets flung through a plate glass window and gets cut and bloodied in the process. Apparently volition determines whether or not breaking glass injures you.

* The Defenestrator from DC Comics. Carries a portable window to put people through. Since he's a good guy hopefully the intention is just on his pyschosis (through the window!) and not the shredding from dangerous glass.

 

== Films -- Animation ==

** Played with in the "outtake" of said scene, in which Gray, after firing the shots, runs into the window and bounces harmlessly off of the glass, falling backwards.

 

* Subverted hilariously in ''[[A Life Less Ordinary]]'': Ewan McGregor's character, a janitor at an office building, gets replaced by an R2D2-esque cleaning robot. Outraged, he grabs the machine, storms into his boss's office, yells "''This'' is what I think of your robot!" and hurls it at the plate-glass window. The robot bounces off the glass, gets up, and proceeds to clean the office floor.

* Subverted in the opening scene of ''[[Karate Kid]] Part II'', wherein the evil instructor from the first movie punches through two car windows while attacking Mr. Miyagi, winding up with two bloody fists for his troubles. Notably, car window glass is usually of the sort that should break into "safe" pieces. By safe they mean just not as sharp and guillotinely as normal plate glass but still capable of lacerations.

** Another glass-proof Angel is Warren, who is able to jump through a skyscaper window without attaining so much as a scratch, ''shirtless''.

** And then there's Storm, whose face is slammed through a glass table during a fight scene and yet she doesn't suffer the slightest scratch.

* ''[[Last Action Hero]]'', as part of the premise, subverted this and many, many other tropes. After [[Trapped in TV Land|coming out of movieland]], Jack Slater takes control of a car by punching through the window. Shortly thereafter, he says that doing that "really hurt".

* During the shooting of another film of his, ''[[True Lies]]'', Arnold accidentally smashed a real car window instead of the one made out of sugar.

** Averted, as Bruce Willis shoots the window he's swinging towards to weaken it before smashing through. Plus, he looks terrible afterwards. Then he later [[Nausea Fuel|steps on broken glass with his bare feet.]] Not to mention the "Shoot the glass!" part...

** Also in the first movie, Willis' character has a lot of trouble breaking glass to alert a cop 30 stories below. He eventually uses a chair and while it succeeds enough to use, it only creates a relatively small hole.

** He does manage to throw a body through the same glass only moments later, though we don't see how much effort it took, or if the body took any damage from the glass.

* Done both straight and [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] in ''[[The Hudsucker Proxy]]''. Early in the film, a character commits suicide by jumping off the boardroom window. Later, another character tries to do the same but can't break through the glass, as someone had the foresight to replace it with plexiglass.

* ''[[Premonition]]'' has several horrific aversions of this.

* Averted gruesomely in ''[[A Home At The End Of The World]]'', where a character's brother runs through a sliding door he thought was open. The jagged shards of glass puncture his neck, making him bleed to death in seconds.

* Averted, humorously, in the film ''Love, Honour & Obey''. A gang enforcer tries to punch through a car door's window to grab someone who owes money. He punches it, hard, and keeps punching it again and again with the gang standing around discussing whether they think he will give up before it breaks. {{spoiler|you hear it shatter offscreen after a few minutes of conversation}}

** Murphy is allowed to shoot former-OCP officer Dick Jones... who subsequently stumbles backwards from the bullet impacts and breaks through a skyscraper window pane like it wasn't even there. He screams all the way down, presumably from the fall rather than the bullets ''or'' having walked through a window. Though it looked like the bullets went through Jones and damaged the window.

** Subverted in an earlier scene where RoboCop is [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|throwing his killer, Clarence Boddicker, through plate glass windows while reading him the Miranda Rights]]. RoboCop is strong enough to pull the feat off and Boddicker is cut and beaten badly.

* Both subverted and played straight for humor in the movie version of ''[[Lucky Luke]]'' starring [[Terence Hill]]. During a bar brawl, one of the mooks tries to smash a bottle against a table, and repeatedly fails to actually break it. Luke helps him out by grabbing the bottle and smashing it (successfully) against the mook's head.

