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Take My Hand!

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Elan: OK, I'll help you up, if you promise to surrender.
Nale: Fine! Whatever! Just be careful, my hands are still slippery with your blood.
Elan: You're not making me feel better about this decision.

Take My Hand moments happen whenever a character is about to fall off a cliff, into a Lava Pit, or out of a speeding car and another one tries to catch their hand. First, it's not granted that their hands will reach at all. Second, even if they do grasp hands the audience is kept wondering for several seconds if the rescuer will be able to pull the falling character up or if their hand will slip. The whole act is typically accompanied by phrases like "Don't give up!" and "I'm not going to let you fall!", and occasionally a slow-motion shot of slipping fingers. Such moments are primarily used in thrillers and action movies to pump up the suspense.

Physically, it's pretty hard to lift someone up over a cliff with one hand if you don't possess Super-Strength. Sometimes, however, the rescuer remembers that humans usually have two arms and puts their second one to use, making the feat of hauling 100 to 300 pounds up a bit more plausible. Often, the use of only one hand is justified by making the rescuer hold onto something with the other one themselves. The falling character not using the other hand is justified by default, since when you are hanging from one hand, your other shoulder is inevitably several inches below the other, so the other hand simply won't reach up.

Another practical suggestion would be to grasp a person's wrist rather than their hand for a much surer hold. But for some reason, it's only done in the films to make the process of hands slipping out of grip more dramatic: first the wrist grip slips, then the palm, then a few fingers... and then the character the hero was trying so hard to save falls to his or her death.

More elaborate cases include:

  • The falling character not wanting to be rescued, (either out of embarrassment, because they dislike or distrust the rescuer, or because they want to atone for their previous deeds this way), so the rescuer first has to convince them to put in some effort.
  • The character flatly refuses to be saved out of pride or despair and lets go voluntarily before the rescuer can reach them.
  • A third character unexpectedly coming to the rescuer's help after they let the rescued's hand slip.
  • Performing the whole trick with Humongous Mecha.
  • The rescuer asks for the rescuee to give them both hands, and the rescuee refuses because they're (a) holding something they don't want to let go of, (b) trying to grab something valuable nearby or (c) afraid to let go of what they're holding onto.
  • The rescuer themselves leaps down, grabs the rescuees hand, then proceeds to grab a rope with their other which they then slide down until they have no extra room. Bonus points if someone at the top starts cutting it. Grapple guns and such also fall into this category.
  • The hanging character will sometimes be wearing gloves (usually leather) on their hands, which slowly start to slip off - with each successive shot of the gloved hand showing it more on the verge of slipping off completely.
  • A Chain of People comes to the rescue, instead of just one person.
  • The rescuer ends up in the same predicament, either accidentally or because the falling character deliberately tried to drag the rescuer down with him.

This trope is not limited to physical contact: any sequence where a character bails another one out of impending danger in an inconceivably dramatic way can be considered an example. Compare Catch a Falling Star; contrast with Unhand Them, Villain!. If the characters are not in a dangerous situation, it's Offering a Hand.

Save the Villain often involves a Take My Hand moment. Compare/contrast Holding Hands and Offering a Hand. See also Clock Tower, Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity, Climbing Climax.

