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[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{Batman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/instant_knots_2.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Batman's greatest weakness: [[DatingCatwoman tight leather jumpsuits and whips]].]]
The ability of {{Action Hero}}es, swashbucklers and suchlike to make a [[KnowsTheRopes rope]], whip, [[ChainPain chain]] or [[GrapplingHookPistol wrap itself around a distant object securely]]. Used to achieve a BuildingSwing or to instantly tie up an enemy. While this is certainly possible with luck (and, preferably, a weight or hook on the end), you wouldn't want to stake your life on it.

Particularly notable when someone has a chain as a weapon. It's rare you'll see them actually [[ChainPain thrashing enemies into submission with it]], as happens in real life -- they'll do this instead. Also, a character wielding a whip will usually tie up an enemy with this technique, rather than actually whipping anyone with it.

Often with this trope, the rope or whip that was just used to swing across a chasm will instantly and easily come undone once the hero is safely on the other side so he or she can retrieve it.

Essentially, this is using an ordinary object as if it were a GrapplingHookPistol. If wrapped around the object enough, this becomes [[TruthInTelevision Truth In Television]].[[note]]This is due to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_friction Belt friction]][[/note]]
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Ryuko from ''Anime/KillLaKill'' did this on a multiple occasions by tying thread from [[EmpathicWeapon Senketsu]] around her [[ImpossiblyCoolWeapon Scissor Blade]]. This is probably {{Justified|Trope}} by the fact that Senketsu is made out of [[AppliedPhlebotinum Life Fibers]].
* Makie from ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' can snag oranges with her rhythmic gymnastics ribbon, and it also ends up as part of her pactio.
* Paulie of ''Manga/OnePiece'' can produce ropes from {{Hammerspace}} and tie them around a target. He can even make them lash together into a net after he throws them.
* While all martial artists in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' can do this with chain, cloth, or rope (and ''have'', repeatedly,) it's a particular specialty of Kodachi, [[MartialArtsAndCrafts champion of Martial Art Rhythmic Gymnastics]], who can wrap her ribbon around anything from a cup of tea to the referee's table... and whip it right back at the opponent's face. Mousse, [[ImprobableWeaponUser who attaches various implements of bodily harm to chains and ropes]], also favors wrapping up opponents to skewering or bludgeoning them.
* This is a particular ability of the Andromeda Chain in ''Manga/SaintSeiya''. Although candidates for the Andromeda Cloth are trained specifically to do this with ordinary iron chains, the Cloth's weapon is actually [[EmpathicWeapon semi-sentient and has its own will]], allowing it to obey its master's direct commands as well as wrap itself around objects on its own accord.
** The Balrog, one of Hades' Specters, also has this ability with his whip. Which is very, very bad indeed for whoever is ensnared, because he tends to ''slice the target apart'' when he pulls the whip back.
* In one {{Filler}} episode of ''Anime/YuGiOh'' the characters were inside a virtual-reality video game. Joey was battling the arena's champion in order to win a card they needed to get across a desert--the champion turned out to be Mai, and when he explained the situation to her she decided to quit fighting and just order the Harpie Lady to snag the card from its display with her Rose Whip.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} can do this with her whip, either to swing from a high object or to immobilize an opponent.
* Ninjette used a chain to catch Comicbook/{{Empowered}} the first time they met. They became friends afterwards.
* Slipknot from ''Creator/DCComics'' (originally a foe of ComicBook/{{Firestorm|DCComics}}) has a fighting style that revolves around fighting with unbreakable ropes, some of which are treated with adhesive or have other [[TrickArrow special effects]].
* Creator/MarvelComics' ''Comicbook/GhostRider'' wields a long chain, but rarely gets to use it against his supernatural enemies. When fighting more human foes, it tends to wrap around them. Somewhat justified by it being magical and possibly semi-sentient.
* In an issue of ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'', the right-hand man of a HangingJudge prides himself on being able to fashion a noose out of a loose end of rope with a simple flick of the wrist. Luke himself demonstrates his own version near the end, making a lasso instead.
* Miho in ''Comicbook/SinCity'' does this when she uses her sash to wrap around the bumper of a moving car and hold on.
* Birdie of the ''ComicBook/StreetFighter comics'' traps Chun Li with a normal chain this way.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'''s lasso can grip things securely, even when she's using it's magical properties and her speed to use it to pick up multiple items at a time with multiple ends by having it loop back on itself.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* Flint Lockwood does this with a large shrimp and strand of spaghetti in ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs''.
* Rapunzel can do this with her hair in ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Ash does this with his belt to escape a pit at the start of ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness''.
* In ''Film/TheBoldCaballero'', Zorro wraps his whip around the waist of a mounted soldier, where it immediately grips him like a lasso: allowing Zorro to yank him off and steal his horse.
* ''Film/DilSe'': In the song and dance number, "Satrangi Re", Amar throws out his long black scarf, which whips around Meghna's waist so he can use it to reel her in.
* Franchise/IndianaJones has his canyon-swinging trick with his whip. And even more oddly, it unties itself when he tugs on it afterwards, but not when he's putting all his weight on it by swinging across.
* Gogo Yubari of ''Film/KillBill'' has a similar trick with her EpicFlail.
* ''Film/TheLegendOfTarzan'': Rom is able to do this with Madagascar spider silk rosary, getting it to wrap around and grapple whatever target he chooses; such as Jane's wrist during dinner, or Tarzan's throat during the final fight.
