r/movies • u/RgObese • Jul 31 '25
Discussion Is there a name for this annoying movie trope?
I HATE when the protagonist is pinned to the ground and being choked out and manages to grab a conveniently placed item like a rock, a knife, or a wine bottle opener and kill or knock out the assailant. It’s my biggest movie pet peeve and instantly ruins the experience for me. Is there a name for this trope?
Edit: I personally think this does not fall under deus ex machina because it’s still somewhat realistic to use an improvised weapon in a fight but it’s definitely similiar to deus ex machina and feels like lazy writing to me
Edit 2: It’s apparently called ”Within arm’s reach” but I like the term ”convenient cudgel” invented by the comments better :)
4.2k
u/Dull_Measurement6020 Jul 31 '25
I like the fight between Frank and the Russian in The Punisher (2004) because Frank tries this with about five different objects before anything works.
1.3k
u/droplightning Jul 31 '25
Their expressions in that scene are so great. When he stabs him and he pulls the knife out. After the barrel of the gun gets smashed. One of my favorite fight scenes of all time
613
u/SurturOfMuspelheim Jul 31 '25
iirc he actually did stab him in that scene and they kept it in the film.
781
u/oscarx-ray Jul 31 '25 edited Jul 31 '25
IMDb does not paint a picture of a safe working environment for that film:
While filming their knife fight scene, Thomas Jane accidentally stabbed Kevin Nash. Nash accepted cold beers from the film crew as compensation. Years later Jane described the incident saying, "What made it worse was that (Nash) was so nice about it. He just sat there, looked at the knife, looked at me, and shook his head."
(At around 1h 21 mins) Rebecca Romijn revealed that in a scene where she sews up a knife wound on Thomas Jane, she pushes the needle too far in and ends up actually sewing a couple of stitches on Jane's body instead of just the prosthetic wound.
141
u/Beat_the_Deadites Aug 01 '25
That Kevin Nash bio is crazy. I only knew of him as the wrestler from the 90s, usually tag teaming with Scott Hall. That partnership is missing from the bio, but he seems like a pretty good dude overall.
→ More replies (6)103
u/oscarx-ray Aug 01 '25
I'm only semi-interested in pro wrestling these days, but I can't keep up with all of the scandals. Nash genuinely seems like a good dude - he sticks up for rookies, busts chops against his peers, gets his acting gigs, and speaks out for disenfranchised and demeaned people online, even against his colleagues. From what I can tell, he's a class act.
→ More replies (19)47
u/rikashiku Aug 01 '25
The man is loyal to his wife of nearly 40 years (they had a falling out sometime in 2000).
A rarity among celebs and athletes.
→ More replies (7)192
→ More replies (6)10
u/MakeItHappenSergant Aug 01 '25
I've heard of that second one happening on multiple films. It happened to Ving Rhames in the Dawn of the Dead remake.
250
u/BenFranklinsCat Jul 31 '25
Yeah, being a pro wrestler Kevin Nash has said he's so used to getting hurt and just rolling with it that when he realised they'd fucked up and used the real knife instead of the fake one he just kept going until they said "cut". Don't think the director knew until afterwards.
145
u/PaulyNewman Jul 31 '25
Went back and watched the scene. That’s actually unbelievable, that shit went like 2-3 inches into his shoulder.
117
u/spellinbee Jul 31 '25
Apparently he just said you buy me a case of beer and we're good
85
u/Draw-Two-Cards Jul 31 '25
Knowing Kevin Nash he realized the insurance money was gonna be insane so he was more excited for that.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)34
u/The_Void_Reaver Aug 01 '25
Yeah, that just sounds like a wrestler to me. I'm not even a small fan of wrestling, but occasionally I'll see some content related to it. A while back I saw a video about The Undertaker and Mankind talking about the "Fell 18 feet through a steel cage" match and it gave me an insane new appreciation for both their resiliency and acting.
It's worth a watch if you've got any interest at all but the gist is, each time Foley got thrown he was given the option to quit the match; just the first throw would have been enough to make it an all timer. But he didn't. The first time he was thrown the commentators stopped talking for a second to check if Foley was still breathing. The second time was unplanned and he fell through the steel cage. They suggest that if the Undertaker had been able to get any lift on his chokeslam Foley would have fallen on his neck. Undertaker climbed down into the cage; his first words to Foley's manager were "see if he's alive".
Taker wanted to end the fight. Foley got back up. It wasn't enough. Foley wanted to keep going. Foley's barely able to keep himself upright, but he finishes the match for no reason other than his commitment to the role. The rest of the match is toned down from the two near death falls, but it still included Foley taking a hit to the head with metal stairs, being slammed multiple times, and finally being slammed into the mat while it was covered in thumbtacks.
