The Man They Couldn't Hang: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

[[Shoot the Rope]] may be used to explain their survival.

 

{{examples}}

 

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Bend Of The River]]'', '''[[James Stewart]]''', of all people, is one of these.

* Lieutenant Aldo Raine in ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' has an unexplained rope scar around his neck, suggesting that this trope is somewhere in his backstory. Of course, in the part of the country he's from, at the time this movie takes place, [[Disproportionate Retribution|didn't take a whole lot]].

* He doesn't have a scar, but [[Pirates of the Caribbean|Captain Jack Sparrow]] fits this trope by the end of the first film.

* In ''[[The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus]]'', it's revealed that {{spoiler|Tony has been hung several times, most likely for the various crimes he's committed (including dealings with the mob and selling children's organs on the black market). He survives through a trick in which he swallows a small metal flute, which prevents his throat from being crushed. He ultimately dies when Parnassus swaps the flute with a fake, breakable one.}}

* [[Boris Karloff]] starred as Dr. Henryk Savaard, who is executed but brought back to life in a 1939 [[Columbia Pictures]] thriller titled (you guessed it), ''The Man They Could Not Hang.''

** Although in this movie, {{spoiler|he really does die, and is brought back to life with science... he had it all planned out ahead of time though.}}

* Freddie attempts to dispose of Michael Myers by hanging him in ''[[Halloween Resurrection]]''. Needless to say, it doesn't work. Michael acts as though being ''thrown out of a window'' and hung was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

 

== Literature ==

** And, on the other side of the moral divide, Thomas of Hookton from the same author's ''[[Grail Quest]]'' novels.

* In one of the war novels by [[Sven Hassel]], [[Unreliable Narrator|Porta]] tells the story of a sailor who can't be hanged because he virtually has no neck. In the end the hangman goes insane with frustration and demonstrates that his rope works perfectly on himself.

* And, as Skeeve learned in the ''[[Myth Adventures]]'' series by Robert Asprin, never try to {{spoiler|hang a Pervect by the neck.}}

** They've tried to {{spoiler|hang Skeeve too, but being a wizard, he just levitated}}. Of course, Aahz is a wizard as well, {{spoiler|but he was depowered at the time, so he survived because Pervects have extremely strong neck muscles}}.

* The head of the [[Thieves' Guild]] in ''[[Dragonlance|Dragons of Summer Flame]]'' is a man named Lynched Geoffery (or just Lynch), so called because he ''was'' lynched and lived to tell about it (just don't ask to see his neck if you value life or limb). Also subverted later in the same book- he antagonizes the [[Evil Overlord]] in a misguided attempt to get an alliance, and the response is two words- "Hang him." This hanging goes rather well- after all, Lynch already had practice!

* Pangloss from ''[[Candide]]''. [[Crapsack World|It's not sure it was for the better]].

* ''[[Discworld]]'''s [[Con Man|Moist von Lipwig]] is a subversion - Vetinari deliberately has him publicly hanged "to within half an inch of his life" to fake his death so that he can keep Moist on as a [[Boxed Crook]].

* You can hang a [[Hoka]], but it won't hurt him (they have unusually strong neck muscles), and he'll consider it all part of whatever fiction is currently being lived out.

* Juliette, from the [[Doctor Who]] [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novel ''The Adventuress of Henrietta Street'', is an unusually young example; [[Troubling Unchildlike Behavior|she's only thirteen]]. It's implied she'd [[Bungled Suicide|attempted]] to hang [[Driven to Suicide|herself]], but not only did she not do it properly, [[Interrupted Suicide|the Doctor showed up to rescue her]].

* [[Sharpe]]'s nemesis Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill survived a hanging, and claimed that this meant that God had chosen him to be spared and therefore he couldn't be killed. The firing squad proved him wrong on that count later on, though.

 

== Live Action Television ==

* Charlie, on ''[[Lost]]'', managed to (barely) survive a hanging, but that might have been the cause of {{spoiler|his demise in Season 3.}}

* An ''[[Angel]]'' flashback episode dealt with Angel attempting to get rid of a demon in the Hyperion (the hotel he now owns) that manipulates peoples emotions causing them to kill each other. Unfortunately the angry hotel guests target him and hang him from the chandelier. After they leave the lobby he cuts himself down and pretty much gives a big fuck you to the guests, telling the demon he can have them.

* [[Jack the Ripper]] has this attribute when he appears on ''[[Kolchak the Night Stalker]]''. Electrocution works pretty well, however.

 

== Music ==

* Celtic rock band The Men They Couldn't Hang take their name from this trope, with the added bonus of sounding very anti-establishment.

* Referenced in the lyrics of The Tragically Hip's song ''Bobcaygeon'':

And their voices rang with that Aryan twang }}

** This is a reference to the aforementioned band.

* The Fairport Convention's [[Concept Album]] ''Babbacombe'' is based on the life of [[Real Life]] example John "Babbacombe" Lee.

Three's the most the law requires a man to feel the stake. }}

 

== Video Game ==

* Black Isle's vaporware'd ''[[Fallout]] 3'' was going to include the companion NPC The Hanged Man, a badass of such legendary stature having him in your party would make people react much the same as if you had the Child Killer 'perk'. You can guess how the trope applies to him.

*** He's back in the newest DLC, Honest Hearts. He's also...slightly miffed about the whole 'being covered in pitch and thrown in the Grand Canyon whilst aflame' thing.

**** In said DLC, to reflect his truly insanely hard to kill nature, he has an Endurance stat of 10, and the highest DT of any creature in the game at 50, placing him on higher damage threshold than most ''armor piercing rounds'' can penetrate. Additionally, he's one of two NPCs in the game with a unique "title" in the GECK - [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Destroying Angel]].

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPP-63XlhkM Then of course, there's Morshu.]

* Mr. Black's assistant Mr. Lynch in ''[[Red Dead Revolver]]'' survived being hanged. It shows, as he has hard time keeping his neck straight during his pre-duel scene.

* According to the sparse back-story for Quake 3 character Cadaver "is a brutal murderer who couldn’t be executed, The electric chair, gallows, and gas chamber only made him meaner"

 

== Web Comic ==

 

== Western Animation ==

== Real Life ==

* Western legend Roy Bean was a [[Real Life]] case of this, making it [[Truth in Television]].

* One tale tells of a [[Pirate|buccaneer]] [[Badass|who was hung, scared the crowd away by yelling at them, chewed through the rope, and escaped]].

* In real life, on the other hand, most "hanging" sentences are more specifically enunciated as "hanged until dead". Even if being hanged doesn't snap the victim's neck, staying there for a while would almost definitely suffocate anyone. It's more slow and painful but it would get the job done. This is intended to ensure the demise of a would-be [[Rules Lawyer]].

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Public Execution]]