History Main / BenchBreaker

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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/MaxPayne https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/max_payne.jpg]]]]

* Manga/InuYasha is, at one point fairly early on in the series, tied to a tree by a demon using her hair like garrote wire. [[TakeAThirdOption He breaks the tree.]] Only a partial example, though, because he [[HalfHumanHybrid doesn't qualify as an ordinary human]].

* In ''Film/CharliesAngels2000'', Creator/{{D|rewBarrymore}}ylan breaks her chair with a flip, similar to the ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' example, although [[WithMyHandsTied her hands stay tied]] after the chair is broken.
* Lennie Pike from ''Film/ItsAMadMadMadMadWorld'' breaks the chair that he was tied to after breaking himself free from the pillar and duct tape that the gas station attendants tried tying him up to.

* ''Film/HouseOfWax2005'': When Cary is strapped to a surgical chair in the basement of the gas station, she manages to escape by pulling loose the rail on one side of the chair.
* ''Film/MissionImpossibleFallout'' has Ilsa Faust simultaneously breaking a chair she was tied to and attacking the one who put her there in the first place.
* ''Film/ColdPursuit'': When Kyle and Dante are abducted, Dante is has his wrists bound over his head to the handle above the car door. During the confusion while the gangsters are trying subdue Kyle, Dante manages to escape by ripping the handle off and jumping out into the snow.
* ''Film/TheButchers'': When Simon is tied up by John Wayne Gacy, he escapes by smashing the chair he is tied to.
* In ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'', Wai Lin undoes the handcuffs [[ChainedHeat chaining her and Bond together]] while they are [[ShowerScene under a shower]]. She then handcuffs Bond to the shower pipe and leaves. Bond simply snaps the copper pipe and follows her.
* In ''Film/TheBoondockSaints'', Connor [=McManus=] is handcuffed to a toilet as two Russian mobsters take his brother Murphy out to the alley to shoot him in the head. Connor, in a fit of UnstoppableRage, tears the toilet right out of the floor, carries up to the apartment building roof and proceeds to send [[TheCanKickedHim the toilet crashing down upon the head]] of the guy about to kill his brother as he jumps down himself onto the back of the second goon.

* In ''[[Literature/KnightAndRogueSeries The Last Knight]]'', Sir Michael is chained to a bed by a captor and spends most of his time kicking the bedpost to try to detach it from the bed. [[spoiler:He succeeds just in time to aid Fisk in rescuing him.]]

* In Lee Child's 'Die Trying' book, the main character Jack Reacher finds himself chained up to a huge beam of wood with a female captive, who is about to be sexually assaulted by their captors. Reacher, summoning up every ounce of his considerable strength, tears the chain clean out of the wooden beam. The chain is intact, but the beam is destroyed.
* In ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'', Mr. Nutt is a "goblin" ([[spoiler: not really; he's an orc]]) recently arrived in the big city after being raised by [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Lady Margolotta]]. ''Before'' he came to Lady Margolotta he was kept prisoner in some kind of mine or forge, and grew stronger by first lifting the light tools, then the heavier tools, and finally, the anvil. Trev asks why it was so important to be able to lift the anvil, and Nutt says "Because, Mr. Trev, I was chained to the anvil."

* In ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'', Mrs Peel gets handcuffed to a wooden chair. When the time comes, she swiftly breaks the chair and beats up the baddies with the sticks. At the end of the episode, as they stroll off across a golf course, Steed asks her what her handicap is. She shows him the chunk of wood still cuffed to one of her wrists.
* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' episode "The Girl Who Was Death" had him tied to a chair inside a missile set to launch and destroy London - he struggles against the rope for some time before he realizes he can just pull the back of the chair up and off, freeing himself.
* On ''{{Series/Chuck}}'', whenever Casey gets handcuffed to a piece of furniture, he ends up breaking it and using the attached pieces as a melee weapon.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.
** In "Gingerbread" the residents of Sunnydale fall under the influence of a demon and try to [[BurnTheWitch burn Buffy and Willow at the stake]]. Buffy is bound so tightly she can't snap the ropes even with her SuperStrength. When the demon attacks her, she breaks the stake and leans forward, [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaling it on the tip]].
** In "Never Leave Me" after Spike is revealed to be a ManchurianAgent, Buffy ties him to a chair until she can figure out what to do. Spike even tells her to tighten the bonds. When he's activated however, [[SuperpoweredEvilSide he breaks the chair in berserker fury]] and attacks Andrew, forcing Buffy to chain him up in the basement next time.
* ''Series/AlteredCarbon''. In "Fallen Angels", Vernon tries fighting Kovacs [[WithMyHandsTied while still strapped to his chair]], then breaks it, but is still not able to defeat Kovacs, who then secures him to a huge puffy armchair with an excess of duct tape.

* VideoGame/MaxPayne waits until Frankie "The Bat" Niagara is out of the room, before falling backwards on his chair in order to break it and set himself free.

