History Main / BoomerangComeback

* Double-Subverted in a ''WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner'' cartoon. Wile E. buys "One (1) Acme Boomerang" to use against the Road Runner, but when he hurls it, it seems to come and smack him from the other side of the screen... until the camera pans over to show the Road Runner standing next to a box for "Another Acme Boomerang". Wile E. starts to give chase... then his original boomerang comes back and hits him.

* The DungeonVerse-inspired site ''Les Parchemins Anodins'' [http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L1ZS7M0I] invented the no-return boomerang: a magical boomerang which always comes back, decapitating the launcher. Ouch.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'': In an episode parodying ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'', Pr. Fansworth (as the stereotypical fantasy wizard) turns his staff into a giant boomerang, but it hits him in the back when thrown -- or even when slightly going past the screen border.

* In an episode of the 1994 ''{{Series/Megaman}}'' TV series, Megaman fires a buster shot at Protoman which misses and enters a steam pipe. The steam pipe loops again behind Megaman, who ducks just as the shot comes out the end of the pipe, hitting Protoman.

-->'''TheMightyThor:''' Have you no honor?
-->'''Wrecker:''' Not even a little.
-->'''The Mighty Thor:''' Then you should be familiar with attacking a foe from behind!
-->''(Wrecker looks behind him and gets hit in the face with Mjolnir.)''
-->--''[[WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'', "Thor the Mighty"

* In ''{{Mazinkaiser}} vs. Ankoku Daishogun'', a badly-damaged GreatMazinger kills the Warrior Beast generals attacking New York like this.
* Subverted in episode 3 of ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. Kamina throws Simon as a FastballSpecial while fighting Viral. Viral dodges; Kamina expects to win the fight when Simon comes back again from behind, but Viral dodges the second attack as well. Mind you, the previous episode played it straight.

* Not exactly a boomerang, but in ''YuYuHakusho'', in a last ditch effort to beat Hiei, Yusuke goad him into the path of a point blank [[KiBlast Reigun]] shot. It would have hit any other opponent, but Hiei manages to use his extreme speed to get out of the way. He then takes the time to gloat about how Yusuke was almost good enough, only to be hit in the back by the return shot a few seconds later; as it turns out, Yusuke figured Hiei would dodge, so he positioned himself so the shot would hit the Mirror of Darkness behind him and ricochet back when Hiei wasn't paying attention. Good thing it worked, too. Because if his shots ''didn't'' work that way, he had no other plans left.
* In ''{{Basquash}}!'', Dan uses his Lightning Ball technique this way to get out of a pit fight in the underground city of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Underground]]. Actually, all signs point to Dan being able to actually control the ricochet of his shots in real time, so...

[[folder:Comics -- Books]]

* Subverted in ''JLAAvengers'', where Hawkeye fires a boomerang arrow at Flash, who easily catches it on the return and remarks that he's had a little experience with these things before[[hottip:*:The aforementioned Captain Boomerang is one of Flash's RoguesGallery]].

* In ''JingleAllTheWay'', the main character -- in a Turbo Man costume that [[CrazyPrepared includes all the weapons]] -- throws what is a high tech boomerang. The villain lets go with one of his hands, while the other hangs on. He grabs the Turbo Man toy out of the boy's backpack and shouts "Victory is mine!", before the boomerang hits his other hand, causing him to fall. He lands on a parade float and is promptly arrested.

* In ''TheBrothersGrimm'' movie, there is the magic handaxe seized from the lycanthrope woodsman, that can come back to the thrower. Toward the end, Jakob Grimm uses it to fight the French general's aide-de-camp, and miss -- but the soldier is struck in the back by the axe returning before he could kill the hero.

* Variation in the infamous scene in ''TheGoodies'', where Bill is proving "Ecky Thump" is superior to other martial arts. Graeme misses with a boomerang, but later when Tim has disarmed Bill with some bagpipes, it comes back and clouts Tim from behind.

* The boomerang in ''IgorObjectiveUikokahonia'' is used solely in a cutscene for this purpose.

