History Main / GroundByGears

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rock_crusher.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Not what I meant when I said "Put your nose to the grindstone"]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Clock Tower|1995}}'': This is how [[ImplacableMan the Scissorman]] is eventually defeated in the good endings. After the title location gets activated, the bells ringing seem to mess with him mentally, causing him to wander off the edge of the platform, seemingly falling into the gears below. On a more unfortunate note, if the player gets the A ending, then they’re presented with a HopeSpot of one of the protagonist’s friends arriving shortly after, upon which [[BigBad Mary]] suddenly appears and throws said friend into the gears as well.

* In ''Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle'', Poppy tells one of her mooks to throw his companion into an oversized meat grinder. She then cooks the meat and makes the mook eat it as a test of loyalty.

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom.'' At the end of Indiana's fight with a GiantMook, the villain is dragged into a giant rock crusher by his scarf and squashed to death.
* ''Film/LicenceToKill'': TheDragon Dario attempts to drop Bond into an industrial pulverizer that is being used to crush cocaine. After a tough fight, Bond manages to yank Dario so he falls into the pulverizer and is turned into a fine pink mist.

* ''Literature/DiogenesClub'': In "Literature/TheGypsiesInTheWoods", Uncle Satt's chief clerk Steadman dies when he pushed into the main dynamo powering the Gift and is ground up by the workings.

* ''Literature/TheDiogenesClub'': In "Literature/TheGypsiesInTheWoods", Uncle Satt's chief clerk Steadman dies when he pushed into the main dynamo powering the Gift and is ground up by the workings.

* In ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', Mr. Gryle is quite thoroughly done in by an experimental mail-sorting engine, thanks to a central flywheel [[AchievementsInIgnorance so poorly designed that it rotates through its own space-time frame where pi is exactly equal to three]]. AlienGeometries plus an off-balanced banshee equals a "gloop" and [[LudicrousGibs a sticky smear]].

!!Examples include:

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

* In Disney's ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'', Basil flips TheVillain's cape into some bevel gears while the two were fighting inside Big Ben. Basil then rushes to rescue the HeartwarmingOrphan, who is poised to be crushed by much larger gears meshing, leaving TheVillain to tear off his cape to free himself.

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''Literature/ShipBreaker''. [[PsychoForHire Richard Lopez]] is pulled halfway into the gears of the ship's hydraulics system [[AnArmAndALeg losing both legs and an arm]] -- he's so high on drugs he can barely understand the horror of what's happened to him.
* ''Literature/AlexRider'' is threatened with this at one point by TheDragon of ''Skeleton Key'', Conrad, if he doesn't confess. [[ILied Then when he does, Conrad decides to kill him anyway.]] Alex is only saved by the intervention of the BigBad, Alexei Sarov.
* ''Literature/JPBeaumont'': In ''Taking the Fifth'', one of the victims is drugged, bound and placed under a rotating stage, where he gets caught in the mechanism and crushed to death.

* In the ''Series/MissFishersMurderMysteries'' episode "Death by Miss Adventure", the BodyOfTheWeek is a factory worker mangled by the machinery. The investigation reveals that the safety equipment was added after the death, that the factory owner was running illegal nighttime shifts under a second set of accounts, and, ultimately, that the victim was pushed into the gears by her spurned lover, who decided that IfICantHaveYou

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': The move Gear Grind, learned by the Klink evolution line, uses gears to crush targets.

* In ''VideoGame/GodOfWar3,'' Kratos uses Poseidon's princess to keep a gate mechanism open, but her strength eventually gives out and she's crushed by the gears, her mangled body keeping the gate from closing completely.

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance'': There's an enemy called Guardian Armor. It resembles the many Living Armor monsters encountered in the game, with the difference being that it carries a huge shield that makes it impervious to damage. To destroy it, one must push it into the rotating gears affixed into the back of the room. If the Guardian Armor is pushed all the way onto them, they will trap and pull him in, destroying him completely and sending the pieces of its armor flying all across the room, that [[TheHero Juste]] can equip.

