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Neck Lift

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Sometimes a character needs to demonstrate their strength by making some poor schmuck feel helpless. The standard method of demonstrating Super-Strength is to grab the victim by the neck with one hand, and use it to lift them off their feet. If you want to throw a bone to plausibility, you can then slam them up against a wall to make holding them off the ground easier. The version most likely to work in real life would be to first press them against the wall and then push them up the wall by their neck, preferably with two hands and plenty of leg drive. Still, the most badass version will always be to just hoist them one-handed with pure shoulder strength and no wall, looking as if you could hold them there all day. You may decide to shake them a little bit, or gloat while dangling them off the roof of a building. The victim is at about as much of a disadvantage as they can be, since they're trapped by a stronger opponent; their air and blood flow is being cut off; losing their connection with the ground robs their strikes of most of their power; the lifter might be so much bigger than the victim that the length of their arm puts their body out of reach of the victim's strikes; and the victim is even prevented from biting to escape.

The neck lift is a popular Charles Atlas Superpower when done by a normal human, as the way it's classically depicted (easily lifting the victim off the ground with one hand, and effortlessly holding them at arm's length without support) is physically impossible for leverage and balance reasons. If the person you're grabbing by the neck is too far in front of your feet, you would only be using the front and side deltoid muscles to lift and wouldn't be able to "cheat" with movement of the legs and torso for assistance. Furthermore, unless you took a deep lunging step to get your front foot behind their feet and leaned your torso back as you lifted, the sheer leverage of having that much weight so far from your feet and center of gravity would cause you to tip forward as soon as you applied force, preventing you from even beginning to lift them. This is to say nothing of how quickly your deltoids would give out from holding that much weight at arm's length in front of you, if you even had the strength required to lift them up in the first place. Pushing a victim up against a wall makes it more realistic because the wall gets rid of the balance problem, and you only have to push them up along it instead of lifting their full weight. In order to lift a decent-sized, uncooperative person off the ground by the neck without a wall, you might need to be in the same league as a strongman who can push press a 300 pound dumbbell over their head with one hand. What's more, you would need to start with your intended victim as close to your body as possible, lift them straight up using a pressing motion with a lot of "cheating" from your legs and body, and end by locking out with your arm vertical so the weight is transferred from your muscles to your skeleton.

This trope also usually ignores the fact that in real life, a neck lift victim would need an abnormally robust neck in order to be slowly throttled without taking more immediate and catastrophic damage first. A hand strong enough to keep a secure grip on the neck while lifting the entire body would probably also crush the delicate larynx and trachea in the process, and a violent jerking motion could damage the neck vertebrae or spinal cord. Some media gets around this by having the lifter grab the victim by the collar of their shirt, essentially using the shirt as a harness to hoist the victim into the air to achieve a similar effect without risking injury... though in that case the victim could possibly escape by raising their arms and slipping out of the shirt, assuming the collar doesn't tear off first. A lapel grip also potentially enables the victim to bite the lifter's hand to make them let go, assuming that their mouth isn't covered by their shirt hiking up on them.

Another variation involves grabbing the "scruff" of the victim—the clothing behind their neck or shoulder blades—and using that as the grabbing area to lift them. Usually this is only done when the lifter is comically larger than the victim, and isn't so much in the heat of assaulting them as they're saying "Gotcha! Now, what am I going to do with you?" Examples would be a giant guardsman lifting a petite woman whom he caught trespassing, or an Apron Matron grabbing a disobedient little child who's trying to escape punishment. Like the collar variant it doesn't cause any immediate danger to the victim, as their neck is usually safe when this happens. It would also be more difficult for the victim to twist around enough to bite the lifter's hand compared to the front collar grip. Depending on what the victim is wearing it can lift the hem of their shirt, which especially with females can add a fanservice aspect if it exposes their midriff; even more so if they use the "shed clothes to escape" trick.

May or may not come directly before a Neck Snap; typically, though, a Neck Snap is used by an efficient killer who'd be disinclined to waste energy on a grandstanding neck lift. Usually a case of Artistic License – Physics if a human-sized lifter doesn't even lean back to counterbalance the weight they're holding up. This trope principally runs on Rule of Cool, though, to make the lifter look like one hell of a badass and for general spectacle, so physics schmysics. Even more so if they're performing this trick via telekinesis, resulting in the Psychic Strangle.

For added effect, there can be a shot, image, or description revealing just how high the attacker can lift the victim's feet from the ground.

Compare Standard Female Grab Area.

Related: Barrier-Busting Blow, Hoist Hero over Head, High-Altitude Interrogation, Minion Maracas, Vertical Kidnapping.


Examples:

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    Animation 
  • In Season 7 episode 50 of Happy Heroes, Caesar holds Kalo against a wall like this during their battle, choking him. Careful S. comes to the scene and saves Kalo from the attack.

    Anime & Manga 
  • 07-Ghost: In the 8th episode, Ayanami (in Mikage's body) does this to Teito.
  • In episode 15 of Bakemonogatari, the cat spirit possessing Hanekawa performs one on Araragi after cutting his throat, in an effort to solve the problem at hand by removing him from the equation.
  • Berserk:
    • Donovan lifts a naked 9-year-old Guts like this to show how small and vulnerable Guts is to the Scary Black Man.
    • Later Guts does this to a corrupt holy knight
  • In episode 20 of Betrayal Knows My Name Cadenza does this to Kuroto.
  • In episode 9 of Black Butler II Sebastian, powerful demon extraordinaire, does this to Hannah.
  • Bleach:
    • Grimmjow does this to Orihime twice. First after he rescues her from death at the hands of Loly and Menoly. Later, during his and Ichigo's fight as she questions him.
    • Ulquiorra inflicts this on Ichigo twice. First while he's beating him up while in his first Resurrección form, and again while in his Segunda Etapa form, choking Ichigo with his tail before blowing a hole through his chest.
    • In anime episode #314 the hollow in Haruko's body does a two-handed version to Kon (who's in Ichigo's body). Kon escapes by kicking Haruko's body in the stomach.
    • Anime episode #321. Yumichika's reigei grabs him by the neck and lifts him up and presses him against a tree while taunting him.
    • Later in the Thousand-Year-Blood-War-Arc, Yhwach does this to Zaraki Kenpachi of all people, which is quite a feat given that the latter is over two meters tall. Of course, this being Yhwach, he only does it after he's thoroughly curbstomped Kenpachi.
  • A variant shows up in the original Blood: The Last Vampire short film — vampire protagonist Saya has a habit of grabbing those that piss her off by the mouth.
  • In A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun, Shizuri Mugino does this from time to time. She's so strong that she can do it to a fat adult and then punch or throw him across the room. It backfires when she does it to Shiage Hamazura, who uses the opening to gouge her eye, then pull out a gun and shoot her several times.
  • In the Cowboy Bebop episode "Ballad of Fallen Angels", Vicious does this to Spike, while sporting one of his rare Slasher Smiles, just before sending him out a cathedral window.
  • D.Gray-Man:
    • Tyki does this to Allen at one point before destroying his arm.
    • Although he's not a villain by any means, Allen angrily does this to a broker in the first Reverse novel.
  • The first time Yamaki of Digimon Tamers really loses his composure, he does this to Henry while loudly blaming him for everything that's gone wrong. (For reference, Yamaki's an adult and Henry's ten years old.)
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • Majin Buu does this to its master Babidi, to keep him from talking and using the spell to seal him again before killing him off. It's kind of subverted, though: Babidi is the size of a small dog, probably not much more than the weight of a sack of rice.
    • #20 does this to Yamcha in order to impale him with extreme prejudice.
    • In the first Broly Movie, during his climactic fight with Goku. After Broly no-sells Goku's Kamehameha Wave fired at him from Point-Blank, he grabs Goku and holds him up by his head and resumes beating the crap out of him.
    • During his fight with Metal-Cooler, right before Vegeta comes and "rescues" Goku, Meta-Cooler has Goku in a Strangle-hold, clutching his neck and about to crush it.
    • Cell does the scruff variation to Android 17 during his first attempt to absorb 17.
  • In End of Evangelion, instrumentality and the Third Impact begins when an insane Shinji chokes Asuka and lifts her up with both hands.
  • In Endride, Ibelda gets ahold of Demetrio like this in one of their confrontations. Luckily Guidoro was Not Too Dead to Save the Day.
  • In the Excel♡Saga anime's 25th episode, Lord Il Palazzo does this to two Ropponomatsus at once, one in either hand. Then he pops their heads off with a single squeeze.
  • A comical variation is used by Koujiro Shinomiya in Food Wars!. Whenever his fellow Tootsuki alumnus Hinako Inui gets on his nerve, he grabs her by the head (more specifically the face) and lifts her up while she flails around and screams. At one point, he did it twofold, lifting Hinako with one hand, and his Chief Boucher Lucie Hugo with the other.
  • In a rare heroic example, Kato does this to two Red Shirts (at the same time!) in Gantz to show off the power of the Gantz suit and convince them to wear theirs, thus increasing their chances of survival. This may count as more of a variant in that he grabs them by their shirt collars rather than by their necks proper.
  • Ginga Densetsu Weed: Since almost all of the majority of the cast are dogs, Hougen uses his teeth to grab one of Jerome's Alaskan malamute helpers by the throat and lift her up during the final battle.
  • Gunslinger Girl. Henrietta does this to a purse snatcher, who's rather surprised when he's lifted off his moped by a ten-year old girl half his size.
  • Hanaukyō Maid Team La Verite episode 11. Konoe's Onee-sama grabs Yashima Sanae by the neck and lifts her into the air while fighting her and does the same thing to Taro when he insists on trying to rescue Mariel.
  • Hellsing: Alucard did this to Rip van Winkle in the 4th OVA.
  • Hunter × Hunter: In the 2011 anime remake Hisoka does this to Gon.
  • Karate Shoukoushi Kohinata Minoru: During their fight in chapter 64 Kevin does this to Minoru.
  • Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine: Oscar does this to one of his subordinate police officers. It's made all the more impressive by his being a thin, extremely feminine-looking Bishounen.
  • A brainwashed Ginga does this to Subaru during their battle in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. Subaru managed to escape and do an attempted counter, which earned her a one-handed slam into the ground.
  • Naruto:
    • Before Sasuke goes off to Orochimaru, Naruto tries to stop him, and somewhere in the middle Sasuke lifts Naruto with just one hand. Despite having been badly beaten before being grabbed, Naruto was still able to force Sasuke's attack off target.
    • Pain's bodies did this to a few people during their attack on Konoha when trying to extract information from them on Naruto's whereabouts.
    • Kakuzu does this to Choji and Ino at the same time.
    • Itachi does this to Sasuke in their first battle.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • A favorite move of Nagi (Negi's father), having done it against Fate during a Flash Back and when Albireo copied him in his match against Kaede during a tournament. Also a scene where the real Nagi used this on the last Mook Demon of an army he'd just torn through. He finished it in a Neck Snap.
    • Also, mercenary leader of the Black Hounds Alexander Zeystev (also known as Chiko-tan) did this to Nodoka while attempting to take her in; there was a tremendous bounty on her and her friend's capture (she became bait).
    • In a "heroic" and unarguably awesome example of this, Negi does this to Tsukuyomi in chapter 292, and judging by the look on Tsukuyomi's face, it seems Negi is dead serious and she knows it. Unusual for this trope, Tsukuyomi does try to slice off the arm doing the grabbing. It is less than effective.
    • Chapter 333. Lifemaker grabs Negi in a Neck Lift.
    • Takhata-sensei does a variant by holding Asuna and Ayaka up by their collars when they are causing a scene. It is Played for Laughs as they hold their skirts down so they don't ride up.
  • One Piece:
    • As his Establishing Character Moment, Buggy the Clown, using his powers, does this to one of his mooks.
    • Heroic example comes from Sanji's introduction where after brutalizing Fullbody for wasting food, he dangles the Marine by the neck Sanji even has Fullbody's blood on his hand when he drops him.
    • Zoro once gets caught in a Neck Lift by Miss Monday, a bodybuilder-like woman. His response is a Facepalm of Doom. He also gets one from Arlong a few arcs prior. Arlong was going to kill him while holding him like this, but Zoro manages to distract him long enough for Luffy to rejoin the fight and switch places with him.
    • Crocodile holds Vivi off the edge of a building in one of these during the Alabasta arc while delivering a brutal Breaking Speech, and then drops her, intending for her to plummet to her death. Luckily, Luffy and Pell arrive Just in Time and save her.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Kyouko does this to Sayaka after the latter tosses an apple she was given to the floor without eating it. She seriously hates people who waste food. Justified in that she, as a Magical Girl, has superhuman strength and can thus effortlessly lift her.
  • Ranma ½: The super-strong tiger warrior Lime to Ryōga. Particularly horrifying since Ryōga has considerable superhuman strength and is Made of Iron himself, but Lime even more so. It ends with Lime crushing Ryōga's throat and almost bringing him to the point of death. But when Ryōga's Shishi Hokodan fills him with "heavy" depression ki, he becomes too heavy for even Lime to lift.
  • Saint Seiya: Ohko does this to Shiryu at the climax of their fight. Subverted in that Shiryu takes the opportunity to move his body like a pendulum, use the momentum to strike Ohko's arm with his knee and break it, freeing himself.
  • Sakura Wars: A variant happens in the first episode. When Sakura is trying to apologize to Maria for accidentally ruining their stage production, Maria responds by bodily lifting her off the ground by the front of her kimono, coldly telling her to Get Out!, and then flinging her across the hallway.
  • Sengoku Basara:
    • Nobunaga does this to the hero Date Masamune. Despite the fact that he is holding up a grown man with one hand, he makes it look painfully easy.
    • Happens to Masamune again in the second season and again by the Big Bad, though this time it looks a bit more convincing seeing as Hideyoshi is (at least) twice Masamune's size.
  • Silent Möbius: Kiddy greets detective Ralph Baumers this way the first few times they meet. They wind up going out later.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, during Sonic's final fight with Metal, Metal has Sonic in a stranglehold ready to finish him off until Tails figures out how to cripple Metal with his own programming.
  • Tokyo Mew Mew. In one of the last couple of episodes of the anime's first season, Deep Blue grabbed Ichigo by the throat and lifted her into the air.

