History Main / StrappedToAnOperatingTable

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' ends with one of the most disturbing uses of this trope. For context, the episode's villain, Bullwhip, has kidnapped a surgeon's beloved girlfriend and forced him to turn him and his gang into powerful cyborgs. Right before the climax, the doctor discovers that Bullwhip and his girlfriend are actually in on it together and having an affair; the thing is, Bullwhip doesn't know that the doctor knows and goes back to him for repairs after Batman defeats the rest of the gang. Bullwhip is strapped to an operating table, and he asks that the doctor upgrade him and tells him not to hold back. The doctor then begins lowering a power drill as he puts Bullwhip under...

* In ''Film/DeepInTheValley'', the nurses strap Lester face down to an examination table prepatory to giving him a sponge bath. This leaves him in a very vulnerable position when Suzi Diablo enters, and she procedes to torture him by [[AssShove shoving a sphygmomanometer cuff up his ass]] and starting pumping.

** During the Sixth Doctor's run, this happens twice to Peri -- of the reasons why this era was widely percieved as nasty and mean-spirited.

* ''Series/AlexRider'': Shortly after arriving in Point Blanc, Alex is drugged unconscious. Next morning, he mentions to James that he didn't sleep well because of a nightmare about this trope. Kyra, sat nearby, chimes in to finish his description with eerie precision, revealing that she had the exact same nightmare, with James soon admitting the same thing. This, along with Laura suddenly turning all StepfordSmiler, makes them decide to escape.
** [[spoiler:Later, after Alex's cover gets blown, he's caught and subjected to this while doped on TruthSerum.]]

* In one episode of ''Series/BigWolfOnCampus'', Tommy finds himself in another dimension where he never became a werewolf, but his much less responsible football teammate did. While trying to fight with said teammate, Tommy is bitten and passes out. Merton and Lori (who, in this dimension, aren't normally friends with Tommy) have him strapped to a table in Merton's lab until they can determine if he's safe or not. He promptly rips the (metal!!!) straps apart just by sitting up.
* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', [[spoiler:the werewolf Oz]] is strapped naked to an operating table by [[TheGovernment The Initiative]], [[TheyWouldCutYouUp experimented on and tortured]] to find out [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting what makes him tick]].
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': In "Lying Down With Dogs", the VictimOfTheWeek was strapped to an operating table in a rescue kennel before being injected with euthanizing solution.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E9TheSavages "The Savages"]]: The First Doctor is strapped to a gurney before he undergoes the transference process.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E5TheUnderwaterMenace "The Underwater Menace"]]: Happens to Polly as the first cliffhanger, as she is forcibly anaesthetized, about to be turned into a [[{{Cyborg}} fish-person]] while kicking and screaming. This scene was so brutal it got cut by the Australian censor board and is [[MissingEpisode some of the only footage of it that survives]].
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E1TheDominators "The Dominators"]]: Jamie gets this at the hands of the Dominators, only instead of straps the table paralyses him via molecular forces.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks "Genesis of the Daleks"]]: Sarah Jane gets strapped to a table by Davros, so he can torture her to force the Doctor to reveal the information of how he defeated the Daleks in every encounter in the past ([[TimeyWimeyBall in Davros' future]]).
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius "The Brain of Morbius"]]: Sarah Jane gets tied down to an operating table by [[MadScientist Solon]]. He isn't going to operate on her, thank goodness, he's too busy [[spoiler:trying to reanimate Morbius]]. Just needs to keep an eye on her as she keeps running away and causing trouble. [[BadassAdorable Whilst completely blind.]]
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin "The Deadly Assassin"]]: The Fourth Doctor experiences a hallucination of this in the {{Cyberspace}} NightmareSequence, in a sequence inspired by the [[MedicalHorror common phobia of waking up in the middle of surgery]]. He also willingly submits to this in order to enter said Cyberspace world, complete with head nodes and agonized screaming.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E4TheFaceOfEvil "The Face of Evil"]]: Leela, strapped to a table in her little leather leotard [[MsFanservice in her first story]].
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath "The Robots of Death"]]: The robot "reprogramming" (actually just horrific, dangerous and sadistic MeatGrinderSurgery on a sentient being considered subhuman).
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E4TheAndroidsOfTara "The Androids of Tara"]]: Romana I is strapped to a table [[spoiler:(after being mistaken for an android)]], and nearly cut up for parts.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E4ResurrectionOfTheDaleks "Resurrection of the Daleks"]] has the Daleks do this to the Fifth Doctor.
** During the Sixth Doctor's run, this happens twice to Peri. This is one of the reasons many people feel his era is nasty and mean-spirited.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek "Dalek"]]: The Ninth Doctor gets strapped to a wall-based body scanner and unwillingly examined via AgonyBeam.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace "The Girl in the Fireplace"]]: Happens to Rose and Mickey. There was an unintentional pan over Creator/BilliePiper's tightly-clad body. When the production team saw it in the edit, [[MaleGaze they kept it]].
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E8TheHungryEarth The Hungry Earth]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E9ColdBlood Cold Blood]]" subverts it: [[spoiler:The Silurian doctor doing the examination turns out to be perfectly well-meaning if a bit lacking in anesthetic techniques.]]
* River from ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' was strapped to a chair by the Hands of Blue at the Academy.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' fic "Lab Rat", Danny wakes up on an operating table so [[UpToEleven his parents could dissect him.]]

