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This Is a Drill

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"If you decide that you’re going to be a wall that’s standing in my way, then I have something that will open a hole in you every time. And that something… is my DRILL!!"
Simon the Digger, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Chainsaws aren't the only power tools to be used as weapons in TV Land, and weaponized drills are a staple of the Super Robot Genre almost as ubiquitous as the Rocket Punch.

Perhaps it's because they're actually fairly effective against heavily-armoured targets, or perhaps because it seems more villainous to use a penetrating weapon, may or may not combine with Pile Bunker to emphasize the idea and increase the range. It also puts one in mind of a "spinning" chainsaw, which of course, is spectacular.

For whatever reason, huge conical mining drills are much more popular than the boring power tool kind. Such drills are also occasionally used closer to their Real Life context, which is tunnelling.

Alas, in Real Life, drill weapons are a perfect example of Awesome, but Impractical. In order for a drill to penetrate any hard object, it must be as close to perpendicular to the surface as possible, the surface cannot be curved, and the object must be stationary, otherwise the drill will just skip right along without digging in, which many contestants on Robot Wars have discovered to their chagrin.

This is a weapon trope, though it does see action as an Improvised Weapon. You know the drill. A subtrope of Spectacular Spinning. Often found on the business end of a Drill Tank or Drill Mole.

Not to be confused with This Is Not a Drill, because it is. Bavarian Fire Drill is not an overly specific example of this trope. Neither is Drill Sergeant Nasty, although again, a nasty sergeant armed with a drill would be cool and badass. Usually unrelated to Drill Hair, unless Prehensile Hair is in play. And if you still want to dig and kick ass with one tool, but lack the budget, you can always choose the Powerful Pick or the Shovel Strike instead.


Examples

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Altered Carbon: Resleeved. A squad of techno-ninjas get turned into Human Pincushions by the arrow-firing hotel Sentry Guns, but survive unharmed thanks to their armor. Until the arrows start burrowing inside and explode.
  • Area 88: The Grand Slam missile in the manga is a 300 ton bomb delivered by an underground drill vehicle. It could carry a nuke, but its limited range means that the launch platform would be heavily irradiated at the very least.
  • Claymore: Jean is a non-Super Robot example. She twists her arm around several times, allowing her to use her sword as a drill against heavily-armored opponents. After the timeskip, Helen starts using the technique herself.
  • Code Geass:
    • In the second season, the rather Ax-Crazy Knight of Ten, Luciano Bradley, pilots the Percival, a 7th Generation Knightmare Frame with an arm-mounted Particle Drill Lance. When he tries using it against Kallen (who he had threatened to rape earlier in the season), she ends up breaking his drill to little bits with her Guren's dagger.
      • There's an official Yonkoma where Kallen is introduced to her Guren and says that it should have a drill instead of its microwave-emitting claw hand. While arguing with Zero, she even drops the famous phrase "A drill is a man's romance!"
    • The Byakuen from the spinoff story Oz the Reflection has a drill (resembling a modern power drill more than the Gurren Lagann variety) among its variety of optional weapons. When the Byakuen is being repaired, Orpheus pilots a custom Glasgow that carries a combination drill/Gatling gun weapon which Oz's teammate Zi Dian nicknames the "Mince Maker".
  • Cromartie High School: Mechazawa can somehow turn his handcuff-like pincer-hands into TTGL-style drills. This gets even stranger when you see how twig-thin his arms are.
  • Doraemon: Nobita and The Space Heroes is a Superhero Episode of the series where everyone gets superpowers thanks to Doraemon's gadgetry. Suneo in particular gets a drill in his right hand, which can rip apart enemies.
  • D4 Princess: A Magical Girl example, where girls called Panzers fight each other with increasingly silly weapons. The main character Doris wields a drill lance, has a drill on her head, and even has drill hair, needless to say, there are quite a few drills here.
  • Dai-Guard: When the title robot first uses its drill arm, it gets stuck in the ground and is near-impossible to control due to the torque from the drill. They upgrade to a giant Pile Bunker. When this is damaged in a late-series fight, they have developed the piloting skills to compensate for the torque and use it as a backup. It's even given a Lampshade, when the drill is revealed everyone thinks it's super-cool and can't wait to use it, after it fails so spectacularly they take off their fanboy-goggles and ask "Why the hell did we think that would work?"
  • Dead Leaves: One of the inmates had a giant drill for a phallus. Yeah. Unsurprisingly, it was directed by the same guy (Hiroyuki Imaishi) that would later do Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and is even drawn in a similar way. Dude likes drills.
  • Demonbane: Dr. Herbert West's first Humongous Mecha, The Super West Invincible Robot No. 28, is packing no less than FOUR huge drills... which it can use to launch the Super Hard, Super Thick, Super Long, Super Electric Drill Full Spin Tornado Crusher!
  • In Digimon, several of the eponymous Mons have drills:
  • Doki Doki! PreCure: One of the Jikochuu uses a drill due to being based off a dentist. Because Makoto is afraid of dentists, the drill scares her so much that she refuses to transform... at first.
  • Final Fantasy: Unlimited: Kaze's Magun has a spinning effect (which is supposed to be connected to the transmutation of Soil, or... something).
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: One of the Omakes in the manga had Scar waking up in the field hospital with, instead of his brother's arm, a drill attached to his shoulder. Ed added a drill to a baby stroller as part of his attempt to lure Scar and the Homunculi out.
  • In Future Card Buddyfight, Drum wields a jet-propelled drill named the Salamander Engine, which has enough force behind it that Drum can even use it to fly. Normally, it looks like a trio of drill bits connected to a steampunk-looking engine, but its design and capabilities change with each of Drum's forms.
  • Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu: Vulking can equip the gigantic drills attached to the front of the Cool Ship it travels with.
  • GaoGaiGar: GaoGaiGar's very legs are formed by the DrillGao, a twin-drilled tank. Super Robot Wars even took the name of the robot's basic melee attack from Guy shouting "Drill Knee". Before the Transformation Sequence, GaiGar can also attach DrillGao to his hands for a devastating punch attack (which also has been used to dig).

