Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Inuyasha: An offscreen example when the revenant Bankotsu storms the castle of the clan who killed him and his men and took his precious weapon from him. When the daimyo asks how he could have defeated the guards, Bankotsu nonchalantly points behind himself, showing a roomful of soldiers embedded in the ceiling to the neck, dangling uselessly.
- Rurouni Kenshin: during Yahiko's introductory arc, a petty yakuza thug who just got knocked down when Kenshin kicked the door in tries to challenge him to a fight. The resulting Single-Stroke Battle leaves him with his head stuck in the wooden ceiling, much to everyone else's horror.
- One Piece: Luffy puts an end to his duel with Crocodile by sending him crashing against the crypt's ceiling, then by pounding on him again and again until he pierces through the ceiling and the plaza floor pavement above and sending him flying above the city.
- Beelzebub: Anytime regular delinquents challenge Oga, at least one or two are guaranteed to enjoy new careers as ceiling adornments.
Comic Books
- Wonder Woman:
- Wonder Woman (1942): Badra knocks Wondy through the ceiling during their fight, and then smashes through herself to fly into space as she thinks the Amazon can't follow her there.
- Wonder Woman (1987): When Barda and Knockout fight Barda knocks her opponent through the ceiling, and quite far beyond, when Knockout threatens Scott who is currently essentially powerless due to Circe's magic.
Film — Live-Action
- Near the end of Constantine (2005), Chaz is thrown into the ceiling by the invisible villain Gabriel and mortally wounded. He dies a few moments later.
- During the climax of Daredevil (2003), the Kingpin gorilla-presses Daredevil above his head and throws him into the ceiling as the fight takes place in the villain's office.
- In Evil Dead 2, when Ed is possessed, he grabs Jake by the face and throws him vertically into the ceiling where he smashes a lightbulb.
- The Expendables have a fight between Fragile Speedster Yin Yan and Mighty Glacier Gunnar. Yin Yang decide to lure Gunnar into a cramped corridor with a low ceiling, which Yang's size and speed gives him the advantage in effortlessly beating up Gunnar for a while until Gunnar, managing a lucky grab on Yang ("My turn!"), smashes him multiple times against the low ceiling.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a group of enemies corner Captain America in an elevator. He ends up smashing the final opponent into the ceiling, then freeing himself.
- In the fight between Stark and Rhodes in Iron Man 2, Stark is thrown through the ceiling and into his bedroom where he hits a second ceiling before crashing back to the floor.
- In Iron Man 3, there is a scene in which a villain takes over the War Machine armor and attacks the president on Air Force One. At one point, he slams a secret service agent into the ceiling and then smashes him through a desk.
- In The Matrix, near the end of the subway fight between Neo and Agent Smith, the latter has Neo in a choke-hold while both men are standing on one of the subway tracks with a train approaching. Neo's response is to jump upwards, smashing Smith into the subway ceiling and breaking free from the hold.
- Star Wars: In a variation using telekinesis, Rogue One has a climax featuring Darth Vader killing a large group of Rebel soldiers. At one point, he uses the Force to slam a Rebel into the ceiling, hold him in place, then bisect him with his lightsaber.
- In a flashback in Suicide Squad (2016), Killer Croc takes on a SWAT team in the sewers and at one point, slams an officer into the ceiling of the tunnel.
- In Superman II, when the evil Kryptonians attack the Daily Planet, Non lifts Perry White into the ceiling and knocks him out by putting his head through it.
- An aversion occurs when the Kryptonians attack the White House as well. Ursa throws a security guard to the ceiling. Considering there's a shattered skylight above them, the poor guy sails right through it and out the building.
- In Solo, Chewbacca throws a Stormtrooper into the cave ceiling while fighting his way through a Kessel mine.
- Aquaman (2018) enjoys this trope:
- Aquaman throws a mook into the interior ceiling of a submarine.
- His mother has a fight in a flashback sequence in which she takes out a group of mooks in her home. At one point, she stabs one of them with her quindent and slams him into the door frame above them.
- During Aquaman's fight with Black Manta in Italy, he grabs Manta by the shoulders and whips him into the ceiling of the house they just crashed into.
- The Spy Who Loved Me featured a battle between the infamous Jaws and James Bond in a train. Jaws lifts Bond to the ceiling of a bathroom and presses him against it several times before throwing him into the bedroom.
