Catch and Return

If they throw it back, you can get a good rally going.

"It's all in the reflexes."

— Jack Burton, Big Trouble in Little China

Well, fiddlesticks. Looks like someone's being attacked with a projectile weapon. It could be Arrows, bullets, or throwing knives, and just to make things worse, the character in question is unarmed. How on Earth can they defend themselves from such a vicious onslaught? Simple, really. Stretch out that hand, grab the weapon that's being hurled, and fling it straight back to the attacker! That'll teach anybody to try and screw around with long range combat.

To understand the Real Life viability of this trope, first, look at Arrow Catch and Bullet Catch. Take the probability of pulling off such a catch, multiply by itself, and that's roughly the chance of this working, at least, as far as launched weapons go. Thrown weapons can vary, depending on size, pointiness, and victim's preparation. Lobbing a ball-sized object at a lacrosse player? Justified. Flinging a shuriken at a naturist? Not as much.

This trope is the concept behind many a Counter-Attack. Compare Attack Reflector, which doesn't bother with the catching part, and Lodged-Blade Recycling, for when said part goes awry. See also Return to Shooter, Tennis Boss. Grenade Hot Potato is a subtrope if this involves an energy projectile and/or explosives like dynamite or grenades, this may lead to a case of Hoist by Their Own Petard if it kills the attacker who threw it.

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Examples:

Animation

• BoBoiBoy Galaxy: In "A Fiery Fight", Sai throws his shield at BoBoiBoy Fire, who narrowly dodges it. Sai directs it back towards his opponent, but to his shock, he catches it from behind and proceeds to set his shield on fire before throwing it back.

Anime & Manga

• In Azumanga Daioh, Sakaki intercepts a snowball aimed at Chiyo, and then flings it right back at Kagura (see the page pic).
• Sebastian from Black Butler does this in the freaking opening. And it's not a stylistic exaggeration for the purposes of a cool opening, either. He really is just that badass.
• In Bleach,
  • Nell, in her adult form, as well as in her child form, protects Ichigo by taking Nnoitra's cero by her mouth then spits it back at him with her own cero strengthening it.
  • Ukitake's shikai can absorb an attack with the left blade and fire it back (with increased speed) with the other.
  • Ichigo later demonstrates the ability to do this in his fight with the Quincy Kirpe.
• The sixth episode of Bubblegum Crisis has Largo do this after Priss tries shooting him with her railgun.
• A Certain Magical Index:
  • Touma Kamijou eventually realizes that since his Imagine Breaker doesn't make very large or powerful attacks disappear instantly, he can catch the blast and throw it back.
  • Since Accelerator controls vectors, he can catch attacks, amplify them, and throw them back. He usually does it with enemy attacks, but he can also do it with a teammate's attack to strengthen it.
• Devilman:
  • The title character manages to catch a whole tree telekinetically flung at him by Sirene and fling it back at the flinger. But then, he is the (literally) goddamn Devilman!
  • In the 2018 adaptation DEVILMAN crybaby, Ryo Asuka does this using his psychic abilities to take out an American strike team firing on him after he goes to the Amazon and finds out his true identity as Satan.
• In Digimon Frontier, this is Mercurymon's preferred form of attack. He's able to return any ranged attack fired at him, even those used by Digimon much stronger than him, by catching them with one of his mirror shields and shooting the projectiles back through either one. That said, he can only block melee attacks like Lobomon's Laser Blades.
• Dragon Ball
  • Used at the start of Dragon Ball Z by new arrival on Earth, Raditz. With a bullet. Which he flicks back harder than the gun that originally fired it.
  • In a Call-Back to the above example, an episode of Dragon Ball Super has Goku catch and fling a bullet back at an attempted truck thief. This being Goku, he flicks the bullet back much slower, only knocking the robber unconscious.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: Akisame's fight with Alexander Gaidar. Gaidar throws an enormous bundle of rebar at Akisame. Akisame hurls it back at Gaidar and hits a steel girder, causing the bundle to split and the rebar to rain down on Gaidar. Gaidar uses it to make a pretty sculpture, which he hurls at Akisame, who catches it, reconstructs it into his own sculpture, and hurls it back.
• In Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture, the noble villain Jamin makes his introduction by calmly catching the bullet fired at him between his index and middle finger. As if to show his contempt for firearms, he then casually flicks the bullet back the person who fired it, killing the man with a headshot.
• In Fate/Zero, Berserker catches all of Gilgamesh's thrown swords and either throws them back or uses them to deflect other swords.
• In Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA, Bazette catches and flings Kuro's arrow back at her after the latter attempts to take her out with the Archer card.
  Bazette: I've already seen this tactic.
• Wuji Chang, hero of the wuxia story Heaven Sword/Dragon Sabre, did this a lot in the Chinese comic adaptation of the story. He was capable of casually deflecting or reflecting any attack his opponents aimed at him, up to an including unarmed attacks. During a fight against 6 martial arts schools, he deflected the attacks of two masters so that their strikes hit each other, and had so perfectly guided them that they hit pressure points and rendered each other immobile. He later one-ups himself when a martial artist attacks him, and he reflects the fighter's attacks back on himself, making the fighter hit his own pressure points and leave the attacker similarly immobile.
  • A more literal example in the novel it was adapted from: two of Chang's uncles were attacked with bombs. They caught (one in each hand) and used them to detonate the next wave of bombs.
• In Fist of the North Star, the protagonist Kenshiro does this fairly often... usually using just two fingers. The technique in question is known as Nishi Shinkuu Ha. It's so typical of Kenshiro and other Hokuto practitioners to do so that the only time it didn't happen it was when Raoh (another Hokuto practitioner) got an arrow in the leg while on a horse, mid-air and fighting Kenshiro to the death. He later proceeds to casually send another arrow back when he's on the ground and off his horse while still in a fight to the death. At the extreme end of the scale, Kenshiro once caught an entire battalion's worth of arrows and returned them in a single motion...killing every single man who fired on him with a precise headshot between the eyes.
• In volume 11 of Goblin Slayer, High Elf Archer catches an arrow and uses it to kill the goblin who fired it.
• In Volume 1 of Lord Marksman and Vanadis, Tigre snaps his hand out in the middle of a conversation, catches an arrow fired at Teita and fires it back for an instant kill.
• Lyrical Nanoha
  • In the A's manga, Suzuka manages to pull this on Fate during a dodgeball game while the latter is about 50 feet in the air and hits her with enough force to knock her out. Bear in mind that Fate is a genetically enhanced Super-Soldier and Suzuka is (presumably) a Muggle.
  • In Chapter 13 of ViVid, Vivio attempts to slip through Einhart's defense by distracting her with a volley of projectiles, a plan that backfires when Einhart catches the projectiles instead of blocking them, then throws them right back at Vivio while she was charging at Einhart.
• One Piece:
  • Luffy does this quite often, usually against Marines. You would think the World Government would realize by now that bullets are ineffective against him. Made even cooler by the fact that pre-timeskip he could only catch them with his rubber body and fling them back randomly. Now, after two years of training, he can aim where they go with deadly accuracy.
  • Jean Ango's method of battling is to acquire weapons off of other people until he's gathered enough, then throw them back at his enemies. He became one of the greatest bounty hunters in this way.
• One-Punch Man: Powerful telekinetic alien Geryuganshoop attacks Saitama with a high-speed shower of rubble. Saitama casually catches one rock from the air and nonchalantly flicks it back, putting a hole through Geryuganshoop's head and ending the fight in one move, as is usual for him.
• Gotou from Parasyte shows that he is not a normal Puppeteer Parasite when he slaughters all soldiers sent after him with their own bullets.
• Happens frequently in the Ranma ½ manga. One memorable instance involves a pair of eggs and a brassiere.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, Metal Robotnik fires a volley of missiles at Sonic. They fly into the distance, and then one missile flies back, with Sonic riding it, steering it right into Metal Robotnik.
• In Stealth Symphony, this is protagonist Jig's main ability, and for much of the series, his only ability. He has a backpack that automatically intercepts any malicious attack aimed at him, absorbs it, and returns its equivalent at double the power back at the attacker. Because it's a Morph Weapon, this even extends to non-projectile attacks, where it catches the attacker's fists, sword, or anything else and morphs into a bigger version of whatever was intended to attack Jig with. That being said, it functions exactly according to the rules: It will not react to attacks done without malicious intent (such as computer-automated weaponry), as well as attacks not targeted at Jig in which Jig happens to be in the way. While these abilities are devastating early on, Jig is soon overpowered by opponents using this Loophole Abuse on him.
• In Toriko, Sunny uses his Touches to deflect or catch and return attacks. He later on learns to strengthen them as well.
• In Xabungle, the Walker Gallier is used to catch and throw back an ICBM launched at the protagonists. The whole thing is highly implausible, but then again this show doesn't take itself seriously at all.

