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"Idiot... I got no keys for these cuffs!"

Lucy: You know, there's this classic film called The Defiant Ones, starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier. It's about two prisoners – one black, the other white – and they escape handcuffed together...
Brad: And while they don't like each other at first, they come to respect and care for one another by the end.
Lucy: You've seen it.
Brad: No, but I know what you're getting at. And I don't want a moral lesson in tolerance and cooperation. I just want to get through the next couple of hours without committing murder.

Two, usually diametrically opposed, characters are chained or handcuffed together for some period. An Aesop occurs. In the right genre, may result in a forced Enemy Mine. May be employed in a symbolic manner and progress into Chains of Love. In other genres, it will be played for laughs as both characters will then try to carry on with their (often conflicting) activities despite the handicap. Also odds are good they'll want to hide what happened, letting them make up a wild story as to why they are holding one another's hand. Hilarity Ensues (sometimes in the form of Toilet Humor, as at least one of these types of stories has a part where one of the characters has to go to the bathroom and the other doesn't).

This trope may begin with the two characters unaware of the link that binds them together, only to discover it when they try and walk away from each other.

Can overlap with Working on the Chain Gang when this trope occurs between escaping prisoners.

See also Bring the Anchor Along, Locked in a Room, With My Hands Tied.

Unusually, the Trope Namer — the Girls Behind Bars film Chained Heatis unrelated to this trope. Serving as the Trope Codifier is The Defiant Ones.

For a different sort of "chained-heat", go here and here.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • In one chapter of Ah! My Goddess, Keichii and Belldandy end up with their hands magically glued to each other for a day because of a spell Belldandy accidentally cast while drunk on cola. It's mostly played for the physical and social awkwardness, as their relationship spends forty-odd volumes on a very slow burn, and now they can't stop holding hands.
  • Black Blizzard has Yamaji Susumu chained to a career criminal as they try to escape a capsized train. But not all is as it seems...
  • In Brave10, when the ninjas attack the festival at Ueda, they end up binding Yukimura and Rokuro together using thin, unbreakable wires. Played for Laughs, as they immediately begin arguing even though Yukimura has his hand over Rokuro's mouth, muffling his attempted chastisements, and later Rokuro uses Yukimura to do Grievous Harm with a Body, which is both objectionable to Yukimura and leaves them stuck in an even more compromising position than they had been at first.
  • In Case Closed, when Heiji Hattori and Kazuha Touyama were kids, they got handcuffed while playing with a pair that belonged to Heiji's policeman dad. They spent a whole day like that, and when they were released, Heiji kept an amulet made with a piece of said 'cuffs. Which would later become a Pocket Protector, and save Conan from being stabbed to death.
  • In one story arc of City Hunter, Kaori handcuffs herself and Ryo together in order to prevent him from going after a beautiful lady physician with many adopted stray animals while he's tasked with protecting her. Hilarity Ensues when Kaori twirls the key to the handcuffs with her finger and one of the dogs takes the key and swallows it, resulting in them having to walk very close to each other and enduring the foul stench when one of them must use the toilet.
  • In Death Note, L decides to keep Light under supervision by handcuffing himself to Light. Although L still suspects Light of being Kira, they become friends over this time, mainly because a type of Laser-Guided Amnesia has erased Light's memories of being Kira. Once the memories return and the handcuffs are off, however, Light continues to act as L's friend while plotting his death.
  • There are no literal chains in Double Arts—just the simple awareness that if Kiri lets go of her hand for more than a few seconds, Ellie will go into a horrific seizure and die. Needless to say, they are, for all practical purposes, just as good as chained together.
    • Although they were able to take advantage of it not being exactly the same in the first chapter to win a fight by switching hands to get an advantage.
  • In the Gintama anime, Hijikata and Okita are chained together at the neck with exploding collars as a parody of the Saw franchise. They spend the next few days foiling each other's attempts at escape.
    • Hijikata got handcuffed to Gintoki and had to request his help in taking down some bad guys. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Downplayed in Gunslinger Girl. The Hilshire/Triela fratello are assigned to guard Mimi Machiavelli, daughter of a witness who's testifying in a mob trial. She decides to Ditch the Bodyguards, uses Triela's handcuffs to cuff her to her handler and nicks out the door. Triela is about to chase after her while dragging Hilshire along when he tells her to stop and just calls the other fratello to intercept Mimi. Hilshire and Triela's relationship is rather tense at the time, but this scene follows:
    Hilshire: Say, what did she mean by we should "Talk about love"?
    Triela: (picking the lock on the handcuffs) I think she's got the wrong idea about us.
    Hilshire: We don't need to talk about love. We're fratello.
  • In Seo Kouji's oneshot manga Half & Half, the male and female protagonists are both involved in an accident and die together. Then a rather generic Kami-Sama gives them a chance to live again, for 7 more days; the catch is that after the time limit, one of them must die again. They're forced to stay together until they decide, else they both die.
  • In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki: The twins Uikyou and Kikyou challenge Tsubaki, Sazanka, and Asagao to steal a scroll from them. As Sazanka and Asagao had been bickering, Tsubaki decides to teach them to work together by tying them together. The two keep tripping and bumping into each other. When the twins see what they did, they decide to tie themselves together too, but are able to move competently. Eventually, the much smaller Sazanka resorts to clinging to Asagao so she can run.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Phantom Blood: Jonathan and Tarkus are momentarily chained together by the neck, putting Jonathan at an obvious disadvantage since he needs to properly breathe in order to properly use Hamon. It takes Zeppeli sacrificing himself to power up Jonathan with the Ripple so he can break the collar.
    • Stone Ocean: After Jolyne is face-to-face with Pucci after learning his identity as Whitesnake's user, she uses Stone Free to form handcuffs on herself and Pucci to keep him at close-range. Jolyne is forced to undo the cuffs after Pucci gives her a Sadistic Choice to either kill him or let Anasui and her only chance of reviving Jotaro die instead.
  • In a side story of Kamichama Karin, Karin and Kazune's magic rings ends up stuck together, and by extension their hands. Instead of having to make excuses for cuffs, they have to avoid being seen with their hands stuck together or face the wrath of Kazune's Fangirls. This leads to some rather funny moments where Kazune has to go to the bathroom and where they have to change for gym. The latter leads to a funny moment where their enemy walks in on them in a... compromising position.
  • KonoSuba: Darkness Invokes this on Kazuma in an effort to get him to pay his taxes, and even weighs herself down with heavy weights to prevent him from lifting her up and running away. He gets away with not paying his taxes, but they're stuck having to go to the restroom, bathe, and sleep together until they can find the key.
  • Has happened a couple of times in Lupin III, when Zenigata actually manages to cuff Lupin. And quickly learns that the downside to cuffing yourself to Lupin is that you are now cuffed to Lupin. And he isn't chained to anyone. Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo ends with Inspector Zenigata finally handcuffing Lupin... just before the two have to outrun a Macross Missile Massacre while the credits roll.
  • A Naruto filler episode recounts an instance where the original Team Kakashi faced a gang of thieves led by Ninja Spider-Man (the guy even webswings in one scene). Naruto and Sasuke wind up with their hands webbed together for the remainder of the flashback. During the Hilarity Ensues scene of trying to separate themselves, they accidentally kiss... again.
  • The main tanuki character in Omae, Tanuki ni Naranee ka? knows a technique that links 2 people and turns them into tanukis if they ever get too far away from each other. He's known this technique for a long time, and still a very effective tool in forcing 2 people to get along with each other.
  • Happens accidentally to Usopp and Zoro in One Piece. It culminates in Zoro using Usopp as a sword.
  • Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World: Parodied when Alice and Rin kidnap Iska. Alice shackles them together and gloats that he cannot escape because Rin, who just left, has the key. Iska asks her how they are supposed to go to the toilet or bathe, horrifying her as she has a Potty Emergency and is forced to wait for Rin to come back with the key.
  • Pokémon: The Series
    • Done in the Orange Islands arc, in which Ash's Pikachu and Team Rocket's Meowth are tied together for an episode. It happens again many years later, except it's Meowth with Bonnie rather than Pikachu.
    • Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel: Most of the movie has Ash tied with a futuristic magnetic band to the eponymous Volcanion, a large Fire/Water tank-like Pokémon that has a deep mistrust of humans. Obviously, Volcanion is not thrilled at the prospects of being tied with one.
    • In Journeys, Ash's Lucario and Goh's Cinderace end up stuck together with putty by Team Rocket while trying to rescue a mechanical Pikachu. They still don't quite get along afterwards, but manage to work with what they have when they take turns throwing the other Pokémon to attack their Sawk and Throh opponents.
    • This happens in Pokémon Adventures with Green's Ditto and Sabrina during a battle. Hilariously, Sabrina was furious to find out that they weren't even chained together at all.
  • In the manga as well as an episode of Princess Resurrection. Riza, a half-werewolf, handcuffs herself to Reiri, a vampire, in order to ensure that the latter would take her on a rescue mission. Unfortunately(Or fortunately) for the duo, Riza didn't have the keys, so they need to go through the mission chained together in order to take them off.
  • Having two characters chained together actually happens fairly often in Ranma ½. They very seldom get along and generally find some way of using the other as the weighted end of a chained weapon.
    • Such as Ranma using P-chan as both a shield and blunt object in a Martial Arts Gymnastics match with Kodachi.
      "Pig is a valid weapon!"
    • Invoked in the story where Gosunkugi orders a set of Powered Armor to defeat Ranma. It does make him powerful, with a few caveats: he needs to be tethered to someone he hates just to move around in it, and he absolutely needs to land a punch on that person, or the armor will explode with him in it. Unfortunately for him, Ranma isn't willing to make it easy, self-preservation be damned.
  • Happened to Tsukune and Ruby in Rosario + Vampire, with the twist that every time Tsukune used his powers, Ruby would get electrocuted. She didn't mind.
  • Sailor Moon S: An attack by a Daimon handcuffs Sailor Moon and Sailor Uranus together for an episode. This serves as a plot device since they'd been at odds since they ran into each other and have avoided contact. Being stuck together helps each to understand how the other thinks.
  • In the manga Train Plus Train, average everynerd Reiichi Sakasuka ends up handcuffed to fugitive Arena Pendleton. The cuffs are indestructible, but time-released. They just had to wait 99 hours, which meant that Reiichi had to cancel all his plans and go on the run with her. This was just the beginning of the tension between them.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • Yu-Gi-Oh!: A variation when Joey gets shackled to a Serial Killer called the Chopman and is forced to fight him in close quarters, with the chain preventing him from running away. Joey eventually uses a candlestick holder to pick the lock before defeating Chopman by setting him on fire.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: Edo Phoenix duels Yuya Sakaki while strapping them together to try to prevent Yuya from grabbing Action Cards. Yuya still manages to grab a few, so Edo in desperation breaks the strap to make him lose his balance and miss one. The duel then continues as normal.