    Comic Books 
  • Angel and the Ape: The cover of #4, in which Gorilla Grodd does it to Dumb Bunny.
  • Batman:
    • In Batman: Hush, Batman grabs Robin's collar and lifts him one handed to stop him from continuing to antagonize Catwoman. It's the first sign that the fight is staged, since Tim's collar and cape are detachable and Tim grabs Bruce's wrist instead of going for the release.
    • In Batman: The Dark Prince Charming, it's implied that the Joker figures out Bruce is Batman because they both give him the same Neck Lift.
  • DuckTales: When King Fulla Cola manages to stop the battle between his people, the McDuck household, and the Beagle Boys in its tracks, Launchpad freezes in position holding one of the Beagle Boys off the ground by the neck.
  • In the graphic novel Malet, when Bault refuses to release his prisoners as Malet orders, Guidal shuts him up by grabbing his entire face, lifting him off the ground and threatening to rip Bault's tongue off with his teeth for good measure.
  • During Ms. Marvel #44, the over-sexualised Carol Denvers lookalike Moonstone effortlessly hoists an innocent bystander by the throat, until they are above her head, as if she is lifting a piece of paper.
  • Red Sonja: There is a neat example in Amy Chu's run. Transported to the modern day, the angry She-Devil storms into a Vegas casino. When a couple of huge bouncers try to take her in, she punches one out and then headbutts the other, next hoisting his 250lbs off the ground with one arm by the throat and demanding to know the whereabouts of his boss. He's completely unable to break her grip with both hands and when she's done, she effortlessly tosses him aside, telling hom he's lucky she didn't have her sword. Strong evidence (no pun intended) that Red Sonja has superhuman strength, at least under Chu.
  • Superman:
    • Superman: Brainiac: When Brainiac comes face to face with Superman for the first time, the Coluan grabs Superman by the throat and lifts him with one hand.
    • In the end of New Krypton, Supergirl does this to Sam Lane after he has successfully engineered the death of New Krypton and the Kryptonian genocide.
    • In the beginning of the 2010 storyline Day of the Dollmaker, she does this to Toyman during an interrogation when she thinks he's lying. Her Glowing Eyes of Doom stress that she's serious and mad.
    • In issue #13 of Supergirl (2011), Kara grabs Simon Tycho's neck when he breaks into her underwater secret base.
    • In the beginning of the Red Daughter of Krypton story arc (Supergirl vol. 6 #28), Kara grabs Lobo's neck and slams him into the nearest wall before punching him through it.
    • In the cover of Red Lanterns #31, Sheko does this to both Supergirl and Bleez.
    • In Justice League United #3, Lobo sucker-punches her. She grabs his neck and lifts him off the ground before punching him across a valley.
    • Crucible:
      • In the beginning of the story, Supergirl has been unwillingly abducted and put through a test. After spotting the responsible, Supergirl grabs him by the neck, flies upwards and demands answers as reminding him that it's a very long drop.
      • At the climax of the arc, Lys Amata grabs Korstus by the back of the neck and hoists him up in the air when the villain attempts to flee.
    • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, Kara does this to Lex Luthor — several times.
    • The Supergirl from Krypton (2004) provides plenty of examples:
      • Wonder Woman neck-lifts Kara when she abducts her.
      • Superman to Artemis when she spars with Kara.
      • A brainwashed Kara grabs Superman's neck at the beginning of their fight.
      • Darkseid neck-lifts Batman before punching him across the room.
    • In Supergirl (Rebirth): Plain Sight, first thing villain Deceilia does upon meeting Supergirl is grabbing her neck.
    • In The Great Phantom Peril, Faora Hu-Ul overhears Steve Lombard saying someone should pound on her. Faora promptly grabs his collar and lifts him up to pound on him.
    • In The Killers of Krypton, Supergirl grabs Harry Hokum's neck when he tries to run away and lifts him up as demanding answers.
    • The Hunt for Reactron: Several times the titular villain grabs Supergirl by the throat and hoists her aloft with one hand during their final battle.
    • Way of the World: When she is mind-controlled by one villain into attacking Empress, Kara lifts her upwards as grabbing the young hero's neck with both hands.
    • Death & the Family: Supergirl, while possessed by a Banshee-like evil spirit, grabs Inspector Henderson's neck before lifting him and slamming him into a wall.
    • In Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom:
      • When Maelstrom invades his personal space and touches his face, Darkseid at once grabs her neck with one hand and warns her against doing so again.
      • Later, Maelstrom neck-lifts Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen simultaneously.
    • The Plague of the Antibiotic Man: In the cover of the second issue, Superman is shown lifting and shoving Amalak into his ship's wall as grabbing his neck.
    • In Girl Power, Lex Luthor neck-lifts Supergirl after shooting her down with a pulse blast.
  • Teen Titans #86 involves a moment where the skinny, sexualised Miss Martian can be seen effortlessly lifting a tall professor in this way like he is nothing.
  • In Violine, this is Muller's favorite attack thanks to his metal claws.
  • Wonder Woman:
    • In the cover of issue #198 of Wonder Woman (1987), Diana is depicted menacingly holding up a doctor by the throat with one hand.
    • Wonder Woman (2006): Diana yanks the retired villain she interrupted while he was beating his wife to near death up by the throat, mocks him and chucks him out of his own house and across the street.
  • X-Men:
    • Shortly after being introduced as leader of the Mutant Liberation Front in New Mutants #87, Stryfe does it to MLF member Wildside as punishment for incompetence, as seen here.
    • In the "Songs of the Orphan Child" arc of X-23, Mr. Sinister does this to Laura after she neatly dodges one of his energy blasts and plants all of her claws in his chest. It even ends in a Neck Snap, though Laura gets better thanks to her Healing Factor.
    • In Secret Wars (2015), Doom gives one to the Phoenix-possessed Cyclops and breaks his neck with ease.
  • X-Wing Rogue Squadron: Wedge Antilles does a version of this to Sate Pestage, grabbing him with both hands by the front of his robes and slamming him against a wall. Pestage has referred to a nonhuman Rogue as "animal filth". Wedge snaps.
    Wedge: Don't make me go Vader on you. Ibitsam was a pilot and a friend and she died to save your sorry hide.
  • Zatanna: Here, Zatanna demonstrates this lift on a large man, with an added throw afterwards.
  • Zodiac Starforce: In the climax of issue 4 of Cries of the Fire Prince, Pavos grabs Molly by the throat and hoists her — and Emma, who she was preventing from falling to her doom at the time — aloft with one hand. He then starts sucking her lifeforce out.

    Comic Strips 
  • Beetle Bailey. In the strip for December 15th 2012, Sergeant Snorkel and his dog Otto go to a restaurant. When the maitre'd says that they don't serve dogs, Sarge grabs him by the neck and lifts him into the air to change his mind.
  • Garfield: Garfield catches Nermal by the neck once.
    Nermal: Hi, I'm Nermal. I'm cute, and you're not. I'm young, and you're not.
    Garfield: I'm feeling fine, and you're not.
  • Once happens in What's New? with Phil and Dixie to a game-company flack, who's interrupted yet another attempt by the hosts to address the topic of Sex in D&D. One panel shows him being subjected to this trope; the next reveals that it's Dixie, rather than Phil, who's doing it.

