History Main / DeadlyRotaryFan

* Subverted at the end of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}'' where [[DragonInChief the evil cockatoo Nigel]] is actually revealed to have survived being shredded alive by an airplane's propellers, and as a result it also caused him to lose all of his feathers.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfGoo'' features these as hazards in some levels.

* In ''Frankenfish'', the gigantic male fish is killed when it runs into the equally gigantic propeller on the back of the protagonist's boat.

This is TruthInTelevision to an extent, as fans, including airplane propellers, can be very destructive and very deadly; after all, this is the same principle on which a blender or lawnmower operates. That said, in fiction, this effect tends to be greatly exaggerated; an ordinary domestic fan with ordinary plastic or wooden blades typically won't give you worse than a nasty bruise, and in some cases, the fan itself suffers more damage.

-->'''Bart:''' The hot dog water is gonna push us into the fan!
-->'''Willie:''' [[ExaggeratedTrope And I just sharpened those blades!]]

This is TruthInTelevision to an extent, as fans, including airplane propellers, can be very destructive and very deadly; after all, this is the same principle on which a blender or lawnmower operates. That said, in fiction this effect tends to be greatly exaggerated; an ordinary domestic fan with ordinary plastic or wooden blades typically won't give you worse than a nasty bruise, and in some cases the fan itself suffers more damage.

Supertrope of HelicopterBlender and TurbineBlender. Compare DeadlyDisc. Not to be confused with PaperFanOfDoom or that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death Urban Legend]] prevalent in Korea that says sleeping in a enclosed room with a fan on can be fatal.

** There is a time where the kids tells about gruesome deaths they heard of, one of them is about an helicopter cleaner who got sliced by the blades.
** Titeuf once metaphorically says that french kissing is like crossing a fast spinning blade because you must not do any false movement to not get cut.

* ''Fanfic/TheGreatAlicornHunt'': This trope is both Discussed and Averted in chapter 38 when three batponies find themselves dealing with a runnaway airplane.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'', during the Tank Gang's first attempt at jamming the filter, Nemo swims inside the filter to jam the fan with a pebble, but unfortunately it turns out that Nemo didn't jam the filter hard enough, and as a result the other fish actually had to stick a fake plant inside the filter to get Nemo out before he gets sliced into sushi.

* In ''Film/HardcoreHenry'', Henry breaks off the grate of an air conditioner unit, then throws a mook head first into the fan, which shreds him.

* ''Film/TheMummy1999'': Rick O'Connell hoists Beni up as an interrogation-technique, as if he's about to ram the little creep's head into a ceiling fan. Subverted because Beni spills his guts rather than field-test this trope's validity. Bonus points for the [[AudibleSharpness metallic ring]] of the fan's blunt wooden blades.

* The Refrigerator in... ''The Refrigerator'' brings some fans to life, and has them obliterate a man's face.

* Subverted on ''Series/MyNameIsEarl''. After Earl tipped over his ex-wife's trailer home on a bender, and was unable to rent a crane to lift it up again, Joy and Darnell were making do with the sideways trailer. The ceiling fan ended up being on a wall instead of on the ceiling, and it lopped off one of Joy's pigtails, much to her anger. Otherwise, it did no real harm or damage.

* In ''Roleplay/RubyQuest'', one room has a catwalk crossing over a pair of giant fans. They're proven deadly in a flashback, when Ruby shoves Stitches into them.

* In ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'', Clanker's belly contains rapidly-moving fans with serrated blades, while the Rusty Bucket is fitted with deadly propellers. The sequel ''Banjo-Tooie'' has these in areas of Jolly Roger Lagoon that link to the Glitter Gulch Mine and Grunty Industries levels. Unlike the previous game there actually is a way to get rid of them (for good) to make your life easier; to do so all you need to do is freeze them with ice eggs and then blast them with grenade eggs to destroy them.

* In ''VideoGame/MonsterBash'' there are spinning ceiling fans which you have to shoot the motors of in order to stop them from hurting/killing you.

* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus'' has rotating blades within the ventilation of the Meero Museum. Fortunately, they do not spin fast enough to pose a threat to the player, and only serves to point them in the right direction.

* Airplane propeller blades and/or blade tips are usually marked with yellow and/or stripes to warn anyone from walking into spinning propeller when the propeller is revolving. Still, accidents do happen. Amazingly, people are known to have survived such incidents.

* During the sinking of the HMHS Britannic in 1916, 30 people were killed when two lifeboats were lowered without permission, and got sucked into the still-turning propellers that had begun to rise out of the water.

* One of the possible means of making ceiling fans less dangerous is to use large, softer blades that would deform or detach from the fixture if it strikes an obstruction, so that the potential for severe damage to someone is reduced.

* Catholic theologian and anti-war activist Thomas Merton [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories most]] [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment likely]] died from stepping on an electric fan after getting out of a bath, although in his case [[HighVoltageDeath the operative word was "electric"]].

This is TruthInTelevision to an extent, as fans, including airplane propellers, can be very destructive and very deadly; after all, this is the same principle on which a blender or lawnmower operates. That said, in fiction this effect tends to be greatly exaggerated; an ordinary domestic fan with ordinary plastic or wooden blades typically won't give you worse than a nasty bruise.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' features large rotating blades coming from the ground in Dwermer ruins.

** Skydivers are taught ''always'' to approach an airplane for boarding from behind. In Estonia, an experienced skydiveress walked into the propeller of the jump plane in 2008, with fatal results.

* Even the apparently slow-moving wind-farm windmills are estimated to kill 8 to 57 million birds every year. Due to their sheer size, parts of the blades are moving at very high speed, and generate huge vortexes that suck birds and bats in. This is fewer than the number that are killed by [[CatsAreMean domestic cats]] or [[GlassSmackAndSlide crashing into building]], but it is a concern nonetheless.

* Even the apparently slow-moving wind-farm windmills are estimated to kill 8 to 57 million birds every year. Due to their sheer size, parts of the blades are moving at very high speed, and generate huge vortexes that suck birds and bats in.

->''Jesus Christ, that could have taken my head off! How are you supposed to turn it on without dying? How are you supposed to turn it'' off''?!''
-->- '''[[Machinima/FreemansMind Gordon Freeman]]''' muses on the practicality of [[NoOSHACompliance installing these]] (and putting the 'on' switch ''underneath'' the deadly fan in question).

->''How are you supposed to turn it on without dying? How are you supposed to turn it'' off''?!''
-->- '''[[Machinima/FreemansMind Gordon Freeman]]''' muses on the practicality of installing these (and putting the 'on' switch ''underneath'' the deadly fan in question).

-->- '''[[Machinima/FreemansMind Gordon Freeman]] muses on the practicality of installing these (and putting the 'on' switch ''underneath'' the deadly fan in question).

* In ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'', one of the prisoners (Murphy) is killed in a ventilation fan.

** There's a [[NightmareFuel set of photos]] of the aftermath of [[NauseaFuel an incident]] where [[NotEnoughToBury this happened]] to [[ChunkySalsaRule an airport mechanic]] [[note]]For the morbidly curious: Imagine an airplane engine whose walls are coated with marinara sauce....except that "marinara sauce" was once a human being[[/note]].