* ''Film/{{Help}}'': {{Parodied|Trope}}. In an attempt to [[ItMakesSenseInContext steal the ring magically stuck to Ringo's finger so he can rule the world]], a MadScientist has Ringo [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext strapped to an operating table on a boat]] to amputate his finger. The restraints are set up in a way that should make them more than easy for Ringo to break out of, but of course he just lies there and waits to be rescued. This particular joke is also {{justified|Trope}}, as he and the rest of the Beatles were quite stoned, both in and [[RealitySubtext out of universe]].
* ''Film/TheHumanCentipede'': Dr. Heiter does this to the hapless victims of his deranged surgical experiment, the "Siamese triplet''.

* ''Film/Deadpool2016'': After he's diagnosed with terminal cancer, Wade Wilson volunteers for a MadScience program that turns out to involve him being strapped to a gurney and tortured for months in the belief that his latent mutant genes will activate in an attempt to save his life. Wilson manages to keep up his annoying snark through all of it, so they place him in a hyperbaric chamber and keep him on the verge of oxygen suffocation.

[[caption-width-right:320:WesternAnimation/{{Pluto|ThePup}}!]]

* In the ''ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders''/''ComicBook/{{Checkmate}}'' crossover Captain Boomerang II and Sasha Bordeaux are captured on a mission to Oolong Island and wake up strapped to operating tables in the lab of Chang Tzu.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** Heroic example in ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004''. When ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} arrives on Earth, she is confused, frightened, doesn't know English, and doesn't know her own strength, so she causes several disasters without meaning it. Batman knocks her out using a Kryptonite chunk, carries her to the Batcave, and straps her to an operating table to examine her and check if that unknown alien girl is Kryptonian as he suspects.
** In ''ComicBook/SupermanBrainiac'', Superman is strapped to an operating table after being captured by Brainiac. When he comes around he breaks his restraints and rams his fist through a Brainiac's robot.

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel:'' Happens to some nameless Decepticon grunt who is chosen as part of [[AxCrazy Straxus']] plan to replace Megatron. He's strapped to the table and taken apart, piece by piece, before being rebuilt in Megatron's image.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
** ''ComicBook/SensationComics'': In her first appearance Doctor Poison strapped ComicBook/SteveTrevor to an operating table to force a truth serum into him and question him, with the promise of returning later and using him in her experiments.

* ''Film/ArmyOfFrankensteins'': After being struck by lightning, Alan wakes up strapped to an operating table in Dr. Finiski's lab, with the doctor about to [[EyeScream remove his eye without anaesthetic]].
* ''Film/AsianSchoolGirls'': After May kills one of his {{mook}}s, Curtis straps her to an operating table and prepares to perform a female circumcision on her: [[TortureTechnician claiming torture is a hobby of his]].
* In Creator/EdWood's ''Film/BrideOfTheMonster'', Dr. Eric Vornoff straps his unwilling experimental subjects to his operating table before experimenting on them.

