Impromptu Tracheotomy

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

You know that tube between your head and your body? That thin, easily punctured tube? Yeah, guess what happens. Stabbed, flayed, barbecued, any other method to open said tube, wheezing noises optional.

Not to be confused with an actual medical tracheotomy. See also Slashed Throat.

Examples of Impromptu Tracheotomy include:

Anime and Manga


Comic Books

  • In Elf Quest, Lord Voll gets a large crossbow arrow through his throat. Cutter, who happens to be right behind him when it exits, is only saved from a similar fate by his gold torc.


Film

  • Boddicker's death in RoboCop, via middle finger computer interface blade.
  • Red Eye: The hero stabs Cillian Murphy's character in the throat with a pen, though it doesn't stop him for long.
  • The Godfather Shot nastily in the throat.
    • What makes it scarier is that the shot wasn't fatal, so there's a few seconds of wheezing...
  • In the climax of Saving Private Ryan, an American soldier is shot this way. During the ensuing melee, the audience gets what feels like upwards of half a minute of horrible choking sounds.
  • In the climactic fight scene of The Island, Dr. Merrick is shot through the throat with a grappling hook normally used by his guards to bring down "products."
  • Happens in Inside.
  • Saw V is a rare example of someone doing this to survive; Peter's head is trapped in a box filled with water, and he jams a pen into his trachea and breathes through it.


Live Action TV

  • President Hassan in Season 8 of 24.
  • In Sharpe's Rifles, being charged by a mounted French Trooper and not having time to load his rifle properly, Harper opts to discharge his ramrod along with the ball. The ramrod goes straight through the Trooper's throat at exactly the Adam's Apple. It is rather disturbing to watch.


Web Comics

  • The janitor in the first chapter of Shadownova is suddenly stabbed in the neck by Cam, even though he was bleeding to death anyway, interrupting his last words to Iris.


Web Original

  • In the Machinima Deus Ex Machina, a Mook is shot in the neck at one point. We get to hear this horrible gurgling sound for about 20 seconds before Deus shoots him in the face.
  • As one might expect, this has shown up in Survival of the Fittest quite a bit. Examples include Sally Connelly getting stabbed in the throat with a sai, and Nigel Gillespie getting stabbed with a shattered ocarina.


Video Games

  • And how can we forget the Assassins' preferred method for killing? Using the Hidden Blade to stab a man's neck. Ezio takes it further with his rather graphic killing of Checco Orsi, where he pushes the blade into Checco's throat slowly. In the sequel, he can cut multiple throats spinning a spear, and even jump towards a enemy and prick his throat open with a sword. It goes without saying that all of this is pretty awesome.
  • Speaking of stealth kills, Jensen can sneak to an enemy and do this as a melee action in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.