    Fan Works 
  • Parodied in this image of Darth Vader.
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In this Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) fanfiction, Monster X using its Prehensile Tail at one point manages to hold a Many-infected Skullcrawler Mind Hive above a cliff edge by the neck.
  • Aen'rhien Vailiuri has Morgan lift a Kazon maje, who's taller than she is, clear off the floor. (She's Romulan so she's stronger than a human.) She then breaks his neck.
  • In Amazing Fantasy, the Prowler lifts Izuku up by the scruff of his collar after he stops her from killing Peter.
  • Children of the Atom's begins with Sarah Lyons being neck-lifted by a Super Mutant.
  • Early on in his fight with Chridion, the main character of Christian Humber Reloaded charges him while underestimating his strength, only to get picked up by his neck and slammed into a tree.
  • In Coyote, Bakugo finally finds himself saying one insult too many when he demeans Riley, and Izuku gives him a One For All-enhanced Neck Lift and warns him, while strangling him, that if he ever tries to exploit this against Riley in any way, shape or form, he is going to suffer big time for it.
  • In The Day After You Saved the Multiverse, Superboy grabs and lifts one of the local Mafia thugs after their Boss has kidnapped his parents.
    Larson coughed. "We hold the..."
    "Shut up!" Clark Kent bulled him up against the wall of the garage, not far from the fallen hoods. He held him there, Larson's feet not touching the floor, one hand firmly on Larson's throat, putting a bit of pressure on it.
    "Get this straight. I am not the Superboy you read about in your comic books."
  • Double the Trouble: When one soldier dares to talk back, Krumple puts his hands around his throat and lifts him high before threatening him.
    Krumple suddenly latched his hands around the crocodile's neck and lifted him high. As Kobble choked in his hands, Krumple shot him a powerful glare.
  • In crossover Echoes of Yesterday, Kara grabs Sophia's collar and lifts her one-handed after deducing Sophia was the bully who pushed Taylor into her locker.
  • Fate/Gamers Only: Rikku grabs Orion by the neck and holds a sword up to him after she notices that he's ogling Mash. As Rikku and Mash begin to discuss if they should dissect him or if he's friend or foe, Orion gets fed up with being strangled and yells at them to stop.
  • Mangetsu angrily grabs Kagura's neck at the end of their fight in Five Worlds War.
  • In Power Girl story A Force of Four, U-Ban has a penchant for neck-lifting Power Girl at least once when they clash.
  • Gaz's Horrible Halloween of Doom: Gaz does this to Iggins with one hand when he tells her to get on her knees and admit he's the better gamer in exchange for telling her which house is giving out the rare Mondo Deluxe Poop Candy Bars.
  • Hellsister Trilogy: Kralik and shortly later Galactic Golem neck-lift Supergirl as attempting to crush her windpipe during the final battle of the Apokoliptian War.
  • In Heroic Myth, Sigurd catches a member of the Apollo Familia in one during a War Game. It doesn't take him long strangle them into unconsciousness before dropping the poor sap like a sack of potatoes.
  • Inter Nos: When the chief medic tells Shizuru that Natsuki's wounds will prove fatal, she hoists him into the air one-handed, then tells him and all of his associates that if Natsuki dies, they die too. They prove to be very motivated in saving Natsuki's life, though it does come at the cost of her left leg.
  • In The Last Daughter, Taylor does this to Moord Nag after crushing his empire and later to Jack Slash after curbstomping his followers.
  • Missing (Sherlock Holmes): Holmes collars one of the gang and shoves him up against the wall as he interrogates him about what they've been doing to Watson. At one point, he lifts the guy a few inches off the ground.
  • In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide, Asuka's humongous mecha grabs the neck of a monster who was trying to kill Shinji and pulls him away from her teammate.
  • The Night Unfurls:
    • Kyril does this to Bishop Sharkov in Chapter 13 to threaten him that he will come for the archbishop personally should he continue to harass the refugee nuns in the church. He later drops the priest unceremoniously when Celestine arrives to diffuse the situation.
    • Kyril lifts up a Black Dog prisoner by the throat during one of his interrogation attempts in Chapter 15. Believing he is getting ahead of himself, he drops the man contemptuously soon afterwards.
    • A variant of this trope happens in the remastered version, where Brandon Irons is lifted by his clothes and slammed backwards into a tree by Kyril.
  • In Now You Feel Like Number None, Yammy does this to Cirucci before she takes off her power limiter.
  • In Prince of Darkness No More, Galamoth grabs and lifts both Ivan and Simon.
  • Prison Island Break: On multiple occasions Shadow the Hedgehog lifts people right off their feet, whether by the front of their shirt or by their neck, both with two hands and with one.
  • Reality Is Fluid has this done in a mental conversation between Captain Kanril Eleya and an Undine psi master. The Undine grips her by the neck and varies the level of pressure depending on how angry it is, as a mental representation of Mind Rape.
  • A Red Rose in the Blue Wind: Dr. Eggman pulls one on Cinder in chapter 11 when he thinks she killed Sonic.
  • Spider-Man: Downfall: Hybrid loves giving these. Spider-Man gives one to Shocker, when he mentions how he had had a part to play in Hobgoblin's schemes.
  • In chapter 26 of Phantomdare1's Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs story, Tracks Of Light, Purple Eyes grabs the back of Summer's neck and lifts her up into the air, trying to get her partner, Ben, to fight him. It works. Later on in the chapter, Ben returns the favor.
  • In The Unfantastic Adventures of Bizarro No. 1, Bizarro Supergirl angrily grabs Yellow Lantern by the collar and lifts him clear off the ground to berate him properly when he suggests to let the Blue-Kryptonite Men kill all male Bizarros so the male Bizarro Leaguers can keep all Bizarro Loises for themselves.
  • In Wayward Shark's Return, Arlong does this to two Marines at once, one in each hand, and follows it up with a double Neck Snap.
  • Downplayed in Weird Incident Shit, when Reimu Hakurei carries Problem Sleuth to the Hakurei Shrine by the collar.
  • In Zero no Tsukaima: Saito the Onmyoji, Saito's familiar Kaede saves him from a sneak attack by doing this to Viscount Wardes.

