Handy Cuffs: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|''[[Sarcasm Mode|"Thanks. Now I'll really have the advantage."]]''

 

A cousin to [[Cardboard Prison]]. It happens where an antagonist is caught by police/soldiers/the good guys, but is destined to escape. The antagonist will then have handcuffs applied but, to facilitate their later escape, will inexplicably be handcuffed so their hands are in ''front'' of them. Obviously, their hands are much more useful when they manage to grab a gun or simply run for it.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'': The entire Gurren Brigade got once handcuffed with good ol' wooden boards, but that didn't deter Simon from digging with his Core Drill until recovering his Lagann.

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' episode "Pierrot le Fou". While Tongpu is being taken along a passageway by two guards his hands are cuffed in front to him. He takes advantage of this to eliminate the guards and escape.

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[The Punisher]]'' was captured by a minor gang leader named Machete, who insisted on killing a cuffed Castle in a machete duel. Castle rejects the machete, and kills the guy with his bare hands.

** In ''The Cell'' he was cuffed this way when he was being led to his cell. As soon as a guard taunted him about how the most dangerous inmate was going to kill him Frank elbowed his face, grabbed the other guard's baton and bludgeoned the inmate to death. [[Badass Boast|Then he told them to send the second most dangerous inmate after him.]]

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Dr. No]]''. When [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] is captured by the crew of Dr. No's "dragon" his hands are cuffed in front of him. This allows him to resist when one of the guards manhandles Honey Rider.

* A spectacularly silly example in ''[[Salt]]'', as {{spoiler|Salt had previously just beaten the piss out of several cops and Secret Service agents with her bare hands. Not that it matters. When they cuff her hands behind her back at the end, she still manages to kill Winters}}.

 

== Literature ==

{{quote|"He had several pounds of metal on his wrists or, to put it another way, his arms were a hammer."}}

:: He also points out that it pays to be cooperative and stick your arms out for the jailer because when that way you're more likely to have your arms cuffed in front of you, and you have quite a bit of freedom that way.

* ''What's the Worst That Could Happen?'': John Dortmunder convinces the police to cuff him in front, even though the cop knows better, just by his "hounddog" look. Naturally, {{spoiler|he manages to escape because of this}}.

* In Desmond Bagley's ''The Tightrope Men'', enemies trying to interrogate Giles Denison made this mistake. Denison only played along until he realized they ''didn't'' have a hostage for his good behavior; then he attacked and used the link connecting the cuffs to choke the interrogator.

* At one point in ''[[Matthew Reilly|Ice Station]]'', Shane Schofield has his hands cuffed behind him—and gets thrown into a small room by the bad guys to fight with [[The Mole]] in his group (not on the same side as the guys that threw them in) to determine which will die first. After knocking his opponent to the ground, the first thing he does is bring his cuffed hands beneath his feet to be able to fight better. The bad guys don't fix this after the fight, making it easier for him to escape later.

* In ''All Tomorrow's Parties'' by [[William Gibson]], mystical assassin Konrad is bought in wearing handcuffs. It is implied that the rush to bring him in is the end for his captors—because his hands are cuffed in front of him.

 

* ''[[Monk]]'', "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty". When the SFPD hands off a "most wanted" fugitive to the feds, they considerately cuff him with his hands in front of him, making his escape attempt easier to accomplish.

* ''[[Babylon 5]]''

** In her final episode, Lyta is cuffed in front. As the [[Trope Namer]] for [[Touched by Vorlons]], she eventually demonstrates that the cuffs (whatever their location) are entirely irrelevant.

* ''[[Walker, Texas Ranger]]'': Happened in at least one episode. The bad guy doesn't escape, but this allows him to have a big throw-down with Walker.

** Sort of inverted where Mal is taking point and being relatively cooperative with the Designated Antagonist Alliance types, but they've still got him cuffed from behind. He asks to be released, so they..."compromise", by cuffing him in front. Being Malcolm Reynolds, he later turns this to his advantage.

** In "Ariel", Jayne is cuffed behind his back, but works around it through judicious application of [[Combat Pragmatist|knees, elbows, shoulders and forehead]].

* In ''[[The Flash (TV 1990)||The Flash]]'', the Trickster was handcuffed with his hands in front of him. While sitting in the middle of a police car with 3 officers, he grabbed a gun fron one officer and shot all 3 dead. Oh and Trickster is also an escape artist so he was out of the handcuffs seconds later.

* ''[[The Pretender]]'': "Once in a Blue Moon" has an instance of handy-cuffs-as-improvised-weapon. The prisoner starts the scene with his hands properly cuffed behind him, but talks his way into getting them re-cuffed in front. (Jarod is too smart to fall for that usually, but in this case {{spoiler|letting the prisoner get away is part of the plan}}.)

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* ''[[The Joker]]'' of all people was handcuffed with his hands in front of him while being transferred between prisons. He picked the handcuff lock with an ordinary straight nail and then later used the handcuffs as brass knuckles against police.

 

== Theatre ==

* In ''[[The Bat]]'', this mistake is performed twice on the same person. The second case, in which the character manages to seize a gun with his cuffed hands, is [[Egregious]] because {{spoiler|the cuffs were put on by the ''real'' detective}}.

 

== Video Games ==

* [[Justified]] in the [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''[[The Weapon (video game)|The Weapon]]''. The [[Player Character]] is purposely handcuffed in the front to allow him to work with the large device his captors want him to, yet still be controlled.

 

* ''Tainted'': A variation with plain ropes happened in [http://tainted.comicgenesis.com/d/20071102.html this] strip.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Just for Pun]]

[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]

[[Category:Hand Tropes]]