* Strangely averted with Pseudoscience in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Made for TV Movie]], when the Doctor first pushes his hand into, and then walks through a sliding glass door, with the claim that the molecular structure of the planet is changing.

* Subverted brutally in the opening scenes of the Japanese movie ''[[Hypnosis]]'', where a character kills himself by jumping through a window. His corpse is later shown with the glass still embedded.

* Played straight near the end of the French movie ''[[The Fox And The Child]]'', when the fox jumps through a window with thick wooden framing as though it was nothing. Subverted because {{spoiler|she nearly bleeds to death on the ground below}}.

* [[Throw It In|Accidentally]] [[Double Subversion|Doubly Subverted]] in ''Stark Raving Mad'', in the "knock them out with a wine bottle" variation.

* Averted in John Woo's ''[[Bullet In The Head]]'', where Tony Leung's character has cuts on his face after a close encounter involving gunfire and a car windshield.

* Subverted in ''[[The Destroyer]]'', where Remo Williams cannot break through a glass wall to get out of the trap he and the girl are in. The bad guy waits until Remo is unconscious, and comes into the room to gloat. Remo wakes up, beats up the bad guy, and then uses a [[Chekhov's Gun|diamond embedded in the bad guy's tooth]] to weaken the glass so he can break through it. He still doesn't get cut by it, though. Also, the special effects were really poor in that scene, where the glass shatters about 1/2 a second ''before'' Remo hits the glass.

* Averted in ''[[The Stepfather]] III'', where the killer punches through a car window to get a victim and cuts up his hand pretty badly, resulting in it being heavily bandaged for the rest of the movie.

* Averted in ''[[Maniac Cop 2]]'' where Officer Cordell fights off two officers, throwing one through a mirror. It's mentioned a little later that the thrown cop actually died.

* Even animals sometimes get in on this act, as in the velociraptor's crash through the laboratory window in ''[[Jurassic Park]]''. While scales might offer some protection against being cut, it really ought to have shown at least some damage from the collision.

** Batman in the ''Dark Knight Trilogy'' is covered in armor. As long as he doesn't dive face first, it should protect him.

** Averted in "The Dark Knight" when he fires explosive sticky charges onto a skyscraper window and detonates them before gliding through. Again, his armor likely would protect him from glass shards.

* Quite a painful one in the Jackie Chan film ''Police Story 2'', where he jumps through a window from the roof of a moving bus. A candyglass window was set up for the stunt, but Chan misjudged how far the bus had traveled and ended up jumping through a real one. The outtakes over the credits show how painful this was.

* Averted in ''The Best Years of Our Lives'': after coming home from World War II having lost both his hands, Homer Parrish notices some neighborhood kids trying to catch a glimpse of his hooks and angrily smashes them through a window. This is clearly portrayed as something that wouldn't be possible with real hands.

** In addition, he visibly winces in pain and hobbles for the rest of the sequence.

* Made into a subtle hint of future plot development in the French supernatural thriller ''Vidocq'', where the villain called the Alchemist cheerfully breaks the laws of physics in his every appearance, once jumping through a large window and several stories to the ground, walking away unharmed. Later on, another character does the same with no explanation. Coincidence?

* Unintentionally averted in ''[[The Way of the Gun]]'', when Benicio del Toro's character breaks into a car and has to elbow the window several times before it shatters. The glass was supposed to break on the first try but didn't, so del Toro just kept hitting it until it did. Possible double subversion: he had a screwdriver in his sleeve, and it still took him 3 hits to break the window.

* Averted in ''[[Sabrina]]'' when Harrison Ford tricks Greg Kinnear into sitting on some wine glasses in his back pocket. He spends a significant amount of time in significant agony This scene was lifted from a 1954 film of the same name where the scene is played between [[Humphrey Bogart]] and William Holden.

* Averted in ''[[The Human Centipede]]'' when the crazy doctor tries smashing through a plate glass bedroom window using an air rifle. He manages it, but it takes several minutes of repeated smacking to do it. Probably would have worked better if he hadnt been hitting it with the barrel of the gun though.

