History Main / CutTheSafetyRope

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', when Sokka and Zuko break into [[TheAlcatraz Boiling Rock]]. The warden of the prison is shown early on pointedly stating that he would rather jump into the boiling lake just outside the prison than allow his escape-free reputation to be tarnished. At the climax of the episode, the good guys take the warden hostage so they can take a gondola over the aforementioned boiling lake to safety unharassed. However, the warden manages to free himself enough so that he can yell at the guards to cut the lines holding up the gondola, knowing full well that he'll be died on impact or be boiled alive along with the would-be escapees when it falls. The attempt is foiled, but points for trying.

* In ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'', Farah is hanging over a cliff by the handle of a dagger, and the Prince is holding the blade, cutting his hand with enemies approaching-- but she knows that this will cause both of them to get killed, so she lets go and falls to her death. Fortunately, the dagger is able to rewind time... unfortunately, when the Prince tries to rewind time, it's ''out of sand''.

* In ''VideoGame/InfamousSecondSon,'' [[spoiler: Augustine uses her Conduit powers to solidify a chunk of concrete around Reggie's feet that slowly climbs up and encases his body, and when the structure they're standing on collapses, Delsin's left hanging onto the cliff with Reggie holding his hand. Reggie quickly realizes that the concrete is making him too heavy, and if he doesn't stop touching Delsin then the concrete will get onto him too. He tells Delsin to let go; Delsin insists that he can pull him up, but Reggie just tells him that he's always been proud of him and lets go of his hand, falling to his death. Delsin [[BigNo screams.]]]]
* In ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands,'' [[PlayerCharacter Rhys]] and Sasha end up hanging from some partially collapsed walkways high above the ground. Sasha is holding onto Rhys' legs while he tries to pull them both up, but she realizes that the structure is rapidly falling apart, and that Rhys won't be able to pull them up in time. [[HeroicSacrifice She tells him she will let go.]] You can either tell her to keep holding on and that you'll manage to save the both of you, or that you understand; regardless of what you pick, [[spoiler: she lets go. Turns out that the walkway had lowered so much that they were just a few feet off the ground. She knew that, Rhys (and the player) didn't.]]
* The hand-holding variant occurs in Tiz's section in the opening cutscene of ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'' with his younger brother Til dangling over the edge of the newly-formed Great Chasm. Tiz's SurvivorGuilt from that moment drives him for much of the game to follow.

* Averted in ''High Citadel'' by Desmond Bagley. The DirtyCoward of the team starts cutting through the rope to let the man below fall to his death, only for the lead climber to throw an axe into his head. That was a case of someone panicking rather than a ColdEquation type-decision though.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', when Sokka and Zuko break into [[TheAlcatraz Boiling Rock]]. The warden of the prison is shown early on pointedly stating that he would rather jump into the boiling lake just outside the prison than allow his escape-free reputation to be tarnished. At the climax of the episode, the good guys take the warden hostage so they can take a gondola over the aforementioned boiling lake to safety unharassed. However, the warden manages to free himself enough so that he can yell at the guards to cut the lines holding up the gondola, knowing full well that he'll be boiled alive along with the would-be escapees when it falls. The attempt is foiled, but points for trying.

* Attempted by Seiya in ''Manga/SaintSeiya''. When he and Shun are attacked by [[EvilTwin Dark Andromeda]] right next to a cliff, Shun is stuck between protecting the very weakened Seiya, whose survival hangs solely on how half of Shun's Armor chains are wrapped around his arm, and defending himself from [[BloodKnight Dark Andromeda's]] [[AttackAttackattack attacks.]] When Seiya realises this, [[TakeAThirdOption he decides]] to [[HeroicSacrifice cut the the chains and let himself plummet to what's surely his death]] so Shun can survive; between the [[BreakTheCutie shock of almost surely losing his friend]] and [[KickTheDog Dark Andromeda mocking them]], [[SilkhidingSteel Shun]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes snaps MASSIVELY on Dark Andromeda]] [[TheDogBitesBack and bloodily kills him]]. [[SubvertedTrope Seiya ultimately survives, but barely]].

* Subverted in ''Manga/DetectiveConan''. In the mermaid case, Kazuha falls over a cliff, but Heiji jumps after her, [[TakeMyHand grabs her with his one hand]] while [[LiteralCliffhanger holding onto a overhanging branch with his other]]. Kazuha, realizing the branch won't hold them both, takes an arrow she received as a prize recently and stabs Heiji's hand with it, in order to make him let go. [[SubvertedTrope He holds on nonetheless]], and they're both saved soon.

** Happens again in the episode A Metter of Time. O'Neill and a former squad-mate named Colonel Cromwell are dangling by ropes over the mouth of the Stargate, which has inadvertently connected itself to a black hole that was on the verge of sucking in the rest of Earth. When Cromwell's rope breaks, it is caught by O'Neill who is unable to pull him back up; as a result Cromwell [[RedemptionEqualsDeath earns a modicum of redemption]] for abandoning O'Neill many years before by letting go, saving O'Neill's life [[HeroicSacrifice at the cost of his own]].

See also ColdEquation.

* ''Film/TheGuardian'' featured this in its climax. After Ben (played by Kevin Costner) rescues Jake (played by Ashton Kutcher) on the ship in the middle of the storm, they take the safety rope up to the helicopter together. But the rope is not designed for their combined weight and begins to break.[[note]] The rescue cable on an HH-60 is designed to lift three people at once if necessary. It appeared to have been frayed some time prior [[/note]] Ben decides to sacrifice himself to save Jake. However, instead of cutting his part of the rope, he simply unstraps the glove that Jake is holding onto, falling into the water from a fatal height. Though, if the end of the movie it to be believed, Ben may be NotQuiteDead, simply AscendingToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.