Comic Books

• Bamse has done it with cannonballs. He is superstrong, but how he can be fast enough isn't explained.
• Typhoid Mary, one of Daredevil's more crazed foes, managed to deflect a bullet with a katana, manipulating its path of flight in order to hit the guy who shot at her. While singing.
• In the DC vs Marvel crossover, Bullseye manages to catch one of Batman's batarangs and throws it right back at him. Batman astonished him by being able to duck in time.
• In the 1980s G.I. Joe comic from Marvel, Storm Shadow's Ninja sect weren't considered completely trained until they could catch a sword thrown at them and throw it back at their attacker... and they had to be blindfolded while they demonstrated the ability.
• Shang-Chi did this at least once in Master of Kung-Fu. Probably on the cover.
• New Mutants: Dani Moonstar, in an issue where she was temporarily empowered as a Valkyrie, did this with a missile fired at her from a fighter jet.
• Winter, of Stormwatch, did this with a lot of bullets from a gatling cannon (or two), thanks to his ability to absorb energy (kinetic in this case), then re-apply it in his chosen direction.
• A superpowered Witch Doctor in a Thor comic once caught several volleys of machine gun fire in his hands and threw the bullets back at the aggressors as if he was using guns himself.
• X-Men:
  • Basically Bishop's mutant power — he's able to absorb pretty much any energy directed against him, then redirect it as kinetic energy.
  • Rachel Summers was shot at by a anti-mutant bigot. As she did this maneuver, she pointed out how stupid it was to think he could ambush a telepath, or that bullets would work against a telekinetic. Fortunately for the bigot, Magneto (who was reformed at the time) "caught" the bullet with his own powers.
• In Asterix and the Chieftain's Daughter, thanks to the Magic Potion Asterix catches an arrow between thumb and index finger (an inch from his nose), and then throws it bare-handed back at the archer, cutting the string of his bow.
• Wonder Woman (1987): Artemis meets her death when the White Magician turns an arrow she shot at his eye back around to impale itself in her chest, then grabs another of her arrows to stab her in the abdomen before yanking them both out.
• Paperinik New Adventures: the Raider uses his time-related trickets to make a distortion field which slows a hail of bullets down to a crawl, allowing him to simply grab them and spitefully throw them back at the police (with non-lethal results, fortunately, as they lost all momentum).

Comic Strips

• Calvin and Hobbes:
  • Calvin tries to surprise Susie by throwing a snowball at her in springtime (he kept it in the freezer since last winter). He misses and the snowball harmlessly breaks apart on the sidewalk. As he curses his luck, Susie scoops up the snow, shapes it back into a snowball, and hits him with it. Calvin responds, "The irony of this is just sickening."
  • He tries to chuck a pine cone at her in another strip, only for it to be returned at bullet-like speed. Cut to Susie, coming home in full kit from a lacrosse game.
• Modesty Blaise: In "Guido the Jinx", Willie manages to catch a grenade that is thrown at him by a group of mercenaries and toss it back before it explodes.
• Garfield once did this to a man throwing a flowerpot at him.

Fan Works

• Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger:
  • During the Breach, Jaune kills a Nevermore by using the Force to catch the Feather Flechettes it hurls at him mid-air and send them flying back at the Grimm.
  • When Atlesian soldiers try shooting Darth Nihilus with their assault rifles in Chapter 18, he uses the Force to catch each of the thousands of bullets flying towards him. He then uses the bullets to form a dome around himself before using his telekinesis to send the bullets out in a Multi-Directional Barrage, killing the soldiers as well as some bystanders caught in the crossfire.
  • Later in the same chapter, when Ruby fires two Dust rounds at Nihilus, he uses the Force to catch both bullets and fling them at Ren and Nora.
• In the climax of the Kung Fu Panda story Making the Cut, Jo snatches a throwing star as it is pelted at him and throws it back, killing Master Montenegro.
• In Mass Foundations Redemption in the Stars, The Courier throws a grenade at the Collector-Harbinger, only for the latter to deflect it with a biotic shockwave.
• In Sekirei? Is that some new species of little sister? Naruto's wife Xanna does this with a sniper round. Justified given that she and Naruto are functionally gods. Naruto, who wasn't paying attention to the sniper got hit, only for it to bounce off his forehead.
• Origin Story: Marvin, Louise Fulford's pimp, shoots Alex Harris in the mouth from point blank range. Alex then spits the bullet out onto her hand (mentally commenting that the taste of cordite and gunsmoke is "the most disgusting thing she ever tasted" all the while) and gives it back to him. This has the appropriate psychological effect on Marvin.
• Though Shen is not exactly unarmed, he does make a great example in The Vow. A knife is thrown at his chest when he's in a crouching position, but having trained to be able to counter that move no matter the cost, he strikes the knife with his Iron Claws, catches it with his feathers and immediately throws it back, pinning his opponent to the ground.
• In the Aldo Jones spoof of the Rogue One trailer, a rebel soldier fires an anti-armor missile at an AT-AT walker, which swallows the missile, then spits it back and blows up the rebel.
• Vow of Nudity: As part of the Mook Horror Show while Haara raids the Marquis d'Pratte's chateau, she catches an incoming crossbolt and sends it flying back into the marksman's chest, spooking him so badly he stops partaking in the fight.
• Maria Campbell of the Astral Clocktower: When Maria arrives to rescue Katarina from a kidnapping, the "butler" (actually one of the kidnappers, albeit under duress) throws knives at her. And that's how he ends up with a knife in his hand.
  Rafael: You threw knives at Maria.
  Sora: She threw them back!
  Rafael: Good!

