The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A monster is on the loose terrorizing a bunch of innocent people. As long as the monster and the victims are characters in a fictional world, one would usually be correct to assume that the boundaries of the [[Fourth Wall]] will be respected. But then, [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]], the monster assaults the omniscient narrator, or leaps out at the audience.

 

 

{{examples}}

* In [[DC Comics]]' ''[[Animal Man]]'' comics written by [[Grant Morrison]], the evil and crazy Psycho-Pirate has become aware of the comic-book-reader audience and is trying to goad his army of resurrected super-villains into attacking them. (Morrison's entire run is about the growing awareness of the characters that they're in a comic book.)

** The peak of this is probably when the hero has a mind-expanding peyote trip, looks out of the frame at the reader and cries "OH MY GOD! I CAN SEE YOU!"

** DC used this on occasion, under the claim that "Earth Prime" was the reader's home dimension, and so any threat to the multiverse was a threat to the reader. This... stopped working. Hey, remember how the universe was destroyed by a wave of antimatter in 1985, and suddenly reappeared in 2006? Me neither.

* A [[Fridge Logic|Fridge Logic-y]] version occasionally happens with [[The Joker]]. He never outright states he can see you or interact with you, but he ''does'' interact with his own speech balloons and has turned the page for the reader, indicating that he knows you're out there. [[Paranoia Fuel|Now, consider what the Joker tends to do to people...]]

 

== [[Fan Works]] ==

* No, not even [[Fanfic]] authors are protected by the fourth wall, as proven in episode 13 of ''[[Pretty Cure Heavy Metal]]'' when Zero escaped from the author's computer and assaulted him after he said [[Candle Jack]]'s name in the [[Interrupting Meme|nar]] {{color|#FFFFFF|You guys never learn, do you?}}

** Three episodes later, the author made a similar mistake: say [[The Hypnotoad]]'s na- [[Interrupting Meme|ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD]].

** The ''[[Pony POV Series]]'' chapter "Teacher Teacher" begins with {{spoiler|the reader talking to [[Big Bad|Princess Gaia]], who hypnotises them into her [[Lotus Eater Machine]]. She's also replied to quite a few readers comments and tried to do the same...}}

{{quote|'''Princess {{spoiler|Gaia}}''': {{spoiler|"And why would you want to be 'protected' from mama sweetheart? I just want you to be happy and safe. Just listen to mama's singing and you'll understand." }}}}

{{quote|THE SCARIEST PART IS THAT THE MAN WAS YOU!!! (OR HE WAS A LADY IF YOU ARE A LADY) AND YOU FORGOT THAT THIS HAPPENED}}

* ''[[Imperfect Metamorphosis]]'' is an [[Alternate Universe]] ''[[Touhou]]'' [[Fanfic]]. A much-hyped and foreshadowed climatic battle occurred between Yukari Yakumo and Yuuka Kazami. At the end, {{spoiler|Yukari merged her soul with Yuuka's, in the attempt to effectively destroy her. It failed, but because Yukari is connected at a deep level with reality's veil, Yuuka saw every single reality that exists or that we created with our imagination for just about everything. She knows about us. She knows about [[TV Tropes]]. And she made that fact '''known'''.}}

 

* A splice between this and [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]] is Kevin McCarthy near the end of the original ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]'' screaming "You're next!" at the audience.

* William Castle, director of ''[[The Tingler]]'' and several other films, was famous for using these kinds of audience-threatening gimmicks to draw in audiences.

** Patrons for ''Macabre'' got $1000 life insurance policies at the door in case they should "die of fright" during the show.

*** In ''[[The Screaming Skull]]'', they were guaranteed a free casket.

* ''Wes Craven's [[New Nightmare]]'' involved Freddy escaping into the "real world", so that a new movie had to be made to imprison him again.

** The earthquake was written into the script before it occurred for real. Robert Englund plays both a fictionalized version of himself and Freddy Krueger, who is listed as "himself" in the end credits.

