History Main / DramaticSpineInjury

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

-->-- '''ComicBook/{{Bane}}''', just before breaking ComicBook/{{Batman}}'s back in ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}''

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': In a short story published in ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' #127 in 1990, which introduced the first iteration of the [[SpaceElves Eldar]] army, the Eldar are faced with a Slaaneshi host led by a Keeper of Secrets, a powerful daemon. The Keeper rampages through the battlefield until faced by an Avatar of Khaine, the Eldar war god, who battles it until it's able to seize its foe, lift it into the air, and break its spine over its knee. The sight of their most powerful champion defeated in this manner, alongside its agonized psychic scream, breaks the Chaos army's will and turns the battle in the Eldar's favor.

->''"I am Bane, and I could kill you--but death would only end your agony and silence your shame. Instead, I will simply '''break you'''."''

* ''Literature/HorusHeresy'': The enmity between the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons Astartes legions explodes into outright violence when the Space Wolves are dispatched to bring down the Thousand Sons after their Primarch Magnus the Red's disastrously failed attempt to warn the Emperor of Horus' treachery. While the two legions engage each other, a massive fight ensues between Magnus and Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves; they inflict serious injuries on each other, but Russ finally overpowers Magnus and breaks his back over his knee. However, Magnus uses Warp sorcery to remove himself and the surviving Thousand Sons from the battlefield before Russ can finally kill him.

[[caption-width-right:349:Oh snap! He ain't [[BlackComedy walking]] that off.[[note]][[GoodThingYouCanheal ...For a few minutes, at least.]][[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:349:Oh snap! He ain't [[BlackComedy walking]] that off.]]

** In order to keep [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra Korra]] from overpowering them or escaping, God's Will First broke her spine. While she is able to escape, she's confined to a wheelchair and loses the ability to play sports.
** During his escape from the Ark, [[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Alejandro]] was kicked by a guard in his spine, which, much like Korra, forces him to use a wheelchair over the loss of his legs.

* ''Film/TheBakerStreetDozen'': In ''The Pearl of Death'', the [[SerialKiller Huxton Creeper]] is noted for his modus operandi, which involved violently breaking his victims' spines. This gets turned against his own employer when Holmes suggests that the FemmeFatale of the film, whom the Creeper had a crush on, would be hung for her part in the crimes.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** During the Literature/HorusHeresy, the enmity between the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons Astartes legions explodes into outright violence when the Space Wolves are dispatched to bring down the Thousand Sons after their Primarch Magnus the Red's disastrously failed attempt to warn the Emperor of Horus' treachery. While the two legions engage each other, a massive fight ensues between Magnus and Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves; they inflict serious injuries on each other, but Russ finally overpowers Magnus and breaks his back over his knee. However, Magnus uses Warp sorcery to remove himself and the surviving Thousand Sons from the battlefield before Russ can finally kill him.
** In a short story published in ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' #127 in 1990, which introduced the first iteration of the [[SpaceElves Eldar]] army, the Eldar are faced with a Slaaneshi host led by a Keeper of Secrets, a powerful daemon. The Keeper rampages through the battlefield until faced by an Avatar of Khaine, the Eldar war god, who battles it until it's able to seize its foe, lift it into the air, and break its spine over its knee. The sight of their most powerful champion defeated in this manner, alongside its agonized psychic scream, breaks the Chaos army's will and turns the battle in the Eldar's favor.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/TrueVillains'': TheJuggernaut KnightOfCerebus [[spoiler:vampire Gray]] drops Mia with [[https://www.truevillains.com/comic.php?P=2015-08-14-Round%20Three-jpg one kick]] to the stomach. She stays in her PoweredArmor from then on, and it's later confirmed that he paralyzed her legs.
[[/folder]]

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Throughout the Enies Lobby Arc, Spandam gleefully abuses Robin at every single opportunity he gets. That is why, near the very end of the arc, when [[spoiler:the Straw Hats are escaping from the Marines, Robin uses one last opportunity to use her [[MultiArmedAndDangerous Flower-Flower Fruit]] to get back at Spandam and snap his spine in two]].

Being shot, stabbed, or otherwise injured with a weapon is an effective way for this to occur, especially [[InTheBack if it's done as a craven sneak attack]]. However, the most viscerally impactful way is for the character's back to be broken through sheer brute force, usually in a confrontation with a much more physically powerful opponent. The brute force way is sometimes the end result of a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown and is usually meant to leave the character not just utterly defeated but unable to recover or come back for a rematch. It can also be the end result of a KillerBearHug. On the other hand, it is potentially possible to do this in a humorous way, although it will almost certainly be either BlackComedy or as a visual shorthand for someone having serious back pain.

-->Johnny used to find content
-->In always standing rather bent
-->Like an inverted letter J.
-->His angry relatives would say,
-->"Stand up! Don't slouch! You've got a spine!
-->Stand like a lamp post, not a vine!"
-->One day, they heard a dreadful crack.
-->He'd stood up straight - it broke his back!

* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'': In [[Recap/DragonBallZAbridgedE52 episode 52]], after Cell {{No Sell}}s Vegeta's [[BeamSpam rapid-fire ki blasts]], he launches Vegeta into the air with a kick, then teleports above Vegeta and slams his elbow into Vegeta's spine. Unlike in [[Anime/DragonBallZ the original series]], there's an audible crack of breaking bones, and Vegeta drops unconscious to the ground.

* Music/WeirdAlYankovic: In "[[Music/StraightOuttaLynwood Weasel Stomping Day]]", a song about [[BlackComedyAnimalCruelty a holiday in which people stomp weasels to death]], one lyric encourages the participants to "snap their weaselly spines in half".