    GaoFighGar uses DrillGao II, which is enhanced with an expanding, contra-rotating drill setup. Genesic GaoGaiGar has the Straight Drill, used to parry enemy stab attacks, and the Spiral Drill, which is used as a standard attack.
  • Getter Robo: Getter-2. They're also all over the place in the manga and OVAs. Drill tanks, drill monsters, drill dinosaurs, drill trees... the list goes on. Getter Drill Missile. Drill hand Rocket Punch.
  • Gravion: Gravion's G-Driller forms its arms, which of course makes its Graviton Pressure Punch a combination Drill and Rocket Punch.
  • Grenadier: Teppa Aizen also used cloth drills, along with other assorted cloth-based powers.
  • In Guardian Fairy Michel, Kim's plane has a drill mode somehow. It doesn't make much sense, but proves useful in the plot.
  • Gundam:
    • Despite being a giant robot show, drill weapons are thin on the ground.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam AGE gives us the Gurdolin, a bizarre machine that looks like a plant bulb with arms and a nosecone that projects a sort of beam drill. The Earth Federation, starting with the Gundam AGE-1, start fielding specialized beam rifle called the DODS Rifle which "spins" the beam bolt to damage Vagran MS as standard beam shots did nothing.
    • The MSV model kits for the original Mobile Suit Gundam also featured the strange mobile suit known as the Agg, with drills for arms and buzzsaw-like rock crushers in its shoulders. Makes few appearances in subsequent adaptations, probably because of how ugly it is. One (partial) exception comes in the video game MS Saga: A New Dawn, in which its arms appear as equipable parts. According to various sources, the Agg was developed as a means for Zeon to dig into Jaburo so that other Zeonic MS could get in and attack. However, Char discovering the secret entrance into Jaburo lead them to not being used.
    • While not the typical cone drill usually seen in anime, ∀ Gundam features a device used by the Moonrace mobile suits called the Mincing Drill, a cross between a tunnel boring machine and a giant club of the sort used by Onis in Japanese folklore. It was originally designed to be used by worker MS to excavate Lost Technology, but Axe-Crazy Corin Nander uses one as a weapon.
    • The MSV version of the DOM Trooper from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny carries a nasty-looking weapon known as the Drill Lance, a spear where the "blade" is a cone drill. It even has a "quiver" full of replacement drills on its back.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans introduces the Gundam Kimaris Vidar late into its second season, which comes armed with a gigantic Drill Lance, along with knee-mounted drills to gouge enemy suits with. The results of its use are not pretty.
    • In Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE, Hiroto has the Saturnix Gundam form, which is armed with a drill and claw tool. It was designed for fighting IBO-based Gunpla, but also works wonders against the Seltsam.
  • Highschool of the Dead: Saya dispatches a zombie in this manner early on.
  • ID: Invaded: The Perforator kills his victims by using a powered hand drill to drill holes through their skulls.
  • Inazuma Eleven: Desarm's and Genda's Drill Smasher.
  • Inukami!: The perverted magician Sekidousai has a robot assistant with a giant drill in the crotch area. That same robot grows huge and starts drilling the ground with its drill bits not long after.
  • Infinite Ryvius: The primary weapon of the Blue Impulse, the Vorticular Drill.
  • Kotetsu Jeeg: The Mach Drill, a pair of rockets Jeeg attaches to his arms so he can fly to his enemy and drill through them. It can also equip the Earth Parts, which give it giant drills for legs (and chainsaws for hands)
  • Parodied in Lucky Star, when the characters talk about how scary dentist's drills are, Konata imagines a GunBuster/Getter Robo-esque dentist. In a later episode, Akira Kogami refers to the page quote...to, rather disturbingly, justify her desire for Ojou Ringlets (or "twin drills", as she calls them). A later episode has her wearing two literal drills in her hair in an attempt to simulate the style.
  • Lyrical Nanoha:
    • Graf Eisen's Raketenform is a drill in all but name. A rocket-powered drill on the end of a hammer, no less. All it lacks are the spiral threads. Amusingly, Graf Eisen shares the (Japanese) voice actor with Simon of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Zerstörungsform add the threads.
    • Reinforce Eins summons a gigantic stone drill to kill Nanoha in the second movie. It was a large as a mountain! Fortunately, Fate slices it in half with Bardiche Assault's Zanber Form before it could reach Nanoha.
    • Also, Ginga's hand when she's using her cyborg abilities.
  • Machine Robo: Drill Robo holds true to his name.
  • Mazinger Z:
    • Drill Missiles. They were drill-shaped missiles located inside its upper arms drilled the Robeast armor and exploded into it. Some Mechanical Beasts also used weaponized drills (such like Zaila D3 or Holzon V3).
    • Great Mazinger's Drill Pressure Punch combines the two most ubiquitous Super Robot weapons, being both a drill and a Rocket Punch.
    • UFO Robo Grendizer's Screw Crusher Punch, likewise.
    • And Mazinkaiser's Turbo Smasher Punch.
  • My-HiME: One of Miyu's attack forms has a drill-arm.
  • Naruto:
    • There's a fellow by the name of Kimimaro who can control his bones as weapons. In his full Cursed Seal form, he can form a gigantic bone drill over his left arm to attack with.
    • The Inuzuka clan's signature attacks: Tsuuga (Passing Fang) and Gatsuuga (Fang Passing Fang). The latter being a Combination Attack version of the former, in which an Inuzuka and his dog partner simultaneously drill into the same target.
  • NEEDLESS: Even though it's called the "Eve Cannon", Eve's finishing move is an arm-mounted drill. Which, for some reason, comes with a school uniform.