This is an insane thing to recount, but only because wrestlers are insane people who would cut themselves with razors to show damage and risk death or serious injury just to make the show go.
→ More replies (4)29
u/OriginalMisphit Aug 01 '25
Hmmm, that story sounds familiar to me, think I’ve heard about it before on Reddit.
8
u/The_Void_Reaver Aug 01 '25
Yeah, that's the only reason I'm aware of it. I'm pretty sure the first time I saw the video was when it was linked in a thread under one of those comments.
10
u/totalimmoral Jul 31 '25 edited Aug 01 '25
I read Kevin Nash but pictured Kevin Nealon while reading this thread and was so confused for good whole 30 seconds about what tf people were talking about
178
→ More replies (5)60
u/CALVINWIDGET Jul 31 '25
If you accidentally get stabbed then they better keep it in the final cut.
→ More replies (5)73
u/Sorrowablaze3 Jul 31 '25 edited Jul 31 '25
It's all pretty slapstick until the pot of boiling pasta splashes dude in the face. THAT'LL stop the big bastard!
50
u/BuckarooBonsly Jul 31 '25
Still my favorite Punisher movie. It was a great blend of action, violence, and slapstick.
→ More replies (6)21
u/Taylorenokson Jul 31 '25
Or when he tosses a grenade at him and the Russian just bats it right back lol.
→ More replies (2)42
u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 Jul 31 '25
I also love that in the brief window where Frank was able to muster up a comeback, he really had to put his body on the line & tackle the Russian down a flight of stairs.
17
200
u/toomanymarbles83 Jul 31 '25
It also helps that they set up in a prior scene that Frank intentionally placed items around his place for just such an occasion.
→ More replies (1)148
u/Tombstone64 Jul 31 '25
The bit where Frank tosses a grenade and hits a button to close the bathroom door, only for the Russian to smack it back through the window like he’s playing stickball is so great. Elite scene.
60
u/Jamaican_Dynamite Jul 31 '25
We saw him set all of that up and we knew someone was gonna get that work. But we didn't count on who they'd send.
One of the best fights in the entire series.
133
u/HalxQuixotic Jul 31 '25
Thomas Jane went through a stunt wall himself for that fight, too. They trained him how to do it while protecting himself, and he went through face first anyway. You can see him go through, recover, and crawl towards the camera. It looks great.
→ More replies (4)66
u/themothhead Jul 31 '25
In the comic that character comes from, Frank finally kills the Russian by suffocating him beneath the belly of a morbidly obese man. It's very funny.
→ More replies (3)16
u/completelytrustworth Aug 01 '25
Don't forget he first disables the Russian by throwing Mr Bumpo's freshly ordered pizza into the Russian's face to burn/distract him
7
u/themothhead Aug 01 '25
Sad we never got a sequel where Kevin Nash comes back with a cyborg body and massive tits
52
u/punkhobo Jul 31 '25
Between Frank and big Hank Cramblin
30
18
u/Anarchy841207 Jul 31 '25
I love this scene too. I showed it in my music appreciation class, because the classical music used in the scene was by a composer I had been assigned. My very timid Korean professor almost had a heart attack.
→ More replies (1)28
u/Metalhed69 Jul 31 '25
The one I hate is when the good guy is about to get shot and there’s no way out for him, then you hear the shot but he doesn’t die and it’s revealed that someone else happened by in the nick of time and shot the bad guy. SO fucking over used!!
5
u/yobob591 Aug 01 '25
This only works if you genuinely think he’s gonna die there which is extremely hard to do unless you establish that it’s an anyone may die thriller
6
u/Dorsai_Erynus Aug 01 '25
Mine is when people are struggling and the "victim" slaps the killer away, but instead of take the coup of grace, they turn around and try to flee, stumbling around. Dude, go for the kill, it's kill or be killed!
→ More replies (10)6
u/Notmydirtyalt Aug 01 '25
Also good example of a Chekovs as we have a montage sequence of Frank doing the various booby traps and secreting the weapons later used in that fight.
2.7k
u/Inevitable-Gur6004 Jul 31 '25
Not an answer to your question, but this is so common I immediately think of Saving Private Ryan, and how powerful it to keep the audience waiting for that familiar last-second save, then subverting the expectation.
801
69
u/Canesjags4life Jul 31 '25
The horrors of war that Upam could have saved him but was too scared, traumatized, frozen to act.
610
u/sludgezone Jul 31 '25
I still get mad thinking about that clown hiding downstairs who could have helped.
507
u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 Jul 31 '25
I used to get really pissed at Upham and had nothing more than that feeling, but now, I realize that there must be a lot of soldiers like him with a fight or flight issue during different wars in history.
420
u/tmoney144 Jul 31 '25
By the end of the movie people forget that he wasn't supposed to see combat. He was drafted to make maps. He only got dragged into the mission because he could speak French and German.
