Line #24 Main/SheetOfGlass


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5	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1000007329_1.png]]]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:[[FridgeLogic How are they here when they can't row?]]]]
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11	Two extras are shown carefully carrying a large pane of glass across a street. Cut to a chase. Cut back to the sheet of glass.
12
13	[[ItsGoingDown Inevitably]], a car is driven right through the glass, shattering it everywhere. The alternative is that a character walks into it, unaware that it's there, and either smashes straight through it, or bounces off and falls flat on their ass. A standard gag is to have the extras see the first approaching car and scramble to get out of its way, only to have them relax and not notice the pursuer until he smashes through.
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15	Alternately, anyone who gets shot is sure to have one of these placed handily behind them so they can be [[BlownAcrossTheRoom nonsensically blown through it]], [[http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/ Intuitor's]] ''Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics'' refers to this as "The Attractive Force of Glass".
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17	Nowadays the car chase version is a DeadHorseTrope. Often accompanied by a FruitCart or ChaseSceneObstacleCourse. If it's a person going through a window, it's DestinationDefenestration. TearingThroughTheMovieScreen is a similar effect for chase scenes happening in a movie theater.
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19	See also SubvertedTrope, where this trope is used as an example to illustrate the variations of it and PlayingWith: PlayingWith/SheetOfGlass. SubTrope of ProductDeliveryOrdeal.
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21	----
22	!!Examples
23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[folder:Advertising]]
26	* A commercial for Marvin Windows broadcast during March 2005 cleverly subverts this trope. In the commercial, there is a car chase which runs through [[FruitCart carts]], crates of chickens, crowds on sidewalks -- only to come to a screeching halt so as not to damage a huge Marvin window being rolled slowly across the street.
27	* Played dead straight in a 70s PublicServiceAnnouncement on British television, which showed somebody running down the street, oblivious to the two men carrying the sheet of glass. Ouch. Slogan: "[[DontTryThisAtHome You never know what's around the corner, so don't run!]]"
28	* Similarly to the above: the Belgian travel company Eurostar ran an ad campaign to promote new rail service from Belgium to London in 2007, which featured two workmen carrying a sheet of glass about to collide with a John Cleese lookalike doing the famous Silly Walk from [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Monty Python's]] "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch. The tagline: "Watch out! London is just around the corner!"
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
32	* Handled with realism in ''Manga/HellTeacherNube''. [[{{Tsundere}} Kyoko]] and friends are walking down the street, oblivious, while discussing a [[{{Youkai}} very ugly-looking man-faced dog]] that has grown attached to her. As the two workmen carrying the sheet of glass lose their grip, the sheet falls (edge-first) directly towards her neck... and the [[HeroicSacrifice poor dog]] [[DivingSave dives at her]], pushes her out of the way, and [[TakingTheBullet is beheaded]] by the glass.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Comic Books]]
36	* ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'': Justified in one arc where a meth lab is smuggling the product in glass plates, so when Frank sees Jigsaw on the other side, he runs through them to get at him.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
40	* ''ComicStrip/OffTheMark'': Inverted in [[https://www.offthemark.com/cartoon/science/physics/2007-04-19 this strip]]. It's the car that gets damaged, which surprises the workmen.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
44	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Storks}}'', Junior has to go through a maze of glass panes inside a warehouse while being chased by wolves. Since birds can't see glass, he ends up hitting each and every one until he finally makes it out, only to then run into the classic sheet being carried by two men.
45	* A gag that comes up twice in ''WesternAnimation/RockDog'' from characters being launched by touching an electric fence. The workers are able to move the glass out of the way the first time, but not when the character then slingshots back. Bodi shatters the glass, while the much smaller and thinner Angus does a GlassSmackAndSlide on it instead.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
49	* One of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxaRt6OWD1A few played straight examples]] was in the ''polizziottesco'' (Italian crime) film ''"Mark il poliziotto spara per primo"'' from the mid 1970s.
50	* In ''Film/RunLolaRun'', a Sheet of Glass is used during all the three times the story repeats: the first and third time, an ambulance manages to brake before hitting the glass; the second time, though, the ambulance isn't so lucky and shatters it.
