History Main / HandyCuffs

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "Vacation Getaway," Shane Casey uses the shackles around his wrists and ankles to strangle a guard and escape.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "Death in a Chocolate Box," Tom for some reason--possibly lingering respect as the murderer was [[BrokenPedestal someone he had once looked up to]]--handcuffs the murderer with their hands in front of them. The murderer feigns sickness, then whacks Tom in the face and then dashes away, on to the RailroadTracksOfDoom.

* In the first ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest'' game: while handcuffing a drunk driver, he'll say he's not feeling good and that he wants to be handcuffed from the front. If you do it that way, he'll hit you over the head at a later time, ending the game.

* Jodie can get arrested three different times during the "hunted" level from ''VideoGame/BeyondTwoSouls'', if the player messes up during the chase scenes. The first time, she ends up with her hands cuffed behind her back and locked up in a small room whose door is being watched over by a policemen, thus making her escape complicate and downright impossible without resorting to help from Aiden, the supernatural entity that is linked to Jodie. However, if she gets recaptured later, the police will simply handcuff her hands in front of her, allowing the girl to easily strangle an officer. One has to wonder why they decided to get sloppy with precautions only after she managed to escape her restraints the first time.

* Vaela in ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=314 here]], but she doesn't try to escape: On the contrary, she takes her new bodyguard "job" very seriously (having fought alongside her in the arena probably helped).

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'': The entire Gurren Brigade got once handcuffed with good ol' wooden boards, but that didn't deter Simon from digging with his Core Drill until recovering his Lagann.

* In ''ComicBook/SensationComics'' #6, Baroness Paula von Gunther tricks a prison guard into leaning towards her to light her cigarette. As he does so, she grabs his pistol from his holster with her manacled hands and shoots him.
* In ''ComicBook/JudgeColt'' #4, a prisoner being transported for trial with his hands shackled in front of him grabs the marshal's gun from his holster and attempts to shoot his way free.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* In the movie ''Film/{{Predator}}'', the captured rebel Anna had her hands tied in front of her and took advantage of it to escape. Somewhat justified because the team was traveling through steep, rough terrain and she needed her hands in front of her to hold onto things and avoid falling.
* Happens in ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', where William Stryker has Wolverine's hands cuffed in front of him -- with special cuffs that press his knuckles into his chest so he will stab his heart if he extends his claws. Unfortunately [[spoiler:it isn't Wolverine but Mystique in his form, and she quickly shapechanges out of the cuffs]].
* In ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' Mystique (pictured above) uses her cuffs to choke the interrogator, purely out of spite as this doesn't get her anywhere while flashing a SlasherSmile.
* In ''Film/DickTracy'' after being framed for murder Tracy is being moved from the police holding cell to the county lock-up. His fellow police officers handcuff him in the front, [[LampshadeHanging Tracy comments on the lapse in procedure]]. As it turns out the move was a ruse to allow Tracy the time needed to [[ClearMyName clear his name]].

* ''Film/TotalRecall1990'': When Douglas Quaid is captured in his hotel room on Mars, the bad guys handcuff his hands in front of him. He later takes advantage of this to grab a gun and shoot an opponent.
* Happens in ''Film/PitchBlack'', where Riddick is blindfolded and handcuffed around a post with his hands behind him. Sensing that the post is not secure at the top, he dislocates both shoulders to get his hands up and over and escape.
* Subverted in ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'': Chigurh strangles a police officer with his own handcuffs, but he ''was'' cuffed from behind, and he has to switch them to the front when the cop is on the phone.
* In ''Film/ThreeTenToYuma2007'' the villainous co-protagonist Ben Wade has his hands cuffed this way and kills two of his guards, but his captors still don't find a better way of binding him (granted, it probably wouldn't be that safe to take the cuffs off to fix them...) To be fair, he also helps his captors fight off mutual enemies, so handcuffing his hands in front of him had some benefits.
* One Creator/AbbottAndCostello sketch involves one of them getting handcuffed with his hands in front when he points out that he can still swing his hands around. He then asks his captor to show where the cuffs need to go; the captor puts his hands behind his back, gets cuffed, and the good guy escapes.
* Towards the end of the action film ''Film/SheShootsStraight'', the main villain, already handcuffed, was suddenly saved by his subordinate who's on a motorcycle. At which point the villain chokes the police superintendent, Lau, who is nearby with his cuffs before leaping on his subordinate's bike which speeds off, dragging Lau to death in the process.
* In the ''Film/StreetFighter'' movie, Chun-Li has her hands bound in front of her. It takes her about two seconds to snap the leather, leaving her with spiked wrist-guards and Bison's ass to kick.
* In the ''Film/TrueGrit'' remake, two outlaws having their hands restrained in this way allowed one to kill the other with a knife before he could talk.

