Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Shock Stick

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/transformers_prime_0343_2.png
"Shock and drop."

"Sorry, Cap. This won't kill you, but it ain't gonna tickle either."
— War Machine warning Steve Rogers of the impending pain of being hit with a taser rod in Captain America: Civil War

This is a stick or club with the power to fire or channel electricity in order to stun or shock people. This type of weapon is common in Science Fiction where staff or baton-like weapons are used to shock prisoners as a way to pacify or torture them, though they may be used in open battle as well in short range or long range. They may also be used in Fantasy stories, appearing as Magic Staffs which fire or call down lightning. In more contemporary settings, this weapon will appear as a cattle prod.

This weapon is likely to be a Lawman Baton as it serves the double function of a police baton and a taser.

Sub-Trope of Elemental Weapon, Enhanced Archaic Weapon, and Shock and Awe. Sister Trope to Lightning Gun, Static Stun Gun and Lightning Lash.

Not to be confused with Improvised Lightning Rod which is about using a piece of metal to draw or amplify electricity. It is possible for a Shock Stick to be created by a character generating their own electricity and channeling it through a metal staff. An Improvised Lightning Rod need not be a literal rod.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • One Piece:
    • Nami's Clima-Tact can call down lightning bolts.
    • Eneru possesses electrical powers and a gold staff. One of his techniques is channeling electricity through the staff to heat, melt and reshape it into a trident. He can also superheat the trident for extra damage making it a Hot Blade.
    • Yamato has an attack in which he coats his kanabo with Haoshoku Haki, causing dark lightning to emanate from it.
  • O-Parts Hunter: The guards in Entotsu City use electric batons.
  • Patlabor: The Ingrams are armed with electromagnetic batons that can disable hostile Labors when thrust into the right spot.
  • Rooster Fighter: Elizabeth fights using a 10000V electric baton, and is pretty good at it despite having only one leg to stand on.
  • Soul Eater: Marie Mjolnir can generate electricity. Her weapon form is either a hammer or a tonfa.
  • Usagi-chan de Cue!!: The ruthless director of a Black Site has ordered his minions to round up all the merged beings in Tokyo, and use them for hideous, Nazi-like experiments. One poor squirrel-girl has her clothes ripped off, then receives a merciless shocking from a faceless mook that's using an electrified baton. The Director makes no secret that he harbors a fierce animosity for any merged being, and aims to expunge them from Tokyo entirely.
  • Yatterman: Yatterman-2's weapon is the Shibire Stick ("Numbifying Stick"), a telescoping baton that emits electricity when she pushes the button on the handle.

    Comic Books 
  • Big Bang Comics: Galahad's Swiss-Army Weapon Excalibur is a tonfa that includes a taser setting.
  • The Flash: In his original incarnation, Weather Wizard uses a wand-shaped device which grants him control over the weather. Amongst other things, the device can summon lightning bolts. Eventually, the wand became more of a Magic Feather for Weather Wizard than the source of his powers.
  • Grendel: Hunter Rose fights with an edged weapon of his own design called the Devil's Fork, which resembles a short-staffed naginata with two parallel blades that can be briefly electrified. Christine Spar uses Rose's weapon and costume (stolen from a museum) when she becomes the second Grendel, and Eppy Thatcher wields a similar fork, additionally mounting remote controls for his high-tech accoutrements, generations later.
  • Manhunter: Kate Spencer wields a Swiss-Army Weapon called the Power Baton. One of its features is a magnetic pulse emitter.
  • Nightwing: Staring in Nightwing (New 52), Nightwing's Escrima sticks are now electrified, and have the ability to deliver an electric shock, similar to their use in Batman: Arkham City.
  • Red Sonja: In Red Sonja: The Super Powers, when Sonja is drafted into the Project, her sword is replaced with a staff that delivers electric shocks since the organization has a policy against killing.
  • Robin (1993): Tim Drake's Telescoping Staff can emit EMPs.