51	* In ''[[Film/WaynesWorld Wayne's World 2]]'', Wayne encounters a group of people whose sole purpose is to stack watermelons in the street, and a pair who walk back and forth with a huge pane of glass. When the inevitable ChaseScene ensues and the car drives through the fruit and glass, those involved congratulate themselves on a job well done.
52	* Happens in the Hong Kong film ''Film/EnemyShadow'' where the ActionGirl protagonist gets chased by mooks in a construction site. Her route ahead is blocked by two men carrying a sheet of glass that covers both sides of the passage, but she simply drops to the floor and slides underneath. The mooks on the other hand runs straight into the glass sheet and smashes it, getting badly cut up in the process.
53	* Variation: In ''Film/OngBak'', Tony Jaa's character runs through two guys carrying a pair of sheets parallel to each other (and the sidewalk). Tony then smoothly jumps between them without breaking stride.
54	* Averted then played straight immediately after in ''[[Film/TomYumGoong The Protector]]'', another Tony Jaa film. Tony's character is being chased (on foot) through an AbandonedWarehouse by a mook on a four-wheeler. He runs down a hallway that ends in a big window, and instead of crashing through it, ''runs vertically up it.'' The four wheeler then crashes through underneath him.
55	* In ''Film/TheBourneIdentity'', during the Paris car chase, Jason Bourne drives through the glass door of a phone booth that just happened to be open at that moment.
56	* Subverted in ''Film/{{Taxi}} 3'', where a bank robber on rollerblades hits a pane of glass being carried across the street in a heated chase scene. Except it's Plexiglas, and the man bounces off without scratching it.
57	* {{Lampshaded}} in ''Film/{{Loaded Weapon\|1}}'', during a fight in what appears to be a sheet glass warehouse. Naturally, mooks go flying through sheet glass left and right. In the middle of the fight, two guys walk by carrying a sheet of glass and the characters pause so they can get it in position before the mook gets sent through it.
58	* ''It's a Bikini World'': Semi-subverted in this '60s beach comedy: a group of skateboarders pass through what appears to be an empty frame. When one of the workmen sees this, he tries to run through it himself, and the glass shatters.
59	* Subverted in ''King Kung Fu'', where the car passes right through the glass without breaking it.
60	* The trailers for ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice'' show Nick Cage's character drive through one, which reforms.
61	* ''Film/WhatsUpDoc'': The Sheet Of Glass appears in Peter Bogdanovich's affectionate homage to the Screwball Comedy. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that none of the cars smash it, because the men carrying safely get it to the sidewalk. However, one car does hit the ladder on which another workman is stringing a banner; that guy swings from the broken banner and through the glass.
62	* The DramaticChaseOpening of the sci-fi BMovie ''Film/TheHidden''. Two men are carrying a sheet of glass across a park for no apparent reason when the BodySurf alien comes roaring up in a stolen car. He not only drives through the glass, he also [[KickTheDog runs over the two men in the process]].
63	* Tim in ''Film/FinalDestination2'' is killed when a sheet of glass falls on and crushes him.
64	* A character in ''Film/{{Pieces}}'' skateboards through a mirror-sheet. This inspires a killer to cut up women with a chainsaw.
65	* In the comedy ''Film/ShortTime'' during the chase scene a car drives up onto a loading dock and smashes through a truckload of window glass being unloaded.
66	* Jackie Chan's ''Film/ArmourOfGod'' doesn't use a sheet of glass, but rather a large painting instead which gets run over in a car chase.
67	* ''Film/AngryVideoGameNerdTheMovie'' uses every ChaseScene trope in one go, including this one. The two men carrying the glass scramble out of the way of the Nerd's van, but the glass ends up getting hit by Dark Onward's military vehicle... [[InvertedTrope which wrecks the]] ''[[InvertedTrope vehicle]]'' [[InvertedTrope but leaves the glass unharmed]].
68	-->'''Dark Onward''': Wha...?! Explanation, [=McButter=]?!\
69	'''[=McButter=]''': Glass, sir. Double-paned, sir.