* In ''VideoGame/InfamousSecondSon,'' [[spoiler: Augustine uses her Conduit powers to solidify a chunk of concrete around Reggie's feet that slowly climbs up and encases his body, and when the structure they're standing on collapses, Delsin's left hanging onto the cliff with Reggie holding his hand. He quickly realizes that the concrete is making him too heavy, and tells Delsin to let go. Delsin insists that he can pull him up, but Reggie just tells him that he's always been proud of him and lets go, falling to his death, and Delsin [[BigNo screams.]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/InfamousSecondSon,'' [[spoiler: Augustine uses her Conduit powers to solidify a chunk of concrete around Reggie's feet that slowly climbs up and encases his body, and when the structure they're standing on collapses, Delsin's left hanging onto the cliff with Reggie holding onto his foot. He quickly realizes that the concrete is making him too heavy, and tells Delsin to let go. Delsin insists that he can pull him up, but Reggie just tells him that he's always been proud of him and lets go, falling to his death, and Delsin [[BigNo screams.]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands,'' [[PlayerCharacter Rhys]] and Shasha end up hanging from some partially collapsed walkways high above groud. Sasha is holding onto Rhys' legs while he tries to pull them both up, but she realizes that the structure is rapidly falling apart, and that Rhys won't be able to pull them up in time. [[HeroicSacrifice She tells him she will let go.]] [[VideoGameCaringPotential Rhys can either tell her not to,]] [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential or say he understands.]] Regardless of what you pick, [[spoiler:she lets go. Turns out that the walkway had lowered so much that they were just a few feet off the ground. She knew that, Rhys (and the player) didn't.]]

* ''Film/TheGuardian'' featured this in its climax. After Ben (played by Kevin Costner) rescues Jake (played by Ashton Kutcher) on the ship in the middle of the storm, they take the safety rope up to the helicopter together. But the rope is not designed for their combined weight and begins to break.[[note]] The rescue cable on an HH-60 is designed to lift three people at once if necessary. It appeared to have been frayed some time prior [[/note]] Ben decides to sacrifice himself to save Jake. However, instead of cutting his part of the rope, he simply unstraps the glove that Jake is holding onto, falling into the water from a fatal height. Though, if the end of the movie it to be believed, Ben may be NotQuiteDead, simply AscendingToAHigherPlaneOfExistence..

* Inverted in ''The Eiger Sanction''. Creator/ClintEastwood's character is hung up on his own safety rope, and the only way to survive is to cut it so his friend can haul him to safety using another rope. The dilemma is [[spoiler:Eastwood has just found out his friend is TheMole. Is he planning to save him, or kill him?]]

* Played straight pretty much to the letter in ''Film/AlienResurrection''. Clone Ripley and her new TrueCompanions made up of space-smugglers are escaping from a Xenomorph in an unused elevator shaft. One smuggler, [[HandicappedBadass Vriess]], is paralysed from the waist down so his crewmate [[BlackBestFriend Christie]] strapped him to his back to get through a flooded section without leaving him behind. During the ladder climb, Christie makes the mistake of looking down... just in time for the alien to [[EyeScream spit acid into his face]]. He reflexively lets go of the ladder to claw at his melting face but Vriess catches the ladder, revealing that [[TruthInTelevision his paralysis gifted him with higher than average upper-body strength]]. Jorner eventually kills the alien with GunsAkimbo but the critter [[TakingYouWithMe grabs onto Christie's foot]], weighing down on Vriess whose arms can't support their collective weight. Christie, despite the [[OhCrap protests]] of Vriess, cuts the straps binding them together and plummets to the bottom of the shaft where he's instantly killed on impact.

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

* ''Disney/BigHero6'' includes a climatic moment that messes with this trope in an interesting way. After his suit is destroyed after passing through the warp hole, Baymax sacrifices himself for Hiro by shooting Hiro back to earth through the warp hole. By effectively cutting his safety cord, Baymax sends both himself and Hiro into a fall--one to safety and one to death.

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E12TheGunganGeneral , "The Gungan General"]]: During the second escape attempt Anakin is clinging to a ledge while Obi-Wan and Dooku dangle from his waist, and while they were going to swing to the side to get up to the ledge when the electo-rope connecting Dooku and Obi-Wan is shot Obi-Wan spins to catch him, making Anakin start to lose his grip. Anakin tells Obi-Wan to drop Dooku or else they're going to fall, but this isn't as cold as most examples since Dooku is an enemy during a war ''and'' as a trained force user can cushion his fall.

** In "A City Upon a Hill", Ellen Waverly has to disconnect her tether and attach it to a fuel tank that's been cast loose from a nearby spacecraft. Fortunately she's able to just grab onto the fuel tank itself.

* ''Series/ForAllMankind''. In "Bent Bird", Apollo 25 is sent up to replace a damaged computer on Apollo 24. Unfortunately when the computer is replaced it executes the last command it was given and fires off the main booster while Apollo 25 is still tethered to it. Its commander Molly Cobb is forced to [[CutTheSafetyRope release the tether]] to save her ship, even though it's also her safety rope. She's unable to hold onto the careening rocket and ends up [[DramaticSpaceDrifting adrift in space.]]

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* ''Film/MortalEngines''. Anna Fang turns up in her airship JustInTime to save Hester Shaw from Shrike, the ImplacableMan SuperSoldier that chasing her. Hester then throws a rope to Tom Natsworthy so he can climb on board as well, but Shrike is able to catch the end of the rope and starts [[SuperStrength hauling them back]]. Fang throws a dagger to Hester so she can cut the rope, which will kill Tom. Instead she throws the knife to Tom, who fortunately catches it and cuts the rope below him.