Walk the Plank: Difference between revisions
m
no edit summary
m (revise quote template spacing) |
mNo edit summary |
||
| (7 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''The Doctor:''' A plank?
Line 11:
The victim is usually bound. An occasional twist is for an unbound victim to grab the plank on the way down or otherwise use it as a springboard into combat.
[[Real Life]] pirates executed people this way, but only rarely, but given the methods they ''did'' use to kill people (including flogging, keelhauling, or simply marooning them in locales known to be dangerous, to say nothing of what they [[Rape, Pillage and Burn| tended to do to women]]) doing so might have been considered merciful. There are, sadly, no surviving records of them [[A Worldwide Punomenon|making people walk 1.6 x 10]]<sup>
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Pocket Dragons]]'' a group of sky pirates make the dragons walk the
* Oddly enough, like [[Eyepatch of Power]], the pirate manga ''[[One Piece]]'' has so far averted this trope.
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', Chapter 268. {{spoiler|This was how Queen Arika was supposed to be executed, walking off a plank settled over a huge canyon full of monsters. Luckily for her, Ala Alba (commanded by Nagi, who is able to catch her and drag her out ''[[Badass Normal|without his powers]]'') is there to save her.}}
* In Hayao Miyazaki's ''[[Future Boy Conan]]'', [[Plucky Girl]] Lana has to go through it. She actually manages [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|to stand on said plank for quite a while and ''not'' fall off]]. {{spoiler|The [[Smug Snake]] grabs her and takes her away, then Conan has to fight him to free Lana}}
* In ''Amagi Brilliant Park'', pirate [[It Makes Just As Much Sense in Context|seals from another universe]] invade the amusement park's swimming pool section, and force some of their captives to walk the high diving board — into a pool that's been filled with what seem to be oversized sea anemones. The experience is gross, judging by the victims' squirming amid the tentacles ... but, it turns out, non-fatal. Guests at the park think this is [[All Part of the Show]] and loads of fun.
Line 33 ⟶ 34:
* ''[[Monty Python's The Meaning of Life]]''. In the ''The Crimson Permanent Assurance'' sketch, clerical workers force a captured executive to Walk The Plank. See it on [[YouTube]] here, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecFBcpY9NHI starting at 3:10].
* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'', of course.
* In ''[[Down Periscope]]'', Dodge makes Pascal walk the plank
* ''[[Hook]]''
* In the Disney ''[[Peter Pan]]'' movie, after capturing the Darling kids and the Lost Boys, Captain Hook offers them a
* Mama Fratelli makes Andi walk the plank off the pirate ship in ''[[The Goonies]]''.
* ''[[Star Trek Generations]]''. While on a sailing ship holodeck program, Lt. Worf has to leap from the tip of the plank and grab his commander's cap (suspended overhead) as part of the ceremony marking his promotion. When he does this without falling off, Riker decides to make things more interesting by making the plank disappear. Evidently that was an error. Picard: "Number One, it's ''retract'' the plank, not ''remove'' the plank." (or, judging from Riker's grin, it wasn't.)
* ''[[Return of the Jedi|Star Wars: Episode VI -- Return of the Jedi]]'' - Jabba the Hutt's minions force Luke Skywalker to walk the plank extended from a hover skiff over the Sarlaac pit. Luke spins and grabs the plank as he falls,
== Literature ==
* J.M. Barrie's ''[[Peter Pan]]'' was probably the [[Trope Codifier]] in the public consciousness.
* Appears in [[George Macdonald Fraser]]'s ''[[The Pyrates]]'', of course. [[The Hero|Ben Avery]] immediately tells his pirate crew to knock it off, though, on the grounds that (see Real Life below) it's a-historical for [[The Cavalier Years|their 17th century setting]]. [[Hypocritical Humor|This is the same book that mentions a pirate radio station on Tortuga]].
* In [[Rafael Sabatini]]'s ''Captain Blood'', one of the title character's first actions after seizing a Spanish warship is to make nasty Colonel Bishop walk the plank. It's not fatal, however, or even intended to be certainly fatal, since they're only about a quarter mile from shore, and "you're fat enough to float." Oddly, in [[Captain Blood|the movie]], Blood's crew went for the '''less'''-cinematic option of simply picking the Colonel up, swinging, and tossing him over the side.
Line 66 ⟶ 67:
* Happens in an issue of ''[[Little Nemo|Little Nemo in Slumberland]]''.
* Played with in ''[[The Far Side]]'', where a pirate seems to be whistling and dancing off the plank, only for the captain to grab him by the ear and say "Oh no, you'll ''walk'' the plank like everyone else!"
* A magazine cartoon showed a fellow at the end of the plank, "defiant to the last," pulling down his breeches and [[Mooning]] the pirate captain.
Line 79 ⟶ 81:
==
* Happens twice in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''.
** The first time is in an early arc where Bun-Bun decides to "play" pirate in North Virginia. He makes a rich, elderly couple walk the plank off their own yacht. Fortunately for them they were in the shallows, and for that bit of bad navigation Bun-Bun makes Kiki walk the plank as well, telling her to "roll those two lardasses into the deep end" when she gets down there.
Line 85 ⟶ 87:
* In ''[[Dubious Company]]'', after Walter [[The Mutiny|takes over]] Barry's ship, he makes the former captain do this while the ship [[Poke the Poodle|is beached]].
** Walter also has a policy of keelhauling enemies [[Modern Major-General|until]] he looks up the word in the dictionary. Once [[Valley Girl|Mary]] becomes the [[Paper-Thin Disguise|mole]], the crew asks him to [[Cold-Blooded Torture|reinstitute]] the policy.
== Western Animation ==
Line 97 ⟶ 98:
* ''[[The Perils of Penelope Pitstop]]''. The Hooded Claw attempts to force Penelope to walk the plank in the episode "Arabian Desert Danger". And, yes, the incongruity of forcing someone to walk the plank in the desert was [[Lampshaded]]. The cannonballs were an interesting addition, though.
* Played with in ''[[Time Warp Trio]]''. Some pirates hear them mention it and think it's a good idea. Later on, some British guy hears this and tells another British guy to write it down, as it's "a splendid idea".
* In the ''[[Kids Next Door]]'' episode Operation: P.I.R.A.T.E. Numbah 5 was forced to walk the plank.
== Real Life ==
| |||