** Freddy Krueger himself could be considered an almost meta application of this trope, as he leaves his first few victims alive so that they'll tell people about the scary burned man with claws in their dreams, so other people will have nightmares about him too... Which, when one stops to think about it, includes ''the audience''.

** Although it might work somewhat if you [[The Scourge of God|pirate it off the internet]]

** In the novelization, the Brain Gremlin hijacks the book to talk about the Gremlins' hopes and desires. He is cut off by the novelist, David Bischoff, managing to axe his way through the locked door of the room where he keeps his computer, and Brainy decides to git while the gitting's good.

** The American remake plays with this. The movie ends with {{spoiler|Rachel guiding her son into making a copy of the tape to save his life}}. When he asks what will happen to the people who see it, the camera zooms into the video screen and forces the audience to watch the tape again, implying that it's ''us.''

** Even without that implication, one of the reasons this film was an international success is surely that it plays on the fear behind this trope: not only are these "fictional" horrors real, they're coming to get you.

* An in-movie example happens at the beginning of ''[[Demoni]] 2'' (''Demons 2'' in English), when a young girl watches a movie about a [[Zombie Apocalypse]] caused by [[The Virus|virulent]] [[Demonic Possession]], a demon inside the TV pushes its way out into the real world and turns her, triggering a new outbreak. It seems just like a gimmick at first, but then {{spoiler|[[Fridge Horror|you realise YOU'RE watching the same kind of movie she was...]]}}

* ''[[The Great Train Robbery]]'' might be the [[Ur Example]] for film. It doesn't even fit into the plot: just that at the end, a rough-looking bandit aims and fires his revolver at ''the audience''. Some people fainted when this was first shown.

* The end of ''[[Videodrome]]''. The main character ends up in a room with a television playing a clip of him putting [[Body Horror|his gun]] to his head and pulling the trigger. As he does, [[It Makes Sense in Context|the screen explodes and intestines pour out.]] Immediately afterwards, the clip starts playing out around him. He puts the gun to his head. [[Paranoia Fuel|Bang.]] Try watching this on your own television in the middle of the night. It's ''fun.''

* During one showing of ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]] 2'', whose opening features a couple stabbed to death during a preview of the [[Show Within a Show]] ''Stab'', a woman was stabbed by the man sitting next to her, just as in the movie.

* The first movie ever shown publicly did this. The Lumiere Brothers' first film began with a train heading straight for the camera; people dove out of their seats during the screening.

* The movie ''[[The Stuff]]'' advertised itself with "public service announcements" warning viewer that the Stuff was real, dangerous, and something to be avoided at all costs.

* A short story from ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' in the 1990s was told by a narrator who had encountered some cursed words in a library book that caused the reader to suffer horrible bad luck for the rest of his or her life - whoops, you just read them, too! {{spoiler|Fortunately, words that will negate all such curses and give the reader good luck turn up in the same book near story's end.}}

* A short story by SF author Frederic Brown, "Don't Look Behind You", was the alleged first-hand account of a supposed real killer who got a hold of one of the copies of the short story collection it was in. He inserted this one and only version of the story under an appropriate-looking title and is lurking around near whoever got the copy of the book with it. The author apparently didn't take into account that some people may have checked the book out of a public library a great many years after it was published.

** [[Anthony Horowitz]] included a very similar short story in one of his Horrowitz Horror books. The first letters of every paragraph spell out "[[Paranoia Fuel|I am going to murder you soon]]."

* [[Shel Silverstein]] once wrote a poem about the ugliest, scariest, meanest monster in the world. And it's standing right behind you.

* The [[Animorphs]] are always quick to remind the reader that absolutely no one is safe from the Yeerks, repeatedly noting that this includes the readers, the readers' friends, the readers' families... This fact is constantly reiterated by the teaser narration on the backs of all the books: "Everyone is in danger. Yeah. Even you."

* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/Mostly Harmless|Mostly Harmless]]'' ends [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|the ever-decreasingly-accurately-named Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy]] with a bang: a reality-manipulating device (The Guide 2.0) completes the extermination of Earth and the prevention of The Question's revelation, by causing a chain reaction of events that resulted in all humans who had ever left Earth being on Earth when it was destroyed in every possible dimension and timeline. Douglas Adams had been considering a sixth book in the series, which would necessitate bringing back Arthur Dent and thus chunks, but died of a heart-attack before he could write it. Did The Guide 2.0 do it?

* In the fourth book of The Pendragon Adventure, The Reality Bug, the Reality Bug plagues a virtual reality program that might kill everyone who is plugged into it. At the end of the book, the bug ''punched a hole in reality'', thus escaping and ready to murder people in the real world.

 

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Blink" ends with the Weeping Angels having been defeated and everything back to normal... except then there's a creepy montage of angel statues, implying that [[Paranoia Fuel|every single one of them is out to get you.]]

** Even more fourth-wall breaking is that the angels which {{spoiler|can only move when no humans can see them}} never move when {{spoiler|the viewer can see them, even if no on-screen characters are looking...but can move once the viewer ''can't'' see them.}}

* Apparently, [[Rod Serling]] isn't immune to this trope either. In the end of the episode "A World of His Own" in ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'', which featured a dictation machine that would summon whatever had its description recorded and make it disappear when the corresponding tape was destroyed, Rod assured us that the episode, was entirely fictional and stuff like that wouldn't happen, but West looks at him and says, "Rod, you shouldn't!" Then West promptly takes out another envelope out of the safe, and the envelope contains the film Rod was described on, and West says that "[Rod] shouldn't say such things as 'nonsense' and 'ridiculous'!" Then promptly tosses it into the fire. Then Rod says, "Well, that's the way it goes," and vanishes.

* Roman Nebakov of ''[[Life]]'' officially makes the jump from [[Smug Snake]] to [[Magnificent Bastard]] when he ''breaks through the fourth wall'', killing the cameraman from season one, and using the camera to make a ransom video.

* The BBC production ''[[Ghostwatch]]''. The implication is that {{spoiler|the program was acting as a national séance and that watching it has let the ghost loose in your home.}}

 

{{quote|'''Announcer:''' For those who have already seen ''Men In Black''...

'''Will Smith:''' Sorry! ''(activates neuralizer)'' }}

** Also in "Don't Download This Song", which is [[The Long List]] of Very Bad Things that will happen to you if you pirated the song off the Internet. Of course, part of the joke was that this was a preview track for the album it was on that was available as a free download.

 

* In a ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' strip, Calvin's Dad does this by his intention to read Calvin a bedtime story about a severed hand that strangles people. Calvin faints around the point Calvin's Dad sticks a hand through the neck hole of his own shirt and grabs his own throat, screaming. This proves to be the most effective way of getting Calvin quiet and into bed.

 

 

* ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'': "Sweeney waits in the parlor hall / Sweeney leans on the office wall / Nowhere to run, nothing can hide you / Isn't that Sweeney there beside you?"

** They then point at the audience and [[You Bastard|accuse them of being just as depraved]]. The actor portraying Sweeney Todd may even enter and start singing from behind the audience!

* The "Don't Feed The Plants" ending of ''[[Little Shop of Horrors]]''. Warnings are sung directly to the audience, and the plant puppet leans into the audience and the theatre finally goes dark after it opens wider than it ever previously did in the show.

 

* [[Disney Theme Parks]]

** In the "[[Honey, I Shrunk the Kids|Honey, I Shrunk the Audience]]" attraction at [[Disneyland]], a bunch of animals are shown prominently giving the effect they're almost getting out of the screen and endangering the audience. Of particular notability are rats that would "jump" into the theater at the same time... something would rub into the spectator's legs.

*** There's a similar one in Disney's California Adventure based on ''[[A Bug's Life]]'', too. That latter one fits the trope especially well, since it can cause actual discomfort - there are rods that poke out of the back of the seat to simulate ''giant bee stings''. Potential [[Nightmare Fuel]] for sure. (This film also plays at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida.)