    Asian Animation 
  • Happy Heroes: In Season 5 episode 24, Smart S. accidentally throws an electric rope onto Careful S. and Little M., leaving them stuck together. They spend most of the episode trying to find a way to get unstuck.
  • One episode of Pucca saw Garu and Tobe get stuck together.

    Comic Books 
  • In Countdown to Final Crisis, Piper and Trickster, a pair of semi-reformed DC Comics supervillains, were handcuffed together after being arrested for complicity in the death of Flash. They escaped, but were unable to remove the handcuffs. The twist is that Piper is gay, and Trickster is, well, slightly homophobic, constantly making rather negative gay jokes. Near the end of the storyline, it seems like it's going to become Canon Ho Yay just before Trickster does a Heroic Sacrifice and jumps in front of a bullet aimed for Piper. Poor Piper then drags Trickster's body around with him for days for before giving in to necessity and cutting the corpse's hand off. Word of God claims that the storyline was intentionally based off of The Defiant Ones.
  • In Gotham Academy, Damian Wayne gets his hand stuck to Maps after she accidentally used a magic spell by writing with a magic quill.
  • The Incredible Hulk: Hammer and Anvil are two villains in Marvel Comics, one black and one white, connected with an alien device that gives them superpowers. Clearly inspired by the source material.
  • The Metal Men (except Tin) were once bound with a giant chain by evil robots. The chain is impossible to escape, even with their shapeshifting powers, as it expands and contracts with their every movement. Doc Magnus is especially unhappy to be chained to Platinum, as she's pretty much obsessed with him.
  • Used in The Simpsons comic book. After Working on the Chain Gang, Sideshow Bob and Bart escape, chained together at the ankle. And while Bob tries to kill his long-time nemesis, Bart is smart enough to point out that if Bob kills him while they're chained together, he'll have to drag Bart's body around as dead weight, and he'll be caught for sure. This forces Bob to keep Bart alive until he can break the chain.
  • Spider-Man: Spencer Smythe was hired by J. Jonah Jameson to create robots to catch Spider-Man. When he got fatal radiation poisoning because of his work, he blamed both Jameson and Spider-Man, and handcuffed the two of them together with a bomb scheduled to detonate in 24 hours in The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #190.
  • Star Wars: Doctor Aphra: The Worst Among Equals arc has Aphra and Triple-Zero implanted with bombs that'll go off if either dies, tries to remove them or get more than twenty meters from each other, and dropped in the middle of a hostile megacity with a Price on Their Head. Dr. Evazan did it to them because he felt it would be nice entertainment while he and Ponda laid low (and of course For Science!), and even hacked Triple-Zero's eyes to watch it happen.
  • In the Nintendo Comics System Super Mario Bros. comic, "The Buddy System", Mario and Bowser are chained together by Mousers, and are forced to work together to save the underground world from flooding and themselves from drowning. Their teamwork is short-lived.
  • In one Tintin story, a handcuffed Tintin steals the key from his sleeping captors (the clueless detectives Thompson and Thomson) and cuffs them to each other. When they realize he's gone, they run after him, but keep catching the cuffs on lampposts and other obstacles. Eventually they find a blacksmith and ask him to break the chain, but Tintin walks in and they chase him before the blacksmith is finished.
  • A chainless variant appeared in Thunderbolts, when Hawkeye, Plant Man, Headlok, and Cottonmouth escape from a prison truck. They're forced to stay very close to one another because of the bracelets on their arms, which will explode if they get a certain distance from one another. Cottonmouth, who is cannibalistic and part snake, tries to get around this at one point by killing the others as they slept, then chewing their arms off. Don't worry, he got caught in the act before anybody got hurt.
  • At the end of Issue #2 of WWE Superstars, John Cena and Randy Orton are seen tied together, and the first thing they say is "I hate you."

    Fan Works 
  • The Bolt Chronicles: Against her better judgement, Mittens attaches herself to the other end of Bolt's leash in "The Ski Trip," acting as the dog's de facto leash handler. When she fails to stop Bolt from skiing down a mountain trail, the cat tries to unhook her collar from the leash, but finds it won't budge. Much to her displeasure, she is dragged along on the harrowing ski run with Bolt and Rhino.
  • The Chained Melody Universe by Diane Bellomo are a series of Star Trek: Voyager Slash Fics in which B'Elanna Torres and Seven of Nine are bound together by Captain Janeway to force them to learn to work together. Les Yay ensues.
  • Remus and Danger Lupin from the Dangerverse are a variant on this trope. Danger's magical bond with Remus allows her to partially suppress his lycanthropy. He still transforms, but he retains his mind and doesn't suffer the usual pre- and post-transformation sickness. The bond also turns out to give Danger lupus, but the symptoms are suppressed. The problem is that if they go more than about 24 hours without skin-to-skin contact, all the suppressed symptoms of lycanthropy and lupus start coming back at once. Since they are rather spectacularly in love, they went more than a decade before discovering this fact, by which point the accumulated symptoms had already reached lethal levels. They both nearly die before someone figures out what's wrong and brings them into contact. Being, as previously mentioned, spectacularly in love, they don't particularly mind being stuck together in this manner, but it is still a problem that has to be worked around on occasion.
  • In this Glee fic, Brittany handcuffs Kurt and Mike together on Valentine's Day and promptly loses the key. At the end of the school day, Kurt finds out that she did it because she knew that Mike had a crush on Kurt and wanted to help him out.
  • The Umineko: When They Cry fanfic Lovesmith has Kyrie, Rosa and Rudolf do this to Eva and Natsuhi in an attempt to force them to get along.
  • Another Miraculous fic Operation Golden Lotus features this as one of the several schemes that Alya, Alix, Mylene, Juleka and Rose employ to try and get Marinette and Adrien together.
  • In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic, Magnetism, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy end up like this due to two magical bracelets meant for people in troubled relationships forcing them to touch at all times, or else they'll be slammed back together.
  • Enforced in-arena during the 95th Hunger Games (4th Quinquennial Quell) in Tales of the Hunger Games to remind the districts that they "fought as one" against the Capitol. Each pair of tributes is chained together by their waists and are required to work together with varying results. The belts break after 6 pairs of tributes remain, ending the partnership between those linked tributes.
  • A Theory of Butterflies and Other Insects: Captain Grime cuffs himself and Marcy together in order to ensure she can't escape during the herons' assault on Toad Tower, forcing her to help him deal with the giant birds.
  • In the Miraculous Ladybug fic Under Lock and Key, Manon handcuffs Adrien and Marinette together while they are watching her in the Louvre. The problem is, these are antique handcuffs, which means: 1) there is no key around, 2) the cuffs are way too valuable to break and 3) the locksmith who knows how to handle them won't be around for two days at least.
  • The Urthblood Saga: The Crimson Badger contains the mouse/stoat duo of Jans and Broggen, who are a rare willing example of this trope. The backstory is that Broggen committed a crime in Urthblood's service that should've landed him a death penalty, but Jans took pity on him and saved him from the badger's wrath. Urthblood declared that the stoat would be his responsibility for the rest of his days, and to keep Broggen from getting into further trouble, they decided to chain each other together. In spite of their predicament, they're one of best warriors in the army. At the end of TCB, Jans is killed in battle, freeing Broggen from his manacle.
  • Happens between Lily Evans and Sirius Black in White Flags, forcing Lily to spend several days in the Marauders' company. They grow on her.

