Forklift Fu/Sandbox

Forklifts: mundane vehicles, seen in lots of areas with heavy freight to be loaded and unloaded, even retail stores. We rarely think about them, and they typically pose no threat in the slightest.

Except when they do.

This trope is all about forklifts lifts in weaponized form. As a form of both Improvised Weapon and Car Fu, this typically shows up in industrial settings of any kind. Because forklifts possess weaponry inherent to the design, they actually make for better weapons than one might think.

Also note, tropers, that Tropes Are Flexible: in any futuristic setting, a vehicle that is clearly the functional equivalent of a forklift will work in lieu of the real thing.

Compare Improvised Weapon and Car Fu.

Anime

 * In Martian Successor Nadesico, the hero defeats a robot enemy with a forklift in the very first scene.

Comics

 * A character is impaled by a forklift, which also inadvertently kills two others, in Final Destination: Spring Break.

Film

 * Fugitive Alien. The Mystery Science Theater 3000 version (specifically, a song the cast sings to the tune of the background music) was the former Trope Namer.
 * "Ole!"
 * The second live-action Captain America movie.
 * Aliens has the futuristic variant.
 * Colonel Heller in Licence to Kill is impaled on a forklift by drug lord Sanchez.
 * Forklift Driver Klaus is a parody employee training video for forklift drivers in which several peple get killed. Guess how!
 * Despite that, technically this is not a case of He Tried to Kill Me With A Forklift.
 * In Death Wish II, bad guys try to kill protagonist Paul with a forklift, but he escapes.
 * Reversed in Death Wish IV, he rides around in a forklift shooting, then moves out of sight. The forklift then comes on a kamikaze course for the gang of thugs only for them to realise at the last minute it's just full of boxes instead this time.
 * Final Destination 3 set us up for one by putting an out-of-control forklift on a collision course with a bunch of characters we know to be doomed. At the last minute, it crashes into a shelf instead and a much lamer death by nail gun ensues.
 * In the movie Class of 1999, a robot is killed with a forklift.
 * Retribution (1987)
 * Blood Song (1982)
 * Carnosaur 2 -- a T-Rex is killed with a forklift. Awesome!
 * There's a forklift death in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
 * Our Man Flint: While on Galaxy Island, Flint kills a guard by crushing him against a wall with a fork lift.
 * Barb Wire
 * Higanjima has a vampire get killed by a forklift to the heart
 * You Only Live Twice. The SPECTRE Mooks at the Kobe dock try to kill James Bond with one.
 * In the fourth Lethal Weapon movie Riggs tries to attack Jet Li's character with a forklift. Li's character still beats the crap out of him.

Literature

 * Literary Book example: Corporate Bodies by Simon Brett is a murder mystery novel where the instrument of murder is a forklift.

Live Action TV

 * Astrid does this to kill the villain in the Doctor Who story "Voyage of the Damned".
 * The Psycho for Hire site manager in "Planet of the Ood" attempts to kill the Doctor with a mechanical grab.
 * In the TV show Monk, the intro sequence of the episode Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month features the victim of the week getting attacked by a forklift. The forklift doesn't kill her directly; instead, it knocks a television on top of her. However, the initial plan of the forklift driver is to run her down with the vehicle.
 * One episode of the classic Incredible Hulk series had someone attempt to get the Hulk with a forklift. He took a hit in the leg, leaving Bruce Banner feeling the sting as well later.

Music

 * The band Midnight Syndicate has a song entitled "Forklift Death".

Professional Wrestling

 * WWF: The Rock vs Mankind for the WWF title in an "empty arena match," Mankind pinned the Rock with a forklift. By all accounts it was very well received until the end where they decided to shoot a reaction shot of the Rock as the thing was descending on him and then a Reverse Angle shot of the forklift coming down, killing any Suspension of Disbelief.

Tabletop RPG

 * The New York chapter of the Unknown Armies campaign book "To Go" involves a shootout in a warehouse. It gives rules for using the forklift as a weapon.
 * Paranoia adventure Vapors Don't Shoot Back. In their first mission the PCs must fight against automated forklifts (forkbots) in a warehouse.
 * From the Welch List: 527. Even if the rules allow it, I cannot spend $64,000 to get the vorpal option for a forklift.