** Cap finds Bucky strapped to a table after being captured by HYDRA. Judging by his exhaustion and delirious rambling, as well as his pretty drastic change of character afterwards, ''something'' happened to him that's never elaborated on. [[spoiler:Word of God says Zola injected him with some variation of the same super-soldier serum used on Steve, explaining how he later survives his fall]].
** When Zola himself is captured, he's put in an interrogation room with a hospital gurney, and is disturbed to see a patch of blood on the floor beneath it. It's possible this was set up just to mess with his head so he'd be more willing to co-operate.
* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', [[spoiler:poor Bucky is strapped to an operating table ''again'' when his mind is wiped and he's put in cryo freeze as the Winter Soldier]].
* In the 1967 spoof ''Film/CasinoRoyale1967'', archvillain Jimmy Bond (Creator/WoodyAllen) has the Detainer (Daliah Lavi) strapped naked to a cot (with wide, strategically placed metal straps). His intentions are strictly lustful.
-->'''Detainer:''' And is ''this'' how you treat the women you desire?\\
'''Jimmy:''' Yes! Yes, I remove their clothing and tie them up, yes. I learned that in the Boy Scouts.

* ''Film/{{Deadpool|2016}}''. After he's diagnosed with terminal cancer, Wade Wilson volunteers for a MadScience program that turns out to involve him being strapped to a gurney and tortured for months in the belief that his latent mutant genes will activate in an attempt to save his life. Wilson manages to keep up his annoying snark through all of it, so they place him in a hyperbaric chamber and keep him on the verge of oxygen suffocation.
* ''Film/{{District 9}}'' plays this trope horrifyingly straight. Wikus is strapped to a table and subjected to lots of very painful experiments for the better half of a day, non-stop. They were going to vivisect him, too, but he escaped when that part became obvious.

* In ''Film/EscapeFromLA'' the plastic surgery freaks strap their victims to tables.

* Played straight in ''Film/FireInTheSky'' during the horrifying abduction scene.

* ''Film/FromHell''. A supposedly insane woman is used as a lobotomy demonstration for a class of medical students. Only she's not insane; she's being lobotomised to cover up a royal scandal. The 'subject' is BoundAndGagged, [[AndIMustScream unable to plead for rescue]].
* In ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'', this happens to anyone when they're having the Doctor do anything that involves stick needles into them. [[spoiler:Including to Duke, though he escapes before anything bad happens.]]
* ''Film/{{Help}}'': Parodied, in this [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] flick. In an attempt to [[ItMakesSenseInContext steal the ring magically stuck to Ringo's finger so he can rule the world,]] MadScientist has Ringo [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext strapped to an operating table on a boat]] to amputate his finger. The restraints are set up in a way that should make them more than easy for Ringo to break out of, but of course he just lies there and waits to be rescued.
** Justified, as he and the rest of the Beatles were quite stoned, both in and [[RealitySubtext out of universe.]]
* ''Film/TheHumanCentipede'': creepy scientist does this to the hapless victims of his deranged surgical experiment, the "Siamese triplet''.

** ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' has possibly the most famous operating table scene. Film/JamesBond gets strapped to an operating table with an industrial laser slowly moving towards his crotch.
** They do it a second time in ''Film/DieAnotherDay'', albeit it is the BondGirl instead of Bond himself (really, pretty much ''anything'' that happened in a previous Bond film turned up in that one).

* In ''Film/ManOfSteel'', this happens to Superman. SUPERMAN, granted. He just suffered a ''Main/MindProbe'', so Kal-El may not be at his A-game and he's in an environment that cancels out his powers. Nevertheless, the implications are still horrifying.
* ''Film/MarathonMan'': Horrifying variation -- strapped to the ''dentist's chair''.
-->"Is it safe?"\\
'''"Is it safe?"'''

* ''Film/NobodySleepsInTheWoodsTonightII'': The film ends with [[spoiler:Adas]] strapped to an operating table with two scientist about to operate on [[spoiler:him]]. The shot cuts out as one of the scientists starts using a large syringe to extract fluid from [[spoiler:Adas']] head.
* In ''Film/ThePresidentsAnalyst'' the title character, quitting his job and running off under extreme stress, and pursued by agents of every country for the secrets in his head, ends up getting captured by [[spoiler:the Canadian Secret Service. Tired of being the 'silent bleeding partner in North America']], agents strap him down on a cot and intend to inject him with something that will make him talk.

* ''Film/ReAnimator'': Megan Halsey gets strapped to a lab slab in this 1980s horror pic. Whereupon [[spoiler:the movie puts a really {{Squick}}y spin on the term "giving head"]].

* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' : A staple of the series. Applications of this trope are almost always followed by explosions of {{Gorn}}.

* Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000-classic ''Film/SpaceMutiny'' also uses a dentist's chair, but that was just silly.
-->'''Tom Servo:''' Ah yes, the laser that whirrs like a drill!"

* ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' (2007) Bumblebee is chained down to an appropriately-sized table and tortured. It's never really explained why, besides the government agency needing to hold the VillainBall.
* ''Film/Transylvania65000''; After the Wolfman delivers Gil to Dr. Malavaqua, Malavaqua straps him to the operating table in his MadScientistLaboratory.
* ''Film/UnderworldEvolution'': The hybrid is strapped to an upright operating table for some PlayingWithSyringes. [[spoiler:Albeit by the good guys]].
* Angel in ''Film/XMenTheLastStand''. Which he wanted at first, but once he saw the needle, he got panicky and quickly got out of there.

** A man is strapped to a stretcher by two lunatic male nurses. Since he is complaining too much he is knocked out with an oxygen bottle and a Minnie Mouse mask is placed on his head.
** The same man (he is the {{Chew Toy}} of the movie) finds himself on an operating table where he takes the place of a female patient. Before even understanding what is going on, an anesthesia mask is placed on his face. A doctor comes in and the man learns they are going to perform a breast augmentation on him. He starts moaning but is not able to alert about the patient mix-up and pass out.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' ended on one of the most disturbing uses of this trope. For context, the episode’s villain, Bullwhip, had kidnapped a surgeon’s beloved girlfriend and forced him to turn him and his gang into powerful cyborgs. Right before the climax, the doctor discovers that Bullwhip and his girlfriend were actually in on it together and having an affair; the thing is, Bullwhip doesn’t know this, and he goes back to the doctor for repairs after Batman defeats the rest of the gang. Bullwhip is strapped to an operating table, and he asks that the doctor upgrade him and tells him not to hold back. The doctor then begins lowering a power drill as he puts Bullwhip under...
--> [[NightmareFuel/BatmanBeyond I understand. No holding back.]]

* Similar to Robin's situation, ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'''s Odd and Ulrich end up strapped to hospital beds in one episode because they are experiencing XANA-induced hallucinations and attacking anyone that resembles a monster on Lyoko. Aelita comes to set them free later on.

* WesternAnimation/HeckleAndJeckle use this to spring Dimwit from an asylum in "Magpie Madness." The head physician, Chesty the Bulldog, gets strapped to an operating table as the birds climb inside him for some spot surgery.
* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' does this in its James Bond parody episode.

* In ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' while Saturn Girl was in Timber Wolf's mind, it was shown that [[GuineaPigFamily this happened to him when he got his powers]].
* Dr. Wily straps Rock and Roll to two of these in the first episode of Ruby-Spears's ''WesternAnimation/{{Mega Man|RubySpears}}'' cartoon, so it'd be easier to reprogram them. By shoving an electric drill in their heads ''while they were still awake''.
* Happens to poor WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse in a frankly horrifying short, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-JlevnccDk ''The Mad Doctor'']]. Pluto's not strapped to a table, but he is shackled to a chair-thing. [[spoiler:Luckily for both of them, it's AllJustADream]].

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''. Doofenshmirtz does the ''Goldfinger'' thing on Perry because he SawItInAMovieOnce, though [[BondVillainStupidity Doofenshmirtz didn't stay to see the end because it looked pretty foolproof]]. Unless you're using it on a platypus who doesn't have wrists to strap down, so he can pull them free the moment you've gone.

* The above-mentioned ''Goldfinger'' example is a favorite scene to rework as a Film/JamesBond parody. In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', a James Bond lookalike is subjected to this in "You Only Move Twice".

* In ''WesternAnimation/StreetSharks'', the four protagonists are strapped to tables before being injected with stuff that should turn them into sharks, but just kills them...until they wake up and turn into sharks.

