History Main / HighAltitudeInterrogation

Watch out for UnhandThemVillain when a bad guy does this. Not to be confused with DramaticDangling.

** In Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}'', Batman does this to a {{Bit Part Bad Guy|s}} at the beginning of the film. Interestingly for a trope that generally works as a death threat, just before Batman holds the guy over the edge of the building, he tells the mook, "I'm not going to kill you."

--->'''Batman''': '''''WHERE ARE THE OTHER DRUGS GOING????!!!'''''
** {{Subverted|Trope}} and {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Film/TheDarkKnight''; Maroni casually tells Batman that a fall wouldn't kill him. Batman retorts that he's counting on it, then drops him and breaks his legs, making it JackBauerInterrogationTechnique. And Maroni doesn't tell him anything ''anyway'', because [[TheMobBossIsScarier he's not going to rat out The Joker for anyone]], least of all Batman. "We're on to you," he says. "You've got rules. The Joker ''has'' no rules."
** ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' also subverted and lampshaded it in the opening scenes of the film. A CIA team has captured a group of Bane's minions and is trying to get Bane's location out of them; they have them all in hoods, bring one to the open door of the plane, and stick the mook's head out of it. The suspect refuses to talk, and the CIA interrogator ''pretends'' to have him killed (shooting his gun into open air before claiming to have thrown the mook from the plane) before moving him out of the way.

'''[[spoiler: Bane]]:''' Or perhaps he's wondering why someone would shoot a man before throwing him out of a plane.

* In ''Film/BringingDownTheHouse'', Charlene (Queen Latifah) holds an (ex) boyfriend over a balcony until he apologizes to the girl.
* ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'': Played with when Captain America and Natasha do this to a mole. He makes Cap admit that he'd never throw someone off a roof. So Natasha does it. [[spoiler: But as planned, Sam "Falcon" Wilson catches him and flies him back to the roof. THEN the guy talks, presumably not wanting to repeat the incident. The implicit threat is that they've already proven a willingness to throw him off, and now that Sam's on the roof with him, he's a lot less likely to catch him if he has to catch up to him on the way down.]]
* ''Film/{{Commando}}'': John Matrix (Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger) dangles one of the kidnappers of his daughter above a cliff to make him talk. This one is actually a lot more cold-blooded: While Sully is willing to cooperate and bring Matrix to where he's supposed to meet Cooke, who knows where Matrix's daughter is being held, Matrix had already found the necessary PlotCoupon in Sully's coat pocket to lead him to Cooke before holding him over the cliff's edge. Matrix just brought Sully there solely to [[BondOneLiner let him go]].

'''Matrix:''' ILied. ''(drops Sully)''

* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'':
** In ''Film/FastAndFurious'', Dom holds one of [[BigBad Braga's]] drivers over a window by his foot while questioning him about his boss. Even after the guy talks, Dom drops him anyway, but he grabs onto a ledge and Brian pulls him up.

%% * ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' occasionally does this.

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'':

* In ''Film/UnderworldAwakening'', while Selene is escaping the lab, a scientist orders his troops not to fire on her, in the hopes of following her to "Subject 2". Later, Selene holds him out a window and interrogates him. After he reveals what he knows, he protests, "I was the one who let you go!" She replies, "[[PreMortemOneLiner I guess this makes us even]]," and [[UnhandThemVillain lets go]] of the scientist.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Invincible|2021}}'': In episode 5, Nolan teaches this to Mark while holding a bad guy up in the air. While Mark is hesitant to actually drop the guy, Nolan quickly grabs him and sends him falling down.

'''Mark:''' OK but, you're gonna catch him, right?\\

** In the TimeTravel episode, "The Once and Future Thing, Part 2", young Batman does this to Ghoul, [[IHatePastMe and the older Bruce Wayne chides his younger self for being "that green"]] and shows him the [[EnhancedInterrogationTechniques proper way to interrogate someone]], which then leads to the two of them doing the 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' routine. The others are stunned at seeing ''Batman'' be the Good Cop.
** In another episode, the Flash tries interrogating someone this way. An unimpressed punk points out that [[PretenderDiss "[Flash is] no Batman"]], at which point the Flash drops him, then [[SuperSpeed runs down the side of the building to the street]], where he creates enough of an air cushion to prevent him from splattering, and finds the man much more willing to talk after having just been dropped 30 stories.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2003}}'', Leonardo -- who by then is going through a "hard-core" phase -- attempts this once with an informant in order to get information on the Purple Dragons.

