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Human Hammer-Throw

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/giantswiiiiiing_2120.png
And now the Trunchbull was leaning back against the weight of the whirling girl and pivoting expertly on her toes, spinning round and round, and soon Amanda Thripp was travelling so fast she became a blur, and suddenly, with a mighty grunt, the Trunchbull let go of her pigtails and Amanda went sailing like a rocket right over the wire fence of the playground and high up into the sky.
— Matilda, Roald Dahl

Grabbing some part of your opponent's body, spinning around one or more turns, and then letting go!

This is a popular move due to its sheer impressiveness, though it's more than a little impractical. Usually, it's the legs or feet that are grabbed, but in some cases it's the arms, the heads, or the tail (if present).

May be combined with Grievous Harm with a Body (hitting other people either on the turns or with the throw) or A Twinkle in the Sky. Compare also Metronomic Man Mashing and Spinning Piledriver. It can be done with an ally, as a physically slightly more believable way to do a Fastball Special when the hurlee is heavy.

A Sub-Trope of Wrestler in All of Us, though it's seldom seen in wrestling (which should tell something of how practical the move really is). There it often is called a "Giant Swing", performed by the wrestler grabbing the opponent's legs, putting them under their arms, and then pivoting, spinning around to lift the opponent off the mat. The name "Hammer Throw" refers to the one of the Summer Olympic Games' events; this trope is when someone replaces the "hammer" as the thing being thrown.

The hurler pretty much has to have Super-Strength, Charles Atlas Superpower, or at least be very, very angry.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 
  • On the cover◊ of Golden Age comic Cat Man #9, the title character is swinging a Japanese officer around him by the leg.
  • The Incredible Hercules: Hercules is fond of this trope. However, when he attempted to use this on Hulk, who himself uses this at times, Hulk just punched Herc in the chest, making him lose his grip.
  • Superman:
    • The cover◊ of Superman #313" shows Superman whirling around while holding an opponent by the calf.
    • The Great Phantom Peril: When a crowd of Phantom Zoners attack Superman, Supes easily catches Jax-Ur's fist, swings him around and throws him into his partners.
  • Wonder Woman Vol. 2: When Wonder Girl (Cassie) is trying to get Artemis to stop trying to kill Etrigan, whom she's been misled to think is a heartless monster, she grabs the older Amazon by the hair and swings her into a couple of things before doing a spin and letting go to toss Temi away from Etrigan.

    Comic Strips 
  • In a Calvin and Hobbes strip, Calvin tries having Hobbes throw him this way. It ends with him crumpled at the foot of a tree.
    Hobbes: Are you sure there's a career to be made as a "human discus"?
    Calvin: Well, we gotta get a bigger field...

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In this Godzilla MonsterVerse fanfiction, during the Chapter 13 battle, San uses his head's jaws to grab the Many's Mind Hive by its tail, swings it around and slam it into the ground.
  • Makoto Nanaya does this with Nora Valkyrie in Chapter 52 of BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant, grabbing her hand and spinning rapidly before letting her go to launch her at an Atlesian Paladin, sending it tumbling back.
  • Dahlia Hawthorne Escaps From Pirson: After April May is found guilty of the multiple crimes she committed, she gets sentenced to a Cool and Unusual Punishment, the last part of said punishment being that she'll be sent to the Olympics to be used as the hammer in the hammer throw.
  • Fates Collide: After Cleopatra's snake gets weakened by a grenade, Mordred grabs its tail and swings it in circles, right into a punch from Yang, which defeats it.
  • In Hellsister Trilogy, Dev-Em grabs a Darkseid's Parademon by the ankles, and after using him as a makeshift flail to beat other Parademons up, spins him around and throws him away.
  • Here There Be Monsters: When they clash, villain Black Beauty grabs Mary Marvel's hair, swings her around, and then she flings Mary into a mountainside.
    Black Beauty grabbed her from behind by the hair, and swung her around at hyperspeed. When she let go, the Shazam Girl volplanned straight into the side of a mountain. She left an imprint.
  • Loved and Lost: An enraged Fluttershy finishes the beatdown she gives Garble's two dragon friends by spinning one of them around in the air from his tail before throwing him on top of the other one who's already downed.
  • RWBY: Epic of Remnant: Melanie tries to kick Lancelot, but he catches her ankle and swings her around several times before hurling her through a glass pillar.
  • In Thousand Shinji, Asuka uses her Eva's whip to perform the grab-whirl-and-throw move on an opposing MP-Eva.

