"Knock knock!"
Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram, great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains. Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor, and its hideous head, founded of black steel, was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; on it spells of ruin lay. Grond they named it, in memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old. Great beasts drew it, orcs surrounded it, and behind walked mountain-trolls to wield it...
When you want to enter a structure, you politely knock on the door. When the door does not open after that, you knock harder.
A common element in sieges is the use of a large blunt object to batter down the fortification's gate. The type of object varies depending on the attacker, from tree trunks barely cleared of branches to metal-capped beams carried and swung on a wheeled carriage. Some can even be fully covered by a protective shield to ward off arrows and oil. Just watch out if the gate opens just as you're about to hit.
This is very common in fiction. After all, it's dramatic, looks cool, and has plenty of basis in Real Life. The Theory of Narrative Causality, however, means that it's only effective half the time. If they are successful, it's Breaching the Wall.
Even in modern times, this trope and breaching tool is still rather prevalent, especially if it involves SWAT teams and other law-enforcement. Although it can also be seen in the hands of military and the like, usually just to breach doors, although rarely there are times when they are used as weapons in and of themselves.
Sometimes, a person has to be substituted as the battering ram, mostly through his head. Other times, a large, powerful animal or monster may be used in this capacity instead.
If you use a vehicle as the ram, then you have found that Ramming Always Works. If the vehicle is an automobile, then you have mastered the art of Car Fu. See also Anti-Structure.
Examples:
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Card Games
- Magic: The Gathering: Battering Ram
destroys walls that block it. It's a relatively weak artifact creature in and of itself, but can team up with another attacking creature so that anything that blocks the one also has to fight the other.
Comic Books
- Kajko I Kokosz: Used twice. On one occasion, Clumsy suggests that the brigands simply break down the town's gate (as opposed to coming up with scheme of the week) They agree to the plan but forget to bring the ram and end up using Clumsy's head instead. On the other occasion the one shot villains, the Falcon Band, break down the gate with a ram, only to realize that the heroes had covered it with glue the night before.
- The Smurfs: Used in "The Fake Smurf" (and its Animated Adaptation). Also used in "The Smurfs And The Book That Tells Everything" to pound open Brainy's door, until Brainy opens the door and lets the Smurfs with the ram enter only to crash into a wall.
- Tintin: In Tintin: The Red Sea Sharks Tintin and Haddock use a heavy chest as an improvised battering ram to escape the cabin they have been locked up in.
Films — Animation
- Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods: As Astérix and Petiminus are trying to break into the building where Obélix is held, a dimwitted Roman soldier arrives... and joins them in trying to open the door, then is promoted to living battering ram. When that still fails, Dulcina steps in to pick the lock.
- Disney Animated Canon:
- Beauty and the Beast: The villagers cut down a large tree as they're marching on the Beast's castle, and use it to force open the castle door.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Quasimodo drops a long piece of wood onto the rabble attacking Notre Dame and the rabble use it as an improvised battering ram.
- Mulan: When Shan-Yu takes the Emperor hostage inside the Imperial Palace, Shang and the others use one of the guardian dog statues to try to break in.
- Jackboots on Whitehall: Those Wacky Nazis try to break down Hadrian's Wall with a battering ram mounted on the front of a Kettenkrad!
- Madagascar: After Melman washes up in the island and Alex can't pull him out of his crate, he tries to use a log to force him out. Melman panics as he runs toward him, but Alex stops by mere inches when he yells that Gloria has also just washed up.
"GIRAFFE, CORNER POCKET!"
- In The Return of Hanuman, the villagers uses a piece of log to break into Maruti's house.
- Toy Story 2: Rexy gets volunteered to break down a door, using his massive head in the obvious way.
Rexy: "But I don't wanna use my head!"
Films — Live-Action
- In Braveheart, the hero and his man are seen ramming in the gate to York. This gets an added Incendiary Exponent — if the door doesn't fall down it can burn down.
- Camel Spiders: When the cast come to the rich guys' facility to hide from the camel spiders, they try to get the keys to the front gate from said rich guys. When they refuse to hand the keys over, Captain Sturges has Sgt. Underwood ram the gate, which she does with gusto.
