History Main / WithMyHandsTied

* In the parody video ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUoEViYG7Nc Super Natraps X' Turbo]]'', Sylvia, the DistressedDamsel in ''VideoGame/KungFuMaster'', beats all the enemies in a stage while tied to a chair. She still can't climb the stairs at the end.

* On ''{{Dexter}}'', the title character is kidnapped, tied up and thrown in the back of a van by a dirty cop trying to force a confession out of him. Dexter kicks the into his face, then manages to wrestle the man's knife from him and take him down with his hands still tied.

* Kuroda Kanbei in ''SengokuBasara'' combines this with EpicFlail. He fights with manacles on his wrists, attached to a giant steel ball which he can swing around with ease. A RunningGag is his failed attempts to remove the shackles.

* Ryuji Yamazaki of the ''FatalFury'' and ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' series kicks copious amounts of ass with one hand in his pocket.

* ''Film/{{FX}}: Murder by Illusion'' (1986). The protagonist is able to knock out the hitman and ties him up with his hands behind his back; but when the hitman revives he's able to partially free himself (in the middle of their struggle) by leaping up in the air and whipping his bound hands underneath his feet in one movement.

* Vaelia of ''{{Drowtales}}'', a recently bought slave, [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=4425 took on the fully armour Jer'kol]] when he tried to suffocate Ariel. Vaelia is still wearing shackles and Jer'kol is ''fully armoured and armed''.

* Badou Nails from ''DOGSBulletsAndCarnage'' once gunned down several people while his arms were tied behind his back and bound to a chair.

* During ''OnePiece'''s current arc (Fishman Island), [[spoiler: Luffy manages to beat down Vander Decken with both his arms and legs tied together]].

* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' - the CowardlyLion tries to start a fight with the others, snorting "I'll fight ya with one hand behind my back!" It doesn't go well for him.

In some modern works, this is parodied by having the characters ''[[WillfullyWeak willingly]]'' impose a handicap to make things "fairer" for the enemies.

* ''Film/KillerElite''. The hitman protagonist Danny is tied to a chair by his antagonist, ex-SAS man Logan for interrogation and killing. A third party then enters and takes Danny prisoner, binding his hands behind his back. This leads to a three-way fight involving two bound badasses trying to kill their captor and each other at the same time.

* ''TheWizardOfOz'' - the CowardlyLion tries to start a fight with the others, snorting "I'll fight ya with one hand behind my back!" It doesn't go well for him.
* ''CasinoRoyale1967'' - Archvillain Woody Allen tries to show to a captured agent that he's just as manly as his uncle Sir James Bond - he sits down at a piano and masterfully plays some Debussy (a passionate pursuit of Sir James), then goes all "Look, one hand!" - then hastily hammers the piano off when it keeps playing without him.
* ''Film/KillerElite''. The hitman protagonist Danny (JasonStatham) is tied to a chair by his antagonist, ex-SAS man Logan (CliveOwen) for interrogation and killing. A third party then enters and takes Danny prisoner, binding his hands behind his back. This leads to a three-way fight involving two bound badasses trying to kill their captor and each other at the same time.

* In ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', Jaime Lannister, an in-universe MemeticBadass and widely considered to be the greatest fighter in the Seven Kingdoms, gets into a sword fight with Brienne of Tarth, whose first on-screen action was to defeat something like forty other knights, including a young knight who is generally thought of as the new Jaime. Jaime's hands are shackled together at the time, and he'd been locked in a dungeon for some time prior to the fight. Brienne is arguably also hampered in that fight by her oath not to do any harm to Jaime until they reach their destination, and is on the defensive until he starts to taunt her. They fight for what's implied to be the better part of a day, and by the time they're done they've both lost their swords and been injured. It only ends when they're interrupted while grappling. [[spoiler:Most fans give that fight to Brienne, as she was (successfully, until the interruption) trying to drown Jaime in a creek.]] Each is astonished at the other's skill, with Jaime later judging the strength of his oponents by Brienne (and finding them wanting,) and Brienne mentioning that no knight she's ever faced would be able to withstand Jaime at his full strength.

->--'''Aang''' (who promptly does so), ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''

* The film of ''CharliesAngels'' had Drew Barrymore's character fight off a group of minions while ''tied to a chair''. Why didn't they simply grab her from the back?
* Done beautifully in a deleted scene from ''TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' in which Roland picks a fight with a womanizing man who harasses one of the waitresses at the bar/restaurant they are both at. The man sizes up Roland, then boasts he could beat Roland with one hand behind his back. Cut to Roland having a hand tied behind his own back, then as the other man attempts to correct Roland's "mistake", gets punched out, slammed into a table and a pole or two, then has his ''[[SugarWiki/MomentofAwesome nose broken by Roland's single hand crushing it with his index and middle fingers]]''.
* Jackie Chan, in ''RushHour'', had a nice battle with both his hands cuffed to a (removed) steering wheel. He also manages to go over a twelve-foot wall with his hands still chained. The post-movie blooper reel has a screamingly funny outtake of the wall climb...

* ''{{FX}}: Murder by Illusion'' (1986). The protagonist is able to knock out the hitman and ties him up with his hands behind his back; but when the hitman revives he's able to partially free himself (in the middle of their struggle) by leaping up in the air and whipping his bound hands underneath his feet in one movement.

* Not tied up, but in ''ThePresidio'', Sean Connery wins a bar fight using only his right thumb, explaing that his "left is much too powerful".
* In ''BoondockSaints II: All Saints Day'', Romeo has his hands chained behind his back while he fights a large Frenchman. Romeo dodges his attacks, flips the chains to his front and takes the man down with a submission.

* In ''/WesternAnimation/{{Motorcity}}'', Mike is able to take out Kane's guards with his hands tied behind his back, with Chuck tied to him, and in the series finale he even [[spoiler:takes out Red while chained to a wall--after having been tortured for days]].

* When Gambit is captured along with the other Comicbook/{{X-Men}} in mutant-enslaving Genosha and is hanging by his shackled arms, he deliberately allows himself to be impaled with a steel spike-- which he works out, drops and catches it between his feet, then ''with his feet'' over his head picks an ''electronic'' lock and frees himself.

* Though he's not technically tied, the effect is much like it: in the first arc of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', the nerves from both of Zabuza's arms are effectively nullified, rendering him unable to fight while Kakashi gives him the standard "surrender, you can't keep fighting" lecture... until he catches a kunai ''[[CutlassBetweenTheTeeth with his teeth]]'' and proceeds to gut an entire army of mooks with it.

* Oro from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'' has one arm tied inside of his . He refuses to use it until and unless he finds an opponent his equal.

* ''Manga/DragonBall Z'' subverts this at the beginning of Goku's fight with Frieza. Frieza initially offers to fight Goku without the use of his hands. By the end of the episode he finds himself forced to break his pledge to counter an attack by Goku. Goku offers him a chance to try again, but Frieza refuses.

* Before the Z, at the climax of the initial Demon King Piccolo storyline in ''DragonBall'', [[spoiler:Piccolo gets Goku to stand and take his long distance attacks by threatening to kill Tenshinhan. Goku had already had one leg broken at this point, and Piccolo uses the circumstances to break Goku's other leg and one of his arms before taking off to finish Goku with death from above. Goku manages to use that one working arm tou counterattack, punching a hole through King Piccolo]].