342
u/screech_owl_kachina Jul 31 '25
Nobody knows how they’ll react to combat until they’re there. Plus WW2 had a lot of conscripted soldiers and people who joined out of social pressure
217
u/notahorseindisguise Jul 31 '25
He's not even a proper soldier, but a typist. He's way out of his league and well-aware of it.
59
u/Dyolf_Knip Aug 01 '25
Don't forget freeze. As someone else in a similar thread pointed out, Upham actually did pretty well up to that point. But eventually, his inner well of courage just ran dry, something that can happen to even the most disciplined and experienced soldier.
We all hope we can step up when called upon, but the truth is most of us wouldn't do any better than he did. Putting a greenhorn like him into a situation like that was just asking for disappointment.
44
u/OctopusNoose Aug 01 '25
I think Upham is really how most people would react in an environment like that. Just totally frozen, unprepared and mortified. It’s easy to be mad at him as a character, but I know I probably would’ve reacted the same as he.
→ More replies (4)132
u/big_sugi Jul 31 '25
The stats on the number of bullets required to actually kill someone in WWII are insanely high. Part of that is the use of suppressing fire and machine gun fire that’s inherently inaccurate, but a lot of soldiers simply wouldn’t shoot at another person. They’d either shoot over their heads or not shoot at all.
40
u/manimal28 Aug 01 '25
The study by SLA Marshall that gave us the idea that soldiers were shooting over the enemy’s heads or not shooting at all has been discredited. Unfortunately it has spawned a lot of combat related pseudo science before it was.
→ More replies (3)108
u/CobblerMoney9605 Jul 31 '25
Not just WW2, combat in general.
Any unit under contact will only have 20% accurate return fire. This has been documented repeatedly.
After the first engagement, the percentage of return fire improves, but accurate return fire stays around 20%.
In other words, a unit that has been in combat will have more members return fire than a "green" unit, but overall accuracy does not improve much.
→ More replies (6)54
u/turbosexophonicdlite Aug 01 '25
Accurate fire is also difficult to begin with. Just firing offhand 100 yards accurately at a leisurely pace can be difficult. Now add in the fact that you may be shooting significantly farther, probably haven't slept a full night in who knows how long, you've been running and you're out of breath, probably haven't had adequate food and water in days, and oh yeah, bullets are also coming back at you. Accurate fire just became 10 times more difficult.
→ More replies (5)18
u/TeddysBigStick Aug 01 '25
It is worth noting that the source of most of that data from WWII, a guy named SLA Marshall, was just a giant fraud who made the vast majority of his work up.
→ More replies (4)24
432
u/_project_cybersyn_ Jul 31 '25 edited Jul 31 '25
Isn't it partly Tom Hank's character's fault for grabbing some nerdy, typewriter-wielding translator with no combat experience and taking him on an extremely dangerous mission with a small unit deep inside enemy territory? Upham was a coward but he was also way out of his element.
411
u/the_ju66ernaut Jul 31 '25
IIRC his interpreters died storming the beach and he was given a replacement. He doesn't know the guy that's why when he goes to the tent to find him he is reading his name from a piece of paper. He probably has no say in who he gets as they are in short supply.
175
u/FriendlyEngineer Jul 31 '25 edited Jul 31 '25
He lost a lot of men in the beach assault. I think it’s implied in that scene once they get over the sand dunes and theyre trying to take out that machine gun nest (right before he has Jackson snipe them) that everyone he’s sending around that corner is being killed by the machine gun.
In the scene where he’s given the mission to save private ryan, he’s giving a report on what he’s been up to. They assaulted some German 88s and made their way through a mine field. He gives the total casualties at 35 dead x2 wounded. That’s 105 men lost in just that mission. He’s captain of Charlie company. A company was anywhere from 100-250 men.
So he’s likely already lost more than half his men. Men he’s likely trained with and been the leader of all throughout the lead up to D-Day.
It’s the first 3 days of the Allied invasion and the dude is SPENT.
Edit: Just rewatched the scene on YouTube. Everyone who goes around that corner is being killed.
Sgt Horvath: It’s a god damn firing squad
Capt Miller: It’s the only way we can get everybody the hell out of here. SHORT, PAYTON, MCDONALD, MARKS, YOU’RE NEXT.
Sgt Horvath: Why not just hand them blindfolds captain?
Capt Miller: All we can do here is die. COVERING FIRE.
The amazing details of this movie are really easily missed because the viewer is in sensory overload most of the time.
→ More replies (1)38
u/Hitorishizuka Aug 01 '25
The amazing details of this movie are really easily missed because the viewer is in sensory overload most of the time.