- While Nick Fury is being assaulted by HYDRA agents disguised as law enforcement in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The "SWAT team" deploy a futuristic high-powered battering ram (it even needs to drill itself to the ground just so it won't go flying) to destroy the insanely durable windows on Fury's high-tech SUV, which has strong enough armor to almost rival a tank's.
- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The apes and gorillas are shown using the handheld version, only to leap out of the way when Koba comes riding up on a runaway armoured vehicle. The steel doors come crashing down under the impact, and the human defenses quickly fall once the numerically superior apes swarm inside.
- Dragnet features an LAPD vehicle which is a cross between a battering ram and a tank.
- In Flavia the Heretic, the Muslim warriors leads to attack the convent use a battering ram to smash down the doors.
- In The Flesh and the Fiends, the angry mob uses a battering ram to break down the doors of the warehouse where Burke and Hare are hiding.
- In Fury (1936), an angry mob uses a large wooden beam to break open the door to the sheriff's quarters.
- The Great Bank Robbery: After numerous unsuccessful assaults, the Mexican bandits successfully smash their way into the fortress-like bank using a giant tree trunk as a ram, only to learn the bank's already been robbed by someone else.
- In Hairspray, despite ample security outside Velma forces all the security guards out there in response to the heroes' diversion (Wilbur dressed as Tracy), getting them locked out. The guards then beat down the door with a hairspray battering ram, with Tracy secretly hiding inside.
- The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: Hilariously combined with Use Your Head. When the orc forces begin their attack on Dale, a troll with huge chunk of stones tied to his head rams the wall as a living battering ram and then... promptly flops back after knocking himself out.
- Hot Fuzz: two huge chains of shopping carts were used as this.
- House of 9: After being informed they are trapped in the house, the prisoners use the heavy table as a battering ram to try to smash out through the bricked-up entrance, to no avail.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame: In the 1923, 1939, and 1956 adaptations, Quasimodo drops a big wooden beam onto the rabble attacking Notre Dame to get Esmeralda back, and the rabble use it as an improvised battering ram.
- A living version occurs in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Our heroes find themselves locked in cage, but fortunately there's a Stygimoloch imprisoned in the cell next to him that Owen incites into smashing down first the brick wall between them, then the gate of the cage.
- Kingdom of Heaven: Saladin's Muslim army tries using a battering ram against the doors of Jerusalem during their siege of the city, only for the ram and its crew to have flammable oil poured on them, with the expected result.
- The Lord of the Rings:
- In The Two Towers, the Uruk-hai use a battering ram against Helm's Deep's gates.
- Likewise, the orc army in The Return of the King uses a battering ram to attack the gates of Mines Tirith. Their standard battering ram has absolutely no effect on the gate, so they bring up Grond...
Gothmog: What are you doing, you useless scum?
Murgash: The door won't give! It's too strong!
Gothmog: Get back there, and smash it down!
Murgash: But nothing can breach it!
Gothmog: ...Grond will breach it. Bring up the wolf's head!
- The Man with Two Brains: Some policemen attempt to use one to break into an apartment.
- In The Pirate Movie, the pirates use a battering ram to... ring the doorbell. On their second charge, the butler opens the door and they charge through.
- In The Prince of Thieves, Sir Fitz-Alwin's men use a battering ram to break down the door of the Head household while Friar Tuck is desperately trying to barricade it.
- In Robin Hood: The Rebellion, Guy of Gisborne orders his men to fetch a battering ram to break the door when Robin and his band lock themselves in the armoury.
- Siege of the Dead: the protagonist constructs a Rammbock to break through the walls of the apartment building he's trapped in during a Zombie Apocalypse.
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi: On Crait, the First Order uses a blaster cannon based on the Death Star superlaser technology as a high-tech battering ram, to breach the massive armored door of the old Rebel base.
- Strippers Vs. Werewolves: Barker, to get at two of the girls in an apartment, smashes his way through the door using his own body.
- Treasure Island (1934): A bunch of pirates after a treasure map break their way through into an inn with a log acting as a makeshift battering ram.
- Under the Shadow: At the end of the movie, Shideh uses her car to ram through the apartment garage door.
- In Up the Chastity Belt, Sir Braggart's men use a battering in an attempt to break into Lukalot's workshop, but he defeats them with Door Judo.