* In ''[[The Good Son]]'' near the end Mark is locked in a study room for his seemingly insane behavior, when he sees Henry walking with his mother knowing his intention to kill her he breaks the window with a chair that he doesn't seem to hit very hard.

* Averted in ''[[Superman Returns]]''. When stopping disasters caused by an earthquake, Superman destroys all the broken glass from buildings with his heat vision before it can fall on anyone.

* Another painful one from Hong Kong- during the filming of ''[[Enter the Dragon]]'', [[Bruce Lee]] got quite badly lacerated during a take of his fight with O'Hara (Robert Wall), as the glass bottles Wall smashed to make his ersatz daggers were quite real

 

 

* Averted in [[Jack London]]'s ''[[White Fang]]''. The title dog breaks through a window to reunite with his master and is badly cut up along his stomach for it.

* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]''

** Also averted several times in ''Witches Abroad'', as Granny Weatherwax smashes several mirrors during the course of the story, and almost gets killed by a shower of broken glass. (The ever-patient Nanny Ogg patches her up, lamenting, "Oh, Esme, you do take winning hard.")

** In Maskerade a panicked lady clobbers Nanny Ogg with a ''full'' bottle of champagne to try and knock her out so as to make an escape. The bottle doesn't break, but the book takes this moment to point out that somewhere in the Ogg family tree is a bit of dwarf, meaning Nanny has a skull you could break rocks with, so all getting hit really does is stun her momentarily.

* [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]

** Both averted and lampshaded in the novel ''[[X Wing Series|Wraith Squadron: Iron Fist]]''. A team of New Republic spies instigate a bar brawl with a group of Imperial pilots by having one of their members hitting a fellow teammate in the head with a glass bottle. The bottle shatters because it is made out of stage glass. After the fight, the team member who took the bottle to the face stated that the first bottle didn't hurt him but complained that he was hit by a second bottle and that one was made out of ''real'' glass (the bottle didn't even break). Earlier in the book, in their inspiration for setting up the scene later, a person who instigated a bar brawl for similar reasons smacked a member of the team on the head with a bottle, which not only didn't break but gave him a minor concussion and was unable to fight for a while.

** Also averted when Corran has to break a glass display case in {{spoiler|the sealed-off Jedi exhibits}} at a museum in ''The Krytos Trap''. He takes some precautions, such as wrapping his hand in as much cloth as feasible. It still hurts, but seeing as he needs the {{spoiler|lightsaber}} inside, he didn't have a whole lot of choice.

** Also also averted in ''Wedge's Gamble'' when Corran flings a speeder bike sidecar through a window (long story). The flying glass injures the people on the other side, including Wedge.

* Used in ''Thieves Like Us'', when a girl escapes her captors by going into the bathroom, locking the door, and breaking open the window with a shampoo bottle. Subverted in that she wrapped her hand in a towel to pull out the larger shards still in the frame afterwards and gets a deep cut in her side while climbing out.

* [[Nightmare Fuel|Horrifyingly]] averted in ''The Higher Realm'' by James Friel, in which a little girl accidentally runs into a glass door, is wounded by the shards and quickly bleeds to death.

* Averted in ''Martians in Maggody'', when Arly breaks a window with a rock and suffers numerous superficial cuts from the glass fragments. Justified, as she'd overheard the sounds of a sexual assault from inside and couldn't waste time looking for something to wrap her arm with.

* Averted in ''[[Mercy Thompson]]''. A werewolf in a hurry jumps through the porch window, covering himself in numerous deep cuts. His exasperated alpha points out that he could have died even despite his [[Healing Factor]] due to the sheer number of the cuts. Even worse, though, is that a naked woman with normal human healing was standing beneath the window, and she ends up covered with broken glass.

* Averted in a major way in [[Ann Rice]]'s ''[[Queen of the Damned]]'', where {{spoiler|Mekare}} pushes {{spoiler|Akasha}} through a plate glass window. One of the larger shards decapitates {{spoiler|Akasha}}.

