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1[[quoteright:234:[[ComicBook/TheWalkingDead https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zombiejaw_8967.jpg]]]]
2[[caption-width-right:234:[[VideoGame/DragonQuestI Of BALLS thou hast gained +5.]]]]
3
4->''"Yeah, bite me. Bite my arm. I just ripped your jaw muscles from your skull. Bite me. I severed your spinal cord too. Bite me. Uh huh. Yeah."''
5-->-- '''Dr. [=McNinja=]''', ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja''
6
7Monster trying to get its teeth into you? Here's an unusual solution; force the creature's jaws apart until they break.
8
9Oddly, this is almost always portrayed as causing instantaneous death (in which case it's usually taken to be a [[RuleOfCool "cooler"]] version of a NeckSnap), when it should leave them alive but in crotch-stompingly horrible pain.
10
11For some reason, reptilian monsters are especially prone to this.
12
13[[BloodierAndGorier Nastier variants]] include simply tear the jaw off altogether, or push it into the creature/person's head.
14
15For a less-brutal way of stopping a creature from biting chunks out of you, see PalatePropping.
16
17A SubTrope of AttackTheMouth and FacialHorror.
18
19This has nothing to do with that giant hard ball of candy, which is sometimes called a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobstopper gobstopper,]] though the bigger varieties might break your jaw, not unlike those [[WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy kids from a certain cul-de-sac]] that they enjoy.
20----
21!!Examples
22
23[[foldercontrol]]
24
25[[folder:Comic Books]]
26* In ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', after [[spoiler:[[NeverSmileAtACrocodile Sobek]]]]'s [[AnimalisticAbomination true colors]] are revealed, Black Adam finishes him off this way.
27* Pictured to the right: in an issue of ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'', upon being tackled by a zombie, Cesar Martinez ''sticks his hand in its mouth and breaks its jaw before it can bite his fingers''. Okay he had gloves on to protect him from getting scratched by the teeth, but still.
28* In ''ComicBook/SecretSix'', Jeanette breaks King Shark's jaw this way. This doesn't kill him, but it obviously leaves him in excruciating pain.
29* Thragg does this to Dinosaurus in an issue of ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'', but he lives.
30* ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan mangled Scorpion's jaw, though it was later repaired by Alistair Smythe.
31* Jason [[GoryDiscretionShot seemingly]] rips a police officer's jawbone out in ''[[Franchise/FridayThe13th Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation]]''.
32* The protagonist of ''Big Man Plans'' ties a man to a chair, then wrenches out the upper part of his jaw with a wrench.
33* In the "Wylie Runs the Voodoo Down" arc of ''ComicBook/OneHundredBullets'', [[spoiler: Gabe/Martin]] gets his jaw ripped off by a BearTrap. He silently requests and receives a MercyKill, so distraught as he is over no longer being able to [[spoiler: play the trumpet]].
34[[/folder]]
35
36[[folder:Fan Works]]
37* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': There are a good few examples of jaw damage over the story when it comes to Ghidorah and its relatives, including Monster X and the Many. It's probably partly helped by the fact their alien HealingFactor makes this kind of damage only temporary. Two major examples include [[spoiler:Ni/Elder Brother (Ghidorah's right head) ripping his jawbone in half escaping Methuselah's horn, and [=MaNi=] getting his upper-skull violently ripped away from the rest of him]].
38* In an in-continuity special for ''Fanfic/TheBridge'' taking place back on Terra in the 1990s, ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/725246/tales-of-the-amalgamverse-godzilla-meets-king-kong-part-2 "Godzilla Meets King Kong!]]'' and we see [[Film/KongSkullIsland King Kong]] use this. A growing Godzilla Junior, who'd been following and learning from Kong, uses it to finish off Gaw. The 'instant death' part is justified, as both of them finish the job by pushing the now broken jaw down and crushing the skull. [[spoiler:Junior later uses it in the story proper on Grand King Ghidorah. While it doesn't kill him and he regenerates, it definitely ''hurts''.]]
