History Main / MutilationInterrogation

* ''Fanfic/{{Wolfblood}}'': Vizimir has [[spoiler:Aiden]] tortured for ''years'' trying to get him to divulge the formula for making witchers, but as his victim points out later while under Triss' medical care he didn't know that to give it up even if he'd wanted to.

* ''Fanfic/{{Wolfblood}}'': Vizimir has [[spoiler:Aiden]] tortured for ''years'' trying to get him to divulge the formula for making witchers, but as his victim points out while under Triss' medical care he didn't now that to give it up even if he'd wanted to.

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* ''Series/{{Alias}}'': Happens to Sydney Bristow in the pilot episode "Truth Be Told" -- with teeth. She ends up losing her number 5 right molar (not a visible tooth usually, because BeautyIsNeverTarnished).

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'':
** Jayne threatens mole Dobson with this in order to find out how much the Alliance knows from the transmission he sent. A spooked Dobson immediately blurts that the Alliance knows everything, leading a disappointed Jayne to deduce that they know nothing. "Was gonna get me an ear, too."
** In a later episode Niska cuts Mal's ear off and gives it to Zoe when she tries to ransom him and Wash from Niska. It gets reattached at the end of the episode.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': Blake suspects (correctly) that the surgeon who's repairing Gan's malfunctioning MoralityChip is delaying the surgery long enough for the Federation to catch up with them. Blake tells him that if the operation isn't finished by a certain time, he'll destroy his hands; a very apt threat for [[FateWorseThanDeath a surgeon]].
* In the ''Climax!'' TV movie ''Film/CasinoRoyale1954'', the ball-whacking is [[ExecutiveMeddling substituted out]] for Bond's toenails being painfully pulled out.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': Black Mask likes to use this trope, drills, irons (as in clothes irons, with the steam and the hurting and the [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons OH GLAYVEN]]. His ... interrogation partners end up looking a whole less pretty than they used to be..
* When King Mob is being tortured by Sir Giles in ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'', he has his fingers dropped in his lab after a convenient blackout. Subverted in that he's merely been injected with an experimental drug that allows him to perceive written language as a tangible object -- e.g., he's given a slip of paper reading "Your Severed Fingers," and sees his severed fingers.
* [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} Rorschach]] takes this trope and runs with it. He goes to a bar where he believes he can get some information, grabs a random person, and then asks the ''rest of the bar'' for the answers. Getting no response, he breaks one of his fingers, then asks again. Next shot, he's walking out of the bar, having received ''no'' information. We never hear what happened to the guy.
* The ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' arc ''Son of Man'' has Mob torturer Gestapo threaten a target with nothing more than a pair of nail clippers. We later find out what they were used on: [[spoiler:his eyelids]].

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
%%* Film/JamesBond in ''Film/LiveAndLetDie''.
* Creator/QuentinTarantino's ''Film/ReservoirDogs'':
** During a planning scene for the heist, Mr. White mentions this to Mr. Orange:
-->"If you wanna know something and he won't tell you, cut off one of his fingers. The little one. Then tell him his thumb's next. After that he'll tell ya if he wears ladies underwear. [[MoodWhiplash I'm hungry. Let's get a taco]]."
** [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by Mr. Blonde in the [[ColdBloodedTorture torture scene]]. He starts cutting pieces off the cop he captured (Marvin Nash), but he specifically notes beforehand that he doesn't care at all about any information the cop might tell him; he's doing this [[ForTheEvulz just for fun]]. This, in addition to the kill-crazy rampage he goes on earlier in the movie, marks Mr. Blonde as a complete psychopath.
* Chevy Chase's character in ''Film/SpiesLikeUs'' was threatened with this one after being captured by Soviets. Only through ObfuscatingStupidity (or actual stupidity) was he able to stall long enough to keep his digits:
-->'''Soviet Agent:''' For every question you do not answer, I cut off a finger...\\
'''Fitz-Hume:''' Mine, or yours?
* This happens to Mel Gibson's character in ''Film/{{Payback}}''. He kidnaps [[spoiler:the son of the most powerful mob boss in the city]], so they politely ask him for the location using his toes and a hammer.
* In ''Film/ManOnFire'', John Creasy does this several times in the movie to people involved in the kidnapping ring.
** He tapes a guy's hands to the steering wheel. He cuts off the man's fingers one by one, ''slowly'', and then cauterizes the wound with the car's cigarette lighter immediately. Then [[OneLastSmoke he gives the guy a smoke]] and pushes the car off a cliff (though at that point the guy was just glad it was over).
** He blows off a man's fingers with a shotgun.
* In the film noir/lesbian romance ''Film/{{Bound|1996}}'', a mobster steals a couple of million dollars from his employers. Despite a savage beating, he refuses to tell them where he's hidden it. Then one of the mobsters produces pruning shears, holds the guy's hands over a toilet bowl, and says: "I'm going to ask you ten times."
* ''Film/KillBill'': "I'm gonna ask you questions. And every time you don't give me answers...I'm gonna cut something off. And I promise you, they will be things you will miss." No mistake about it, Beatrix Kiddo does not fuck around. And the very first part that she starts with is Sofie's ''other'' arm, as she already chopped off the other one... The Japanese cut has her making good on this threat.
* Quoth Durant from ''Film/{{Darkman}}'' after taking out a cigar cutter. "Now, let's consider my points, one by one. One. I try not to let my anger get the better of me. ''cut'' "Two. I don't always succeed." ''cut'' "Three. I have seven more points."

