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Literal Cliff Hanger (view source)

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{{quote|''Cliff Hanger! Hanging from a cliff!<br />
''And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger!<br />
''Can't...hold...on...much...longer!''|''[[Between the Lions (TV)|Between the Lions]]''}}
 
You're on a cliff and fall off. Unless you're a [[Looney Tunes|wily coyote]], there will be a ledge or branch below that you can hang from. (Ignoring the fact that it's [[Not the Fall That Kills You]]). For some reason the standard cartoon canyon has dead trees growing out of the sheer rock face. It's what [[Cliff Hanger]] is named from.
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* Happens to [[Donald Duck]] in the [[Don Rosa]] comic ''Incident at McDuck Tower''. After falling something like 50 meters from the top of a sky-scraper, he lands on a pole, which cracks under his weight. Just when he's about to reach a window, a bird settle on his head and the pole breaks.
* Jeff Smith's ''[[Bone]]'':
{{quote| '''Fone Bone:''' Those rat creatures [[Who Would Be Stupid Enough...?|would have to be pretty stupid]] to follow me onto this small, frail branch.<br />
''(next panel, both rat creatures are hanging off the branch)'' Stupid, STUPID rat creatures!! }}
* ''[[Elf Quest]]'', [http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/OnlineComics/OQ/OQ09/DisplayOQ09.html?page=39 here]. Yes, there are dead trees growing from the sheer cliff face. This was originally meant to be Skywise's big death scene but Richard Pini vetoed Wendy killing him off, so he lives to this day.
* ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'' uses this trope for laughs as a running gag, with the heavy Sgt. Snorkel hanging from a branch while other characters rescue him.
* In ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)]] in America'', Snowy falls onto a tree that immediately bends, ''imparting so great a horizontal component to his motion that he falls at 45 degrees onto a ledge beneath''. Tintin is sitting on the ledge and is implied to have come down by the same route.
 
 
== Fan Works ==
* The german ''[[World of Warcraft]]''-Parody radio drama "Allimania" has a scene at the end of one episode where the character Cliff was literally hanging on a cliff off the Hellfire Citadel. His comment? "Oh no... It's a goddamn CLIFFHANGER!"
* In the fanfic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4191221/1/Stripped "Stripped"], when [[Blue Beetle]] II and [[Booster Gold]] are [[Title Drop|stripped]] of their technological advantages, they get beaten and thrown to a cliff. Beetle's leg, broken, catches on a tree and Ted tries to bear the pain while he holds on to the dangling Booster for hours. [[Tear Jerker|Tear jerker]], [[Heartwarming Moments (Sugar Wiki)|heartwarming]], and [[Ho Yay]] ensues. Most of the fic relies on the tension of wondering how long they can avoid dying.
 
 
== Films -- Animation ==
* ''[[The Lion King]]'' plays this twice. The first time, Mufasa is thrown into the chasm by Scar. The second time, Simba jumps and attacks Scar.
* ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'': Eddie ends up hanging from a flagpole in Toon Town by one hand. Unfortunately, Tweety Bird is nesting there, and he wants to play "this widdle piddie".
* ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'' has a character hanging on to the ledge of a six-story building. Fortunately, [[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever|said character]] is ''five'' stories high.
* This occurs in ''[[Mulan (Disney)|Mulan]]'' during the avalanche scene.
 
 
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* ''[[Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (Film)|Indiana Jones and Thethe Last Crusade]]'': Tank goes off a cliff, Nazi dies, Dr. Jones mourns, Indy climbs up a vine behind him and sneaks up during his eulogy.
** Also in ''The Last Crusade,'' Elsa Schneider finds herself dangling from a cliff created by the earthquake she caused when trying to leave a temple with the Holy Grail. In a pure [[Take My Hand]] scene, she attempts to recover the Grail resting underneath her arm's reach. Her persistence is her ultimate undoing and she falls to her death. Indiana then tumbles over and finds himself in the exact predicament, but his father is able to act as the voice of reason.
** The ending of ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Film)|Temple of Doom]]'' also has this, though they're hanging off a broken [[Rope Bridge]] above a crocodile-filled lake.
* In ''[[The Great Race]]'', Professor Fate jumps out a window. When the horrified observers rush over and look down, they see him hanging from a pole below the window.
* The ''[[King Kong]]'' films have this: during the "log shaking" sequence, the hero always manages to jump to the edge of the canyon and crawl into a hole, while the rest of them fall to their doom. (The 70s' film had a second guy who escaped in a similar fashion).
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** The angle from which it's filmed hides the fact that Lloyd is actualy hanging above a rooftop rather than the street below. The fall could still have been fatal, though.
* ''[[The Italian Job]]'' (the original). "Hang on lads, I've got a great idea..."
* ''[[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|Star Trek]]''. Apparently, James T. Kirk practised for this trope when he was only a kid. Which is just as well given the amount of times it happens to him as an adult (twice in the 2009 movie alone).
* In the 1987 movie ''[[The Untouchables]]'', Eliot Ness gets shot by Frank Nitti and falls off the roof. Nitti casually strolls over to the edge of the building to look, only to get shot by Ness who'd fallen onto scaffolding that had been set up to clean the windows.
* Norville Barnes hangs off the edge of a high building in ''[[The Hudsucker Proxy]]''.
* ''[[The Guns of Navarone]]''. Captain Mallory while climbing the cliff.
* This happens in ''[[Maverick (Filmfilm)|Maverick]]'' when the title character falls over the edge of the cliff, but manages to hold on the edge. The Marshal offers Maverick to [[Take My Hand|take his hand]] but he refuses until he almost falls to his death and changes his mind.
* ''[[Cliffhanger (Film)|Cliffhanger]]'', starring Sylvester Stallone as a professional mountain climber. The film's [[Cold Open]] even features a literal cliffhanger, leading to a [[Take My Hand]] moment that {{spoiler|fails}}.
* ''Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' features an example of this when Frodo and Gollum fight near the end of the movie.
 