    Films — Animation 
  • Aladdin: When the guards break into Aladdin's hideout and capture him, one of the guards does this to Aladdin.
  • Asterix: In Asterix and the Vikings, Olaf the Brute lifts Justforkix by the neck while trying to kill him.
  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire: The Viking captain actually does this to his first mate after he refuses the first mate's warning that the Leviathan is about to destroy their ship during their search for Atlantis in a deleted opening.
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Beast holds Gaston over the edge of the roof after defeating him. Notable in that the laws of physics were maintained because even with his strength, the Beast holds onto a gargoyle to stay balanced, and the Beast is savvy enough to hold Gaston over the edge of the roof (making escape through jerking his head back a very bad idea - the Beast's hand is also large enough to all but encircle Gaston's neck, so he probably couldn't even if he tried). The Beast also has a far longer reach than Gaston so punching or kicking is also out of the question.
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Quasimodo does this to Captain Phoebus by his collar. After calming down a bit, he looks vaguely surprised to see that he'd done this, and is kind enough to let the captain back down on the ground. It bears mentioning that: A). Quasi only uses one hand to do this, and B). Phoebus is wearing a suit of armor at the time.
  • The Incredibles:
    • Mr. Incredible loses his temper and does this to his obnoxious boss at the insurance company, then throws him through several walls.
    • He does it again with Mirage. He's taken a few lessons from the bad guys, apparently.
  • Kung Fu Panda:
    • Commander Vachir does this combined with Minion Maracas to Zeng during Tai Lung's escape from Chorh-Gom, to keep him from leaving and reporting his failure. Justified by the latter being a much-smaller goose, and unusual in that it's a good guy doing it to another good guy. (He's a bit Hot-Blooded.)
    • Tai Lung later does this to Master Shifu during their battle after the latter apologizes to him for being too proud to notice the darkness building within his (Tai Lung's) heart.
      Tai Lung: I don't want your apology. I want my [Dragon] scroll.
  • Mulan: Shan Yu does this to an Imperial Red Shirt. Quite intimidating in this case because Shan Yu holds his sword to the poor sap's throat at the same time.
  • My Little Pony: The Movie (1986): After shaking off Draggle, the Phlume grabs Reeka by the neck and holds her over the cliff it lives on.
  • Roadside Romeo: Guru does this to Romeo as well as Charlie Anna throughout the movie. For example, Guru lifts Romeo by the neck for not getting permission drinking the tap water.
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse:
    • Doc Ock (with her tentacles, of course) to Peter B. Parker, twice. The first time, she grabs him and then throws him hard enough to break the chair he's strapped into.
    • The Prowler, pursuing Miles on top of a roof, grabs him by the neck and dangles him over the edge above the ground. That is, until Miles pulls up his Spider-Man mask and reveals his face to his uncle.
    • During the climactic fight, the Kingpin grabs Miles by the neck and holds him up, about to give a killing blow. But he's distracted by the sight of alter-dimensional version of his wife and son.
  • Starchaser: The Legend of Orin: The evil android Zygon does this twice (with one hand, no less!), first to strangle Orin's first Love Interest, then later to Orin himself (though this time, his victim escapes). In a subversion of this trope, though, kicking Zygon in the groin wouldn't have done much good anyway, since he's a fricking robot.
  • Superman/Batman: Apocalypse: Kara, as a Female Fury, does this to her cousin. Although he is reluctant to fight her, until she throws him out Darkseid's throne room.
  • Toy Story 2: Emperor Zurg neck-lifts "Buzz 2". It helps that they're both made of lightweight plastic.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension: Justified in both cases because they're Red Lectroids, not humans.
    • John Whorfin does this to the attendant at his mental facility, followed by a Neck Snap.
    • John Bigbooté to the Secretary of Defense by grabbing his necktie (Necktie Lift?).
  • Alien:
    • Aliens: Ripley does this to the alien queen during their fight using the mechanical arm of the cargo loader that she's strapped into.
    • Prometheus: The Engineer does this to the android David just before breaking his neck and ripping his head off.
  • In Alone in the Dark, a huge guy holds up a teenaged girl by the neck with one arm. This was completely real with no wires or special effects used.
  • Austin Powers: When Random Task attacks Austin Powers near the end of International Man of Mystery, he grabs him by the neck, lifts him up and presses him against a wall.
  • Big Trouble in Little China: Thunder does this to Wang Chi when Wang and Jack attack him.
  • In Blackenstein, after Malcolm tries to shoot him, Eddie grabs him by the throat and hoists him up in the air as he strangles him to death.
  • Blade Runner 2049: When K (a.k.a. Joe) attacks Luv inside the sinking spinner, he grabs her by the neck and lifts her up in the air.
  • In Bulletproof Monk, Strucker becomes young and superhumanly strong after reading the Scroll and then holds Kar by the neck off the roof. Kar proceeds to punch him in the head and then catches himself by his toes.
  • Cropsy does this to Glazer, via shears through the throat, in The Burning.
  • In The Catcher, Johnny does this to Carl after he catches him in the corridor. Even more remarkable, he hoists Carl up using his injured arm.
  • In Circus, an enraged Moose lifts Leo up with one hand while strangling him in the elevator.
  • Constantine: The demonic half-breed Balthazar does this to Constantine after he bursts into Balthazar's office.
  • In a cut scene of Daredevil, Kingpin does this to a guard implied to have squealed. This is a slightly more realistic example than normal, as the guard's back is against a wall — plus, Michael Clarke Duncan does actually look like he would have the weight and strength to do it.
  • Though Bane uses the Neck Snap all the time in The Dark Knight Rises, he only does the classic Neck Lift once... on Batman himself.
  • DC Extended Universe:
    • In Man of Steel, Faora does this to Martha Kent, and later to Superman himself during a fight, before slamming him into the floor.
    • In Wonder Woman, Sir Patrick Morgan, who reveals himself as Ares, does this to the title protagonist herself during the final showdown before throwing her to the ground.
    • Justice League:
      • The resurrected Superman does it to Batman, except he lifts him by his face during his Curb-Stomp Battle against the title team.
      • During the climax, Steppenwolf does it to Cyborg before tearing one of his legs off.
    • None of the above happen in Zack Snyder's Justice League. Steppenwolf, however, does it to his captives in the tunnels when he interrogates them in order to find the Mother Boxes. Before this, he also does it to an Atlantean soldier brought to the surface.
  • Destroyer: After his execution, when getting his final send-off from the priest, Ivan grabs said priest by the neck, lifts him off the ground, and then throws him through the window into the witness room.
  • Jonathan gets this treatment by the title vampire (Leslie Nielsen) in Dracula: Dead and Loving It, but he counters with an eye poke.
  • In End of Days, Satan effortlessly lifts Jericho (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) over his head by grabbing his neck and holds him in front of an open window to threaten him.
  • Fearless have Huo Yuanjia's battle against Hercules O'Brien, where the huge American briefly subdues Huo by the neck with one hand.
  • The Fifth Element: At the end of their first time meeting, Korben Dallas lifts Ruby Rhod by the neck and presses him against a wall to make him shut up.
  • In the opening of Final Exam, two lovers in a car are approached by the killer, and try to drive away. The killer then proceeds to make a hole in the car's roof, grabs the driver by the throat, drags him outside and stabs him to death.
  • In Fright Night and its remake Fright Night (2011):
    • This is done by the ancient and powerful vampire antagonist Jerry Dandrige on anyone who happens to inconvenience him.
    • When Jerry confronts Charley in his room he lifts him by the neck, pressing him against a wall and then pushing him partially out a window.
    • Jerry lifts a big black nightclub bouncer into the air by the neck, then throws him along the floor.
  • In Get Smart, during the fight with giant henchman Dalip, he lifts Agent 99 by the neck one-handed.
  • In Ghost Town, Devlin does this to one of his henchmen who refuses to enter the church. For good measure, he then strangles him one-handed as an example to rest of the gang.
  • In Give My Regards to Broad Street, Big Bob does this to Paul's roadie. (Paul has left by then, but we see it.)
  • Godzilla vs. Kong: During his skirmish with a pair of Warbats, Kong with just one hand lifts the second Warbat's entire body above his head by its neck.
  • Michael Myers from the Halloween series does this to few unlucky souls right before killing them as he's unnaturally strong. Most notably in the first film when he lifts Bob before pinning him to wall with a knife.
  • In The Haunted Mansion, the evil ghost can materialize enough to catch protagonist Jime Evers (Eddie Murphy) this way, then flies upward and sends him through a window.
  • The Heroic Trio has the Big Bad doing this to two of the girls at the same time.
  • Bolg does a rather nasty one to Tauriel in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
  • The Minotaur to Theseus, during their fight in Immortals.
  • The creature from Jeepers Creepers does a Neck Lift to the crazy cat lady from behind, and walks forward with its victim held in front of itself like a shield, still gasping out a death-rattle.
  • Judge Dredd: The ABC robot does this to Judge Hershey. Rico threatens to have the robot break her neck and rip her arms and legs off, but eventually orders it to let her go.
  • Killer Workout: In Jimmy's dream, his doppelganger hoists him up by his neck and is about to stab him when Lt. Morgan wakes him up.
  • In The Kiss, a homicidally angry Charles does this to Pierre after catching Pierre kissing Charles's wife.
  • Kiss of the Damned: Maia hoists up Djuna by her neck against a wall during an argument.
  • Legend: This is done by Darkness to Jack, but by grabbing his face.
  • In Life Blood, the vampiric Brooke demonstrates to the overweight Dan that she is a serious threat by grabbing him round the neck with one hand and effortlessly hoisting him off the floor.
  • In Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Blaster does it to Max after Max tries to ignore Master's order for him to disarm the truck's booby-trap. And holds him there while Master chews him out and repeats the demand. When Max fails to be impressed, Master decides to have the town's electricity supply choked instead. EMBARGO ON! This trope has the added advantage of bringing Max up to Master's level so he can be properly harangued (Master is a dwarf who sits on the back of his huge bodyguard Blaster). Becomes Played for Drama the next time they have a confrontation.
    Master: Blaster, in three seconds, break neck. One... two... th—
    [*Click* Hello from Aunty's enforcers intervene just in time]
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • In The Avengers, Loki grabs Tony Stark by the neck (and chucks him out of a 50th-story skyscraper window) in a fit of pique after Loki's attempt to mind-control him fails spectacularly. It doesn't help Tony that he immediately starts throwing jibes of the "performance issues" variety.
    • In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America lifts the Winter Soldier by the neck before slamming him down.
    • Thor: The Dark World:
      • During the riot in the dungeon, Kurse lifts two Asgardian guards by their necks one-handed each before burning them to death.
      • Kurse later does it again to Frigga when he holds her hostage for Malekith before stabbing her to death.
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron:
      • Thor also grabs Tony by the neck, a little ticked off at him for his role in creating Ultron. Apparently Asgardians find him more annoying than most people do.
        Tony: C'mon, use your words, buddy!
        Thor: I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark.
      • Ultron later does it to Captain America during their fight on top of a truck before Natasha throws Cap his shield to help him break free.
    • Guardians of the Galaxy:
      • Groot essentially does a variant to one of the punks in prison, by picking him up by the nostrils! It's painful just to look at.
      • Ronan picks up Drax by the neck and lifts him in their second confrontation. He's interrupted by Rocket crashing his fighter right on top of them.
    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Gamora lifts Mantis by the neck as she questions her about the skeletons of Ego's children she and Nebula found buried in a cave. She only lets her go when Mantis uses her empathic abilities on her.
    • Black Panther: Just after Killmonger is empowered by the Heart-Shaped Herb, he orders the rest of the plants burned. When the caretaker protests that they're a Wakandan treasure that should be preserved for future kings, he brutally grabs her by the neck and tests his newfound Super-Strength by lifting her from the floor.
    • Avengers: Infinity War: Thanos the Mad Titan likes to lift his puny opponents by the neck.
      • First at the beginning with Loki, before snapping his neck.
      • Then with the Collector on Knowhere, at least in the illusion crafted by the Reality Stone.
      • During the battle on Titan, Thanos grabs Doctor Strange by the neck and holds him up as he tries to take the Time Stone from him.
      • During the climax, Thanos effortlessly neck-lifts Vision, and uses his free hand to extract the Mind Stone.
  • The Matrix:
    • The Matrix: When Neo first wakes up from the Matrix in the gel pod, a Docbot happens along, grabs him up by the neck and removes the plug from the back of his neck.
    • The Matrix Reloaded: An agent picks up Trinity by the neck. In contrast to the usual way this trope is played, she continues to fight and kicks him repeatedly until she then gets slammed down onto the floor.
    • The Matrix Revolutions: Smith does it to Neo at the end of their Battle in the Rain.
  • Men in Black II: Serleena grabs and lifts the pizza shop owner (actually an undercover alien guarding the Light of Zartha) by the chin.
  • In The Monster Squad, Dracula grabs Phoebe under the chin and lifts her off the ground to stop her completing the incantation.
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge: Freddy grabs one of his victims by the neck and lifts him up against a door before gutting him.
  • The Phantom of the Opera (1998): After snatching Alfred, the Phantom hoists him up one-handed by the neck and holds him there while he interrogates him.
  • A one-handed version of it appears in The Possession of Michael King, courtesy of demonic strength.
  • Predator:
    • The title villain grabs Dutch by the neck, picks him up and examines him closely before administering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
    • The Predator from the sequel does this to a female police officer named Leona — lifting her to just the right height for it to realize she is pregnant. He lets her live.
  • Pumpkins: Pumpkin Man does this to Macy when he catches her.
  • RoboCop 2: When Cain (in his RoboCop 2 robot body) meets Angie in the warehouse, he grabs her head and performs a Neck Snap, then lifts her off the ground and holds her in the air.
  • In Rocky IV, Ivan Drago does this to his own manager after he insults the boxer and presses his Berserk Button by doing so.
  • The Running Man: During the faked scene where Captain Freedom fights Amber, he lifts her into the air by the neck (we see her feet dangling above the floor) before breaking her neck.
  • During the climax of Scooby-Doo, the possessed Mary Jane does this to Shaggy and Scooby.
  • Roy receives a two-armed one in Scream Park courtesy of the killer.
  • Scrooged: While Frank Cross is being visited by the ghost of his old boss Lew Hayward, Lew grabs Frank by the throat, lifts him into the air and pushes him through a building window (without breaking it) and letting him fall.
  • The Shadow: The title character does this to Farley Claymore after tricking him into running out of bullets and driving him insane.
  • Sheitan: During the fight in the workshop, the enraged Joseph grabs Ladj by the throat, hoists him into the air, and slams him against the wall. The height difference between Vincent Cassel and Ladj Ly makes this particularly striking.
  • In Shredder Orpheus, when Orpheus tries the EBN parking garage without the special skateboard, Cerberus grabs him by the throat and lifts him up before shoving him against a wall, and he's barely able to escape. It's implied Scratch's neck scar is from a similar incident.
  • In Silent Hill, Pyramid Head holds Anna by the neck and ascends the church stairs with her shortly before skinning her alive.
  • In Slaughter High, the jester grabs the caretaker Digby by the neck, lifts him off the floor, and slams his head on to a coat hook on the back of a door.
  • The Headless Horseman does this to several of his victims in Sleepy Hollow High.
  • Spider-Man:
    • Green Goblin barges into Jameson's office and grabs him by the neck while still on his glider, lifting him from the ground, while asking who Spider-Man's photographer is.
    • Toward the climax, Green Goblin is holding Mary Jane by the neck from the top of the Queensboro Bridge.
  • Star Trek:
    • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: This is used to demonstrate Khan's Super-Strength in his introductory scene (given that the audience might not be familiar with what an Augment is) but given that the man lifted is wearing a bulky spacesuit, Khan has to grab a handle of the front of the spacesuit instead of the neck, which appears to be there for the sole purpose of giving him a handhold for this trope.
    • Klingon Commander Kruge to Admiral Kirk (two-handed) during their fight in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
    • Nero's Dragon Ayel does this to Kirk in Star Trek (2009). Kirk uses this as an opportunity to take Ayel's weapon and do him in. (Justified, as Vulcans and Romulans are much stronger than humans.)
  • Star Wars:
    • Darth Vader is seen doing this to Captain Antilles in the beginning of A New Hope, following it through by crushing the guy's windpipe and killing him, quickly establishing that he is not someone you want to mess with. Vader chokes Antilles one-handed and with seemingly minimal effort, and indeed lifts him a foot off the ground, continues to question him, then tosses his body across the room like a rag-doll. It's also plausible simply because Vader physically isn't a normal human but has been rebuilt as a cyborg with super-strength.
      Darth Vader: Where are those transmissions you intercepted? What have you done with those plans?
    • He also has a much more famous long-range, Force-assisted version which appears to use even less effort and is in-universe referred to in such diverse terms as Force Choke and Virtual Garrote. In Rogue One, Vader neck-lifts a rebel soldier several feet off the ground using only the Force.
    • Vader's grandson Kylo Ren does something similar in The Force Awakens, though in this case he's a normal human, and uses the Force to pull an underling across the room by his throat into his hand to yell at him (though he isn't physically strong enough to do this without supernatural powers).
  • In Street Fighter, Bison neck-lifts Dhalsim (but doesn't kill him, since he's still needed alive) after Dhalsim makes the mistake of openly questioning Bison's sanity (which happens to be Bison's Berserk Button).
  • Superman:
    • Superman: The Movie: While Superman and Lex Luthor are in Luthor's underground lair, Superman grabs Lex by his shirt front and lifts him into the air and off the lead-lined box he's sitting on.
    • Superman II:
      • When the three Kryptonian supervillains break into Perry White's office, Non grabs White by his lapels, lifts him up and rams his head into the ceiling, knocking him out.
      • During the White House attack, Ursa lifts a soldier by his neck before throwing him vertically through a skylight.
  • Tank Girl: The title character does this to Jet Girl twice inside a tank after Jet Girl saves her life.
  • Terminator:
  • ¡Three Amigos!: When Lucky Day swings down into the yard of El Guapo's fortress, El Guapo grabs him by the neck and lifts him into the air.
  • This is done by the Big Bad in The Tuxedo to Jimmy and Del, simultaneously. Justified, as he is wearing the titular suit (it's a Powered Armor).
  • This happens a few times in the Underworld films. An awesome example in the first film, where Lucian's Number Two Raze rushes the Vampire Elder Viktor in his Lycan form, only for Viktor to catch him in mid-air with his hand by the throat, hold him a little, and perform a Neck Snap followed by a finishing stab with a silver sword. This is the first we see how truly strong Viktor is, given how normally a fight between a vampire and a transformed Lycan usually results in the Lycan tearing the vampire to shreds.
  • V in V for Vendetta does this to Creedy at the end of his final battle, strangling him. Played slightly more realistically than most examples, though, because even with his great strength he needs both hands, and leans against a gate to keep his balance.
    V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bullet-proof.
  • Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Judge Doom does it to Roger when he captures him in the bar. Doubles as Foreshadowing: how can this work, when Roger clearly has mass and Doom is too thin? Judge Doom finds it funny to Neck Lift poor Roger.
  • Wild Wild West: During Jim West's battle with the last of Dr. Loveless' Mooks (the one with the metal plate in his head) inside the giant spider robot, the mook grabs him by the neck and lifts him into the air.
  • X-Men Film Series:
    • X-Men: Apocalypse: The eponymous villain does this to Mystique like in the posters, after she sneaks up on him and slashes his throat.
    • Deadpool:
      • Early on, Ajax lifts a mouthy client off the ground, establishing his badass credibility.
      • Angel Dust lifts Weasel by the neck and slams him against the liquor cabinet of his bar.
    • In Deadpool 2, Juggernaut lifts Deadpool by the neck while saying he's going to rip him in half... and then he proceeds to do so.
  • Young Frankenstein: The Monster does this to the police officer who was tormenting him with lit matches.