- In The Vikings, the eponymous Vikings bring big wheels with them on their longships, and upon landing in Northumbria, they turn the biggest tree they can find into a battering ram with the aforementioned wheels. They use it to destroy the door of the first line of defense of Aella's castle in one go, by simply throwing it at high speed against said door. It also serves as a makeshift bridge since said door is a closed drawbridge.
- The War Lord: For their second attempt to storm the Normans' tower, the Frisians build a battering ram with trees, and cow skin for protection. They damage the tower's door but the Normans manage to topple the ram into the moat before they completely destroy the door. When the night comes, the Frisians come back with torches and fire wood to burn down what's left of the door.
- Young Frankenstein: When the angry mob attacks the castle, they use Inspector Kemp (with his artificial arm extended) as their battering ram.
Literature
- Able Team: Carl Lyons takes part in a SWAT raid and notes with amusement that their battering ram has the letters L.A.P.D. engraved in reverse on the head, so it would stamp them on any door it's rammed into.
- Animorphs: Jake's rhinoceros morph and Rachel's elephant morph are used as living versions of this on a number of occasions.
- The Horse and His Boy: In the climatic battle, Prince Rabadash attempts to use a battering ram to force his way into King Lune’s castle, in order to provide a safe haven for his troops in hostile territory. This fails for two reasons. One, his initial plan was to catch the people of the Northlands completely unprepared when he treacherously came to kidnap Queen Susan. Cutting down a tree to use as a makeshift ram was an improvisation (and sardonically noted, not a very good one at that). Two, the rams men find themselves facing down multiple big cats of the lion and panther variety before they can breach the castle gate. It ends poorly for them.
- The Infected has a curious incident in which a battering ram, mounted in some kind of IFV, is used to bring down a chain-link fence. Nevermind that an armored vehicle could probably bring down the fence by simply driving through it.
- The Lord of the Rings: The army attacking Minas Tirith uses a battering ram called Grond against its gates. Aside from its immense size, "on it spells of ruin lay" suggesting a magical component as well. The Witch-King then adds his own magic to it, or possibly activates the spells on Grond.
- Masters of Rome: Julius Caesar is fond of using "battering ram" as an Unusual Euphemism for his... you know what.
- In The Mouse That Roared, the solders of Grand Fenwick need to get past a locked door at the New York Institute of Physics. So they chop down a tree and cover one end with a chain mail shirt. They then batter down the door. Cut to later on as an almost crying historian examines the chain mail shirt and laments over the destruction of a perfect replica of ancient chain mail.
- Pyramids has Alfonse, a pirate covered in highly explicit tattoos who appears to have found employment as a battering ram in the past. He also turns into a shamefaced wreck when the woman in charge of the palace handmaidens' education uses him as a living diagram, his fingers stuck in his ears as hard as he can.
Live-Action TV
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: A device similar to the "big red key" is used by "real" S.H.I.E.L.D. to break into a Hulk-proof safehouse in "Afterlife".
- Barbary Coast: The Crusaders use a battering ram to break down the doors of the police station when they drag Diamond Jack Bassiter out and lynch him in the pilot movie.
- The Bill: A smaller version that can be operated by one person, referred to by British Coppers everywhere as "the big red key", has shown up a few times.
- Brainiac: Science Abuse: Brainiac: History Abuse had the Brainiac Battering Ram Squad, whose job was hitting things with a battering ram.
- Dad's Army: In "Museum Piece", the platoon uses a battering ram in an attempt to break down the doors of the museum, only to be defeated by some Door Judo by the museum caretaker.
- Knight Rider: In "Knight of the Juggernaut", KITT gets seriously smashed up despite being Made of Indestructium when it's Car Fued by a massive armored vehicle with an extendible battering ram. They do better the second time round, when the Oil Slick is used to make the juggernaut ram into a truck loaded with aviation fuel instead.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The Orcs use a wooden battering ram to break into the building the remaining peasants took shelter.
- Masada: In 73 AD, the Romans build and use a battering ram with a massive ram-shaped metal head mounted on a siege tower to bring down the wall of the eponymous mountaintop fortress of Masada, the Last Bastion of the Jewish Zealots in Judea.
- Monty Python's Flying Circus: In "The Bishop" sketch, the Bishop's acolytes use one of their number as a battering ram at one point.
- Power Rangers Turbo: In the end of the series, the Big Bad's Mooks enter the command center using one of these.