 

 

* ''[[Angel]]'' was rather fond of crashing through skylights. He also smashed through a lot of windows. The fact that he's a vampire might account for his ability to survive such an impact, but not the fact that he never gets cut. Subverted in one episode in which he's thrown out of a Skyscraper window. He recovers shortly after but is shown to be in extreme pain and spitting up Blood upon impact.

* Simultaneously subverted and double subverted in an episode of ''[[Bones]]'': It is known that a wine bottle was broken over the victim's head, after which the intact end was shoved into the victim. As it turns out, good quality wine bottles (such as those used in the winery where the body was found) [[Subverted Trope|don't break that easily]]. [[Double Subversion|A cheap knock-off of said winery's bottles, filled with cheap knock-off wine, sold as if it were from that expensive winery, though...]]

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''

** Notably averted in season 6: someone is clubbed and (unintentionally) killed with a wine bottle that never even cracks.

* ''[[CSI]]''

** Averted in another episode, where one of the Miniature Killer's victims dies when her head goes through a plate glass window and the sharp shards essentially turn her into a Pez dispenser.

* [[CSI: NY]] had an aversion in an ep where the victim was killed after he fell backwards into the glass of his aquarium, shattering it and cutting himself to shreds.

* Averted in ''[[The Walking Dead]]'' when they try to break the big glass windows in a CDC center. After about a minute of shooting it and hitting it with crowbars, they finally use a grenade to blow open a window. And even then, it seems barely to break.

* Averted in "The Train Job", the second [[Pilot]] for ''[[Firefly]]'', when a brawl in what appears to be a classic Western tavern <s>ends</s> begins with Mal getting thrown through the hologram they have in place of a plate glass window. [[Fridge Logic|How this actually works is never made clear,]] though fan-theories abound, but whoever owns that bar is commendably [[Genre Savvy]]. Also averted in the pilot when Shepherd Book is hit multiple times with a glass bottle which does not break, but does an effective job of rendering said preacher unconscious.

** Done [[Good Thing You Can Heal|completely the other way round]]: Claire punches through a car window to intimidate Elle and gets several glass shards in her hand, when realistically, a car window should be made of safety glass that is specifically designed not to create sharp shards because of the great risk that would pose in accidents. Her power is regeneration though, so she's OK.

** Then subverted at the end of season two: Elle blasts Sylar through a glass door; he keeps running and it seems he's perfectly fine, but in the next scene, he has several gashes and wounds. {{spoiler|Regeneration is used again, though, as he injects himself with Claire's blood, healing his wounds, and granting his powers back.}}

** Half-played straight, half-averted again when {{spoiler|Sylar throws Peter through a window. He sustains injuries (he just lost regenerative powers), but isn't ribboned. In fact, it's inplied that it's the telekinetically-cushioned seven-story ''fall'' that caused his injuries.}}

* Averted in ''[[Day Break]]''. In the pilot episode, Brett throws a guy into a glass display case. In a later scene set a few hours later, we are told that "they're still picking the glass out of his back" at the hospital.

* Averted in the Soviet mini-series ''[[The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed]]''. The villain takes a running jump through a glass window, using an innocent bystander as a shield. When the hero follows him, the remaining bits of glass cut him up pretty bad.

* In an episode of ''[[My Family]]'', Ben and Susan house sit an extremely hi-tech apartment, where they do not know how to operate anything or open the windows. A fire starts and they break the glass (which looks pretty damn thick) by throwing a DVD player at it.

* Averted in the ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' episode "Pigeon": Bradan Caden is killed by glass shards upon crashing into a building.

** Carla has to get into Turk's car and brings fellow nurse Laverne along with her. The car's locked, so Laverne shouts a battle cry ("[[Leeroy Jenkins|Lavern Robaaaaaarts!]]") and punches out the window with nary a scratch. Carla is taken aback and cries "Laverne! I have the keys!"

** Averted in another episode, where J.D. tries to break a car window with a heavy object to prove a point. It takes him several minutes of repeated bashing before the glass eventually breaks.