* Narrowly averted in the ''WesternAnimation/SillySymphonies'' short "WesternAnimation/TheOldMill''. A bird has made her nest on one of the spoke holes of a grindstone of the abandoned mill. That night a storm starts moving the gears and the rope holding the main gear breaks. The bird and her eggs are only saved by the fact that [[ByWallThatIsHoley the corresponding spoke is missing.]]
* The second [[Characters/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Roger Rabbit]] short cartoon is ''Roller Coaster Rabbit'', which sees a desperate Roger attempt to save Baby Herman from harm at a carnival. When Baby Herman clambers aboard a Ferris wheel, Roger tries to snag him from the car, but his feet become enmeshed in the wheel's many exposed drive gears. ToonPhysics make this mightily painful for Roger, but neither injurious nor fatal; even his outfit emerges intact.
* TheVillain from [[Creator/HannaBarbera Hanna Barbera]]'s cartoon series ''WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats'' episode "Never Mind A Mastermind" seeks to eliminate the meddlesome Alexander, Melody, and Alexandra by letting a cogged rack act as a ConveyorBeltODoom, taking the three toward the point where it meshes with a large drive gear. The TeamPet saves them from being meshed to mush, however.
* The ''Creator/{{Pixar}}'' short cartoon ''Mikes New Car'' from 2002 has Mike Wazowsky from ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' show off his new car to his best friend James Sullivan. At one point, Mike ends up in the car's engine bay with the hood shutting above him. The engine compartment seems composed solely of large gears meshing precisely to create this hazard. Mike survives due to PlotArmor and the RuleOfFunny.

* One of Count Cagliostro's mooks is crushed by the workings during the famous ClockTower climax of ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'', though each time a GoryDiscretionShot hides the gruesome details from the audience. An unusual variant happens to the Count himself when he's caught in between the gigantic hour and minute hands of the clock face itself as the special mechanism causes them to both rapidly converge on 12.

* ''WesternAnimation/Cars2'': Around the climax of the movie, Finn and Holly are tied to the giant clock gears of the Big Bentley by the bad guys, with them edging closer to being crushed by another gear each minute. Holly manages to save themselves by making the clock run in reverse.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToaster'': Toaster commits a HeroicSacrifice by jumping into the gears of a trash compactor to stop it from killing the Master. Fortunately, the Master is able to repair him good as new.
* This is also the fate of the Seamstress in ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}'', trapped by the heroes and dragged between two massive gears in the factory; we even get to see her head go 'pop' between the teeth, though as she's a MechanicalMonster, this isn't as gory as it sounds.

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom.'' At the end of Indiana's fight with a GiantMook, the villain is dragged into a giant rock crusher by his scarf and squashed to death.
* ''Film/LicenceToKill'': TheDragon Dario attempts to drop Bond into an industrial pulverizer that is being used to crush cocaine. After a tough fight, Bond manages to yank Dario so he falls into the pulverizer and is turned into a fine pink mist.
* In ''Film/HolmesAndWatson'', Watson is strapped to a giant gear in the ''Titantic'''s engine room, so his head will be crushed by a cog when the engines start turning.
* In ''Film/TheFunhouse'', Gunther dies when he is caught in the gears of the funhouse after being electrocuted.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'': The move Gear Grind, learned by the Klink evolution line, uses gears to crush targets.

* Narrowly averted in the ''WesternAnimation/SillySymphonies'' short "Disney/TheOldMill''. A bird has made her nest on one of the spoke holes of a grindstone of the abandoned mill. That night a storm starts moving the gears and the rope holding the main gear breaks. The bird and her eggs are only saved by the fact that [[ByWallThatIsHoley the corresponding spoke is missing.]]

!!Examples include

* In ''Film/TheFunhouse'', Gunther dies when he he is caught in the gears of the funhouse after being electrocuted.