    Films — Animated 
  • Inflicted by Bolt to Mittens upon meeting her, via his own leash. Given that the former was raised thinking himself an action hero protagonist, it's likely he got this idea from one of his own episodes.
  • In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The Tiger Prowess, Weslie and Wolffy end up chained together in the middle of the desert and must cooperate, trying to be set free.
  • Rio: This trope holds together not just Blu and Jewel, but also 90% of the plot.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The 39 Steps: The hero and his reluctant love interest are captured by spies disguised as policemen, and handcuffed together. They escape, still handcuffed together, and by the time they manage to get out of the cuffs she's become involved enough to stick around.
  • Ask a Policeman: In an act of Self-Offense, Dudfoot, Brown and Harbottle wind up handcuffed to each other. After escaping from the cell, they remain cuffed together, which greatly hinders their ability to chase the smugglers.
  • Black Mama, White Mama: The Defiant Ones with women! Two female convicts, who are not exactly the best of friends, escape a prison transport while still chained together. It takes most of the movie until they can get the chains off.
  • Played for Laughs in Condorman. Harry breaks Woody and Natalia out of jail by posing as a detective and has them all handcuffed together for appearances. Unfortunately the KGB attack at that point and Harry can't find the keys, so slapstick antics ensue.
  • Deadlock: This forms the basic plot device in this HBO Original Movie. This film features a futuristic prison with no fences and no guards, the only form of security being explosive collars fitted around the necks of prisoners. Each prisoner has a "wedlock partner," and both partners will have their heads blown off if they place more than 100 yards (approx 100 meters) of distance between them. Since no one knows who their partner is, the prisoners act as their own guards. The story revolves around two prisoners being allowed to escape by revealing to one of them who her partner is, in order that the other partner might lead the warden and his associates to a stash of ill-gotten booty.
  • The Defiant Ones: The Trope Codifier. Two convicts are shackled together among a group of prisoners being transferred by truck, and when the truck crashes, they make an escape and learn to aid each other as they travel cross-country together while a sheriff leads a posse in pursuit.
  • District 13: Two prisoners, routine prison transfer, one decides to escape, hate each other, become best friends, one's actually a cop. It's a Subverted Trope in District 13 though – it turns out the prisoner made the other guy as a cop before they even left the police station, but was playing along until the first opportunity to cut himself loose. He then leaves the cop handcuffed to the steering wheel of the police van. It takes a good chunk of screen time for the cop to track him down again, although they then do wind up working together despite their differences.
  • D.O.A.. In the 1988 remake, the protagonist super-glues his hand to the girl to force her to accompany him. There's one scene where she has to go to the toilet (she ends up going in a darkened alley) and later they get separated when her skin tears free while she's suspended from a lift.
  • Fled: The movie used this in part, right down to the one black and one white prisoner although Lawrence Fishburne's character is actually an undercover officer.
  • Gentlemen Explorers: Charles handcuffs himself to Agent Rodriguez when they are attempting to escape from the Count's home so she cannot run off with the compass. Needless to say, this makes the escape considerably more difficult.
  • Subverted in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Tuco is captured by Union forces and transported by train, with a Union soldier Cpl. Wallace (the same guy who'd already subjected Tuco to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown as torture) handcuffed to him as a guard. Using his bathroom break as a pretense to get near the door, he simply jumps out of the moving train and takes Wallace with him. When they land, Tuco bashes the man's head in against a rock, then waits with the chain held across the rail for the next train to cut the chain and drag away his captor's body.
  • Hannibal: A very brief but deadly serious example: Agent Starling handcuffs herself to Lecter to prevent him from escaping (she is too drugged to fight him otherwise). Lecter grabs a nearby butcher knife... and chops off his own hand.
  • James Bond:
    • James Bond and Chinese agent Wai Lin are handcuffed and forced to work together to escape from Corrupt Corporate Executive Elliot Carver's HQ in Tomorrow Never Dies. This isn't just a matter of running and hiding – they end up riding a motorcycle at high speed through crowded streets while the bad guys chase them, still handcuffed together.
    • The director used Enforced Method Acting there by telling each actor independently that they would be driving the motorcycle, causing quite the scuffle over who actually drives.
  • Kopps: Jacob and Benny are tied together with handcuffs while they flee from a SWAT-Team in a car. After Benny drives the car in the roadside ditch, they have to flee afoot in a forest, where Benny suddenly has to take a dump.
  • Lethal Weapon: Murtaugh and Riggs are responding to a suicidal man standing on the ledge of a building. Riggs goes up to the roof in an attempt to talk the man down. After talking a bit, Riggs manages to get very close to the man and slaps a handcuff on him, handcuffing them together. The man starts freaking out, but Riggs actually starts encouraging the man to jump; he insults the man, saying that he's a coward for backing down now, just because his death will kill Riggs as well. Eventually Riggs jumps and pulls them both down... onto a crash-pad the police had already set up.
  • The Lone Ranger: John Reid and Tonto spend their first fight against Cavendish shackled together.
  • The Mask: Stanley briefly cuffs himself to Lt. Kellaway in his prison escape.
  • Midnight Run: Through most of the film, the Bounty hunter Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) is hand-cuffed to Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas (Charles Grodin).
  • Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning: Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and Grace (Hayley Atwell) are handcuffed together in Rome and must navigate the city in a Fiat 500 amidst a car chase. By the end of the chase as the car is stuck on a subway train track, Grace lockpicks the cuffs (being a professional Phantom Thief helps) and leaves Ethan handcuffed to the steering wheel as an incoming train arrives. Ethan survives by yanking the steering wheel... and amusingly still has it in his hands when getting out of the subway.
  • O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Starts out this way—with three prisoners—but they get unchained fairly early in the movie. They do stick together afterwards, though. (Mostly.)
  • Project A: Part 2 has a lengthy chase scene where Dragon Ma (Jackie Chan) and his Jerkass superior, Chun, gets pursued by the authorities AND The Remnant of the first film's pirate gang, while handcuffed to each other. Since Dragon is played by Jackie Chan, all sorts of hijinks ensues, including the inevitable moment where both men tried running in different directions only to drag each other down.
  • Revolution (1985): Tom and a big man find themselves tied by the wrists to a heavy effigy of George Washington, made of rope and doused with fox scent. They have to actually drag the effigy while being hunted by hunting dogs and men on horseback.
  • Les Spécialistes: Happens at the beginning, where two bank robbers end up chained together during a routine prison transfer and one of them decides to escape, with the other being forced to follow him. At first they can't stand each other, then they become best friends. It's later revealed that the prisoner who decided to escape was actually an undercover cop, chained to the other man on purpose so he'd gain his trust and convince him to work on Robbing the Mob Bank.
  • Stuck on You: While not a straight example of this trope, this film features conjoined twins; they separate later on in the movie, and neither brother can function nearly as well, as they are used to compensating for the other's weight/movements.
  • Tiger Cage 2 has Donnie Yen's character... Donnie getting handcuffed to Mandy the attorney halfway into the film. At a rather bad time since this is the part where a bunch of mooks after Donnie tries attacking him. Donnie tries a flying kick only to forget his current state and getting yanked in mid-air.
  • Tonight You're Mine: When a male and a female rock star get into an argument at a music festival, a security guard handcuffs them together for 24 hours.
  • Ultraman Ginga S The Movie: Showdown! The 10 Ultra Warriors! has a Training Montage where protagonists Hikaru and Shou had to train themselves to work together, including fighting, climbing and running, while handcuffed. The chain that binds them together is actually bestowed by the great Ultraman King himself, and by the end of the day Hikaru and Shou had trained themselves to an extent that they are able to unlock their most powerful form via Fusion Dance, Ultraman Ginga-Victory.
  • We're No Angels (1989): Jim and Ned are chained together with leg manacles prior to their escape from prison, although they quickly shoot through the chain under the cover of putting down an injured deer.
  • Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Roger handcuffs himself to Eddie Valiant to get him to help clear his name. Unfortunately, as Eddie angrily tells him, Eddie doesn't have any keys for them, which makes hiding Roger from Judge Doom's weasels incredibly difficult when they barge in looking for him. When Eddie tries to cut them off, he discovers that Roger can slip off them, but "only when it was funny." The film provides the image for the main page.
  • The two female leads of Women on the Run suffers a Frame-Up halfway through (by one of their Domestic Abuser) and was captured by the Canadian authorities, but they managed to escape from the police while handcuffed together. For the subsequent chase both women are running through the streets of Toronto with their hands shackled to each other's, right until they managed to jump off a bridge. They do manage to break the cuffs off-screen later on, though.
  • Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead: The prisoners spend most of the film shackled together.
  • Zombieland: Double Tap The climax features two straggler zombies still handcuffed together a decade after the Zombie Apocalypse, a cop and a prisoner who pose a threat to the characters, with their combined weight nearly dragging Tallahassee to his death when the grab onto him.