39* ''Fanfic/TheHeartTrilogy'': At one point during their BehemothBattle, Durin's Bane tries to kill Smaug by forcing the dragon's jaws apart until Smaug forces the Balrog back with a blast of fire in the head.
40* In Chapter 18 of ''Fanfic/MyHeroAcademiaUnchainedPredator'', this is how the Slayer finishes off the last of Wolfram's thugs in the ballroom. By [[CruelAndUnusualDeath ripping off the jaw and the entire frontal portion of the soldier's body, causing the man's organs to spill out]]. Everyone in the ballroom is either screaming in terror, yelling in horror or [[StressVomit vomiting from the sheer brutality the Slayer pulled off]].
41* ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'':
42** In Chapter 30 of the original, Soren breaks a {{mook}}'s jaw with the hand guard of his sword while pursuing Mandeville.
43** In Chapter 10 of the remastered version, after Kyril grants Brandon Irons the choice to either kneel or stand, Irons does the former. Kyril responds by kicking him in the jaw, which breaks it and causes some broken teeth to fly out.
44* ''FanFic/RosarioVampireBrightestDarkness Act II'': During his combination NoHoldsBarredBeatdown[=/=]ExtremeMeleeRevenge against Miyabi for [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil raping Mizore]], Dark punches him in the face with such force that Miyabi's jawbone snaps clean off.
45[[/folder]]
46
47[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
48* Derek kills a man in a disturbing scene in ''Film/AmericanHistoryX'' with a curb stomp.
49* At the beginning of ''Film/ArmyOfTheDead'', Zeus the Alpha Zombie escapes containment on a road near Las Vegas and massacres the soldiers who were guarding the convoy transporting him. He kills one of them by pulling his jaw out, then revives them all as zombies (including the now jawless one).
50* Like the above, there's an axe to the jaw in ''Film/BloodNightTheLegendOfMaryHatchet'', though in that case the mandible isn't completely removed.
51* In ''Film/BrightBurn'', Noah gets his lower jaw torn off from slamming the steering wheel on his truck. He is alive for a few seconds, trying to reattach it despite sheer blood loss and shock, then ultimately dies, his lower jaw falling out of place.
52* Chucky whacks Ian's mandible off with an axe in ''Film/CurseOfChucky''.
53* At the climax of ''Film/TheFly1986'', Seth Brundle's estranged lover accidentally tears off his lower jaw, triggering his [[OneWingedAngel final, grotesque transformation]] into "Brundlefly".
54* After [[Film/GodzillaVsMechagodzilla Mechagodzilla]] (in disguise) subjects Anguirus to a CurbStompBattle, the cyborg sends Anguirus packing by grabbing hold of his jaw and pulling on it until his mouth bleeds profusely, then slams him against the ground for good measure! Fortunately, Anguirus survives his encounter with Mechagodzilla, and opts to [[KnowWhenToFoldEm make a quick escape to heal from his injuries]].
55* The duel between Iorek Byrnison and Ragnar Sturlusson in ''Film/TheGoldenCompass'' seemingly ends when Ragnar cripples Iorek's left frontpaw, and starts taunting him. Iorek ends the fight by knocking off Ragnar's jaw with his remaining frontpaw.
56* Yoko in ''Film/TheGrudge'' suffers this, as does Kanna in ''Film/{{Juon}}''. The third ''Film/TheGrudge'' film shows that Gretchen also suffers this fate.
57* Michael Myers does this offscreen to a gas station clerk in ''Film/Halloween2018'', with viewers only seeing the bloody aftermath. He did this in order to retrieve the man's teeth, which he used as a prop to terrorize his next victim.
58* Film/{{Hellboy|2004}} tries this on the first Sammael he fights. Sammy responds by effortlessly snapping its jaw back in place.
59* The 2014 version of ''[[Film/{{Hercules 2014}} Hercules]]'' has the eponymous character kill the Nemean Lion in a flashback and then a wolf this way.
60* Joey the diner cook in ''Film/JasonGoesToHellTheFinalFriday'' dies when Robert, possessed by Jason Voorhees, elbows her jaw right into her skull.
