Follow TV Tropes

Following

Dramatic Spine Injury

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/azamispinebreaktransparent.png
Oh snap! He ain't walking that off.note 
"I am Bane — and I could kill you... but death would only end your agony — and silence your shame. Instead, I will simply... BREAK YOU!"
Bane, just before breaking Batman's back in Knightfall

When it comes to traumatic injuries, few are as debilitating as those to the spine. At best, serious pain and an impaired ability to do anything that involves the torso are pretty much guaranteed. At worst, there's a very real chance of paralysis or even death if the damage is severe enough. Thus, someone having their spine injured, especially if it happens in a particularly violent manner, can be a moment of extreme drama, as it can signal anything from a Game-Breaking or Career-Ending Injury all the way to an Undignified or Cruel and Unusual Death.

Being shot, stabbed, or otherwise injured with a weapon is an effective way for this to occur, especially if it's done as a craven sneak attack. However, the most viscerally impactful way is for the character's back to be broken through sheer brute force, usually in a confrontation with a much more physically powerful opponent. The brute force way is sometimes the end result of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, and is usually meant to leave the character not just utterly defeated but unable to recover or come back for a rematch. It can also be the end result of a Killer Bear Hug. On the other hand, it is potentially possible to do this in a humorous way, although it will almost certainly be either Black Comedy or as a visual shorthand for someone having serious back pain.

A Sickening "Crunch!" is almost guaranteed to show up, especially in the brute force method. One of the first indicators of the severity might be someone realizing I Can't Feel My Legs!. A Slow-Motion Fall may also show up to add visual emphasis to the injury.

Sister Trope to Neck Snap, which has the same effect but is more often fatal and is generally meant to take someone out quickly.

Contrast And Call Him "George", which can certainly look like someone's getting their back broken (especially in animated works) but is just meant to be smothering love.

No Real Life Examples, Please!


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 
  • Call of the Night: In ch. 115, Susuki shows up out of nowhere intending to use Anko Uguisu to get to Kiku Hoshimi and kill her. Azami, who has been talking with Anko, tries to stop her, but is decisively defeated when she phases through the floor and kicks him in the back hard enough to snap his spine. She then compounds the damage by doing a Neck Snap on him, as this will add even more time that he'll have to spend healing before he can come after her.
  • My Hero Academia: In "Katsuki Bakugo: Origin", during Deku and Bakugo's training exam fight against All Might, All Might uses his New Hampshire Smash move to hit Deku in the back, seemingly fracturing his spine and sending him smashing into a bus. Luckily All Might wasn't trying to cause any long-term damage, and Recovery Girl is able to fix up Deku, even chewing out All Might for going so hard on them.
  • Naruto: During the Chunin Exams arc, Temari ends her fight against Tenten by using her Wind Scythe jutsu, which shoots Tenten upwards, traps her in a tornado and inflicts several cuts across her body. Finally, Tenten falls from the sky, landing spine-first onto Temari's folded fan. The horrific injury is highlighted by a small spray of blood from Tenten's mouth, followed by her friends staring in shock and Naruto commenting on Temari's cruelty.
  • One Piece: Throughout the Enies Lobby Arc, Spandam gleefully abuses Robin at every single opportunity he gets. That is why, near the very end of the arc, when the Straw Hats are escaping from the Marines, Robin uses one last opportunity to use her Flower-Flower Fruit to get back at Spandam and snap his spine in two.
  • Project A-Ko: Played for laughs in "Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group". B-ko's father, sporting a copy of his daughter's Akagiyama 23 power suit that hasn't been altered for a male physique, attempts to catch a falling alien battleship using only the power suit. An X-ray of Daitokuji Sr.'s vertebrae snapping like kindling shows up; he gives a pained, wide-eyed expression, and drops the battleship. He's fine by the next OAV, though.