    Literature 
  • An extreme example in book three of The Bartimaeus Trilogy: Bartimaeus and Nathaniel trying to take on The Legions of Hell while Sharing a Body. And mind-linked.
  • Done as a punishment in a Darkover short story; when two Renunciates quarrel to the point of drawing blades, their house mothers chain their hands together as a way to force them to cooperate and live together. It works, eventually, and they become life-long friends.
  • In the ST:TOS novel How Much for Just the Planet?, by John M. Ford, Uhura and Aperokei wind up handcuffed together and have to deal with that while on the run.
  • In the book Judge Benjamin: Superdog, Judge and his dachshund antagonist Henry manage to get their collars caught together. This was after Henry semi-accidentally flooded the garage and took refuge on Judge's head. They were rescued by their owners and taken to the local hardware shop to get the collars disconnected. Later that night they learned to work together when the owner of the hardware shop tried to rob the garage.
  • Company Z stage this in Rapido Clint by J.T. Edson: having Alvin Fog pose as a criminal and handcuffing him to a wanted felon, then orchestrating an escape so the felon will take Alvin to his boss.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The A-Team, "Breakout": BA and Murdock got caught by a small town sheriff and put on the local chain gang. While inside, there's a prison break and the escaping prisoners handcuffed them together while they tended to a guard who got shot. Murdock brings up the Defiant Ones.
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine: In "Christmas", Peralta handcuffs himself to Holt and throws the key down a grate to keep him from leaving the safe house. Holt calls Boyle to fetch him, but when Boyle can't decide whether to remove the cuffs or not, he panics and cuffs himself to Holt as well.
  • Castle: Has Beckett and Castle waking up handcuffed together in the appropriately named episode "Cuffed". This trope is lampshaded by Esposito and Ryan when discussing how a relationship can have a make-or-break moment when two people are stuck together in close proximity.
  • Charlie's Angels: In the episode "Angels in Chains", Jill, Kelly, and Sabrina are chained together when they try to escape from the prison warden.
  • This is an extremely common sabotage on Cutthroat Kitchen, a series in which chefs have to cook dishes in 30 minutes, but pay money to sabotage their fellow chefs. The following are just a few examples of this type of sabotage on the series:
    • Making two chefs share a cooking apparatus.
    • Binding two chefs together with an over-sized apron.
    • Limiting two or more chefs to only using cooking utensils chained to the center of the stations, to a heavy weight, or to the "Great Wall of Utensils".
    • Inviting two chefs to a "romantic dinner" where they can't leave their seats.
    • Cramming two chefs inside a "stuffed kitchen" prep station, which has barely enough room for them to fit back-to-back.
    • Forcing one chef to do both their own prep work and that of another chef, who in turn has to do the cooking for both of them. A barbed wire fence is set up in the kitchen to keep them separated.
    • Forcing each of two chefs to do their prep work on a station held/worn by the other, such as a backpack or pizza paddle.
    • Dressing two chefs inside a single Greek himation (which Alton also called a toga).
    • Forcing two chefs to hold hands for the remainder of the challenge. In the spirit of this trope (and not the show), the chefs did actually help each other. (It also helped that one of the chefs was left-handed, letting both chefs use their dominant hand while facing the same direction.)
    • Letting two chefs relax on a sofa for the entire challenge in Alton's 1974 living room/kitchen area — with a toaster oven and hot plate on one end of the couch and an old TV re-purposed as a prep station on the other. Alton even joined them for a little while.
  • On Designing Women, Charlene, her fiancee and a stripper from his bachelor party wind up locked together in a set of menage-a-trois handcuffs.
  • Doctor Who: In "Robot of Sherwood", the Doctor and Robin are shackled together when they escape from the Sheriff's dungeon; having somehow managed to put their differences aside long enough to work out how to escape. They continue bickering as they search for the smithy in order to get rid of their chains.
  • Due South:
    • In "All The Queen's Horses", Fraser and Inspector Thatcher get handcuffed together during a train robbery. They do manage to get separated, but not before a kiss on top of the moving train.
    • Fraser and Ray Vecchio also get handcuffed together in "Red, White or Blue". Cue enjoyment from the slash shippers.
  • Eureka: Action Girl Jo and town Jerkass Zane are accidentally locked together at the ankle by a quick acting cement-like substance. Right after they had broken up.
  • Even Stevens: The school guidance counselor attempted to enforce this trope on Ren and her rival Larry Beale together. They end up pretending to get along just to get her to unlink them, but as they have to work together to pull this off, in the end they're worried that it might have actually worked.
  • The Facts of Life: Blair and Jo end up handcuffed together as a result of a dispute over a story Jo wanted to run on the Langley College newscast. The Credits Gag at the end sees an unidentified staffer try to saw the chain off.
  • Family Matters: Did a surprisingly decent (for them) version of the trope, where Lieutenant Murtagh and Carl are on a stakeout. Murtagh, incompetent as always, is playing with trick cuffs...only to find that once he has them on the two of them he can't remember the spot that will release them. Making it worse is that this is going on while they're supposed to be monitoring Steve going undercover with a street gang that soon discovers the ruse and tries to kill him.
  • Fargo: Season Three: When Nikki's sent to prison she's chained on the bus to Mr. Wrench of all people and when the bus is attacked by the Narwhal agents trying to kill her, the pair are able to make their escape. They spend a while chained together with Nikki finding it especially difficult with Mr. Wrench being deaf. Like many examples of the trope, however, they're able to use the chain as a weapon when the fighting starts.
  • Frasier: Handcuffs himself to a stripper in a police officer costume. She doesn't have the key because the cuffs were intended for use as a prop only.
  • F Troop: In "The Day They Shot Agarn", Parmenter and Agarn end up handcuffed to each wrist of a prisoner. Later the prisoner escapes, still handcuffed to Agarn.
  • During the Full House episode "Blast from the Past", Kimmy gets D.J. and Stephanie stuck with magic handcuffs and can't get them out, so they have to wait for Kimmy's older brother to return while hiding this from everyone. They end up sleeping on the same bed. The next day, Kimmy tells them her brother won't be back for a week. Near the end of the episode, Jesse, who knows how to do the trick, gets D.J. and Stephanie uncoupled before proceeding to have Kimmy's hands cuffed, under the premise of showing everyone how the trick is done.
  • Get Smart, In "The Secret of Sam Vittorio", Max and 99 are posing as an Outlaw Couple who pretend to escape from custody while handcuffed together. Unfortunately when it's time to jump out of the police vehicle, our Idiot Hero tries to go out the opposite door from 99, so they have to turn the car around and do it again.
  • Green Acres: One episode had Oliver show Lisa how handcuffs work, only to find he had lost the keys.
  • Hannah Montana: In one episode, Oliver handcuffs Miley and Lily together while they are fighting and then discovers he doesn't have the key. Happens a second time with Lily and Oliver being glued to each other via chairs.
  • Hey Dude!: This Nickelodeon show used this in the appropriately-titled episode "Ted and Brad Get Handcuffed". Brad and Lucy pretty much sum up the entire trope, as seen in the quote for the main page.
  • I Love Lucy: One episode did this when Lucy handcuffs Ricky as a joke. But finds out she grabbed the wrong handcuffs (She thought they were Fred's trick ones) and the two end up having to go through the whole episode with them on.
  • Impractical Jokers had this as a punishment for Q, wherein he was handcuffed to Pierre the Mime for 24 hours during one of their live performances in Baltimore. The Montage showed Q slowly having a mental break down as the mime refused to be out out of character for the full 24 hours before they were finally freed the next day.
  • Inspector Morse: Something similar was the reason behind a murder in this show. Two security guards had conspired to rob a payroll in a suitcase attached by a chain to the wrist, only one had left the key behind when he changed his jacket.
  • James May's Man Lab invokes the trope for the orienteering segment; James and Oz are handcuffed to each other as they escape Dartmoor Prison.
  • Jonathan Creek: A set-up for a humorous sequence rather than the main plot in "The Seer of the Sands". An overturned can of glue drips down on Jonathan and Carla while they are eavesdropping, resulting in their heads getting glued together. Results in a Low-Speed Chase as they try to run after a slow moving gypsy caravan in this condition.
  • Kamen Rider Double (Kamen Rider Accel): In the direct-to-video movie, protagonist Ryuu (a policeman) spends about half the movie handcuffed to an attractive pickpocket, which produces even more Not What It Looks Like than he's already in and almost causes his wife to divorce him.
  • Kate & Allie had an episode where the two got in a fight. To get them to work it out, the kids handcuffed them together in the kitchen through a counter, then left them.
  • KinnPorsche: Kinn and Porsche get lost in the woods handcuffed together after escaping a kidnapping attempt.
  • Leverage: Features this with Hardison and Eliot as they are fleeing from a militia group in "The Gone Fishin' Job". They eventually get out of their restraints, but are first able to defeat several members of the group and improvise a bomb with a cigarette.