70	* In the climax of ''Film/EyesOfAStranger'', DamselInDistress Tracy has failed to kill the SerialKiller with a mere shot to the gut, so it's left to her sister Jane to finish the job. She snatches up the gun from the floor and delivers a shot right in the center of the forehead - one of those PrettyLittleHeadshots that is accentuated by the target being BlownAcrossTheRoom into the glass door of a shower stall.
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:Literature]]
74	* Possibly the UrExample: a 1910 children's book called ''The Slant Book'' (it really is slanted in shape) is about a baby carriage gone runaway down a steep hill and the mayhem it causes to the delight of the child inside. At one point the cart goes through a sheet of glass, but as everything is PlayedForLaughs no one gets hurt. You can read the book [[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17254/17254-h/17254-h.htm here]]-- oh, and we get a [[FruitCart spilled cart]] and a HydrantGeyser too!
75	* ''Literature/FeetOfClay'', the {{narrator}} of this Literature/{{Discworld}} novel speculates that the people who block every chase in the multiverse with [[SheetOfGlass sheets of glass]], [[FruitCart heavily laden carts]] and long racks of clothes may be agents of a secret society.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
79	* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Used extensively; characters would often be [[DestinationDefenestration thrown through a glass window in slow motion]]. Culminated in one episode where a character is thrown across the street through a large pane of glass being held vertically on a passing truck.
80	* ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel'': This classic 50s western series had an episode in which Paladin was hired by a shopkeeper to transport a large window pane across a county to his store, while a rival businessman hired someone else to destroy the glass and put his rival out of business. A memorable scene involved Paladin and a friend miming carrying the glass pane between them to throw off the rival, but in reality they were carrying nothing.
81	* ''Te Caché'' [[note]]Spanish for ''Gotcha!''[[/note]]: Invoked in this Mexican comedy show, which had a spoof about two men pretending to carry one of these and put it in the way of random folks on the street.
82	* DoubleSubverted in the ''Series/ForeverKnight'' PilotMovie ''Nick Knight'': A runaway car, barreling down the hill. Guys carrying pane of glass across the road. Driver yelling and trying to wave them off. Frightened face of car's helpless driver reflected in the glass. Guys make it out of the way in time, saving the glass...except they're so busy watching the car, they walk into a nearby tree, smashing the glass anyway.
83	* On a CandidCameraPrank show (but not ''Candid Camera'') a couple of workers walk across the sidewalk pretending to carry a sheet of glass. HilarityEnsues as pedestrians try to avoid the "glass." In at least one case the pedestrian doesn't avoid the glass at all and simply walks forward, but the workers were quick enough to raise the imaginary glass overhead.
84	* The TitleSequence of ''Series/TheProfessionals'' [[DynamicEntry opens]] with a car driving through a plate glass window.
85	* A running gag during one chase scene of ''Series/TheBennyHillShow'' features a sheet of glass carried by two workers, narrowly escaping destruction several times... then the chasers finally just run through it, as if the glass wasn't there... and the two carriers drop the sheet.
86	* ''Series/TheGoodies'': In "Daylight Robbery on the Orient Express", the mimes wreak havoc with a mimed sheet of glass that has exactly the same effect that real sheet of glass would have had.
87	* Tested by the Series/MythBusters. While it's obviously possible to drive through such a sheet of glass, both regular and tempered glass would produce high-speed flying shards that would cause injury to the people actually carrying it. Laminated glass would be safer, but it wouldn't look anything like the spectacular shattering depicted in films, leaving this trope shattered...er, [[JustForFun/TropesExaminedByTheMythBusters Busted]].
88	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Since windows in ''Star Trek'' tend to be made of transparent aluminum (and lead into space), characters generally have to make do with being thrown through various pieces of glass furniture. A good example is "Conspiracy," where Riker takes a surprisingly long time to get thrown through a glass coffee table. (However, glass furniture seems a bit more prone to being intentionally smashed in fits of rage. As Deanna once enquired of Worf, "Did the table do something wrong?")
89	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. Likewise, in "Tacking Into the Wind," in the absence of suitable windows, Worf has to be thrown through a tactical display made out of a vertically positioned sheet of transparent material.
90	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. In "This Years Girl" Buffy and Faith are [[KungShui demolishing Joyce's house during their fight]]. Faith throws open a French door into Buffy's path so she runs right through it.
