History Main / SinisterShiv

* After going coo-coo from his time travel experiences, Xander Paine from ''ComicBook/MegaMan'' began whittling visions of what he saw in his cell walls in one of these.

However the weapon and trope isn't completely exclusive to prisons and it's inhabitants. This trope is very common in other settings, such as post-societal collapse scenarios. Where making all sorts of stabbing and slashing implements are pretty common, thanks to the fact that they don't have to worry about getting caught (although the shivs and shanks will still be hidden as an EmergencyWeapon). In fact it's also a place where the shanks can be as normal as it gets (like say just a sharp metal object with something wrapped around the handle) or as weird as it gets (thanks to imaginative minds and lots of tools at disposal). Another setting it's common on, is more primal or survival-focused scenarios, where making tools and weapons out of anything will help you survive. Naturally this means lots of improvised knifes, either made from sharpening sticks, stones and even [[BadWithTheBone bones]]. Just so you can have a small sharp tool or weapon, that's pretty versatile in the right hands.


Not to be confused with HealingShiv. See also SinisterSwitchblade and SinisterScythe, other bladed weapons associated with unsavory people. A sub-trope of KnifeNut and ImprovisedWeapon. It may also overlap with GrievousBottleyHarm, if the broken bottle is used as a shank.

* ''ComicBook/{{Kaijumax}}'' is set in a prison so naturally shivs make an appearance — but it's a prison for {{Kaiju}}, so they're made out of sharpened pieces of a cargo ship's hull.

* ''Series/Batwoman2019''. During a group therapy session in Arkham Asylum, Alice notices that Tommy Elliot has a shiv tucked in a shoe, and [[DeliberateInjuryGambit goads him into stabbing her]] so she can get hold of it herself.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' has Clark Kent almost getting stabbed with a shiv during a prison riot. It doesn't work out as the inmate hoped.

** Upon rejoining the Atlanta group in "I Ain't a Judas" Merle is seen fashioning himself a new attachment for his missing right hand, complete with duct tape in true prison fashion

This is a case of TruthInTelevision; however, it's drastically underportrayed, as real prisons have displays showcasing hundreds of {{Improvised Weapon}}s made from the most innocuous of everyday materials. See also SinisterSwitchblade and SinisterScythe, other bladed weapons associated with unsavory people.

However the weapon and trope isn't completely exclusive to prisons and it's inhabitants. This trope is very common in other settings, such as post-societal collapse scenarios. Where making all sorts of stabbing and slashing implements are pretty common, thanks to the fact that they don't have to worry about getting caught (although the shivs and shanks will still be hidden as an EmergencyWeapon). In fact it's also a place where the shanks can be as normal as it gets (like say just a sharp metal object with something wrapped around the handle) or as weird as it gets (thanks to imaginative minds and lots of tools at disposal). Another setting it's common on, is more primal or survival-focused scenarios, where making tools and weapons out of anything will help you survive. Naturally this means lots of improvised knifes, either made from sharpening sticks, stones and even bones. Just so you can have a small sharp tool or weapon, that's pretty versatile in the right hands.

Not to be confused with HealingShiv. See also KnifeNut and ImprovisedWeapon. It may also overlap with GrievousBottleyHarm, if the broken bottle is used as a shank.

* ''Film/LawAbidingCitizen'' has a particularly brutal scene where one inmate stabs another in the neck with a T-bone from the steak they had for lunch.

Not to be confused with HealingShiv.

* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' features shivs as a craftable item, made from duct tape and scissor blades. They're used both for stealth-killing clickers, which are immune to normal stealth kills, and opening locked doors.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': The Sniper's Tribalman's Shiv does half the damage of his kukri but inflicts bleeding.
* In the quest "No One Escapes Cidhna Mine" from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', one of the key items that you need to obtain in order to get to Madanach, the leader of the Forsworn, is a shiv, which you have to trade to Borkul the Beast. The shiv itself doesn't get used as a weapon unless you've opted to kill everyone in the mine -- the pickaxes that all of the prisoners use make for nasty weapons themselves.