  • Lizzie McGuire: Lizzie and Matt get handcuffed together. Jo and Sam are aware of this and decide to keep the key with them until the two siblings would learn to set their differences aside and get along together for once.
  • Lost: Subverted Trope, with Kate and Juliet waking up in the jungle handcuffed together, Juliet claiming that she was knocked out by the rest of the Others and left behind. While at first it seems that they are starting to get along, it turns out that Juliet dragged Kate out into the jungle and handcuffed them together in order to gain her trust. Her deception is unmasked when the two are menaced by the Smoke Monster, and Juliet unlocks the handcuffs in panic so that she can turn on the security barrier.
  • Lost in Space: Don and Dr. Smith end up handcuffed together, courtesy of an alien Mad Scientist. Hilarity Ensues.
  • MacGyver (1985): Once ended up chained to a very eighties Manic Pixie Dream Girl who also turned out to be a brilliant classical violinist.
  • M*A*S*H:
  • Mission: Impossible:
    • In the episode "Nerves", the IMF stage one of these. Casey poses as a prisoner and is handcuffed to the villain's girlfriend. The IMF stage a breakout so that the girlfriend takes Casey to the villains hideout.
    • In "The Confession" the IMF stages a prison break for a potential assassin who just happens to be handcuffed to Rollin.
  • NCIS ("Chained"): An undercover DiNozzo is handcuffed to a convict; they escape together and go find a stash of stolen Iraqi antiques that NCIS is searching for. DiNozzo even brings up The Defiant Ones, although the convict Comically Misses the Point:
    Convict: I'm not black.
  • Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide does this in one episode. The school spirit stick can't touch the ground, and two characters are trying to pass it off on each other in increasingly ridiculous ways, until one tries superglue and they end up stuck together for the remainder of the episode.
  • In an episode of Night Court man-child and amateur magician Judge Stone cuffs himself and serious straight-girl Christine together with a pair of trick cuffs but can't get them undone. For added laughs one of the episode's sub plots is of an older woman court supervisor who has been trying to tell Christine that Harry's childish attitude is masking sexual harassment towards her. She ends up punching Harry's lights out and breaking his jaw when she sees the two of them cuffed together.
  • Downplayed in an episode of NUMB3RS. Colby and Dwayne Carter escape from a prison transport van while they're being transferred between facilities, thanks in part to a handcuff key that Colby smuggled along, but they lose the key before they can remove their leg cuffs, so they have to make their getaway still shackled together. They cut them off within a scene or two, and it ends up being a fairly minor detail.
  • Power Rangers Samurai: Kevin and Mike wind up with an extra-difficult version of this; both their hands are stuck together by a Nighlok with a glue attack.
    • Power Rangers RPM: Scott purposefully chains himself to Dillon in the episode "Brother's Keeper".
  • Prison Break: Had an interesting take on this setup when they finally got out of the prison (Season 2). T-Bag, who wasn't on the escape plans and forced himself in was afraid, with reason, that they would try to get rid of him as soon as he could no longer tell the guards of the plan. So, he handcuffs himself to Michael, and now they have to take him along, because they cannot be separated and Michael is just too important to Abruzzi (the guy with the escape jet). Then they reach a kind of barn, where Abruzzi picks up a saw and tries to cut the handcuffs, to no avail. Then he chops off T-Bag's arm.
  • Psychoville: Mr Jelly performs at a retirement home and accidentally handcuffs himself to one of the elderly residents, leaving them stuck together while on the run from Mr Jolly's killer – or so they think.
  • Quantum Leap: One episode followed the premise (or the whole plot ?) of The Defiant Ones, with Sam escaping a prison while handcuffed with a black man....
  • Quark. In "All the Emperor's Quasi Norms", Blood Knight Gene is chained to cowardly Tin-Can Robot Andy while escaping a Gorgon ship. At one point Gene tries to leap off a railing to attack some guards beneath, only to be left dangling when Andy refuses to follow.
  • The Rat Patrol: In the "Chain of Death Raid" episode, American Sgt. Troy and German Captain Dietrich were captured by Arabs and chained together, forcing them to cooperate in order to escape. [Just one of several Enemy Mine episodes in this series!]
  • Revolution: The title of the episode "Chained Heat" matches the trope name. The episode features slaves being chained together and forced to drag helicopters for the Monroe Republic. The protagonists end up freeing the slaves.
  • Round the Twist: Faye handcuffs herself to Mr Gribble, shortly before going into labour, in the last episode.
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch: In "Five Easy Pieces of Libby", when Sabrina tries to distance herself from her problems and casts a spell to make Libby stay three paces away from her, it gets reversed and she is forced to stay within three paces of her, but after she breaks free of the spell, it causes Libby to turn into a puzzle.
  • Sanford and Son: Fred and Esther were cuffed together by Grady and his trick handcuffs in one episode. Grady eventually freed them, but ended up stupidly chaining himself to Lamont!
  • In the first ever episode of Shake it Up, Rocky handcuffs herself to CeCe to force her onstage with the other dancers of Shake It Up: Chicago due to CeCe initialy not having been accepted on the show. The scene cuts to Geogia struggling to arrest a criminal after noticing that Rocky stole the handcuffs from her.
  • In the Sherlock episode "The Reichenbach Fall", a reluctant Lestrade is forced to arrest Sherlock, but Sherlock escapes with John handcuffed to him as his 'hostage'.
  • Spartacus: Blood and Sand had an episode where two-man teams of gladiators were chained together and put into a battle royale match. Naturally, the team of Spartacus and Varro were the last men standing.
  • Stargate SG-1: Vala pulls this on Daniel with a pair of linked Goa'uld bracelets that cause the wearers to fall into a coma if separated for too long, though her motive was to ensure that she didn't get left out of a share of the treasure at the end of SG1's current quest, and she didn't know it would affect her as well. The effect lingers for a few episodes after the bracelets are physically removed.
  • Star Trek: Enterprise: In "Shadows of P'Jem", Archer and his sexy Vulcan science officer T'Pol are tied up together by hostage takers. While struggling to free themselves from their bonds, Archer ends up with his face buried in T'Pol's impressive cleavage, learning the important Aesop that while Vulcans can be highly annoying, they can also have great tits.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: The episode "Attached" has an interesting variation on this trope. Picard and Crusher, who each have feelings for the other, wind up together on a hostile alien planet. Instead of being physically chained together, they're fitted with devices that allow them to read each other's thoughts, but also prevent them from moving more than ten feet apart without feeling extreme pain. To be clear, said devices are intended to eventually sync fully to their brain chemistry, at which point their captors would simply download their memories. The telepathy is a side effect.
  • The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (The Suite Life on Deck): Mr. Blanket, the school's insane Guidance Counselor, handcuffs Moseby and Zack together, and swallows the key. It helps them understand one another better, but also increases their contempt for Blanket.
  • Supernatural: This happens to Sam and Dean when they are arrested. It's both played straight (they work together to prove their innocence) and Played for Laughs (trying to sit down on opposite ends of a bench, the brothers trip and almost fall flat on their asses).
  • Tales from the Crypt: One episode has a variation in which an escaped convict is handcuffed to the cop who is chasing him, then shoots the cop – who manages to swallow the cuff key before dying. The convict ends up carrying/dragging the body through the desert and trying to chop off the cop's hand with an improvised hatchet — only to miss and take his own hand off instead.
  • In the That '70s Show episode "Fez Dates Donna," this trope is spoofed within a parody of I Love Lucy featuring Donna as Lucy and Fez as Ricky where a cooking accident makes Donna and Fez become stuck together.
  • Three's Company: Jack handcuffs himself to Chrissy, not realizing she doesn't have the keys. Since he has a hot date, he decides to make Chrissy tag along (sitting at the next table). Hilarity Ensues.
  • Walker, Texas Ranger:
    • Season 9's "Desperate Measures" started this way with two women who were bound for prison, namely Lara Popenote  and Jane "Hitch" Harrelsonnote . While the two were on their way to the women's prison in Gatesville, the boyfriends of two other inmates ambushed the bus and killed the driver, sending it running off the road. While the other two inmates escape with their boyfriends and continue their crime spree, Lara and Harrelson are left to fend for themselves. During their escape, the two women seek refuge at the apartment and workshop of Lara's taxidermist uncle, who manages to remove the chains.
  • Wizards & Warriors: One episode has good prince Eric Greystone and evil prince Dirk Blackpool trying to escape a dungeon of deathtraps while chained together.
  • The X-Files: In "Piper Maru", Agent Mulder handcuffs himself to a female secrets broker, so as to force her to take him to her contact. It turns out to be Krycek, who shoves the woman through a door and slams it shut on the chain, trapping Mulder. Moments later, the woman is shot dead by French Secret Service mooks, and Krycek flees, leaving Mulder to his fate. Fortunately, he's able to find the handcuff key before they kick down the door.