    Comic Books 
  • Batman: Two prominent storylines feature characters receiving crippling spinal injuries:
    • The Killing Joke: As a key part of his plan to drive Commissioner Gordon into insanity, the Joker gut-shoots Barbara Gordon, the bullet hitting her spine and paralyzing her legs. She would go on to become the master hacker called Oracle and found the Birds of Prey. She had initially decided that she wouldn't seek help for her paralysis, medical or otherwise, but in Batgirl (2011), she has regained the use of her legs after spending three years using her wheelchair.
    • Knightfall: The climactic moment of the story is when Bane breaks into Wayne Manor and confronts a thoroughly exhausted Batman, then beats Batman within an inch of his life and breaks his back over his knee. Bruce Wayne has to deal with the resulting paralysis for a while, but eventually is able to be healed and returns to take down Azrael, who has taken up the cowl in his absence but ended up Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and became as much of a menace as Bane had been.
  • New Super-Man: Defied. Anathema (Chinese Bane) tries to replicate his American counterpart's famous feat by breaking Bat-Man's spine. However, before he can deliver the blow, Super-Man shows up and knocks him out with a punch.

    Comic Strips 
  • Calvin and Hobbes: In one strip, Calvin reads a comic book in which the superhero Amazon Girl uses a Ray Gun to blast a hole clean through her opponent, shattering his spine. Calvin is left traumatized by the extreme show of violence and tries to get away from it by watching TV, but his mom turns it off, ironically telling him there's too much violence on TV and he should read something instead.

    Fan Works 
  • Death Battle Arena: Seeing as Bane is a playable character in this fangame, it's only appropriate that breaking backs is one of his special attacks. One of his Fatalities takes this even further by having him not just break his opponent's spine over his knee, but snap their entire body in half. Amusingly, his Friendship consists of him preparing to do this to the defeated opponent, only for his own back to lock up (rather appropriately), forcing him to go back to Arkham to have a soothing massage and a Cucumber Facial.
  • With Pearl and Ruby Glowing:
    • Korra and Dillamond had their spines broken by God's Will First, the latter after a failed attempt to slit his throat, which paralyzed them from the waist down.
    • During his escape from the Ark, Alejandro was kicked by a guard in his spine, which forces him to use a wheelchair over the loss of his legs.
    • When Oegwipali discovered that Geumsaegi, a former North Korean soldier, forced his brother Mulmangcho to rape the dead body of their other brother Mulsajo, he raped and beat Geumsaegi so badly that he now suffers from chronic pain and is a part-time wheelchair user.

