Crowbar Combatant - Television Tropes & Idioms

Open up!

"Is that a crowbar? [picks it up] Awesome! Now I can beat the snot out of people!

—Freeman's Mind

Crowbars tend to be pretty popular - they are heavy enough to be used as clubs and have two bladed points that can do some nasty damage either by swinging or thrusting. Plus, they can be used as lock bypassers.

Interestingly enough, they are rarely seen used for their original purpose. Give a videogame character a crowbar and point him to a wooden crate, and his first impulse will be to smash it to pieces rather than pry it open.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

Durarara's Kida Masaomi uses this to take on the entire Yellow Scarves.

Comics

In Marvel Comics The Wrecker is a man who was given a magical crowbar by Loki that grants him immense strength and endurance. He also has the ability to divide his power between others to form the Wrecking Crew, all with their own construction site weaponry.
This was the method of choice for The Joker in killing Jason Todd, with a time bomb delivering the Coup de Grâce.

Film

28 Days Later's Jim uses a crowbar in one scene near the end, where he bashes a soldier's head in.
Crowbar is one the many things used to pin Freddy against a wall in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
Michael in the remake of Dawn of the Dead as they enter the mall.
Surprisingly averted in Transformers: Dark of the Moon which had a bit Decepticon named Crowbar who used... guns and explosives. The same sub-faction also had another member named Hatchet who also used guns.
One of the intro victims in Cornered! is beaten to death with what looks like a crowbar.
A character gets stabbed in the eye with a crowbar in Carver.
The initial antagonist of I Spit on Your Grave, I Piss on Your Grave is killed with a crowbar.
Walter uses a crowbar to destroy a car in The Big Lebowski.
- Do you see what happens, Larry!

Literature

The Zombie Survival Guide details why a crowbar is one of the better hand-to-hand weapons to use against zombies: it is strong enough to break skulls, doesn't need sharpening or loading, and, if needed, can be used to pry things.
Halloween: The Mad House ends with Michael being beaten into submission with a crowbar.
Freddy is fought with a crowbar in A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Dealers.

Live-Action TV

The cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, though mostly Xander.
The Criminal Minds episode "Hopeless" begins with the three [UnSubs murdering two couples with crowbars.

Video Games

Probably the most famous example is in Half-Life: Gordon Freeman's signature weapon is a crowbar. This is commented on by the G-Man in Episode 2.
- BioShock is a Wrench Whack game, but with a Shout Out to Half-Life:
"Now, would you kindly find a crowbar or something?"
The Punisher
Siren and Siren 2
Deus Ex
Condemned. You can also use it to pry things open.
One of the usable melee weapons in Left 4 Dead 2.
Likewise, one of many melee weapons you can use in Dead Rising 2.
In Space Station 13, a good clout upside the head with a crowbar will knock someone out for longer than you'd expect.
Jagged Alliance 2, it is available since the first game, but back then it cannot be used as a weapon. This is just a bonus since its main use is to pry open locked doors and containers.
The Blue Sun mod for 7.62mm High Caliber adds a crowbar as a melee weapon.
Odium. About as much power as a bat, and weaker than an axe.
Present in both Saints Row games. The best melee weapon in the original, but overshadowed by better weapons in the sequel.
Subverted in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: as a Shout Out, you can find one in Area 69, on a desk. You can't pick it up, though, but some mods replace the dildo with it.
In Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, one would probably expect the recurring ultimate Bonus Boss, Tyrant Overlord Baal, to magichange into a sword, considering how almost all of his attacks involve summoning really huge ones to impale his foes. Instead, he magichanges into an ordinary-looking crowbar. A crowbar so powerful, that it can potentially max out the wielder's stats.
- This might be a Shout Out
The original melee weapon for most of the classes in Team Fortress Classic was a crowbar.
A crowbar is the starting melee weapon for Thieves in Drakensang along with knives and daggers. Said crowbar is listed as an "Axe/Club" type weapon and it's not very powerful.
A crowbar is found in the first areas of both Sonny games. The weapon is a Shout Out to Half-Life, which is more blatant in the second game (the weapon has the description "the weapon of free men").
Subverted in Amnesia: The Dark Descent. You do find a crowbar at a point, but its only use is to open a busted door.

Webcomics

The aptly-named Felt member Crowbar from Homestuck uses a crowbar which, in addition to being a handy weapon, has the ability to destroy temporal artifacts and negate their effects.
Duncan in Niels favors a crowbar over ranged weapons. A chart made by the author describes him as the second-best fighter in the series, but it's been noted that he usually has to hit someone many, many times before they finally die.

Web Original

Insane Cafe 3: The Curse of the Haunted Hotel. Strut using a crowbar then a shovel to subdue a super powered Human who had tried to pick a fight with the entire hotel.
Darwin's Soldiers, the second RP. Dr. Rawlson/Dr. Jeston tries to kill Dr. Zanasiu with a crowbar.
Tom spends a large portion of Ruby Quest carrying around a crowbar to smash things with.

Western Animation

In the Robot Chicken sketch "Iron Cheney" the terrorists order the vice-president to build them weapons. He says he already has one and knocks one out with a crowbar, calling it the "Cheney Special." The terrorists say they'll take a thousand.

Weapons and Wielding Tropes

Cute As A Bouncing Betty