* Played horrifically straight in the French film ''Les femmes de l'ombre'', involving some Nazis and one of the eponymous ''femmes'', who is a member of LaResistance.
* ''Film/MarathonMan''. Two words: Nazi dentist.
* In ''Film/{{Oldboy|2003}}'', the protagonist Oh Dae-su tracks down the illegal holding facility where he was kept for 15 years after being kidnapped off the streets. Dae-su asks the warden who paid him to hold him, and when the warden doesn't answer he duct tapes him to his chair. He then uses his claw hammer to pry out the man's teeth one at a time, telling him that he owes him one tooth for each year of his life that was stolen from him. After about 7 or so, he gives the warden a chance to talk, with the implication that he'll continue through with all 15 if he doesn't.

* In ''Film/TheTourist'', the BigBad threatens Creator/AngelinaJolie's character with this after she is captured.
* Played for laughs in ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' when Dark Helmet threatens to have a surgeon give Princess Vespa a hideous nose job if her father doesn't give the access code to Drudia's shields. Even funnier in that this is stated to be the ''original'' appearance of her nose before having some work done. CrossesTheLineTwice when you remember the line "Funny, she doesn't ''look'' Druish."

* ''Film/TheGoonies'': After the Fratellis get Chunk, Mama Fratelli threatens to put his hand into a blender if he doesn't tell them where his fellow Goonies are. Chunk only escapes it by sharing [[NoodleIncident embarrassing stories, like setting off a]] VomitChainReaction [[NoodleIncident at a movie theater]].

* ''Martian Deathtrap'', a novelization based on the ''Mars Attacks!'' comics/card series by Topps, has the Martians capture a showgirl and using a surgical tool that cuts and cauterizes at the same time on the bottoms of her toes after she refuses to tell them (a) how many humans are still alive in the mansion they're all trapped in and (b) how to drive a car, of all things. [[TooDumbToLive Given they could have just forced her to take them to the cars and have her drive them to safety at gunpoint, the torture might have been a bit excessive, if not totally unnecessary.]]

* This happens to Tia, a major character of Jennifer Fallon's ''Second Son's'' trilogy. This is more of a warm up for the torture that would have occurred however. Years later the protagonist asks her if she has any idea what her enemy would do to her and she replies that she has a pretty good idea, holding up her mangled fingers for emphasis. The protagonist, Dirk, swiftly explains that she has no idea whatsoever, having being made privy to some of the real methods that the TortureTechnician employs (he was very happy to explain it to someone who he thought would be able to appreciate how cleverly brutal and twisted, and effective, it could be. The protagonist Dirk had to pretend to find it fascinating).
* In the Literature/StephaniePlum novels, the main character was threatened with this on at least one occasion. There was a slight subversion in the latest novel, where the villain was trying to motivate her to do something for him by mailing her someone else's fingers.
** She's actually sent dismembered body parts or finds them in her fridge in more than half the books, but that usually isn't an interrogation method as much as it the psycho of the book trying to warn her to back off or get her attention. (Memorable instances include a giant mole and a dismembered penis. The penis made her grandmother nostalgic.)

* Happens to the cop protagonist in the book/film ''Film/SharkysMachine''. He loses two fingers before he escapes.
* In the ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' novels, this turns out to be the reason Vlad Taltos is missing a finger in the later books: he got caught by a TortureTechnician in ''Literature/{{Jhegaala}}''.
* Inflicting this is the job of Glotka in Joe Abercrombie's ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'' books.

* ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'': Mr Vandemar breaks Richard's finger and is about to cut off his ear when Door gives in and agrees to [[spoiler:open the door to Heaven. She's lying, though.]]
* In Don Pendleton's ''Literature/TheExecutioner'' series of books, the mafia have interrogators that turn people into "Turkeys" by taking several days to slowly carve them up. The first two cuts are to remove the eyelids, so the victim is ForcedToWatch their own mutilation in a mirror.
* In the ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' books, when Jill is captured, she is threatened with this. Her brave defiance is HonorBeforeReason because she managed to alert the Lensmen who are in telepathic contact with her and urging her to talk because they can ensure that no one who hears will get out alive.

* Lawrence Block's insomniac thief, Evan Tanner, does this ot one of the baddies in ''Tanner's Virgin'' (originally published as ''Here Comes a Hero'').
* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', [[spoiler:Perrin Aybara]] of all people uses it to great effect. The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Aiel]] are trained to resist pain, but the threat of being dropped off at the nearest village as a quadruple amputee [[FateWorseThanDeath for the children to gawk at]] is a whole other story. [[spoiler:Perrin took one hand before the man talked.]]
* In ''Literature/DragonsWinter'' the bard Azil has his hands mutilated and burned so that he can never play the harp again as part of a PastVictimShowcase; his lover was very fond of his music.
* [[PsychoForHire Claire]] from ''Literature/{{Baccano}}'' does this to one of Ladd Russo's men, Dune. Claire being the [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill master of overkill that he is]], doesn't simply cut off digits, but rather pulls him under a moving train and slowly grinds his arm off on the rails until he starts talking. Claire likes doing this in general -- hence the horrific condition of the corpses left behind by the Flying Pussyfoot. And when one of his victims claims that he's been through enough torture to be immune to it, Claire informs him that he can do far worse yet.
* Referenced in ''Literature/FullMetalPanic''. A traitor to Mithril is being questioned, and when he refuses to answer, his fingers are broken. Tessa and Kallinin are watching from the other side of a two-way mirror, with Tessa upset by the brutality. Kallinin informs her that if he were the one doing the interrogating, he'd cut the fingers off, instead. Given his background, it's likely something he's actually done before.

* The ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' fic ''[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12785530/1/ Every Step of the Way]]'' has Aizawa facing a villain who has a beef with All Might. Aizawa refuses to talk so the guy [[EyeScream uses his burning touch quirk to sear Aizawa’s eyes out one at a time]]

This is a quick way to show the interrogation subject that you are not screwing around and ''will'' cross moral /legal boundaries by inflicting permanent damage. Pain is transient, but starting with small mutilation announces to the victim that you will move on to progressively worse, permanent damage if they don't talk.

* ''Anime/KnightHunters''. In one of the drama [=CDs=], Birman is interrogated this way - by the time Weiss manages to rescue her, she only had enough fingers to pick up a gun [[spoiler: and shoot herself]].

* The ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' arc ''Son of Man'' has Mob torturer Gestapo threaten a target with nothing more than a pair of nail clippers. We later find out what they were used on: [[spoiler: his eyelids]].

* This happens to Mel Gibson's character in ''Film/{{Payback}}''. He kidnaps [[spoiler: the son of the most powerful mob boss in the city]], so they politely ask him for the location using his toes and a hammer.

* ''Webcomic/{{Sarilho}}'': [[TortureTechnician Eurico and Estanislau]] definitively employ this when [[spoiler: torturing the Foreigner]].
* In ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}'', Yuri is captured by bounty hunters who attempt to torture her, not knowing anything about human anatomy they take her suggestions of feeding her chocolate pudding and massaging almond oil into her feet. [[http://spacetrawler.com/2010/08/03/spacetrawler-64/ Then it turns out her feet weren't attached at the time]], and neither were her arms, for that matter.

* Played for laughs in ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' when the Gingerbread Man gets both of his legs broken of and his head dipped into a glass with milk. Lord Farquaad then crushes one of the legs in his hands, but the other leg is later reattached with frosting, making it necessary for Gingy to walk with a candy cane.

* Happens to the cop protagonist in the book/film ''Film/SharkysMachine''. Every hour they cut off part of his finger at the joint. I think he loses a complete finger before he escapes.

* Happens to the cop protagonist in the book/film ''[[Literature/SharkysMachine Sharky's]] [[Film/SharkysMachine Machine]]''. Every hour they cut off part of his finger at the joint. I think he loses a complete finger before he escapes.

* [[PsychoForHire Claire]] from ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' does this to one of Ladd Russo's men, Dune. Claire being the [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill master of overkill that he is]], doesn't simply cut off digits, but rather pulls him under a moving train and slowly grinds his arm off on the rails until he starts talking. Claire likes doing this in general -- hence the horrific condition of the corpses left behind by the Flying Pussyfoot. And when one of his victims claims that he's been through enough torture to be immune to it, Claire informs him that he can do far worse yet.
* ''Anime/WeissKreuz''. In one of the drama [=CDs=], Birman is interrogated this way - by the time Weiss manages to rescue her, she only had enough fingers to pick up a gun [[spoiler: and shoot herself]].