91	* Played with in ''Series/MakoMermaidsAnH2OAdventure''. As Zac and Evie attempt to move Rita (stuck in her mermaid form, and using her magic to turn herself invisible) somewhere out-of-the-way, a random student walks toward the "empty" space between them, sees them, stops for a moment, and without a word, completely nonchalantly walks around them, as though expecting the sheet of glass.
92	* Parodied in ''Series/GreatNews'' episode "War is Hell", in which Katie, barreling through the newsroom at top speed, crashes through--the empty space between two crewmen ''practicing'' how to carry a sheet of glass.
93	* ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett''. A variation in "The Streets of Mos Espa" where during a chase scene someone crashes through a painting being carried through the streets. This also counts as a MythologyGag as the painting is actually [[https://imgur.com/ZFH2e4I concept art]] by Ralph [=McQuarrie=] for ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''.
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder:Video Games]]
97	* ''[[VideoGame/FlatOut FlatOut Ultimate Carnage]]'' has one or more tracks that places a sheet of glass in the middle of one of the jumps. In Riverbay Circuit 3, said jump is also followed by a heavy vehicle holding up sheets of glass above the racing line.
98	* ''VideoGame/{{Paperboy}}'': This kind of scenario is an obstacle, with the workers shuffling back and forth in the player character's path.
99	* ''VideoGame/MinionRush'': In the Residential and Downtown areas.
100	* ''VideoGame/BackToTheFuture1989'': The [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames videogame adaptation]] for the NES involved timed races from one checkpoint to another while dodging obstacles, with the SheetOfGlass as one of the more sensible enemies (why are ballerinas [[EverythingTryingToKillYou trying to kill us]] again?). Oddly, the pane itself is invisible until you crash into it.
101	* A chance card in the medical career track in ''VideoGame/TheSims'' poses the question to a paramedic Sim: Avoid a traffic jam by driving your ambulance on the sidewalk, or lug your gear on foot for several blocks to the scene you've been called to? Although there is no mention of pedestrians on the sidewalk in the question card, if you choose to drive on the sidewalk and get a bad result... the ambulance has to dodge, among other things, two men carrying a sheet of glass! The incident ends in the Sim getting stopped by the police and losing their job.
102	* At one point during the lengthy plane chase in ''VideoGame/SpongebobSquarepantsCreatureFromTheKrustyKrab'', one of the obstacles Spongebob has to shoot are two fish carrying a sheet of glass. Lampshades, as one of the fish says something along the lines of, "I knew this was a bad idea!" when it gets shattered.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Web Comics]]
106	* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': When [[ChaseScene being chased by the police]], Sam and Helix [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1300/fc01270.htm wind up with one of these in their way.]] The last frame of the strip shows that Sam ''cut out'' an ImpactSilhouette, much to the workers' annoyance.
107	* Subverted in ''Webcomic/ThreeWordPhrase'', when an out-of-control car manages to (at separate occasions) crash into the two men carrying the glass sheet instead, shattering them to pieces and leaving the glass sheet standing upright and solitary in the middle of the road.
108	[[/folder]]
109
110	[[folder:Western Animation]]
111	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': In "Thai Feud", this routine is done with a large flat-screen TV being passed between two guys in neighboring apartments, and it gets destroyed by the out-of-control food truck Anne and Sprig are driving.
112	-->'''Neighbor:''' [[TemptingFate Just be careful.]] This thing is like a son to me. (''the food truck crashes through the TV, completely destroying it'') ''Junior!!''
113	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Parodied more than once.
114	** One time the two men successfully dodge the speeding cars and then they chuck the glass pane into a recycling bin.
115	** Another time the glass hits the floor and remains intact, leaving one of the men to say, "Geez, tough glass!".
116	** Reverend Lovejoy's train set isn't so lucky: being carried just like a Sheet of Glass, it gets shredded as Homer's car drives through it, prompting Lovejoy to look at the heavens and say "Why do you hate my trains?!"
117	** In "Sweets and Sour Marge", after sugar becomes illegalized and Homer attempts to smuggle it from an island, he gets chased by Chief Wiggum's police boat. During the chase, Homer comes across two workers on boats holding a sheet of glass, ducking to avoid breaking it. Chief Wiggum swerves to avoid crashing into the glass and a mother on a jet ski pushing a baby carriage, eventually getting his police boat beached.