** In ''Comicbook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', highlighting that they were ''both'' rougher characters in the early years, Batman does this, and ''actually does drop him''. When Superman returns the mook, Batman says "If I'd known you were going to catch him I wouldn't have dropped him." And then ''Supes'' replies "If I'd known you'd dropped him, I wouldn't have caught him!"

* In ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'', the title character {{invert|edTrope}}s this with Mahu. Since a fall won't kill Mahu, Lucifer threatens to throw him into orbit, from which re-entry ''will'' kill him .. eventually.

** On at least one occasion, he dropped a mook, used superspeed to catch him, and said, "Now, we can keep doing this until I get tired, or..."

** In ''Series/Supergirl2015'' tie-in comic ''ComicBook/AdventuresOfSupergirl'', Kara grabs villain Facet, takes her to the edge of the atmosphere and demands answers. When Facet fails to give them, Kara lets her drop (she was invulnerable so no real damage done).

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': During the period when ComicBook/{{Artemis}} was acting as Franchise/WonderWoman, she made a delusional StalkerWithACrush agree to being forcibly relocated and institutionalized by flying high and then dropping him and having a chat as he fell.

* ''Film/AnalyzeThat''

** In Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/Batman1989'', Batman does this to a {{Bit Part Bad Guy|s}} at the beginning of the film. Interestingly for a trope that generally works as a death threat, just before Batman holds the guy over the edge of the building, he tells the mook, "I'm not going to kill you."
--->'''Batman:''' I want you to do me a favor. I want you to tell all your friends about me.\\
'''Mook:''' What are you?\\
'''Batman:''' I'm Batman.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In the season 3 finale, Matt dangles Wilson Fisk's fixer Felix Manning off a rooftop by a cord attached to his leg, and gets Felix to confess to Vanessa's role in Ray Nadeem's murder as well as reveal leverage that Matt can use to get Dex to turn against Fisk.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise'': In "The Killing Distance", Willie extracts information from an assassin by holding him over the edge of a well.
[[/folder]]

-->'''PC:'''And you worked all that out by sniffing around?
-->'''Beckett:''' Actually, there were two hunters on the roof of the building opposite the hotel who were positively ''delighted'' to tell me everything they knew - provided I stop dangling them headfirst over the side.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': We see a flashback of Roy and Durkon dangling the kobold oracle upside-down out a window to 'persuade' him to let them have another answer after he responded to the question "Where is [[BigBad Xykon]]?" with the spectacularly useless "[[MathematiciansAnswer In his throne room.]]"[[note]]The Oracle usually had a "one question per person per visit" rule[[/note]].

[[folder:Web Original]]

-->'''Batman:''' Where. Is. Inque?!
-->'''Man:''' I don't know!
-->'''Batman:''' Wrong answer. ''(opens his fingers so the guy's just clinging to his wrist)''

* ''WesternAnimation/Invincible2021'': In episode 5, Nolan teaches this to Mark while holding a bad guy up in the air. While Mark is hesitant to actually drop the guy, Nolan quickly grabs him and sends him falling down.

'''Mark:''' Ok but, you're gonna catch him, right?\\

* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'', Leonardo -- who by then is going through a "hard-core" phase -- attempts this once with an informant in order to get information on the Purple Dragons.

->''"My arm's getting tired."''
-->-- '''Franchise/{{Batman}}''', ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', [[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E13TimeWarped "The Once and Future Thing: Time, Warped"]]

Compare JackBauerInterrogationTechnique, TortureAlwaysWorks, and DramaticGunCock, which also relies on making death threats during interrogations. Contrast DeathFlight.