* A spectacularly silly example in ''Film/{{Salt}}'', as [[spoiler: Salt had previously just beaten the piss out of several cops and Secret Service agents with her bare hands. Not that it matters. When they cuff her hands behind her back at the end, she still manages to kill Winters by jumping off a balcony and using her body and the cuff chains to garrot him]].
* {{Inverted}} in ''Film/TheATeam'': Pike is placed in a car with his hands cuffed behind his back, and then explains (and demonstrates) why that can be a bad idea: With his hands where they can't be seen, he is able to pick his cuffs without his guards noticing.
* Averted in ''Film/TheTerminator'' where Kyle Reese has his hands cuffed behind his back. When the policeman guarding him is distracted by gunfire as the Terminator tears up the police station, Kyle knees him in the stomach, kicks away his gun, and takes the keys off his belt.

* Averted in ''[[Film/FXMurderByIllusion F/X 2: The Deadly Art of Illusion]]''. Rollie Tyler captures a hitman and ties him up with his hands behind his back, but when he wakes up the hitman fights Rollie WithMyHandsTied, jumping into the air and whipping his bound hands under his feet in one swift movement.

* In ''Film/TheCriminal'', Johnny is shackled with his hands in front of him when he is being transported in the prison van (presumably because he was going to be seated for a long time). This allows him to overpower the warder when the van is forced off the road.
* In ''Film/TheManWhoKilledDonQuixote'', the Gypsy takes advantage of the fact that his hands are cuffed in front of him to choke one of the policemen and take control of the police car.
* ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. The Avengers arrest Loki and cuff his hands in front. When the Tesseract is obligingly knocked right in front of him, Loki doesn't miss his chance to grab it and teleport out of there.
* ''Film/TheIsland1980'': When Maynard has his hands manacled in front of him, he is able to reach the padlock and undo the combination lock.
* ''Film/{{Apache}}'': The shackles on Massai's wrists when he is being transported have enough length of chain between them that he is able to throw round Weddle during his escape; pinning Weddle's arms to his side. Massai then draws Weddle's gun from his holster and shoots the shotgun guard. He then uses the chain to choke Weddle into unconsciousness.
* ''Film/JohnDoeVigilante'': During his final interview with Ken Rutherford, John Doe has his hands cuffed in front of him at the table. After [[spoiler:faking a suicide attempt]], he wraps the chain between the cuffs around [[spoiler: Ken's neck and kills him]].
* In ''Film/{{Vicki}}'', Lt. Cornell cuffs Steve's hands in front when he arrests him. This allows Steve to cut himself free by locking a hacksaw in a vise after he escapes.
* In ''Film/DieHard2'', General Esperanza is cuffed like this while being flown from Val Verde to the US. Between that and the fact that he was only being guarded by one man, he was able to strangle the guard, take the keys, free himself, and then break into the cockpit to hijack the plane.
* Justified in ''Film/ResidentEvilTheFinalChapter''. Dr. Isaacs captures Alice and makes her run behind his tank while cuffed to a rope, with a horde of ravenous zombies growling at her heels. It's quite difficult to run with your hands behind your back, and he wants her alive long enough to reveal information or at least act as zombie bait. Alice of course has other ideas...

* ''[[Literature/{{Dortmunder}} What's the Worst That Could Happen?]]'': John Dortmunder convinces the police to cuff him in front, even though the cop knows better, just by his "hounddog" look. Naturally, [[spoiler:he manages to escape because of this]].
* In Literature/{{the Continental Op}} short story "$106,000 Blood Money" by Creator/DashiellHammett, a crook with his hands handcuffed in front of him is able to grab a cop's gun from its holster and shoot one of his accomplices. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as it was written in the 1920s before handcuffing procedures were standardised.
* In Desmond Bagley's ''The Tightrope Men'', enemies trying to interrogate Giles Denison made this mistake. Denison only played along until he realized they ''didn't'' have a hostage for his good behavior; then he attacked and used the link connecting the cuffs to choke the interrogator.

* In ''Literature/AllTomorrowsParties'' by Creator/WilliamGibson, mystical assassin Konrad is bought in wearing handcuffs. It is implied that the rush to bring him in is the end for his captors -- because his hands are cuffed in front of him.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': In "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty", when the SFPD hands off a "most wanted" fugitive to the feds, they considerately cuff him with his hands in front of him, making his escape attempt easier to accomplish.

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': Happened in at least one episode. The bad guy doesn't escape, but this allows him to have a big throw-down with Walker.
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'':
** Sort of inverted when Mal is taking point and being relatively cooperative with the Alliance types, but they've still got him cuffed from behind. He asks to be released, so they... "compromise" by cuffing him in front. Being Malcolm Reynolds, he later turns this to his advantage.
--->'''Mal:''' [[SarcasmMode Thanks. Now I'll really have the advantage.]]
** In "Ariel", Jayne is cuffed behind his back, but works around it through judicious application of [[CombatPragmatist knees, elbows, shoulders, and forehead]].
* ''Series/FlowerOfEvil'': Ji-won is a police detective so she should know better, but she still handcuffs one of the suspects in the human trafficking ring with her hands in the front. That allows the suspect to escape by climbing off the balcony--which soon after results in the suspect's death when she falls off said balcony.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'':
** Played very straight. A former military suspect asks to be cuffed in front out of respect for his family. [[spoiler: He grabs a gun off one of the officers and kills himself. This immediately after attempting to kill himself and being stopped ''by the officers who arrested him''.]] One wonders why they thought that was a good idea.
** The police handcuff a deaf man with his hands in front since handcuffing him with his hands behind his back would be akin to gagging him.