* ''FateStayNight'': Archer does this ''very'' effectively against Caster in the UBW route, throwing his swords right before she freezes him in place with a spell. In the HF route, [[spoiler:Shirou mimics this exact tactic repeatedly in rapid succession]], attacking from all directions to overwhelm his opponent.

* Yumi of ''CodeLyoko'' sometimes uses this trick when she misses with her tessen fans, usually helped by telekinesis. She vanquished William twice this way: once by kicking him into the fan's return trajectory, and another time nailing him in the back just as he was devirtualizing her.
* In an episode of ''TomAndJerry'' ("Duel Personality"), Jerry tosses a bent rapier at Tom; Tom dodges, but the rapier comes around and hits him.

[[folder:Comics -- Books]]

[[folder:Comics -- Newspaper]]
* {{Garfield}} once told Odie to fetch a boomerang, only to get knocked over first by the boomerang and then by Odie.

* On the ''OverTheHedge'' DVD set, RJ and the kids are shown filming a "documentary" of Hammie finding a boomerang; one had been a running gag through the film itself. Hammie has... issues in getting rid of it. Issues exascerbated by [[spoiler:the kids throwing more boomerangs at him from a box]].

* Parodied (what isn't?) in the movie ''{{Airplane}}'' when Striker throws his jacket off-screen in a Disco, preparatory to a John Travolta Disco routine, only to have it fly right back at him.

* ''{{Discworld}}'': At the end of ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'', when Rincewind ends up on Fourecks, he runs into some natives who offer him a boomerang. Thinking it's yet another Call to Adventure, Rincewind throws it away in disgust and starts complaining that he's not going to do anymore heroics ever again, only for the book to end in mid-sentence with Rincewind apparently being clonked on the head by the returning boomerang.

* ''TheLegendOfZelda: TwilightPrincess'' uses this as the way of defeating an early miniboss: he throws a boomerang from atop a set of columns, and if you roll into the column he's on after he's thrown the boomerang, destabilizing him, it'll knock him down when it returns.

* ''{{xkcd}}'' plays with this as a long term running gag: [[http://www.xkcd.com/445/ 1]] [[http://xkcd.com/475/ 2]] [[http://xkcd.com/939/ 3]]
* In ''{{Knights of the Old Coding}}'', when Kuros finds the Axe of Agor, he discards the Knife of Throwing, forgetting that it always returns until it stabs him in the back.
* ''DarkIntruder'': The one throwing the boomerang isn't the one hit, but as Smart Girl points out, [[http://www.interrobangstudios.com/di/display.php?strip_id=9 he's still in trouble]].

* Done in the Saiyan Saga of ''DragonBallZ''. Goku gives Krillin the energy for the SpiritBomb to use against Vegeta. Krillin throws it, Vegeta dodges and the bomb flies at Gohan, who then repels the attack back towards Vegeta. He thinks he's in the clear, but then Vegeta gets broad-sided by the attack.

-->--''[[WesterAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'', "Thor the Mighty"

* In the scene quoted at the top of this page, from Thor's introductory episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]], Thor manages to hit three of the Wrecking Crew's four members by throwing his hammer. Then, he magically summons it to fly in the opposite direction, hitting the fourth.

A comedic variant is for the character hit to be also the one throwing the weapon away, believing to get rid of it. Of course, it is extremely unlikely for a boomerang thrown by someone not knowing what it is to actually come back, but this take a backseat to the {{Rule of Funny}}.

* Not exactly a boomerang, but in ''YuYuHakusho'', in a last ditch effort to beat Hiei, Yusuke goad him into the path of a point blank [[KiBlast Reigun]] shot. It would have hit any other opponent, but Hiei manages to use his extreme speed to get out of the way. He then takes the time to gloat about how Yusuke was almost good enough, only to be hit in the back by the return shot a few seconds later; as it turns out, Yusuke figured Hiei would dodge, so he positioned himself so the shot would hit the Mirror of Darkness behind him and ricochet back when Hiei wasn't paying attention.
** Good thing it worked, too. Because if his shots ''didn't'' work that way, he had no other plans left.