    Fan Works 

    Film — Animated 
  • Sleeping Beauty: Maleficent's Magic Staff can fire lightning bolts as one of its abilities. She uses this power to punish her soldiers for failing to find Aurora.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • At the end of Code 8, Garrett telekinetically launches a metal rod straight into Rhino's eye, and Connor blasts the rod with his electricity to fry his brain.
  • Demolition Man: San Angeles police officers are armed with batons that discharge electric currents.
  • Hellboy (2019): The members of the Osiris Club wield large, electrified spears as their weapons for hunting giants.
  • Hoboken Hollow: The ranchers use electric cattle prods to keep their slaves in line as well as torture them for any infractions.
  • Jumper: The Paladins primarily use metal sticks that can electrocute (among other things) to fight the Jumpers, as electricity is their main weakness.
  • Jurassic Park:
    • Jurassic Park (1993): In the opening scene, most of the guards are armed with cattle prods for the transport of the raptor. When the raptor attacks one of them, several guards try to use their cattle prod to shock it, with little effect.
    • The Lost World: Jurassic Park: During his first scene, Dieter Stark uses a cattle prod to shock a Compsognathus. The Compsognathus eventually gets his revenge in a later scene.
    • Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom: Eli Mills's henchmen use cattle prods on the captured dinosaurs. One of them even threatens to use one on Zia and Franklin.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Black Widow uses a few electric stun weapons throughout her appearances. Among these are a pair of electroshock batons introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier: The Elevator Action Sequence has Steve Rogers attacked by Hydra agents, some of which are armed with shock batons that make audible crackling noises when they connect. Thanks to his Super-Soldier physiology, the weapons are much less effective on Steve than they would be on a normal person.
    • Captain America: Civil War: War Machine tries to use a huge electric baton on Captain America during the airport battle.
    • Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): The guards of the Kyln prison have electric batons that they often use to hurt the prisoners. Peter Quill gets a taste of it when he tries to prevent a guard from stealing his walkman.
    • Captain Marvel (2019): The Skrulls use some sort of cylindrical clubs that can emit electrical discharges. They're powerful enough to harm Carol Danvers herself.
    • Black Widow (2021): Some guards at the Seventh Circle Prison also use electric batons. One of them shocks Alexeï Shostakov during his attempt to escape.
    • Werewolf by Night (2022): The guards in the Bloodstone manor all carry long batons with electrified ends. They use the batons to knock out Elsa and Jack before imprisoning them and less effectively on Jack in werewolf form later.
  • Mortal Kombat: The Movie: We are introduced to Johnny Cage filming an action scene for his latest movie in which he goes into a parking lot and fights four men, each one wielding a different weapon. One of them uses a cattle prod which Johnny's character evades and uses on one of the other men.
  • Project Power: Art is captured by Dr. Gardner during the last act of the movie. When he starts insulting her, one of her soldiers shocks him with an electric stick to shut him up.
  • Star Wars:
    • The Phantom Menace: Some Gungan soldiers are armed with an electric melee weapon known as an "electropole". One of them uses it to shock Jar Jar Binks's shoulder after he returns to the city.
    • Attack of the Clones: The Geonosians use some electric spears on the arena beasts. One of them gets eaten alive by the Nexu after shocking it.
    • Revenge of the Sith: The MagnaGuards' primary weapon is a lightsaber-resistant staff equipped with electromagnetic pulse-generating tips called the "electrostaff".
    • Solo: The Pykes often use electric staffs on their slaves in the Kessel mines. Their weapons are eventually turned against them during the slave revolt.
    • The Force Awakens: The Stormtrooper known as "Nines" uses an electrified baton to fight Finn during the battle on Takodana. Much like the staff of the MagnaGuards, it is shown to be lightsaber-resistant.
    • The Last Jedi: Finn uses the same kind of weapon in his duel against Captain Phasma.
  • The Suicide Squad: When Harley Quinn is captured by the villains, she is tortured with a cattle prod.
  • TAU: Alex threatens his prisoners with a cattle prod in the beginning of the movie.
  • Ultraviolet (2006): Many of the Arch-Ministry's guards use electrified batons as weapons to attack Violet in large-scale fight scenes. Violet herself uses electric batons she takes from defeated opponents in battle.