Films — Animation

• Ronin does one of these in Epic. Can be seen at about 1:38 in the second trailer.
• In Kung Fu Panda 2, Po uses this to destroy Lord Shen's cannon ships by catching their cannonballs and throwing them back at them.
• Princess Mononoke: Ashitaka pulls this off but he loads the arrow into his bow rather than throwing it. It's justified in that his arm was cursed with a demon (giving him super strength and reflexes).
• In the animated movie The Swan Princess, Prince Derek plays a training game called Catch-And-Fire, where he catches an arrow fired at him and shoots the same (or a different) target all in one motion. Naturally, he has to use it for real in the Climax.

Films — Live-Action

• Happens at the climax of Big Trouble in Little China. Jack Burton throws his trusty boot knife at Big Bad Lo Pan and misses by a huge margin. Lo Pan picks it up and throws it back — but Jack, in his single most competent moment in the entire film, catches the knife midair before putting it right between Lo Pan's eyes, killing him. "It's all in the reflexes." This is a Meaningful Echo, as we saw Jack demonstrating exactly those reflexes right at the beginning of the movie.
• Happens once in "Brain Smasher ...A Love Story" when the Chinese monks (who so far have displayed moderate mook-class combat skills and a great deal of flashy casual acrobatics) pursuing the leads finally run into a random security guard who's armed, nervous and fires on them when they aren't intimidated. The shot actually does knock one back — until he grins, digs the bullet out of the hard leather palm protector he's wearing and tosses it into the guard. The protagonist is an experienced bouncer who's done decently clashing with the monks so far... but this shakes him, convincing him that just running while beating down the monks isn't going to resolve this. (He's proven right.)
• The Casino have this happening in the final battle in the titular casino, when four mooks throws their knives at the hero. The hero effortlessly catches all four of their knives with one hand and throws them back, killing all four throwers.
• James Bond:
  • The knife-throwing twins in Octopussy have this as part of their circus act. Naturally it is later utilized in their fight against James Bond.
  • During the Le Parkour scene in the beginning of Casino Royale (2006), the bomber throws his empty gun at Bond, who catches it and throws it back to hit him with it.
• In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Jade Fox pulls this on one of the fighters trying to kill her. Good thing it was only with a paralyzing dart. She does the same thing with a deer horn knife soon afterwards, with lethal results.
• The Deadly Duo: Pin-Fu, the film's Fragile Speedster sidekick, proves he's not to be trifled with when facing an Elite Mook fighter who uses exploding spiked balls as his weapon. Fu simply grabs one of those balls and flung it back at the fighter, hitting his guts and killing him in a fiery explosion.
• Death Valley have the hero, Yu-Long's first onscreen kill. The legion of killers called the Five Devils tries intimidating him, the leader throwing a knife at Yu-Lung, but Yu-Lung catches said knife with his wooden cub and throws it back, killing the leader.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • X-Men: First Class:
    • Magneto catches and then reverses a barrage of missiles.
    • Sebastian Shaw's ability to absorb and release energy is also a form of this.
  • Deadpool (2016): During their climactic fight, Deadpool catches one of Ajax's axes and tosses it back at him.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: Storm generates strong winds to launch a car towards the X-Men. Beast is able to slow it down slightly, twirls the car around with its remaining momentum, and then hurls it back towards her with his Super-Strength. Storm would've been crushed to death if Psylocke didn't arrive in the nick of time to cut the car in half.
• Eric Draven does this to Tin Tin, the first target of his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, in The Crow after dodging his first two knives. Then he closes in for the kill with this memorable line: "Victims... aren't we all?"
• Daredevil (2003): Elektra throws one of her sai at Bullseye, who catches it and throws it back in return. For a moment it looks like Elektra has managed to catch it as well, only to reveal the sai has gone right through her palm.
• In District 9, the prawn mech pulls this off in the Nigerian gangster's hut by catching several clips worth of bullets with its Gravity Gun.
• Green Lantern (2011) does this to a blast from Krona by creating a catapult with his ring to catch it and throw it back into Krona's face.
• Kill Bill: The Bride does this with a hatchet against one of the Crazy 88 at one point during the big showdown at the House of Blue Leaves.
• One of the most memorable moments of the kung fu film, The Long Chase. The hero is being confronted by a bandit leader and a legion of mooks, and to intimidate him the leader throws three knives at his direction. The hero simply grabs all three, one on each hand and one with his teeth, before throwing all three back. The bandit leader dodges however, so three mooks ends up getting killed in his stead.
• In The Mask, the Big Bad is riddled full of bullet holes. Of course, he has The Mask on at the time... and he just gathers them all into his mouth and spits them back out at the attackers. Like a gun.
• Matilda: At one point, Harry tries to bully Matilda by throwing a carrot catapulted at her with a fork. Matilda uses telekinesis to redirect the carrot at his mouth.
• Rick O'Connell pulls this trope with a knife in The Mummy Returns. He also does it with a snake of all things in the same film. In the same scene, even. Some villains just don't learn.
• Played with in Shanghai Noon. Upon getting into a fight with some Crow warriors, they throw some tomahawks at Chon. Chon picks up the tomahawks and decides to give them a taste of their own medicine... only to run in a panic when the Crow warriors calmly snatch the thrown tomahawks out of the air without even breaking stride.
• How Team Shaolin wins in Shaolin Soccer. The previous goalies used their martial arts to stop the soccer ball, which would also take them out of commission. Their last second replacement used Tai Chi to Catch And Return the ball and score the winning goal at the same time.
• In The Substitute, the undercover mercenary teacher Jon Shale gets a soda can thrown at the back of his head by one of the rowdy students. He turns around, catches it in time, and throws it straight in the guy's face. He declares that he had to grow eyes in the back of his head during his time in Vietnam.
• Spoofed in UHF during the Rambo parody, where Weird Al (as George Newman playing the part of Rambo for this particular daydream) catches a single bullet fired at him (and somehow it's a complete unfired cartridge between his teeth!), chews it up, and spits it back out at his assailant like machine gun fire. The attacker promptly explodes in a gooey fireball.
• In the initial fight of the movie version of Watchmen, the Comedian throws two knives at his assailant. The assailant catches the second knife, a meat cleaver. Rather than return it though, he throws it into the floor, possibly for the same reason he didn't use a gun or knife to kill the Comedian in the first place. Also something of a Chekhov's Gun, showing the assailant's skill and ability to catch things.
• Snow White & the Huntsman: On hearing that Snow White is in the forest, Prince William decides that the quickest way to find her is to hook up with Finn's men who are also searching for her, by posing as a mercenary. As Finn rides through a village, he's annoyed to find a bow-holding William In the Hood, blocking his path.
  William: Do you need a bowman?
  Finn: I have a bowman. [to his bowman] Kill him.
  [the bowman fires at William, who does an Arrow Catch, then fires it back along with one of his own into Finn's bowman]
  William: I said, do you need a bowman?
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the titular Winter Soldier catches Cap's thrown shield and returns it with enough force to send him reeling.
  • Captain America: Civil War has Spider-Man doing it. After The Winter Soldier throws a billboard at Spidey, the webslinger throws it back with a typical Spidey one-liner:
    Spider-Man: Hey buddy, I think you lost this!
  • Thor: Ragnarok: When Hela chases behind Thor and Loki inside the Bifrost beam, she catches the dagger that Loki throws at her and flings it right back at him, knocking him out of the Bifrost.
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: A very disturbing example, where Wanda Maximoff uses her telekinesis to catch Captain Carter's shield and throws it back at her, bisecting her in the middle.
  • Thor: Love and Thunder: Zeus hurls his Thunderbolt at Thor, who catches it and throws it back, impaling Zeus through the chest.
• In Spider-Man 3, Harry Osborn throws a Green Goblin grenade as a last ditch attempt to kill Spider-Man. Spider-Man, leaning towards the dark side due to the Venom symbiote, dodges the grenade and flings it back at Harry with his webs, not even looking back as it blows up in Harry’s face.
  • Spidey previously did this to Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2, throwing one of his money bags back at him using his webs during the bank robbery.
  Spider-Man: Here's your change!
• In Mulan (2020), Bori Khan catches an arrow shot at him by a Chinese archer and fires it back. On horseback.
• In My Favorite Brunette, Ronnie pulls on of the knives from the Knife Outline around him and throws it back and Kismet. Kismet casually catches it and throws it back at him.
• During the raid that opens act two of The Northman, a Slav hurls a spear at the berserker shock-troops; Amleth catches it in midair and hurls it back at the man.