* Brother Blood did this to the [[WestCoastTeam Titans East]] in their ''debut two-parter'' (well, as a team—three of five have had guest spots) on ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003''.
** A little earlier in the same season, the main Titans had to do this to Robin. (He was somewhat violently unstable and having hallucinations of fighting Slade at the time.)
* The ''Goldfinger'' parody also happens to Plucky Duck in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures''. Heck at this point, if you had a dollar for every James Bond parody that ''doesn't'' use this at some point, you'd be broke.
* Whenever Tarantulas of ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}: WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' was able to get his hands on a "subject" he would gleefully strap them to a table and torment them with a variety of painful experiments while casually dismissing remarks about his sanity.
** And [[BountyHunter Lockdown]] in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'', though his tables are used so he can steal his victim's mods as trophies. [[MemeticMolester Unless you read fanfiction.]]
** [[WesternAnimation/TransformersTransTech TransTech]] Shockwave straps some dimensional travelers to tables for analysis.
** In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', [[TheBrute Breakdown]] is strapped down by MECH, a human terrorist cell, who start to take him apart to find out how he works, just like with any machine. While he's still fully conscious.
*** This also crops up in Season 2 during a flashback episode, where Shockwave straps down Arcee and [[spoiler:Cliffjumper]] to [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind retrieve an Autobot code]] using a [[MindRape cortical psychic patch]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''' Halloween special, this happens to Dean after sneaking into a spooky old house. [[spoiler: Subverted when it turns out that Ben only wants to give Dean a medical check-up, and soon releases him.]]
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'''s Season 2, where Bloom is seen strapped down ''and'' gagged but it's not thanks to a MadScientist. [[spoiler: The culprit is the season's BigBad, an EvilSorcerer who plans to infuse her with Dark Energy and transform her into his BrainwashedAndCrazy ApocalypseMaiden]].

* It happens to Danielle of ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' again in the ''FanFic/FacingTheFutureSeries'' by the Guys In White. Based on her previous experiences, she's not impressed.

* In ''FanFic/HeroesForEarth'', when the [[WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers Planeteers]] are captured, the villains decide to try and find out just exactly how their magic rings work, by any means necessary.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' fanfic ''FanFic/{{Insontis}}'', [=McCoy=] straps Spock to a biobed as part of a game the two are playing with kid!Kirk, in which Spock's character has been strapped down by an evil doctor.

* In the ''Manga/SoulEater'' fanfic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6826941/1/When-I-Was-Young When I Was Young]], human!Ragnarok and Crona (who are nine and about five, respectively) are both strapped to operating tables in Medusa's lab before she forces Ragnarok to turn into his weapon form, melts him down, and injects him into Crona.

* In ''Videogame/BlazBlue'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN5qyJdTQpw Relius Clover's Astral Finish]] had his opponent in this condition. In a way, this varies between characters, such as Arakune's 'Operating Table' being a big flask, Ragna and Rachel being bound to crosses, Jin being tied with [[LightIsNotGood ray lights]], Taokaka being inside a cage, Bang being bound ''and'' forced to kneel thanks to the heavy weights on his legs, etc. (The only one ''actually'' strapped to something like a table is [[GenderBender Mai Natsume]].) Regardless, knowing [[MadScientist what kind]] [[TortureTechnician of person Relius is]], rather than showing what happens to the character, [[GoryDiscretionShot the door closes in]] [[ScreamDiscretionShot and a scream is heard]].

* In the text-based {{Gamebook}}-style game ''Videogame/{{Cyberqueen}}'', the eponymous A.I. straps the protagonist down for experimental surgery. [[spoiler:Twice.]]

* The ''Videogame/FinalFantasyVII'' Compilation pulls this one on the endlessly unlucky Vincent Valentine, though whatever eeriness or service-factor was intended vanishes rapidly down the commode on account of polygon chibi-sprites ([=FF7=] itself) or towering mounds of bad drama (Dirge of Cerberus).

* Although ''Videogame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein'' starts you off in the dungeon, the first thing you see is your fellow spy strapped to the operating table. And you were going to be next...

* Dr. Wily straps Rock and Roll to two of these in the first episode of Ruby-Spears's ''WesternAnimation/MegaMan'' cartoon, so it'd be easier to reprogram them. By shoving an electric drill in their heads ''while they were still awake''.

* Brother Blood did this to the [[WestCoastTeam Titans East]] in their ''debut two-parter'' (well, as a team—three of five have had guest spots) on ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''.

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformers:'' Happens to some nameless Decepticon grunt who is chosen as part of [[AxCrazy Straxus']] plan to replace Megatron. He's strapped to the table and taken apart, piece by piece, before being rebuilt in Megatron's image.

* In ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'' (more specifically, TheMovie), Dilandau is seen strapped to a table and screaming.

* ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'': It happens to Itona in a flashback. Being a lab experiment, it kind of comes with the territory.