    Films — Animation 
  • Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: When Batgirl and Donatello are confronted by Bane, Bane quickly overpowers them, then tries to break Donatello's back like he did with Batman in their first encounter. However, instead of Donatello's shell, it's Bane's leg that cracks. As he's distracted by the pain, Donnie kicks him in the face and breaks free, and then Batgirl KOs him with a dumbbell.
  • The Incredibles: Inverted when Mr. Incredible tangles with the Omnidroid on Nomanisan Island. The Omnidroid grips his wrists and ankles in separate claws and attempts to pull him apart, but the stretching actually makes a pleasant crackle that makes his backache vanish. Chortling at this turn of fate, he's able to escape the Omnidroid's grip and go at it with a Heroic Second Wind.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Baker Street Dozen: In The Pearl of Death, the Huxton Creeper is noted for his modus operandi, which involved violently breaking his victims' spines. This gets turned against his own employer when Holmes suggests that the Femme Fatale of the film, whom the Creeper had a crush on, would be hanged for her part in the crimes.
  • The Dark Knight Rises: The film recreates the fight between Bane and Batman, down to Bane pulling the same move on Batman at the end. Subverted, though, in that instead of fully breaking Bruce's back, it just dislocates one of his vertebrae enough to take him out of commission. The doctor in the pit where Bane grew up is able to fix Bruce's back and he's eventually able to escape and return to Gotham.
    Bane: Ah yes, I was wondering what would break first—your spirit...or your body!
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once: Jobu Tupaki's primary henchwoman is Deidre, and her first action scene climaxes with her gaining pro-wrestling skills via Verse-Jumping. She climatically plans on taking Alpha-Waymond out of the fight by lifting him up into a dramatic slow-motion backbreaker, which he manages to defend by grabbing an exit sign and using it to shield his back, hurting her knee and saving his spine, ending the skirmish in the process.
  • Freddy vs. Jason: In one of the first scenes, Jason Voorhees attacks Trey by stabbing him repeatedly with his machete. Jason then finishes the kill by grabbing both ends of the bed Trey is lying in and folds it and him in half, violently breaking Trey's back.
  • Hardcore Henry: The Reveal of why paraplegic Jimmy is hellbent on helping Henry defeat Akan. Jimmy was once commissioned by Akan to create clone soldiers. When the soldiers proved unreliable, Akan responded by telekinetically breaking Jimmy's spine, confining him to a wheelchair permanently.
  • Iron Man 2: Tony Stark shows the Senate Armed Services Committee a video of knock-offs of the Iron Man suit, finishing with a suit created by his rival, Justin Hammer. Just after being activated, the suit's pilot is asked to turn to the right, but instead of turning properly, the suit's torso spins 180° at the waist. There's a muffled scream, and then the visible arm sparks and goes limp, although Hammer tries to save face by saying that the test pilot survived.
  • The Last Circus: At the climax, Natalia uses her aerialist skills to leap from a tower with a length of silk wrapped around her waist, screaming dramatically as she finally escapes her abusive husband Sergio... until the silk jerks her fall short, snapping her spine fully in half and killing her instantly. Both Sergio and her would-be lover Javier are devastated.
  • Mortal Kombat: The Movie: Liu Kang's nightmare of his brother Chan's death at Shang Tsung's hands includes the villain stomping on a fallen Chan's spine, breaking both it and what little fight Chan has left.
  • Paranormal Activity: In the final moments of the third movie, Dennis is frightened by a possessed Katie, falling over backward and apparently hurting himself. As he crawls across the floor, he's confronted by the witch Lois; he falls to the floor twitching, and then his torso is suddenly and sharply folded backward, snapping his spine and killing him.
  • X-Men: First Class: After Magneto turns the US and Soviet shells and missiles back toward their ships, Moira MacTaggert tries to shoot him. Her first bullet just bounces off the helmet he took from Sebastian Shaw, and Magneto deflects the other bullets effortlessly, but the last hits Charles Xavier in the back. Xavier falls in agony, and although Magneto is able to extract the bullet, the damage is done and Xavier's legs become paralyzed.