Literature

• In the Harry Turtledove novel Blood and Iron, General Custer (having survived into the 1920s) does this with a homebrew bomb, killing the man who was trying to kill him.
• In The Deerslayer, the eponymous character catches and throws back a tomahawk, splitting the thrower's head open. This is presented as a reaction based on pure instinct — he hadn't intended to kill the man. Nonetheless, he uses the ensuing chaos to steal a canoe and escape.
• Journey to Chaos: Getis Darwoss demonstrates his greater skill at combat magic than most academic mages by catching Eric's mana bolt and throwing it back at him in one motion.
• The eponymous protagonist of Mickey Zucker Reichert's The Legend of Nightfall mentions early in the novel that he and a friend used to do this for fun, playing catch with throwing knives. Unsurprisingly, the skill comes in handy by the end of the book.
• The Long Ships: During an altercation with the crew of a ship from Östergötland, the angry captain of the Östergötlanders hurls a spear at Orm. Olof Summerbird, standing beside Orm, catches it and throws it back, hitting the man in the shoulder. This draws much admiration from his friends and also seems to awe the Östergötlanders, who retreat without further provocations. When questioned, Olof claims it's something he learned young, but never succeeded in teaching to someone else. He also says he doesn't tell people about it after one of his cousins was severely wounded trying to repeat the stunt. This is a Shout-Out to Njal's Saga, where this feat occurs several times.
• Njal's Saga:
  • In Gunnar's and Hallvard's clash with a band of vikings, Gunnar catches a spear hurled by the viking Karl with his left hand and throws it back towards Karl's ship, killing one of Karl's men.
  • In Gunnar's fight with Otkel and his companions, Gunnar catches a spear thrown by the Norwegian Audólf and hurls it back at him, piercing his shield and also Audólf himself.
  • At the battle at the Althing Hólmstein, a supporter of Flosi, hurls a spear at Kári Solmundarson "but [Kári] caught it in mid-air and hurled it back, and it brought death to a man in Flosi's following."
  • In Kári's second fight with the sons of Sigfús and their allies, Kári catches a spear thrown by Grani Gunnarsson with his left hand, then hurls it back so that it pierces both Grani's shield and his thigh.
• Jiang Wei pulls this off in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. To be fair, he doesn't throw the arrow back, but his quiver had been spilled and catching an enemy arrow was the only way for him to use his bow.
• Kellhus of Second Apocalypse does this when someone throws a spear at him. As you might expect, the attacker dies with a look of complete surprise on his face.
• In the climactic battle of The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School, the bad guys shoot a cannon ball at the heroes. Laurence, whose superpower is a kind of Hammerspace pocket, catches the cannon ball and later returns it by reopening the pocket and letting out the cannon ball, still traveling at the same speed but now back in the opposite direction. And then, because her pocket also has the power to duplicate items placed in it, she sends more cannon balls after the first one until the bad guys surrender.
• In the Saga of Hrolf Kraki, the retainers in King Hrolf's hall provoke the newcomer Bodvar Bjarki by throwing bones at him. After ignoring it for some time, he catches a particularly large bone and throws it back with such force that it kills the man who hurled it.