    Literature 
  • Durarara!!: A Saika-controlled Sloan kidnaps Izaya, requiring Mikage and Kine to come to his rescue. The former attacks Sloan with a series of kicks and punches while the latter ambushes him from behind with what appears to be a sort of electric baton, instantly knocking Sloan out.
  • Fate/Apocrypha: Berserker of Black carries an enormous mace which can be used to discharge blasts of lightning.
  • Vorkosigan Saga: Shock-sticks are baton-like non-lethal electric weapons used throughout the series which can be sufficiently painful as to cause the victim to lose consciousness. When one is repeatedly used on Miles Vorkosigan in The Vor Game the pain is enough to make him eventually pass out; later on one is used on Emperor Gregor (although as Miles points out, they only used the low power setting on Gregor). They also feature prominently in the backstory of Mark Vorkosigan in Brothers in Arms and Mirror Dance, including one being used to sexually assault Mark as part of his "training" (that is, brainwashing).
  • Worm: The supervillain Regent uses a scepter with a taser concealed in the crown for melee combat.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
    • Bobbi Morse's weapon of choice are a pair of batons that can deliver an electrical shock to stun her enemies.
    • The Watchdogs members often use cattle prods as weapons, especially Tucker Shockley.
    • When Fitz is captured by the Sivians in the episode "Window of Opportunity", they stun him with a metal electric baton.
    • The bouncers of Kitson use a similar type of electric baton when they arrest Fitz, Simmons, and Enoch in "Toldja".
  • Andor: The prison guards in the plant on Narkina 5 carry long batons with electrified ends, which they use to keep the prisoners in line when they're on the move.
  • Babylon 5: "Neural Collapsers", more commonly referred to as "shock sticks", are close-quarters non-lethal security weapons.
  • Bottom: In "Terror", Richie and Eddie take along a Cattle Prod when they go trick or treating to encourage people to "donate" generously. However, this ends up backfiring (literally) and causing Richie to ruin two of his three pairs of tights.
  • The Handmaid's Tale: The guards and Aunt Lydia all carry cattle prods and use them against the Handmaids if they're "disrespectful".
  • Intergalactic: The guards on the prison transport have batons able to electroshock prisoners.
  • Kamen Rider Fourze: Fourze's Elek States form is equipped with an electrified sword-like baton.
  • Leverage: Parker's mentor Archie has a cane that can deliver electric shocks. He uses it to stun obnoxious hacker Chaos when the latter makes lecherous comments toward Parker.
  • Malcolm in the Middle: Lionel Herkabe uses a cattle prod to stop a fight between students in the episode "Malcolm Films Reese".
  • Midsomer Murders,: In "Harvest of Souls", local vet Clara is murdered: incapacitated by a cattle­-prod before being drowned in a hydro­-pool.
  • Parallax: Staves are the signature weapons of the guardians and have a variety of features. One of these features is twin retractable prongs that deliver an electric charge. This feature is mainly used for killing Welkins. Staves can also manipulate electronic machinery to some extent.
  • Power Rangers/Super Sentai:
  • Star Trek:
    • The Klingons have painstiks which are used for ritual purposes, discipline, and to control prisoners.
    • Star Trek: Enterprise: In "Judgment", Klingon guards use painstiks in order to control their prisoners.
    • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
      • In "The Icarus Factor", the crew of the Enterprise re-creates the 10th anniversary of Worf's second ascension. This involves Worf walking between two rows of warriors, who all shock him with painstiks.
      • In "Reunion", the elderly Klingon chancellor K'mpec dies after being poisoned. Because he did not fall in combat the High Council resorts to the ancient Sonchinote  ceremony in which K'mpec is prodded repeatedly with painstiks. His total lack of reaction is taken as proof that K'mpec is dead.
  • Stranger Things:
  • Titans (2018): In "Asylum", Dick, Kory, and Gar are captured by members of Trigon's court and subjected to different torturous experiments. In Gar's case, he is repeatedly electrocuted with a cattle prod. His torturer gets his Just Desserts when he is eaten by a feral Gar in tiger form.
  • Utopia Falls: The Authority (police) in New Babyl use shock batons, as seen when they arrest people and break up a riot.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Champions: The Shock Baton from the supplement Gadgets! is a tough plastic rod with an electrical coil wrapped around all of it except the handgrip. If it is touched to a creature or the creature grabs it, the victim will receive a powerful electrical stun attack which could render them unconscious.
  • Dark Conspiracy: The stun stick from the supplement Darktek applies an electrical charge to any creature it hits. Any creature hit by a full power charge can be rendered unconscious.
  • Dungeons & Dragons: The Rod of Electrification from The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (module C1) inflicts 2-5 Hit Points of electrical damage when it touches a living creature. It can be recharged by firing Lightning Bolt spells at it.
  • Shadowrun: One weapon available to shadowrunners is the stun baton. When it strikes a target, it inflicts an electrical charge which causes stun damage and disorientation to the victim.
  • Star Trek: One of the items stated is a Stun Club — operating on a similar principle to phasers on stun settings, it instead inflicts the stunning effect on contact — two strikes are around the same as a phaser stun effect and will knock out most humanoids. They are typically issued to law enforcement personnel to handle low-level problems like bar brawls.
  • Traveller: The sparkplant from Safari Ship (Adventure 10) can be found on planet 567-908. It generates electricity internally (like an electric eel) and uses it to defend itself against being eaten. A piece of wood cut off of the sparkplant (called a "wand") can be used as a cudgel, inflicting 5-30 Hit Points of electrical damage on the creature touched. The "wand" has fifty charges.
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • Arbites squads carry shock batons, applied with considerable enthusiasm against rioters, mutants, and other undesirables.
    • Attilan hunting lances can be fitted with electrified goad tips, which can cook enemy infantry inside their armor with a single touch.
    • The shock maul is essentially an electrified club, dealing (theoretically) non-lethal damage. It has a bigger and decidedly lethal version called the Power Maul, a Space Marine mace that emits a forcefield that passes through solid matter, making it a good Anti-Armor weapon.