    Films — Animation 
  • Mad Monster Party?. While Frankenstein's Monster is fighting with Dracula, he holds him by the legs, spins around several times and throws him away.
  • Disney's Peter Pan. During the fight with the Lost Boys, one of the Indians grabs the Boy wearing a fox costume by the tail, swings him around and throws him back into the main brawl.
  • Rugrats in Paris provides an unintentional example. Jean-Claude and his animatronic Robosnail grab the tail of the animatronic Reptar the babies use to try to get to Notre Dame before Chas marries Coco. While he does spin the animatronic Reptar around, he unintentionally throws it onto the Eiffel Tower when the bolts to its tail come loose.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Airplane!, it's used as a dance move.
  • Alien vs. Predator have a Xenomorph being on the receiving end, the thrower being one of the Predators who managed to grab hold of it's tail, swinging the Xeno in circles and smashing it through several pillars.
  • In Conan the Destroyer, Conan is on the receiving end of one of these from the "mirror monster".
  • The Cutting Edge incorporates this into a figure skating routine, angling the spin for height, then throwing and catching the partner.
  • The Taiwanese kung fu film Dragon Blows has a villainous mook being killed in this manner after having his head smashed into a tree and spun around in a few more circles before being sent flying. Due to the movie's mediocre budget and a severe case of Special Effect Failure, the henchman quickly turns into a ridiculously blatant rubber dummy.
  • Godzilla / King Kong:
    • King Kong vs. Godzilla: Kong grabs Godzilla's tail and does this to him, though he doesn't fly very far.
    • Godzilla does this to Kumonga in Godzilla: Final Wars, using the giant spider kaiju's webbing to throw him over the horizon.
    • Godzilla vs. Kong: When fighting a pair of Warbats, Kong kills one and then swings its body like a mace at the other one. Later in the movie, Godzilla ends up on the receiving end of this trope courtesy of Mechagodzilla.
  • In Kung Fu Hustle, the Landlord uses a variant of this where he grabbed the twin blind musicians, one on each hand, then grind them along the ground while spinning and then throw them away. It's revealed that he draws a taijitu on the ground in the process.
  • Older Than Television: In The Little Rascals short "Rushin' Ballet", Butch & Woim do this to Alfalfa while they're onstage at a ballet recital, Alfalfa having been Disguised in Drag in order to escape their clutches (it didn't work).
  • As in the book, Agatha Trunchbull in Matilda picks up Amanda Thripp by her pigtails and throws her clean over the school gates. These fantastical details are slightly mediated by the facts that the thrower is a former Olympics contender in the sport while the throwee is a 6-year-old girl. Another girl accurately predicts that Trunchbull will use "the hammerthrow move", and causally muses with another student if a tossed Amanda will make it over the fence, highlighting how used to this the students are.
  • The Matrix Reloaded during the Burly Brawl. After Neo throws off all of the Agent Smiths dogpiling on him, he grabs one of them by the legs, spins around and throws him into the crowd of Smiths.
  • Pacific Rim: The tosser in this case is a Kaiju and the tossee a Humongous Mecha. Gipsy Danger ends up flying for the better part of a mile before crashing into a harbor, thanks to the massively strong Leatherback.
  • In Rollo and the Spirit of the Woods, this is done by Big Rolley to Cacophony when the latter protests against the former winning the chieftain election through intimidation. Cacophony lands on the roof of his house and gets his head bandaged.
  • In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Lucas Lee uses this move against Scott Pilgrim while simultaneously aiming him towards the Casa Loma.
  • Superman:
    • Superman II: During the battle with the three Kryptonian supervillains, Superman grabs General Zod by an arm and a leg and swings him around in a circle. When he releases him, Zod flies away at great speed and hits an advertising sign.
    • In Man of Steel, in the final fight, Zod grabs Supes by the cape, then spins him around a few times before throwing him across multiple buildings. It's a nod to the scene from Superman II.
    • In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it happens to Superman again, courtesy of Batman, who weakens Clark with Kryptonite, wraps a cable around his ankle and, with Powered Armor increased strength, swings him through a number of stone pillars before letting go.
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day: During the T-1000's first battle with the T-800 in the mall, it grabs the T-800, spins around 360 degrees and throws him through a store window.
  • X-Men: The Last Stand: Colossus twice uses this as a wind-up to perform the Fastball Special with Wolverine.