Watch out for spoilers, as these examples will often divulge details on the fates of major characters.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • About 50 seconds into the opening for Ai Yori Aoshi, Kaoru and Aoi are seemingly suspended in midair and about to be separated. In the first version of the opening, they fail to take each other's hands, but in the second version, they succeed.
  • Used in Baccano! with Isaac saying this Czeslaw when he's about to fall off a speeding train. Of course, since the fall can't kill him but Isaac could, even if he doesn't know it, Czeslaw doesn't and Isaac has reach a little further. This leads to a ridiculous extended sequence in which this trope is used multiple times. Isaac grabs Czes but is knocked off the train, Miria grabs him, but loses her grip, Rachel tries to save all three of them by grabbing Isaac's lasso, but lets go due to an injury, leading to Claire grabbing the rope and then handing it off to a minor character who finaly pulls them up.
  • This comes up a lot in Berserk. The most frequent occurrence is whenever Guts saves Casca from falling over a ledge and into the water (which, in order of amount of times, was subverted, played straight, and averted).
  • After the big fight with Creed in the Black Cat manga, Train grabs an unconscious Creed's arm to keep him from falling off a tower's roof. Train's hand was going to slip, but Leon intervenes and uses his wind powers to keep them afloat.
  • Bleach: During episode 146, Ichigo does this twice to Nel while saving her from hazards in Hueco Mundo - a sand tornado and a sand sinkhole similar to an ant-lion's trap.
    • Ichigo and Orihime attempt this as they're about to be separated on their entry to the Seireitei, but they fail. Similarly, Ichigo tries this with Senna as she's abducted by the Dark Ones in the first movie, but it also fails.
    • Rather interestingly subverted in the manga. The younger Masaki (Ichigo's mother) extended her hand at a massive Hollow... but only to lull it into a false security so it would get close to her, while allowed her to cradle it and then snipe it dead.
  • Call of the Night: After Nazuna casually tosses Shirakawa out her apartment's window, following Yamori's request to "make sure she can't go back to work", Yamori jumps after Shirawaka himself and catches her hand just as Nazuna catches his.
    Shirakawa: (internally) Am I going to die? Is this going to kill me?!
    Yamori: IT'S OKAY!
    (reaches for Shirakawa's hand)
    Yamori: YOU WON'T DIE!
  • Subverted in Case Closed. Heiji and Kazuha dangling from a cliff. Kazuha stabs him with an arrowhead to make him let her go. He still holds on.
  • In episode 6 of Code Geass, the Magnificent Bastard Lelouch stagesnote  a dramatic fall from the school bell tower and is saved by his childhood friend Suzaku, thus, preventing the latter from discovering some troublesome facts about him (namely that he's secretly a terrorist because a cat stole his mask and if he saw that it would be blown wide open). It also has the side benefit of endearing Suzaku to Lelouch's classmates, helping deal with the racism he had experienced the rest of the episode.
    • And they do it again in episode 13 of R2, this time also involving Shirley: after she falls off a high wall, Lelouch grabs her hand, also falls down, but Suzaku grabs his leg and bails them both out (he is a Super-Soldier by that time, anyway). Talk about Geass innovating genres...
      • Lelouch didn't grab her hand then fall-he grabbed her hand by diving off of the wall after her. Because he didn't want to lose anyone else... and probably because he knew that Suzaku would catch him—if not for his sake, then for Shirley's.
    • Subverted in the season 2 opener when Rolo failed to catch Lelouch.
  • In the Cowboy Bebop episode "Heavy Metal Queen", VT grabs Spike's hand and pulls him into her truck so as not to let him drift away in space.
  • Subverted hilariously in Dai-Guard, when the Monster of the Week grabs the title mech's arm, and one of the pilots says something along the lines of "You want my arm? Then TAKE MY ARM!" At which point the arm breaks off at the elbow and the monster plunges into the sea.
  • Played absolutely straight to type in The Daughter of Twenty Faces, in a Save the Villain moment atop a speeding train during a snowstorm. It sounds horribly cliche but it was still excellent and tragic.
  • Played straight in the second Digimon Tamers movie when an unconscious Ruki rolls off the top of a moving train carriage and wakes up to discover herself only alive by the grace of Takato. After the obligatory "let me go or we'll both die" speech, Renamon comes to the rescue. It's not quite Humongous Mecha, but it'll do...
    • Earlier in the series proper, Beelzemon desperately tries to save Juri from the D-Reaper by breaking into where it is keeping her prisoner, as penance for killing her Digimon partner, Leomon. Unfortunately, it's Leomon's data he uses to break into the Kernel Sphere; seeing Leomon's attack coming from his killer scared and confused Juri, however, and he failed.
      • In the manga version of that scene, Juri does attempt to take his hand, but he is cut down before she can.
    • In the first Digimon series, Tai saves Sora from falling into a huge hole by grabbing her arm. Datamon, who had kidnapped Sora and tried to clone her so he could use her Crest of Love to his advantage, uses his mechanic arms to try injuring both of them and force Tai drop her, but Tai still holds on.
  • The ending of the .hack//G.U. Trilogy movie is basically one big Take My Hand scene between Haseo and Ovan.
  • In a rare, falling-free example, a climactic scene in Double Arts has Kiri demanding that Elle do this when she begs him to leave her behind to escape an assassin. She does. (He's very persuasive.)
  • Happens quite often in Eureka Seven, (including in some of the title sequences,) though often without the actual words being spoken. Oh, and it usually happens thousands of feet in the air, with one character in a giant flying robot. Because that's how they roll.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist, Lan Fan attempts to save Ling this way. However, Wrath is hanging onto Ling's hand, and the strain of their weight threatens to rip Lanfan's automail arm off. Ling tells her to drop them both, but when she refuses he manages to force Wrath off (partly thanks to a Briggs soldier) so Lanfan can pull him up.
  • In Fushigi Yuugi, Miaka reaches down to save The Mole by grabbing his flute, which is in his hand. He then let go of his own flute and fell into a raging river and died. Or so it seemed.
  • In episode 9 of Grenadier, Yajiro attempts to save Fuuka Shiratou from falling off a cliff twice and fails on both occasions.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya has a different take on this. When Haruhi drags Mikuru outside of the club room (both in a bunny outfit), Mikuru extends her hand to Kyon to save her. Kyon couldn't take her hand, though.
  • Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto: In the final episode, while Acchan is attacking him, Sakamoto grabs his hand when he falls over the railing, and doesn't let go even when Acchan hits his hand with a bat and draws blood. When the blood makes his grip slippery, Sakamoto ''lets his pants fall down rather than let go of the rail and Acchan.
  • Subverted in episode 11 of Jyu-Oh-Sei when Thor tries to save a falling Third. Thor won't let go even after Third tells him it's for the best. Third ends the debate by shooting himself in the head. He can be a weird bastard like that.
  • Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple - Kenichi grabs Takeda's right arm after Takeda falls off the roof. He calls for Takeda to use his other arm. Cue plot revelation (that Takeda's left is paralyzed).
  • In Kyo Kara Maoh!, the main character Yuuri is about to fall into a newly-made giant canyon when he is caught by his fiance, Wolfram. Wolfram pulls him up using both arms and quite a lot effort, but has only one arm to pull on because Yuuri refuses to let go of Conrad's severed arm.
    • A lesser moment earlier on when Yuuri and Wolfram are climbing a mountain and Wolfram slips. Yuuri ends up dropping Wolfram to distinctly non-fatal consequences.
  • Lupin III: The Columbus Files: Lupin to Fujiko during the beginning of the movie. She falls and Lupin has to search for her.
  • In the last episode of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Nanoha has to convince Fate to break out of her Heroic BSoD and take her hand to be hauled to safety. This is almost entirely symbolic, however, since both characters are fully capable of personal flight, occasionally against their will. Who says magical devices don't have self-preservation programming?
  • Played with in episode 12 of Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi— as the building they're on collapses, Sasshi catches Arumi before she falls, and tells her "Ain't a chance in hell I'm lettin' go of this hand"...unfortunately, he let go with the hand he was holding onto the building with.
  • Near the end of Metropolis (2001), Kenichi tells Tima to "Grab my hand!" as he's trying to pull her to safety.
  • The episode 40 of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED sees a rather unusual development of this trope: both characters involved are piloting Humongous Mecha and the "rescuer" has to pull the "rescued" onto an accelerating space shuttle.
    • Also, in the very last episode, Athrun is about to blow himself up together with the entire enemy base when Cagalli comes after him and convinces him to live on. This is an indirect but obvious Take My Hand moment.
  • In Episode 35 of the Monster Rancher anime, Naga, one of the chief villains, is blasted through a wall by Mocchi and is now hanging onto the edge of his castle above a deep canyon. Holly reaches her hand out to him and tells him to take her hand. Genki and Mocchi do the same. Suezo is reluctant because Naga destroyed his village, but eventually extends his tongue with the others' hands. However, instead of taking their hands, Naga says "So that's why you're all so strong" and lets go, falling to his death. This is combined with Save the Villain. (He is later resurrected as a purified monster once Moo is destroyed)
  • Subverted in Musuko ga Kawaikute Shikataganai Mazoku no Hahaoya. Cochrane, having hit the Despair Event Horizon after his older sister Byakuren was killed, tries to throw himself off a damaged skyscraper so he can be with her again, only for what looks like a hand to grab him. But when he looks up, it's shown that what actually happened was that the braclet made from Byakuren's hair had gotten caught on an exposed piece of rebar, which slows him down long enough for Kewpie to catch him before he hits the ground. The whole thing is framed as Byakuren continuing to protect him from beyond the grave.
  • Attempted on a large scale at the end of the Wham Volume of Negima! Magister Negi Magi. It utterly fails.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion has Unit 01 grabbing Unit 02 by the umbilical cable. What makes it a significant variation is that the Humongous Mecha is already in the magma pit (and has been since the start of the mission), which makes it much slower, and Shinji jumped into the volcano without protection to save Asuka.
    • The second Rebuild of Evangelion film features a deliberate homage to the above Utena example when Shinji attempts to save Rei after she and Unit 00 were absorbed by Zeruel.
  • In the last episode of Noir, Kirika tackles the series' Big Bad Altena into a lava pit, and then goes all Redemption Equals Death when Mireille tries to haul her out. Mireille's last-second, teary "I'm begging you to live" declaration convinces her that suicide isn't such a good idea after all. Made slightly more realistic by virtue of the facts that both girls link both hands at the wrists, both girls are in very good shape despite a collection of cuts, contusions and one abdominal gunshot wound, and Kirika is fairly small, which would make her an easier lift.
  • Now and Then, Here and There Shu saves Nabuca from falling off to his certain death despite the fact that the two were fighting just a few moments previously, thus establishing Shu as a certified Wide-Eyed Idealist.
  • Usually this occurs with Robin in One Piece where she uses her powers to reach out and grab any Straw Hat in peril. Luffy and Nami attempt to do this before the latter was sent away by Kuma but fails. In the 10th opening, Luffy reaches out towards Ace.
  • In the Ouran High School Host Club anime's final episode Haruhi is riding alongside Tamaki's convertible in a horse-drawn carriage. She lets go of the reins with one hand to offer it to him as she tells him that no one sees him as a burden and everyone enjoys the Host Club, herself included. Before Tamaki has time to reply the carriage loses control and Haruhi falls over the side of the bridge they were on. Tamaki quickly jumps out of his car and off the bridge after her. As they're both falling Tamaki shouts Haruhi's name as he reaches his hand out to her. She reciprocates, and he pulls her into a protective embrace. Then they both hit the water, and next we see them walking out of the lake perfectly fine, albeit soaked.
  • Towards the end of the first season of Queen's Blade Reina is grabbed by her sister, Claudette, who she then convinces to let her fall. Still not sure how she survives, apparently without a scratch.
    • Reina did seem to have died and Menace brought her back to life, curing her wounds since it wouldn't do to have her 'plaything' injured. Also, fanservice.
  • A variation of this happens in a filler episode of Ranma ½. Both Akane and Ranma jump over a cliff to retrieve a MacGuffin. Ranma catches the MacGuffin, Akane catches Ranma's hand and a convenient branch on the side of the cliff. So it ends up being a double cliffhanger (until the branch breaks).
    • In the climax of the long-running Nodoka storyline, Ranma's mother accidentally goes flying up and over a cliff overlooking the ocean. Ranma doesn't bother trying to catch her from solid ground: he leaps down to catch her mid-flight -defying the known laws of physics-, reaching out with his hand and pulling her up mere instants before they hit the rocks below. Then he hurls her (sheathed) katana at the cliff face hard enough to embed it in the rock, providing a small (but sufficient) foothold.
  • In Rave Master, Haru grabs Shuda's hand to keep him from falling off his airship. To prevent Haru from risking his own life since the ship is about to crash, Shuda cuts off his own hand and falls to his apparent demise.
  • Inverted in Read or Die, the final scene aboard the I-Jin rocket. After killing Ikkyu and dismantling the broadcast machinery that would have played Beethoven's "Suicide Symphony" to a global audience, Nancy lets go of Yomiko's hand allowing Yomiko to fall to safety while Nancy get a Redemption Equals Death ending.
  • The Record of Lodoss War OVA ends this way when Deedlit grabs Parn's hand before he departs on a horse and rides off with him at the end.
  • In end of Revolutionary Girl Utena, the titular character tries to pull Anthy out of her personal hell she confined herself to.
    • And actually fails.
      • Or not. The point of the whole thing was to get Anthy out of that black pit, and, thanks to Utena, it does happen in the end - though not exactly in the way she intended to do it. It was more important that Anthy CHOSE to take Utena's hand.
    • The wrist thing is averted twice: Utena pulls Anthy back up to the tower successfully, holding Anthy's wrist, but the time at the end when she fails, they were only holding fingers.
  • Used with a variation in the Sailor Moon SuperS manga. Minako, who has been Brought Down to Normal, enters a mysterious Idol Singer contest. During that, she is attacked by the enemy and, at some point, she's desperately hanging on the edge of a tower. Artemis (her cat) attempts to help her in by taking her hand with his paws, but Palla Palla launches a boulder at him and Minako is horrified as she thinks he's dead. Cue to Artemis temporarily acquiring his human form and being able to give Minako the boost she needs to transform into Sailor Venus, saving them both.
    • In Stars, Neptune does this with Uranus when the latter is knocked off a building, complete with their gloves starting to slip off.
    • Happens again in the very last battle with Galaxia. Sailor Moon reaches for her hand.
  • In episode 14 of the Super Robot Wars: Original Generation anime Divine Wars, Ryusei in his Wildraubtier does this with Rai in his Schutzwald to prevent the latter from burning up in the atmosphere. And while standing on Irm's Wing Gust.
  • Happens a few times in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-. Syaoran to Sakura he fails the first time but saves her after messing up the time space continuum. Also Kurogane to Fai to save him from a dying world this doesn't work either and Kurogane must sacrifice his arm.
  • The Vision of Escaflowne: Van saves Hitomi from certain doom more than once. Foklen saves the cat girls.
  • Wolf's Rain Bookends this. Tsume, leading a gang of thieves, tries to save one of them from falling off a high beam. The problem is, Tsume doesn't really have hands because he's a wolf disguised as human by an illusion. Instead he has to grab the falling human's shoulder with his jaws. Unfortunately the moment he does so it breaks the illusion, and seeing a wolf biting his shoulder the human panics and falls to his death. Tsume later uses the same method to save Toboe, but since Toboe is also a wolf he's not freaked out by being grabbed by one.
    • Also attempted at the end of the series once again by Tsume. Hubb is falling to his death. Tsume reaches out his hand to try and grab him out of midair. But since Hubb has resigned himself to his end and has nothing else to live for, he doesn't even reach out, only smiling as he continues to plunge downward.
  • X/1999 uses this trope twice in similar and parallel situations in which Kamui keeps Kotori from falling off a tree when they were children and later from falling into an abyss.
    • Also used in The Movie, when Yuzuriha almost plummets to her death from a skyscraper and Kamui grabs her hand, then uses his Psychic Powers to teleport both of them to the top of the building.
  • Doumeki of ×××HOLiC saves Watanuki from falling off the school roof (he was pushed by some ghosts) by doing this. Extra points because the ghosts attack Doumeki, but he keeps holding on. Also used twice in the movie. One of those times it's subverted - Doumeki grabs Watanuki's hand and they both go over the edge.
  • Subverted in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. In the Bad Future, Zone tries to rescue a woman falling into a fissure and managed to grab her hand. It's short-lived, she loses her grip almost immediately and plummets, leading to his Despair Event Horizon.