** Near the end of the third season, J.D. and Elliot get [[Will They or Won't They?|back together]], then JD tells her he doesn't love her at the reception dinner. She shoves him onto the table, where he crushes several wine glasses. No injury occurs.

* Subverted in an episode of the original (black and white) ''[[Superman]]'' TV series. The Man'o'Steel has just deflected an asteroid and is feeling a bit woozy. Jimmy Olsen is over and thinks Clark is sick and puts him in the shower. We hear the crash of breaking glass as Clark falls through the shower door. Jimmy later comments on how lucky Clark was as "there wasn't a scratch on him."

** Averted when a woman is "attacked" by spiders in her shower... and in the flailing to get them off, puts her arm through the shower door and bleeds to death.

** Also averted when Castiel tries to "speak" to Dean in his angelic voice, shattering every window in the process. Dean tries to hide, but still can't avoid a few cuts. This was mirrored in Real Life. When the fake sugar glass being used didn't look visually stunning enough, real glass was used. [[Jensen Ackles]] received a cut as a result. In the same episode, Dean is shown to break into a deserted store, taking pains to wrap up his hand and sweep the frame to keep it from being turned into hamburger meat.

* Averted in ''[[True Blood]]''. Tara's mother hits her with an empty liquor bottle. It didn't break at all and in fact left a nasty wound on Tara's forehead.

** Very much not averted when Will Bailey breaks the "glass" between his and Toby's office. The scene showcased the extent of his frustration, as Toby has never been able to break it with his rubber ball no matter how hard he threw it. Funny thing is, the ''thump'' of the ball against the window always sounded like plexiglass before this incident. Go figure.

* Oh mercy, ''[[Doctor Who|The End of Time]]''. {{spoiler|Watching the Doctor plummet through Naismith's stained glass ceiling and land very painfully. He's cut up, but not as badly as the fall should have made him. (Of course, he probably broke most of the bones in his body on the landing, which wouldn't be quite so noticeably bloody and graphic, but still....)}}

** "Closing Time" - the Doctor jumps through a window to rescue Craig, and doesn't get so much as a scratch. ''Fixing'' the window before Craig's wife gets home is more of a problem (apparently, finding a glazer on a Sunday isn't easy even with a time machine.)

** Oddly averted in ''Partners In Crime''. Donna was even hitting that window with a wrench and nothing was happening. Maybe deadlocking windows to make them sonic screwdriver proof also strengthens the glass.

* In the HBO show ''OZ'', characters repeatedly break through glass walls. Which is even more bizarre considering the fact that it's set... in a maximum-security prison. A maximum-security prison where the walls are made out of glass. Not Plexiglass or even safety glass, but regular, breaks-into-nice-sharp-pieces-perfect-for-shanking-someone glass. Justified in that Em City is designed specifically like that. Also averted in that when Beecher smashes a glass window with a chair, a shard nearly blinds Schillinger

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ustbf1lJXCI This Reporter] finds out the hard way.

* The season one midseason finale of ''[[White Collar]]'' has Neal Caffrey swinging into a locked room of an art museum this way. Well, technically the window was made of panes of glass separated by wood, which is what he actually breaks, but he should've gotten a few cuts at the very least.

* The fifth season finale of ''[[Psych]]'' managed to avert this. Juliette and a psycho crash down onto a coffee table whose glass top breaks. The psycho is underneath Juliette and is seen immediately to be bleeding. By the end of the episode, though, the injuries appear not to have been severe.

* ''[[Lost]]''. Locke gets shoved out a window and falls eight stories. He lives. However, much of ''Lost'' is about characters surviving/healing from stuff they should not.

* Averted in ''[[My Name Is Earl]]''. To appear threatening the quite strong Joy tries to break an empty liquor bottle which doesn't budge after two blows to a table. Giving up, she states "It will still hurt if she hits Catalina with it"

* Averted in ''Rescue Me''. After punching through a Glass window,Ken bleeds heavily and is shown having a nasty cut treated

* Averted in ''[[Peep Show]]''. After slamming a glass onto a table,a character has to go to the Hospital and is visibly in pain. It is also treated as a bizarre incident with Super Hans noting that "Buddha wasn't too happy."