* One episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' featured a shanking a juvenile detention facility with a shiv made from a razor blade melted into the handle of a toothbrush.
* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "Nine Thirteen", the BodyOfTheWeek had his throat slashed with a shiv made from a melted coffee cup lid and sharpened to an edge by grinding it against the cell wall.

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': In "The Lost Heir Job", Eliot plants a shiv on a prisoner to frame him as being a member of the Aryan Brotherhood.

* Zig-zagged in ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumLivingHell'', where a shard of mirror is smuggled to MadArtist Doodlebug... who uses it on ''himself''. Then later on, [[spoiler:his blood-paintings prove the key to opening up a literal HellGate, so in a roundabout way, that shard did a whole lot more damage than just being used to stab someone.]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Film/AnInnocentMan'': Shanking happens a lot in the movie, once witnessed by Creator/TomSelleck's character Jimmie and once carried out by Jimmie.

* ''Film/TheFugitive'': A prison guard winds up getting stabbed in an orchestrated escape plan while prisoners are being transported on a bus.

* ''Film/{{Elysium}}'': [[AxCrazy Kruger]] shanks [[SleazyPolitician Delacourt]] in the neck with a shard of a broken mirror. It's not that he's a prisoner or [[KnifeNut lacks more professional equipment]], it's just what he got at hand when [[BullyingTheDragon she gave him the tongue-lashing]].
* ''Film/TheGrandBudapestHotel'': The 'throat-slitter' made by M. Gustave's cellmates. It is used both to slice up the Mendl's pastries smuggled to them and for its named purpose during the GreatEscape.
* ''Film/LockUp'': The gang that is trying to hassle Frank Leone can usually be seen with these. After defeating their gang leader in a fight, [[spoiler:Leone is suddenly stabbed by another prisoner and spends several weeks in the infirmary.]]
* ''Film/Jailbait2014'': They're largely sharpened toothbrushes and are wielded by the more villainous inmates.
* In Film/{{Scum}}'', a variant improvised weapon involves one character taking his sock off, filling it with pool balls from the table in the recreation room, beating the crap out of the con who beat him up the previous night, then swiftly returning the balls to the table and putting his sock back on before the warders notice.
* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', inmates at the Kyln threaten Gamora with a variety of shivs. Since the place is a HellholePrison where the guards don't care what the prisoners do to each other as long as they don't make messes, the shivs range from as big as daggers to as big as machetes and some show quite a bit of craftsmanship.
* ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet'': [[spoiler:Parodied; as the Franchise/{{Disney Princess}}es prepare to attack Vanellope, Cinderella breaks one of her glass slippers and points it like a shiv.]]
* In ''Film/BankShot'', Ballentine jabs a shiv into the back of the construction worker he [[MuggedForDisguise mugs for disguise]] while CampingACrapper.
* In ''Film/ReformSchoolGirls'', Charlie carries a shiv made from a razor blade mounted in a toothbrush handle. She threatens to cut Jenny's face with it in an early scene.

* ''Film/EscapeFromAlcatraz'': After Frank rejects Wolf's advances, he tries to knife Frank in the prison yard with a shiv. Frank manages to hold him off, and Wolf attacks one of the guards who tries to intervene, getting himself almost a year in solitary for it. When he gets out, he attempts to do the same thing but switches tactics by having another con smuggle in the shiv for him.
* ''Film/TheCriminal'': Pauly is caught with a shiv on him (possibly planted) during a shakedown by the warders. This is the event that triggers the PrisonRiot.
* In ''Film/Firestorm1998'', Shaye uses a shiv, made from a razor blade melted into a toothbrush handle, to give himself a SignificantHaircut, and then to murder Davis and [[DeadPersonImpersonation take his place]].
* In ''Film/TheEscapist'', Rizza hands a shiv made from a melted plastic comb to one of his defaulting customers and gives him the choice of cutting off his thumb or three fingers. The jumpy con chooses his thumb. Later, Frank hands Rizza a shiv in his cell [[spoiler:which Rizza then uses to stab Frank when he realizes he has lost his power over him]].