* This becomes a RunningGag in ''[[WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk Dragons: Race to the Edge]]'' -- when captured by dragon-proof chains, break the winches; when captured by chains on a dragon-proof winch, blast the winch off the wooden deck. The dragon hunters are finally forced to make ships entirely out of dragon-proof metal to defy this trope.

* From time to time in ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk'' TV series David Banner would get tied to a chair, only for him to HulkOut; [[BreakingTheBonds so Hulk breaks the chair]].

* In ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'', Mr. Nutt is a "goblin" ([[spoiler: not really; he's an orc]]) recently arrived in the big city after being raised by [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Lady Margolotta]]. ''Before'' he came to Lady Margolotta he was kept prisoner in some kind of mine or forge, and grew stronger by first lifting the light tools, then the heavier tools, and finally, the anvil. Trev asks why it was so important to be able to lift the anvil, and Nutt says "Because, Mr. Trev, I was chained to the anvil."

* In ''Series/TheAvengers'', Mrs Peel gets handcuffed to a wooden chair. When the time comes, she swiftly breaks the chair and beats up the baddies with the sticks. At the end of the episode, as they stroll off across a golf course, Steed asks her what her handicap is. She shows him the chunk of wood still cuffed to one of her wrists.

* In ''Film/CharliesAngels'', Creator/{{D|rewBarrymore}}ylan breaks her chair with a flip, similar to the ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' example, although [[WithMyHandsTied her hands stay tied]] after the chair is broken.

* ''Series/AlteredCarbon''. In "Fallen Angels", Vernon tries fighting Kovacs while still strapped to his chair, then breaks it, but is not able to defeat Kovacs, who then secures him to a much bigger chair with duct tape.

When a character is [[BoundAndGagged tied to a chair, bench, stool or other sitting device]], they usually try to pick their handcuffs, rub their ropes against a ConvenientlyPlacedSharpThing, or some other action that affects their bindings. Not so with the BenchBreaker; the character manages to break free by destroying whatever they are tied to.

* Manga/InuYasha is, at one point fairly early on in the series, tied to a tree by a demon using her hair like garrote wire. [[TakeAThirdOption He breaks the tree]]. Only a partial example, though, because he [[HalfHumanHybrid doesn't qualify as an ordinary human]].

* In ''Film/CharliesAngels'', [[Creator/DrewBarrymore Dylan]] breaks her chair with a flip, similar to the ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' example, although [[WithMyHandsTied her hands stay tied]] after the chair is broken.

* In ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'', Mr. Nutt is a "goblin" ([[spoiler: not really; he's an orc]]) recently arrived in the big city after being raised by [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires Lady Margolotta]]. ''Before'' he came to Lady Margolotta he was kept prisoner in some kind of mine or forge, and grew stronger by first lifting the light tools, then the heavier tools, and finally, the anvil. Trev asks why it was so important to be able to lift the anvil, and Nutt says "Because, Mr. Trev, I was chained to the anvil."

* Kotomine Kirei from [[LightNovel/FateZero Fate/zero]] is tied to a tree by his hands. His response? ''Rip the damn tree straight out of the ground.'' Kirei is also [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower arguably]] a normal human.

[[folder: Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', when Grace breaks free of her shackles Damien had her in she destroys the chair she was sitting in in the process. This has [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=546 consequences]] for the prisoner who was sitting near her.
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* ''Series/ThePrisoner'' episode "The Girl Who Was Death" had him tied to a chair inside a missile set to launch and destroy London - he struggles against the rope for some time before he realizes he can just pull the back of the chair up and off, freeing himself.

* ''Film/HouseOfwax2005'': When Cary is strapped to a surgical chair in the basement of the gas station, she manages to escape by pulling loose the rail on one side of the chair.

This is ''not'' simply BreakingTheBonds - it usually is done by a normal human who is desperate enough to ram themselves into a wall just to damage the chair, or nearly break a limb leveraging it.

** Later in the movie, Frank handcuffs Han to a refrigerator. When police show up to arrest him, Han rips the door off and [[BadAss uses the pieces to etc.]]

* In ''Series/TwentyFour'', Jack Bauer escapes by [[BadAss smashing his chair and attacking his captor]].

* ''Film/{{Red 2}}''. Frank Moss is being interrogated by US officials while handcuffed to a desk. Then a hit team bursts into the building killing everyone. Frank convinces an agent to uncuff him, but too late as the hitmen burst in and shoot him, catching Frank helpless...until he [[UseYourHead breaks the desk with his head]] and [[BadAss uses the pieces to knock out the hitmen]].

* Kotomine Kirei from [[LightNovel/FateZero Fate/zero]] is tied to a tree by his hands. His response? ''[[AwesomeMoments Rip the damn tree straight out of the ground.]]'' Kirei is also [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower arguably]] a normal human.