Live-Action TV

• Angel:
  • In "Deep Down", Connor is quite proud of a "cool" move where he catches and returns a vampire's axe.
  • In "Apocalypse Nowish", as part of The Worf Barrage when the Fang Gang battle the Beast, Gunn throws his axe made from a hubcap. The Beast catches it, crushes the axe then throws it back at him.
• The Flash (2014):
  • Barry does this when training his speed to be able to fight the Reverse-Flash. Cisco's drone is chasing him with machineguns and missiles. One missile narrowly misses Barry. When the second one is launched, Barry runs towards it, jumps, catches it in mid-air, and swings it back to fly straight at the drone. Cisco is both miffed and impressed, then reveals that he has two more drones... with lasers. Cue Dr. Wells spoiling his fun with "No lasers!"
  • In Season 2, Zoom pulls this off on a lightning bolt thrown by Barry.
  • They also did it in The Flash (1990). In one episode, a scientist cloned The Flash. When someone tried to shoot it, the clone caught the bullet and threw it back at the shooter, killing him. In another, Barry caught several bullets fired at him from a car speeding toward him, and then threw them back, blowing out the car's tires.
• Hawkeye: Clint catches and returns a molotov cocktail in the second episode.
• Heroes: Sylar once does this with about half-a-dozen bullets at once. The telekinesis helps.
• In one episode of the series Masquerade, Operation Masquerade recruits a baseball player to help them on the mission. He ends up using his baseball skills to take on a Ninja, including catching a shuriken in his mitt and hurling it back.
• Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers:
  • One of the things Tommy does in his first battle with the Rangers as the Green Ranger is catching a Blade Blaster thrown at him and throwing it back, hitting Trini in the chest.
  • The Dragonzord Fighting Mode winds up on the receiving end of this each time it tries throwing Dragonzord's head crest as a weapon.
  • One of Lord Zedd's monster likes to throw bombs... which the Ranger tosses right back at him.
• Much later, in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, the Lightspeed Solarzord can absorb attacks aimed at it and use it to fuel its' Alpha Strike (where it blasts the crap out of a target using its' multitude of cannons and blasters)- as Diabolico found out to his shock.
  • Also happens in Power Rangers RPM, in Gem and Gemma's debut battle.
• Played for laughs with a snowball in Red Dwarf, episode "Timeslides".
• Khalek does this with his telekinesis in an episode of Stargate SG-1, when a squad is shooting at him on full auto. Slightly subverted in that the bullets normally simply bounce off his telekinetic "shield" in random directions. However, he just walks close enough to them to have the bullets hit the shooters.^note Interestingly, Khalek is played by the same actor (Neil Jackson) who would later play a telekinetic in Push with the same ability to create telekinetic shields.
• Sara Pezzini from the live action adaptation of Witchblade once caught a crossbow bolt and threw it back at the shooter with enough force to kill. Justified, since the Witchblade itself is a supernatural weapon that grants the wielder superhuman strength and agility and the ability to manipulate time.
• Wonder Woman: In "Beauty on Parade", Wonder Woman saves Major Steve Trevor, General Blankenship, and General Eisenhower(!) by doing this with a fired bazooka shell!

Roleplay

• The titular Godmodder in Destroy the Godmodder has a nasty habit of throwing back attacks aimed at him, sometimes dealing damage to the attacker's entities on the side.

Tabletop Games

• In Champions, this is called "Missile Reflection" and is bought as an advanced form of "Missile Deflection".
• In Psionics: The Next Stage in Human Evolution telekinetics can use their powers to grab projectiles and throw them back at people. Depending on how strong they are, this can be used on something as small as a kitchen knife or as large as a school bus.
• One of the special abilities martial artists can buy in Deadlands Classic, "Seize the Pearl o' Death", allows them to catch a thrown projectile and throw it back. But it doesn't stop there: if the (soon-to-be-ex) martial artist has big enough britches, she can try it with arrows, bullets, or cannonballs. If it succeeds, the martial artist can throw the projectile back with the same velocity it had when it was launched. If it fails, the character takes damage to both the hand and the body part that would've been hit anyway.
• The Dresden Files RPG doesn't have a specific ability for this, but you can combine the Juggler stunt, which lets you catch weapons thrown at you, with Riposte, which lets you counter attack. Dresden himself notes in the margins, "Juggler + Riposte = It's all in the reflexes!"
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • In 3.5, the psionic feat Return Shot does this; being at the end of a chain of psionic feats, a psychic warrior is the most likely to have it.
  • Any character can gain the feats to do this, so long as they meet the prerequisites. Monks get these feats as bonuses. With Epic feats they can backhand spells into the caster's face.
  • Monks also get this as a class ability in 5E; they can use Ki to reduce the damage of incoming ranged weapon attacks, and can chuck them back if they reduce the damage to 0.
  • Giants usually have Rock Catching (Ex) and Rock Throwing (Ex). The combination should be self-evident.
  • Spellthieves can do this, appropriately enough, when targeted with spells.
  • The 2E Forgotten Realms Adventures also has the spell Missile Mastery, which allow a wizard to take control of a single missile by round for 4 rounds, and send it back at the thrower.
  • Dragon magazine #60 article on the Jester NPC. Jesters can catch a weapon thrown at them and throw it back at the attacker.
  • Then there is the magical item "Gloves of Missile Snaring". It should be evident what they allow the wearer to do...
• The "Laughter of the Monkey" fu power from the Feng Shui supplement "Blood of the Valiant" essentially allows you to do this.
• Magic: The Gathering lets you do this with Guile, whose ability lets you exile a spell you've countered (the catch) and then cast it for free (the return). There are a plethora of spells that do this as well. The effect is typically Blue, but Red gets a similar effect that ignores the "catch" and instead "returns" a separate copy of the spell (barring the example of Wild Ricochet which does both).
• In Warhammer 40,000, Aetaos'rau'keres, the "Slayer of Souls", a greater daemon of Tzeentch, has among a slew of abilities, a good chance of bouncing psychic powers used on him back at the enemy that cast it.

