History Main / HelpingHands

*
In [[Webcomic/ConspiracyResearchClub Conspiracy Research Club]], the gang temporarily adopts a disembodied hand from the Faceless Underground.

* ''Film/{{Asylum|1972Horror}}'': In "Frozen Fear", Ruth's severed arm strangles her murderous husband Walter, and later attempts to strangle Walter's mistress Bonnie.
* In the ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]'' movie ''Film/AttackOfTheEyeCreatures'', one of the creatures' severed hand takes refuge in someone's car.
-->'''Crow''':[[Music/WeirdAlYankovic Got a booger on my finger, and I can't get it off!]]
* The 1949 horror film ''Film/{{The Beast with Five Fingers}}'' revolves around a murderous hand that has detached itself from the corpse of a dead pianist and which attempts to kill the heirs to his will. Except the ending has some of the survivors suggest it was actually a plot by a greedy heir to kill off the others, only for that heir to end up killing himself after he went mad and began believing his own lie.

* Null the biker zombie from ''Film/{{Braindead}}''; after getting chopped to pieces his body parts and organs continue to attack Lionel.

* In ''Film/AChristmasCarolTheMusical (2004)'', one of Marley's ghost companions carries a [[Series/TheAddamsFamily Thing-style]] hand in a box as his [[IronicHell ironic punishment]] for "never lending a hand".
* In the "Disembodied Hand" segment in ''Film/DrTerrorsHouseOfHorrors'', Franklyn Marsh runs over artist Eric Landor and causes his hand to be amputated. Landor's amputated hand comes after Marsh seeking vengeance.

* The old Infocom text adventure ''The Lurking Horror'' had one, in the form of an amputated human hand you could reanimate. It's actually very helpful to you, and is key for surviving some of the late game challenges, including helping you defeat the FinalBoss.
* ''VideoGame/MysticDefender'' have gigantic draconic hands ending at the stump as an enemy late into the game, as large as your player hero. They attack either by clawing at you or materializing a round, exploding projectile from their palms, which they then drop from above.
* ''VideoGame/{{Struggling}}'': After [[spoiler: [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext curing Amadeus' heart cancer]]]], he gifts Troy with the ability to separate and move his arms independently of their body.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheGhoulSchool'', the eponymous school has a butler who is a floating white hand.

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheAddamsFamily https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/13932674847_f0541aaf48_b.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:He just can't handle the kickflip.]]

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* Sirene in ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'' can detach her arms and control them independently of the rest of her body with psychic abilities. The 1990 OVA takes this up a notch by having the detached arm capable of [[SpectacularSpinning rotating at such high speed]] that it can become a DeadlyDisc while in flight.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/IronMan3'' has an impressive scene where Jarvis detaches a modular armor's forearm to help Tony without any prompting [[spoiler:as he was too busy drowning at the time]].

* ''Literature/TheMurderbotDiaries''. In ''Network Effect'' the title character, a cyborg, finds itself suspended upside-down over a pit with its arms taunt so it can't break free. Murderbot [[EasilyDetachableRobotParts detaches a hand]] which involves individually disconnecting circuits and tearing loose some flesh and nerves (fortunately it can dial down its pain sensors), then walking the hand by the fingers up onto the arm, which is then torn free of its cuff whereupon the hand is reattached. Murderbot is then easily able to break the other cuffs. The main risk involved dropping its hand during all this, which would have left Murderbot screwed.

* Tenaya 7 in ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' often detaches her hand to have it get into places she can't.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** An android does this when his hand blocks a door in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath The Robots of Death]]". The person in the room later uses the hand against another [[spoiler: heroic]] android, which leads to the immortal line, "Please do not throw hands at me!"
** The detached Cyberman arm and octopus-head-thing in the episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens The Pandorica Opens]]". They even shoot out tranquilizer darts!

* Bender from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' does this frequently, often for the purpose of stealing things while everyone's distracted by some other part of him. The ''very first episode'' has Bender putting ''both'' of his detached arms back on, with Fry [[LampshadeHanging wondering how he did it.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'': XR has to do this as part of his ChewToy job on occasion.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'', the Other Mother's disembodied hand, which is a spindly abomination made of sewing needles, pursues Coraline all the way to the real world.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Governor Swann gets to deal with a undead hand in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl''.