    Comic Books 
  • In pre-Flashpoint Blue Beetle, the finale of Jaime's battle with the Reach has a variation of this. Booster Gold teleports into the self-destructing Reach Commander's ship to get Jaime to safety. Jaime protests against leaving the Commander to die and begs him to take Jaime's hand. The Commander simply falls to his knees whispering "...we never had a chance".
  • The Captain America villain Baron Zemo was subject to this on multiple occasions before falling to his death again.
  • Subverted in Daredevil; after Bullseye kills DD's love interest Elektra, there's a chase sequence that ends with Daredevil's grip on Bullseye's wrist the only thing saving him from a long drop. Bullseye starts ranting hysterically about how he won't let Daredevil save him, how he's going to kill him—and Daredevil drops him.
  • ElfQuest has its share, among them:
    • In the first graphic novel, Cutter tries to save Rayek this way. Rayek climbs to safety, then, panic receding, falls back on pure hatred for losing face that way.
    • In the second graphic novel, a groggy Skywise gets dragged off a cliff, wounding his arm in the process, but with his good arm he manages to snag a handhold. Cutter climbs down a rope to him; Skywise is rapidly succumbing to shock and pain, and Cutter finds that he can't climb with one hand while holding Skywise onto his back with the other. Takes an unusual ally to get them to safety again.
      • Interestingly, this was originally going to be the scene where Skywise dies - but as series creator Wendy was explaining the upcoming plot to new co-creator Richard, she "made the mistake" of mentioning that Skywise was a star-gazer, and Richard, deeply interested in astronomy, adopted the elf on the spot. "He's mine. I take possession. You are not going to kill him."
    • A later variant has Skywise trapped in a collapsing mountain, the rock having shaped itself around him like a personal tomb; as another elf was holding his hand at the time, his hand is the only thing left sticking out of the rock. Elves on both sides of the newly erected wall have to flee, leaving Skywise trapped and rapidly losing oxygen. But, hey, this is Richard's pet character, and it all works out.
  • In The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #18, Indy and Marion end up hanging off the remains of a collapsed Rope Bridge. Indy reaches for Marion, but Marion—who has wrenched her shoulder in the fall—cannot reach his hand and falls into the crevasse.
  • Infinite Crisis: The Brother Eye satellite is falling to Earth, with Batman still inside. Hal Jordan flies back to save him, despite the fact that Batman openly hates/distrusts him the most for his actions as Parallax.
    Brother Eye: You cannot trust them. You can never trust them after all they have done.
    Batman: I'll take my chances. (grabs Hal's hand).
  • In Jonah Hex #50 (original series), Emmylou Hartley slips off a cliff during a snowstorm. Jonah is able to grab her by one hand, and manages to get her to grab his other hand as she starts to slip before pulling her up.
  • Preacher features an interesting variation on this. Cassidy, the super-strong vampire, catches Jesse, the preacher with the Word of God who can force anyone to do what he says, as Jesse falls out of a plane. Unfortunately, A) a nuclear bomb has just gone off behind them, so B) the electromagnetic pulse has shorted out all the plane's electronics, turning it into an unwieldy glider, and C) it's daytime, so Cassidy's forearm is starting to catch on fire in the sunlight. Cassidy isn't willing to let his best mate die—but Jesse tells him to, and with the Word of God on his side, Cassidy has no choice but to do so. One of the finest moments in the series, too bad it immediately leads to revealing Cassidy is and always was a self-centered jerk.
  • Superman:
    • Superboy (1994): Kon-El tries to save his Evil Knockoff Match from an exploding hidden base but Match refuses to take his hand, preferring to take his chances in the explosion than be saved by Superboy. The only reason SB didn't just grab him anyway was because he was also trying to save the human leaders of the evil organization that created Match and going after him would have exposed them to the explosion.
    • Supergirl (Rebirth) provides an example where a bad guy does this. Supergirl is feeling lonely and insolated after her cousin's death. Cyborg Superman shows up and declares that he can take her to Argo City, and she only needs to take his hand.
    • In Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, Lois Lane falls off a catwalk, but Peter Parker grabs her hand and pulls Lois up.
    • Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom: When Kal and Kara are pushed off a cliff by a couple of giant predators, the former manages to cling to a dangling root and catch the latter's hand.
  • Tragg and the Sky Gods: In #6, Keera falls into a pit of spikes while trying to kill Lorn. She is left Hanging by the Fingers from a narrow ledge. Tragg and Lorn offer mercy to her and reach in an pull out her out, which astounds Keera.
  • Wonder Woman Vol 1:
    • Lauren Haley fell to her death during Crisis on Infinite Earths when her hands were too bloody and she couldn't climb high enough for Steve to be able to reach her before slipping.
    • When Ares nabs the robot plane Diana urges Steve to take her hand lest he fall to his death own death.
  • X-Force: Double subversion. X-23, having been infected by the last sample of the Legacy Virus, attempts to leap into a vat of molten steel to destroy it. Elixer grabs her at the last second and, despite her threat to sever his arm, managed to use his healing powers in conjunction with her regeneration to burn it out of her system completely... but the effort weakens him to the point where he drops her anyway. Fortunately, without the outward momentum she managed to hit/catch the edge of the tank and merely caught on fire.

    Fan Works 
  • The Child of Love: In chapter 7 Shinji gets knocked out and Teri’s spirit visits his dreams and tells him giving her his hand to bring him back to the real world.
    Teri:"Enough said...come on, Otousan. Give me your hand. I'll bring you back to the real world."
    Shinji complies. When he takes his little girl's hand, a warm feeling spreads all over his body...he then wakes up in a hospital room.
  • Evangelion 303: In chapter 12, after a fight Shinji manages to bring Asuka out of her depression. Then he offers his hand to help her to stand up. And she takes it.
  • In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, Proto Man attempts this with Metal man in episode 9. It almost works until he copies his weapon, enraging Metal Man.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: When a fatigued Asuka is trying to climb out of the LCL pool carrying an uncontentious Shinji, Misato and Rei takes Asuka's free hand to pull both of them out. Misato tells her to give her other hand, but Asuka refuses to do so, before she can pull Shinji out, too.
  • In Once More with Feeling:
    • Shinji has several nightmares where Asuka is sinking into a volcano and he jumps into the lava and reach out to grab her hand... but he misses.
    • Later on, Rei manages to grab Asuka's hand when she's falling, and pulls her out of the volcano.
  • Thousand Shinji: Shinji did this to Asuka twice: when she was sinking into Leliel and he caught her, and when he went inside her mind to heal her.