Video Games

• One of the more entertaining mechanics from the Afro Samurai game is his ability to snatch bullets out of the air with his sword while in Focus mode, and then launch them back at the gunner.
• In Alice: Madness Returns, the Menacing Ruin can collect your Pepper Grinder shots and fling them back at you.
• In Anarchy Reigns, any character is capable of grabbing a rocket fired at them by a helicopter drone or otherwise and throwing it as an explosive projectile at the attacker or at anything in general. Including nearby enemies. Unlike above examples though, the timing is much more forgiving.
• In Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, this is an ability Eivor can unlock. With proper timing, Eivor can catch fired projectiles (usually arrows) and then send them back at the attacker with lethal force.
• Batman: Arkham City: Starting with this game, enemy goons will pick up fire extinguishers and gas canisters to throw at Batman. If the player times their counter properly, Batman will catch it and throw it back. The fire extinguishers will create a smokescreen that works to Batman's advantage, while the gas canisters will instantly knock out the fool who tried to throw them.
• Bayonetta:
  • You can send back fireballs and other projectiles by parrying them with Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa accessory.
  • The Final Boss, Father Balder, is shown in Bullet Time casually plucking bullets fired at him out of the air, pointing them at the shooter, and returning them at the same speed with a lazy poke.
• Telekinesis in BioShock can be used like this — grab the projectile mid-air and hurl it back. An audio diary states that catching bullets would be possible too, if not for the user's slow reaction time.
  • In BioShock 2's online mode, one of the ways telekinesis can be used is to grab grenades shot by a launcher to fire them back at the original shooter. This is also one of the reasons not to use the homing missile upgrade for the said weapon, because the item moves slower, making this much easier to catch.
  • BioShock Infinite's "Return to Sender" vigor causes the user's hands to be covered by magnetic iron that generates a small shield in front of the hand. The shield pulls in bullets an create a large ball of molten metal that can be launched at enemies and explode. The shield can also be deployed onto the ground and pull in bullets towards it.
• The player's Creature can be taught to do this in Black & White with boulders or other projectiles thrown by rival gods with the intent of trashing your village.
• Dead Space 2: Puker 'projectiles' can be caught and thrown back with your Kinesis, instantly killing their owner.
• You can do this via telekinesis and time stop in Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed, with tank missiles.
• Devil May Cry:
  • Vergil in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening shows the ability to block bullets by spinning the Yamato really fast. In a cutscene, he also catches the bullets with his katana and lays them down on the ground before knocking them right back to Dante.
    Boomstick: Sure, Vergil could easily avoid Dante's bullets, but why dodge them when you can spin your sword, line 'em all up and fire 'em back? Like a boss.
  • During the battle with Credo in Devil May Cry 4, the spears that he throws can be caught with the Devil Bringer and then thrown right back at him.
  • In DmC: Devil May Cry, the blades thrown by the Witches can be hooked using Demon Pull and kicked back at them.
• Dishonored:
  • It's possible to pick up enemy grenades after they've been thrown, but keep in mind that they will explode after two seconds. Corvo automatically equips grenades if the player picks up a live one, having more sense than to put it in his pocket.
  • Using Bend Time allows Corvo to pluck crossbow bolts and bullets out of the air, then use them himself.
• Theoretically possible in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, as arrows in flight can be interacted with and picked up, but to do so would require inhuman reflexes. Or you can use the slow time shout. Also both you and your enemies are capable of using arrows that have actually struck (some of the time).
• EXTRAPOWER: Giant Fist: Unique to Zophy is the ability to catch projectile attacks in mid-air and throw them back at the attacker. Not just rocks, knives and spears, but even bullets, rockets, fireballs and lasers can be caught in his hands and thrown back at the opponent!
• In the Fable games it's possible, if very difficult, to hit the trolls' thrown boulders back at them, baseball-style.
• In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, the "Return Fire" reaction ability allows units to catch and throw arrows back at the shooter. On top of that, they can return fire to a place that they could not hit conventionally.
• The Force Unleashed:
  • In the first game, Starkiller can catch Palpatine's Force Lightning with his lightsaber and send it back.
  • In the second game, several enemy vehicles can only be damaged by catching their projectiles with the Force and returning them back.
• The superhero-themed game Gemini: Heroes Reborn allows you to catch bullets and projectiles in mid-air and hurl them back at your enemies. It's in fact compulsory in the only two boss battles, against Alex (who has geokinesis and keeps hurling rocks) and Mason (with pyrokinesis and lobs plasma fireballs) — you catch their projectiles, and hurl those back.
• In the PS2/Xbox game Godzilla Save The Earth, a skilled player can catch a building thrown by an opponent, and chuck it right back (though, the opponent can catch it, too, resulting in a game of catch until someone messes up).
  • In the sequel, Godzilla Unleashed, while you are unable to catch and return a building, you can deflect the building off of you, negating the damage of the building, and (if you're lucky) have the building land right back on your opponent.
• An extremely satisfying method of disposing of Hunters in Half-Life 2: Episode Two involves picking a bulky object up with your Gravity Gun, using it as a shield against Hunter's antimatter flechettes, then smashing the Hunter hard with the object and flechettes lodged in it, causing annihilation. You even get an achievement for doing this.
• Halo:
  • You can deflect missiles with a gravity hammer — if you're extremely skilled or lucky.
  • In Halo 2, Master Chief does this with the Covenant bomb that was going to blow up the Cairo, using it to blow up a Covenant capital ship instead. Additionally, he rides with the bomb in zero-G to make sure it returns to sender.
  • The Promethean Watchers, introduced in Halo 4, can catch your grenades and send them back.
• In The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, the Hulk can deal with an oncoming missile using two techniques: punching it back at the sender, or catching it to be thrown later, perhaps back at the sender. Both of these techniques are unlocked late, however, and non-trivial to execute. Also, he's the Hulk.
• In the Iron Man video game, if you're flying, and a helicopter decides to send a missile your way, you can catch it and spin around, sending it back at them. Granted, it's extremely difficult, but awesome!
• In Kingdom Hearts, Riku will attempt to do this in the second mandatory fight with him if you use Blizzard or Fire on him, catching either move in his free hand, then sending it back as a burst of dark energy. However, you can just reflect the returned projectile back at him by guarding, which will hit him.
• One of the defining abilities of Kirby is to inhale projectiles and spit them back at their thrower. Perhaps not coincidentally, the localized anime had this trope's former title as a subtitle.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, during a battle with Ghirahim, if he holds onto the Master Sword for too long, he'll pull it out of Link's hand and start slashing him with it.
• Lt. Typhon is a Game Mod for Doom, and the titular protagonist Typhon can catch rockets from Revenants and Cybedermon by punching them. After that, she can throw the rockets back.
• Peach and Daisy's Heart item in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! creates a shield that lets them catch any item thrown at them (or pick up any item that's dropped onto the track) and throw them back at the attacker or anyone else that's nearby. They can even do this with some of the character's special items too!
• In The Matrix: Path of Neo, Neo (after becoming the One) is able to stop bullets in mid-air, just like in the movies. However, later, this ability is upgraded into being able to throw the bullets back.
• A main gameplay mechanic in Mischief Makers, where Marina usually beats enemies/bosses by throwing their missiles and junk right back at them. Sometimes with an added "Shake Shake".
• In Momentum Missile base-defence flash games the player kills enemy’s units by catching and re-sending shells fired in their direction with a gravity warper.
• In Ninja Senki, the last two levels feature Kung Fu Master enemies that can catch and throw your shurikens right back at you. The only way to defeat them is to shoot them in the back.
• No More Heroes III: In the introduction, after announcing his global conquest, FU single-handedly grabs a trio of missiles sent by an army before launching them back towards where they came from, destroying an entire city in the process. In the final fight, Travis' Death Force ability can be used on his Energy Ball attack, throwing it back at FU and stunning him.
• In Ori and the Blind Forest, one of the skills allows catching an enemy projectile (or an enemy, for that matter), then launching off of it, while whatever was caught gets thrown in the opposite direction. Often, the player has to use this to climb higher places, or to destroy otherwise indestructible terrain or enemies without recoiling poor Ori into a pit.
• The Jester Zombie from Plants Vs Zombies 2 will reflect any projectiles via this method and spinning, be they straight or lobbed, and throw them back at your plants to damage them. You must use Area of Effect plants in order to hurt them.
• [PROTOTYPE] allows you to catch whatever object an enemy picks and throws at you, though it requires considerable skill and good timing.
• In Resident Evil 4, Leon interrupts The Dragon's monologue by throwing his knife, and nailing his hand to a pillar. The Dragon's bodyguard then takes the knife and throws it back at Leon, meaning he has to Press X to Not Die.
• Robo Recall (and its Tech-Demo Game predecessor, Bullet Train) have the Bullet Catch version in full effect, as enemy bullets enter Bullet Time when near you. This makes it easy to pick one up and throw it right back for a "Return to Sender" bonus, or deflect it back with one of your held guns for a "Ping-Pong" bonus.
• Samurai Gunn, similar to the Afro Samurai example, has a mechanic where any Painfully Slow Projectiles fired by other players can be deflected back with a well-timed sword slash. This can happen multiple times depending on how well the timing is, and this "bullet tennis" instantly becomes hilarious.
• The Glove and Super Glove items in Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed will neutralize any item attack while active. If your item slot is empty, it'll add that item to it. There is a sticker (for 100% completion and decorating your game save file) you earn for catching an item with the Glove and successfully sending it back at the attacker.
• This is one of the core mechanics of Silver the Hedgehog's gammeplay in Sonic the Hedgehog using his Psychokinesis. When there isn't any debris or crates around to use as ammo, Silver can always wait for his enemies to open fire on him, use Psychokinesis to catch the projectiles and then lob them back at his leisure. This goes for nearly anything the enemies can toss at you aside from laser beams.
• In Street Fighter V, M. Bison (Dictator) can do this with enemy projectiles as his V-Skill.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • This is how both King Lakitu and Megahammer are defeated in Super Mario Galaxy 2.
  • This is the Baseball Boys' schtick in Yoshi's Island. The ones with the mitts will literally catch Yoshi's eggs and toss them back after a short delay, whereas the ones with the bats will just deflect them immediately by hitting those eggs.
  • Mario could do this to Donkey Kong's Barrels in Donkey Kong '94.
  • Donkey Kong Jungle Beat gives Donkey Kong several opportunities to do this with coconuts and pineapples. In the case of the hog bosses, electrified coconuts.
• Super Smash Bros.
  • In Super Smash Bros. Melee, it's possible, with proper timing, to catch a thrown item just before you are hit, which makes it possible to use this trope. You might not even realize you did it if things got particularly hectic until you see "Item Catcher" and "Reciprocator" among the achievements in the match. This trick is made even easier to do in Brawl, which annoys human opponents to no end.
  • One of Villager's abilities in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U is to catch an enemy's projectile weapon (including thrown items, explosives, and even lasers and lightning), store it in his inventory and then fire it back later — even attacks that aren't strictly projectiles, like Charizard's flame. Isabelle, who joins in Ultimate shares the same neutral special as Villager. In Ultimate, the item that Villager and Isabelle catches are displayed next to their damage meter.
• Spider-Man (PS4): Mooks will toss objects, grenades, and fire rockets at Spidey in the middle of combat while he is surrounded. Spidey can fling them back to deliver an attack that will knock some of them out.
• There are two ways of defeating enemies in Solatorobo: You can grab them bodily and hurl them at enemies/the ground, or wait for them to shoot a Painfully Slow Projectile and sling it right back at them.
• Super Metroid: The infamous Golden Torizo can catch Super Missiles and throw them right back at Samus.
• The Scout from Team Fortress 2 at one point was going to be given a baseball glove as an unlockable weapon to literally catch projectiles and throw them back at the enemy. This idea was soon dismissed after only a brief period of consideration, but the idea of an Attack Reflector was later given to the Pyro in the form of the airblast.
• Tail Concerto has some enemies and bosses that will fire off bombs or rockets that Waffle can catch and send back as an alternate method of dealing damage (and is even encouraged if you want to make the games easier on yourself). In some cases, it's the only method of attack you have.
• Tom and Jerry Chase features this built into the stick of dynamite item, as a reference to how often such a thing would happen with dyanamite in the cartoons; once lit a stick will explode in a few seconds, and when thrown at someone it is automatically caught by them when it hits. If a player isn't careful and throws the dynamite too soon, it can easily be thrown back at them.
• In Wolfenstein: Youngblood, when the twins' suits are enhanced with the God Key, they gain the power to halt bullets in mid-flight and then throw them back with lethal force. It requires an open hand, so they can only wield pistols and can't reload while using this power.
• In Xenogears, Id catches a battleship and tosses it back.
  "Dropping a battleship on me is cheating. Take it back."