    Literature 
  • Changes: Red Court vampires set fire to the building Harry lives in, and Harry falls from a ladder while rescuing his elderly landlady and fractures his spine, paralyzing him from the waist down. This becomes one of the factors in Harry accepting Queen Mab's longstanding offer to become the Winter Knight, since it means curing the injury.
  • Cities Of The Weft:
    • Mordew: When Gam's gang of young thieves burgle a mountainside house by rappelling down from above, Joes falls and lands on the roof's pointed ridge, snapping their spine and killing them instantly. The others are badly affected by the death for long after.
    • Malarkoi: A superpowered Canis Major breaks the Master of Mordew's spine by grabbing his body in its mouth and shaking. Demigod-tier Sorcerous Overlord or not, he has to teleport away for emergency healing and is at a disadvantage for the rest of their fight.
  • Conqueror: Temujin personally does this to the former friend who betrayed him to enemies and used the chaos of the attack on Temujin's camp as an opportunity to rape and murder a woman who had spurned him. Using a technique from Mongolian wrestling, Temujin breaks his former friend's spine and leaves him, alive but paralysed, for wild animals to find.
  • Horus Heresy:
    • The enmity between the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons Astartes legions explodes into outright violence when the Space Wolves are dispatched to bring down the Thousand Sons after their Primarch Magnus the Red's disastrously failed attempt to warn the Emperor of Horus' treachery. While the two legions engage each other, a massive fight ensues between Magnus and Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves; they inflict serious injuries on each other, but Russ finally overpowers Magnus and breaks his back over his knee. However, Magnus uses Warp sorcery to remove himself and the surviving Thousand Sons from the battlefield before Russ can finally kill him.
    • Prior lore stated that during one of his battles with the Khornate Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha, Sanguinius broke the daemon's back over his knee—an impressive feat considering Ka'Bandha is significantly larger. This is finally depicted in the Collected Visions artbook.
    • Konrad Kurze goes on a rampage across Macragge and is finally hunted down by Lion'El Johnson and Roboute Guilliman. Unable to stomach killing one of his brothers, the Lion beats him unconscious and then breaks his back over his knee to immobilize him for trial.
  • The Outsiders: Johnny Cade's back is broken by a falling piece of timber as he rescues the kids from the burning church. It's specifically stated that he'll be paralyzed for life if he survives the injury...and he doesn't.
  • Redwall: In Lord Brocktree, Brocktree ends the climactic battle by dealing the warlord Ungatt Trunn a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in front of his army, making him beg for mercy, and then snapping his spine in a Killer Bear Hug. Later, a vengeful ex-minion notices he's Only Mostly Dead, but simply rolls him into the ocean.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Fire & Blood: There are multiple accounts of 2-year-old Prince Maelor Targaryen's death after his identity was discovered by a mob at Bitterbridge. According to Mushroom, a mentally handicapped washerwoman named Willow Pound-Stone seized him and shouted that nobody was going to hurt her new son, clutching him so tightly that she accidentally broke his back.
    • A Game of Thrones: Bran Stark, while climbing up an old tower, sees Jaime and Cersei Lannister having fun. At Cersei's urging, Jaime pushes Bran out of the window. The fall doesn't kill him, but it does leave him comatose for a few weeks, and when he finally awakens, he learns that his back has been broken and he can no longer walk. Shortly afterward, he begins to have odd dreams which are the first steps to his becoming the Three-Eyed Raven.
  • The Stormlight Archive: Soul-cutting Shardblades cause instant death when they touch the spine, burning out the body's eyes in the process. In the original release of Words of Radiance, Kaladin ends his High-Altitude Battle with the Assassin in White by stabbing through his spine from the front, but later editions remove this.
  • Warrior Cats: Briarlight's spine is broken when she's trying to save an elder from a falling tree and both cats are crushed. Sadly, the elder dies, and it ends up being a Career-Ending Injury for Briarlight as her hind legs are paralyzed for life.
  • World of the Five Gods: In Penric's Fox, Penric ends his desperate fight against Baron Halber by doing a flip, laying his hand against Halber's lower back, and breaking Halber's spine with his sorcery.
  • Wulfrik: One of Wulfrik's cited exploits is entering the cairn of Jarl Unfir, who had become a wight, and killing him for good by breaking his back over his knee.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Bones: In "The Doom in the Boom", Jack Hodgins is working at a decomposed body scene with his boss Cam when hears a phone ring. FBI Agent Aubrey realizes it's a bomb and yells at everyone to get back. He throws himself over Hodgins and likely saves his life by taking the shrapnel that would've gone into Hodgins. Unfortunately Hodgins bruises his spinal nerves, something not initially found because the swelling didn't peak till a day later. The aspirin Hodgins takes to deal with after-explosion pain causes enough bleeding to paralyze Hodgins, possibly for life.
  • CSI: NY: In "Pay Up", Danny is shot in the back during a drive-by shooting that happens while the team is at a bar mourning a recently lost colleague. He comes out of it paralyzed but in this case, it's temporary and he ultimately regains his ability to walk, though not before a lot of angst and depression during the period where he doesn't know if it will come back. Hollywood Healing is in effect so it's rather fast.
  • Doom Patrol (2019): In the penultimate episode, Cliff is sent back in time to the 1940's, when Niles Caulder was still able to walk, in order to intercept a pendant that Niles stole so that it doesn't end up in the hands of a cult years later. Unfortunately, Niles and Cliff end up in a fight over the pendant, and in the process, the much stronger Cliff throws Niles against a bar, causing a dramatic snapping sound. Cliff is horrified to discover that he's the reason Niles spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
  • Friday Night Lights: In the pilot episode, Jason Street suffers a debilitating spinal injury after taking a brutal tackle in the first football game of the season, leaving him permanently paralyzed from the waist down and his dreams of getting a college football scholarship shattered. His arc over the course of the show until his departure is trying to figure out what direction he wants his life to go in while not letting his injury define him.
  • The Good Wife: The inciting incident of the Case of the Week in "Open Source" consists of a man 3D-printing a handgun from schematics on the internet and testing it on the firing range. However, the gun's receiver bursts and the bullet hits a man in the next lane over in the spine, paralyzing him. He then sues the gun's designer.
  • Gotham: In a variation on Batman's breaking in the Knightfall comics arc, Bane fights Alfred Pennyworth and breaks his back on a pillar. Alfred regains the ability to walk but it's implied that the injury keeps him out of his more active combat role with Bruce.
  • Ironside (1967): The opening credits show title character Robert Ironside being shot In the Back earlier in his career, then transitioning to the wheelchair-using Great Detective of the series' present day.
  • RFDS (2021): In episode 2x3, Wayne, Chaya, and Mira have to retrieve a patient who cracked a thoracic vertebra in a skydiving accident, courtesy of the instructor being sloppy with checking the weather forecast. They have to carry him out of a ravine to the plane in heavy wind gusts and hope turbulence in flight doesn't sever his spine the rest of the way.