* Also, at an ''[[Alien vs. Predator]]'' performance in Universal Studios the Predator actor would routinely walk among the audience and scare them.

 

* In ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'', the game appears to CRASH at one point to mess with your head, just to get a taste of how Batman must be feeling when he's getting pumped full of Scarecrow toxin.

* ''[[Comix Zone]]'' has the artist for his own comic get attacked by one of the villians after a [[Lightning Can Do Anything|lightning strike]].

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' has Psycho Mantis, who displays his psychic abilities by reading your memory card, then forcing your game controller to move on its own (using the vibration function).

** Subverted in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'', where Psycho Mantis temporarily comes [[Back from the Dead]]. He attempts the same trick... On a [[Play Station 3]]. In other words, there's no memory card and the original controller didn't vibrate. Naturally, good old PM [[Oh Crap|doesn't take it well]].<ref>If you happen to be using a Dualshock 3 controller instead of a Sixaxis, [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|the psychokinesis does work and PS remarks how vibration is back.]]</ref>

* ''[[EverQuest]] 2'' features one dungeon, the Estate of Unrest, where the [[Big Bad]], a malevolent ghost turned [[Genius Loci]] and low-level [[Reality Warper]], spends the entire thing regularly taunting and threatening the player characters, but is baffled as to why he can't sense their souls to attack them. When the party enters the caves beneath the mansion where his bones lie, aiming to forcibly reincarnate him to kill them, he roars that he finally found their souls and that they won't be safe "behind that pane of glass." Then the screen is engulfed in static for a moment as a skull appears and tries to lash out at the player.

* In-universe example: In the [[All There in the Manual]] [[Backstory]] for Infocom's ''Hollywood Hijinx'', B-movie king Buddy Burbank was notorious for several uses of this trope. A film of his entitled ''Meltdown on Elm Street'' involved an accident at a neighborhood nuclear power plant, resulting in a nuclear meltdown. After the citizens try to resume their normal routines (only without hair), a nuclear power plant worker who survived the accident but [[I Love Nuclear Power|became a horrific homicidal monster]] goes about killing the citizens. The climax of the film took place at the Elm Street Cinema. Burbank arranged that each theater showing the movie have an usher run up and down the aisles wearing a glowing nuclear plant worker's jumpsuit. The result was that several moviegoers died of shock. This bit of [[Backstory]] was most likely inspired by the real-life "Tingler" example mentioned above.

* In ''[[Minecraft]]'', Ghasts shoot fireballs at your character... if you're in first-person mode. In third person, it becomes clear that they're targeting ''the camera''. This was actually a bug, it's been patched out.

* Andres Borghi has made many creepy [[MUGEN]] characters, but [[Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl|Noroko]] is unique among them for her use of this. Her ultimate, [[One-Hit Kill]] special involves her beginning to cry in front of her opponent, who [[Too Dumb to Live|approaches her]], and then we're treated to a first-person, cinematic sequence of what said opponent sees: her revealing an eyeless, noseless, mouthless face and reaching out towards the screen, or alternatively opening a deformed mouth and screaming at you. After this, the hapless opponent collapses dead, presumably of sheer fright. Even straighter, if she wins the battle, you may occasionally see her hand scratching your screen, leaving trails of blood on it.

* Early in ''[[Omikron: The Nomad Soul]]'', you (the player) are told that it is your own soul which entered Kay'l's body at the beginning of the game and which is now [[Body Surf|hopping around the inhabitants of Omikron]]. In other words, your own body is now one of [[The Soulless]] until you beat the game.

* A great example is in ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]''. In this game all your fights take place on a theater stage, and you derive power from the in-game audience's reaction. During one boss battle, the boss seems to be defeated, but then gets up and ''eats the audience'', recovering half her health.

* ''[[I Robot (video game)|I Robot]]'' has an enemy called the View Killer; a nasty looking spike that is fired at the player's camera rather than Robot. Because you know, [[Everything Is Trying to Kill You|giant beach balls of doom weren't bad enough]].