* In ''Film/StarredUp'', Eric's first act after arriving in prison is to construct himself a shiv out of a toothbrush and a razor blade. It also doubles as an ImprovisedScrewdriver.

* ''Series/Batwoman2019''. During a group therapy session in Arkham Asylum, Alice notices that Tommy Elliot has a shiv tucked in a shoe, and [[DeliberateInjuryGambit goads him into stabbing her]] so she can get hold of it herself.

* ''Series/GetShorty'': Miles and Yago get jobs in the prison workhouse bagging plastic Oscar toys and are told that some inmates sharpen them to use as shivs. Later, someone is shivved with a sharpened Oscar.
* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'', it's eventually revealed that Cicada's dagger was made from a piece of metal that hit him when the previous ArcVillain [=DeVoe=]'s satellite crashed.

* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' features shivs as a craftable item, made from duct tape and scissor blades. They're used both for stealth-killing clickers, which are immune to normal stealth kills, and opening locked doors.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': The Sniper's Tribalman's Shiv does half the damage of his kukri but inflicts bleeding.
* In the quest "No One Escapes Cidhna Mine" from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', one of the key items that you need to obtain in order to get to Madanach, the leader of the Forsworn, is a shiv, which you have to trade to Borkul the Beast. The shiv itself doesn't get used as a weapon unless you've opted to kill everyone in the mine -- the pickaxes that all of the prisoners use make for nasty weapons themselves.

* Videogame/{{Shank}}'s signature (and namesake) weapon is a [[DualWielding pair]] of irregular, jagged, menacing shards of metal with makeshift tape grips. They are sharp enough to decapitate a person.
* ''VideoGame/TheEscapists'': Shivs of various descriptions can be made or found, with varying degrees of effectiveness. Toothbrush and Comb Shivs are easily created (toothbrushes and combs are common items and can be sharpened on any wall), but have pitiful damage and are better used as favor-earning tokens for other prisoners. Glass shards can be fashioned into very effective shanks, but are much harder to amass the materials for, as duct tape and glass are contraband.

* In the final battle in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood'', Red Hood tries to stab Batman with a broken piece of tile, but he's quickly disarmed and forced to fight (unsuccessfully) with his bare hands.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

[[folder: Web Comics]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* In ''Film/SonOfAGun'', JR wakes up one night and discovers his cellmate sharpening a toothbrush into a shiv. After his cellmate attempts to commit suicide, JR starts carrying the shiv: looking to get some payback on Dave. Sterlo uses a shiv to take one of the guards hostage during the Great Escape.

* In ''Film/TheEscapist'', Rizza hands a shiv made from a melted plastic comb to one of his defaulting customers and gives him the choice of cutting off his thumb or three fingers. The jumpy con chooses his thumb. Later, Frank hands Rizza a shiv in his cell [[spoiler:which Rizza then uses to stab Frank when he realizes he has lost hos power over him]].

* Comes up in ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'' on multiple occasions. During orientation, inmates are shown a toothbrush with a razor blade melted into the handle (later, a similar implement is used by [[spoiler:Pennsatucky]] in the shower). [[spoiler:Pennsatucky]] also has a wooden crucifix that has been sharpened to a point. At one point, Piper accidentally takes a screwdriver from the electrical shop that causes the prison to go into a panic due to its potential use as a weapon ([[spoiler:and later, the same screwdriver is returned to Piper specifically to be used as a weapon]]). In the second season, one of the elderly inmates repeatedly stabs another inmate with a shiv [[spoiler:after mistaking her for Vee]].

* ''WesternAnimatin/TUFFPuppy'': Quacky the Duck apparently used one to carve his plans for revenge on Dudley into the walls of his jail cell.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' has Bender locked up in robot jail, so to protect himself from the other inmates he takes out a knife to whittle a shiv out of a tree branch.