* ''{{DC vs Marvel}}'' showed a fight between Bane and CaptainAmerica, with Cap missing a shield toss, and Bane closing in and grabbing him, only to get struck by the returning shield before he can break Cap's back.

* In ''TheBrothersGrimm'' movie, there is the magic handaxe seized from the lycanthrop woodsman, that can come back to the thrower. Toward the end, Jakob Grimm uses it to fight the French general's aide-de-camp, and miss -- but the soldier is struck in the back by the axe returning before he could kill the hero.

* ''FateStayNight'' ({{visual novel}}): Archer does this ''very'' effectively against Caster in the UBW route, throwing his swords right before she freezes him in place with a spell. In the HF route, [[spoiler:Shirou mimics this exact tactic repeatedly in rapid succession]], attacking from all directions to overwhelm his opponent.

* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'': In the second episode, Sokka throws his boomerang at Zuko, who dodges it. Sokka then charges with a spear, Zuko blocks it, breaks it, pokes Sokka on the head with it, and ''then'' it comes back and smacks him in the back of the head.

* In an episode of the 1994 ''Series/{{Megaman}}'' TV series, Megaman fires a buster shot at Protoman which misses and enters a steam pipe. The steam pipe loops again behind Megaman, who ducks just as the shot comes out the end of the pipe, hitting Protoman.

----

* One ''{{xkcd}}'' strip [[http://www.xkcd.com/445/ plays with this.]]

* ''DC vs. Marvel'' showed a fight between Bane and CaptainAmerica, with Cap missing a shield toss, and Bane closing in and grabbing him, only to get struck by the returning shield before he can break Cap's back.

* In ''JingleAllTheWay}}'', the main character -- in a Turbo Man costume that [[CrazyPrepared includes all the weapons]] -- throws what is a high tech boomerang. The villain lets go with one of his hands, while the other hangs on. He grabs the Turbo Man toy out of the boy's backpack and shouts "Victory is mine!", before the boomerang hits his other hand, causing him to fall. He lands on a parade float and is promptly arrested.
* Occurs in ''Captain America II: Death Too Soon'', a made-for-TV film from 1979 starring Reb Brown as CaptainAmerica, where the Captain foils a mugging attempt by tossing his trademark shield at a perpetrator, missing him at point-blank range, and the thug gives his shield enough time to curve back and knock himself out.

* The boomerang in ''Igor: Objective Uikokahonia'' is used solely in a cutscene for this purpose.

* In an episode of the 1994 ''Megaman'' TV series, Megaman fires a buster shot at Protoman which misses and enters a steam pipe. The steam pipe loops again behind Megaman, who ducks just as the shot comes out the end of the pipe, hitting Protoman.

* In ''Knights of the Old Coding'', when Kuros finds the Axe of Agor, he discards the Knife of Throwing, forgetting that it always returns until it stabs him in the back.
* ''Dark Intruder'': The one throwing the boomerang isn't the one hit, but as Smart Girl points out, [[http://www.interrobangstudios.com/di/display.php?strip_id=9 he's still in trouble]].

* Done in the Saiyan Saga of DragonballZ. Goku gives Krillin the energy for the SpiritBomb to use against Vegeta. Krillin throws it, Vegeta dodges and the bomb flies at Gohan, who then repels the attack back towards Vegeta. He thinks he's in the clear, but then Vegeta gets broad-sided by the attack.
** [[DragonBallAbridged What smells like deer?]]

[[folder:Comics]]

* Meanwhile at [[strike:the Hall of Justice]] TheDCU, Captain Boomerang pulled this stunt against a member of the Jihad in the second issue of the original series of ''SuicideSquad''.

* In ''TheBrothersGrimm'' movie, there is the magic handaxe seized from the lycanthropic woodsman, that can come back to the thrower. Toward the end, Jakob Grimm uses it to fight the French general's aide-de-camp, and miss -- but the soldier is struck in the back by the axe returning before he could kill the hero.

[[folder:Comics]]

* {{Garfield}} once told Odie to fetch a boomerang, only to get knocked over first by the boomerang and then by Odie.

* ''RobotChicken'' shows us that Krull has had this problem with the Glaive.