    Film — Animated 
  • Batman: Gotham by Gaslight: Jack the Ripper apparently falls off a Ferris wheel but is shown to be hanging on to the edge. Batman offers him his hand only to have Jack slap a handcuff onto Batman's wrist, so they have to fight while handcuffed together.
  • Batman: Gotham Knight: In "Working Through Pain", a wounded Batman is trudging through Gotham's sewers and starts finding numerous pistols, abandoned after being used in crimes. Suffering from a Heroic BSoD at the sight, he starts gathering them all up. Meanwhile Alfred has come to look for him.
    Alfred: [reaching down into the sewer] Sir, give me your hand.
    Batman: [arms full of guns] I... I can't.
  • Aladdin:
    • Aladdin to Jasmine. A fall was only implied the first time, and it was when she trusts him that they jump off (safely).
      "Do you trust me?"
    • Averted by Jafar. Aladdin needs to be pulled up, Jafar says "First give me the lamp," takes the lamp and then, instead of pulling Aladdin up, tries to kill him with a dagger, then when Abu bites him, leaves Aladdin in the Cave of Wonders to die.
  • The infamous storm scene in An American Tail has a really gut-wrenching example between Fievel and his father after the former gets caught outside on the ship. Sadly, Fievel's sleeve rips just as a tsunami crashes over them, causing Papa to lose his grip on him. Fievel eventually falls overboard and does not see his family again until the end of the movie.
  • Anastasia: During Anastasia's and the Empress's escape from St. Petersburg, the Empress gets on a moving train, and tries to grab hold of Anastasia's hand. She fails, and Anastasia is left behind.
  • April and the Extraordinary World: As the rocket blasts off, April has to run back to the elevator as the gantry gives way underneath her. The last section falls away before she reaches the elevator. As she tumbles into space, her outstretched hand is grabbed by her father. Then the camera pulls back to reveal that he is dangling almost completely out of the elevator and being held in by Julius.
  • In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast tries to save Gaston this way. He falls to his Disney Villain Death, however.
  • Bolt has a more of a "take my paw". Bolt tries to save Mittens when she nearly falls off a train, but it's subverted as Mitten refuses because she knows Bolt isn't really a "super-dog". Bolt is then forced to grab her by the neck instead.
  • Near the end of Brave, Bear Elinor tries to do this to Princess Merida as an attempt to save her daughter from the evil bear Mor'du while escaping the ruins of his castle. It works.
  • In Finding Nemo, Marlin catches Dory by one fin as they're falling toward the back of the whale's throat. This might be considered something of an inversion, since not only does Dory not want to be rescued, falling is in fact the only way for them to get out of the whale.
  • Subverted in The Great Mouse Detective. Basil is holding out Olivia while leaning over the edge of Big Ben. She strains to reach her father's hand, but ultimately can't reach him. It's only when Ratigan knocks them off the edge that her father is finally able to grab his daughter and save her from plunging over.
  • Esmeralda tries to do this to Quasimodo at the end of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney) during the final battle with Frollo. Just right after Frollo falls to his doom, Esmeralda loses her grip, and as a result Quasimodo falls off the balcony as well, only to be caught and pulled back up by Phoebus (who is waiting at a lower balcony) at the last minute.
  • Rather "take my trunk" when Manny saves Diego from falling into a river of lava in Ice Age.
  • In Inside Out, Sadness catches herself and Joy on the outer ledge of the window of Headquarters. Even though it's rather Downplayed compared to the other examples (Joy gets a grip on the ledge immediately afterwards), had Sadness not caught Joy by her bag's drawstrings, she would've certainly fallen into the Memory Dump for the second time, and this time with no way to get back out.
  • The Lion King:
    • In The Lion King (1994), Scar holds Mufasa above a tall cliff by driving his claws into the backs of Mufasa's paws. Then Scar throws him off, and Mufasa dies. Later, he tries to do the same to Simba, but it backfires.
    • In The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Kiara reaches for Zira's paw, but fails to save her (it would have been physically impossible anyway). There was a small part cut which changed the meaning so that Zira intentionally let go of the cliff into the rapids. It was a bit too disturbing for a kids' film.
  • In Mulan, a kinda twisted version of this happens when Mulan and Shang (along with Mushu, Cri-Kee and Mulan's horse) get caught in the avalanche and the rest of the soldiers try to pull them all up with a rope. Everybody involved almost gets pulled off the cliff in the process. It then turns into a completely comical scene when Chien Po picks everyone up and pulls them all to safety.
  • In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games, when Midnight Sparkle begins tearing open portals in reality that begin expanding, several Canterlot and Crystal Prep students start to fall through, but the main characters rush in to grab them. However, they wind up nearly suffering the same fate until the Shadowbolts come to their aid.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie: When Metal Sonic is about to fall into the Lava below, Sonic reaches out to him in a last-ditch bid to help him. Just when he's gotten close enough, Metal knocks his hand away with the same statement he's been saying all movie: "There is only one Sonic", and he apparently doesn't think it's him.
  • In Starship Troopers: Invasion, Trig and Bugspray meet for the first time when Trig nearly doesn't make it onto the Alesia, save for Bugspray grabbing her hand. She is very appreciative. However, in the next movie, Rico tries to use his Jump Jet Pack to leap onto a hovering dropship, only to miss the outstretched hand of another trooper and apparently fall to his death.
  • Strange Magic: How their hands interact are a running theme between Marianne and the Bog King. At first, he's catching her fist before she can punch him. Then he's catching her from falling. Finally he's offering his hand to her and she takes it, showing that she trusts him.
  • Mario and Luigi at the very beginning of The Super Mario Bros. Movie when they both accidentally get sucked into a pipe leading to the Mushroom Kingdom. Unfortunately, Luigi loses his grip, and as a result he ends up in the Dark Lands instead, where he is then immediately kidnapped by Bowser, with only Mario reaching the Mushroom Kingdom, where he then goes to team up with Princess Peach and Toad to try and save Luigi from Bowser.
  • Happens multiple times in Tarzan (2013). It ends tragically when Kala reaches for her baby, with the branch snapping before she can reach him. When Jane falls of the cliff, Tarzan manages to grab her but loses his grip so that she falls into the river and he has to dive in after her. When Jane misses her jump over the chasm in the climax, Tarzan grabs her and promises to never let go.
  • Toy Story: As Buzz and Woody are riding RC toward the truck, Slinky Dog grabs Woody's hand and tries to pull them aboard.
  • In Treasure Planet, the only way Silver could've kept Jim from falling to a very painful death was to let go of a boatload of Flint's treasure, which he had spent the better part of his life searching for. He chooses Jim over the treasure, solidifying his Heel–Face Turn.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • In The Abyss, a strange and almost beautiful version of this plays completely wordlessly. Lt. Coffey is in one sub that's about to slip down the wall of the abyssal trench; Lindsay Brigman is in another sub, nose-to-nose with his. As his sub slips, both Coffey and Lindsay instinctively reach towards one another, but all they can do is put their hands on the inside of their own glass.
  • Done horizontally rather than vertically in Air Force One, when Harrison Ford nearly falls out the belly hatch of the plane.
    • He also used this in North By Northwest, where it's justified that they can use just one hand.
  • In the The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter is tumbling off the Oscorp tower, and it looks like he manages to grab the ledge just as he goes over it. When he looks up, it turns out Connors has grabbed his arm. Unfortunately, he used his right hand to do so, which, after being hit with the antidote, is quickly starting to fall apart... and then Connors grabs him with his left just as Peter is on his way down again.
  • In AVP: Alien vs. Predator, Alexa and another scientist jump across a chasm to escape a pursuing alien. He makes it, she lands on loose bricks and begins to fall. The editing suggests that she's past the point of no return, but sure enough, he grabs her wrist just in time and manages to pull her back up.
  • In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne saves the unconscious Ducard in this manner. He can only use one arm because he is flat on his back, with the gauntlet on his other arm wedged into the ice to hold him in place. At least Bruce yells to let the audience know it was really hard.
  • Near the climax of Batman Forever, Robin does this to save the villain Two-Face from a deadly fall, preferring to see him rot in jail than to be responsible for his death. In an unusual twist, as soon as he's safe Two-Face pulls a gun and takes Robin hostage.
  • Batman (1989): Subverted twice. Early in the film, as Jack Napier desperately clings to a bar to avoid falling into a vat of chemicals, Batman extends a hand to help pull him back onto the railing, but ultimately loses his grip, sending Napier plummeting and leading to his transformation into Joker. Much later, Batman and Vicki Vale are hanging off the ledge of a cathedral when the Joker lends a "hand" to Vicki, only for it to be a prop hand that pops off, nearly sending Vicki to her death.
  • The Bird with the Crystal Plumage: When Sam and Inspector Morosini are atttempting to arrest Alberto, he falls out of the open window while fighting them. Sam and Morosini each grab one of his arms, but are not able to hold him and he falls to his death.
  • The movie Cliffhanger:
    • The movie opens with a scene where protagonist Gabe Walker and fellow climber Sarah, are trying to cross a deep ravine to a helicopter using a wire. Sarah's harness breaks and she dangles in the air. Gabe tries to save her but has a hard time keeping his grip on her gloved hands. The glove starts slipping off and before he can pull her up, the glove comes off completely and Sarah plummets to her death.
    • Much later in the film, Gabe and Jessie slip off a cliff after the 60-year old climbing rope they were using breaks, and Jessie dramatically finds herself in the exact same situation Sarah was at the beginning of the film. However, as Jessie is a professional mountaineer rather than an untrained tourist, she remains calm and quickly uses her training to lift herself up and use her free hand to climb up Gabe's body to reach safety, resolving the whole thing fairly quickly with it being barely an inconvenience.
  • Disturbingly subverted in Cube - as Holloway is lowered into the unthinkable abyss outside the cube by the other characters, using a rope made of their clothes, the structure shakes and everyone drops the rope. She begins to fall and Quentin is the only one who quickly manages to grab the slipping rope, almost getting pulled down himself. He then manages to pull back all of the rope and grab Holloway's hand, but just as she lets out a sigh of relief his smile turns to a psychopatic stare and he drops her.
  • Deep Blue Sea: When traveling up the service shaft, this happens with Carter trying to grab Janice out of the water when she falls in. The shark eats her.
  • The Deserter: When Jackson is collapsing the Rope Bridge, one of the ropes wraps about him and yanks him off the top of the mesa. Schmidt reaches out and grabs Jackson's hand despite Jackson's protestations to let him fall. Jackson finally grabs Schmidt's hand with both of his and Schmidt starts hauling. However, both of them end up falling to their deaths.
  • Inverted in Die Hard where John McClain separates Big Bad Hans Gruber from his wife's outstretched arm causing him to plummet to his death.
  • District 9: Wikus picks up Christopher Johnson with a massive mecha arm.
  • Dreamscape. While Alex Gardner is sharing a dream with a construction worker, the worker is knocked off the top of a building and clings to a hanging girder. Alex jumps onto the girder with him and says "Gimme your hand!" before trying to pull him to safety.
  • Force of Nature: The Dry 2: When Aaron finally persuades Lauren to come away from the top of the waterfall, he reaches out a hand to help her. However, as she turns towards him and reaches for his hand, she slips and falls over the edge; forciing Aaron to diive after her.
  • Interesting take on this in The Good Son. The climactic scene has the much-put upon mom forced to choose between her evil son Macaulay Culkin and good nephew Elijah Wood, as both dangle from Chekhov's Cliff.
  • Averted in The Great Waldo Pepper when Robert Redford's Ace Pilot title character tells Susan Sarandon's character, Mary Beth, to take his hand while trying to coax her off an airplane wing after she freezes in panic during a midair wing-walking stunt. Unfortunately she lets go of the strut she's clinging to and lunges at Waldo with BOTH hands. He can't catch her and she falls to her death.
  • In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ron offers Harry his hand to try and pull him back into the flying Ford Anglia after Harry nearly falls out of the open passenger-side door.
  • Indiana Jones
    • In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Elsa Schneider tries to leave with the Holy Grail. This causes a huge earthquake and the grail goes flying into a large crack in the floor. Indy dives and grabs Elsa's gloved hands. She ends up hanging onto Indy over a deep abyss. Before he can pull her up, she takes one of her hands and reaches for the Holy Grail instead. The leather glove on her other hand begins to slowly slip off. Right before she can touch the grail with her fingertips, the glove is completely undone from her hand and she falls to her Karmic Death. Indy falls in immediately after, and he tries reaching for the Grail rather than Henry Sr's hand, until his dad begs "Indiana, let it go." (Apparently the Holy Grail was an in-universe Idiot Ball.)
      • Potentially subverted in the LucasArts Games Graphic Adventure version of the film. A player can allow Indy to avoid this trope and obtain the Grail if the player has the presence of mind to do something reasonably clever: use the whip to grab the Grail.
    • In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indy tries to rescue Mac, but the latter intentionally lets go, getting himself sucked into the interdimensional vortex that was consuming the temple they were in.
  • In the Line of Fire: First the villain to the hero, then the hero to the villain with an Ironic Echo.
  • In Jason X, Rowan attempts to save Janessa this way, when the latter is about to be sucked through a grating leading out into space. Their hands ALMOST reach, but Janessa runs out of energy and loses her grip on the floor she's clinging to.
  • The 1959 film version of Journey to the Center of the Earth has a scene where Alec nearly falls into a fissure in the caves, and is left dangling from a rope. The situation is resolved with almost comical ease by Hans, who hoists him back up as if he were nothing.
  • Judge Dredd. Judge Hershey does this to save Dredd from falling to his death near the end of the movie.
  • Jumanji: During the movie's climax, the rest of the characters try to rescue Alan as he is being sucked out of the house along with the crocodiles and lake induced by the indoor monsoon, complete with the shouting of "Take my hand!"
  • In the cold open of Jurassic Park (1993), Muldoon rushes to grab maintenance worker Jophery as he's being pulled into the raptor cage, keeping a tight hold on him as the other park staff attempt to taze the raptors. The scene fades out as Muldoon is overpowered and Jophery's hand is shown slipping out of his grasp.
    Muldoon: Shoot her! SHOOT HER!
  • In the climax of Lady In White, main character's father offers his hand to the killer in peril, but he refuses it, and lets himself to fall to his death.
  • The Lord of the Rings:
    "Up you come, Sam my lad!" said Frodo. "Now take my hand!"
    "Save me, Mr. Frodo!" gasped Sam. "I'm drownded. I can't see your hand."
    • The Return of the King film has Frodo hanging from a rock over a pit of lava, and it is up to Sam to pull him back up. This is made slightly more difficult by the fact that Frodo's hand is missing a finger and covered with blood.note 
      "Don't you let go!"
      • Sam's line is particularly important, because Frodo is quite clearly considering letting go.
  • In Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, a chain of children are trying to save one of their own from being swallowed up by the same quicksand that earlier claimed Max's dead horse. The human chain is about to break when Max arrives, and he saves them all except for the little boy the others were trying to rescue.
  • In the movie Mannequin, the titular character is falling into a shredder while still in her inanimate mannequin form. Jonathan reaches in at the last second and catches one of her arms with both of his hands; when she turns back into human, her increased weight nearly pulls them both over the edge, but it also makes it easier for her to pull herself along his arm.
  • In The Matrix, Neo jumps from a chopper to grab Morpheus as he jumps out of a skyscraper window. He doesn't try to pull him up, however (as he is dangling on a rope attached to the chopper himself at that moment), but maintains the hand-grip until he can safely drop Morpheus onto a nearby roof.
  • In Maverick, the title character accidentally falls over the edge of a cliff but barely manages to hold onto the edge. Marshal Zane Cooper offers to help him, but Maverick refuses because he despises Cooper. Maverick almost falls to his death and changes his mind, begging for help, and is pulled to safety. In the movie's twist ending it's revealed that "Marshal Zane Cooper" was actually Maverick's father posing as the Marshal to pull off a scam, which means that Maverick risked his life to maintain the deception.
  • In the climax of The Million Dollar Duck, Jimmy and the duck Charley are stranded on a ladder stretching between two narrow ledges above a road. Albert reaches for him and says "Put your hand in mine," but Jimmy refuses because he thinks Albert only wants Charley's golden eggs and doesn't care about him anymore. When the ladder starts cracking, Jimmy gives in and grabs Albert's hand a moment before the ladder falls to pieces under him.
  • Mission: Impossible Film Series:
    • Mission: Impossible III: Zhen gets knocked out the open door of the helicopter when it quickly moves to avoid a missile. She manages to get a handhold instead of falling to her death and Ethan gives her a hand to pull her back inside.
    • Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol: When Ethan's line isn't long enough and he has to jump for the window he smacks into the ledge and starts falling, only saved by Brandt grabbing his arm to pull him up and Jane grabbing Brandt's ankles to keep him from being pulled out with him.
  • Nancy does this to save Joey when he is about to fall into the fiery pit in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
  • In The Princess Bride, there's the famous, and extremely chivalrous, exchange between the Man in Black and Inigo before the former believes the latter's word and allows him to help him up, after which they begin fighting.
  • Resident Evil (2002). When J.D. is being pulled into a group of zombies Rain Ocampo calls out "Grab my hand" and tries to pull him out. It doesn't work and JD is killed.
  • Averted in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Corrupt Corporate Executive Jacobs is trapped in a crashed helicopter on the edge of the Golden Gate Bridge. He pleads for help and Caesar considers it, but then walks away. One of Jacob's experimental subjects, Koba, then walks up and gleefully shoves the helicopter into the bay.
  • In Run Wild, Run Free, after Philip has helped rescue his horse from the bog where it was trapped, his parents take his hands and pull him to safety.
  • Parodied in Scary Movie 2, where Dwight (David Cross) falls out of a two-story window because he refuses to take the disfigured hand of the perverted Hanson (Chris Elliott), despite Hanson insisting it's his "strong hand".
  • In Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Velma is hanging off a grate. Patrick, the guy who is trying to save her, tells her to let go of the grate so he can save her. At first Velma refuses, thinking that he is the Villain of the Week, but he tells to her listen to her heart deeper and trust him. Then, she goes with him and is rescued.
  • In Silent Fall, Tim climbs onto the roof and sits rocking by the edge, in danger of falling off. Jake crawls close to him, claps his hands to get Tim to mimic him, then reaches out. When Tim mirrors his action, Jake grabs his hand and pulls him to safety.
  • In Snatched (2017), Emily climbs onto the back of a pickup truck, which starts to move before Linda can get in. Linda runs after the truck until Emily reaches out, grabs her hand, and pulls her in.
  • Speed has one in the beginning. There are people trapped on an elevator that is going to plummet to the bottom and the SWAT team had to lift each person out by the hand one by one as the elevator inches below the doors. The last victim is too afraid to move, so the main character has his hand out and screams at the lady to take his hand. He pulls her away just in time before the elevator takes its plunge to the basement.
    • There is an inversion later on in the film. The bomber agrees to allow the driver (who was shot by a passenger on the bus), and no one else, to be evacuated. Despite the bomber's claims that he is watching their actions, one of the rescuers reaches out his hand, calling for an elderly woman to escape as well. The bomber, seeing this through a camera hidden behind the bus's mirror, is angered by the violation of the agreement and detonates a small bomb under the steps, dropping the woman down under the wheels and killing her.
  • Superdome: When Lainey, who is afraid of heights, flees onto the Superdome's catwalks, she freezes up in terror. Mike tells her to take his hand, then moves her hands along the railings until the security guards arrive.
  • In Superman Returns, Superman says the exact words "Take my hand" to Richard in order to rescue him, Lois and Jason from the sinking ship.
  • In The Terminator, Kyle Reese offers his hand to Sarah Connor, saying to her, "Come with me if you want to live." The T-800 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day echoes the line to Sarah Connor.
  • Subverted and Played for Laughs in This Is the End. When a large crater opens up in front of James Franco's house, several party-goers fall into it. One of them is able to hold on, and Jay attempts to save him, but he is skeptical that Jay is actually able to support his weight. After continual reassurance that he'll hold him, he finally gives Jay his hand only to immediately slip out and fall into the crater.
  • TRON. Tron pulls Flynn to safety while he's hanging off the Solar Sailer.
  • A climactic scene in the James Cameron film True Lies has character Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) grabbing his wife by one hand while the limousine she's travelling in barrels towards a broken gap in a bridge, while he's reaching from a helicopter.
  • Pops up in Twister, when the tornado is heading for the drive-in and Jo is urging the concession stand clerk to grab on so she can get him out of the booth before it's obliterated by the storm.
  • They do this, and variations of this, about a dozen times in 2012.
  • Parodied in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: At one point, while on acid, Nick and Javi have to climb over a wall to escape some people they believe are chasing them. Javi props Nick up onto the top, but Nick fails twice to pull up Javi, who laments that he has "a very big head." They have a dramatic goodbye... only for Javi to realize that the wall is short, thin, and the corner is right next to him.
    Javi: It turns out we could have just walked around.
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo opens with this trope, but then adds a twist when the rescuer falls to his death.