    Music 

    Poetry 
  • "Johnny", a children's poem by Emma Rounds, tells of a boy who would always stand with his back sharply bent. When he finally did stand up straight, it broke his back.
    Johnny used to find content
    In always standing rather bent
    Like an inverted letter J.
    His angry relatives would say,
    "Stand up! Don't slouch! You've got a spine!
    Stand like a lamp post, not a vine!"
    One day, they heard a dreadful crack.
    He'd stood up straight - it broke his back!

    Professional Wrestling 
  • The imagery of a broken back is invoked with the backbreaker, which is done in a lot of different ways but always involves some form of stretch or blow to a wrestler's back, and works as both a submission move and/or Finishing Move depending on the variant and the wrestler doing it. Wrestlers who use(d) some variation of the backbreaker include Lex Luger, CM Punk, Nikki Bella, Hulk Hogan, Colt Cabana, and The Big Show.
  • Some pro wrestlers' careers have been drastically impacted by spinal injuries:
    • "Stone Cold" Steve Austin received a botched Tombstone piledriver from Owen Hart at SummerSlam '97 that compacted his neck and bruised his spinal cord. Austin recovered, but he had to radically change his style of wrestling as a result, and would eventually retire in 2003 due to complications from the neck injury. Incidentally, WWE would all but ban the piledriver in 2000 as a result of Austin's injury.
    • During Royal Rumble 1998, in a "casket match"note  between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker, Michaels was thrown out of the ring and landed on the casket. He suffered two herniated discs in his back and a third that was completely broken, and this injury forced him to retire for a few years until it was surgically repaired.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Call of Cthulhu: From the campaign The Fungi from Yuggoth, adventure "Castle Dark": When the investigators travel to Castle Dark, they will meet the Gypsy Fortune Teller Sarena and her son Vech. While Sarena does a Tarot card reading for the investigators, Vech is attacked by a Star Vampire that brutally snaps his spine and drains his blood, killing him.
  • GURPS: The Martial Arts supplement has rules for damaging the spine, which is very difficult to hit and damage (as the spine is rather tough). However, injury there is more likely to stun, and if it's succesfully broken, it will leave the victim unable to walk and on the verge of passing out, along with possibly suffering a bad back if they recover. A Neck Snap can also break the neck, rendering the victim completely helpless.
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • In a short story published in White Dwarf #127 in 1990, which introduced the first iteration of the Eldar army, the Eldar are faced with a Slaaneshi host led by a Keeper of Secrets, a powerful daemon. The Keeper rampages through the battlefield until faced by an Avatar of Khaine, the Eldar war god, who battles it until it's able to seize its foe, lift it into the air, and break its spine over its knee. The sight of their most powerful champion defeated in this manner, alongside its agonized psychic scream, breaks the Chaos army's will and turns the battle in the Eldar's favor.
    • Among the many, many, many injuries the Crimson Fists character Captain Alessio Cortez has received is a broken back... which didn't stop him from holding back an enemy assault for six hours.
  • Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: A broken spine is the worst possible result of a Critical Hit to the body short of death — the target is helpless until they receive medical treatment and is at risk of permanent paralysis, Player Character and NPC alike.