  • Negadon: The Monster from Mars: This features a Humongous Mecha whose primary weapon is a drill. Due to the fact that its US airing came immediately after the finale of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the use of this weapon naturally had lots of viewers shouting "Giga Drill Break(er)!"
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ramiel, the 5th/6th Angel, uses a drill to break into the Geofront. The way Ramiel was in the original, it was not only directly over the Geofront, but over Central Dogma as well - all he needed to do was keep on drilling until the drill came in contact with Lilith - which would of course, cause Third Impact. Rebuild retcons this in a way that makes a tad more sense, having it twist part of itself like a drill in conjunction to using its AT field in a similar manner.
  • Haiyore Nyarko-san W: In the first episode, Cuuko performs the Rider Rocket Drill Kick — with nothing but her own spirit power.
  • One Piece: Post-Time Skip, we have Don Chinjao, formerly renowned for his cone-shaped head. With the amount of power that he could put into it and did so with his martial arts, he earned the moniker Chinjao the Drill until his head was flattened in a clash with his old rival…only for it to be inadvertently restored several years later by a descendant of that rival.
  • Psychic Squad: Accurately pointed out by just about every one on the freeway in one, including the performers of the show's opening.
  • With a massive amount of Rule of Cool, Rurouni Kenshin Restoration Chapter Zero has a Spaniard assassin whose weapon of choice is, essentially, an unholy hybrid of Royal Rapier and screwdriver, which can apparently hit hard enough to demolish a rickshaw.
  • Sailor Moon R: One of Black Lady's weapons is an umbrella which she turns into a drill.
  • Samurai Pizza Cats: Drills are among the things equipped on the digging rescue member, Meowzma/Gotton.
  • Sgt. Frog: In Episode 197, Keroro gets a virus called the Space Drill, that causes him to sprout a drill in the middle of his forehead and dig holes. The whole episode becomes a lot more awkward when it is revealed the virus is spread by anally drilling unsuspecting victims.
  • Shakugan no Shana: Wilhelmina uses a Cloth Drill in one fight.
  • Speed Grapher: There was an occurrence of a Depraved Dentist who could grow drills out of his body to torment his patients.
  • Star Blazers: The Gamilons use a drill missile to penetrate the barrel opening of the Wave-Motion Gun and destroy the Argo. It probably would've worked too, if it didn't travel at about 2 miles an hour.
  • Steam Detectives: Goriki, who often destroys Megamatons with a steam-powered drill.
  • Super Atragon:
    • The huge drill mounted on the bow of the Ra
    • Avatar's ship has two mounted side by side on its bow; it makes for a Does This Remind You of Anything? moment when the ship's bow turns to face the camera head-on. The Liberty has a third mounted below the first two.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: The first chapter even lampshades the male symbolism when one of the girls points out how nasty it would be if Simon "drilled" them. As well as being a choice weapon for the most power mechs, drills are an expanding spiral - a recurring motif in the series which emphasizes advancement in spite of recurrence, thus making them a symbol of the Spiral Power, and the series' theme in general: (Refer also to introductory quote)
    Simon: "Mark my words! This drill will open a hole in the universe! And that hole will be a path for those behind us! The dreams of those who've fallen! The hopes of those who'll follow! Those two sets of dreams weave together in a double helix! Drilling a path towards tomorrow! And that's Tengen Toppa! That's Gurren Lagann!! My drill is the drill... that CREATES THE HEAVENS!"
  • The Big O: The eponymous character fought a few opponents with drill weapons. Big Duo Inferno had fingers that could come together into a wicked drill instead of punching, and Big Fau had what looked like turbines on his wrists. Alan Gabriel can turn his hand into a drill and thoroughly enjoys using it.
  • The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk: Ahmey's lance has a drill bit at the tip, which she can activate using a ripcord.
  • Transformers: Cybertron: Menasor has a massive drill for a hand.
  • Witchblade: The first episode of the anime series featured an Excon with a drill-like weapon.
  • Yotsuba&!: Spoken word for word, but only with a power drill.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Drillroid, Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill, and Neo-Spacian Grand Mole.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Drill Synchron and Drill Warrior (The latter being a direct reference to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann), and the Equip Spell Double Tool C&D. The "D" stands for drill.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: Orbital 7, Kaito's Robot Buddy (which was also made into a card). He just isn't very good with them.
  • Zatch Bell!:
    • Mars/Maruss' strongest spell sends an animated armor at the opponent, with a drill at the front. Also used by the Thousand-Year-Old Demon (Ancient Mamodo) Boru Bora.
    • Vincent Bari uses spells based on vortexes, with many of them empowering his arms to become drills.
    • Faudo has a massive drill in his small intestine to grind down whatever is there.
    • One of Riou's spells fits this category.
  • Zoids: Wild:
    • Greta's silkworm Zoid Spineless gains a giant tunneling borer when Wild Blast is activated. It can be used to tunnel through the ground and to deal tremendous damage to whatever it hits.
    • Demise has this as its Wild/Dark Blast, growing a spear-like spinning weapon from its throat that can used to mangle and tear apart other Zoids.