* ''Literature/YoungSherlockHolmes'': The final fate of Grivens in ''Red Leech''. Tipped over a walkway in the engineroom of the ship, his coat snags on the cams of the massive steam engine and he is crushed to death.

** Carl Clover's updated Astral Heat in Chronophantasma has him trapping his foe in a pocket dimension where they are grinded to dust by giant gears.

* This can happen to Norman Jayden in ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' during the junkyard fight, if the player doesn't guide him out of the car thrown into the grinder fast enough.

* The second [[Characters/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Roger Rabbit]] short cartoon is ''Roller Coaster Rabbit'', which sees a desperate Roger attempt to save Baby Herman from harm at a carnival. When Baby Herman clambers aboard a Ferris wheel, Roger tries to snag him from the car, but his feet become enmeshed in the wheel's many exposed drive gears. ToonPhysics make this mightily painful for Roger, but neither injurous nor fatal; even his outfit emerges intact.
* TheVillain from [[Creator/HannaBarbera Hanna Barbera]]'s cartoon series ''WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats'' episode "Never Mind A Mastermind" seeks to eliminate the meddlesome Alexander, Melody and Alexandra by letting a cogged rack act as a ConveyorBeltODoom, taking the three toward the point where it meshes with a large drive gear. The TeamPet saves them from being meshed to mush, however.
* The ''Creator/{{Pixar}}'' short cartoon ''Mikes New Car'' from 2002 has Mike Wazowsky from ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' show off his new car to his best friend James Sullivan. At one point, Mike ends up in the car's engine bay with the hood shutting above him. The engine compartment seems composed of solely of large gears meshing precisely to create this hazard. Mike survives due to PlotArmor and the RuleOfFunny.

** Just after Batman is saved by Catwoman the enormous bells of the clock tower strike, and the vibrations sends Ragdoll tumbling into the gearwork, prompting a [[ScreamDiscretionShot bloodcurdling scream from Ragdoll as the gears swallow and grind him]] with both Batman and Catwoman looking on in horror as the scream dies... [[SubvertedTrope and gives way]] to a relieved sigh with [[{{Contortionist}} Ragdoll]] emerging on the other side no worse for wear, prompting StunnedSilence from both Batman and Catwoman. The real kicker? While he was undergoing what, to him, was essentially thorough impromptu ''massage therapy'' he somehow ''managed to spot and grab the two jewels while '''inside''' the gearworks.''

** Batman later abuses Ragdoll's immunity to this trope to get around his ThouShaltNotKill rule - by kicking him into the gears (much to Ragdoll's enjoyment) only to jam the gears with a batarang, causing Ragdoll to get helplessly stuck and taking him out of the MeleeATrois.

* This almost happens to WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck in ''[[WesternAnimaton/ClassicDisneyShorts How to Have an Accident at Work]]'' when he accidentally starts the machine he is eating lunch on and [[KillerOutfit the napkin tied around his neck is snagged in the gears]]. In freeing himself, [[ItMakesSenseInContext he completely derails western civilization]].

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonace'': There's an enemy called Guardian Armor. It resembles the many Living Armor monsters encountered in the game, with the difference being that it carries a huge shield that makes it impervious to damage. To destroy it, one must push it into the rotating gears affixed into the back of the room. If the Guardian Armor is pushed all the way onto them, they will trap and pull him in, destroying him completely and sending the pieces of its armor flying all across the room, that [[TheHero Juste]] can equip.

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonnnyOfDissonace'': There's an enemy called Guardian Armor. It resembles the many Living Armor monsters encountered in the game, with the difference being that it carries a huge shield that makes it impervious to damage. To destroy it, one must push it into the rotating gears affixed into the back of the room. If the Guardian Armor is pushed all the way onto them, they will trap and pull him in, destroying him completely and sending the pieces of its armor flying all across the room, that [[TheHero Juste]] can equip.