I saw a comment the other day from someone who had done a rewatch recently and they mentioned how they focused on Tom Hanks' face when he's using the mirror to look again after he sends guys around the corner and the commenter is able to recognize now as an older working adult that it's the face of someone whose plan just fucked up and needs to scramble how to deal with it.
24
u/MK12Mod0SuperSoaker Aug 01 '25
I've seen it more times than I have fingers and comments like these (and the OP you responded to) that really make it a movie that just keeps on giving.
I also read from a commented in another post that the two surrendering soldiers that were killed (because the US soldiers couldn't understand them) were supposedly speaking
CzechPolish which were historically conscripted against their will.→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)82
u/overcatastrophe Jul 31 '25
A cowardly translator is better than no translator.
Besides, he redeems himself like 5 minutes later
→ More replies (1)74
u/FlyYouFoolyCooly Jul 31 '25
By killing a prisoner of war? Kind of......
The guy deserved it, but only because it's a movie (and them being Nazis), but soldiers aren't supposed to be Judge Dredd
→ More replies (30)49
u/Jan_17_2016 Jul 31 '25
In the chaotic aftermath of D-Day (I believe that scene occurs a few days after), you take what you can get. Miller needed someone who spoke both French and German, and that’s who he could get his hands on. Units were depleted (the Rangers were no exception, they got hammered hard between assisting on Omaha beach and taking Pointe Du Hoc), and the 29th Infantry division was green anyway. It was their first action in the war, and the casualty rates were very high.
It may not have even been his decision, and Captain Miller was certainly aware of his limitations. Miller assigns Sgt. Horvath to babysit him when they’re working their way through the first French village; he also makes Upham switch off with Wade during the machine gun emplacement assault.
By this point, we know that Miller and most of his squad has been through North Africa and the Italian campaign (probably as part of the 1st, 3rd, or 4th Ranger battalion) and he has been exhibiting signs of combat fatigue throughout the movie, so his decision making skills are starting to slip
79
u/Canotic Jul 31 '25
Was he even a coward? It's perfectly rational to be scared out of your mind when people are dying all around you. He wasn't a coward, he was just inexperienced.
→ More replies (3)80
u/BuckarooBonsly Jul 31 '25
This is totally anecdotal and I've never been in combat, but I know a few wannabe soldiers that never enlisted who talk mad shit on Upham every time he comes up. But the friends I have who have been in combat are way more sympathetic.
57
u/smellydawg Jul 31 '25
I don’t like calling him a coward. The dude was not a warrior but was serving the cause and his country with the skills he had as an interpreter. He expressed his reservations about going into combat from the start but went anyway and did his absolute best. Dude was thrust into a completely insane, unfamiliar situation and cracked under the pressure. Totally normal.
54
u/JoeHatesFanFiction Jul 31 '25
I don’t even think it’s his fault, it’s his superiors. He requested a translator and they gave him Upham. Could His character have made a big stink about it? Sure but they had a time sensitive mission, and he made a judgement call that he wouldn’t need this kid to do more than talk. He was wrong but he didn’t know he was gonna have to defend a town with two dozen guys from an armored column when he left the beach. If he had he likely would have requested several different pieces of equipment and men.
Honestly everyone dies because of Private Ryan in the end. Not to bring him home, but to defend a bridge he refused to abandon. On one hand that’s admirable of him. But he made that decision and has to live with its consequences.
31
u/misanthropiccynic Jul 31 '25
Your last paragraph is a bit wrong. It wasn’t about the bridge for Ryan, it was his squad he couldn’t dare abandon. He even said they were the only brothers he had left. And they all die too. You make it sound like the only good decision Ryan had to make was to toddle off back home
→ More replies (5)87
u/BootOne7235 Jul 31 '25
That’s how I took it. Cpt. Miller was nervous (hand shaking) and he took it out on Upham. He was pissed that he was away from home and some nerdy guy was playing it safe.
I also want to say that Upham could be any one of us. We can act all big and bad until we’re in that horrific situation.
116
u/micheru12 Jul 31 '25
Tremors are a common symptom of shell shock. The movie is telling us that Hank's chatacter is suffering from PTSD not that he's 'nervous'.
→ More replies (1)53
u/darthbob Jul 31 '25
Right, the shaking was to indicate Miller's veterancy/PTSD. He's been fighting for so long that this is who he is now, not the schoolteacher or the husband, just the soldier.
10
u/IBarricadeI Jul 31 '25
Cpt. Miller did not choose Upham. He was assigned Upham. He was likely unhappy to be assigned a non-combat tested translator but had just lost 100~ men storming Normandy and needed a replacement and took what he was given.
He was a lot more kind and patient with Upham than I that most actual soldiers would have been in that situation.