    Music 
  • The video for Michael Jackson's "Beat It" has two rival gang leaders tie their hands to each other for the world's most stylized knife fight.

    Newspaper Comics 
  • One FoxTrot storyline had Jason and Paige stuck together by bubblegum (made with industrial polymers) when their bubbles touch — which has the added awkwardness of connecting them by the faces rather than their arms. When the realization sinks in that they're going to have to sleep and shower together, they scream so loudly that it blows the gum right off.
  • Garfield, alongside first Jon, then Odie, spent several weeks stuck in a window blind together. Somehow, this gets parsed as something freaky by the woman Jon asks to try and help them get out of this... They are later joined by a man, an old lady, and eventually a street light.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • A "Strap Match" is a Gimmick Match with two wrestlers tied to opposite ends of a belt, rope, steel chain, or anything similar in order to keep them in close proximity to each other. This can also be referred to as a "Dog Collar Match," when the competitors are shackled at the neck.
    • Differs from most other depictions in that the two wrestlers are not forced to cooperate. In fact, the whole point of the strap match is to force the two wrestlers to fight each other while tied together. This naturally is a great disadvantage for some wrestlers, as it takes their signature moves out of play.
  • During the match between El Gran Armando and El Gigante Nihan on the 6-29-2019 WWC show their managers Wizard and Juan Manuel Ortega were handcuffed together. This was mainly because Wizard tends to interrupt Nihan matches by hitting him with a cane, and the cuffs didn't work. Wizard was able to get out after throwing salt in Ortega's eyes.

    Puppet Shows 
  • Sesame Street: In Episode 1703, Bob plays a guessing game with Big Bird using a policeman's hat, badge, and handcuffs, demonstrating how the third one works by handcuffing themselves together. Unfortunately, Bob ends up losing the key, leaving themselves handcuffed. This is bad news for them both, since Big Bird promised Snuffy he'd be at the roller rink, and Bob has to give Gordon a flute lesson. Gordon tries to get Susan to go to the police station to get the key, but her car won't start up. Gordon eventually goes to the station and gets the key himself, freeing Big Bird and Bob.

    Radio 
  • One time on The Howard Stern Show, Howard had a woman handcuffed to wack-packer, Jeff the Drunk, for FIVE DAYS for a large sum of money, and have a camera crew record the results. Hilarity Ensues when they end up going to a bar and Jeff gets so drunk he can barely walk. They make it through the five days, and had apparently grown attached, as once they're separated, they both end up getting emotional and start crying. Some time later, Howard tries this stunt again, but with High Pitch Erik instead of Jeff, but this time the woman he's handcuffed to wants out after only a couple of hours.

    Theater 
  • In The 39 Steps, the main character is handcuffed to a woman who thinks he is a murderer. He must drag her with him as he tries to escape the villain's henchmen.

    Video Games 
  • Invoked in Akatsuki no Goei when Reika forces Kaito and Tominori to be handcuffed together for shits and giggles. Kaito could pick the lock, but she threatens to fire Tominori if he does. He'd be okay with that, but for some reason Tominori gets in his way when he tries.
  • Crash Twinsanity: Crash and Cortex can latch on to a crystal and Crash can drag Cortex around the level, using him as a mallet and occasionally flinging him across gaps to trigger switches and whatnot.
  • Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories: Rozalin is contractually bound to Adell, by the summoning ritual that kicks off the game's events, to take him to Overlord Zenon. When asked to be released, Adell outright states that if he breaks the contract, he would die. Of course, Rozalin is Zenon (though neither of them knew that at the time) so she actually could have left at any time without consequence.
  • Divine Divinity's sequel Beyond Divinity uses the trope as its premise – the protagonist becomes forced into Synchronization with a stereotypically villainous Black Knight by a demon, and they work together with the shared goal of not only separating themselves from their rather disliked counterparts, but to get back at the demon who did it to them.
  • Bread & Fred: Justified in that Bread and Fred have been roped together for safety's sake during their expedition, and are meant to be working together. Same with Greg and his rock Jeff.
  • In Kamigami no Asobi, the main plot during Tsukito's route in the game has him chained to Yui via magic rings, thanks to Loki's trickster ways, and are told that they'll only come off if they become a couple and eventually fall for each other.
  • Kissed by the Baddest Bidder: After running afoul of Detective Ayase, the protagonist and Baba find themselves both locked in bracelets that will explode if they are more than five feet apart.
  • The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon: Spyro spends the entire game chained to former nemesis Cynder. From a gameplay perspective, the main purpose of the chain is to allow co-op play without splitting the screen. However, the chain is also used to solve certain puzzles (for example, one dragon grabs onto a wall and the other dragon swings on the chain to get higher; or one dragon grabs onto a raft while the other dragon flies ahead, pulling the raft forward).
  • Master Detective Archives: Rain Code: This is part of Yuma's pact with Shinigami. They have a maximum distance to be apart and when it caps, a chain will appear and drag one along with the other, something Shinigami uses consistently to get Yuma to go places.
  • Metro PD: Close to You: The protagonist and Kyobashi are briefly handcuffed together by a suspect during Kyobashi's epilogue.
  • Power Instinct 3: Groove on Fight: Even when they're still rivals, Goketsuji sisters are chained together back-to-back fighting as one person in order to not to be defeated against the new (and considerably younger) fighters.
  • Resident Evil 4 (Remake): Chapter 2 begins with Leon and Luis chained together. After pulling the pulley off the ceiling, they use their chains to kill a Ganado who was about to attack them.
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Though the "chains" in this case are not physical, Bastila treats being forced to go off on a mission that would require spending time with the player character like this.
  • Sword and Fairy 7: Our main characters, Yue Qingshu and Xiu Wu, get spiritually bound together by accident. The latter would weaken if they were to separate, and since it would hinder his mission, the duo is forced to travel together.
  • Whiplash, where the protagonists are animals escaping from a MegaCorp Testing Facility. The two characters, Spanx (a brain-fried weasel) and Redmond (a Deadpan Snarker rabbit who also happens to be Nigh-Invulnerable due to chemical tests) are chained together, with Spanx using Redmond as a flail.
  • The World Ends with You: Neku becomes spiritually chained to different partners throughout the game. While there is nothing physically forcing them to stay together, the Noise they encounter along the way can only be defeated by two people working together.
  • The plot of Ys X: Nordics kicks off when Adol gets magically handcuffed to Karja Balta and the pair are forced to work together to get them off.

    Web Animation 
  • In this video from Burakku Channel, Akane, as part of her rivalry with Burakku, uses a pair of magic handcuffs that make it so they can’t be separated for about a day, with any attempts at trying resulting in the handcuffs pulling them back. Burakku doesn’t really mind this and proceeds to rile her up for the rest of the video. He later reveals that he could have used his powers to break the handcuffs the whole time, much to Akane’s rage.
  • In an episode of Happy Tree Friends Handy and Mole are chained together by Lumpy who's acting as a highway patrol officer, eventually Mole dies and Handy has to drag his corpse around with him before he's hit by a train.
  • On Homestar Runner, Strong Bad says (and shows via a flashback) that he once glued Homsar to Marzipan and "left them for dead".
    Marzipan: Ooh, I hear wolves coming.
    Homsar: Aaaah'm the human wedgie!
  • The Star Wars: Galactic Pals episode "Rodian" has Miree getting stuck to the Rodian youngling, due to forgetting about his suction fingers. Throughout the episode, Miree tries to figure out different ways to get themselves unstuck.

    Webcomics 
  • In Girl Genius, Gil chains together Tarvek and Othar and then pushes them out of an airship. Because he knows that Othar can get out of anything alive and he wants Tarvek to get down intact.
  • Housepets!: Zach and Jessica end up in a trap, both dirty, injured, and cold, so they snuggle for warmth. Cue Keene showing up thinking he caught a griffon. After they get out, get warm, and get patched up, they agree they want to hang out again. Cue The Big Damn Kiss!