- Red Dwarf: In one episode, the crew needs a battering ram to get through a series of doors. "All we need is something, say, I dunno, six foot long, fairly sturdy, with a flat top." Everyone looks at Kryten. "Fifty-three doors? You can't be serious!" Fifty-three doors later...
Lister: Kryten, are you okay?
Kryten: I'm fine, thank you Susan! - The Professionals. In "First Night", CI5 weld a pointed steel ram on the front of a truck-mounted lift platform—which an Uzi-armed Bodie is riding—to smash through the upstairs window to a room where an Israeli minister is being held hostage.
- Through the Dragon's Eye: Scott and Boris attempt to use Boris's cricket bat (which can grow when Boris commands it) as one in an attempt to break down a locked door in a tree. Gorwen quickly puts a stop to it because Boris cannot fly without his bat, so if it is in splinters, he won't be able to return to Pelemar.
- The Twilight Zone (1959): In "The Shelter", Dr. Bill Stockton's neighbors fashion one together to break into his bomb shelter. Immediately after they break the shelter's door down, they learn from a CONELRAD broadcast that the unidentified objects were satellites as opposed to missiles.
Pinball
- In Foo Fighters (2023), the band uses a variant at the start of Area 51 Multiball: holding Pat Smear like a traditional ram and bashing open a door with his head.
Radio
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons has both the traditional version (check the Dungeon Master's Guide) and smaller man-portable rams similar to the type used by police in Real Life. Dragon magazine has also had at least two articles on siege-warfare that include magical rams.
- Lancer has the Juggernaut Talent, for when you want to use your mecha as a massive ram. Several chassis also have innate abilities that help with this, such as Tortuga's Siege Ram
- Warhammer 40,000 has the Caestus Assault Ram, a spacecraft intended to get close to enemy flagships, fire a magnamelta shot at it, then ram through the now-softened armor to deliver a squad of Space Marines inside. Later someone figured that what can ram a Mile-Long Ship without damage to itself or passengers will probably work well against ground targets as well.
Theater
- Lysistrata: This occurs when Greece's women have barricaded themselves in the Acropolis and vowed to withhold sex from their husbands until they call off The Peloponnesian War. So we get a scene where the much-deprived men of Athens grab a big trunk of wood and ram it against the doors of the Acropolis again and again, desperately trying to force their way inside.
Toys
Video Games
- Age of Empires II: Battering rams are one of four siege units you can build in the Siege Workshop. They are slow but are capable of demolishing buildings in seconds. In addition, it's high pierce armor makes them perfect meatshields against archer-focused civilizations.
- Age of Mythology: The Norse get light man-portable rams. The Egyptians and Greeks opt to use siege towers with rams in the base.
- Age of Wonders: In the first game, rams are the most basic way to get past enemy walls. Even small villages can build them. However, their slowness makes them difficult to use.
- All Points Bulletin has these for the Enforcers when the player is to breach a door or car to get to an item.
- Bastion: Near the end, the player character receives one as a weapon... which he carries himself. He can use to smash down doors and clear the room of obstacles and enemies in a single move. However, it slows him down to a crawl, turning him into a Mighty Glacier.
- Civilization: Attila and the Huns have this as a unique Ancient Era unit in the fifth game, where it is extremely effective in the Ancient Era, capable of taking down any city in two hits or less. The battering ram would make a return in the sixth game as an Ancient Era unit for all civilizations, which provided the ability for melee units to bypass the wall health of a city when attacking.
- Conqueror's Blade: in most sieges, the attacking team gets one or more battering rams to use to break down the enemy gates.
- The second enemy type to appear in Defend Your Castle carry battering rams for more damage at the cost of lower speed.
- The first obtainable vehicle in Desert Breaker have a massive mechanized ram attached to it's front for smashing enemies from up close, but that's it's sole attack.
- Dragon Age: Inquisition: During the "Here Lies the Abyss" quest, the eponymous military force assaults an ancient fortress called Adamant. Part of the assault involves swinging a battering ram at the door; it's shaped like a giant arm clutching some kind of weapon in its fist.
- Dynasty Warriors: One of the many siege weapons available. 8 also has the "Siege Spear" wielded by Xiahou Ba: a bizarre fusion of a spear and a rocket-propelled battering ram.
- The Elder Scrolls Online: One of the siege weapons. Beware when using it, however: a player defending the keep may pour flaming oil down on you.