    Video Games 
  • Alien: Isolation features a stun baton as a weapon Amanda can use to take humans out in one prod and stun the incredibly durable Working Joes for a short while, leaving them open to a beatdown with a solid tool. It requires batteries though, and Working Joes dressed in protective equipment shrug it off completely.
  • ANNO: Mutationem: The Bulwark task force from The Consortium specialize in wielding large red metallic electrical rods that generate a shock attack when thrust with enough force.
  • Arcanum: Staffs can be upgraded into shocking staffs and tesla-staffs by characters proficient in the Electrical college of technology.
  • Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon: The VP-67 EB SHOCK BATON builds up shock and inflicts electrical discharge that deals heavy damage to the victim if the shock bar is completely filled. It can either be used to chain multiple frantic swipes, or charged to hit the opponent with a single heavy blow.
  • Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M.: One of the weapons you can obtain turns your firearm into a protruding, three-pronged spike that delivers powerful electric shocks. It's exclusively a close-range weapon, but can deliver far greater damage than bullets and electrocute enemies with ease, provided if you can get close enough.
  • Art of Fighting/The King of Fighters: Mr. Big fights with a pair of kali sticks that can occasionally fire blasts of electricity.
  • Banjo-Tooie: As a playable character, Mumbo Jumbo's Zap Stick can fire a stream of electricity to immobilize opponents.
  • Batman: Arkham Series: There are enemies with shock batons in each installment, who can't be safely attacked from the front without being somehow disarmed.
  • Bloodborne: The Tonitrus is a mace with the ability to generate electricity. It's the only weapon in the game able to do Bolt damage on its own.
  • The Callisto Protocol: Jacob Lee's melee weapon of choice against the horrors of Black Iron Prison is a collapsible stun baton that he looted off the corpse of a guard. By removing the baton's mandated voltage caps at various upgrade kiosks, Jacob can increase the baton's shock damage to radically lethal levels while bolstering the kinetic impact to break the bones of anything that tries to block his strikes.
  • Dark Judgement has electric batons you can collect from enemies to taze other mooks.
  • Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War feature an electric stun prod as a non-lethal weapon which must be charged with batteries.
  • Devil May Cry 5: In Mission 16, Dante acquires the King Cerberus Devil Arm, a Morph Weapon with three forms. One of those forms is an electrified three-section staff.
  • A staple of the Dragon Quest series is some sort of a wizard's staff with a lightning motif that, when used in battle, causes lightning bolts to rain down on the enemy. The benefit here is that one does not have to be a mage class character to use such a weapon as an item in battle, which means it can provide an AoE effect to teammates who typically can only attack one character at a time.
  • The Elder Scrolls: Various enchanted staffs can fire lightning bolts, and various clubs, staves, and maces can also be enchanted to do electrical damage on hit.
  • Fallout:
    • Fallout and Fallout 2 have a cattle prod as a melee weapon. It can be upgraded to a super cattle prod in 2.
    • Fallout 3 adds the Shock Baton, wielded by the aliens in Mothership Zeta.
    • The cattle prod returns in Fallout: New Vegas, and the Old World Blues DLC adds the X-2 antenna, which is a giant antenna ripped out of a satellite dish that still has electricity flowing through it.
    • In Fallout 4, the police baton can be upgraded to a shock or stun baton. The super sledge can also be electrified, and the Nuka-World DLC adds upgrades that let you add electrical damage to the bat and sledgehammer, though only if they already have a rocket strapped to them and are covered in sawblades/spikes. The Creation Club also has a weapons pack that includes the Alien Shock Baton from 3.
    • Fallout 76 brings back the cattle prod and also has the shock baton.
  • Final Fantasy VII: The Turk Reno wields a collapsible shock baton.
  • God of War (2018): Modi can channel lightning through his mace.
  • Half-Life 2 gives stun batons to the Civil Protection to beat Gordon Freeman and the citizens of City 17 into submission with, which let off sparks when brandished. Once Gordon gets armed and armored up, these batons can act as batteries to fuel his armor, although they're a rare sight after Gordon badly outmatches and kills the first CP with his crowbar; against the HEV suit, batons deal a piddly 10 damage per swing, so officers immediately switch to their pistols and submachine guns. The baton is also a player-usable weapon in both Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Garry's Mod, and Half-Life 2: Update, where it's stronger but slower than the crowbar.
  • inFAMOUS 2: The Amp is a melee weapon created by Cole's friend Zeke. It is a dual-pronged metal baton that Cole can channel electricity through.
  • Injustice: Gods Among Us: Nightwing's escrima sticks have a taser function.
  • Killer Instinct: Orchid fights with electrified batons in the original game and the 2013 game, and electrified tonfas in the second game.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: The elemental weapons — three sets of shortswords, greatswords and spears aligned with each in-game element — include thunderspears, polearms with forked, glowing yellow blades that electrocute targets on striking them. Using one too many times in quick succession will deplete its charge, however, removing its ability to shock foes until it recharges.
  • Mortal Kombat: Raiden's weapon in most games is a staff that can channel electricity.
  • Paprium: Shock batons are among the most common pickups players can use on mooks, capable of stunning anyone hit for a few seconds with brief X-Ray Sparks.
  • The Persistence:
    • The final upgrade for the humble Riot Baton causes it to shock enemies in place for each hit.
    • Blood Hounds wield massive lances that continuously shoot off bolts of purple lightning. You can kill them and take the lance for your own uses to electrocute enemies to death.
  • One weapon in Purple is a tiny zapper that give enemies a jolt of electricity which can leap to nearby enemies as well.
  • The first weapon you get in Red Faction is the Control Baton, which has the option of administering shocks at the cost of a battery.
  • Resident Evil:
    • Resident Evil 5: The Stun Rod is a large baton that's electrified from the tip almost to the handle. It has monstrous damage output and makes enemies flinch with every hit, and as such can be used even against Chainsaw Majini and Reapers, but with the downside that it swings significantly slower than the knife.
    • Resident Evil: Outbreak: David King can create Stun Rods by combining an iron pipe with a battery, but between the general rarity of batteries and melee weapons in Outbreak being quick to break, it won't see much use in practice.
    • Resident Evil 6: In Jake's campaign, he and Sherry are captured by Carla's men and held prisoner for six months until they escape. Sherry fights off a guard who is using a cattle prod. She disarms him and uses his own weapon on him.
  • Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!: One type of mook found in Sunny Beach and Aquaria Towers is a diver that attacks Spyro with an electrified cattle prod.
  • Star Wars Legends:
  • Warframe:
    • The Prova is a shock baton used by Corpus faction, primarily by Prod Crewman and as a backup for most other members. Tenno can build and use their own copy of the weapon, which appropriately deals Electricity damage.
    • In "The New War", you get to use a Rumblejack, a dagger of sorts made from reassembling a Prova. It deals electric damage and guarantees an electrification Status Effect on Back Stab attacks, which deals additional damage to nearby enemies.