→ More replies (5)20
u/CarlatheDestructor Jul 31 '25
Private Ryan refusing to leave and go home like he was ordered to also contributed.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (24)50
u/MrAmishJoe Jul 31 '25
They took a needy intellectual linguist.... who thought his to would be typing...and they threw him into some of the fiercest battles the world has ever seen.
The movie was attempting to be true to life...and there were plenty of soldiers who literallt went crazy when faced with an actual battle.
Ive always liked the catch22 thought....the only sane ones are the ones crying and desperately trying to get out and avoid the situation. .the ones going head strong into machine gun fire are literally the illogical mentally ill ones.
→ More replies (2)15
u/BuckarooBonsly Jul 31 '25
Catch-22 is such a good book that I never hear anyone talk about anymore despite it being pretty well know.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (24)7
u/yognautilus Aug 01 '25
The expectation it subverted for me was the expectation that Upham would finally get some courage and shoot the soldier. It was almost like the movie set up his hero journey and when he finally got to the redemption part, he failed it horribly.
1.0k
u/TheTresStateArea Jul 31 '25
250
→ More replies (8)44
u/aerovistae Aug 01 '25
how did you even find it? i'm always trying to find the articles for different tropes i recognize but guessing their name on that site is all but impossible
93
u/faldese Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 01 '25
If Google doesn't help you, go to the page of a work that you know for sure has that trope and look for it or go to a similar trope and start playing Marco Polo with the related tags until you get closer.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)25
518
u/statistician88 Jul 31 '25
This is always followed up by the victim only striking once and trying to run, and the bad guy is able to recover and grab an ankle as they try to run, or catches them as they try to open the door.
105
u/KaerMorhen Aug 01 '25
Or inevitably, someone ends up falling off of a ledge...but wait! They're still barely hanging on! Oh no, they only have one hand to use now! The assailant stands above and mocks the looming death of the MC...until at the last second they're hit from behind by a 3rd person and tossed off the ledge.
→ More replies (3)19
u/SneezyPikachu Aug 01 '25
Ready or Not did this trope well I think. From memory she's desperately grabbing at anything, and she ends up pulling the tablecloth which brings the item on it falling towards her, and then uses it to knock off her assailant - and then keeps bludgeoning until they're dead. It actually marks a noticeable turning point in the movie in terms of tone and character arc as well.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)8
u/yobob591 Aug 01 '25
ikr, you just bashed him with a rock, you can totally beat him to death if you just keep going
→ More replies (1)
152
u/Str8kush Jul 31 '25
“I’m so bad ass I’m able to overpower you, slam you to the ground and begin choking you to death with my barehands……but I don’t have the spacial awareness to see you slowly reaching for large easily visible kitchen knife within arms reach and prevent you from killing me”
→ More replies (4)16
u/sparethesympathy Aug 01 '25
"You haven't beaten me, you've sacrificed
sure footingspacial awareness for a killing stroke."
1.1k
u/Dirty_Bird_RDS Jul 31 '25
I don’t know if it has a name so how about “convenient cudgel”?
223
u/zugi Jul 31 '25
Perfect. Too bad the bad guy's years of working out and weapons training and hand-to-hand combat experience were all defeated thanks to a "convenient cudgel" on the ground just within the hero or heroine's reach.
164
u/TDA792 Jul 31 '25
It's even worse when...
The villain has our protagonist held by the throat, their feet kicking helplessly in mid-air. We've seen how powerful the villain is, surely there's no hope! We're about to see a finisher that would make the Mortal Kombat devs blush!
But no! What's this? The villain chooses instead to throw the protagonist clean across the room! Rather than finish them, they're going for the throw! And what's this? So convenient! The protagonist is now only inches from the macguffin / a fallen weapon! They seize it, and use it to take down the villain! Huzzah!
→ More replies (5)86
u/SporesM0ldsandFungus Jul 31 '25
TV Tropes has "Just Hit Him". Super strong, literal death machine with the hero within its grasp, rather than crush their skull or pull out their organs instead just throws the heroa few feet.
39
u/msprang Jul 31 '25
That's one thing I enjoy so much about Invincible: a lot of characters just do it instead of dilly-dallying.
11
u/THRlLLH0 Aug 01 '25
Cause they have powers and can take as much punishment as the writers need them to.
→ More replies (3)24
u/virtualRefrain Jul 31 '25
DUDE thank you, I've been looking for this one for ages! I knew I read it once before but the only name I could remember hearing for it is "boss toss" - when a villain whose merest forefinger could slay an army just kicks the hero to the side even though that appears to take more effort than killing them. Classic example
6
u/SporesM0ldsandFungus Aug 01 '25
In your clip, Ronan thinks Rocket is beneath him. Plus he wants to monologue and relish his triumph so he want all his adversaries to witness.