* Happens off-screen in ''VideoGame/DejaVu'': the amnesiac protagonist comes across a restraint chair which is later revealed to be where the bad guys strapped him down and gave him the drug that caused him to lose his memory prior to the start of the game.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' features a less villainous version of this: Stellar is bound to the operating table by her captors, but that's largely due to the fact that she's a chemotherapy-altered biological weapon engineered by her masters; not only is she dying from not being administered the highly-illegal chemicals that are keeping her alive, she's fighting tooth and nail to kill the doctors - technically her enemy - who are trying futilely to save her.
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'': in episode 2, Heero Yuy is strapped down after being captured. His response? He lowers his own pulse to make it seem like he's still unconscious and almost manages to break through his bonds, leaving a bloody mess. (Keep in mind, he's 15...)\\\

* In the ''ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders'' ''ComicBook/{{Checkmate}}'' crossover Captain Boomerang II and Sasha Bordeaux are captured on a mission to Oolong Island and wake up strapped to operating tables in the lab of Chang Tzu.

** Heroic example in ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton''. When ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} arrives on Earth, she is confused, frightened, doesn't know English, and doesn't know her own strength, so she causes several disasters without meaning it. Batman knocks her out using a Kryptonite chunk, carries her to the Batcave, and straps her to an operating table to examine her and check if that unknown alien girl is Kryptonian as he suspects.

* In ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'', this happens to Itona in a flashback. Being a lab experiment, it kind of comes with the territory.

* ''Literature/{{Paprika}}'' is not strapped to an operating table per se, just a table, and she has butterfly wings behind her.

* In ''ComicBook/SupermanBrainiac'', Superman is strapped to an operating table after being captured by Brainiac. When he comes around he breaks his restraints and rams his fist through a Brainiac's robot.

* ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoSpecialTheLastAdventure Big Finish Doctor Who Special The Last Adventure]]'': In ''The Red House'' Charlie is strapped to an operating by Dr. Pain who intends to use the physic extractor on her. Dr. Pain comments that the procedure is painful to a 'pure human', not realising that Charlie is one.

* Heroic example in ''Comicbook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton''. When Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} arrives on Earth, she is confused, frightened, doesn't know English, and doesn't know her own strength, so she causes several disasters without meaning it. Batman knocks her out using a Kryptonite chunk, carries her to the Batcave, and straps her to an operating table to examine her and check if that unknown alien girl is Kryptonian as he suspects.
* In ''Comicbook/SupermanBrainiac'', Franchise/{{Superman}} is strapped to an operating table after being captured by Comicbook/{{Brainiac}}. When he comes around he breaks his restraints and rams his fist through a Brainiac's robot.

* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel

* ''Film/TwentyFirstCenturySerialKiller'': Aaron wakes up strapped to an operating table in an empty room with wooden walls after [[spoiler:Charles] knocks him out.

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformers:'' Happens to some nameless Decepticon grunt who is chosen for part of [[AxCrazy Straxus']] plan to replace Megatron. He's strapped to the table and taken apart, piece by piece, before being rebuilt in Megatron's image.

* In Creator/EdWood's ''Film/BrideOfTheMonster'', Dr. Eric Vornoff straps his unwilling experimental subjestc to his operating table before experimenting on them.

* In ''Film/ManOfSteel'', this happens to Superman. SUPERMAN, granted. He just suffered a ''Main/MindProbe'', so Kal-El may not be at his A-game and he's in an environment that cancels out his powers. Never the less, the implications are still horrifying.

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E8TheHungryEarth The Hungry Earth]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E9ColdBlood Cold Blood]]" subverts it: [[spoiler:The Silurian doctor doing the examination turns out to be perfectly well-meaning, if a bit lacking in anesthetic techniques.]]

** While you never get strapped down yourself, the first boss of is the deranged plastic surgeon Dr Steinman. When you show up at his operating room (with the ominous-sounding name "Aesthetic Ideals"), he's slashing away at some poor splicer strapped to the table, ranting that she's ''still'' not "perfect". On the whole, you may want to think twice before you go to a plastic surgeon who loves Cubism.

** The crucifix like operating tables in the Big Daddy factory, head rests restraints bathed by spotlight, also Steinman's other failed works are suspended from these on his ceiling.

* The ''Videogame/FinalFantasyVII'' Compilation pulls this one on the endlessly-unlucky Vincent Valentine, though whatever eeriness or service-factor was intended vanishes rapidly down the commode on account of polygon chibi-sprites ([=FF7=] itself) or towering mounds of bad drama (Dirge of Cerberus).