    Web Animation 
  • RWBY:
    • Nolan Porfirio of Team BRNZ fights with a collapsible cattle prod. He uses it on Nora which proves to be a mistake since her Semblance allows her to absorb electricity.
    • Volume 6 features a Huntsman named Dee who fights with spiked club that can generate an electric current.

    Webcomics 
  • One-Punch Man: Lightning Genji is an A-Class hero who fights with electric batons.
  • Sweet Home (2017): Hyun's weapon is a broken mop handle with a knife attached to it, which Hahn Du-sik, the team's mechanic, later upgrades to conduct electricity.

    Western Animation 

    Real Life 
  • Cattle prods are a real-life version intended to be used to herd livestock. Some police units also carried cattle prods before Tasers with longer range were developed. Cattle prods were infamously used during the Civil Rights Movement by Southern police officers such as Jim Clark. They were also used (under the name picana or picana electrica) for Electric Torture in mid-20th-century South America, especially the Argentine security services, most especially during the period of the National Reorganization Process (1976-83).
  • There are actual stun batons in real life made for self-defense. You can buy them online

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Santa Claus vs. Roman Reigns

In an AI Generated WWE match, Santa Claus wrestles with Roman Reigns and ends up beating him, finishing the match with a cattle prod.

Example of:
Badass Santa

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top

Santa Claus vs. Roman Reigns

In an AI Generated WWE match, Santa Claus wrestles with Roman Reigns and ends up beating him, finishing the match with a cattle prod.

How well does it match the trope?

Example of:

Main / BadassSanta

Media sources:

Report