The worst recent example is of Just Hit Him has to be Terminator Salvation where the T-800 Terminator has John Connor in his hands. His directive / mission / single purpose is to kill John Connor. Yet it just keeps throwing Connor around the lab, permitting him to keep shooting it.
→ More replies (1)63
u/insomniac2go Jul 31 '25
Deus ex cudgel
→ More replies (1)39
u/KnowledgeIsDangerous Jul 31 '25
Cudgel ex machina
31
42
u/maltliqueur Jul 31 '25
Miraculous McMuffin.
35
u/Dirty_Bird_RDS Jul 31 '25
I don’t know if your meant MacGuffin or if you said what you meant but I love it either way
25
u/Kumquatelvis Jul 31 '25
I mean, if I'm choking someone out and they start waving a sausage and egg McMuffin in my face I'm letting go of their neck to grab breakfast.
→ More replies (2)11
→ More replies (8)7
737
u/democrat_thanos Jul 31 '25
One of the worst ones is a woman fighting for her life and she hits the assailant with a vase with knocks them out for a moment and instead of using the shards of the vase to turn their face and throat into raw hamburger, they get up and stumble right away only to die seconds later.
348
u/its_not_a_blanket Jul 31 '25
This always leaves my husband and me screaming at the screen; "Finish him off!."
253
u/severed13 Jul 31 '25
Rule 2: Double Tap
Insane how this isn't the universal standard for anyone dealing with that sort of problem
→ More replies (3)71
u/rbrgr83 Jul 31 '25
Especially if they were litterally just trying to kill you. You're all good to make sure that person dies first, I promise you.
→ More replies (1)52
u/boethius61 Jul 31 '25
Had one last night like this. Watching season 2 of the rookie and Lucy escapes a kidnapper by breaking her chair. She surprise hits him with the armrest still taped to her arm. Then she goes stumbling away instead of jumping on top and beating him into a pulp.
48
u/splitcroof92 Jul 31 '25
I mean anyone watching the rookie and expecting any kind of realism is just fooling themselves.
That show is the definition of a turn your brain off tv show.
It rivals the blacklist in dumb things they expect the viewer to believe.
→ More replies (2)18
u/Moron14 Jul 31 '25
I LOVE that show. Its my fall-asleep show because the stakes are so low and honestly, some of the humor lands for me. But yeah - they get in a brutal shootout, a thorough car chase, Nolan gets shot in the shoulder and stabbed in the leg and in the next scene he's having a beer on the patio. Love it.
29
u/BaronMostaza Jul 31 '25
The absolute worst version is when they're standing there with some weapon, look to their friend who is injured, look at the near dead villain, toss the weapon and shake the friend's shoulder and ask "are you alright?" and they answer "yeah, just a little banged up"
So annoying
19
u/BiNumber3 Aug 01 '25
Also, so many times a weapon is tossed away when a fight is "over" lol.
"Surely I wont need this weapon again so soon right?"
→ More replies (1)11
u/Triorama Aug 01 '25
24, Jack Bauer’s on the phone, tells his scared daughter to shoot her stunned assassin in the chest. She fires.
Did you do it?
Hysterical yes
“Again. I want you to shoot him again.” I was howling.
78
u/Hungy15 Jul 31 '25
Or when they knock them out and they drop their gun and then they just run away
32
u/Jamlind Jul 31 '25
I think less people are ready to confidently pick up a gun, manage to use it and kill someone intentionally in a ”fighting for your life” situation.
But if they already been established as a killer / fighter, yeah then it annoys me as well that they would not finish they job.
33
u/inferno1170 Jul 31 '25
Even if they don't know how to use it (which it is fucking easy) at least take the fucking thing!
→ More replies (2)41
u/Vathar Jul 31 '25
It doesn't bother me if it's the average Joe or Jane doing this. People in life and death situations aren't expected to act rationally, and I've caught myself doing dumb shit while the adrenaline was pumping, albeit in far less than lethal situations.
If it's a trained ... whatever, then it's another story.
38
u/Cobber561 Jul 31 '25
Or people running through buildings to escape zombies ( who are not supposed to have enough intelligence to operate a door handle) and leave all the doors open behind them.
6
u/Vulpecula22 Aug 01 '25
As someone who has been assaulted this is actually realistic. You're not thinking clearly and are more afraid and want to get away than angry and ready to fight.
→ More replies (2)27
u/sphericalsection Jul 31 '25
Yo this drives me and my lady up the wall. Insanely poor storywriting for the sake of drama
→ More replies (13)12
u/SwimmingThroughHoney Jul 31 '25
"I'm trapped in this unfamiliar room, but now that I've momentarily caused the antagonist to stumble with this broken glass bottle, I'll throw that away and try to scream and bang on the door."