    Western Animation 
  • 101 Dalmatians: The Series: Cadpig handcuffs herself to Pug in "Howl Noon" to get him to face his fears and stand up to his childhood bully who's paying him a visit. Pug does decide to go face the bully, but unfortunately for Cadpig, she doesn't have the keys to the handcuffs and is forced to tag along.
  • Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers did an episode forthrightly titled "Chained", with ranger Shane Gooseman and alien outlaw McCross handcuffed together on a frontier planet after their ship crashes (which also makes it an Enemy Mine). Subverted in that it was only for the first part of the episode, and the two characters only managed to piss each other off worse. McCross's fellow gang members showed up, McCross freed himself, and the rest of the ep is the gang terrorizing Ozark and trying to find a cache of stolen loot. Shane's allies consist of his robot horse and a friendly local.
  • Happens to Cubby and the Duke of Drekmore in one episode of Adventures of the Gummi Bears when they both get captured by a Badass Bounty Hunter. The colaboration didn't last much.
  • In one episode of Aladdin: The Series, a villain causes Aladdin and Rasoul to be magically bound when he sees how much they dislike working with each other. The chain's length varies on how argumentative they're being. If they're fighting, the manacles fuse together, if they agree to put up with each other there's a decent length to work with, and when they're genuinely getting along they're unchained until they fight again.
  • In The Angry Beavers, Daggett handcuffs himself to Truckee during an Arbour Day party because he's paranoid of Truckee stealing his stuff. Later the two are stuck in the dam when it gets flipped upside down. Daggett is in no real danger (Beavers can hold their breath for 15 minutes), but he decides he doesn't want to be handcuffed to a dead shrew and tries to get them both out safely.
  • Word of God says that there was going to be an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender where Sokka and Aang were handcuffed to each other. They decided not to because they had to make more important episodes.
  • An episode of The Batman has Penguin handcuff Batman and Catwoman together. When the two of them stop Penguin and get the key to the cuffs, Batman handcuffs Penguin and Catwoman together for the police to collect.
  • Ben 10, episode "Grudge Match", shackles Ben to recurring nemesis Kevin. Unusual in that there doesn't seem to be An Aesop here, unless it's "go with the lesser of two evils." They still hate each other after they separate.
  • Brandy & Mr. Whiskers spent an episode glued together back to back; on the night when Brandy had a hot date, of course.
  • In Codename: Kids Next Door, Numbuh One and Chad are chained together as part of a subplot of "Operation: T.R.E.A.T.Y.". Notably, the usual way this plays out is subverted. It worsens their already tenuous relationship and ends with the two of them fighting to the death in a way that's not played for laughs. Not even Chad being revealed as a Fake Defector changes anything between them as, along with what they went through, his legitimate negative qualities prevent both their friendship from being repaired and Nigel from admiring him again.
  • Cow and Chicken: "Meet Lance Sackless" has the titular duo intentionally being stuck together head-to-head, literally, with poultry glue and filming the whole thing for "Canada's Funniest Home Vidiots" in the hopes they get to meet Lance himself.
  • From an episode of Danger Mouse: Danger Mouse arrests Baron Greenback, then gets a call from Professor Sqwarkandcluck. "Have you seen my prototype indestructible handcuffs? They're made of Convenientium, a metal so rare there wasn't enough left over to make a key".
  • In the Danny Phantom episode "Life Lessons", Danny and Valerie are chained together by Skulker as part of his game of hunt when he couldn't decide who was worthy of his skills, so he opted to kill both of them at the same time. Subverted, as they only became more friendly with each other in their human forms (Valerie didn't even know that Danny had a Secret Identity, nor did she know that he knew hers), while the next time they met as ghost and ghost hunter, their relationship didn't seem to have changed much.
  • Darkwing Duck spends an episode attached to his bumbling neighbor Herb Mudlefoot when contact with an electric fence causes their wristbands to weld together.
  • Detentionaire: In one episode, Lee and his ex-"girlfriend" Brandy get glued together by the guy they're chasing after. They have trouble moving around while stuck together and argue about which way to go. It's a relatively brief gag that only lasts a couple minutes, but it results in this exchange from Tina and Jenny, who see them stuck together and are currently in a Love Triangle with Lee.
    Jenny: Are they...back together?
    Tina: They sure look back together.
  • There was an episode of Dexter's Laboratory where Dee Dee and Dexter got stuck together with a seemingly invincible Chinese finger trap.
  • An episode of Doug has the title character handcuffing himself to his Oblivious to Love dream girl Patti Mayonnaise while trying to impress her with a magic trick.
  • In Duckman, Duckman himself is handcuffed to Agnes Delrooney, the hardened criminal who looks exactly like Grandma-ma by a sinister tobacco baron and the two are forced to make their escape. As Agnes has about 200 lbs on Duckman, it makes for an interesting scene, especially when she gets injured and can't go on.
  • DuckTales (2017): In "Raiders of the Doomsday Vault", Glomgold handcuffs Scrooge and himself together, thinking it will force Scrooge to take him to the vault. All that happens is Scrooge being inconvenienced by Glomgold's knack for Amusing Injuries.
  • Used/spoofed in the third-season Family Guy episode "Stuck Together, Torn Apart", in which Stewie and Brian have their hands glued together for a week.
  • In an episode of Filmation's Ghostbusters, Tracy invents "ghost cuffs", handcuffs that work on ghosts; Eddie think's that's cool, and tries them, before Tracy can tell him he hasn't made a key yet. This gets worse when Eddie is accidentally shackled to the Monster of the Week (who is actually a Non-Malicious Monster) forcing some Teeth-Clenched Teamwork between them. It gets worse yet when the guy decides to hide at the bottom of a lake. (He doesn't need to breathe, and forgets for a few minutes that humans have to.)
  • The Flintstones did an episode where Fred and Barney become stuck to a bowling ball together.
  • There's a variation in Futurama in which Fry's head is grafted onto Amy's body right after they go through a breakup. The trope is otherwise played straight.
  • Green Eggs and Ham: In preparation for their trip, Michellee gets EB and herself "friendship bracelets." These accessories are more like handcuffs that magnetically latch on to each other with a press of the button so her daughter can't get too far away from her.
  • In The Incredible Hulk (1996), the episode "And the Wind Cries...Wendigo!" has the Hulk and General Ross ending up cuffed together and forced to cooperate with one another to save Betty from the Wendigo.
  • Infinity Train: In Book 2, MT and Mace spend most of the episode "The Wasteland" handcuffed to each other. In a gruesome twist, the handcuffs aren't unlocked or broken in this episode, Mace is just thoroughly removed from them.
  • Happened in the Jackie Chan Adventures episode "The Chan Who Knows Too Much" between Jackie and Jade thanks to a corrupt cop.
  • A variant occurred on Jimmy Two-Shoes in "Fused Together". After getting dumped one too many times by Jimmy for Beezy, Heloise melds them to each others' backs in hopes that they will get sick of each other. Jimmy and Beezy actually like being fused together at first, but soon begin to frustrate each other, all while still insisting they're fine with it to get back at Heloise. The episode ends with Heloise getting stuck to them as well, but she enjoys being so close to Jimmy.
  • Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures: The episode "Race Against Danger" had villain chain Race and Jonny together before forcing them to go through a Death Course.
  • In Kim Possible, they do two in an episode. Kim gets glued to her cheerleading arch-rival Bonnie, Ron to overbearing militaristic teacher Mr. Barkin. Ron and Barkin get a better understanding of each other, whilst the Bonnie and Kim relationship appears to do the same.. next episode Bonnie is reset back to mega-ultra-superspecial bitch attitude towards Kim.
  • In Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness's "Chain Reaction", the Croc Bandits manage to surprise Tigress and Po and slap a chain on them.
  • In one episode of Liberty's Kids, James gets captured by the British and chained with a Hessian deserter. The two of them manage to escape, and the Hessian takes the opportunity to tell James (and the audience) why the Hessians joined the war.
  • Lilo & Stitch: The Series: Experiment 251 is built off of this trope, designed to bind incompatible individuals together with indestructible putty (or at least, indestructible on 18 planets excluding earth; it dissolves in mud). Among those who get stuck together are: Lilo and Mertle, Stitch and Nani, Jumba and Pleakley and Gantu and 625. Two of those pairs play the trope straight, while nothing changes for the other two.
  • Looney Tunes:
  • In The Mask: Kellaway has himself cuffed to Stanley so he'll reveal that he and his alter-ego The Mask are the one and same person then two villains show up and Stanley have to avoid getting exposed by KO'ing Kellaway, bagging his head and standing inside an elevator while Kellaway is outside while The Mask has to get himself back in time so that his little brother does not end up in prison and doesn't end up being a lifeless object forever.
  • Happens to Mega Man and Suna in Mega Man: Fully Charged when Ice Man freezes them together. Naturally, Mega Man's first solution is to activate Fire Man's power and use his unfrozen arm to melt the ice, only to find that he can't activate it without the intense heat from his frozen arm burning Suna in the process.
  • Moon Dreamers: Crystal and Bucky find themselves stuck together with Galatic Glue in "Stuck On Bucky" and have to learn to work together to foil an evil Scowlette invasion while waiting for the glue to wear off.
  • My Adventures with Superman: In an attempt to prove whether or not Clark Kent is Superman, Lois corners the Man of Steel at the site of a robbery and handcuffs herself to him to keep him from leaving until Clark arrives. Unfortunately, Lois forgot about the whole "robbery" part, and at that moment the criminals step out of the building and spot them, forcing Superman to fight them while still cuffed to Lois.
  • The Owl House: In "Lost in Language", thanks to the Otabin sewing their arms into a giant book, Luz and Amity have to escape while carrying the book around. Amity manages to tear herself free by grabbing onto a ladder while Otabin attempts to reel the book back in.
  • Peep and the Big Wide World: Quack and Chirp at first in "In A Bind". Eventually they get used to each other, and start to get along, neither of them realizing that that the string that held them together broke a day earlier.
  • Pelswick had an episode that features the bully chained to the protagonist's wheelchair, in a Whole-Plot Reference to The Defiant Ones. Pelswick himself was even told to watch the film by his guardian angel, but refuses on the grounds that it's a black and white film, though he does get one of his friends to watch it and tell him about it.
  • The Pirates of Dark Water: "The Gameplayers of Undaar." Frog people hijack the ships of both the protagonist Ren and Big Bad Bloth, then force them to complete puzzles while being handcuffed together. Why? "Makes the game more interesting!"
  • On Rocko's Modern Life, Filburt and Heffer wanted to go to a wrestling match with Rocko and his extra ticket, so they both cuff themselves to Rocko and argue over who's his best friend while Rocko succumbs to some Amusing Injuries. At the end of the episode the radio station announces a contest for two tickets to whoever shows up handcuffed to their best friend.
  • Rolling with the Ronks!: "Stuck on You" has Flash and Mormagnon's latest round of bickering resulting in the two being stuck together from paste Mama accidentally created by overcooking her fish stew.
  • Rugrats (1991): In "Cuffed", Angelica and Chuckie accidentally get handcuffed together and lose the key; They eventually find the key and get free, but then Angelica gets handcuffed to her own bed.
  • Sabrina: The Animated Series: Sabrina's spell goes horribly wrong in "I've Got Glue Baby" and sticks her and Gem together. The two girls need to work together to break the spell or they'll end up stuck together forever.
  • Samurai Jack:
    • During their first encounter in "Jack and the Scotsman", the titular characters wind up like this thanks to bounty hunters after spending a good day or two clashing swords. By the time they get the chain off, they've become Fire-Forged Friends. And please don't ask why neither of them thought of trying to cut it with one of those swords.
    • A variation occurs in Season 5 episode "XCV", when Jack chains Ashi to his back (while she herself is wrapped up in the chain); In this case, it's not that Jack is completely stuck to her, but more that leaving Ashi untied would result in her either killing him or getting killed herself, which Jack won't let happen.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Spoofed in "The Parent Rap", where Homer and Bart are tethered together as part of a new judge's ruling.
    • In the episode "The Wandering Juvie", we see an entire line of unlikely pairs such as a nun chained to a hooker and Captain McAllister handcuffed to an octopus. They are all waiting for a blacksmith to break them apart.
  • In The Smurfs (1981) episode "Smurf on the Run" Sassette and Gargamel are chained together after breaking the Topaz of Truth by its guardian spirit. Sassette sees this as the opportunity to bond with Gargamel who she sees as her co-father alongside Papa Smurf, but sadly she finds the truth at the end that Gargamel is irredeemably evil.
  • Variation in the episode of South Park entitled "Super Fun Time". Cartman and Butters are paired up on a field trip and are told not to let go of the other's hand until they get back on the bus. Despite the many MANY hijinks that the pair get into (which include dangling on either side of a traffic light), Butters will not let go of Cartman's hand because Mr. Garrison said not to. It's like handcuffs, only without the handcuffs.
    Butters: (at the very end of the episode, after dragging Cartman's unconscious body past everyone) Teacher...MY PARTNER IS BACK ON THE BUS.
  • An episode of Spider-Man: The Animated Series had Spidey and his detractor J. Jonah Jameson both handcuffed to a Time Bomb, which was based on a comic story. Naturally, Jameson just adds it to his list of reasons why Spidey is a menace.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Count Dooku are captured by Space Pirates and chained together.
  • An episode of Static Shock has black superhero Static handcuffed to white super thug Hot Streak and the two of them tossed on an island where the Corrupt Corporate Executive is trying to get his son (petrified several seasons ago) brought back to life. They play it straight, wind up as slightly more respectful enemies by the end, and manage to save the kid, although it's more machismo than anything that gets Hot Streak to jump in ("If he can take it, so can I!"), although he seemed just a little worried about the amount of power Static was pulling. It did show that Hotstreak wasn't all that bad.
  • In Storm Hawks, Stork tries to keep the Raptors from getting their hands on a Graviton Crystal by swallowing it, which then causes him and Leugey to be stuck together.
  • In the TaleSpin episode "Stuck on You", Baloo and his pirate nemesis Don Karnage spend most of the story glued together by industrial adhesive. No Aesop here, they go back to hating each other properly.
  • The central premise of the Total Drama Island episode "Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon". In it, Gwen is handcuffed to Geoff, Heather to Owen, and Duncan to Leshawna. Each pair must cooperate in three challenges, and the winning pair gets invincibility. Anyone can opt out by using "the Wimp Key", but in that event, that person and whoever they're handcuffed to are immediately eliminated. Ironically, the challenges cause Gwen and Geoff, as well as Duncan and Leshawna to become friendlier with each other, while Owen begins hating Heather as much as everyone else does.
  • Transformers:
    • Transformers: Animated did a variant – Bulkhead's wrecking ball got stuck in Mixmaster's cylinder, sticking them together for a chunk of the episode.
    • Transformers: Prime had Bulkhead and Arcee magnetized so that their backs stuck together for most of an episode. Same thing happened with their nemeses, Breakdown and Airachnid.
    • Transformers: Rescue Bots had Buddy Braces, which magnetically tie people or robots together when locked in to enforce the Buddy System on hikes. Kade and Dani were magnetized together, as were the other Burns family members to civilians (or Blades in Cody's case).
  • Children's' show Tweenies once featured all four of the titular toddlers tying themselves together in a row by attempting to help each other with shoelaces, coat toggles, etc. And then Fizz suddenly decided she needed the bathroom.
  • In the episode "Past Tense" of The Venture Brothers, four characters are chained by the neck to the walls of a dungeon, but with only two double-ended chains. Since one of each pair is tall and muscle-bound, the other slight, physics provides the humor. Brock nearly strangles Dr. Venture when he lunges at Baron Ünderbheit.
    Brock: You did this, didn't you?
    Ünderbheit: As usual, your detective skills are impeccable, Samson. You've succeeded in exposing my sinister plan to lock myself in a dungeon chained to an albino.
  • Wunschpunsch: In one episode, Bubonic and Tyrannia cast a spell that makes people stick together whenever they argue between themselves. Even they becomes victims of this. Later, when the spell is broken, their supervisor punishes them for the failure by turning one of them into a fly paper and the other into a fly and sticking them together.
  • Zeke's Pad: In "Drawn Together", Zeke and Jay are spending too much time together, and they are getting on the nerves of each other. They agree that they need to spend some time apart. To ensure they do not come close together, Zeke draws them as opposite charges. By mistake, however, he draws magnets on them, and they are drawn together! No matter where they go, they are stuck together, and they cannot get away from each other. To make matters worse, Zeke has a skateboarding date with Maxine, and with Jay stuck to him, Zeke has a hard time impressing Maxine.