Being shot, stabbed, or otherwise injured with a weapon is an effective way for this to occur, especially [[InTheBack if it's done as a craven sneak attack]]. However, the most viscerally impactful way is for the character's back to be broken through sheer brute force, usually in a confrontation with a much more physically powerful opponent. The brute force way is sometimes the end result of a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown, and is usually meant to leave the character not just utterly defeated but unable to recover or come back for a rematch. It can also be the end result of a KillerBearHug. On the other hand, it is potentially possible to do this in a humorous way, although it will almost certainly be either BlackComedy or as a visual shorthand for someone having serious back pain.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': In "[[Recap/MyHeroAcademiaS2E24KatsukiBakugoOrigin Katsuki Bakugo: Origin]]", during Deku and Bakugo's training exam fight against All Might, All Might uses his New Hampshire Smash move to hit Deku in the back, seemingly fracturing his spine and sending him smashing into a bus. Luckily All Might wasn't trying to cause any long term damage, and Recovery Girl is able to fix up Deku, even chewing out All Might for going so hard on them.

* ComicBook/{{Batman}}: Two prominent storylines feature characters receiving crippling spinal inuries:
** ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'': As a key part of his plan to drive Commissioner Gordon into insanity, the Joker gut-shoots Barbara Gordon, the bullet hitting her spine and paralyzing her legs. She would go on to become the master hacker called Oracle and found the ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey. She had initially decided that [[KeepingTheHandicap she wouldn't seek help for her paralysis]], medical or otherwise, but in ''ComicBook/Batgirl2011'' she has regained the use of her legs after spending three years using her wheelchair.

* ''Film/EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce'': Jobu Tupaki's primary henchwoman is Deidre, and her first action scene climaxes with her gaining pro-wrestling skills via Verse-Jumping. She climatically plans on taking Alpha-Waymond out of the fight via lifting him up into a dramatic slow-motion backbreaker, which he manages to defend by [[ImprovFu grabbing an exit sign and using it to shield his back]], hurting her knee [[SubvertedTrope and saving his spine]], ending the skirmish in the process.

* ''Film/ParanormalActivity'': In the final moments of the third movie, Dennis is frightened by a possessed Katie, falling over backwards and apparently hurting himself. As he crawls across the floor, he's confronted by the witch Lois; he falls to the floor twitching, and then his torso is suddenly and sharply folded backward, snapping his spine and killing him.

* ''{{Series/Bones}}'': In "[[Recap/BonesS11E10TheDoomInTheBoom The Doom in the Boom]]", Jack Hodgins is working at a decomposed body scene with his boss Cam when hears a phone ring. [=FBI=] agent Aubrey realizes it's a bomb and yells at everyone to get back. He throws himself over Hodgins and likely saves his life by taking the shrapnel that would've went into Hodgins. Unfortunately Hodgins bruises his spinal nerves, something not initially found because the swelling didn't peak til a day later. The aspirin Hodgins takes to deal with after-explosion pain causes enough bleeding to paralyze Hodgins, possibly for life.
* ''{{Series/CSINY}}'': In "[[Recap/CSINYS05E25 Pay Up]]", Danny is shot in the back during a drive-by shooting that happens while the team is at a bar mourning a recently lost colleague. He comes out of it paralyzed but in this case it's temporary and he ultimately regains his ability to walk, though not before a lot of angst and depression during the period where he doesn't know if it will come back. HollywoodHealing is in effect so it's rather fast.
* ''Series/DoomPatrol2019'': In the penultimate episode, Cliff is sent back in time to [[TheForties the 1940's]], when Niles Caulder was still able to walk, in order to intercept a pendant that Niles stole so that it doesn't end up in the hands of a cult years later. Unfortunately, Niles and Cliff end up in a fight over the pendant, and in the process, the much-stronger Cliff throws Niles against a bar, causing a dramatic snapping sound. Cliff is horrified to discover that he's the reason Niles spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

--> Johnny used to find content
--> In always standing rather bent
--> Like an inverted letter J.
--> His angry relatives would say,
--> "Stand up! Don't slouch! You've got a spine!
--> Stand like a lamp post, not a vine!"
--> One day, they heard a dreadful crack.
--> He'd stood up straight - it broke his back!

** During the Literature/HorusHeresy, the enmity between the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons Astartes legions explodes into outright violence when the Space Wolves are dispatched to bring down the Thousand Sons after their Primarch Magnus the Red's disastrously failed attempt to warn the Emperor of Horus' treachery. While the two legions engage each other, a massive fight ensues between Magnus and Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves; they inflict serious injuries to each other, but Russ finally overpowers Magnus and breaks his back over his knee. However, Magnus uses Warp sorcery to remove himself and the surviving Thousand Sons from the battlefield before Russ can finally kill him.

** ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'': X-Ray Moves are powerful, cinematic moves which gruesomely display the victim's internal injuries. A recurring animation involves spines being shattered, such as Kenshi doing so by stabbing his opponent with his sword, or Takeda forcefully kicking his enemy's back.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': {{Inverted|Trope}} when Mister Incredible tangles with the Omnidroid on Nomanisan Island. The Omnidroid grips Mister Incredible's wrists and ankles in separate claws [[AnArmAndALeg and attempts to pull him apart]], but the stretching actually makes a pleasant crackle that makes his backache vanish. Chortling at this turn of fate, Mister Incredible is able to escape the droid's grip, and go at it with a HeroicSecondWind.

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'''Indexes:''' AnatomyAgony, CombatTropes, DisabilityTropes, InjuryTropes, MurderTropes