* Referenced in an episode of ''Anime/FullMetalPanic: The Second Raid''. A traitor to Mithril is being questioned, and when he refuses to answer, his fingers are broken. Tessa and Kallinin are watching from the other side of a two-way mirror, with Tessa upset by the brutality. Kallinin informs her that if he were the one doing the interrogating, he'd cut the fingers off, instead. Given his background, it's likely something he's actually done before.

->'''Carolina''': Alright, think he's in a position to answer a few more questions?\\
'''Dr. Grey''': Oh, absolutely! Lemme just go put him back together...
-->-- ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', "Accentuate the Interrogative"

* In a season 2 episode of ''Series/VeronicaMars'', Veronica unwittingly ends up in the home den of the Fighting Fitzpatricks gang when she's investigating a corrupt plastic surgeon. When they find out who she is, their leader threatens that she better start talking, or she really ''will'' need a good plastic surgeon. Then he brings over a tattooing needle, and prepares to start carving up her face before Logan saves her.

* ''VideoGame/ArmedAndDangerous'' One of the King's interrogation specialists started with the torture by cutting out the tongue and proceeding from there, and then [[BlackComedy complains he can't get the guy to talk.]] Apparently it's his first day.

* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', MadDoctor Dr. Emily Grey does this to a SpacePirate. [[DissonantSerenity She gleefully sings opera while doing so.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* This happened to Luca from ''Webcomic/TheMeek'', and as a result his fingers still don't work right, years later. As he put it, "It took them seven fingers to figure out that I didn't know anything."
* ''Webcomic/LastRes0rt'': The first time we see her, Daisy Archanis is missing HER LEFT LEG from mid-thigh on down, and [[BigBad Veled]] apparently had something to do with it...
* ''{{Webcomic/Sarilho}}'': [[TortureTechnician Eurico and Estanislau]] definitively employ this when [[spoiler: torturing the Foreigner]].
* In ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}'' Yuri is captured by bounty hunters who attempt to torture her, not knowing anything about human anatomy they take her suggestions of feeding her chocolate pudding and massaging almond oil into her feet. [[http://spacetrawler.com/2010/08/03/spacetrawler-64/ Then it turns out her feet weren't attached at the time,]] and neither were her arms for that matter.

* [[PsychoForHire Claire]] from ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' does this to one of Ladd Russo's men, Dune. Claire being the [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill master of overkill that he is]], doesn't simply cut off digits, but rather pulls him under a moving train and slowly grinds his arm off on the rails until he starts talking. Claire likes doing this in general -- hence the horrific condition of the corpses left behind by the Flying Pussyfoot. And when one of his victims claims that he's been through enough torture to be immune to it, [[UpToEleven Claire informs him that he can do far worse yet.]]

-->--''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', "Accentuate the Interrogative"

* ''Webcomic/LastRes0rt'' - The first time we see her, Daisy Archanis is missing HER LEFT LEG from mid-thigh on down, and [[BigBad Veled]] apparently had something to do with it...

* In the TV adaptation of ''Literature/CasinoRoyale'' from 1954, in "Climax!" the ball-whacking is [[ExecutiveMeddling substituted out]] for Bond's toenails being painfully pulled out.

** [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by Mr. Blond in the [[ColdBloodedTorture torture scene]]. He starts cutting pieces off the cop he captured (Marvin Nash), but he specifically notes beforehand that he doesn't care at all about any information the cop might tell him; he's doing this [[ForTheEvulz just for fun]].

** {{Gender Flip}}ped: Ana-Lucia threatens to cut off Nathan's finger unless he confesses to being an Other. However, this threat causes the ''real'' Other to kill Nathan and make it look like he got away.

* Referenced in an episode of FullMetalPanic The Second Raid. A traitor to Mithril is being questioned, and when he refuses to answer, his fingers are broken. Tessa and Kallinin are watching from the other side of a two-way mirror, with Tessa upset by the brutality. Kallinin informs her that if he were the one doing the interrogating, he'd cut the fingers off, instead. Given his background, it's likely something he's actually done before.

* In the final mission of ''VideoGame/SplinterCellBlacklist'', the BigBad has one of his men cut off the U.S. Secretary of Defense's finger in order to compel him to give up vital information. By the time the camera pans back to him his whole hand is gone and all that's left is a bloody cut open arm.