    Literature 
  • Angels of Music: In "Deluge", Rollo is deciding which of the Angels to execute first when he grabs Aralune by the throat and holds off the roof the opera house one-handed. It looks like he is preparing to drop her, but instead starts strangling her.
  • Discworld: In Hogfather, the Assassin Mr. Teatime is told that one reason the gang he hires keeps Banjo around is that he can do this to two men simultaneously with each hand. The rare Quadruple Neck Lift!
  • The Dresden Files:
    • In Grave Peril, Lea offers to trade Michael Carpenter for his first-born child. He grabs her by the neck and lifts her up, then promises to destroy her for all time if she lays a finger on his daughter. Which becomes majorly Harsher in Hindsight later on.
    • Harry also has this pulled on him by a Hulk-size monster in Turn Coat. Anything big enough to do that casually is strong enough to treat his neck like a stress ball, and it's one of the most painful and agonizing discomforts in his life.
    • Lara Raith also does this to her cousin Madeline in Turn Coat, saving Harry from being drained in the process. She then disembowels and devours her.
  • In Ender's Game, when Ender is in a life or death fight, he lets himself get into a hold like this, then feints towards a Groin Attack before headbutting his oppressor. The headbutt kills the guy.
  • In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Igor Karkaroff accuses Albus Dumbledore of rigging the Triwizard Tournament for Harry to win and spits at his feet. That's a bad move on his part, for Hagrid lifts him up by his fur coat, pins him to a tree, and roars at him to apologize.
  • Bud White does this to a prisoner in the "Bloody Christmas" part of L.A. Confidential. In a subversion, he does get kicked in the balls.
  • Redwall:
    • The characters of Redwall are all anthropomorphic animals. Although the size difference doesn't seem to be quite a big as it would be in real life (barring some Early-Installment Weirdness), something like a fox or badger is still substantially larger and stronger than a rat or mouse, making this trope a lot more reasonable in world.
    • Captain Plugg, a fox in the book Triss, regularly picks up his rat and weasel minions by the neck and beats their heads together.
    • Cluny the Scourge does the same to his own minions when they displease him. He is a rat like the majority of his minions, but it is explicitly stated that he is much bigger and stronger than the average rat.
    • At the end of Martin the Warror, Martin's love interest, Rose, is effortlessly lifted and fatally slammed against a wall by the Big Bad. In this instance the lifter is a stoat and the liftee is a mouse.
    • Heroic example, in that badgers are occasionally known to do this when they get into fights with their enemies. Of all the animals in the series, badgers generally are the largest and strongest by far, meaning the only really difficulty they would have is not killing someone in the process.
  • Vincent does this to Ravenswood in Relativity, basically to show off how much stronger a vampire is than a human.
  • Vorkosigan Saga:
    • Referenced in the short story "Labyrinth"; when undersized, scrawny, brittle-boned Admiral Miles Naismith regrets his inability to do this (and briefly contemplates ordering one of the troopers nearby to do so on his behalf) as he confronted the man who almost manipulated him into murdering a teenage girl.
    • In "Winterfair Gifts", set several years later, Taura notes that she does this on bodyguard duty when loomingnote  and smilingnote  fail to make people back down.
    • Inverted for comedy in A Civil Campaign, when Lord Vorkosigan confronts Dr. Borgos about an experimental bioengineering spill in his family home. He reaches up to seize the taller man's collar, gives a half twist, does an ImpSec trick with his knuckles to constrict the relevant airway, and drags his head down to his level for the sake of properly giving him a piece of his mind.
  • In the Warhammer 40,000 novel Dark Adeptus, the Chaos Marine Urkrathos does this to Rear Admiral Horstgeld, and explicitly encircles the victim's neck with his massive armoured fingers. Duke Venalitor from Hammer of Daemons also does this to Alaric, though it's not mentioned if he encircles Alaric's neck.
  • In War of the Spider Queen, the half-demon Blood Knight does this to a dark elf prisoner. Justified in that he is eight feet tall and insanely strong and she is barely five feet tall.

    Live-Action TV 

In General:

  • This trope appears to be a favorite in every single vampire show ever. Confusingly, it's often used in what appears to be an attempt to choke the (un)life out of another vampire. Sometimes a justified trope when the one doing the lifting is just using it to intimidate and/or silence the other vampire. Even the undead need to be able to move air through their throats to talk...
    • A lot of vampire media seems to forget that, actually. Such as in the season 1 finale of Buffy, where Angel says (using his lungs to push air out of his mouth) he can't perform CPR because he doesn't breathe. If anything, a vampire should be BETTER at CPR given their enhanced strength and the fact that any air they push out should have more oxygen than a regular persons (since the vamp didn't use any).
    • In Moonlight, Mick St. John frequently follows this up with a Neck Snap. (Is it any wonder that Benjamin Talbot is investigating him?)
    • In a particularly notable example on Forever Knight, Nick does this to the perp of the week, suspending him out of a window.