    Asian Animation 
  • In Happy Heroes, Smart S. has an actual drill on his Drill Tank Car Knight, and another made of electricity that he uses when unarmored.

    Comic Books 
  • Calvin "Cave" Carson, a classic DC Comics adventurer who still appears once in a while, is a spelunker (hence the nickname) who uses vehicles with giant drills to tunnel into the Earth's crust and such.
  • Ghost Rider: Road to Perdition: the villain intends to use a huge drill to bore a hole straight into Hell. There is a funny scene: At the end of one page, some soldiers are being told that "This Is Not a Drill". Flip the page, and the next thing you see is the giant drill.
  • Hack/Slash: Cassie uses a power drill to kill the slasher Tin Woodsman in Over the Rainbow.
  • The Intertidal Zone: One illustration shows a snail eagerly drilling into a clam's shell to show how some snails can drill into the shells of prey.
  • Iron Man: Iron Man has a specialized suit of his armor made for tunneling that has its forearms transform into drills. Considering that Tony managed to dispatch a bunch of Mecha-Mooks with them they are also pretty effective weapons.
  • Transformers:
    • The Transformers (Marvel): Twin Twist has a pair of long drills that he uses to attack from beneath.
    • Transformers (2019): Ratchet eventually determines that Brainstorm was murdered using a small drill. Like the ones Frenzy uses...
  • Most incarnations of Doctor Octopus's tentacles dedicated drills or drill-like rotation of the claws.
  • In Supergirl (1972) #7, a massive boulder is about to crush a village. Supergirl charges right away at it, spinning around at super-speed and becoming a super-drill, pulverizing her way directly into the rock core to stop it and drive it away.
  • In Godzilla: The Half-Century War, Doctor Randall loves attaching drills to his creations and wishes his masers had drills.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live Action 
  • In π, Max trepans himself with a carpenter's drill. Or does he?
  • American Scarecrow: During a confrontation with the killer, one of the cast shoves a drill into his back.
  • A bow-mounted drill is a staple feature of the Gotengo (known as Atragon in America), a recurring Cool Ship of Toho features (including Godzilla: Final Wars). Making its movie debut in 1963 and based on even older adventure novels, the ship may be Japan's Ur-Example and why drills are such a staple in their pop culture.
  • Drills seem to be a standard robot feature in the movie The Black Hole. Evil robot Maximilian uses his to kill Dr. Durant, and shortly thereafter, good robot V.I.N.CENT uses his to destroy Maximilian, who is Immune To Lasers.
  • The killer in Body Double kills a prone woman with a giant industrial drill. We see the bloody drill pierce the ceiling of the floor below.
  • The Car: Road to Revenge: One of Talen's gang has a drill implanted in his hand. He uses it to inflict an Eye Scream on Craddock, and later to kill the cop on watch outside Daria's house.
  • Crimes of the Future (2022): Berst and Dani (with cover as technicians) use drills as weapons, which they use to kill Dr. Nasatir and Lang.
  • In Deathgasm, Brodie duct tapes a power drill to the neck of his electric guitar in preparation to fight off the demon possessed townspeople.
  • In Death Race, you have the heavily armored Dreadnought truck, a mobile hazard equipped with giant drills among its other weaponry. During the race in which it appears, the Dreadnought uses its drill to make a bloody mess of 14K's female navigator, before killing 14K himself.
  • The Descent Part 2: Greg uses a power drill in his kit to kill one of the crawlers by drilling into its head.
  • In The Driller Killer, the protagonist tries to release his pressure by killing people with a drill.
  • A creepy pedophile gets impaled through the back of the head with a huge cordless drill in Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill!!.
  • In Faceless, Gordon murders the nurse he locks in the cupboard in the storeroom by using a power drill to drill through the cupboard door and her skull.
  • In For Your Eyes Only, the Mantis minisub has a drill mounted on one of its arms that the pilot attempts to use to puncture the windscreen of the Neptune with Bond and Melina inside.
  • One zombie cyborg from Frankenstein's Army is/was an SS shocktrooper with a power drill stuck in his nose, which gives him a bird-like face.
  • The Funhouse Massacre: Bradford "Dr. Suave" Young is a Depraved Dentist Serial Killer who uses construction tools to torture and kill his victims.
  • Halloween III: Season of the Witch: Teddy is murdered by being stabbed through the ear with a power drill.
  • The protagonist of Idiocracy has to fight against monster trucks, one of which has a massive drill. And then it nods that yes, the drills are overtly phallic in design.
  • A woman gets a drill through the forehead in Las Vegas Bloodbath.