* Double subverted in ''ErrantStory''. When Sarine throws her dagger, her opponent [[GenreSavvy knew Sarine was trying this]] and blocked it with her sword. Which is why Sarine charged it with lightning beforehand.

** [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DragonBallAbridged What smells like deer?]]

* In the first season of ''{{Digimon}}'', Ikkakumon launches his Harpoon Torpedo at the {{Monster of the Week}}, then when it's not looking, the torpedo opens up and fires a guided missile that comes back and tags him.

** There's also the CaptainAmerica comic where Cap is fighting Hydra agents, stands on a pile of them, takes off a glove and licks a finger to hold up, throws his shield up into the air, and looks at his watch. "Two... one..." The last standing Hydra agent shows up with a hostage and goes into a standard Hydra rant about the organization's plans. He stops when he realizes that Cap is without his shield, Cap tells him that "It'll come if I whistle for it", the agent pulls a gun, Cap whistles... and his shield arcs down to hit the Hydra agent, leaving the hostage standing. That issue is full of him doing things like that; naturally, it's also the issue where it is lost.
* Meanwhile at [[strike: the Hall of Justice]] TheDCU, Captain Boomerang pulled this stunt against a member of the Jihad in the second issue of the original series of ''SuicideSquad''.

* In ''{{Jingle All the Way}}'', the main character -- in a Turbo Man costume that [[CrazyPrepared includes all the weapons]] -- throws what is a high tech boomerang. The villain lets go with one of his hands, while the other hangs on. He grabs the Turbo Man toy out of the boy's backpack and shouts "Victory is mine!", before the boomerang hits his other hand, causing him to fall. He lands on a parade float and is promptly arrested.

* Variation in the infamous scene in ''{{The Goodies}}'', where Bill is proving "Ecky Thump" is superior to other martial arts. Graeme misses with a boomerang, but later when Tim has disarmed Bill with some bagpipes, it comes back and clouts Tim from behind.

* ''[=~Avatar: The Last Airbender~=]'': In the second episode, Sokka throws his boomerang at Zuko, who dodges it. Sokka then charges with a spear, Zuko blocks it, breaks it, pokes Sokka on the head with it, and ''then'' it comes back and smacks him in the back of the head.
** The above is only the first of many, many examples of this trope in relation to Sokka's boomerang, which became his best recognized and used weapon, taking out many assorted bad guys and being used for both comedic and dramatic effect, all the way to the end [[spoiler:-- where he lost it while using it to save himself and Toph from a fiery death, at which time he also lost [[ThunderboltIron Space Sword]] ]].

* In an episode of ''{{Tom and Jerry}}'' ("Duel Personality"), Jerry tosses a bent rapier at Tom; Tom dodges, but the rapier comes around and hits him.

* On the ''{{Over the Hedge}}'' DVD set, RJ and the kids are shown filming a "documentary" of Hammie finding a boomerang; one had been a running gag through the film itself. Hammie has... issues in getting rid of it. Issues exascerbated by [[spoiler:the kids throwing more boomerangs at him from a box]].

* Parodied (what isn't?) in the movie ''{{Airplane}}!'' when Striker throws his jacket off-screen in a Disco, preparatory to a John Travolta Disco routine, only to have it fly right back at him.

* ''{{The Legend of Zelda}}: TwilightPrincess'' uses this as the way of defeating an early miniboss: he throws a boomerang from atop a set of columns, and if you roll into the column he's on after he's thrown the boomerang, destabilizing him, it'll knock him down when it returns.

* Double-Subverted in a [[LooneyTunes Road-runner]] cartoon. Wile E. Buys "One (1) Acme Boomerang" to use against the Road Runner, but when he hurls it, it seems to come and smack him from the other side of the screen... until the camera pans over to show the Road Runner standing next to a box for "Another Acme Boomerang". Wile E. starts to give chase... then his original boomerang comes back and hits him.

* RobotChicken shows us that Krull has had this problem with the Glaive.

* In the first season of ''{{Digimon}}'', Ikkakumon launches his Harpoon Torpedo at the MonsterOfTheWeek, then when it's not looking, the torpedo opens up and fires a guided missile that comes back and tags him.