- The Pink Ranger sextuple-kicks an Oozeman as she growls "you guys make me sick, sick, sick!" in the first fight sequence of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. The kicks gradually go from standard to vertical, and the last one sends him into the ceiling, followed by a crash to the floor.
- In one of the final scenes in Interview with the Vampire, Louis finishes his interview with Daniel who tells him he wants to become a vampire so he'd have his power after Louis just spent the last few hours explaining how terrible it is to be a vampire. Louis angrily slams him into the ceiling and gives him a "Reason You Suck" Speech for not getting the point of his story, then drops him to the floor.
Live-Action TV
- In season seven of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spike gets thrown through the ceiling by a monster. He responds by retrieving his Badass Longcoat and taking it down single-handed.
- Luke Cage (2016): With his super strength, Luke Cage is often able to do this to henchmen one-handedly. He casually throws one of Cottonmouth's henchmen into a ceiling while raiding Crispus Attucks, and later pulls off this move in the season 1 finale against Diamondback, but because Diamondback is wearing Power Armor, he gets back up and continues the fight.
- In the first season finale of The Defenders (2017), Jessica Jones throws a Hand mook into a cavern ceiling during the final brawl.
- The Flash (2014): Savitar inflicts this on Kid Flash / Wally West in "Infantino Street".
- El Chapulín Colorado: An episode has the title character trying to get a Lazy Bum of a man to work, but he refuses. El Chapulín hits him with his Chipote Chillón sending him upwards and getting his head stuck on the upper floor. He spends the rest of the episode trying to get him out.
- The Thundermans: Max's attempt to take Super President Kick-Butt hostage ends when her daughter Simone kicks him through the ceiling.
Music Videos
- In the Foo Fighters video for Everlong, Dave Grohl dreams that he fights off a couple of punks at a party and at one point, throws one against a strangely low ceiling.
Pro Wrestling
- Inverted during The Undertaker and Mick Foley's Hell in a Cell match at the 1998 King of the Ring PPV, in which they brawled on the Cell's roof twice. The second time, 'Taker chokeslammed Foley through the roof, sending him crashing onto the ring below. And Foley still wanted to fight.
Video Games
- Certain characters in Dead or Alive can throw characters into the ceiling in certain stages. Also in the fifth game any character can do this via power launcher again depending on the stage.
- While not a combat move, the Dragon Quest series prevents you from using the Zoom spell indoors by having the party beam upwards and bang their heads on the ceiling.
- In early Mortal Kombat games, specifically Mortal Kombat 3, you can uppercut an opponent through the ceiling in certain stages. Also, Kombat Tomb and Goro's Lair allow you to uppercut your opponent into the spiked ceiling via Stage Fatality.
- The first boss fight of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed ends with a series of quick-time events where the player character lifts the boss into the air with the Force before jumping and slamming the boss's head into the ceiling twice, and Force Pushing the enemy back to the ground.
- Get Amped: A few certain attacks (usually coming from your equipped gear) will make the enemy be sent towards the "ceiling" (even if the stage is outdoors), then bounces off it towards the ground for more damage and combo opportunities.
- The King of Fighters: Tizoc's Big Fall DM has him grab his foe, then jump up towards the "ceiling" to smash the foe to it, then fall back down to slam the enemy back to the ground. In XIV, King of Dinosaurs' Super Zetsumetsu Hurricane DM does a similar thing.
- Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories: In the console remake, Riku is ready to finish off Lexaeus after his boss battle - only for Lexaeus to hit Riku so hard he slams right into the ceiling.
- Mega Man X:
- Boomerang Kuwanger from Mega Man X has his "Dead Lift" attack, where he uses his beetle horns to throw X into the ceiling for huge damage should he make physical contact.
- Gravity Beetle from Mega Man X3 will use his stag beetle horn to throw X into the ceiling if he connects with his charge move. It becomes even more deadly once he uses his Desperation Attack, where he creates a miniaturized black hole above him that fills the ceiling.
Western Animation
- Star Wars Rebels: In "Rise of the Old Masters", Kanan uses the Force to slam the Grand Inquisitor into the ceiling and hold him there long enough for Ezra to escape.