- Empire Earth: In the early ages, the very first siege weapon available is the Samson, an infantry unit carrying a huge log he repeatedly bashes against whatever building he's pointed at. Due to Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors, he's unable to attack anything but buildings. Later eras have wheeled battering rams that can still only attack buildings and are best used in large groups (the AI certainly will).
- Final Fantasy XIV: The end of the Stomrblood story has a unique take on the trope. The huge door leading into the city of Ala Mhigo is sealed shut. How does the Alliance get it open? By having their black mages all cast their fire and ice spells on the door at the same time to weaken it, followed by a barrage of cannonballs until they blow a huge hole in the door.
- Kingdoms Of Camelot has battering rams as a weapon. They're a higher-level weapon, not unlocked until the player has a level 9 Barracks and several high level researches completed. They also tend to require a lot of food upkeep, so they aren't trained quite as often as foot or horse troops. They are great for attacking other players' cities, though you have to watch out for defensive trebuchets, which specifically target siege weaponry.
- Steelborn: Your Walking Tank have a short-range attack that deals far better damage than it's default turrets, via an extendable battering ram to it's front. Which can take out a row of enemies from point-blank.
- In Stronghold, engineers build rams on the field and must man them to be usable.
- Total War: A reliable way to smash through city or castle gates in many games, assuming enemy archers don't get lucky and set it alight with flaming arrows... or it's not late enough in the game for the enemy settlement to have cannon towers that smash the ram to splinters in one shot. Unlike many video game examples, these rams aren't constructed normally, but built by your armies in the field once they besiege a settlement.
- War elephants can also be used as battering rams.
- Total War: Warhammer includes the ram when besieging, but it becomes redundant for some races who have access to monstrous creatures (such as giants, Dragon Ogres, or Varghulfs) who are more agile and durable than a wooden ram and can smash a gate apart just as easily.
- Warcraft III has the Steam Tank/Siege Engine, which (despite being a steam-powered tank) is functionally a battering ram, as it has very short range and can only target buildings. In the expansion, it gains a Macross Missile Massacre attack against air units.
Webcomics
- Girl Genius: Along with a more traditional example, the comic features something a bit different in the form of a gigantic, flesh-and-blood ram sent to headbutt the gates of Mechanicsburg.
General Zog: At least it ain't vun ov de vuns vot breathe fire. Dose vuns wos alvays hexplodeink ven dey hit.
- In The Senkari, a dragon serves as a makeshift battering ram.
Web Videos
- Crossed Liness: In episode 5, Nightmares, after getting word that Zebedee has been shoved into the Masonry Bridge scrapyard smelter shed by Whistler, Ince Castle commandeers a nearby breakdown train and uses it to ram the doors to the smelter shed open.
Western Animation
- Fairly OddParents: "Information Stupor Highway" used battering rams in a Running Gag.
- Motorcity: Texas's car, Stronghorn, has one.
- Looney Tunes:
- In "Red Riding Hoodwinked," the Big Bad Wolf uses a log this way to bust down the back door to Grandma's House. But then he encounters Sylvester's own solution: a boulder slingshot from the front door.
- In "Mouse Divided," this is how a horde of cats attempts to access Sylvester's house. He answers with Door Judo.
- The Simpsons: One time when Maggie Simpson is locked inside the bathroom all by herself, Bart uses Homer's head as a battering ram to try to open the door.
Real Life
- Police forces and fire brigades use smaller versions of battering rams to access locked doors. The former tends to use them on particularly stubborn suspects who refuse to come out of the room they're locked in, making it a real life example of Cutting the Knot. The latter use it to open any door they deem necessary to put out a blaze as quickly as possible while mitigating any potential damage. You might lose a door, but at least you'll get your man or get the flame put out.
- Luftwaffe named a heavily armoured and armed version of Focke-Wulf 190A-8 as Sturmbock ("battering ram"). Why? Because it was intended to bring down the Flying Fortress! Some time in the 1950s, Popular Mechanics ran a front-page article proposing to take this more literally. Machine guns and cannon couldn't reliably bring down a huge multi-engined bomber and reliable guided missiles were some way off, so why not design a fighter that could just smash into them and (hopefully) come through mostly intact? Not surprisingly, the idea was never pursued by the US Air Force or any aircraft designers.