By Series:

  • Done several times by vampires/demons on Angel, and once, in "Untouched", by a telekinetic named Bethany.
  • Babylon 5:
    • Lennier does this to Marcus in an episode. Minbari are stronger than humans.
    • In another episode, G'Kar does it to Vir on his way to beating the hell out of Londo.
    • Kosh does this to Sheridan telekinetically while Sheridan was railing on him for not getting the Vorlons involved in the Shadow War.
  • Bernard and Fran do this to Manny in Black Books (one hand each) when they find out Manny's parents are coming to visit.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Buffy accidentally does this to Cordelia in "Welcome to the Hellmouth" when Cordelia startles her, thus helping to cement Buffy's (total lack of) social standing at her new high school.
    • Also in the first episode, the Master does this to Darla deliberately after she takes food that wasn't hers to take.
    • Beautifully turned on its head in "Prophecy Girl". The Master lifts Buffy in this way and all seems lost... then she delivers the One-Liner, grabs his neck, and tosses him through the glass roof and onto a broken table leg. Bye-bye Master.
    • Vamp Willow also does it to Percy in "Doppelgangland".
  • Chuck:
    • Mr. Colt does it to Sarah.
    • Casey also likes to use this on Chuck occasionally. He also did it to a traitorous old mentor once... although he followed it up by crushing his throat.
    • In the same episode with the traitorous mentor, Chuck performs this on a mook. He was hopped up on Laudanol (a fictional drug which suppresses emotions) and was horrified when he realized exactly what he was doing. He later does a much less extreme version to Shaw in the season three finale (he's got the grip, but Shaw remains on his feet, albeit bent over backwards and hanging on Chuck's arm). This time he's fully aware of what he's doing, and lets him go, satisfied in having beaten him.
    • Casey really makes a habit of it, as he does this numerous times throughout the series aside from the aforementioned instance with the old mentor.
  • In Continuum Travis does this to a woman before choking her. He is quite bigger than her and as a Super-Soldier he is extremely strong.
  • Doctor Who: Thirteen goads Krasko into doing this to her in "Rosa", in order to prove that his neural implant is still working. Luckily for her, it is, and he can't strangle her. Not that it would have worked, anyway.
  • Pilot does this one-limbedly to Aeryn during a particularly nasty argument in an episode of Farscape. Justified since he's a giant crustacean many times her size.
  • In The Flash Christmas Episode "Running to Stand Still", Zoom threatens Harry by silently lifting him by his neck while Harry begs him to spare Jesse, Harry's daughter, who Zoom is holding captive.
  • The Hound in Game of Thrones does this to one of the guys who attempted to rape Sansa during a riot before disemboweling him with his dagger.
  • In The Good Place, Janet does this to Shawn as she rescues Michael, then throws him into a wall.
  • Heroes:
    • Jessica Sanders grabs her father by the throat, picks him up and slams him against a wardrobe. Particularly ridiculous example (at least before the slam,) since, regardless of strength, she was considerably lighter than him.
    • Angela sees Knox holding up Claire, and tearing her head off, in one of her dreams.
    • Sylar picks up Jackie Wilcox by the neck before murdering her in Season One and again with Ando in Isaac's Loft, which turns into a telekinetic Neck Lift when Sylar gets distracted and stops in place while walking forward and carrying Ando by the neck. In the volume 3 finale, he does this to Claire.
  • Legends of Tomorrow: In "Guest Starring John Noble", Gorilla Grodd catches by the throat... a young Barack Obama and lifts him up, planning to break his neck to mess up with the timeline. The Legends arrive Just in Time to save him.
  • In Lost in Oz, Loriellidere grabs Selena by the neck and throws her into a wall.
  • In Once Upon a Time season 2, Dr. Archie Hopper gets caught in a Neck Lift from Regina or rather, Cora disguised as her daughter, before killing him in appearance.
  • Power Rangers:
  • In Robin of Sherwood, Gulnar's golem does this when strangling Gulnar to death. Justified since the golem is supposedly superstrong, and uses a tree to brace Gulnar against to deal with the balance issues.
  • Elliot does this to J.D. in one Season 4 Scrubs episode. Evidently, she gets VERY strong when she's mad...
  • Repeatedly on Smallville. You're not an evil Kryptonian unless you pull off this stunt. Literally everyone on the main cast gets on the receiving end for at least once. Clark also does it from time to time, but the straightest example is in "Kandor" when he does this to Tess who is hiding clone Jor-El.
  • Stargate:
    • In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Demons", when confronted with the Goa'uld in an Unas host that passes himself as Satan's demon, Colonel O'Neill taunts him with his usual snark, but he's quickly shut up with a one-handed Neck Lift by the ultra-strong alien.
    • In the Stargate Atlantis season 3 opener, "No Man's Land", Major Lorne discovers the hard way that the Wraith-to-human retrovirus doesn't work on females when a Wraith Queen catches him in a Neck Lift. She's killed before she can feed on him, though.
  • Star Trek:
  • Star Wars:
    • Andor: The KX droid that helps arrest Cassian on Niamos grabs him by the throat and then lifts him, slamming him into the wall behind him.
    • The Book of Boba Fett: In "The Gathering Storm", Boba grabs the small ratcatcher droid by its long neck to lift it up and threaten it. Rather easy in this case since it cannot weigh much more than a cat.
  • Supergirl: Reign neck-lifts Supergirl before dropping her off a building at the end of "Reign".
  • The demons of Supernatural are fond of this. Notably, Azazel to Dean in a drug-induced vision and Alastair lifting up Dean and placing him on his own torture rack while berating Dean on the sloppy job he did on Alastair.
  • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:
    • A common trick, though most of the time this is usually followed by the Terminator in question crushing its victim's neck.
    • Cameron does this to Marty to emphatically tell him he must not call home.
      Cameron: [lifting Marty up by his collar] If you call your mother, that man knows where to find you. Then he'll kill her. He'll kill you.
      Sarah Connor: [clearing her throat] Cameron...
      Cameron: [still holding Marty up] Would you like a bed-time story?
    • Creepily done by Cromartie to an actor whose face he just copied, before smashing the guy's face against the mirror. He then imitates the guy's terrified expression, just because.
  • Tidelands (Netflix): Leandra lifts up Zack Maney by his neck prior to murdering him.
  • True Blood really, really loves this trope. Vampires (and in one instance, a maenad) use it to demonstrate their strength. When they do it to each other, the strongest vampire always comes out on top. For extra effect, sometimes a younger (weaker) vampire does it to an older one, who then immediately flips the situation around and does the same thing to their attacker. Out of all vampires who do this, Eric Northman loves it best.
  • Ultraman Orb has the titular Ultra, upon unlocking his Thunder Breaster Form, demonstrating his strength by neck-lifting Maga-Orochi, a kaiju nearly twice his size, and flinging the monster aside singlehandedly.
  • The Untamed: Wen Ruohan drags Wei Wuxian several meters through the air with his powers. Then he physically grabs him by the throat when Wei Wuxian's intervention undoes Wen Ruohan's control over his puppets.
  • The Vampire Diaries uses this when Katherine holds Caroline against a wall in "Masquerade". Classic cut to Caroline's feet dangling in mid air with cute booties. Klaus and Damon are fond of this trope too.
  • In an episode of The X-Files, a shapeshifting alien pretending to be Mulder does this to Scully.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • The Chokeslam (lifting your opponent by their neck then slamming them to the mat) used by big, powerful wrestlers such as The Undertaker, Kane, and The Big Show. The way the chokeslam actually works is (like most pro wrestling moves) with the person on the receiving end doing a good bit of the work; they jump up to aid the move. They're also very rarely held in the air for any amount of time, just long enough to get them to the highest point before bringing them down. Often the illusion of holding them for a longer time is presented by having the recipient struggle helplessly for several seconds while their feet are actually still on the ground (the extent of their "resistance" being to grab ahold of the assailant's arm and pretend they're trying to pull it away from their neck), despite the fact that realistically they would be able to fight back just fine. Typically the wrestler delivering the move will have the other hand on the victim's rear end or hip to actively help the jump by pushing upwards, unless he's doing it to two guys at the same time. Because of the way it is done, chokeslams are among the safer moves in professional wrestling, but like pretty much every move, they can still cause concussions and paralysis among other injuries if someone does not know what they are doing, as a Wrestlecrap writer found out the hard way. Do Not Try This at Home.
  • The Amazing Impact is a chokeslam grabbing the back of the neck. The most known user in North America is Matt Morgan, who throws people into the turnbuckle with it.
  • Some wrestlers will use a two armed hanging neck lift as a submission hold, although these days it is usually used as a transition to another move, like a chokebomb or a two-handed chokeslam.
  • Prior to the popularity of the chokeslam, many wrestlers were known to simply lift their opponents up by the neck and shake them about, usually as a power move. Both faces and heels used this move. This was a textbook move for Hulk Hogan, who was known to use this move multiple times on Randy Savage (during matches) and on manager Bobby Heenan (when Heenan attempted to interfere in his matches); Hogan also used this many times in his heel days back in the early 1980s as a power move, with then WWF Champion Bob Backlund a frequent victim in addition to the long line of jobbers.
  • A more-realistic variation of the Chokeslam is the Chokehold STO, which works via leverage and momentum instead of lifting. Some Real Life police have even used something similar as one of their last-resort maneuvers against overly hostile suspects.
  • Parodied and subverted with the Hurricane who often tried to chokeslam his opponents, but being a skinny cruiserweight, he'd either fail to lift them or they'd easily fight their way out of the move.

    Roleplay 
  • In Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, Daigo's enhanced strength as a vampire allows him to effortlessly lift his high school teacher by the neck when said teacher calls him out for swearing. This terrifies the teacher enough that he doesn't follow after Daigo when the vampire storms out the room.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition: The 3.5E supplement Complete Scoundrel shows a Gray Guard named Ambros Brasmere doing this to a necromancer.
  • Pathfinder: In Curse of the Crimson Throne, Ileosa does this to Marcus Endrin, before killing him with his own crossbow bolt.

    Theatre 
  • In Abraham's Bosom: Abe does this when his son Douglass, who has turned out to be a wastrel and a bitter disappointment to Abe, shows up at the family cabin.
  • In Pokémon Live!, Giovanni grabs Ash by the chin/neck, lifts his head and shoves him away; it'd probably be closer to an actual neck lift if they weren't the same height.