* Not exactly a boomerang, but in ''YuYuHakusho'', in a last ditch effort to beat Hiei, Yusuke goad him into the path of a point blank [[KiBlast Reigun]] shot. It would have hit any other opponent, but Hiei manages to use his extreme speed to get out of the way. He then takes the time to gloat about how Yusuke was almost good enough, only to be hit in the back by the return shot a few seconds later; as it turns out, Yusuke figured Hiei would dodge, so he positioned himself so the shot would hit the Mirror Of Darkness behind him and ricochet back when Hiei wasn't paying attention.

* In both film and comic version, Green Goblin tries something like this against Spider-Man using his glider and attempting to hold/distract Spider-Man in place long enough for the glider to hit him. It doesn't work and Goblin gets impaled on his own glider for his trouble.

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

* An example from an action movie, although still comedic in nature: in the first ''{{Film/Transformers}}'' movie, Frenzy is beheaded by one of his own CD-shuriken ricocheting wildly.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Meanwhile at [[strike: the Hall Of Justice]] TheDCU, Captain Boomerang pulled this stunt against a member of the Jihad in the second issue of the original series of ''SuicideSquad''.

** But the above is only the first of many, many examples of this trope in relation to Sokka's boomerang, which became his best recognized and used weapon, taking out many assorted bad guys and being used for both comedic and dramatic effect, all the way to the end [[spoiler:-- where he lost it while using it to save himself and Toph from a fiery death, at which time he also lost [[ThunderboltIron Space Sword]] ]].

* Parodied in ''GastonLagaffe'' (volume R5, page 14): Gaston's boomerang shatters a window. An angry neighbor brings back the boomerang and throws it directly at Gaston's head while Fantasio says "Gaston ! Ça revient toujours à celui qui l'envoie !" ("Gaston! It always comes back to the one who throws it!").

* An example from an action movie, although still comedic in nature: in the first ''Film/Transformers'', Frenzy is beheaded by one of his own CD-shuriken ricocheting wildly.

* Double-Subverted in a [[LooneyTunes Road-runner]] cartoon. Wile E. Buys "One (1) Acme Boomerang" to use against the Road-runner, but when he hurls it, it seems to come and smack him from the other side of the screen... until the camera pans over to show the Road-runner standing next to a box for "Another Acme Boomerang". Wile E. starts to give chase... then his original boomerang comes back and hits him.

* One {{XKCD}} strip [[http://www.xkcd.com/445/ plays with this.]]

* ''{{Discworld}}'': At the end of ''Interesting Times'', when Rincewind ends up on Fourecks, he runs into some natives who offer him a boomerang. Thinking it's yet another Call to Adventure, Rincewind throws it away in disgust and starts complaining that he's not going to do anymore heroics ever again, only for the book to end in mid-sentence with Rincewind apparently being clonked on the head by the returning boomerang.

* In episode 3 of ''GundamSEED'', Kira Yamato's ([[MechaExpansionPack Sword]]) Strike Gundam uses this against an attacking suit whose pilot is vastly more experienced. Everyone this troper's boyfriend has watched it with (including this troper) always shouts "It's a boomerang, fool!" right before the inevitable return [[spoiler:takes off the enemy machine's leg, stunning the awesome minor character Miguel Aiman inside it long enough for Kira to slice him clean in half]].

A comedic variant is for the character hit to be also the one throwing the weapon away, believing to get rid of it. Of course, it is extremely unlikely for a boomerang thrown by someone not knowing what it is to actually come back, but this take a backseat to the RuleOfFunny.

* Yumi of ''CodeLyoko'' sometimes uses this trick when she misses with her tessen fans, usually helped by telekinesis. She vanquished William twice this way: once by kicking him into the fan's trajectory, and another time nailing him in the back just as he was devirtualizing her.

* ''TheLegendOfZelda: TwilightPrincess'' uses this as the way of defeating an early miniboss: he throws a boomerang from atop a set of columns, and if you roll into the column he's on after he's thrown the boomerang, destabilizing him, it'll knock him down when it returns.