    Literature 
  • In The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl, Trunky the elephant disposes of the crocodile by spinning him round and round his head, before letting go, where he flies up into space, into the sun, and is all sizzled up like a sausage.
  • In The Fall of the House of Cabal, during the fight to the death between Horst and Lord Varney, Horst managed to first press slam the younger vampire and then he grabbed Varney's ankles to give him the ol' spin and hoist. While this did send Varney flying 20 feet into a table, it did little more than give Varney time and distance to get himself a makeshift stake.
  • At one point in Honor Harrington, Lara does this to Queen Berry, to get her out of a room that's filling with Deadly Gas.
  • In Matilda, this is a specialty of The Trunchbull, who used to be an Olympic hammer-thrower.
  • In one of the Sammy Keyes books, Sammy does this to Heather after being ganged up on by Heather and her friends. It was downplayed a bit because Sammy didn't realize she was doing this until she got up to a pretty high speed.

    Live-Action TV 
  • One of Kamen Rider Takeshi Hongo's many techniques, under the name "Rider Swing".
  • A common thing to see in many installments of the Ultra Series, with the various Ultras using it against the Kaiju.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • WWE wrestler Antonio Cesaro uses the Giant Swing as his Signature Move, grabbing his opponent by the legs and swinging them around. While competing in the independents under his own name of Claudio Castagnoli, he became famous for being able to pull off 100 rotations before letting go.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons, Tome of Battle – Book of Nine Swords: The fluff for the Setting Sun maneuver "Ballista Throw" points out toward this kind of move:
    You grab your opponent and spin like a top, swinging him around before throwing him at your opponents like a bolt from a ballista.