    Video Games 
  • In Akatsuki Blitzkampf, the Big Bad Murakumo's Throw has him lifting his opponent by the neck and then using Electric Torture on him/her.
  • Another World has the protagonist Lester being lifted into the air by the neck (or the collar) by one of the titular world's evil aliens. His only way out of the predicament is to kick the alien in the nuts then shoot him when it lets go.
  • In Asura's Wrath the title character's first journey to hell starts with one of these.
  • Big Bad Sarevok does this in the intro movie of the first Baldur's Gate. He then bashes the unfortunate victim through a grate, breaks his neck, and tosses him off a high building.
  • Batman: Arkham Series:
  • BioShock Infinite: Booker can do this to human opponents with the Skyhook device. The game sometimes has him do a Neck Snap with the Skyhook to kill them.
  • In Dark Souls, one of Gwyn's attacks has him grab the player by the neck, holds them up in the air and then creating an explosion that blows them away from him.
  • In Diablo III, if you get caught in Diablo's Bone Prison attack during the final showdown, he will do this to you and drain your health before slamming you to the floor with authority.
  • Heat of Digital Devil Saga does this at least once. Between that and punching down stone walls (!) it is clear the game likes to remind you he dumps most of his attribute points into strength.
  • Dragon Age II has Fenris do this to his former master.
  • In one of her most badass moments from the Dawnguard DLC of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Serana does this to Arch-Curate Vyrthur after learning that he is behind the prophecy that has torn her family apart.
  • In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Zelgius does this to Valtome when he speaks ill of Sephiran, and threatens to go one step further if he continues.
  • In The Force Unleashed, Galen lifts a human captain into the air with the force, in an obvious Shout-Out to the moment aboard the Tantive IV. Except the captain squeals, and Galen does a Neck Snap on him.
  • In Guilty Gear Xrd, Raven's Instant Kill. As he lifts up his opponent, his eye sockets turn a terrifying, glowing red and the flames proceed to swirl up into a twister and incinerate him and the opponent alive.
  • Ripa 'Moramee, the brutish, hulking Arbiter from Halo Wars, seems to be fond of doing this. It ends up leaving him open to getting knifed.
  • In Haunting Ground, Riccardo does this to Fiona as his grab. In an oddity for Capcom games, however, failure to escape doesn't lead to a Neck Snap; rather, it appears that she dies due to running out of oxygen if she stays in his grip too long.
  • Helis does this to Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn in their first meeting, carrying her one-handed to a cliff so that he can dramatically stab her to death before hurling her off it, but is interrupted by Aloy's adoptive father Rost. Note that despite being much larger than Aloy it's still shown to be a serious strain for him to accomplish it, and Aloy is incapacitated by the damage it does to her neck even after she's freed.
  • Some enemies in Iji can do that before electrocuting their victims. It's a One-Hit Kill for anyone other than Iji herself. That includes Dan, so choose carefully where you put your Trapmine!
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • Terra-Xehanort does this to Aqua in the pre-final battle cutscene in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Or at least it's supposed to be her neck; the actual animation makes it look like he's grabbing and hoisting her by her breasts. Perhaps he's meant to be holding her specifically by the straps across her chest, playing with the trope a little.
    • Riku Replica does this to Zexion in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The animation makes it look like he's picking him up by the collar, though.
    • In Kingdom Hearts II, Riku does this to Saix and pins him to a wall, but Saix simply laughs and teleports away.
  • Utilized by countless characters in The King of Fighters. Rugal, Goenitz, Magaki, both Zeros and Saiki to name a few. Ryuji Yamazaki does it as seen here(from the 2.25 mark).
  • A reoccurring element in Legacy of Kain games. In the original Blood Omen, Kain does this to a servant during a cut scene. In Soul Reaver 2, Kain does this to Raziel during the opening cinematic. In Blood Omen 2, this is one of Kain's standard moves, and from the neck lift he can do a neck snap, smash their face in with the hilt of his weapon, administer a Groin Attack with a blunt or hacking weapon, impale the target with a piercing weapon, or throw the target about thirty feet. It returns in Defiance, only this time he's doing it with his mind.
  • Mass Effect: This is done to Commander Shepard twice, justified both times; the first is performed by a cyborg (who is also noticeably bigger and heavier than Shepard), and the latter by a robot, so they would both have the necessary strength to do this.
    • In Mass Effect, Saren does this to Shepard and is treated to a human specialty — a punch to the face.
    • In Mass Effect 3, letting the quarians exterminate the geth means that Legion will do this to Shepard, only to be knifed in the back by Tali.
  • The OVA included in Maverick Hunter X has Sigma do this twice (sorta). The first time, he lifts Zero by the head, though Zero also has a hold on Sigma's other arm. The second time, Sigma does a pure neck lift to X.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, this seems to be one of Solidus' favorite things to do to Raiden.
  • Raven Beak, the Big Bad of Metroid Dread, does this twice to Samus, once at the beginning and once at the end, and both times Samus is powerless to escape except the second time when her Metroid DNA fully awakens and she goes absolutely berserk with rage and return-grabs grabs Raven Beak by the face.
  • Mortal Kombat:
    • In most of the games, Jax can do this. He then follows up on the neck grab with as many as five punches to the face. This move is one of the few that does more damage than the iconic MK uppercut (before they nerfed the uppercut). Jax's ending in Mortal Kombat 4 features him getting revenge on Jarek whom had just killed Sonya by grabbing and hoisting him up by his neck and then dropping him off a cliff.
    • In the last fight in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, Kung Lao attempts to attack Shao Kahn with his bladed hat. Kahn catches him in midair by the neck, holding him there for a few seconds, and then tosses him away.
    • In his most famous Fatality, Sub-Zero does this to the opponent... except the only thing below the neck he lifts is the opponent's spine.
  • [PROTOTYPE]:
    • This is how Alex Mercer holds his victims. Hilariously, some of the NPC comments while being held include reminders that their foot is now level with your crotch. Sadly, they don't follow through on this.
    • The final boss turns the tables and does this to Mercer, before launching him across an aircraft carrier and revealing his true form.
  • Resident Evil:
    • Wesker does this several times in Resident Evil 5.
    • In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, after a victory, he does it to the cameraman!
    • Mendez does this to Leon at least twice in Resident Evil 4, and if you miss the Press X to Not Die command preceding his boss battle, he also snaps Leon's neck, killing him.
    • Resident Damsel Ashley Graham receives this in her chapter 3-4 by a common Mook. Failure to get out before health runs out results in a Neck Snap.
    • Mr. X frequently does this in the Resident Evil 2 (Remake). One of his attacks involves grabbing the character and holding them up, requiring the usage of a defense item to escape his grasp. If the player fails to escape, the Tyrant crushes their skull by smashing them into a nearby wall. In two separate cutscenes, Leon is attacked this way by the Tyrant and barely escapes with his life.
    • The Maiden demo for Resident Evil Village features Lady Dimitrescu doing this to the player character at the very end. In the actual game, she does it to Ethan a few times, with the first time capped off by her repeatedly slamming him into the ground until he breaks through the floorboards.
  • Saints Row:
    • In Saints Row 2, the leader of the Brotherhood gang tosses his empty minigun at the protagonist and slaps the gun out of their hand, then performs this move on them, during a cutscene fight. He then delivers a couple of mean gut-punches and brings you down onto the roof, slamming you by the shoulders a few times before that section of the roof collapses and you're both sent tumbling down.
    • In Saints Row: The Third, Brutes can grab you by the neck like this, in which case you must unload your gun into their head so they let you go.
  • Kibagami Genjuro in Samurai Shodown II uses what looks like a chokeslam as his throw.
  • In the Soul Series, Astaroth is fond of doing this in many of his grapples. In one, he actually grabs his opponent by the face and lifts them off the floor one-handed before squeezing their head.
  • Spidey grabs mooks like this in Spider-Man 2: The Video Game. From there on, he can do a variety of things to the helpless dude.
  • StarCraft II:
    • Toward the climax of the Wings of Liberty campaign, a bunch of the crew on the Hyperion are grumbling about Jim Raynor's leadership. Swann is telling a guy to simmer down, when a drunken Tychus butts in and angers Swann by saying that Jim is a coward who will let them down when it matters most. Swann is a stocky, heavily muscled guy, but Tychus is wearing his powered marine armor and easily lifts Swann into the air by his collar. He carelessly tosses Swann aside when he turns his attention to Raynor, who has come to remind Tychus who the boss is.
    • In Legacy of the Void, Amon possesses the mind of Hierarch Artanis using the Khala, causing him to attack his ally Zeratul. One part of their combat features Artanis grabbing and lifting Zeratul by the throat.
  • General Scales sure loves doing this in Star Fox Adventures.
  • Street Fighter:
    • Seth in Street Fighter IV uses this as a grab.
    • Thunder Hawk uses a variant for his Storm Hammer; his animation shows him grabbing the opponent by his face, twirling his arm to wind up while in the air, then slamming him down. Something had to step up to meet the Spinning Piledriver. Another hold he's used is to just lift and choke. Note that he's considered taller than Mighty Glacier Husky Russkie Zangief.
  • Super Smash Bros.:
    • One of Ganondorf's special moves in Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a superpowered version of the chokeslam mentioned above. Only he grabs and lifts his victim by their face instead. Ouch.
    • Interestingly, this attack bypasses the standard rule where female characters are grabbed by their hands. For reference Wario's own grab grabs most male characters like Mario around the neck but females like Zelda are still grabbed by their hands by said grab which looks odd as Wario still holds his arm like he is holding a neck rather than grabbing their hands.
    • He also did this to Tetra and later Link (although he hauled Link up by the arm) in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Considering that Tetra and Link are both children and Ganon is about twice the size of most adult characters in the game, it's not so far-fetched.
  • Tales Series:
    • Strongest attack of the summon Efreet in Tales of Symphonia during the fight against him to test your worthiness, where he'll grab one member of the party in his fist, lift them up and concentrate fiery explosions on said character.
    • The cutscene in Palmacosta introduces us to the Desian Lord Magnius. While the Desians are making a display of an execution, an innocent bystander makes the mistake of leaving out his title — complete with Neck Snap.
      Palmacosta Man: Oh no, it's Magnius from the Palmacosta Ranch!
      Magnius: That's LORD Magnius, vermin!
    • Tales of Destiny: Barbatos Goetia uses one of these for his Death Abyss arte and at the start of his "No Items Ever!" mystic arte. He follows up by throwing the victim to the ground in both cases, where they're subjected to more abuse.
  • Tekken:
    • Kuma is happy to chokeslam you if you he can get to your side, but King (the actual wrestler) has to settle for more mundane manoeuvre. The Jack series robots can do a Neck Lift before delivering an over-the-shoulder chokeslam, unleash a barrage of pneumatic punches, or send you flying with a Megaton Punch.
    • Heihachi Mishima does this as part of his throws (https://sta.sh/01wmp4ectkbn)
    • Not to be outdone, Kazuya Mishima, Heihachi's son, does this to Asuka Kazama (a young dojo girl who is related to his wife Jun and his son Jin) in a Pachinko game.
  • Ubersoldier ends with Dietrich, regaining his memories, turning on his creator Schaeffer by grabbing the latter by the throat. When Schaeffer taunts the former with an "I created you" speech, Dietrich simply crushes Schaeffer's windpipe with his fingers.
  • Rick from Unbound Saga pulls this off during an interrogation scene, lifting the person he's questioning by the throat on one hand.
    Rick's victim: It's complicated...
    Rick: [cue throat-grab and shoving him into a wall] Then un-complicate it!
  • In Valkyrie Profile, Spoiled Brat Jelanda accidentally ingests a vial of ghoul powder and undergoes a Body Horrorific transformation. Grabbing an unfortunate nearby knight by the helmet mid-transformation with one of her transformed arms, she lifts him up in the air and slowly crushes him (and presumably his skull as well) as the powder completes her transformation into a raging monster.
  • In Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Captain Titus shows off his vaunted Space Marine strength by giving muscular Orks a big one-handed chokeslam... before crushing their skulls under his boot.
  • The Wind Road has the protagonist being on the receiving end of this trope in several cutscenes, due to the bosses being far taller and larger than him. Notably, his second battle with the huge, unnamed Butcher have said butcher grabbing him by the throat before slamming him down.
  • In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, after Shulk stabs Egil in the shoulder with the Monado, Egil lifts him by the face and rips the sword out with his other hand.

