Remove the Head or Destroy the Brain
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If you kill the brain (Bang!) |
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Cut it out! Stop wasting your damn bullets, you jerks! You need to hit their heads! I told you! See, like this! (shoots zombie in the head)
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To put down an undead creature for good, or else render it far more vulnerable, you usually have to Remove the Head or Destroy the Brain.
This is a trope commonly associated with (most) zombies and other forms of undead, much as a good stab in the heart is associated with (many) vampires. Fortunately, this also works on people who are not the walking dead, so you don't have to worry about it going out of fashion as a killing method - but it's the implication that nothing else will do the job that makes this different from Attack Its Weak Point (its subtrope/sister trope) and Boom! Headshot! (its other sister trope).
Take off a zombie's legs, and it'll drag its torso after you; take off the arms, and it'll still try to worm its way in your direction. Even dismemberment may not cut it completely - as long as the head's still around, that undead monster will still be moaning and groaning as it hops or rolls towards you. (And it may or may not be joined by the rest of its body parts! But once you pulp that noggin, its remains will promptly go inert and wither away... hopefully. Most songs about zombies tend to Lampshade this trope.
Skeletons generally subvert or avert this, as they lack a brain to destroy and are at the point where head removal wouldn't bother them short of a shattered skull - and sometimes not even then! Robots with a Cranial Processing Unit will have this as a weakness - those without (e.g., Starfish Robots) may still be able to function Depending on the Writer. There's also plenty of Non-Human Undead to confuse the issue further.
Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain mostly concerns undead. For non-undead targets, see Off with His Head - if you're considering this because there isn't any other way, see Decapitation Required. Using Your Head Asplode to kill undead foes technically fulfills the conditions.
Anime and Manga
- Played completely straight with Highschool of the Dead. Despite believing the entire situation to be insane, like something out of the movies, the characters rapidly adapt - those that don't get eaten.
- In Claymore, the Yoma's amazing Healing Factor makes a quick kill like this absolutely necessary - and even then, it's preferred to completely tear their corpses to bits. Ophelia lampshades this, telling the Awakened who breaks her neck that you need to behead Claymores to be sure.
- In Mermaid Saga, some people who eat mermaid flesh turn into zombie-like monsters, and some become immortal - in either case , the only way to permanently kill them is to decapitate them.
- In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, the mystical artifact that creates vampires does so by altering their brains. Decapitation just leaves a pissed-off vampiric head, so destruction of the head is the only way to get rid of them that doesn't involve sunlight or Hamon.
- Played mostly straight in Hellsing. The ghouls will only stop going if they're shot in the head - with the power of the guns that most characters use, this typically destroys the head completely. It's been stated that they will stop if shot in the heart, but this is only seen with the vampires controlling the ghouls. Killing them this way is seen as preferable; the victims who become like this had no choice in the matter and are brainless, flesh-eating machines.
Film
- Evil Dead: After Linda becomes a zombie, the only way Ash can put her to rest is to destroy her brain.
Literature
Live-Action TV
Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends
Video Games
- Fallout New Vegas has an interesting variation of this trope. While practically anything can die if their head is destroyed, the Ghost People of the Dead Money DLC are a special case. While they die (by game engine standards) if any limb is blown off, they still breathe and are alive to some extent, according to the unique mutation they have - unless their head is explicitly destroyed, which prevents them from breathing and thus keeping their bodies in motion.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Stalfos of The Wind Waker will crumble if struck enough times, leaving their head to hop around until their body either regenerates or the player hits it enough times; smashing their head with the Skull Hammer will defeat them instantly.
- Stalfos Knights in Cadence of Hyrule function similarly, though destroying the body's remains after collapsing them also works.