Soft Glass: Difference between revisions
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* [[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]]''
** Averted: the cops investigating the Comedian's death conclude it couldn't have been suicide, because nobody could have smashed that window by merely running at
** 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.
** Averted again later in a bar Rorschach frequents for information, where he brutally pumps information out of a guy by breaking a glass cup in his hand, then proceeding to ''squeeze'' it.
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** 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.
* And yet ''another'' glass-proof
** Subverted shortly after the part where Angel runs through the door when the criminal dives through a pane of glass and gets a bad cut on their leg leaving blood on the glass.
* Averted in ''[[Memento]]'', Leonard knocks a guy out with a wine bottle without breaking it, and specifically choosing it for this earlier when he needed a weapon.
* Believe it or not, ''[[Commando (film)|Commando]]'' averted this trope. A friend of Jon Matrix (Schwarzenegger's character) died after being driven on the hood of a stolen car through a window. The close up of the guy shows him badly cut from the shards.
* ''[[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".
* One of [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]'s other characters, [[The Terminator]], also punches through a number of car
* 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.
* ''[[Die Hard]]''
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* 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}}
* There was a really ridiculous example on ''[[The Incredible Melting Man]]'', which was once featured on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''
* Subverted in ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]''. Detective Spooner attempts to debunk the theory that Dr. Lanning defenestrated himself to commit suicide. He does so by throwing a desk chair at the next pane of glass, and noting that, as safety glass, it shattered in place but did not break.
* ''[[RoboCop]]''
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* 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.
* This must be a Batman thing, because the ''[[Dark Knight Trilogy]]'' is known for its ([[Your Mileage May Vary|attempts at]])
** 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.
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** 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.
* Played straight in the YA novel ''Lisa, Bright and Dark''. The title character, a young girl going mad, walks through a glass patio door in a desperate cry for medical attention. Let's just repeat the relevant bit: She ''walks'' through the glass ''patio door''. The narration makes it very clear this is what's
* [[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.
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** Played straight ''and'' subverted in "Homecoming". Buffy, Cordelia, and a demon need to get out of a house that's about to explode. Buffy and Cordelia dive through a window, which shatters with no great hello. The demon dives through another window... except it's boarded shut and he just bounces right back onto the grenade. Buffy is a powerhouse, though, smashing through glass is much less of a problem for her.
* ''[[CSI]]''
** Averted (though not [[
** 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.
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** In the episode where they end up in the dimension where Supernatural is a TV show, they break through stunt glass at the beginning when they are transported. It's [[Played for Laughs]] later on when the boys try to use a spell to return home, running at the glass window on the set.....and failing to crash through in spectacular fashion.
* 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.
* The [[The Daily Show|Stewart]]/[[The Colbert Report|Colbert]]/O'Brien [[Melee a Trois]] includes a scene where all three smash beer bottles over each other's
* ''[[The West Wing]]''
** Averted in episode "Noel". Josh, {{spoiler|suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after being shot, puts his hand through the window of his apartment}}; this results in a nasty cut that requires stitches. Doubly averted, as Josh tries to hide his injury as the result of accidentally putting a drinking glass down too hard on the
** 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.
* Played with on ''[[QI]]'', when Stephen Fry and Alan Davies had sugar-glass goblets and the other panelists had real ones. After Fry harmlessly broke a goblet over his head and munched on a piece, another panelist carelessly threw his into the
* 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
* Averted in the British police-drama ''[[Backup]]''. A policeman breaks a window and quickly enters a building through it. The next in line (the show is about an operational support unit who travel to incidents together) stands in front of the window and spends some time breaking the sharp fragments out of the frame with his baton.
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** 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.
* Usually played straight in ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', like in "The Pretender" where Yumi jumps through a window unharmed. The ravens in this episode also have no trouble flying through panes of
* ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' ironically averts this when there was no need to. In one scene Anakin slashes a window with his lightsabre, presumably to weaken it, then uses the Force to smash the glass. So...what was the lightsabre needed for? Considering the Jedi frequently send large metal robots flying across a room, surely this would be one scenario where the glass shouldn't ''need'' weakening.
* 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.
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** 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.
* There was a lawyer named [[wikipedia:Garry Hoy|Garry Hoy]] in Toronto who would demonstrate just how strong their glass was in their skyscraper to new interns. He would jump at the window, and of course it being toughened glass built for skyscrapers he would bounce back. He did this twice in a row before the safety glass popped from its frame and he fell to his death, and won a [[Darwin Awards]] for this. Ironically, he was right about the
* [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.
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