History Main / HandshakeOfDoom

* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', [[spoiler:Eren and Reiner reunite after their last encounter on Paradis Island four years prior, with Falco bearing witness to the meeting after unknowingly bringing the latter to him. After a conversation, Eren shakes hands with Reiner, to which he reveals he cut himself before their meeting, and thus can transform into a Titan at any time. Sure enough, right after Willy Tybur announces his declaration of war against the people of Paradis, Eren turns into his Titan form and bursts out of the building behind him.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': The Joker often kills unsuspecting victims by offering a handshake. When the other person grabs his hand, their palm is pricked by a device that resembles a joy buzzer, which injects deadly venom on their blood stream.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'': [[spoiler: Towards the end of the film, Hades holds Meg hostage and forces Hercules into accepting a deal: he will let Meg go free and unharmed but on the condition that Hercules [[BroughtDownToNormal surrender his superhuman strength]] for 24 hours - more than enough time to for Hades to conquer Olympus. Finally, he has Hercules seal the deal with a handshake.]]

* During a meeting of crime bosses in ''Film/Batman1989'', the newly-minted Joker calls for an alliance between the various mobsters. When Antoine Rotelli asks what happens if they refuse, Joker assures him there'll be no war between them: they'll just shake hands and "[[ExactWords that'll be it]]." Mollified, Antoine shakes the Joker's hand... only to find that he's wearing a lethal ElectricJoybuzzer; over the next few seconds, the unfortunate gangster is fried to a crisp.
* ''Film/BatmanReturns'' features the Penguin convincing [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Max Schreck]] to help "[[EngineeredHeroics reintroduce]]" him to the people of Gotham by blackmailing the unscrupulous businessman with evidence of his many, many crimes - including the severed hand of his former partner, Fred Atkins. Shaken, Schreck agrees to his terms, whereupon the Penguin gives him a handshake to seal the deal... [[BlackComedy with Fred's hand]]. [[spoiler: Their deal ends with the Penguin setting out to kill all the firstborn children of Gotham, with Schreck being condemned to be executed alongside them.]]
* ''Film/Contagion2011'': Beth Emhoff is PatientZero of MEV-1, a highly contagious airborne disease that kills tens of millions worldwide and nearly causes the collapse of civilization. At the end of the movie, it rewinds to show that Beth contracted the disease via a handshake with a chef who hadn't washed his hands. And like that, WhatIf, millions of people - including Beth herself, her son, and her lover - all died.

* During the climax of ''Film/MarsAttacks,'' President Dale finds himself cornered by the Martian Leader, and manages to stammer out a rather clumsy PatrickStewartSpeech that actually seems to get through to the Leader - enough to get him to offer his hand in friendship. [[HopeSpot Thinking he's ended the war]], the President shakes the Leader's outstretched hand... only for it to abruptly detach and crawl across Dale like a scorpion, before impaling him with its "stinger". As if to add insult to injury, the arm then transforms into a flagpole and raises the Martian flag over Dale's corpse.

* ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'' ends with Elijah Price shaking David Dunn's hand - only for David's crime-detecting touch to alert him to the AwfulTruth: [[spoiler: Elijah is directly responsible for three major acts of terrorism, including an airplane bombing, a hotel fire, and the train crash at the start of the movie - all for the sake of finding someone with David's superhuman powers.]]