  • In The Loved Ones, Lola and her father use an electric drill to drill a hole in the skulls of their victims and then pour in boiling water to lobotomize them. They bore a hole in Brent's skull but never manage to pour the water in.
  • The villainess in The Machine Girl has a drill bra. She uses it to give the protagonist a double mastectomy with lots of High-Pressure Blood. Ouchies.
  • Anyone remember the evil dental drill from Marathon Man? Or better yet, Space Mutiny?
  • The machines in The Matrix use gigantic robotic drills, accompanied by swarms of killer robots, to burrow through the earth's crust and attack the underground city Zion. The drills aren't exactly weapons so much as a way into the city; this is zero comfort to those who get in their way.
  • The villain in Midnight Movie uses a drill-like knife to kill his victims.
  • A couple are found skewered by some kind of mining drill in the original My Bloody Valentine.
  • A non-deadly version in Ocean's Thirteen. The protagonists buy a drill, which reportedly dug the Chunnel, and use it to dig under the Bank casino in order to simulate an earthquake as part of their exit strategy. However, the drill ends up being broken just before the job, so they have to buy another one (using Terry Benedict's money).
  • One of the baddies in the horror-parody Pandemonium (1982) kills the toothpaste-salesman's daughter with a drill to the mouth. (Due to her extreme over-brushing habits, she spews out quarts of toothpaste rather than blood.) Exaggerated in that he's said to turn his victims into furniture, with such expertise that the "corpses" are portrayed by actual cabinets, end tables, etc.
  • The Tall Man's flying killer spheres from Phantasm kill by sticking into their victim's head with twin pop-out blades and then drilling into their victim's brain, the blood spitting out from a hole in the back of the sphere.
  • Tunneler has one right on his head in the Puppet Master movies.
  • The giant drill-headed mining machine in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
  • In The Slumber Party Massacre, and both of its two sequels have killers who use big drills to commit murders (the second film takes it even further by having an electric guitar with a drill). In the first film, the drill represents penis.
  • The Narada, the Romulan ship in Star Trek (2009), is a giant 24th-century mining vessel with a drill that can reach a planet's core in a relatively short amount of time. The fact that the drill is made of fire is just that much more awesome. The original Narada was a mining ship with no weapons. The Macross Missile Massacre monstrosity shown in the film was modified using reverse-engineered Borg technology, as shown in the Countdown comic.
  • One of the several monsters from The Super Inframan, named "Mutant Drill" in the dub, a Rock Monster with a drill as its right hand. More than one unfortunate redshirt gets drilled in the stomach by it during the final battle.
  • In Ten Dead Men, the Projects Manager uses an electric drill to bore into Ryan's knee while he is torturing him.
  • Tetsuo: The Iron Man, for a particularly disturbing scene with his girl.
  • In the climax of There Was a Little Girl, as Mary's Angry Guard Dog attempts to break through a door and tear Sam to shreds, he is forced to dispatch the wayward beast with a conveniently-placed power drill to the head.
  • A sea drill is used by the villain of Tomorrow Never Dies to sink a British ship — and later by James Bond to kill said villain.
  • The first victim in The Toolbox Murders is stabbed in the arm and spine with a handheld drill that looked kind of like an egg beater.
  • Benny "I'm gonna screw you", the cab driver from the original Total Recall (1990), who is about to use a tunnel drilling machine to crush Douglas Quaid, until Quaid grabs a hand-held drill, cuts into the operator's cab, and does unto Benny before Benny does unto him. And with that accent of Arnie's, we have the immortally classic line:
    "Beenny!! Schklew Ewe!!"
  • Transformers: Dark of the Moon introduces The Driller in the form of a titanically large mechanical monstrosity capable of bringing down buildings with ease. They're supposedly Cybertron's apex predators. Shockwave has one as a pet/warbeast, which thus sees plenty of action against Autobots and humans.
  • Triassic World: Dr. Charles Ovidio kills G-32 by shoving two drills into its head.
  • In Underworld: Blood Wars, Gregor shoots David in the gut with a bullet tipped with a spinning drill that is also a Tracking Device. The drill makes it burrow through David's body faster than his Healing Factor can push it out, until Selene manages to cut it out of him.
  • In 2015's Unnatural, the giant killer polar bear is finally killed with a large ice drill, which one of the last surviving characters mounted on the front of a snowmobile.