Web Animation

• From Red vs. Blue Season 12, Tucker starts a training exercise based around catching Felix, reasoning that if his ragtag group of soldiers can defeat Felix they'll have no problem breaking Sarge, Donut, and Washington out of the enemy base. Among their many failures is Tucker tossing a grenade at Felix, who calmly catches it and counts to four before sending it right back to a fleeing Tucker.
• TF2 Analysis: In "Double Rainbow", Eliyora tries using her flamethrower against Twink (Lightning Bliss's pet rainbow monster). The monster just gobbles down the fire, and then spit it out back at her.
• Adam Taurus from RWBY has a Semblance that allows him absorb the energy from projectile attacks and then release that energy in a single powerful sword swing. As Yang finds out in "Heroes and Monsters", he can also do this with melee attacks, rendering her vulnerable to an Iaijutsu strike that takes off her right arm.
• Yoshi in Super Mario Bros. Z can spit projectiles and whatever he can stuff into his mouth back to the sender.
• DEATH BATTLE!
  • Blake Belladonna and Mikasa Ackerman ends this way: Blake sending one of Mikasa's Thunder Spears back at her causes it to impale Mikasa. Blake then detonates the Thunder Spear, with the resulting explosion obliterating Mikasa on the spot.
  • Xeno Trunks and Archie Silver has the latter redirecting the former's Masenko via psychokinesis in their base forms, as Super Silver redirecting Super Saiyan Trunk's Galick Gun and the card-summoned Dragon Ball GT Goku and Pan's Kamehamehas all right back at them before redirecting the Kamehamehas multiple times to loop them into a Combined Energy Attack on Trunks, and finally ending the fight by teleporting Super Saiyan God Trunk's Key Sword right back at him for the finishing blow as the half-Saiyan launches it at Silver for his own finisher, temporally erasing Trunks from existence. It's pointed out in the post-fight analysis Silver's ability to do this even against foes much stronger than himself would negate Trunk's possible power advantage and be a major factor in his victory.