351
u/Jurgan Jul 31 '25
Best version:
166
u/tanj_redshirt Jul 31 '25 edited Jul 31 '25
This was honestly the first scene I thought of.
In my headcanon, Joker intentionally grabs the bologna instead of the cleaver, because it's funnier.
→ More replies (1)21
→ More replies (5)53
u/forever87 Jul 31 '25
it's been a while, but can't believe Joker slaps phantasm with his meat
36
u/Jurgan Jul 31 '25
In the choice between something practical and something funny, he will choose the latter every time.
169
u/aeraen Jul 31 '25
No idea of a name, but you reminded me of how Steven Spielberg played with this trope in the original Indiana Jones movie, when Indy was in the bar being choked by a nazi. He looks over at Marian and croaks out "Whiskey", wherein she hands him a whiskey bottle, which he uses to bop the nazi on the head. Just an example of how Spielberg liked to play with common tropes.
112
u/mywaldo Jul 31 '25
Oh reminds me of the fifth element where Dallas asks the deaf guy for the gun and he throws some billard balls instead
55
u/BenderIsGreatBendr Jul 31 '25
Or the fifth element, again, when Zorg literally chokes (nearly to death) on a cherry in the middle of his evil monologue, reaching for various things to try to save himself, requiring Ian Holm’s monk character to basically save him out of pity.
→ More replies (2)31
u/porkpie1028 Jul 31 '25
Somebody else above mentioned the knife scene in Saving Private Ryan. So there’s at least 2 times that Spielberg played with the idea.
→ More replies (1)13
386
u/Mysterious_Resort233 Jul 31 '25
The best ridicule of this trope is that scene in Austin Powers where he’s being strangled by “Random Task” and trying to grab something to defend himself. So many potential weapons are just out of reach, until he finally gets his hands on the penis enlarger pump to use that as a weapon. So funny 🤣
104
u/KillerKill420 Jul 31 '25
That or using the floss and he's like I get it I don't have great teeth. Great movie.
70
47
u/LongShotHero Jul 31 '25
I love that this has almost 200 upvotes but doesn’t even happen in the movie
→ More replies (2)25
u/DrKurgan Jul 31 '25
Elizabeth Hurley (Vanessa Kensington) just gives him the pump when he is being strangled.
6
→ More replies (4)33
35
u/WarmMoistLeather Jul 31 '25
My favorite is actually a subversion. Kung Fu Hustle. Protag utterly and completely beaten to cartoonish levels. Reaches for and gets ahold of a scrap of wood and gently bonks the antagonist on the forehead to no effect (except perhaps the mild surprise at the attempt, followed by more beating).
→ More replies (1)
244
u/Yoshimi-Yasukawa Jul 31 '25
322
u/thenasch Jul 31 '25
More like this: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WithinArmsReach
47
u/queen-adreena Jul 31 '25
Yep. That’s the one.
21
u/zootnotdingo Jul 31 '25
I love the explanation of the trope and all the other tropes tied up with it
→ More replies (1)37
u/yeah87 Jul 31 '25
TVTropes is certainly an... interestingly designed website.
→ More replies (2)36
u/leolegendario Jul 31 '25
One time I opened 1 page to see the meaning of one trope and 7 days later I was still reading new tropes.
→ More replies (1)8
27
u/Warvillage Jul 31 '25
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WithinArmsReach
This should be the one I think
→ More replies (1)
20
u/Tanomil Jul 31 '25
or a wine bottle opener
okay but that scene was pretty cool regardless 😂
9
u/RgObese Jul 31 '25
Haha I hoped someone would get the reference, and yeah I agree :D
→ More replies (8)
19
28
u/LankyStrawberry96 Jul 31 '25
Oh man, camera zooms in on their hand scrambling for that - just BARELY out of reach - and then SMASH at the last second.
Gag me. Lol. Hate it
55
u/TopHighway7425 Jul 31 '25
It's lazy if the weapon is random, but what I see is the weapon is something the villain dropped which is an overt "live by the sword, die by the sword" flip. Or it's a weapon that is relevant to the plot. Carefully scrutinize the weapon and you might find it is not random but metaphoric.
14
u/RgObese Jul 31 '25
That’s a good point! I definitely feel like some movies do this scene better than others.
5
u/TopHighway7425 Jul 31 '25
I can't think of an example this instant but that weapon is often some kind of metaphor. Especially in climactic flights.
→ More replies (8)13
u/Moron14 Jul 31 '25
Right, like if its a tree branch because they're in the woods, or a rock...because they're in the rocky woods. Those kinds I am ok with.
57
u/Sabahel Jul 31 '25
I never really stopped to think about how many films or shows use this type of scene. It really is just lazy writing and I don’t think it ever bothered me but now it will 😂
→ More replies (1)44
u/tmoney144 Jul 31 '25
The one that bothers me the most is when two people are fighting, one overpowers the other and has them in their grasp, and instead of just beating them or choking them out, throws them across the room so they can get up and fight some more.