    Literature 
  • In Matthew Reilly's Ice Station, Schofield uses a drilling machine as an Improvised Weapon to kill Snake. It's a one hit KO!
  • The Murderbot Diaries. In All Systems Red, the cyborg SecUnits assigned to a survey expedition have been hacked and used to kill each other. Murderbot finds the body of a SecUnit with a large deep hole in its armor, and comments that anyone walking up to it with an armor-piercing weapon inside the expedition habitat would be regarded with suspicion...unless it was a mineral survey tool that a human might have told you to fetch, like a pressure or sonic drill. A short time later Dr. Mensah uses a sonic mining drill to take out a SecUnit that's about to shoot Murderbot.
  • Lisha in Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle is obsessed with drills, repeatedly badgering Lux to let her add one to his Drag-Ride. She puts a drill on her own to directly demonstrate its value to him.
  • In the 1940's Venus Equilateral series by George O. Smith, the eponymous Space Station is being threatened by a Space Pirate and various means of defense are considered. The problem is that a spaceship hull is tough enough to resist most of them. A drill-tipped warhead is suggested, but the drill would just shatter on impact. However they realise an electric arc drill is not subject to the same problem.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In Burn Notice, Michael traps a car full of pursuing thugs in an alley. He grabs a gigantic masonry drill located handily nearby (and probably put there by Mike ahead of time) and drills a critical spot in the hood, disabling the engine. Then he climbs on top of the car, perforates the roof with the oversized drill and dumps kerosene on the passengers. All while pretending to be Ax-Crazy.
  • Daredevil (2015): Hotheaded Irish gang member Finn Cooley tries to torture Frank Castle with a drill to the feet in "Penny and Dime".
  • Doctor Who: A drill is one of the tools turned weapons that the caretaker robots are armed with in "Paradise Towers".
  • The mysterious cylinder from the fourth episode of Fringe might be a burrowing, land based ultrasonic drill torpedo... or it might not.
  • Kamen Rider:
    • In Kamen Rider V3, one of Riderman's Cassette Arms is the Drill Arm, which he only used for infiltration. In the Kamen Rider Spirits manga and various video games, Drill Arm is a much more vicious weapon.
    • In Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider Imperer (herd animal) has the Spin Vent which is a gauntlet with two giant drills attached to the front. Kamen Rider Knight's Finishing Moves both involve his Badass Cape wrapping around his body, making a standard Diving Kick and motorcycle ram look like drill attacks.
    • In Kamen Rider Blade, Kamen Rider Chalice's Rider Kicks, the Spinning Attack and the stronger Spinning Dance, are this thanks to the fact that they combine wind power with enhanced spin kicksnote .
    • Kamen Rider Den-O has the Zero Liner, which utilizes a drill as a method of attack. Kamen Rider Zeronos' Henshin also includes a drill animation when his mask forms; though note that it's not an actual drill on his face - it's a spindle, as a reference to the Deneb/Vega/Altair Love Triangle.
    • Kamen Rider Birth has, besides his gun, 6 different weapons he can summon. One of these is Drill Arm.
    • Kamen Rider Fourze has a Drill Kick thanks to Astro Switch #3 being a Drill. In a Direct-to-Video special only, he gets an enhanced version of the Switch that combines the Drill with his normal Rocket Punch arm; considering Fourze and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann share the same head writer, the reference was more obvious than most other examples.
    • Kamen Rider Wizard has the Drill ring, which allows him to burrow into the ground. Combined with the Kick Strike Ring, he performs a spinning drill kick.
    • Kamen Rider Build has the sword-like Drill Crusher as his weapon in his default form; it can also turn into a gun.
    • Kamen Rider Zi-O gains this when he uses Build's powers, with the twist that the Drill Crusher is changed from a sword into a Power Fist.
  • In the Masters of Horror episode "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road", the villain Moonface kills his victims by strapping them to a table and drilling through their skulls with an industrial drill, eyes first.
  • Midsomer Murders: In "The Death of the Small Coppers", the first Victim of the Week is strung up on a wall and has a running auger plunged through his chest.
  • Several show up in Power Rangers and Super Sentai.
    • The franchise also seems to have developed a tradition of pairing giant mecha drills with dinosaur themes:
      • The Dragonzord from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (aka Dragon Caesar from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger) had a drill on his tail, and when it combined with three other Zords to form a different megazord it had a Drill Lance weapon. It's finisher was boring a gigantic hole in the Monster of the Week's effing chest! Designs were also drawn up for upgraded Dinozords for a second season of Mighty Morphin' that included a drill tail on the Tyrannosaurus, though they were ultimately rejected in favor of re-using the mecha from Gosei Sentai Dairanger.
      • The weapon of the Thundersaurus Megazord in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder / Abarenoh in Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger was a drill. Combining with the Ankylosaurus zord gave it a second one on its other arm. Some fans suspect that it was influenced by the rejected Mighty Morphin' upgrade designs.
      • In Power Rangers Megaforce Season 2 and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, the Sixth Ranger's dino mecha is one-third Dragonzord/Dragon Caesar homage and one-third Thundersaurus/Abarenoh homage. Of course it has a humongous drill.
      • Power Rangers Dino Charge / Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger adds another one; a Triceratops with a drill tail that becomes a drill arm for the mecha.
      • Shuriken Sentai Ninninger gets Dinomaru, a movie-exclusive Mecha Expansion Pack with a drill tail that becomes a drill sword when combined with Shurikenjin.
      • Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger got Kishiryu Tyramigo/KishiRyuOh's twin drills where he uses this to detach joint parts for attacks in combat. KishiRyuOh Three Knights can swap its weapon parts to equip the Triken Knight Sword and both drills on its legs for a slashing kick or Tyramigo's drills on its knees. KishiRyuOh Five Knights, MilNeedle's tail combines with Tyramigo's drills on each side called Needle Attack.
    • Excluding dinosaurs, other appearances include (in chronological order):
  • Drills would sometimes be used as weapons in Robot Wars, mostly notable was Sir Killerlot's lance drill.
  • Drills have also been attempted on BattleBots, albeit rarely. The only successful one so far was on Rusty on its debut match, as the drill is on a pivot to allow it to strike perpendicularly on as many angled surfaces as possible. Rusty would later abandon the drill and switch to an axe.
  • An episode of The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne featured a Steampunk drill used as a method of underground transportation by rebels to attempt to kill the Queen. It is shown impaling at least two people. Verne first encounters Fogg when the latter arrests him on suspicion of building the drill, as it is based on one of his sketches.
  • The Mole in Thunderbirds was of the "tunnelling vehicle" variety.
  • Tomica Hero Rescue Force has a Humongous Mecha called the Rescue Drill, primarily used for digging.
  • A large number of Ultra Series monsters possess weaponized drills (often on their arms). The most notable example however is Gubira (or Gubila) from the original Ultraman. Based on a narwhal, Gubira's drill is on the tip of its snout and is used to dig through earth, smash holes in solid steel, and make attempts to eviscerate Ultraman's face.
  • Ultraman Zero, a sub-franchise of the series, have a recurring Mecha-Mook enemy, Legionoid Alpha, who have dual drills in place of arms, using them to terrorize the civilians of Planet Amu during their debut in Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial. There's a Legionoid Beta that uses Arm Cannon(s) instead.