Web Comics

• Jack in The Fancy Adventures of Jack Cannon does this with about a dozen knives at once.
  Jack: FINALLY!! DO YOU HAVE. ANY. IDEA. how long I've been waiting for someone to throw a knife at me?
• In Homestuck, Dirk's combat training robot catches a bunch of bullets shot at it by Jake... and then proceeds to throw them in Jake's case like a bunch of pebbles.
• The Order of the Stick: Roy Greenhilt throws a boulder at a female frost giant. As she points out, this is a bad idea since catching boulders is a main ability of D&D giants. She then tosses it back at the fighter, flattening him.
• In Schlock Mercenary, when an enemy throws a knife at the unarmed Captain Tagon, he "catches" it with his eye. This doesn't stop him from taking the knife and using it to kill his opponent horribly.
• True Villains: Xaneth deals with Dove's "Gather Bomb" Charged Attack by contemptuously insulting his technique, casting a warding spell on a hapless random peasant, using the peasant as a Human Shield against the Gather Bomb, then firing the bomb's energy back out of the peasant's corpse's mouth. Dove is incinerated.
• Unsounded:
  • Emil catches a miner turned smuggler's axe and then splits his skull open with it.
  • Demonstrating Darkest Paul's unexpected Nerves of Steel, when he's ambushed by enemy soldiers, he grabs a grenade out of the air and throws it back at the soldiers.

Web Videos

• Smosh: In "WASHINGTON'S FIRST VIDEO BLOG", Washington gets shot in the bellybutton, takes the bullet out, and then throws it at the shooter.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Firebending has a technique subset concerning lightning. Uncle Iroh developed "Lightning Redirection", enabling a firebender to turn an attacker's lightning against them should the redirector so choose. Until Iroh developed the technique, the only way to defend against Lightning attacks was evasion. One of the most epic scenes has Zuko catching a double-strength lightning bolt and aiming it back at his father, Firelord Ozai, who just tried to kill him with it. Iroh's redirection technique is based on waterbending where redirection is a key principle, often used by Katara and other waterbenders.
  • Toph's introductory episode has her utilizing this technique. Because her style of Earthbending requires listening and sensing the vibrations caused by movement before acting, she is able to sense the exact moment when an underground attacker springs up from the ground to throw a moderately sized rock at her from his position. She promptly catches it and throws it back, with the force of the throw being so strong that said attacker ends up being propelled from the floor of the ring.
• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: In a fight between The Avengers and Skrulls shapeshifted to look like The Avengers, Hawkeye shows that true skill can't be imitated when he snatches his duplicate's arrow out of the air and throws it back at him, taking out both his own fake and Wasp's too as a bonus.
  Skrull Hawkeye: Nobody is that good!
  Hawkeye: Guess what? I am. [punches him out]
• Beast Wars: In "The Spark", Black Arachnia has completely floored Cheetor and loads her gun with a poisonous barb. She shoots it point blank at his face, only for him to catch and throw it back into her face.
• In one Bugs Bunny cartoon, Elmer throws a lit stick of dynamite. Karmic Trickster Bugs immediately puts on a catcher's uniform and pitches it back to him. And bamboozles him into playing along as the pitcher.
• In Centurions, Rex Charger's Gatling Guard assault weapon system uses a high-tech version of this trope. Its equipment includes a Energy Absorption/Retrieval Laser that can take energy from any source (usually an attacker), store it, then use it to power the system's weapons (which are often fired back at the original attacker). His smaller assault weapon system, Electro Charger, includes a similar weapon.
• G.I. Joe: Renegades:
  • Snake-Eyes does this with a firebomb tossed by Firefly.
  • While an earlier episode featured a mech-suit equipped Roadblock doing it with a missile fired by Scrap-Iron. Cue epic Oh, Crap! moment from the weapons designer.
• Lilo & Stitch franchise: The bulletproof and fireproof Stitch does this with plasma bullets in the original film, Lilo & Stitch: The Series pilot Stitch! The Movie, series finale Leroy & Stitch, and Chinese spin-off series Stitch & Ai.
• There was a Looney Tunes short where one of the characters catch a handful of bullets, munches them up and spits out an artillery shell.
• Taken to the point of absurdity in The Simpsons' Show Within a Show Police Cops, where Officer Homer Simpson does this with a bullet, much to the delight of the real Homer.
• The battlesuit introduced in the movie So the Drama allows Kim Possible to do this with energy attacks. She doesn't seem to hit anyone with them anymore than they hit her, but it provides a nice variation to her only ever dodging energy attacks.
• Samurai Jack: In "Jack and the Haunted House", Jack defeats the Demonic Spirit when it tried to finish him off with a homing fireball. Jack catches it and tossed the energy back at the creature, destroying it instantly.
• In Transformers: Animated, during Starscream's Death Montage, he tries throwing a bomb at Megatron only for Megatron to catch it — and promptly toss it right back near the former's feet. Boom.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Shadow Play – Part 1", Garble tries to throw a rock at Spike, but Rainbow Dash intercepts it at high speed and tosses it back at the teenage dragon, pinning his tail and sending him sprawling.
• Total Drama: In "Saving Private Leechball", Jo throws her supply of leeches at Zoey when her gun jams. Zoey ducks timely and reaches up to grab one leech passing by overhead. Then she returns it to Jo by means of her slingshot, hitting her right between the eyes.

Real Life

• Dodgeball, naturally. In some versions of the game, the "return" part isn't even necessary, as catching the ball qualifies as an instant "out" to the opponent that threw it.
• The Roman army designed their thrown javelins to break after one use, so as to avoid this trope happening to them. It also left the metal points of the javelins bent and embedded in the flesh of anyone they hit, inflicting worse injuries. Or hopelessly embedded in their shields, which was almost as good since it made actually using the shield nigh-impossible. And shields were absolutely essential to the combat tactics of that era. Once the battle was over, the bent javelins were retrieved, and blacksmiths would straighten them out (the relatively soft iron used to make them bend in the first place made this a fairly easy thing to do). The heads of javelins were originally fitted with metal rivets, so while they would break on impact with armor or a shield, they would remain intact upon contact with flesh or soft ground, enabling armies of unarmored opponents in a desert region (such as Jugurtha's men) to throw them back. Marius corrected this problem by ordering spearheads to be fixed with wooden rivets, so that even impact with flesh or soft ground would break the spearhead off.
• One of modern-day archer Lars Andersen's many, many feats of bowmanship is catching an arrow fired at him and shooting it back, proving that the trope is physically possible (though still insanely difficult and pretty much impossible in actual combat).
• A very common joke told by soldiers: "What do you do if [insert enemy soldier here] throws a grenade at you? Catch it, pull the pin, and throw it back." An old (and certainly not recommended or taught) trick with older style grenades was pulling the pin and releasing the spoon, letting it "cook" for a second, and then throwing it, based on the theory that there'd be less time for the enemy to try and throw it back. Nice theory, not so much in practice mainly due to it being risky (you better be damn sure you can throw that thing when you want to instead of dropping it because you reflexively ducked from suppression fire, and the claimed five-second fuse might actually be three seconds due to variable quality control at the manufacturer).
  • Actually done by Corporal John Spillane. Scouted by the St. Louis Cardinals prewar, he was an LVT driver at Tarawa, where he won the Navy Cross. When Japanese tossed grenades into his craft, he caught them and threw them back. This worked four times; the fifth was "cooked" and took off his hand.

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