* Null the biker zombie from ''Film/{{Braindead}}''; after getting chopped to pieces his body parts and organs continue to attack Lionel.
* A severed zombie hand crawls across a lawn at the end of ''Film/{{Waxwork}}''. In the sequel it murders someone, and the characters who destroy it then must hunt through several worlds to bring back proof it wasn't the LoveInterest who committed the crime. [[spoiler: Their proof is yet another zombie hand.]]

* The Syfy original movie, ''Mammoth'', have a scene where a frozen, severed hand (ending from the wrist) gets brought to life by static electricity and then starts running around on fingers.

* In the ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]'' movie ''Film/AttackOfTheEyeCreatures'', one of the creatures' severed hand takes refuge in someone's car.
-->'''Crow''':[[Music/WeirdAlYankovic Got a booger on my finger, and I can't get it off!]]
* In ''Film/AChristmasCarolTheMusical (2004)'', one of Marley's ghost companions carries a [[Series/TheAddamsFamily Thing-style]] hand in a box as his [[IronicHell ironic punishment]] for "never lending a hand".
* ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods''. A zombie gets hacked up by one of the protagonists, but its limbs are still twitching. When a guard bursts in with the intention of shooting them, a zombie hand [[AnkleDrag grabs his ankle]], distracting him. The protagonists knock the guard out and the last thing we see as the doors close is [[NightmareFuel the hand crawling up to the unconscious man's face...]]
* The Hong Kong horror film ''Film/{{Hex}}'' have the ghost of Lady Chan creating an illusion where she reanimates her hand to attack a priest trying to exorcise her.

* ''Film/BigTitsZombie'': When [[spoiler:Darna]] is transformed into a zombie, her hand is severed from her body. The hand then continues to try to pick up the money she had been attempting to gather.
* ''Film/ScarecrowSlayer'': Just before Caleb's father is killed in TheTeaser, the Scarecrow's arm can be seen skittering along the ground in front of the tractor.
* The 1949 horror film ''Film/{{The Beast with Five Fingers}}'' revolves around a murderous hand that has detached itself from the corpse of a dead pianist and which attempts to kill the heirs to his will. Except the ending has some of the survivors suggest it was actually a plot by a greedy heir to kill off the others, only for that heir to end up killing himself after he went mad and began believing his own lie.
* In the "Disembodied Hand" segment in ''Film/DrTerrorsHouseOfHorrors'', Franklyn Marsh runs over artist Eric Landor and causes his hand to be amputated. Landor's amputated hand comes after Marsh seeking vengeance.
* In ''Film/TheHand'', cartoonist Jon Lansdale's severed hand acquires a life of its own and starts murdering those who anger him.
* ''Film/{{Asylum|1972Horror}}'': In "Frozen Fear", Ruth's severed arm strangles her murderous husband Walter, and later attempts to strangle Walter's mistress Bonnie.

* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''. The episode that plays with this trope is even called "Helping Hand"! Although it isn't very helpful after Alex uses it to clean up the shop, then doesn't give it a break or reward it in any way.

* ''Series/GoodEats'' lampshades Thing from ''Series/TheAddamsFamily''. The Thing in ''Good Eats'' is canonically the grandson of the one from ''Series/TheAddamsFamily''.

* The EdutainmentGame ''Pinball/TheBrain'' has a disembodied hand on the playfield to represent the sense of touch.

* In some scenarios of ''Mansions of Madness'' dead bodies spawn 2 autonomous hands under GM's control. These buggers are more annoying than all the zombies and demons combined.

* A stage in ''VideoGame/FlashOfTheBlade'' have you on a boat when deformed hands starts rising out of the water's surface to claw at you, which you need to fend off. Bonus points for [[EyesDoNotBelongThere those hands being covered in eyes]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Phelios}}'' has a really creepy area where your character gets attacked by floating, severed blue limbs (ripped at the elbow) who tries grabbing you.
* Master Hand and Crazy Hand from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' are giant, disembodied, floating, gloved hands.