    Real Life 
  • A news clip showed two prisoners in New Zealand who escaped handcuffed together. Obviously they weren't very bright, while fleeing one tried to go on one side of a lightpole and the other tried the other side. No points for guessing what happened next. (Alternate source Alternate source 2)
    • This may be to do with an urban legend that doing so will break the handcuffs. If so this is not the first time it has been debunked, two British prisoners in the 1990s even admitted that was how they broke their arms.
  • The exact same thing happened to a trio in Ontario. It's been shown in both Police Videos and Most Shocking (the latter under the "Dumbest Criminals" episode, no less). The trio were being unloaded from a paddy wagon when they decided to bolt. Two went to the left, one to the right. They hit the pole; Hilarity Ensues.
    Cop 1: You guys are idiots.
    Cop 2: You also have the right to be stupid.
  • Truth in Television. In the late 90s a British judge was faced with two pensioners whose feud had made nearby neighbors' lives miserable. He gave them a choice between jail or a number of hours per day handcuffed together for a month. They were smart enough to realise that settling their feud would be the least unpleasant choice.
  • The entire point of the children's game "Three-legged race" is for a pair of contestants to run side-by-side to the finish line while having their adjacent feet bound together.
  • YouTube videos exist of young teens handcuffing themselves to their sweethearts or crushes for a day.

 
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Blu and Jewel Chained Together

Jewel finds out at the worst possible moment when trying to escape from the smuggler's hideout that Blu cannot fly much to her dismay and anger forcing them to escape from Nigel as well as Marcel's henchmen on foot while chained together by a chain that Marcel had put on them earlier.

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