61* There's a jaw ripping with a claw hammer in ''Killing Spree''.
62* The Leprechaun rips a woman's ''upper'' jaw out (to get the tooth she made out of his gold) in ''Film/LeprechaunBack2ThaHood''.
63* One of the most horrifying deaths in ''Film/{{Mirrors|2008}}'' involves a poor woman getting her jaw ripped out by her own possessed reflection.
64* The Taiwanese ''wuxia'' film, ''Film/MyBladeMyLife'', has the heroine slicing off a guy's lower jaw via sword as her first onscreen kill.
65* A character is killed by having his jaw yanked out with a pickaxe in ''Film/MyBloodyValentine3D''.
66* One of the poachers in ''Primal Rage'' has this done to him by the [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Oh-Mah]]. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome in that he survives this injury for a few minutes, albeit in horrendous pain, until the Oh-Mah finds him again and stomps his skull to mush.
67* The "reverse [[BearTrap beartrap]]" in ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'', one of the series' mainstay traps. Unusually for ''Saw'', everyone put in it manages to escape until the ''[[Film/SawVI sixth]]'' movie, and even then [[spoiler: Hoffman]] manages to jam it and escape with half a GlasgowGrin. In the [[Film/Saw3D next movie]], he gets his revenge using the original model, which we finally see in full action. Game over.
68* The now zombified main character in ''Sella Turcica'' kills his brother by ripping his lower jaw out. Quite nasty.
69* Happens to several lycans throughout the ''Film/Underworld2003'' series, including one getting his torn off by Michael after being thrown into a car.
70* ''Film/{{Wishmaster}}'': The Djinn uses his powers to make a petty criminal go on a batshit crazy killing spree in a police station, which includes ripping out one cop's lower jaw with his bare hands.
71[[/folder]]
72
73[[folder:Franchises]]
74* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' / ''Franchise/KingKong'':
75** This is Kong's SignatureMove. He does it to dinosaurs and giant snakes in the [[Film/KingKong1933 30s film]], the [[Film/KingKong1976 70s film]], the [[Film/KingKong2005 00s film]] and the video game based on it.
76*** Kong also does this to Gorosaurus in ''Film/KingKongEscapes''.
77*** {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', in which the [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingKong MonsterVerse incarnation of Kong]] attempts this against the Alpha Skullcrawler, Ramarak, but he's not strong enough to actually break his jaw and gives up. The sequel graphic novel ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong'' indicates Kong killed a Sirenjaw offscreen this way. Subverted again in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'', where he tries it on Godzilla but is forced away after Godzilla's atomic breath burns his fingers.
78** Mechagodzilla does this to Anguirus in ''Film/GodzillaVsMechagodzilla.'' He lives, though.
79[[/folder]]
80
81[[folder:Literature]]
82* In ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', Iorek tears his rival's jaw off. Symbolic, because the other was a liar.
83* Samson does this to a lion in Literature/TheBible.
84* ''[[Franchise/FridayThe13th Friday The 13th Hate-Kill-Repeat]]'' has Jason impale a man with a flagpole, then finish him off by ripping his lower jaw out.
85* Happens to the family patriarch in ''The Beast Of Nightfall Lodge''. Unusually for this trope, the man lives, albeit as a disfigured recluse with a wooden prosthesis for a mandible.
86[[/folder]]
87
88[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
89* In ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'', Jimmy Millican, once a promising research chemist, has spent five years making drugs. His only form of nutrition was a six-day old piece of gum, which was dipped in citric acid in order to keep it fresh. However, next to the acid was a bowl of red phosphorus. He accidentally dipped his gum in the wrong bowl, and when he bit down on the gum, he created enough force to ignite the phosphorus. His jaw was blown off of its hinges, and his cerebral cortex suffered from a hemorrhage.
90* Happens to the Nazi commander in the "Bad Wolf Down" segment of ''Series/{{Creepshow}}'', when one of the werewolf G.I.s snags his mandible with a clawed hand.
91* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In the climax of [[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E7TheThingLayStill the Season 1 finale]], Louis de Pointe du Lac ''tears off'' the lower jaw of a man and drops it to the ground before consuming his victim's blood.
92* In the ''Series/SpartacusGodsOfTheArena'' episode "The Bitter End", Gannicus rams a spear into Caburus' mouth, and then pulls until his lower jaw comes off.
93* ''Series/UltramanAce'': When the monster Muruchi II accidentally bumped into the Terrible Monster Doragory, Doragory grabbed Muruchi II's jaw and pulled so hard, he literally tore off the front of the monster's body.
94* When Michonne from ''Series/TheWalkingDead2010'' first appears in the series, she's accompanied by two "tame" zombies that have had their arms and lower jaws amputated to make them harmless.
95[[/folder]]
96
97[[folder:Mythology]]
98* This is the end of the [[Myth/NorseMythology Fenris wolf at Ragnarök]].
99[[/folder]]
100
101[[folder:Video Games]]
102* All of Jessica's possible deaths in ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'' involve her jaw being torn right off of her face. This isn't the main cause of death, though: in the first case, she's dropped down a mine shaft ''after'' her jaw's been ripped off; in the second case, the killer rams a handful of razor-sharp fingernails down her throat until she ceases breathing, ''then'' rips her jaw off.
103* This is one possible [[FinishingMove execution animation]] for Ork Nobz in ''VideoGame/Warhammer40000SpaceMarine''; [[AgonyOfTheFeet pin their foot with your Power Axe]] and then break that jaw for the Emperor.
104** And [[SuperSoldier Titus]] does it with so much force that it makes the Nob'z head ''[[YourHeadAsplode explode]]''.
105* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'':
106** Kratos finishes Cerberus this way in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarII'', in order to steal the artifact held within its mouth.
107** During the first boss battle in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarIII'', Kratos rips the jaw off of one of Poseidon's water horses with the Blades of Chaos.
108** Exaggerated in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'' as Kratos' FinishingMove on the werewolf enemies. Kratos rips the werewolf's jaw off, then keeps ripping through its skin until he's torn off flesh down to the creature's stomach.
109* In ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', the aliens known as Elites have 4 mandibles in place of a bottom jaw. One Elite named Rtas 'Vadum, introduced in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'', is missing his right mandibles, leading to the nickname "Half-Jaw" before his real name was revealed. In ''ComicBook/TheHaloGraphicNovel'', it's revealed the mandibles were cut off in a LaserBlade duel with a [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Flood-infected]] subordinate soldier. Rtas refused to have a cybernetic replacement, as the injury reminded him how strong the Flood truly were.
110* [[BigBad Darth Malak]] of ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' suffered this at some point. [[NightmareFuel Only it wasn't just]] [[http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/7/77/Malak_Jawless.jpg broken...]]
111* This is one of the many ways you can Glory Kill a zombie or demon in ''VideoGame/{{Doom 2016}}''.
112* One of Jason's kill animations in ''VideoGame/FridayThe13thTheGame'' has him rip a counselor's jaws apart with his bare hands. With an axe, he can also do so with the sharp point.
113* The ghost of a sex slave encountered near the end of ''VideoGame/{{Paranormal}}'' has a missing jaw, suggesting this trope was how her captor murdered her.
114* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'', Leon finds a police officer's corpse with the right side of his throat and cheek carved open, so only a few strings of meat are keeping the jaw attached at all. The unusual shape of the wounds implies he was killed by a [[DemonicSpiders Licker]].
115* One of [[MagicalNativeAmerican Nightwolf]]'s [[FinishingMove Fatalities]] in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' has him drive his tomahawk between the opponent's jaws and rip the lower one off along with the entire front of upper body before tossing the axe into their heart.
116* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'': If a [[GiantMook Bloater]] gets ahold of Joel, it will do this to him for a OneHitKill.
117* ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheOrigamiKing'': Mario snaps the dog-like Stapler in half when finishing it off with the 1000-Fold Arms.
118* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyroDawnOfTheDragon'': During the boss fight with the Golem, Spyro and Cynder have to stun it by attacking its paw and then aim for the crystals on the sides of its head, causing its lower jaw to break in half and then fall off entirely.
119[[/folder]]
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121[[folder:Web Animation]]
122* ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'': At the tail end of [[ComicBook/{{Invincible}} Omni-Man]] vs. [[ComicBook/TheBoys Homelander]], Omni-Man [[spoiler:makes good on his promise to feed Homelander his own heart by first grabbing Homelander's jaw and tearing it from its hinges, before grabbing Homelander's heart from his chest and then stuffing it into Homelander's now-distended jaw]].
123* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'': In "Nuttin' but the Tooth'', Toothy tries to get rid of Nutty's rotten tooth by tying it to a doorknob. When the door is opened, it causes Nutty's entire jaw to be ripped off.
124* WebAnimation/MeatCanyon turns the protagonists of WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy, who are canonically obsessed with jawbreaker ''candies'', into perpetrators of this. And that's not to say of what they do to the jaws themselves, except that [[NightmareFuel/MeatCanyon it's not pretty]]
125[[/folder]]
126
127[[folder:Webcomics]]
128* ''WebComic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/8p22/ Doc does it to a zombie.]] Since it was undead, it doesn't really kill the thing, but it does prevent it from biting him.
129** He doesn't stop with just removing the jaw, though. He proceeds to ''punch through its spinal column'', which is the part that kills it.
130* Part 4 of ''[[VideoGame/Left4Dead The Sacrifice]]'' has one of Bill's surgeons turn just as he's getting anesthetics. The ensuing struggle between her and the doctor has him tear her jaw off before she kills him and moves on to Bill.
131[[/folder]]
132
133[[folder:Web Videos]]
134* ''WebVideo/TheBirch'': How Don Bouchard dies: his daughter Lanie uses her [[EldritchAbomination Birch]] powers and controls vines to start tearing him at the mouth. We literally get to see his jaw on the floor.
135* ''Webvideo/CriticalRole'': Barbarian [[BloodKnight Grog]] from the first campaign once kills a bulette by tearing its jaw off.
136** He also kills a [[AssholeVictim duergar torturer]] by ripping his jaw off and ''beating him to death with his own jawbone''.
137[[/folder]]
138
139[[folder:Western Animation]]
140* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Underdwellers", Batman [[https://youtu.be/TpSz71nYPhg kills an attacking crocodile this way.]] The writers admitted that this isn't humanly possible, but followed RuleOfCool.
141* On ''WesternAnimation/CelebrityDeathmatch'', the fight between Wrestling/MickFoley and Creator/ErnestHemingway has Foley use his Mandible Claw FinishingMove to rip Hemingway's jaw off, causing his brains to spill out from his head.
142* In ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2021'', Kronis gets his jaw broken or dislocated by Man-At-Arms in their first fight. His jaw won't stay in place anymore unless he holds it in place or wears a jaw brace. [[spoiler:Skeletor takes inspiration from the jaw brace and uses it as a focus for the power of Havoc to turn Kronis into Trap Jaw]].
143* In episode 8 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfVoxMachina'', Percy deprives Professor Anders of his [[CompellingVoice silver tongue]] in this manner, ricocheting a shot clean through his jaw.
144[[/folder]]
145
146[[folder:Real Life]]
147* Inversion in the case of crocodiles & alligators: While the muscles that close their jaws are quite strong, the muscles that ''open'' them are weak enough that an ordinary person could keep them closed with just one hand. Animal handlers frequently bind alligators' or crocodiles' snouts with rope or rubber bands whenever they need to get up close with them for more than a few minutes. In theory, if the creature wasn't resisting or trying to bite you, this trope would be possible.
148* Here's a tip, don't try this on people, you will definitely get your fingers bitten off. The human jaw muscles are ''the'' strongest muscles in the body, and then there are all of those pesky pointy teeth to deal with. Unless you're using equipment to help, it's easier to break the jaw rather than rip it off.
149[[/folder]]

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