Toys

 * The Transformers media franchise has Decepticons Deadlift and Dirt Boss, both of which transform into forklifts. Since Decepticons are evil killing machines, we can reasonably assume that forklift death is occurring somewhere at some point in time in this universe.
 * Well, Dirt Boss shoots small drill bit things that take over the body of another Transformer.

Video Games

 * Metroid: Other M has Samus fight something that seems to be a sci-fi forklift analog. At least, it can't seem to be anything else.
 * Using the crane in Oni (which does happen to have forklift prongs!) to tip over an escaping vehicle.
 * The forklift is an unlockable Easter Egg in Escape Velocity. It comes with an Mystery Science Theater 3000 sound bite, and is an overpowered Missile Launcher-like weapon.
 * Metal Slug 4
 * WWE Smackdown
 * Battlefield 2: Special Forces. Running enemies over in cars or tanks is very doable, and they have machine guns as a "backup". Now do it in a vehicle no weapons, half the size, and with a quarter of the maneuverability.
 * For added amusement, another player can lay prone on the tongs and fire from there.
 * Grand Theft Auto
 * Duke Nukem Forever, and yes, there's an achievement/trophy tied into this (kill six enemies with the forklift. Ole!)
 * Scribblenauts
 * Halo: Reach has a drivable forklift that can be used to splatter enemies, but it can barely go fast enough to splatter a Grunt. They blow up nicely, however, so it's more useful to get one into position and then shoot it.
 * Energy sword Elites, though? Their AI makes them run full speed at their target. If an Elite with a sword and a forklift get involved in a head-on collision, the forklift wins.
 * In Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, Ryo Hazuki's All-Star move causes him to get off his motorcycle and get in a forklift. The forklift knocks enemies behind Ryo by flipping them. There's also an achievement where you have to use it to take out Jacky and Akira.
 * Heavy Rain: Depending on the player's choices, Jayden can end up handcuffed to the steering wheel of his car while Mad Jack picks it up and feeds it to the vehicle crusher; in the ensuing battle against Mad Jack, it's possible to have Mad Jack end up getting crushed by his own machine.
 * In Left 4 Dead, the Tank can punch forklifts towards the survivors with deadly results. As deadly as falling down to the ground and only being able to use pistols can be, at least (unless if the forklift stays on the downed survivor, or worse, hits more than one survivor).
 * In Max Payne 2, one of the Cleaners attempt to kill him with a forklift.
 * Total Overdose and Chili Con Carnage allows you to use these as part of your killing spree combo.
 * Characters in City of Heroes who can manipulate gravity have an attack called "propel", which summons a random in-game prop and hurls it at the enemy, including computers, statues, cars, and yes, fork lifts!

Western Animation

 * Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, directly parodying Aliens.
 * Scooby Doo of all people does it in Scooby Doo Mystery Inc. (In case you're wondering, it's one of those It Makes Sense in Context things; the context in this case is the guy on the receiving end of the forklift tried to murder Scooby's friends.)
 * In Metalocalypse, whether it's fatal was unclear, but Pickles accidentally impaled a movie actor on the set of Dethklok's Blood Ocean with a forklift when trying to park it.
 * Unclear if a random one-off character died on Metalocalypse? That's why they exist.
 * In G.I. Joe: Renegades Duke slams into Major Bludd with a forklift. This being a family-friendly show, it doesn't impale him though.
 * In Generator Rex, Noah does this to Van Kleiss in order to save Rex.
 * An episode of King of the Hill has Dale attempt to kill Hank with a forklift after Hank proves to be a better basket-weaver than Dale. Hank even says the trope-naming phrase.

Other

 * Played for Laughs in this German Health & Safety video.

Real Life

 * Criss Angel once staged his own forklift impalement for the benefit of a small unsuspecting audience.
 * It should be noted that this is Truth in Television and these warning signs and such are there for a reason; forklifts are much heavier than they look and are dangerous pieces of heavy equipment.
 * This incident on Prince Edward Island in July 2011.

"This is the song,

closing out the wiki page,

That was named,

for a bad film!

He Tried to Kill Me With A Forklift!

Ole!"