    Literature 
  • In The Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold, protagonist Miles Vorkosigan tries — and fails — to grab a soldier's hand as she's falling out of a combat shuttle, after lifting off from a war zone, and she falls a mile to her death. He feels guilty for years. However, in a later book, Komarr, there's an in-universe deconstruction: he's shopping with a female friend, she slips off a ledge above a muddy pond, and he does grab her wrist, panting "Never again!" — and her weight pulls him off the ledge after her (Fortunately, the drop was only a few feet. They wind up covered in mud, but unhurt.). At that moment, he realizes that had he not missed his grab all those years ago, he would also have fallen to his death. The friend realises that if Miles had made the grab he would certainly have died, because he could not have let her go.
  • Discworld:
    • The Light Fantastic sees Rincewind dangling helplessly off the top of a tower; Twoflower grabs his hand but is unable to actually pull him up. But he does manage to irritate Rincewind sufficiently to get him to hang on until help arrives.
    • Three members of the Band With Rocks In wind up dangling from a cliff in Soul Music, forming a triple Take My Hand chain. Unfortunately, the dwarf at the bottom of the chain is also holding a huge sack of gold in his other hand, and does not want to let go...
  • Oddly enough, played realistically in Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series. A skinny nonathletic schoolgirl, in fact, cannot rescue her friend dangling off a cliff, and they just barely hang on to each other until help arrives.
  • In Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40,000 Ultramarines novel Dead Sky Black Sun, Uriel grabs Colonel Leonid as he starts to fall down a slope. Normally, a Space Marine would have no difficulty with an Imperial Guardsmen, but Uriel's grip and footing are not secure, and he fears he will have to let him go. Fortunately, Sergeant Ellard grabs Uriel; for an Imperial Guardsman, he is strong, and is able to pull him back enough to get a better grip.
  • In James Swallow's Warhammer 40,000 Red Fury, while they are fighting the Bloodfiends, Seth is knocked so that he is falling in a pit. Shouting "Brother!", rather than "Cousin," Dante grabs him and drags him back. A signal moment in overcoming Seth's bitterness and becoming Fire-Forged Friends.
  • Mercedes Lackey's Dragon Jousters series had Kiron trying to save Ari - his dragon puts her head under him so Ari slides down her neck to Kiron, but Ari slid wrong and Kiron's hand slipped. When he does fall a third dragon jouster catches him and this time he doesn't fall.
  • The Heroes of Olympus: At the end of Mark of Athena, Nico tries this for a second with Percy and Annabeth before realizing how futile the effort is: he's a sixteen year old boy without any help around trying to pull two older teenagers up from a cliffside, and Percy is holding Annabeth's wrist with one hand and holding onto the cliff with the other. Averted when Annabeth is dragged into Tartarus in the first place as Percy grabs onto her before she falls.
  • In Isle of the Dead the hero's resurrected best friend tries to save the hero's resurrected wife this way. He fails, for the same reasons and in the same way Miles would have.
  • In P.N. Elrod's Ravenloft prequel, I, Strahd, the still-living Strahd invokes this trope to save his vassal and friend, Alek, who's been knocked off a cliff in a skirmish. His companion's armor is so heavy that he can't pull him up, and Alek threatens to jab Strahd's wrist with a dagger and make him let go before they're both dragged over the edge. They're spotted before that can happen, though ... ironically, by Strahd's brother Sergei, whom he would murder in a fit of jealousy a few months later.
  • Happens in Queste, where the Toll-Man throws Septimus into the Abyss and gets rescued by Jenna, despite telling her not to do so to avoid pulling her over as well.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire: Subverted in A Clash of Kings when Ser Mandon Moore tries this on Tyrion during battle, intending to strike him with a sword. It fails when Tyrion wonders, at the last second, why he is offering his left hand instead of his right.
  • In Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Leia falls into a pit and Luke, hauling her out, has to brace against a stalagmite. As he heaves her up and out the stalagmite breaks, and then she gets him out of the same pit, leading to one of the novel's many, many moments of unwitting Incest Subtext.
  • In Star Wars: Kenobi, Tusken warlord A'Yark goes over the cliff with Orrin, but manages to hang on. Ben and Annileen, who's learned a lot about the Tusken Raiders, pull her back up. She needs a bit of convincing not to let go.
  • In William King's Warhammer 40,000 novel Space Wolf, when the aspirants are climbing a mountain and Ragnor starts to slip, Kjel comes to help him like this. It also inspires Ragnor to get a grip, because he is afraid he might drag Kjel down if he falls.
  • In Nick Kyme's Warhammer 40,000 novel Salamander, Dak'ir fails a jump; Tsu'gan catches him and hauls him up. (Inspiring Think Nothing of It from Tsu'gan.)