* There were several instances in ''[[Highlander the Series]]'' where Richie crashed through a glass window. Justified at least once in that in the scene, he hit the glass at full speed on his motorcycle (though it's a surprise he wasn't cut, unless the motorcycle gear was heavy enough to protect him.)

** In the pilot, he averts the trope, cutting Mac's antique shop window with a glass cutter.

 

* For an angle in [[WCW]], Bill [[Goldberg]] was required to punch through a real glass window of a limousine. He was originally supposed to conceal a small piece of pipe in his hand to aid with the punching, but after the cameras started rolling he lost it and decided to punch through the window with his bare fist. A shard of glass caused a huge gash down his forearm and he was out of action for months. [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3i5Ju0mhjAE Watch it here.] Watch for him checking his arm after smashing the third window and the subsequent splatter of blood when he pounds on the white hood.

** If you listen to the match commentary on the DVD with Shane and Kurt they talk about this, and proving that he's actually got a bit of badass in him, Shane apparently told Kurt once they were through the first one to just fling him head-first through the glass on the way out. He did, and it looked awesome.

* Sabu and [[Mick Foley|Cactus Jack]] had a match in [[ECW]] where they brawled through the crowd and backstage area. Sabu got hold of a bottle, which he proceeded to break over Jack's head. Except that it was a real, non-gimmicked bottle, and took several attempts...

* The set for Brutus Beefcake's [[Talk Show With Fists]], ''The Barber Shop'', has a big glass window that was just begging for someone to be thrown through it. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCljiGVZ5fE That someone was Marty Jannetty,] courtesy of his tag-team partner [[Shawn Michaels]], in a move that solidified Michaels's [[Face Heel Turn]] and launched his singles career. Note that in [[Real Life]], the window was not real glass, and Jannetty was applying the blood while he was draped over the windowsill and his face was out of sight. (Interestingly, many people misremember this as "Michaels superkicking Jannetty through the glass," when what actually happened was Michaels superkicking Jannetty to the floor, then picking him up and ''throwing'' him through the glass.)

* This happens a lot in Japanese and American "Death Match" or other [[Garbage Wrestling]] venues. The lucky ones work for a league that invests in prop beer mugs and break-away panes of glass that, like most pro wrestling, looks horrid but is relatively safe. The unlucky ones get dropped through actual, thin window panes, have actual glasses and bottles busted over their heads, and get hit with/thrown through actual fluorescent tubes. The latter of which, btw, shatter into countless razor-sharp shards, tend to [[Nausea Fuel|turn the upper layer of skin and flesh into hamburger]], and [[Too Dumb to Live|contain potentially carcinogenic chemicals]].

 

== Video Games ==

** In a later scene to escape from a building-soon-to-be-destroyed, despite having superhuman augmented cyborg arms that can shatter concrete and don't feel pain, he STILL throws a chair at a window (which bounces off instead of breaking it outright) before going out of it, because his fist would leave a small, well...fist-sized hole instead of the larger one he would need to jump through.

* ''[[Syphon Filter]]''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3LL5kgSetQ Just watch for a few seconds].

* Played entirely straight, but not in the way you're thinking, in the original ''[[Space Quest]]'' adventure game. After your escape pod crashes on a desert planet, one of the things you need to recover from it is a glass shard from the shattered pod windshield. But don't worry, hilariously accident prone Roger Wilco! It's safety glass, and therefore shatters specifically in such a way to ''prevent any sharp edges''. Good thing you've got your Xenon Army Knife. Wait, that can't cut through hot butter...

* Averted in the last two ''Timesplitters'' games, where you can damage yourself by walking into a pane of glass and shattering it with your body.

* Played straight in ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' and ''5.'' Characters are at least smart enough to shield their face while diving through windows, but it doesn't do them any damage either way.

* Averted in Scott Adams' [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''Ghost Town'', with the mirror. Smashing the mirror without {{spoiler|taping it first}} is instant death.