* Any [[Augmented Reality]] game which treats the player as an in-game character to be targeted and attacked, with examples including ''[[Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir]]''.

 

* The short story "Federal Reserve Skateboard" on the ''[[Xkcd]]'' blog includes this line:

{{quote|"At last, Bernanke got a solid grip on Greenspan's collar and hurled him through the fourth wall, knocking you to the ground."}}

* ''[[Ben Drowned]]'' is heading this way with its final stage, by allowing a game with active [[Interface Screw]] as part of an [[Alternate Reality Game]].

** In-universe example: Ryukaki. He was just following the game like the rest of us...and somehow ended up with [[Eldritch Abomination|BEN]] on ''his'' case. {{spoiler|We later find out why. "Something about a boy dying here some time ago. It's meaningless to me, but peoples' superstitions make for great house prices."}}

** [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/sandrewswann-s-proposal One of the SCP-001 proposals] is {{spoiler|the authors}}. Complete with a containment procedure, in case the [[Godzilla Threshold]] is crossed.

*** Some fans take this one step beyond with the Tulpa Theory. Basically some fans hold that the concentrated fear, imagination and fascination of the fandom [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|can will the Slender Man to existence]]. It also somewhat inverts the process, as the existence of the fourth wall becomes part of the belief-generating process. Meaning: [[Paranoia Fuel|If you watched/read Slender Man related things, that means you are thinking about him, thus helping will him to existence]].

** There is a theory that Slender Man has some control over his victims, and that he's compelling his victims to post videos of him to the internet, to help the spread of knowledge about him, and will him into existence.

* The Entity from [[Atop the Fourth Wall]]. In August near-subliminal messages from it started appearing in the credits, and Linkara responded to any questions about this by saying that he didn't see anything, despite his usually posting out of character in the comments.

* From the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iFXyLah2oQ YouTube account] [[Number of the Beast|666]] video, a [[Creepypasta]], there's a [[Jump Scare|reason]] you shouldn't watch it in fullscreen, and it isn't a [[Shock Site|screamer]].

* ''[[Dragon Ball Abridged]]'' has a touch of this at the very end of episode 12. They've already established Mr. Popo as the most frightening and creepy thing in existence. Then the end of the episode has one of the members of [[Team Four Star]] wake up from a nightmare related to the show and declare that he has to stop editing so late at night. Suddenly Mr. Popo takes over his computer and starts talking to him ''in the real world''. Cue a massive [[Oh Crap]].

* The [[NES Godzilla Creepypasta]] has the player [[That One Boss|insulting]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Red]]/[[Big Bad|the Hellbeast]] after [[Escape Sequence|escaping from him.]] [[Oh Crap|He stares]] [[Nightmare Face|back.]] [[It Got Worse|And it only gets worse after that.]]

* [[Zalgo|ZALGO!]] H͉͙̖͎́ͬ̿͟͠ͅȨ̶͚̺͈̬̏̑͊̄̓ͨͪ̚ ̻̬̂̎͒̂̌̕͟C̦̦͚̱̯͕̾͊̏ͦ͘͜O͕͕̟͇͎̩̞̅ͩ̚M̵̪͔̗̺ͯͭ̀E̢̟̙̗̰̬̲͕̘̍ͪͬ̌̏̑͜͢S̴̤̯̫ͩ̑̄̂̚͘͠.̭̞̠̟̘̪̉͒ͧͯ̾͆

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* After killing most of the Greek pantheon, what's left to challenge [[God of War (series)|Kratos]]? [http://gg-guys.com/?id=93 You are].

* ''[[The Bongcheon Dong Ghost]]'' {{spoiler|controls your computer}}.

 

* The narrator in ''[[Danger Mouse]]'' was sometimes affected by whatever [[Evil Plan]] was afoot. When Baron Greenback interfered with the world's transmissions, the narrator kept talking over the end credits, saying he was probably going to be cut off soon. He was.