* In Creator/JohnConnolly's short story "The Cancer Cowboy Rides," eponymous villain Buddy Carson is first properly introduced when he stops to help Link Fraser change a tyre. Once the job's done, Link shakes the man's hand - unwittingly giving Buddy a chance to [[PlagueMaster spread his condition a little further]]. In a matter of days, Link is diagnosed with liver cancer and dies in agony not long afterwards.
* Early in ''Literature/{{Colony}},'' luckless accountant Eddie O'Hare is offered a chance to escape the {{Evil Debt Collector}}s by taking the place of Charles Perry Gordon aboard the ''[[GenerationShips Willflower]]''. Accepting the bargain, he's given a handshake by Gordon... whereupon a scab on Eddie's hand splits open and begins bleeding; the narration reflects that he should consider this a ''very'' bad omen. [[spoiler: Gordon plans to make it look like Eddie knocked him out and mugged him for his identity, giving Gordon an excuse to remain behind on Earth and pursue his [[ANaziByAnyOtherName political ambitions]]. For good measure, he intends to make sure the ship's crew execute Eddie for the crime [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness just to clear up loose ends]]. Though this scheme never comes to pass [[SpannerInTheWorks thanks to the aforementioned debt collectors]], Eddie still ends up getting mortally wounded while aboard the ''Willflower'' and being preserved as a severed head in a jar, thus setting the stage for [[WeCanRebuildHim the second act]].]]
* In ''Literature/TheCurseWorkers'' series, magic can only be performed through skin-to-skin contact. As such, gloves are endemic, bare hands are considered indecent, and people are very careful about handshakes - to the point that this trope is a plot point in the first book: [[spoiler: Cassel is actually a [[TheTransmogrifier Transformation Worker]] brainwashed into serving as an undetectable assassin; his handlers have cut a tiny hole in the finger of one of his gloves, so that when Cassel shakes hands with the target, he can touch their wrist just long enough to turn the victim's heart to stone.]]
* The short story "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands" by Creator/StephenKing has a man named Henry Brower, who mysteriously refuses to touch anyone and freaks out when a guy shakes his hand after Brower wins a card game - said guy dying of an aneurysm shortly thereafter. The protagonist investigates and eventually discovers he was cursed to have a TouchOfDeath after accidentally killing a boy; the story ends with [[spoiler:Brower being DrivenToSuicide and shaking his own hand.]]

* In the ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' episode "Marriage and Hunting," [[TheIrishMob Dean O'Banion]] is in his flower shop one evening when a customer asks for something that can get him out of hot water with his wife. O'Banion suggests chrysanthemums and agrees to a full refund if the trick doesn't work; the two shake hands... only for O'Banion to realize that the "customer" doesn't seem keen to let go. [[spoiler: Then the other two customers in the shop draw guns; with [[ProfessionalKiller Frankie Yale]] hanging onto his hand, O'Bannion can't draw a weapon or run, leaving him helpless as the hitmen empty their revolvers into him.]] [[TruthInTelevision This actually happened, by the way.]]
* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' episode "[[Recap/FarscapeS03E20IntoTheLionsDenLambsToTheSlaughter Into The Lion's Den Part 1]]" kicks off with Crichton and Scorpius shaking hands on a deal: in exchange for his friends being pardoned and granted boons of their choosing, Crichton will help Scorpius unlock the final secrets of wormhole physics (all while planning to sabotage the wormhole project from within). As a result, Crichton is subjected to obstruction, assassination attempts by mutinous crewmembers, interference from Peacekeeper higher-ups, and a good deal of suspicion from Scorpius himself [[VillainousBreakdown as his patience runs thin]]. [[spoiler: The episode ends with Scorpius finally dropping his AffablyEvil demeanour and threatening to destroy Earth if Crichton doesn't cooperate.]]
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': The VillainOfTheWeek in "Hug" is a man named Bob Rickman who has the ability to control people with a handshake. We see him first use this power to make an agent of the Center for Environmental Protection commit suicide when he refuses to let Rickman build a project in Smallville. Rickman's former partner and friend Kyle Tippet has the same power and it is suggested he is the more powerful of the two. This theory is proven correct when he and Rickman fight in the episode's climax and Kyle uses his powers to make Rickman kill himself.

* ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'': In episode 89 'Twice as Bright', whilst searching for answers to [[EldritchAbomination the Powers]] and his role as the Archivist Jonathan is forced to interview [[{{Pyromaniac}} Jude Perry]], Acolyte of [[ReligionOfEvil the Lightless Flame]], servant and worshiper of [[EvilIsBurningHot the Desolation]]. At the beginning of the meeting Jonathan is smart enough to refuse her offer of shaking her hand and overall tries to keep his distance knowing how dangerous she is, but at the end Jude forces him to do so. However, the moment he does so it leaves him severely burned.

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* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' kicks off when Albert Einstein travels back in time to assassinate Adolf Hitler to prevent World War II. He meets Hitler when he was leaving Landsberg Prison and shakes his hand - erasing him from history. Unfortunately, [[HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct this results]] in Hitler's place being filled by another horrible dictator: Josef Stalin, supreme leader of the Soviet Union, who declares war on Europe and began his own version of World War II.