    Live-Action TV 
  • 1960s Batman (1966) episodes
    • "Better Luck Next Time", Catwoman is barely holding onto the edge of an underground crevasse. Batman tries to save her but she refuses to let go of the bag of treasure she's holding, and ends up plummeting into the abyss. She appears in a later episode, so she survived the fall (either that, or she used up one of her nine lives).
    • "Smack in the Middle". The Riddler's henchwoman Molly ends up hanging above the Bat Cave's nuclear reactor. Batman tries to rescue her but she falls to a radioactive doom.
  • An odd variation occurs in Battlestar Galactica. It's not a cliff but a burning Raptor in which Baltar is stuck. Crashdown is urging him to reach for his hand over the fires before the Raptor blows up. What Baltar sees, however, is Head-Six who calmly says "Gaius, take my hand".
  • In The City Hunter, Yun Sung does this twice, first rescuing his father from an elevator death trap, and later saving his love interest after she's been thrown off a balcony by the man she was protecting.
  • In Doctor Who: The Movie (with Paul McGann), the Master is being sucked into the Eye of Harmony. The Doctor offers him his hand, and the Master deliberately lets himself be sucked into the Eye and be killed so he is Deader than Dead (again).
    • It doesn't stick of course.
    • At the end of Season 4 of the revived series, the Doctor attempts to save Davros this way too; we're not sure how it would work given Davros is in a heavy wheelchair and was trapped on the other side of room filled with burning debris. Thankfully Davros refuses the offer making the whole thing academic. So that is him absolutely Deader than Deader than Dead too. No, really.
  • Game of Thrones presents a problem in "The Bear and the Maiden Fair". Try carrying out this trope after one of your hands has been hacked off. If you miss the hand that's being held out, you fall to your death because you can't hold on with the other hand.
  • Kamen Rider Kiva plays this a little differently in the finale. When Wataru and his brother Taiga take on a revived King, King knocks Wataru off a cliff, and as he falls, he grabs onto...the hand of the IXA armor, which was destroyed in 1986 when a time-traveling Wataru and his father Otoya fought and killed King in the first place. This reminds Wataru of his father, giving him a confidence boost that lets him return to the fight and defeat King alongside Taiga.
    • "Reaching out your hand" is one of the big themes in Kamen Rider OOO, as shown in Eiji's flashbacks, he tries reaching out to save a little girl he befriended, but fails.
  • In the season 5 finale of Lost, Sawyer grabs Juliet before she can be pulled into an extremely deep shaft. Considering the force that the magnetic force was displaying and the amount of metal chain wrapped around her, Sawyer being able to hold her at all wanders into Artistic License – Physics territory.
    • In the fifth episode of season 1, Locke does this to Jack when he wanders off of a cliff looking for his dead father.
  • Two instances in The Mandalorian:
    • In a flashback scene in the season 1 finale, young Din Djarin was offered a hand up out of his cellar hiding spot by the mandalorian warrior who just saved him from a Separatist battle droid.
    • In a later episode, Bo-Katan Kryze offers Din a hand out of the water after rescuing him from treacherous quarren fishermen trying to steal his armor. The shot is framed in a manner deliberately similar to the previous instance for a call-back.
  • In the Misfits series 1 finale, Simon tries to save Nathan (even though they disliked each other intensely and had just had a big argument) by catching his hand as he falls from the community centre roof. Unfortunately, he can't maintain his grip and Nathan falls to his death. Still, he comes Back from the Dead so it's not a total loss!
  • NUMB3RS: In Primacy, Charlie has to do this to pull Colby to safety, after the latter is almost washed away by an opening dam gate.
  • In the Australian series Police Rescue, a corrupt police officer is dangling off the edge of a building. His partner-in-crime tries to haul him up and gets yanked off the building to his death. Whereupon the protagonist, a trained rescue officer, does it properly by lying down on the roof and pulling him up with both arms.
  • Power Rangers Lost Galaxy:
    • In the two-part pilot, square-shouldered GSA officer Mike pulls one of the Quasar Sabers from its stone, becoming one of the prophesied Power Rangers. But Furio's retaliation rips open the surface of Mirinoi, and Mike falls into a suddenly-opened chasm. His hot-headed teenage stowaway brother, Leo, tries to rescue him, reaching down his hand and demanding Mike take it —but Mike insists that Leo take the Saber instead. Leo does so, and Mike falls into the black abyss before it closes, leaving Leo to literally take up his sword.
    • Later a half-form of this trope is shown with the falling character Karone's hand being caught AFTER she has fallen half-way down a cliff by Kendrix, a ghost - illogical on so many levels, but it does justify the effortless back-on-top-of-the-cliff-you-go super-strength since ghosts can do anything (hence the flying).
  • In Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, Mack has one of these moments with Will, teaching Will an important life lesson about learning to rely on others. We can imagine this particular aesop going badly astray if Will had remembered that Mack is superhumanly strong and could have lifted Will easily. The only reasonable conclusion is that Mack was making it hard (and endangering Will's life) just to teach him a lesson. Or that the writers forgot, which, frankly, is a lot more likely.
    • It was a straight version of a subversion in the GoGo Sentai Boukenger episode the Stock Footage came from, where Red threw Black off a cliff to Lava below, offering to pull him up if and only if he would rejoin the team (as he had just tried to take the treasure and run, claiming he never intended to join them for real). For some reason, Disney felt the need to dilute this a bit before showing it to young children. Poor role model, or something.
      • And it was a vital plot point for this as it develops Masumi as The Lancer of the team as he butts heads with Satoru and his descent to darkness and out again.
  • A variation in the Shadowhunters episode "Of Men and Angels". When Magnus is running out of strength to continue healing Luke, he asks Alec for help. Alec replies by holding out his hand and telling him to take his strength, whatever he needs to keep going.
  • In Smallville, Clark does this all the time, but Chloe does a highly symbolic one to Clark in "Collateral" when she is trying to save him from a virtual reality.
  • At the climax of Tin Man, the whole confrontation between DG and Azkedellia is a cross of this and a "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight. In this case, it's because joining hands would activate an innate protection spell and drive away the Witch possessing Az.
  • In V.I.P., Tasha is fighting a woman who's trying to get to the Vice President's therapist (so they can figure out what to use to prevent the VP from casting a tie-breaking vote on a law that would make things much harder on their organisation). The woman is knocked on the ground and starts sliding towards a cliff. Tasha yells Take My Hand and starts moving towards the woman, trying to grab her. The woman slips too fast for Tasha to catch her.
  • The Wild Wild West episode "The Night of the Steel Assassin" had the villain, at the end, fall into a deep pool of water. Barely clinging to the edge, he was weighed down by the armor plate built into his body. West literally said, "Take my hand," and the villain replied that under other circumstances he would be happy to do so. Then he deliberately let go of the edge, slipped underwater, and drowned.
  • In the Xena: Warrior Princess episode "Altared States," the villain (who wants to persuade his religious father that he has to sacrifice his other son Icus - a name that surely can't be a nod to Isaac) is dangling above a deep ravine. Xena actually says "Take my hand," but he, in turn, says "Let God's will be done" and allows himself to fall to his death.

    Multiple Media 
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • In Thor, Thor offers his hand to save Loki from falling over the side of the bridge but it turned out to be a hologram. When Thor destroys the bridge and they both nearly fall, Odin wakes up from his Odinsleep and manages to grab Thor by the leg, who manages to grab the royal spear (Gungnir) that Loki is holding. However, Loki deliberately lets go of it before he can be pulled up to safety and allows himself to fall in the Black Hole. He survives, though.
    • In Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve tries to save his best friend Bucky from falling off Dr. Zola's train. Unfortunately, Bucky is too far for him to reach and falls to his apparent death.
    • During the Final Battle of Iron Man 3, an Extremis-infused Pepper is trapped on a crane's flaming cargo, which is moving towards a sparking piece of machinery. Tony runs to her and tells her to let go of the debris, so that he can catch her. The crane stops suddenly, and Pepper falls 200 feet into a roaring inferno. Though she survives, thanks to Extremis.
    • Occurs a few times in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). First time was when Peter's dying mother asked him to take her hand but he refused out of fear. The second is Gamora when Nebula was about to fall off the ship though Nebula timed it so she would land on a Ravager ship. And finally, when Peter was about to be overwhelmed by the Infinity Stone, Gamora called for him to take her hand, prompting a brief flashback memory of the first incident.
    • Used in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Purpose in the Machine," when Fitz attempts to rescue Simmons from the alien planet. Their hands JUST barely reach before Fitz and Simmons are successfully pulled out to safety.
  • MonsterVerse:
  • Star Trek:
    Kirk: I (kick) have had (kick) enough of you! (final kick)
    • Star Trek (2009): Used briefly, when Sulu pulls Kirk back up onto the drill platform.
    • Used again in Star Trek Into Darkness, when Kirk grabs Scotty's hand when he falls off a scaffold in Engineering as the Enterprise is in free-fall. Then when Kirk almost falls off the scaffold, Chekhov grabs Kirk's free hand, saving them both.

    Music 
  • The entire message of "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" by the Four Tops, widely considered one of the greatest love songs of all time. The singer is assuring the girl in question that, no matter how bad things get, all she has to do is reach out, because...
    I'll be there to love and comfort you.
    I'll be there to cherish and care for you.
    I'll be there to always see you through.
    I'll be there to love and comfort you.

    Pinball 

    Roleplay 
  • In Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, Sebastian tries to save Amy from the empowering smoke by grabbing her hand while the smoke wraps around her other one. Ciro does the same with Benedict when his lower body is being dragged into the fog. Both succeed, though only temporarily.