    Visual Novels 
  • In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony , Maki Harukawa does this to Kokichi after he reveals her true talent.
  • In Marco & the Galaxy Dragon, Gargouille grabs Haqua by the collar and hoists her into the air while the two of them are languishing in prison. It helps that Haqua is a lot smaller than Gargouille.
  • In one of Togainu no Chi's story routes, the harmless-looking Nano calmly grabs Akira's would-be attacker by the neck, lifts him into the air, and crushes his neck - all with one hand.

    Web Animation 
  • Hal was on the receiving end of one of these by Turbo Mecha Sonic in the Easter Egg of Bowser's Kingdom episode 8.
  • DEATH BATTLE!:
    • Superman does this to Goku and then shoots him in the face with his heat vision in both of their battles.
    • Sweet Tooth lifts the Joker by the neck when he thinks he is about to finish him. It backfires on him, badly, since Joker wants Sweet Tooth to be close enough for the Joker to kill with Joker Venom.
    • Sauron manages to hold and lift the Lich King by the throat at the edge of a cliff after disarming him. Lich King breaks free by telekinetically grabbing his sword, striking Sauron back and floating back to the fighting ground.
  • In Haloid, a Covenant Elite does this to an ODST near the end of the initial battle.
  • Red vs. Blue:
    • The Meta does this to Sarge, which backfires when Sarge takes the opportunity to attach a tow cable from a jeep to the Meta. The others push the jeep off a cliff, sending it to its death.
    • Following up in a later season where Carolina is subject to this, courtesy of Maine/The Meta. Followed up by being thrown off of a cliff.
  • In RWBY Volume 8 flashback episode "Midnight", Cinder Fall holds her abusive adoptive mother up by the throat as the Madame tries in vain to activate Cinder's Shock Collar. Cinder then finishes her off by squeezing down on her neck and crushing her windpipe.
  • Metallix does this to Yoshi in the rebooted version of the 2nd episode of Super Mario Bros. Z.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 

    Web Videos 
  • Atop the Fourth Wall: Mechakara is fond of doing this to Linkara, notably in the Power Ranger Zeo review. He won't stop here, though, and follow up with a brutal beatdown.
  • In the CalebCity video "Villains that always kill their subordinates", a villain with superhuman combat skills and a Bad Boss streak that's been going on for months finds himself with exactly one henchman left anywhere in the organization, decides that won't stop him, lifts him into the air and is puzzled when he doesn't choke; apparently the man's body has adapted from surviving this so many times already. The villain finally burns out and says he'll go to anger management.
  • Captain Hammer uses a slightly more practical version on Dr. Horrible at the end of the first act of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, grabbing the Doctor by the neck without lifting him off the ground.

    Western Animation 
  • Danny Phantom, the show, seems to like this one. Danny Phantom, the character, is obviously less fond. Throughout most of the show, this trope is almost Once per Episode. It's only subverted by the fact that a Neck Lift is a lot less effective if the person being grabbed can shoot lasers out of their eyes or occasionally freeze the attacker solid. Still don't work on Vlad, though.
  • In Justice League, "Divided We Fall", Superman does this to Lex Luthor when Flash apparently died stopping Brainiac/Luthor.
  • Kaeloo: Bad Kaeloo does this to Mr. Cat a lot. Usually, she follows up by choking him.
  • The Legend of Korra: In Season 4, Kuvira uses Metalbending to wrap Varrick's shoulder pads around his neck and dangle him out of a speeding train when he tries to shut down his spirit vine experiments.
  • Looney Tunes:
    • "Big Top Bunny". Bruno the bear does it to Bugs Bunny so Bugs will let Bruno do the 1,000-foot-high dive first.
    • "Hair-Raising Hare". When Bugs walks over the Monster (who was lying on the ground) the Monster grabs him by the neck and lifts him into the air.
  • The Powerpuff Girls: In "Telephonies", whilst Mojo Jojo Fuzzy Lumpkins and HIM are beating up the Gangreen Gang for prank-calling the Girls into attacking them, HIM grabs Ace's throat with his claw and slams him into the ground repeatedly.
  • ReBoot
    • The show has Megabyte do this to Enzo in season 3 as he threatens the young Guardian after a game.
    • In the game Countdown to Chaos, Hex does this to Megabyte for leaving her to die.
  • Ren does this a lot to Stimpy in The Ren & Stimpy Show after he's significantly pissed him off.
  • Played for Laughs in The Simpsons any time Homer strangles Bart.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), Robotnik does this to Snively on a regular basis. It helps that Snively is much smaller than him.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: SpongeBob does this to Mr. Krabs after both he and Squidward push him to his Rage Breaking Point.
    SpongeBob: Listen, you crustaceous cheapskate! Squidward's been living at my house driving me crazy! And you're not gonna hire him back ALL BECAUSE OF A STUPID DIME?!
  • General Grievous does this in his introductory scene in Star Wars: Clone Wars with his cybernetic leg before slamming the victim through the ground.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
    • "Duel of the Droids": Grievous nearly kills Ahsoka with her own lightsaber after lifting her by the neck, but an explosion allows Ahsoka to move his hand holding her lightsaber to cut off the hand he's got around her neck.
    • "Lair of Grievous": While he's escaping from Kit Fisto's ambush of him, Grievous picks up one of the clone troopers by the neck and throws him into Nahdar Vebb.
    • "The Deserter": The last of the commando droids attacking the Lawquane farm does this to Rex before Cut picks up the dropped pistol and headshots it.
    • "Assassin": The first of Ahsoka's visions has her get this treatment from Aurra Sing.
    • "The Bad Batch": Wrecker, The Big Guy of the titular team, gives one to Jesse during a disagreement over who's going to be in charge of the infiltration mission now that Commander Cody is too injured to continue on, as Jesse and Kix were on Captain Rex's side and Wrecker isn't good at working with "reg" clones.
  • Star Wars Rebels: In "Hera's Heroes", Grand Admiral Thrawn grabs Captain Slavin by the collar of his uniform when the latter accidentally pushes the former's Berserk Button (namely, destroying artwork).
  • Total Drama:
    • Ezekiel angers his female teammates in "Not So Happy Campers - Part 2" with sexist remarks. At the mention that girls sometimes need help keeping up, Eva goes for his neck and lifts him up with both her arms. Upon her questioning if he still thinks they need help, Ezekiel admits reconsideration.
    • Lightning ends a violent struggle with Ezekiel in "A Mine Is a Terrible Thing to Waste" by grabbing his neck and forcing the bomb-filled backpack on him. Then he lifts him by the neck with one arm and kicks him away.
  • Transformers:
    • Beast Wars: In the second season opener, this is how Rhinox establishes to Dinobot that he's in no mood for any argument about who's in charge right now. Very few things frighten Dinobot. A pissed off Rhinox is one of them. A few episodes later, Quickstrike questions Megatron on a decision, and Megatron does this to lift the smaller Preacon up to his level to have a more intimate, and threatening, conversation.
    • The Transformers: In "Webworld" a pissed-off Galvatron did this to a therapist after breaking free of the goop pinning him to the Freudian Couch. He also does it to Scourge in "The Burden Hardest To Bear".
    • The Transformers Megatron has been known to do this on occasion to Starscream, including during the 3 part Season 1 episode "The Ultimate Doom", one-handed, with Starscream attempting to pry his grip off with both hands in vain.
    • Transformers: Prime: In "One Shall Rise, Part 3" Soundwave pulls this on Airachnid while putting down her attempted rebellion. Notably, Airachnid actually tries to fight back, but Soundwave's arms are so long that she can't reach anything.
    • In Transformers: Animated, Blackarachnia does this to Optimus Prime after downloading Bulkhead's strength, Megatron does this to both the Constructicons (who are nearly his size) at the same time, and Starscream does this to Bumblebee.
      Starscream: [to Bumblebee] YOU INTERRUPTED MY SPEECH!

    Real Life 
  • Some small mammals will go limp if you do this from behind, grasping them by the loose skin there, as it taps into their infantile reflexes from being carried by their mothers. Don't carry grown cats by their necks alone, though; they can get hurt that way. And if that warning alone isn't enough to heed the advice, picking up a grown cat by the neck also doesn't tend to make them go limp, either, and you can also get hurt that way. Typically gorgeous Ragdolls are very likely an exception; but then, Ragdolls usually go limp when you pick them up anyway.
  • Not bare-handed, but a catchpole-assisted Neck Lift is one way for animal-control workers to restrain aggressive cats without being clawed to ribbons. Not recommended for more than a few seconds, due to the risk of strangulation or neck injury, but often unavoidable if the cat must be retrieved from a confined and/or precarious space that humans can't enter. Interestingly, the catchpole's main function is the opposite of this trope; the primary means of restraining an animal is by catching their neck in the loop and pulling them to the ground, holding them in place. This allows for better control of the animal, by means of holding their head in a fixed position so they cannot rear up and try to attack the worker, while also reducing the chance of strangulation by restricting the animal from struggling against the catchpole.note 
  • Leopards often hold their kills by the neck when they lift them to drag them up a tree.
  • U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was a wrestler in his younger days. When he moved to Salem, Illinois in 1831, a local named Jack Armstrong challenged him to a match as a sort of initiation. Lincoln was said to have "grabbed the bully by the neck, held him at arm's length, and shook him like a little boy." After the fight, the two became lifelong friends.
  • The Pine Tar Game: George Brett was found to have too much pine tar on his bat which nullified his game-winning home run. He then had to be grabbed from around the neck to be kept from attacking umpire Tim McClelland.
  • When Jonathan Papelbon played for the Washington Nationals, he lunged at team Bryce Harper's throat during a dugout fight towards the end of the 2015 season.
  • The "scruff grip" variant is deliberately invoked by some ballistic vests used by law enforcement and military personnel, by way of a handle being made into the back of the vest near the collar; this way, if the soldier/officer is wounded or incapacitated, one of their comrades can grab the handle and pull/drag them out of danger. This handle, however, is only useful on certain types of vests which are secured to the person wearing it and not, say, simply draped over their shoulders, since, otherwise, pulling on the handle would simply yank it off the officer/soldier wearing it.

 
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Sarevok Anchev

One of Bhaal, the God of Murder's many offspring, Sarevok ultimate aim is to assume his dead father's position through mass bloodshed, hunting down his fellow Bhaalspawn to eliminate any potential rivals.

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