118	** In "Treehouse of Horror XX", a sheet of glass is being carried by ''zombies'' during a chase through zombie-infested Springfield. After the glass breaks, the zombies moan "We need windows too..."
119	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' has an episode where Toki and Rockso are riding around Mordhaus courtyard and they crash through a stained glass window being carried by two Dethklok servants. They then proceed to the [[FruitCart fruit stand]].
120	* Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', in which [=SpongeBob=] is chasing a frisbee and destroying everything on the beach, and when he nears two guys carrying a sheet of glass the frisbee turns around and continues in the other direction.
121	* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball''. Gumball and Darwin are [[LowSpeedChase chasing a senior citizen on a mobility scooter]], and the two "crash" into a sheet of glass carried by construction workers. However, because the scooter is so slow Gumball and Darwin just lightly press their faces against it. Gumball asks [[LampshadeHanging why the workers are carrying the glass around in a park]], and they respond by asking him why they're chasing an octogenarian on a scooter.
122	* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' features two men carrying a mirror. It doubles as a ShoutOut, as the two men carrying it looked ''exactly'' like [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario and Luigi]]. It starts out as a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] when Eduardo and his friends chasing him for his $100 bill run past them, then it's played straight with the Thief, who crashes through the mirror.
123	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' (Cancelled) during the Dukes of Hazzard style chase.
124	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'': This is featured in "Tickled Pink", with an out-of-control roller skates.
125	* A disturbing variant in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''. The moving men decide to hold the glass horizontally instead of vertically (because it always gets broken that way), and accidentally [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe cut a running man in half]] as a result.
126	* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'''s second episode, Dipper, Mabel, and Soos are being chased by the Gobblewonker and crash through this. ''In the middle of a lake,'' creating an example not unlike the ''Simpsons'' image above.
127	* {{Exaggerated\|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' episode "Bubble Boy". The Rowdyruff Boys (plus Bubbles, minus Boomer) had played a game where they would spit at a plane and see who hits. Of course, they all missed. But when the first two boys did it, it was sent into space ''just as two astronauts were replacing the lens for their satellite''. You know what happened next.
128	* There's a subversion in ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' as well: during a vehicle chase there is constant cuts between Rigby looking forward and screaming and two men carrying a glass sheet... then the vehicles pass by the street next to the guys carrying the glass... who promptly drop the glass and take out their phones to take pictures of the chase happening next to them. Rigby was screaming at a picture of a dog with a hat that Eileen sent to him.
129	* The ''WesternAnimation/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2015'' episode "Lyin' Eyes" features two ''aliens'' carrying a sheet of glass during a chase scene. Rocket Raccoon is small enough to slide under it - Drax, unfortunately, isn't.
130	-->'''Drax:''' Oh. Sorry.
131	* The UnfinishedEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/FatherOfThePride'', known as the "Lost Tale," includes a variation on this where Larry chucks a football out the window, directly towards two orangoutangs carrying a sheet of glass. The two wince in anticipation but the ball just bounces off of it without leaving any damage. They then [[DoubleSubversion immediately drop the glass in excitement to play with the football]].
132	* In the ''WesternAnimation/DennisTheMenace'' episode, "[[Recap/DennisTheMenace1986S1E33 Ruff's Hat Trick]]", Dennis and Ruff are being chased by a police officer. Two workers are seen carrying a sheet of glass, when Ruff and Dennis approach them. Though the workers manage to avoid having having the sheet of glass shattered by both Ruff and Dennis, they're not so lucky when the police officer comes across them.
133	-->'''Worker:''' Well, [[TwoOutOfThreeAintBad two out of three isn't bad]].
134	* [[WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil Star vs. the Forces of Evil]]: In the episode “Star On Wheels,” This happens to a giant painting.
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Other]]
138	* A cartoon referenced the 'pretend to carry glass' trick. The boss of a glass factory is suspiciously watching two of his employees. He tells the foreman to keep an eye on them. "I'm not sure they're carrying anything."
139	[[/folder]]

Context Main / SheetOfGlass