    Video Games 
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum: Dying against Bane will have his Game Over screen show him lifting Batman's lifeless form above his head and breaking his spine over his knee, just like he did in Knightfall.
    Bane: The Bat is broken!
  • Baldur's Gate III: The Boss Battle between the Smug Snake wizard Lorroakan and the Lightning Bruiser aasimar Dame Aylin ends with Aylin thrashing Lorroakan and then killing him by breaking his back over her knee.
  • Injustice: Gods Among Us: Bane's Super Move recreates the famous scene in Knightfall where he breaks Batman's back. He lifts his opponent above his head before shattering their spine with his knee, with the impact being highlighted by a shockwave special effect and the animation going into slow motion.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Ganondorf first tries to kill Queen Sonia with a thrown knife while disguised as Zelda, but when Sonia and Zelda stop this attack, he teleports behind Sonia and kills her with a powerful punch to the back, the Sickening "Crunch!" implied to be her spine breaking (and possibly more). The scene goes into slow motion as she collapses, and he steals her Secret Stone, laughing at Zelda as she cries.
  • Middle-earth: Shadow of War, In the gameplay demo, right when Talion is about to be burnt alive by Ur-Hakon the Dragon Lord, one of his loyal Beastmasters rides a Caragor through the flames and attacks Ur-Hakon to distract him. After a few moments, the massive Olog overpowers his assailant and snaps the Caragor's spine over his knee like a twig, whereupon it makes a sad dog-like whimper before it dies. Luckily, the Beastmaster's actions enable Talion to recover and bring the Overlord down himself.
  • Mortal Kombat:
    • Mortal Kombat 4: Each character has a move called "Bone Breaker", with four of them attacking the opponent's back:
      • Kai picks up the opponent and slams their back down on his knee.
      • Sonya jumps into a handstand on the opponent's shoulders and twists their torso 180°.
      • Liu Kang turns the opponent around and kicks the lower portion of their back, bending their body in an arc.
      • Goro holds the opponent over his head with his upper arms and uses the other two to punch the opponent's spine, visibly bending their torso.
    • Mortal Kombat X: X-Ray Moves are powerful, cinematic moves that gruesomely display the victim's internal injuries. A recurring animation involves spines being shattered, such as Kenshi doing so by stabbing his opponent with his sword, or Takeda forcefully kicking his enemy's back.
    • Mortal Kombat 11: Towards the climax of the game, a battle between Shao Kahn and his somewhat Redeeming Replacement Kotal Kahn ends with Shao overpowering Kotal, lifting him above his head, and breaking his spine over his shoulders. Whilst Kotal survives this (primarily because Kitana defeats Shao and slashes out his eyes before he can kill Kotal), his crippling serves as a Career-Ending Injury, so Kotal decides to Abdicate the Throne of Outworld in favour of Kitana, who he trusts to be an even better ruler than him.
  • Street Fighter IV: One of the displays of Juri's sadistic nature is her Kaisen Dankairaku ultra move, which is considerably vicious by the game's standards: She kicks her opponent high into the air, then drops to the ground before her opponent and delivers an upward kick straight into their back. While the opponent is bent around her foot, she takes a moment to stroke their face and saying "That felt good, didn't it?", then slams them head-first into the ground.

    Web Animation 

    Web Video 

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 
  • The Dragon Prince: Soren suffers a terrible spinal injury in Season 2 when he's smacked against a rock by the tailwhip of a very angry dragon he shot down. While his resulting paralysis begins his road to redemption, his sister's successful effort to cure him begins her road to damnation.


Top

Cell vs Vegeta

Cell effortlessly defeats Vegeta, finishing him with a brutal strike to his back.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (5 votes)

Example of:

Main / DramaticSpineInjury

Media sources:

Report