Shivs (sometimes known as shanks, as the names are interchangeable) are a common staple of most shows relating to the goings-on inside a prison, most often used for the purpose of trying to kill another inmate, either as an ordered hit for someone that's high up, or as retribution for something that the designated target did at a prior point. Bonus points if they come out during a PrisonRiot. Some inmates construct and carry shivs for the purpose of protecting themselves from violence. However, this is rarely shown, and even if it was, the punishment is the same, no matter what the reason it was made.

* ''ComicBook/{{Kaijumax}}'' is set in a prison, so naturally shivs make an appearance — but it's a prison for {{Kaiju}}, so they're made out of sharpened pieces of a cargo ship's hull.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/PrisonIslandBreak'' features lots and lots of shivs made of lots of things, from boring old razors, to broken dinner trays and hardened toilet paper. VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog in particular is portrayed as being able to make a shiv out of anything and having a HammerSpace of improvised weapons that he might produce at any moment, including plastic forks.

* Shivs are featured a considerable bit in ''Film/EachDawnIDie'' and at least one inmate (and possibly an abusive guard) meet their end this way. A newspaper article detailing the murder of the inmate goes as far as to report that the weapon was fashioned from a file. For some reason all the shivs look to be constructed in the same manner.
* In ''Film/ErnestGoesToJail'' a shanking doesn't occur but it's threatened if Ernest isn't allowed to win an arm wrestling match to maintain appearances that the inmate Nash is still safely locked up.

* ''Film/TheGrandBudapestHotel'': The 'throat-slitter' made by M. Gustave's cellmates. It is used both to slice up the Mendl's pastries smuggled to them, and for its named purpose during the GreatEscape.

* in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', inmates at the Kyln threaten Gamora with a variety of shivs. Since the place is a HellholePrison where the guards don't care what the prisoners do to each other as long as they don't make messes, the shivs range from as big as daggers to as big as machetes and some show quite a bit of craftsmanship.

* In ''Film/ReformSchoolGirls'', Charlie carries a shiv made from a razorblade mounted in a toothbrush handle. She threatens to cut Jenny's face with it in an early scene.

* ''Film/EscapeFromAlcatraz'': After Frank rejects Wolf's advances, he tries to knife Frank in the prison yard with a shiv. Frank manages to hold him off, and Wolf attacks one of the guards who tries to intervene, getting himself almost a year in solitary for it. When he gets out, he attempts to do the same thing, but switches tactics by having another con smuggle in the shiv for him.
* ''Film/TheCriminal'': Pauly is caught with with a shiv on him (possibly planted) during a shakedown by the warders. This is the event that triggers the PrisonRiot.

* ''Series/{{Bones}}'': The episode "Prisoner in the Pipe" dealt with an inmate being stabbed with a shiv, dissolved in acetic vinegar and flushed down the plumbing system. However the killer failed to dispose of the shiv that was used due to holding the IdiotBall.

* One episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' featured a shanking a juvenile detention facility with a shiv made from a razorblade melted into the handle of a toothbrush.

** The Gillette Bayonet is created by extracting the blade from a disposable razor (hence the name), and placing the blade in the bottom of a pencil or pen. The problem with putting the shiv together, is that you will most likely cut yourself in the process.

** Season 5 starts out with the prison survivors making use of this trope, either by sharpening the metal bits of their clothing, or salvaging broken pieces of wood from the train car they're being held in.

* ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'': Andy Dufresne is threatened with having a shiv shoved through his ear if he doesn't submit to the rape-happy gang known as The Sisters. He manages to escape being raped by bluffing about the biting force of a dying man. ItMakesSenseInContext.

** One is made out of underwear (somehow), and one has a bar of soap as a handle. The soap one is a bit problematic. Earl ultimately decides to go with a sharpened eyeglasses piece wrapped with a sock...but the inmate he made it for uses it against ''him''.

* ''Disney/RalphBreaksTheInternet'': [[spoiler:Parodied; as the Franchise/{{Disney Princess}}es prepare to attack Vanellope, Cinderella breaks one of her glass slippers and points it like a shiv.]]

*

* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' features shivs as a craftable item, made from duct tape and scissor blades.

** The [[PhallicWeapon Don Juan]]: A shiv made from sharpening the coils from the cell beds.