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* Arguably, the cliffhanger of ''the Carnivorous Carnival'', the ninth installment in ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]''.
* The end of ''The Colour of Magic'' by [[Terry Pratchett]]. It's worth mentioning that the cliff in question is the ''edge of the [[Discworld]].''
** An indoor version happens in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Fifth Elephant|The Fifth Elephant]]'', with Vimes climbing a spiral stairs made of logs hammered in a large stone column when the one he just stepped on breaking.
* In ''The Fires of Heaven'' (''[[Wheel of Time]]'' book 5), Asmodean describes an incident in which he saw a man dangling from a cliff with nothing to grab but a weakly-rooted tuft of grass; having no better hope of saving himself, the man grabbed it, and of course it pulled loose. Full circle in that Asmodean is using this real incident as a metaphor for his own situation. When asked whether or not he helped the man, he evades the question.
* [[The Action HerosHero's Handbook]] devotes a chapter to "How to Save Someone Who's Hanging From a Cliff".
* According to ''[[The Meaning of Liff]]'', the horizontally-growing bush characters cling onto is called a "grimmit".
* In ''[[Warrior Cats (Literature)|Warrior Cats]]'', Leafpool accidentally gets knocked off the edge of the cliff at the top of the quarry. She's only holding on by her ''claws'' hooking over the edge. Just as she slips, Crowfeather grabs her scruff and pulls her to safety.
 
 
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* The first season finale of ''[[Green Wing]]'' was a literal cliffhanger, with three characters in an ambulance about to go off a cliff. The second season also ends in a literal cliffhanger with a stolen campervan which happened in an almost identical fashion. Martin was in both of these and had a major case of deja vu the second time.
* Towards the end of the ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' episode "The Norwegians".
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', with Hiro, a roof and a flagpole.
* ''[[The X-Files]]'', "Revelations". An insane businessman grabs a boy and jumps into a paper recycling shredder. When a horrified Scully rushes over, she finds the boy holding onto the railing above the bloody mess.
* In the season 2 finale of ''Knots Landing'', we get a quite literal cliffhanger when Sid drives off a cliff when the brakes go out in his car.
* ''[[Green Wing]]''. Both series end with a number of major characters in an ambulance, literally teetering half-on and half-off the edge of a cliff. The first one is resolved in the second series, the second is (sort-of) dealt with in a one-off special episode.
* Occurs in "Eternity", an episode of ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]'', when Richard and Kahlan try to get over the cliffs of insanity. {{spoiler|Kahlan falls.}}
* ''[[One Hundred100 Deeds for Eddie Mcdowd (TV)McDowd|One Hundred Deeds for Eddie Mcdowd]]'' has the title bully putting Justin on a flag pole as revenge for spilling milk on him.
 
 
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Code Lyoko (Animation)|Code Lyoko]]'': This happens close to [[Once an Episode]] in the digital world, for about any of the heroes. Hanging from a ledge is most distressing for the Lyoko Warriors, since a fall in the Digital Sea would be fatal, unlike the usual devirtualizations. A few Literal Cliffhangers also occurs in the real world.
* In ''[[Batman: The Animated Series (Animation)|Batman the Animated Series]]'', Batman has done this repeatedly, using a flag pole or awning to slow his fall whenever he falls off a cliff and cannot [[Building Swing]].
** At one point, Bruce Wayne is forced to fall back off a high rise tower to avoid getting shot. He falls several stories before [[Charles Atlas Superpower|grabbing another floor]] and hangs there as the goons [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|continue firing upon him.]]
* Lampshaded in ''[[The Powerpuff Girls (Animation)|The Powerpuff Girls]]'' episode "I See a Funny Cartoon in Your Future"
* The [[Edutainment]] show ''[[Between the Lions (TV)|Between the Lions]]'' has a segment called "Cliffhanger". Which was about a guy hanging from a cliff.
** [[Ear Worm|AND THAT'S WHY HE'S CALLED CLIFFHANGER!]]
** "Can't...hold...on...much...LONGERRRRR!!!"
* Done in the second episode of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''.
 
 
== Real Life ==
* Sir Douglas Mawson was an explorer on several Antarctic expeditions. One day in 1908, he was working in a tent when another expedition member, Professor Edgeworth David, called to him, asking if he was busy. Mawson ''was'' busy and said so. A few minutes later, Professor David asked again, this time explaining, "[[Casual Danger Dialog|I am so sorry to disturb you, Mawson]], but I am [[A Crack in Thethe Ice|down a crevasse]] and I really don't think I can hold on much longer." Mawson himself fell into crevasses at least twice in the same expedition. During a trek in 1913, he fell into ''another'' crevasse, dangled for several minutes at the end of the rope he'd been using to tow his sledge, and finally climbed up the rope -- ''twice'', the edge of the crevasse broke just as he was pulling himself out the first time.
 
{{reflist}}
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