* ''[[Canabalt]]'' has the protagonist leaping through glass windows without even slowing, much less taking damage.

* It's both averted and played straight in ''[[Heavy Rain]]''. Most of the fight scenes play it straight since they have characters fighting through glass rather easily (characters punching through glass, a fish tank shattering, etc.). When glass actually has to be broken outside of a fight, though, it takes at least three well-placed kicks to break open, thus averting the trope. {{spoiler|And then it's averted in another way when Origami Killer forces one of the characters to crawl down a ventilation shaft lined with tons broken glass. The state of the character's clothes and arms afterwards tells you all you need to know about how painful it must have been.}}

* In ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' the protagonist's method of stealing cars is to simply elbow the window, and unlock it from the inside.

** Played straight with Jarate, as the the jar itself always shatters when thrown without damaging anything.

* In the [[Splinter Cell]] games, a whiskey bottle can be thrown to cause a distraction, and it well break. Also, if thrown at someones head, it'll KO them instantly.

* ''[[Shadowgate]]'' has a place where you have to break one of three mirrors to proceed, [[Guide Dang It|with nothing other than past experience (yours or other players) telling you which one you should break.]] One mirror cuts you to ribbons if you break it. The other two don't, but while one merely lets you walk through unharmed, the other opens a magic portal to space, sucking you through and killing you.

* In ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'' The Kid isn't hurt by falling glass (except for [[Rule of Funny|Dracula's wineglass]], which is a [[One-Hit Kill]]). In ''[[One-Hit-Point Wonder|I]] [[Death World|Wanna]] [[Everything Trying to Kill You|Be]] [[Fake Difficulty|The]] [[Platform Hell|Guy]]'' glass ''does not'' kill you.

* The [[Dead Rising]] games let you punch or kick through sheets of glass with no problem. You won't get hurt even if you're in your underpants.

* Subverted in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]''. Shepard needs to break through a window at one point, but fires his/her pistol at the window first whilst covering his/her face from the shards.

 

 

== Web Comics ==

** [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-08-08 Subversion].

** Lampshaded: Elan mentions that Dashing Swordsmen get reduced glass damage precisely so they can make dramatic window entrances. It doesn't even have to be dramatic, so he can apparently just break glass by touching it.

** It seems he's the only character with this ability. For everyone else, it plays out [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0589.html realistically.]

* ''[[Girl Genius]]''

** Used dead straight in : Othar Tryggvassen, [[Gentleman Adventurer]]!, gets thrown through sheets of glass on at least two occasions without a scratch. Of course, since he also survives even ''worse'' attacks without a mark on him, this may just be because he's [[Made of Iron]].

** Maxim the Jägerkin gets tossed through the window of a Sandwich shop without a scratch. Of course the knife wound in his hand from a few panels before is gone too, so maybe it's a [[Healing Factor]].

** During the McDonald's arc, Dr. McNinja interrogates three workers to learn Ronald's whereabouts. After they refuse to talk, he "super sizes their pain" by throwing one of them out the window. They were robots, but still... and then there's this line.

** The plate glass windows of Doc's office have also been emergency egresses (and ingresses!) to the point where Doc's got a "wall and window man" on call.

* Averted in ''[[Dominic Deegan]]: Oracle for Hire'', where a man is thrown through a window and ends up cut half to ribbons (and [[Bar Brawl|possibly]] broke some bones in the process). Still, [[You Fail Biology Forever|Biology Is Failed Forever]] since it supposedly cut an artery lengthwise (with no cover or pressure) and he was [[Made of Iron|still alive over a minute later]].

* Averted in [http://www.leasticoulddo.com/comic/20081111 this strip] of ''[[Least I Could Do]]''.

 

 

** Homer does this by accident when trying to hit the jukebox and make it start playing a la [[Happy Days|Fonzie]]: "'aaaayyy....* smash* AHH!! HEMORRHAGE-A-MUNDO!!!"

** In another episode Bart throws a brick against a store window only for it to bounce back and hit him in the head without cracking the window.