    Music 
  • Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan of Mr. Big had used drills while playing.
  • "Calculated Execution" by Satan is about a guy with a drill who carries out unmotivated, calculated executions of "ultimate design".
  • UTAU: Kasane Teto's curl-twin-tails are sometimes played on and drawn as drills.
  • Van Halen's "Poundcake" opens with a guitar being played with a drill. The video has a butch woman in a dressing room attacking a voyeur by drilling a hole through the door.
  • KMFDM's Megalomaniac.

    Pinball 
  • Nero's planet-destroying drills appear in the "Destroy the Drills" Mode (natch) of Stern Pinball's Star Trek.

    Tabletop Games 
  • The Vlad mech in Lancer wields a massive, plasma-tipped drill designed to tear through enemy armor (and everything else), fitting with IPS-Northstar's industrial aesthetic.
  • In the MechWarrior Dark Age click-base game, industrial machines can use their civilian equipment as reasonably capable melee weapons. This includes forestry saws, combine harvesters, and of course, mining drills. The MiningMech IndustrialMech uses rock cutters and mining drills as its primary means of attack. Aesthetically subverted, however, in that the drill is not a traditional cone-shaped drill, but more like a trifecta of smaller drills mounted together (left arm; the right arm has a rock cutter, essentially a mining saw). With BattleTech caught up to the Dark Age/Age of Destruction clicky game, time wise, canon stats for the Violator Battlemech have been released, making it the first official Battlemech to mount a mining drill as a weapon. It's explained that the mech was actually built for the gladiator games on Solaris VII, where it's popular to mount exotic melee weapons and other Awesome, but Impractical equipment on mechs because crowds like it.
  • Standard drills in Mekton are an armour-piercing melee weapon with a low accuracy. Mekton Plus lets you build ones that can be anywhere up to "pinpoint" accurate.
  • Games Workshop games:
    • Warhammer 40,000:
      • There are bionic drills used as hand weapons by gladiators and tech-priests; Dreadnoughts and Titans equipped with gigantic drills used to destroy fortresses (and quite often, other mecha); giant burrowing tanks which carry armies and other tanks through the ground and, among the most unique weapons in the setting, the mole mortar, which fires drilling missiles into the ground which burrow under the enemy, surface, and explode.
      • Also Raveners and their larger, scarier cousins the Trygon, which, being Tyranids, are living drills which burrow up from underneath the enemy and shred their faces.
      • 5th Edition Killa Kans also come packed with an option to equip your Kans with drills. This can yield some interesting references.
      • 8th Edition added the Tectonic Fragdrill, a gigantic stationary drilling platform for Genestealer Cults. It can damage anything that comes close and even cause earthquakes by drilling into the planet's crust. Some cultists can also arm themselves with smaller rock drills, which are capable of boring through multiple enemies with a single attack.
    • In Necromunda, Pit Slaves altered for mining duties have their limbs replaced with powerful rock drills. During the 1st and 2nd Editions of the game, a Pit Slave equipped with a Rock Drill could exchange multiple hits for a single attack with increased strength to represent the Pit Slave drilling through the target’s body.

    Theatre 
  • In Little Shop of Horrors, as the Depraved Dentist prepares to operate on Seymour's teeth, he ominously brandishes his favorite rusty old drill:
    "They don't make instruments like this anymore. Sturdy, heavy, dull!"

    Toys 
  • BIONICLE:
    • Drill of Onua, Earthshock Drills, and Laser Drill. Used by those (Whenua for the first two, Nuparu for the last) affliated with Earth, unsurprisingly.
    • One end of Reidak's Buzzsaw and Pohatu Nuva's Twin Propellers can be used this way.
  • One Batman figure in The Dark Knight Rises movie line wields a giant battle drill. Sadly, Batman does not wield said drill against Bane during the film.
  • There was a Gobot whose vehicle form was an underground tunneling machine with a big drill on the front. His name? Screw Head.
  • Kotobukiya M.S.G.:
    • The M.S.G. Heavy Weapon Unit MH09 Vortex Driver is a gigantic drill with three different types of drill bits: The Vortex Drill, which is modeled after a comical drill commonly seen in many Super Robot Genre shows; The Long Drill, a more realistic drill bit modeled after a normal power drill; And the Cyclone Maker, a mining drill. It can also be motorized with the MG01 External Generator, which is sold separately.
    • The M.S.G. Heavy Weapon Unit MH02 Spiral Crusher is a drill claw with a wind-up motor. It can be used as a handheld drill or a claw arm for a Frame Arms unit.
  • The point of Rock Raiders, as well as its Spiritual Successor: LEGO Power Miners. Though sometimes lasers were used in place of drills in the former line.
  • From the Transformers line, Twin Twist. Later taken to a bit of an extreme with the Powercore Mini-Con Throttler, whose entire body becomes a drill!