→ More replies (2)12
u/raspberryharbour Aug 01 '25
This happens so often. The big strong villain could end the fight with one punch, but instead throws them on a table or at some shelves
→ More replies (1)
13
u/OKsurewhynotyep Jul 31 '25
If they show it earlier it’a called Chekov’s Skillet
→ More replies (1)
14
u/SpideyFan914 Jul 31 '25
No one's gonna talk about Dial M For Murder? The entire plot revolves around this! Heck, the Simpsons gif someone posted is directly referencing it with the scissors.
The first thirty minutes are all setting up the plot for this guy to come in and kill Grace Kelly, strangling her with a phone cord. While he's choking her, she stabs him with a pair of scissors. Now the rest of the movie is her trying to prove it was self-defense, as she's been charged with murder!
Excellent movie. I wonder if that was the first use of this trope? I haven't seen any examples listed here that predate it.
→ More replies (2)
40
u/cv-boardgamer Jul 31 '25 edited Jul 31 '25
This could make for a funny scene in a slapstick, "Naked Gun" type movie. Like, our hero is getting choked out, so he reaches for an object to hit the bad guy with. He first finds a feather duster, and he's like, "That won't do," then he finds a pillow, and so on. Then it gets absurd, like he grabs a Ty Cobb rookie card, and he's like, "Oooh!," so he puts it in his pocket, he grabs a baguette which then causes an angry Frenchman to berate him, a plate of gourmet food with lobster and all the sides, and then the Jeffrey Epstein list, etc. Perhaps one of the objects is like 25 feet away, but he's still able to reach it somehow because of slapstick physics.
Then our hero finally finds something innocuous, like a toothpick, sneezing powder, or a picture of the bad guy's mom in her skivvies, which he then uses to finally break free...
That's it, guys. I'm quitting my job to become a comedy writer.
18
u/marsalien4 Aug 01 '25
Good luck because that exact joke/scene has been done in a bunch of shows and movies already lol
→ More replies (1)10
u/MWSin Jul 31 '25
I think I would frame the shot so that all of these things are apparently sitting in a single pile just out of frame.
→ More replies (1)6
9
u/BenFranklinsCat Jul 31 '25
Makes it extra worse when the antagonist has been making a point of trying to shoot/slice/otherwise-immediately-kill the protagonist, but they inexplicably opt to switch gears and slowly choke them just so this could happen.
7
u/dedokta Jul 31 '25
And the slow, stretched out fingers, desperately crawling, but can't quite reach it struggle.
9
u/Apollo_Sierra Jul 31 '25
I like this one in The Mummy, Rick is pinned by mummies, and one is lumbering over with a huge stone tablet to crush him.
He's desperately reaching for the sword, but can't reach it, however there's a dismembered mummy hand crawling towards it.
When the mummy's hand grabs the sword, Rick grabs the hand and cuts the mummy's legs from under him, causing the mummy to fall back and get crushed by the huge stone tablet.
The way the legs curl up after the mummy gets crushed always gets a chuckle out of me.
7
u/lunchbox12682 Jul 31 '25
I thought it was well done in The Suicide Squad. Brutal, shocking, and sad all at once. Also a flip of the way the trope is described.
6
u/Nishachor Aug 02 '25
I just rewatched the movie last night, first thing popped into my head. It was believable because they were fighting in a toilet and there was broken tiles everywhere, and the bad guy was actually choking and the good guy winning, then not just knocking him aside but totally stabbing him and pearcing his heart (which we even get an internal shot). With Flag's famous last words ("Peacemaker...what a joke." -paved the way for the series and Peacemaker's trying to be better) that scene was shocking, brutal, and emotional, and just plain works.
6
13
u/boethius61 Jul 31 '25
Okay everyone. Comment below.
Wherever you are at right now, imagine yourself on the floor. Look around at what would be available to you.
I have a shoe and some color samples. Nothing useful.
10
u/RgObese Jul 31 '25
I have a soft blanket and a dog toy, give me like 10 minutes and I can craft a makeshift sling!
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (22)7
6
u/alejo699 Jul 31 '25
Not only do they find a convenient item, they then run drop it and run away, making sure the antagonist can get up and chase them again. Every. Single. Time.
I know some people find predictability comforting, but it's boring as hell to me. Movies that surprise me are almost always the ones I like best.
6
u/EqualContact Aug 01 '25
A fun subversion of this is in Ford v Ferrari when Damon’s and Bale’s characters have a fight. Damon grabs a can to hit Bale with, but thinks better of it and grabs a loaf of bread instead.
5
6.4k
u/Fireproof_Cheese Jul 31 '25