    Video Games 
  • In the DS game Another Code (or Trace Memory, depending on where you live) the ending features two. In the first the Big Bad Bill falls to his death, the protagonist, her father and a ghost all fail to catch him. In addition, if you get the "good" ending by find all of the clues to the D's death (he appears in the game as a ghost only the protagonist can see) he will recall that his last memory was of his uncle (who he was fleeing from after seeing him shoot his violent alcoholic father) trying to catch him as he fell (it's left open whether or not he actually managed to catch him and D may or may not have died from a heart attack anyway after he was rescued though).
  • Subverted in Another World. In the game's final sequence, Buddy rescues Lester from a plunge off of a ledge. Then smashes Lester against the wall, crippling him! Turns out, that's not Buddy! Damn aliens, You All Look Familiar!
  • In Beyond Good & Evil, a Take My Hand moment occurs after what's easily the best chase sequence in the entire game: Jade, chased by aerial Alpha Sections, runs over the exploding rooftops (there is at least one Shout-Out to The Matrix), then jumps off the last one trying to reach Double H's (who is sitting atop a hovering drone) outstretched hand, misses... and gets caught by him a moment later, as he drops down a meter or two, still holding onto the drone.
  • The first regular level of Call of Duty 4 ends this way with Capt. Price saving Soap from falling out of a helicopter.
    • In the sequel, Soap himself does this trick at least twice to Roach, the new PC: first time, during the snowmobile mission, he succeeds, the second time, in the Brazil mission, he doesn't. May indicate that he is still not one the same level of badass as Price.
  • The arcade shooter Confidential Mission has your character holding your companion's hand over a speeding train. You must tap the Start button at full speed to get pulled back on the roof.
  • At the end of Darksiders II, Absalom, the source of The Corruption you've been fighting the whole game and Death's older brother, asks Death to hold him one last time, as he had when Death first killed him, and it looks like he might very well do it despite everything that has happened. Subverted in that Death just takes back the scythe he used to impale him with after a moment's hesitation, finishing him off for good.
  • Happens in Dead Space 2 at the very end of the game; when Isaac's Obi-Wan Moment is interrupted by Ellie arriving in a Big Damn Gunship. "Isaac! Take my hand!"
  • Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening: Happens in the cutscene after Dante finally defeats his brother Vergil. As the portal to the demon world closes and Temen-ni-gru begins collapsing, Vergil chooses to stay in the demon world "where the battle took place". He allows himself to fall off the top of the waterfall where they fought. Dante attempts this trope, but is cut by Vergil's blade one last time as his brother falls into oblivion.
  • Appears twice in Dragon Quest VIII. The first time appears in a How We Got Here Flashback, explaining how Eight saved Yangus' life after the bandit tried robbing them. The second occurs near the end of the main plot, when Angelo saves Marcello's life. Unlike Yangus, who took advantage of it to successfully turn his life around like he'd wanted to before slipping back into banditry right before meeting Eight, the latter turns out to be an Ungrateful Bastard.
  • Seen in the final installment of the Enigmatis trilogy, when the detective has to climb the cliffs to the monastery. Her last few steps are especially tricky, but a friendly hand appears to stop her from falling.
  • In Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy), Lucas finds himself hanging on the outer side of his balcony after the showdown with flying furnishings in his apartment. When Marcus arrives, the player has to complete a minigame for him to pull Lucas up.
  • At the (canonical) end of Fatal Fury: Real Bout, Terry Bogard tries to Save the Villain by grabbing Geese's hand as he falls from Geese Tower. Geese just smiles and pushes out of Terry's grip, letting himself fall to his death.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • At the end of Final Fantasy VI, as the heroes escape from Kefka's crumbling headquarters, Celes drops Locke's bandana, an item of tremendous sentimental value to her. She hurries back to retrieve it, and as she does, the ground gives way underneath her. Locke himself (or Setzer, if you didn't re-recruit Locke in the game's second half) rushes to her rescue.
    • In the ending of Final Fantasy VII, Cloud has a vision in which he's taking Aerith's hand, but the scene then shifts back to reality and he sees Tifa reaching out for him, only for the ledge beneath her to give way and for him to have to catch her and grab onto the platform.
    • Happens several times in Crisis Core: after Angeal saves Zack from a monster in Wutai when the latter gets reckless, then Cloud reaches out to Zack as he goes to confront the Shinra army outside of Midgar, and at the very end, when Zack dies and takes the hand of Angeal's spirit as he returns to the Lifestream.
    • Final Fantasy X features a variation: when the S.S. Liki is attacked by Sin en route to Kilika, Tidus grabs a nearby rope-rail with one hand, and Yuna's hand with the other... only for her to slip, land hard on a cannon/harpoon gun and get saved by Kimahri a second later.
    • Right at the beginning of Final Fantasy X-2, Yuna falls off a cliff and is miraculously caught by Rikku and Paine. They're unable to pull her up at first, and thus spend a few moments struggling to hold onto her while complaining to their overly chatty Mission Control to shut up and petulantly pronouncing the predicament an especially "disasteriffic" one before finally managing to pull her up and fill in Brother on what was happening.
    • Happened in a flashback in Final Fantasy XIII when Serah was taken prisoner by the Pulse fal'Cie and Snow was reaching out to save her... and failed.
      • Another, more successful attempt, is done at the end of the game between the main party. Fang and Vanille, however, are unreachable and perform a Heroic Sacrifice becoming part of the crystal pillar holding up Cocoon.
  • In the Revelation path of Fire Emblem Fates, Leo does this to save Takumi, his ally from a crumbling cliff.
  • At the end of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers Malia Gedde falls into a just-opened crevice, presenting you with the choice to have Gabriel take a shot at this trope or completely ignore her plight.
  • In the Grand Theft Auto V mission "The Time's Come," Franklin is tasked with killing Michael. After Franklin chases Michael through a power station and pushes him off of a high catwalk, the player is given the choice to either let him fall or attempt to save him. If you try to save him, he headbutts Franklin in defiance and falls to his death.
  • Guild Wars 2: Logan Thackeray does this twice:
    • During the "story path" of the Citadel of Flame dungeon, when one of Gaheron's fireballs smashes the bridge Rytlock is on, Logan catches Rytlock one-handed before the charr falls to his death. note  This is one of the things (along with a certain amount of nagging by the player character) that finally gets Rytlock and Logan talking to each other again, and revives their friendship.
    • Living World Season 2 ends with a cutscene showing Mordremoth's attack on the Pact fleet. One of the vignettes in that cutscene shows Logan clinging to the deck rail of an airship with one hand and holding onto Zojja (who had fallen off the deck) with his other hand. Asura are about half the size of humans, which made this catch a little easier.
  • And then there was ICO, which was basically an entire game with an built-in Take My Hand mechanic.
  • Jak and Daxter:
  • In Kingdom Hearts, the opening is basically one prolonged Take My Hand moment, from the opening theme (which alludes to it) to the actual moment when Riku is taken by the darkness.
  • This happens in the opening cinematic of Left 4 Dead, although with the person needing rescue (Zoey) asking the rescuer (Francis) to help her up. Makes a bit more sense than some examples, given that Francis gets a firmer grip than most examples and probably is strong enough to lift up Zoey.
  • Used in The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie when Noel saves Lloyd from the burning Reinford munitions factory.
  • Mass Effect 2. After defeating the Final Boss, the structure begins to collapse and one of your party members goes sliding towards oblivion, until Shepard saves them with a Take My Hand (they can still die under falling debris a moment later). Shortly thereafter, this also happens to Shepard, too... and whether they're rescued depends entirely on whether you kept at least some of your crew alive.
    • While on the Geth Dreadnought in Mass Effect 3, after Tali and the other squad member get off of an elevator, two geth rocket troopers fire rockets at the elevator making it start to collapse, while Shepard is still on it. Tali reaches her hand out to save Shepard and pull him/her to safety.
    • At the end of the final Mass Effect 3 DLC, "Citadel", Paragon Shepard tries to save their own evil clone this way. The clone chooses to fall, having just been abandoned by their only ally while the real Shepard was saved by their friends.
    "Here, take my hand!"
    "And then?"
    "And then you live!"
    " For what?"
    • Also in Mass Effect 3, a Paragon interrupt allows Shepard to attempt this when Tali commits suicide at the end of the Rannoch arc, if the quarians are wiped out. It doesn't work.
  • In the prologue of Metro 2033, Miller catches and saves Artiom when a ladder breaks.
  • In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Samus gets rescued in this fashion by Rundas during the opening area. As she and Meta-Ridley tumble down the ventilation shaft, she delivers the final blow to him... But the problem is, she's still falling down the shaft. Never fear! Gliding on ice, Rundas appears, and snatches her by her hand as Ridley falls away beneath them. Befitting his grumpy personality, he tells her she owes him one. Unfotunately, due to Phazon poisoning, the best she can do is a Mercy Kill.
  • Inverted and Played Straight at the end of Portal 2. You beat final boss Wheatley by shooting a portal underneath him, then another portal to the moon, causing everything around it to get sucked in. Problem, Chell gets sucked into the portal with Wheatley, only avoiding being flung into space by holding onto him. As he begs you to let go so he can save himself, GLaDOS takes back control over the facility. She grabs Chell by the wrist, but detatches Wheatley, causing him to fly off into space. She then lifts Chell back into the facility and closes the portal.
    Wheatley: AAAH! LET GO! LET GO, I'M STILL CONNECTED! I CAN PULL MYSELF IN! I CAN STILL FIX THIS!
    GLaDOS: I already fixed it. And you are NOT coming back!
    Wheatley: Oh no! CHANGE OF PLANS! HOLD ONTO ME! TIGHTER! (GLaDOS smacks him, he disconnects and gets launched into space) AAAAAH! GRAB ME GRAB ME GRAB ME! GRAB ME!
  • Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: Near the end, Farah slips off a ledge with the Dagger of Time, so the Prince lunges for her...and grabs the blade of the dagger. Farah, willing to give her own life to ensure the sands are contained, says goodbye, lets go of the dagger and falls to her death.
  • Played with in The Prince of Tennis two-part Dating Sim Doki Doki Survival. In the first scenes of the games, the Player Character (either the Shrinking Violet Tsugumi in Sanroku no Mystic or the Shorttank Ayaka in Umibe no Secret) has to take the hand of two of her prospect love interests (Momoshiro and Kaidoh, for Tsugumi; Dabide and Saeki, for Ayaka) to get out of a room in a sinking boat that's about to become a Drowning Pit.
    • In Sanroku, if some events are met, Tsugumi and Sanada will be like this, with Sanada using a hand to grab on a cliff's border and holding on an understandably panicked Tsugumi with the other. Sanada will actually lift Tsugumi over the cliff with a single hand to get her out of trouble, then get out of danger's way by himself. (Potentially justified because Sanada does have an impressive physical might that borders on Super-Strength in canon.)
  • Resident Evil 2 (Remake): Leon and Ada end up in a standoff on a catwalk in NEST. Their standoff is interrupted by Anette shooting Ada and, moments later, the catwalk collapses, sending both Ada and Leon to the edge. While Leon is able to catch himself, Ada falls over and is only saved by Leon catching her by her wrist. Although he is able to hold on to her for a bit, she ultimately slips out of his grasp and falls down the industrial shaft.
  • One of the final cutscenes in Resident Evil 5 involves Chris doing this for Sheva as she falls out the back end of a jet bomber. Being a quicktime event, he can either succeed or fail at grabbing her hand in time.
  • Horribly, horribly subverted in one of the bad endings of the School Days HQ version. Makoto does manage to grab Kotonoha's hand when a mentally shattered Sekai pushes her in the path of a train... but cannot pull her back to safety in time, Kotonoha gets hit by the train anyway, and Makoto finds himself holding the dead Kotonoha's torn-off hand.
  • Singularity has it occur several times, from both sides. You offer a hand to Demichev early in the game so he doesn't fall from the ledge in the burning building, while on more than one occasion you're saved or pulled up by allies yourself.
  • Used as the last hero or villain choice in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows when Spider-Man reaches out for Venom. Subverted with both choices, the hero has Venom knocking Spider-Man out of the way and killing himself in a Redemption Equals Death moment, and the villain choice has Spider-Man webbing Venom into the Shield helicarrier's engine.
  • Star Ocean: The Last Hope: Happens when Edge grabs Meracle when she makes a leap for the departing Calnus after having faced a moment of indecision about leaving at all. Edge starts to fall and is grabbed by Faize who begins to fall and is grabbed by Lymle and Reimi. Only for the whole lot of them to be rescued by Bacchus. It happens again at the end. Edge is carrying Faize out of the collapsing Cathedral when the floor gives way and Faize falls. Edge is still holding him but in an odd moment of realism doesn't have the strength to lift him. Faize lets go of him out of a combination of guilt and probably the hope that Edge can still save himself. The collapse has gone on too long by this point though and Edge ends up falling after Faize only to be rescued by the Sol. Theoretically, Faize is also saved this way. It gets hard to tell after this point.
  • In the intro cutscene for the "World of Light" mode of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Sonic the Hedgehog reaches for Pikachu as the two of them try to run from Galeem's streams of light. They both get swallowed up too quickly for it to do any good.
  • Time Hollow for the DS opts for the 'hand slips out of glove' route at the end of chapter 5. Also an attempted Save the Villain.
  • Happens a lot in the Uncharted series, with Nathan Drake on the receiving end more often than his allies.
    • Elena saves Nate from a Literal Cliffhanger in the second and fourth games via this trope.
    • Near the end of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Nate, the Big Bad, and The Dragon fall into a quicksand pit. Sully urges Nate to grab his hand, but Nate tries to save Marlowe first, albeit with his bandolier since she's out of arm's reach. He fails and Marlowe sinks to her death, but Sully manages to hoist Nate to safety.
    • A cutscene in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune shows Nate and Elena crossing a rickety old bridge, when (naturally) the bridge gives way beneath Elena precisely as Nate warns her about watching her step. She nearly falls to her death, but Nathan grabs onto her wrist just in time. However, her other hand is grasping her beloved video camera, and Nathan must urge her to give her his other hand, because he can't hold on for much longer. After a moment of hesitation on Elena's part, she let's her camera drop to the waters and wreckage below, and Nate is able to pull her back up to safety once she grasps onto him with her other hand.
    • A flashback in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End has Nate doing this again with his brother Sam when Sam is about to fall off the side of a building while escaping a Panamanian jail. Unlike with Elena, however, he fails when Sam gets shot in the back before Nate can pull him up, causing him to fall from a rooftop to his presumed death. It turns out that he survived, but re-imprisoned, was while Nate thinks Sam is dead until Sam gets out of prison years later to find his brother.
  • Undertale. Near the end of Waterfall, a character named Monster Kid falls off a cliff and manages (somehow, since they don't have arms) to hang on long enough for the player to try to pull them up. Of course, the player can also stand by and let them fall. This leads to them being caught by Undyne, causing her to have lower health in her boss fight later on.
  • Appears as a microgame in WarioWare: Smooth Moves where the player must use the Wii's motion controls to grab the woman falling off a skyscraper, into a crocodile pit or out an airplane depending on the difficulty.
  • World of Warcraft: At the end of the Legion scenario for the Broken Shore, Genn Greymane calls for Varian Wrynn to take his hand to climb onto a gunship firmly held by a gigantic Fel Reaver at the time. Instead of taking his hand, Varian gives him a letter for his son and leaps off, destroying the Fel Reaver in two blows and freeing the ship, allowing the Alliance forces to escape while leaving him stranded on the shore surrounded by demons. He kills several of them in his Last Stand before being personally killed by Gul'dan himself.
  • In the end of the first Xenosaga game, when KOS-MOS jumps out of exploding Proto Merkabah, Shion reaches out for her hand but lets it slip (not surprising seeing how KOS-MOS is an android weighting twice as much as Shion). However, Ziggy appears just in time to save the day.