** In "Play it Again, Wufgang", with all the music of the world destroyed, we're treated to DM, Col. K and Penfold's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sel9nSuXrM4 a cappella rendition of the theme song] over the end credits.

* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'', being [[Born in the Theatre]], occasionally involves gags with the audience. See that trope for details.

** Not to mention the episode where Mojo kidnapped the narrator, took over, and made the Powerpuffs commit crimes.

** And once more in "Tough Love", wherein HIM manages to turn everyone in Townsville, including the narrator, against the girls.

* In an episode of ''[[Earthworm Jim (animation)|Earthworm Jim]]'', Psycrow and Professor Monkey for a Head capture Jim by pointing a gun at the narrator and making him read out, "After Psycrow and Professor Monkey for a Head had captured Jim..."

** There was a villein who at the very mention of his name meant he would come and take you away. Even typing the name would not keep you safe, his name was [[Candle Jack|Candle Jack and he]]

** Also in the "Treehouse of Horror" segment 'Attack of the 50&nbsp;ft Eyesores,' Kent Brockman is reporting on the advertising menace, and states that the next time you see a commercial, it could kill you and your entire family. Homer then appears and says "we'll be right back." Then there's a commercial break!

* "Wild Cards," an episode of ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League]]'', is presented (sans opening and ending) as a real-life television program hijacked by [[The Joker]], who has planted a number of bombs on [[Viva Las Vegas|the Vegas strip]] and will detonate them unless the Justice League can stop him and his Royal Flush Gang henchmen. {{spoiler|It's then revealed this is a [[Batman Gambit]] designed to trick as many people as possible into watching, because one of the Gang is a telepath whose gaze - even through the screen - can drive people insane. [[Mood Whiplash|And while the Joker explains all of this to you and his corny TV music ends to be replaced by ominous chords]], ''her eyes are still staring at you from the top of the screen''.}}

* ''[[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]]'':

** NegaDuck once threatens a news reporter by crawling through the TV he's displayed on into the studio.

* ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]'' has The Dark Lord Chuckles, the Silly Piggy kidnap the narrator and use him to control the story. It would have worked, too, if the narrator didn't lose his voice near the start of the second act.

* In ''[[Transformers Prime]]'', the Chaos Bringer {{spoiler|Unicron}} makes an [[Early-Bird Cameo]]. He doesn't do much, but he's staring straight at you. Sweet dreams.

* In ''[[Beast Wars]]'' at the end of the second season finale {{spoiler|Megatron on the orders from the Original Megatron fires on the Original Optimus Prime at point blank with everything he has.}} As one of the most overly Hammtastic speeches ever is given, his camera angle and steadly magnifying mugshot make him look like he is also talking to the audience itself, giving the impression that even they are not safe from what he had just done.

{{quote|'''Megatron''': "The Autobots ''lose'', evil '''TRIUMPHS''', and you...YOU NO LONGER EXIST!" }}

* It was common in the early days of film projection for hairs to get caught in the projector's shutter and dance annoyingly across the screen until they either worked themselves out or an annoyed projectionist stopped the film and removed them. "Magical Maestro" played with this, animating a hair onto the picture, annoying the audience until the main character, the opera singer, grabbed the hair and disposed of it.

 

* S. William Hinzman, the Cemetery Zombie from ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]'', asked in [[Real Life]] that his body be burned after his death (which occurred on February 5, 2012, from cancer) for this reason; he often joked that if he was buried, he'd just, in the words of a newscaster in-universe, "come back to life to seek human victims".

* [[Superman]] once fought the Ku Klux Klan. The ''[[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|real]]'' Ku Klux Klan. (Okay, no, he didn't actually punch real people, but the radio program contained advice on how to help catch them.)

* The Nord-Ost terrorist attack in Moscow, 2002. The terrorists appeared on stage of a theatre, and, similarly to the Booth example above, the audience initially thought it's part of the show and applauded.

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Metafiction Demanded This Index]]

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]

[[Category:Post Modern Tropes]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You, The}}