* ''VideoGame/Persona4:'' [[spoiler:At the beginning of the game, a gas station attendant welcomes the protagonist to town, and offers him a handshake. Near the end of the game, it's revealed that the attendant was Izanami, the GreaterScopeVillain of the story, and she gave a similar handshake to Adachi, the serial killer who served as the BigBad for most of the story, and Nametame, Adach's UnwittingPawn. Izanami's handshake gives one the ability to access the TV world, and the three who were given this power were specifically chosen by her so they could unknowingly play a role in a twisted game she set up to [[HumanityOnTrial test humanity]] and decide how she would alter the world]].
* ''VideoGame/Prey2017'': [[spoiler: In the finale, it's revealed that Morgan Yu is actually a Typhon lifeform that Alex is trying to teach empathy in a desperate attempt to engineer a truce between humanity and the invading Typhon. Hoping that "Morgan" has learned enough from the events of the game, Alex [[OfferingAHand offers his hand to the test subject]]... and you're given the choice between accepting empathy or just killing everyone in the room. If you take the latter, "Morgan" [[HopeSpot will shake the offered hand]] - then trap Alex's arm in a shapeshifting grip and impale him through the chest with CombatTentacles.]]
* In ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'', the mysterious Ellis Hill recommends a HandshakeRefusal for this very reason, pointing out how it's possible for a handshake to give away too much of a person's true nature. [[spoiler: In this case, the fact that "Ellis" is actually a Phoenician operative who murdered the real Ellis Hill and replaced him in order to spy on Kingsmouth.]]
* In ''{{VideoGame/Warframe}}'', the [[HumanoidAbomination Man In The Wall]] offers a handshake to the Operator [[spoiler:in order to seal the DealWithTheDevil it's just finished offering]]. The Operator takes it, [[spoiler:apparently killing every other instance of them across every possible reality in the process]].

* Defied in ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel''. Charlie knows better than to make a deal with Alastor, so when the radio demon holds out his hand to shake and make a deal, Charlie swats it away and tells him that there won't be any shaking or deals.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "A Hero Sits Next Door", Peter surprisingly manages to outwit a bank robber and steal his gun. However, the criminal then commends him for his intelligence and offers him a handshake, which is enough to distract Peter and cause him to lose the weapon.

* In the season 2 finale of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', [[spoiler:Luz desperately makes a deal with Belos/Philip to let her friends live in exchange for providing proof that he was able to "save" humanity from witches and demons when they return to Earth, with a handshake to symbolize the deal. After Belos checks that both hands are empty, he agrees... at which point Luz [[HoistByHisOwnPetard brands him with the same sigil he was using to drain and kill the witches on the Day of Unity and making him face the same pain and anguish]]. Luz planned on coercing him to end the Draining Spell to save his life and the Boiling Isles, but all it did is make him to enter his ClippedWingAngel form to try and kill her, and he would have if not for her friends helping her and [[SummonBiggerFish the Collector]] being freed and [[CurbStompBattle finishing him off]]]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', Anakin and Tarkin share a handshake in which a brief snippet of the Imperial March starts playing, foreshadowing the death and sorrow that will come as part of their partnership in the future once the Republic becomes the Empire, most infamously the destruction of Alderaan.
* ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'':
** At the conclusion of the first crossover episode with Batman, Joker attempts to pull WoundedGazelleGambit by calling Batman for help. Upon seeing someone's hand reaching for him, Joker grabs it with a joy buzzer, shocking the person. Unfortunately for him, that person is [[ShootingSuperman Static]], who shocks the Clown Prince of Crime back with an even stronger buzzer.
** A similar situation also occurs during a crossover with ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond''. A Jokerz attempts to shock Virgil with a joy buzzer only to be shocked back by him.

* Used twice in ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes''. When KO gets TKO to agree to let him use his power, at the cost of Tko being allowed to run free, TKO gives what seems like a friendly handshake, then pull him forward with a psychotic smirk and adds No Take Backs.
** And later in the series when [[spoiler: TKO and Shadowy Venomous]] join forces, complete with evil laughter