    Web Animation 
  • In the Arenas episode "No Backing Down", before Sarge falls to the pit, Doom takes his hand. By virtue of the Demonic Possession, he later releases his hand, with Sarge falling to the pit.
  • Helluva Boss: In "Spring Broken", after Moxxie is eaten by a giant mutated catfish, Millie climbs her way into its mouth to rescue her husband. After forcing its mouth open, she finds Moxxie hanging from the monster's uvula and punching it. When Millie reaches for Moxxie, who at this point is drunk off his ass, he gives her a high five. Millie catches his hand a moment later, after her hand twitches with the equivalent of a Facepalm.

    Webcomics 
  • El Goonish Shive: Parodied in an Imagine Spot after Susan accuses Elliot of being so darn noble he'd save his own worst enemy. Elliot promptly imagines having Damien in a Take My Hand Save the Villain situation and allowing him to fall to his death, then replies "I wouldn't be too sure about that."
  • Homestuck: In the video "[S] Cascade", Rose meets the newly-formed Jaspersprite when the latter catches her by the hand as she's seconds away from plummeting to her death.
  • The Order of the Stick:
    • Elan saves his Evil Twin Nale from falling off a cliff, despite Nale literally stabbing him in the back moments beforehand.
    • Much later, Elan goes through this again, this time with his own father. Elan, knowing that Tarquin can survive the fall and has a planet-sized ego, simply tells him that he isn't the real Big Bad and thus not worth the effort.
    • Durkon's mother does this in a flashback scene — despite having only one arm. Another flashback reveals that she lost her other arm under similar circumstances, having refused to let go of her husband as he was being killed by a cave-in.
  • Sleepless Domain: While this situation never literally occurs in the story, it is depicted on the title page for Chapter 18, Distributary. Tessa is shown falling into a purple-tinted void with a listless expression, while Undine desperately reaches out her hand, just barely unable to reach Tessa's. This serves as a metaphor for the events of the chapter: Undine tries to reach out to Tessa after their shared traumatic experience, but the latter has already fallen so deeply into depression that she may be too late.

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • Subverted in the Aladdin: The Series episode "Black Sand" when Aladdin's enemy Mozenrath ends up dangling from a ledge of the Sultan's palace after a pitched battle. Aladdin reaches out to him, saying "Take my hand!" Mozenrath instead tries to blast Aladdin with his magic, shouting "I'd rather take your life!" His attack at Aladdin results in his losing his grip on the ledge and falling to his apparant death.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • A version of this is used in "The Winter Solstice Part 1" when Sokka is taken by Hei Bai, but just as Aang is to reach Sokka's hand, Hei Bai takes Sokka with him into the spirit world.
    • Subverted in the first season finale and played straight in the third. In the first, Zhao is about to get killed by an angry ocean spirit, and Zuko, after some inner debate, reaches out to him and says "take my hand!". Zhao reaches forward, but changes his mind halfway there, too proud to accept help from Zuko. The ocean spirit then kills him. In the second, Sokka and Toph are dangling from an airship. Sokka's leg is broken, and he's lying across a jutting part of the blimp, gripping Toph's hand tightly. They have a handslip moment. Just when it seems like they won't make it (Toph actually starts to cry), Suki rescues them.
  • In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "The Clock King", this is how Batman saves Mayor Hill.
  • In the first episode of Beast Wars, Dinobot does this for Optimus when the latter slips and nearly falls off of the bridge during their fight.
  • The Beatles: In the episode "Komm Gib Mir Diene Hand" (the German version of "I Want to Hold Your Hand"), Paul entreats Gunthar the St. Bernard of this as a Title Drop.
  • Cow and Chicken: Combining with "Fantastic Voyage" Plot, the Red Guy climbs down Cow's throat to rescue Chicken, and shouts: "TAKE MY HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!" even though he pulls it away a couple of times to check the time on his watch.
  • This trope is combined with Redemption Equals Death in an episode of Cybersix: the villain falls off a bridge and when Cybersix grabs her hand, the villain lets go intentionally... so Cybersix won't get run over by the oncoming train.
  • Dragons: Riders of Berk: Happens in "What Flies Beneath" when Astrid tries to pull Hiccup out of the Whispering Death's pit. She manages to hold on to him for a few seconds before his hand slips from her grasp and he falls back into the pit.
  • Justice League:
    • At the end of "The Enemy Below", Aquaman's treacherous brother Orm is hanging on for his life in a Literal Cliffhanger and begs his brother to save him. Aquaman reaches out and grabs his trident, which Orm had stolen, with the words "I believe this is mine", and lets him fall to his death. You really shouldn't have attempted to assassinate your baby nephew, Orm.
    • Done again in the Unlimited episode "Divided We Fall" when Shayera reaches into the Speedforce that Flash has just vanished into and yells at him to take her hand before they yank him out. Note: he doesn't. Made all the more significant by the fact that this act concluded two story arcs at once: that of Shayera's repatriation into the League after the events of the JL finale "Starcrossed" and that of Lex Luthor's "destiny" to kill Wally, which started back in "A Better World" and was repeatedly referenced during the Cadmus Arc.
  • Tor to L'il Roc in the Mighty Mightor episode "Battle of the Mightors" after he falls off a cliff and lands on a branch.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Played with in the second half of the pilot. Twilight is falling off a cliff when Applejack catches her. Applejack can't pull her up and tells Twilight to "LET GO!" This plays into Power of Trust because Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are waiting to catch her.
  • This happens in Once Upon a Forest when Abigail is hanging off of the wing of their flying machine and the formerly cowardly Edgar has to climb onto the wing and save her.
  • Phineas and Ferb:
  • The Real Ghostbusters: "Ragnarok and Roll" revolves around a guy who wants to destroy the world because everything is so awful. His sidekick and only friend, who is having increasing doubts about this plan, finally gets knocked off the roof of a building, clinging to the edge by his fingertips; the guy desperately tries to save him, but the sidekick flatly refuses to take his hand until he agrees to quit destroying the world.
  • Parodied in South Park when the person (or rather, louse) about to fall is slipping, slipping... and then her arm tears in half and she goes flying.
  • This is combined with Save the Villain in one of the last episodes of Storm Hawks. Repton and Stork are fighting, and Repton ends up dangling over the edge of the ship. Stork tries to save him, but Repton tries to stab him instead. This causes Stork to move out of the way, so when Repton finally slips and falls to his death, he can't save him.
  • Teen Titans (2003):
    • This is used early on, which is fine, but a villain is the one who does the saving.
    • Done again in "TROQ" when Starfire saves the life of Val-Yor, an example of The Ace, who had pretty much been a racist asshole to her the entire episode.
  • The pilot episode of Transformers: Animated has Bumblebee and Sari doing this. It's the "too terrified to let go" variant, understandable since the eight-year-old girl is the only one left in a train car that was knocked off a skyscraper and is still falling and she's clinging to a pole inside. She does let go and grab his hand (reaching it by what can only be described as swimming through the air) after a Meaningful Echo ("You can trust this face, can't you?").
  • In one episode of Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, Ivy is falling from a tower that Carmen has stolen by airlifting it out. Carmen reaches for Ivy's hand, but the detective initially refuses. Even when she does decide that she's better off accepting Carmen's help than not, she can't maintain her grip, and falls. Fortunately, her brother, Zach, shows up with a biplane and catches her as she lodges in the wing of the plane.



 
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I'm Not Afraid of the Darkness

In the original "Kingdom Hearts" (HD 1.5 Remix), when the Destiny Islands are consumed by darkness, Riku accepts the opportunity to leave his tiny island, telling Sora he's not afraid of the darkness and offering his hand. Sora hesitates and Riku is swallowed up by the darkness.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (15 votes)

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Main / TakeMyHand

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