* In ''Series/TheFlash1990'', the Trickster was handcuffed with his hands in front of him. While sitting in the middle of a police car with 3 officers, he grabbed a gun from one officer and shot all 3 dead. Oh and Trickster is also an escape artist so he was out of the handcuffs seconds later.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': During "The Crossing", Fusco is caught by HR, and his captors tie him to a chair with his hands cuffed behind his back. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for them, this means when he is tortured within an inch of his life, they don't notice when he breaks his own thumb in order to slip it through the handcuffs and finally garrotes the guy who was supposed to kill him.]]

* ''Series/ThePretender'': "Once in a Blue Moon" has an instance of handy-cuffs-as-improvised-weapon. The prisoner starts the scene with his hands properly cuffed behind him but talks his way into getting them re-cuffed in front. (Jarod is too smart to fall for that usually, but in this case [[spoiler: letting the prisoner get away is part of the plan]].)
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Dean has been cuffed more than a few times and always manages to get out of them.

* Played with in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' with Dr. Arik Soong, who's in Captain Archer's custody. When Soong tries to escape, Archer activates his magnetic cuffs, making it harder for Soong to run. Soong then tries using his cuffs to help himself climb a wall until Archer deactivates the cuffs, causing Soong to fall to the ground so Archer can recapture him.

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': In "Crazy For You," Cisco lets Hartley out of the Pipeline with his hands cuffed in front of him. Hartley clobbers Cisco and attempts to escape, although Cisco stops him.
* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "Death in a Chocolate Box," Tom for some reason--possibly lingering respect as the murderer was [[BrokenPedestal someone he had once looked up to]]--handcuffs the murderer with their hands in front of them. The murderer feigns sickness, then whacks Tom in the face and then dashes away, on to the RailroadTracksOfDoom.

* ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'': Bucky is briefly arrested in the second episode, and is cuffed hands in front. While very much not procedure, he's a cyborg supersoldier with a vibranium arm- the cuffs are a polite suggestion at best.
* ''Series/Batwoman2019'': When supervillain Alice is arrested by the Crows, she has her hands cuffed to the desk in front of her during her interrogation. She's able to pick the lock and escape, so when Sophie tries to arrest her in Season 2, she makes of point of telling Alice (whom she's holding at gunpoint) to cuff her own hands behind her back.

* In the first ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest'' game: while handcuffing a drunk driver, he'll say he's not feeling good and that he wants to be handcuffed from the front. If you do it that way, he'll hit you over the head at a later time, ending the game.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'': Regal Bryant spends the entirety of his time handcuffed in front. However, he swore to never fight with his arms again (though he's fine with using them to cook or bust out of jail with a good KamehameHadoken), and judging by the other prisoners him wearing cuffs at all was probably by choice.

* Joker is cuffed with his hands in front of him as he's being taken to his cell at the beginning of ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum''. The moment he's far enough away from Batman to keep the Dark Knight from interfering in time, he strangles his escort with the chain, slips the cuffs, and runs off. [[spoiler:Batman later finds out Joker has a mole inside the asylum.]]
* Bruce Wayne is cuffed with his hands in front of him at the beginning of ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity''. It doesn't stop him from clubbing a number of mooks with his bound hands (Although he can't fight quite as well as he does once he manages to break the cuffs off).
* ''Videogame/ResidentEvil6'': [[spoiler:After being captured by Neo-Umbrella for half a year]], Jake is transported with his hands cuffed in front. When he decides he wants out, he leaps back onto a guy holding him at gunpoint and catches the latter's gun under his arm, causing a spray of bullets and making other guards cover, then kills the guy with his [[MurderousThighs knees]] and quickly loots the handcuff key from him.
* ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' and ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'' have security guards that can handcuff players if caught by surprise. Although the handcuffed player are shown with their arms behind them, their arms are actually in front of them in their view. It takes several seconds for a cuffed player to uncuff themselves, but the heist fails if everyone else gets handcuffed or taken into custody.

* Wrestling/HulkHogan: A protagonist example in his feud with [[Wrestling/BigBossMan the Big Boss Man]]. Several matches in late 1988 and early 1989 included a spot where Boss Man and his manager, Wrestling/{{Slick}}, would handcuff Hogan and beat him down. Eventually, the Hulkster would break the cuffs (while [[SecondWind hulking up]]) and, after busting the cuffs – and at least at one untelevised house show ripping off the metal wrist irons – manage to get a few late blows on the bad guys (usually Slick), sometimes using the chain of the now-broken cuffs to belt his foes as they tried to flee.