    Video Games 
  • Tamaki Kousaka, one of the main heroines of To Heart 2, serves as the resident grappler in Aquapazza, complete with the Giant Swing as a command throw. Where things really get crazy is her Full Discipline Super Move, which sees Tamaki perform an extended Giant Swing after four German Suplexes. Due to the Active Emotion system affecting damage values and the player's ability to increase the throw's damage by spinning the stick, this can lead to Tamaki OHKOing from as "low" as half of her opponent's first lifebar.
  • In Batman: Arkham City, Robin has a special combo move where he grabs a foe and swings them around a couple times before throwing them.
  • In the first (September 23, 2010) gameplay demo for Bioshock Infinite, you are fighting a Handyman. As a horse runs by the Handyman, it grabs the horse, spins around and throws it at you but misses.
  • Bloody Roar: Primal Fury: Ganesha has one of these. After grabbing the victim's legs, he slams them once, then whips 'em around and tosses the victim across the ring. Shina has one too, except hers is used on crouching opponents, and has her hook them by their arms, spin, and launch them vertically into the air. The victim lands head-first.
  • Capcom is very, very fond of using this kind of attack in their games, fighters and beat 'em ups especially.
  • During the final battle with Heinrich in Conker's Bad Fur Day, Conker must first knock Heinrich out. Then, he must grab him by his tail and spin him until he's not holding onto the floor, then toss him out the airlock into space three times to defeat him.
  • In Dead or Alive, Tina Armstrong's Texas Twister has her grab downed opponents by their legs, then spin and toss them. Bass's lower leg counter, Giant Swing, is even more impressive in terms of its speed, power, and most especially of all... distance!
  • EXTRAPOWER: Giant Fist: While it's not necessary for their grab attacks, Zophy and Power King can pull this off, swing their unfortunate victim around before flinging them, typically into the human projectile's friends. They could just throw them normally, but it's more fun to give them a spin first. Power King can also purchase an ability that gives swinging throws maneuver an additional combat utility.
  • In Final Fantasy VII Remake, this is one of Rude's attacks, possibly meant as a Shout-Out to Cesaro since — as a bald man with Cool Shades — he resembles the WWE wrestler.
  • Some Team Attacks in Kingdom Hearts III:
    • Goofy's Goofy Bombardier: Sora and Goofy launch into the air. Sora grabs Goofy, spins several times, and then throws him, causing an explosion.
    • Hercules' Heroic Swing: Hercules grabs Sora and swings him around fast enough to create a mini-tornado. To finish the attack, Herc throws Sora into the air, and Sora creates an explosion while landing, similar to Goofy Bombardier.
    • Rapunzel's Tangled Twist: Rapunzel ties up Sora, Donald, and Goofy in her hair, and Flynn helps her spin around rapidly. The trio turn into shooting stars that (once again) explode on impact.
    • Downplayed with Mike and Sulley's Scream Strike: After stunning the enemies in front of them, Sora grabs Mike and spins around only once before throwing him.
  • The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon: One of Spyro and Cynder's new attacks has them grab onto enemies by biting them, and then they can spin them around, hiting other foes and damaging them before sending them flying away.
  • In the 3DS remake of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Link can do this to Twinmold while wearing the Giant's Mask. After stunning one, he can grab its tail, swing it around a few times then smash its head into the ground. It's just as awesome and funny as it sounds.
  • The Giant Swing is a regular move that appears in the Like a Dragon* series, being available to Kiryu or Saejima through a HEAT action or as a regular move. It's usually used on an opponent to spin them around and be used to hit their buddies or be spun straight into a nearby lamp post/tree head-first, though there's a few other ways a Giant Swing can be utilized. This isn't limited to the player either; certain enemies (mostly the larger and stronger ones) can even use this move on the protagonists if they aren't careful. In games that use the Dragon Enginenote , be prepared to be sent flying and ragdolling thanks to the series' new physics engine.
  • Mystical Fighter has a special move allowing you to grab enemies by the heels and spin them in circles before throwing them out of the screen. It only works for smaller, human-sized enemies, though.
  • At one point during the opening battle between Hashirama and Madara in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 does a QTE prompt lead to Hashirama's Wood Golem employing this against a Susano'o-empowered Nine-Tailed Fox, only the Nine-Tails is — naturally — swung around by its tails.
  • The Ninja Warriors Again, the large robot ninja can easily grab human-sized enemies — then instantly gets behind the foe to hold them under the armpits and spin them around before sending them flying for heavy damage.
  • In PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Fat Princess uses this as her sideways throw, using the ankle-grab variety.
  • Present in not one but two different Sailor Moon video games. In both Sailor Moon* (a 1993 Beat 'em Up for the Sega Genesis) and Sailor Moon S* (a 1994 Fighting Game for the Super Famicom), as well as most of their respective updates/sequels/successors*, Sailor Jupiter has access to such a move. She grabs an enemy by the legs, spins them around a few times (mowing down anyone nearby in the case of the beat 'em up), and then throws them a considerable distance. In the former, this can result in one of the most damaging moves in the game if she can get enough spins done before throwing. In the latter, it's outright designated as a Giant Swing in her moveset and likewise is a hugely damaging command throw. Either way, it's rather hilarious to see this done by a teenage girl.
  • In Samurai Warriors, Shingen has a special move which consists of grabbing a floored enemy by the legs, spinning them around, and sending them flying, often into a crowd of other enemies. Great against crowds of Mooks, because most of them can't figure out how to get in close without getting whacked by the guy being spun around. Imagawa Yoshimoto has a similar move, but unlike Shingen he can only target already-prone targets.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • In Soulcalibur II, Astaroth's Poseidon Tide is one of the most visually impressive throws of this nature. He uses his battle axe to whip the opponent around at high speed before launching them high into the air and quite nearly the opposite side of the arena!
  • In Suikoden V, Faylon does this to his sister, Faylen during their Unite Attack (seen at 2:05 here), which has him approach her from behind and grab her legs. Then spins her around a few times before launching her at the enemy! It usually causes them to become unbalanced afterwards, but you can get around it if you equip each of them with an Equilibrium Rune. That way, you can spam their Unite Attack without having to wait for them to recover.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
  • Mario uses the aforementioned throw from Super Mario 64 as his backward throw in the Super Smash Bros. series. He can also smack nearby enemies with the victim while he spins them. Prior to Ultimate, Luigi shared his brother's back throw.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
  • In Tekken, there is a special throw known as the Giant Swing/Spinning Throw, which operates under the basic principles of this trope. It is usable by King, Armor King, Roger/Alex, and Roger Jr., either as a standalone throw or as the end of a particular throw chain. King II also possesses a faster variant of the throw (Swing Away) which can be performed when the opponent is on the ground.
  • In Tobal, Ill-Goga has a custom back-throw that can be performed on them that consists of grabbing their tail, spinning them around, and throwing them.
  • Ultra Toukon Densetsu allows you to pull this off on enemies the same size as you, by grabbing them by their tails or legs and spinning them in circles. It might make you dizzy if you spin around too much, however, leaving you disorientated for a few seconds and vulnerable to other enemies in the area.
  • Ultraverse Prime has you playing as a Flying Brick superhero, and if you pull off a grappling move on enemies, you can spin them in circles before throwing.
  • Fittingly because of his wrestling career, Wolf Hawkfield of Virtua Fighter has it as a part of his moveset.