* One episode of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' had Wonder Woman stop a fast-moving car by ''punching it''. This is essentially the same as it hitting a wall, and sending the drivers and passenger flying through the windshield (instead of just knocking the thing straight out) and ''into another car'', yet the guys not only survive, but weren't even unconscious.

* In ''The New Adventures of Batman & Superman'' episode "Critters", Robin is running away from a giant bull, and he at least picks up a trashcan lid to leap through a window.

* Averted in ''[[Captain Planet]]'', of all places; when Linka's drugged-up cousin smashes through a window, he slices his wrists open.

* ''[[South Park]]''

** Subverted in the episode "South Park Is Gay": Mr. Slave attempts to assassinate the cast of ''Queer Eye for the Straight Guy''. He manages to crash through their hotel window... and then lies bleeding on the hotel room floor.

** Half-averted in the episode "Bullocks to Stan". Bullock, attempting to placate Stan's wrath, tries to convince him that their fight was an elaborate test. He then laments not getting to use the "breakaway glass window." It's real, so when he hits it, it doesn't break. He puts a few bullets in it then repeats the act successfully, though he still might have been injured by the glass.

** Averted when Stan and Francine spies on George Clooney to get to him. In a fit of rage Francine punches a glass window, her hand gets bloody, and has shards of glass stuck in it.

* Averted about three minutes into the first episode of ''[[Clone High]]'', when Abe Lincoln, trying desperately to look cool in front of Cleopatra, leans against the high school's glass trophy case; his arm crashes through it and he immediately starts bleeding.

* Happens all the time on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''. Though, given [[And I Must Scream|some of]] [[Buried Alive|the other]] tropes these characters are subjected too, it might be a mercy move.

 

** In a mall scene of ''Police Story'', the glass is made thicker than usual so it'll look more real. This had a rather unfortunate (or fortunate) side effect of visibly cutting the actors. In fact, Jackie has gone on record in his documentaries saying that his team uses real plate glass anytime it's possible, because fake glass looks too, well, fake. There's a very good reason his stunt team is considered some of the most badass people on the planet (and why they can't get insurance).

** There is a rumor that during the filming of the car window punching scene from ''Terminator'' Arnold broke his his hand punching out the wrong window, which hadn't been replaced by breakaway glass.

* [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1205737/Man-killed-shards-glass-hurling-girlfriend-shop-window.html??88 An abusive man in England killed himself by accident] when he hurled his girlfriend into a plate glass window several times. A shard of this broken glass apparently impaled him and severed an artery. [[Laser-Guided Karma]], anyone? At least one internet forum reported this story with the thread title "[[A Worldwide Punomenon|Windows: Fatal Error]]".

* Behold the insane true story of [[wikipedia:Alan Magee|Alan Magee]], a [[WW 2]] B-17 gunner. His plane was shot down in 1943 (receiving 28 shrapnel wounds in the process), and after bailing out discovered his parachute wouldn't work. Magee free-fell 22,000 feet, through a train station's glass ceiling... and lived. It's speculated that the glass may have broken the fall.

* Before reinforced glass became common, there were quite a few instances of people not seeing glass sliding doors, walking into them, and the ensuing horrific consequences. Even now this can still happen, you just have to hit it extremely hard (usually by running).

** Shower Screens and Enclosures as well as vehicle windscreens are made of this glass, too. Slipping in a shower is common enough, so being surrounded by glass that could shatter and slice you to ribbons is not the best idea in the world. Neither is having a huge sheet of glass in front of your face that could impale you with shards in the event of a car accident.

* In ''Tosh.0'', Tosh interviews a news reporter who had trouble breaking car door glass with a hammer. He gets it this time around, since the trick is to hit the corner of the car window. Hitting center of the window full-force with a tool designed to shatter said windows resulted in a loud noise and a tiny ding in the glass. However, when applied about an inch in from the corner, a swing from the wrist, not even elbow or shoulder, breaks the entire window.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Television Is Trying to Kill Us]]

[[Category:Artistic License Physics]]

[[Category:Did Not Do the Research]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]