* ''Film/TheLoneRanger'': During his final fight with Cavendish, the Lone Ranger wraps his whip around a tree and uses it to get yanked off the runaway railway car.
* ''Film/NinjaIII'' - The Domination has a ninja assassin throw a grappling hook that wraps around a tree and pins the attached rope in place.
* In ''Film/PrehistoricWomen'', the captain of the Amazons who captures David neatly ties his hands together with a single flick of her whip.
* ''Film/StarWarsANewHope'' provides a rare ''thrown'' variation of the grappling hook method, where Luke manages to manually toss a Stormtrooper grapple line around an architectural detail so that it loops around and catches on the detail perfectly ''on his first try''. [[AWizardDidIt The Force aside]], Luke is at this point completely untrained for it. It helps that Luke's line has a grapple on the end so it can actually catch and anchor itself to the support beam he throws it around. Notably he doesn't retrieve the rope -- he just unclips it from his belt and leaves it hanging there.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Inverted in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. Sam's elven-made rope has to be knotted manually, but unties itself when commanded. (At least, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane that's what Sam thinks; Frodo blames a bad knot]].)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In the pilot episode of ''Series/FXTheSeries'', Rolly manages to do this with a thrown winch, and snags it so tightly on the helicopter that it winds up snapping the high tension steel cable.
* Oddly enough, in the attempt at the use of a vehicular grappling gun to turn tight corners, the ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' crew repeatedly managed to get an "instant knot" out of their launcher as the grapple wrapped itself around the target beams.
** The same happened when they tested some of ''Franchise/IndianaJones''' whip trickery. Adam was able to consistently get his bullwhip to wrap handily around the practice "tree branch" (actually a pipe). Getting it off again was the difficult part.
* ''[[Series/WonderWoman1975 Wonder Woman]]'': Wonder Woman could count on her magic lasso securely wrapping itself to whatever is handy when she needs to use it to scale a building. For example, she did this in "My Teenage Idol Is Missing" to scale a 20+ story building. Justified in that the comic books establish that she has mental control of the magic lasso. However, this is neither confirmed nor denied in the series.
* [[Series/XenaWarriorPrincess Xena]] does this. Of course she has many skills.
* Done by various TV incarnations of ''{{Franchise/Zorro}}''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye'' has a mage ritual, that allows to transform the wand into a rope (and back), which can tie/untie itself this way. As the one above, it's not suited to tie someone up.
* 3rd Edition ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' included the Lasher prestige class, a whip-specialist who could grab objects in this manner.
* 3.5 ed. ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' included a spell called "Animate Rope" that would let you use a rope in this way (though not in combat); a very difficult use of the Use Rope skill allows you to do it without magic.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Brawlhalla}}'': Cassidy's neutral signature on grapple hammer involves a lasso. It will hit the opponent slightly close to her.
* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'': While we all know the Vampire Killer is an enchanted whip, some of the Belmont familiy members were better than others at using it. Some of them got to the point of being able to command it to tie itself when nearing a hook in the ceiling. Magic, indeed, since not everyone can use it like that. Probably AWizardDidIt.
** As shown in the {{Prequel}} ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence Lament of Innocence]]'', it was ''technically'' an [[HermeticMagic Alchemist]] [[AWizardDidIt that did it]]. Said whip is powered by [[spoiler:[[HeroicSacrifice a heroic sacrifice]]]].
* This is one of the attacks of Majora's Wrath in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask''.
** Slightly more plausible if those are tentacles, though.
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks''. Your whip seems to instantly curl around objects like you would expect of an action hero's, but really it has a snake head on the leading end that bites onto things instead.
** And also in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'', Link's whip has some sort of [[BuffySpeak weird magic bubble thingy]] at the end that sticks to things Link hits it with.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'' does something similar, but with a hook instead. Still can't be that safe however...
*** That's a grappling hook pistol without the pistol. What doesn't make sense about it is that it can steal items from enemies. Necklaces they're wearing or carrying in their pockets, feathers, etc.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In season 1 of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Iroh wrapped a chain immovably around a flying boulder and redirected it. Oddly, when he swung at the smaller boulders, they ''shattered''.
* This was not uncommon in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''. He usually used a grappling pistol, but any time he didn't, this trope was in effect. In fact, sometimes the grappling pistol ''itself'' would do this, wrapping around a flagpole or other object rather than embedding itself into or hooking onto something.
* Done with a snake in ''WesternAnimation/ChuckNorrisKarateKommandos''.
* Played for laughs in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. Leela fires a grappling hook onto a roof, where it simply lands, not embedded or knotted around anything. However, since it's the future, the hook is also a ''robot'', so it then walks like a spider over to a pipe, latches on securely, then gives the rope a couple of tugs to signal it's safe to climb.
* In the animated ''Theatre/TheMagicFlute'', the hero swings from a rafter using his ''cloak''.
* Linus from the various ''Franchise/{{Peanuts}}'' animated features can grab objects by whipping his blanket at them.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfZorro1997'' animated series, Zorro somehow manages to make a grappling hook go below someone's foot (while he's standing on the floor) and come back up to tie itself into a knot.
[[/folder]]

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