    Web Animation 
  • In Red vs. Blue's climactic fight in Season 10, Caboose gets angry again and becomes a One-Man Army. Among the resulting montage of him tearing apart Mecha-Mooks is a scene of him performing a Giant Swing on one of them and then throwing it at its allies, sending many of them tumbling down.

    Webcomics 
  • Furry Fight Chronicles: Chapter 12 has Adelgund pick up Muko and spin her around in their match rather effortlessly thanks to the size difference between them. Muko even describes the experience as a roller coaster of hell.
  • Mob Psycho 100: While the Body Improvement Club from Mob's school is fighting students from the Black Vinegar Middle School, the leader of the Club grabs the heels of one of the Black Vinegar students, spins around several times and throws him through the air.
  • The Order of the Stick: Tarquin demonstrates his skill at dwarf-throwing while disguised as Thog, grabbing Durkon by the beard and spinning in a blur of movement (shown in a rare-for-the-comic top view) before tossing him away inside the ziggurat.

    Western Animation 
  • Ben 10: In "Washington B.C.", this is how Four Arms ultimately takes the reanimated mammoth out of the fight.
  • In the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers episode, "Rescue Rangers to the Rescue: Part 5", Monterey Jack grabs Fat Cat by his tail, swings him around, and tosses him into Professor Nimnul's Fruitquake as retribution for sinking his house and vowing to set fire to it if he had a second chance.
  • DC Super Hero Girls, "#SheMightBeGiant": When Supergirl rises up, still defiant, after a Metronomic Man Mashing, Giganta grabs her by the head and, after spinning several times, sends her flying through the mall's ceiling and into the horizon.
  • In The Galaxy Trio episode "The Rock Men", Meteor Man grabs one of the Rock Men by the ankle, whirls him around his head and throws him at the villain.
  • The Simpsons: When the clan go to a 1950s-themed diner, first Marge spins Homer by one leg. Then Homer spins Marge around by the hair.
  • In the Space Ghost episode "The Lizard Slavers", while fighting with the title opponents Space Ghost grabs one of them by the tail, swings him around several times and throws him at a group of them, knocking them down.
  • The Transformers: Gears does this to Starscream in "Changing Gears".
  • In X-Men: The Animated Series, if there was a fight and Rogue was involved, nine times out of ten, she's grabbing some poor schmoe and throwing them into something this way.

 
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Cure Parfait

Cure Parfait defeats Bibury.

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Lobo

Swing Bros

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Cure Parfait

Cure Parfait defeats Bibury.

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Main / HumanHammerThrow

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Cure Parfait

Y2 Bar Slide vi...

Yakuza 2 Giant ...

Lobo

Swing Bros