* One of these is available as a non-combat pet in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''.
* Guybrush's left hand gains a mind of its own when it's infected by the [[HatePlague Pox of LeChuck]] in ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfMonkeyIsland Tales]] of VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'', and acts on its own whether or not it's attached to Guybrush's arm.

* ''Franchise/DeadSpace'' has this as a major issue with one of its enemies.
* In Post-2014 ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', severing body parts from the undead renders them inanimate, but necromancers and mummies can easily ''re''animate the body parts so long as they have a part capable of grasping (i.e. hands, mouths, pincers). They can even do this to body parts severed from living beings, so adventures can find themselves in the unlucky circumstance of having to fight their own severed arm.

* In ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos: Eternal Wings And The Lost Ocean'' you have the Devilish Hands and their [[PaletteSwap family of monsters]]. Unusual in that they're two hands, fused together at the bottom of the palm, and they crawl along akin to a GiantSpider.

** Several games have a recurring character who is a undead hand that lives in a toilet and asks Link for paper for unknown reasons.

* ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' have a gadget called the Spray-on Hands (most likely made of nanobots), that when applied on it's user's, manifests as a pair of disembodied, floating hands that carries out whatever given tasks. Nobita uses this gadget to slack off as his floating hands does his homework for him, only for the gadget to (what else?) backfire hilariously - forgetting Doraemon's advice to re-apply the spray once the task is complete, Nobita, waking up from a nap, finds out his floating hands have scribbled a ''hole'' in his maths book.

* The iconic Choking Hands from ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'', a tribute to ''Evil Dead''. They're the only "clingy" enemy in the whole game, and [[ButtonMashing the "use" key has to be mashed]] to toss them off[[note]]in the release build, a GameBreakingBug made it so they couldn't be shaken off, putting them square into "DemonicSpiders with InstantDeathRadius" territory[[/note]]. They're [[FragileSpeedster extremely weak]] to compensate for their irritating attack strategy and speed easily capable of keeping up with Caleb. They return in ''Blood II'', and when they see the player, they'll stand on the wrist stump and [[FlippingTheBird give them the ol' one-finger salute]] before going after them.

* In the horror-comedy ''Film/IdleHands'', a slacker's hand gets possessed by a demon. He eventually cuts it off, only for the hand to continue trying to kill people.

* In Myth/BrazilianFolklore, the Little Black Hand / Mãozinha Preta is a haunting from the Southeast region with the appearance of a disembodied black hand that could harm travellers at night. Some versions, however, say the hand could be pretty helpful when summoned by obeying orders and doing domestic chores, but that it would never harm slaves. A story tells about a slaveowner who ordered it to punish a slaved woman, only for the hand to rebel against its master in fury, hence why it is also called Little Hand of Justice.

* ''Film/{{Asylum}}'': In "Frozen Fear", Ruth's severed arm strangles her murderous husband Walter, and later attempts to strangle Walter's mistress Bonnie.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* The ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "I Fall to Pieces" has a surgeon who can detach parts of himself to aid in stalking/molesting his victims.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* The TropeNamer for this are the Helping Hands from ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}''. They actually do seem to mean well but are very literal minded.
* In the stoner comedy Film/IdleHands, the main character severs his own demonically possessed right hand and microwaves it to stop the killing. [[FromBadtoWorse It only makes matters worse.]]

* They weren't detached from anyone... probably, but there are the "Helping Hands" of ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'' and they are fairly creepy. They ''were'' trying to help, not their fault "she chose ''down''."

* The pirate captain Buggy from ''Manga/OnePiece'' ate a Devil Fruit that gave him this power. Unfortunately, he can feel pain in his detached bits, as he finds out when [[GroinAttack Luffy kicks him in his disembodied fork]].

* A stage in ''VideoGame/FlashOfTheBlade'' have you on a boat when deformed hands starts rising out of the water's surface to claw at you, which you need to fend off. Bonus points for [[EyesDoNotBelingThere those hands being covered in eyes]].