    Video Games 
  • In Aero Fighters 3, one of Keaton's endings has him wearing nothing but a drill over his crotch.
  • Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel has the main character wield a Morph Weapon (supposedly a builder's tool) which can be used as a sword, a scissor or... a drill. The first Supermove you learn with him has the drill grow to enormous proportions as he charges through the enemies. Taken to the extreme with his Ultra Supermove. He even remarks that the drill is every man's fantasy.
  • The Bangai-O's "Break" missiles, able to destroy two enemy shots to one Break, are little drill shots.
  • Engineers in Battlefield Bad Company 2 can use their drill as a weapon. While its very damaging on vehicles, it can also be used on humans for a quick kill and an achievement.
  • In the Battletoads arcade game, Zitz's "Drilla Killa" finisher grinds enemies' faces into bloody paste.
  • BioShock:
    • In BioShock, the Bouncer-type Big Daddies have their right hands replaced with a drill. As if to prove its effectiveness, the player gets to see a Big Daddy demonstrate its drill on a random splicer. There was blood everywhere. And this is how Dr. Suchong appears to have met his end, after slapping a Little Sister.
    • In BioShock 2, Subject Delta, a prototype Big Daddy, starts with a drill. He can rev it up and stab things, dealing massive damage at the cost of fuel, or swing it while it's off for less damage. A mandatory upgrade partway in causes a swing while the drill is active to perform a very powerful Foe-Tossing Charge that deals massive damage. It's pretty useful to begin with and has massive potential for people who want to specialize in melee, with upgrades and gene tonics doing everything from deflecting projectiles to recovering health on hit. There's even a gene tonic that makes the drill your only usable weapon (barring hacking tools and the research camera) in exchange for halved EVE cost for Plasmids.
    • In Burial at Sea, the Bouncer gets the added ability of throwing the drill as if it was a lance.
  • Blaster Master Overdrive for Wii, drill is an upgrade for your tank. It allows the tank to do a dash attack.
  • Dreadbloon from Bloons Tower Defense is a large boss bloon with a drill on its front side.
  • Bulletstorm's final weapon is a powerful gun that fires a spinning drill bit that instantly kills average mooks, flinging them across the room. If they hit a wall, the drill spins with so much force, it tears off the victim's arms, legs, then head. You can impale multiple enemies with a single drill for a "Shishkebab" skillshot. The charged attack suspends enemies in mid-air, allowing you to launch them into other enemies or environmental hazards by pointing your crosshairs at the intended target and pressing fire.
  • The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy have a giant hovering robot with twin drills for arms, which it can extend while attempting to skewer the titular hero.
  • In COGEN: Sword of Rewind there's a type of enemies that are just flying drills. They lurk in Bottomless Pits and fly straight up when you get too close.
  • Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun subverts this with the Subterranean APC, as it cannot use its drill to attack anything (save for crushing infantry) and must rely on its transported infantry to cause damage. Same with Metal Fatigue's Drilltruck which is only used to dig tunnels and capture Hedoth structures. This is also true with the Zuul ships with Rip, Rend, and Radiant Bore sections in Sword of the Stars. These ships look like giant spinning drills in space. However, their only function is "digging" tunnels through node space and cannot be used as a weapon. Even colliding with another ship with the drill results in no more damage than from a normal collision.
  • Copy Kitty has Savant's drill attacks, each of which have Lightning as one of the components. In addition, when wielding Astral, he reconfigures it into a drill (as does the corresponding boss).
  • Crying Suns: The Juggernaut Frigate has a massive drill bit on its prow. It uses this to destroy any asteroids in its path as it advances on the enemy’s battleship, and to inflict massive damage to said battleship.
  • In Dark Chronicle, Max can upgrade his Battle Wrench to a Drill Wrench, and invent the Drill Arm for the Ridepod.
  • The Darkness has The Dragon use a drill on your face as a form of interrogation/torture. Luckily being possessed by a timeless demon means you get better. From Shrote's dialogue, it seems this is a preferred method for him.
  • Darkstalkers: Morrigan has several attacks that involve changing her arms or legs into drills in nearly every fighting game she's appeared in.
  • In Dead Space 2, a building-sized tracked mining drill is used to get Isaac and Ellie into the Sprawl's government sector. Although the massive mechanical beast is too slow and ponderous to directly score Necromorph kills, there's still blood everywhere due to it shredding thick layers of Corruption tissue while digging its way through the sector's foundations.
  • Deep Rock Galactic: With this being a game about futuristic dwarves mining in extremely hostile environments, it would be a crime not to feature these. In fact, the Driller has twin ones of the abrasion sort (rather than the pointy ones) that eagerly chew up the rocky terrain quickly enough for Fast Tunneling, while making mulch of anything more organic that gets in the way. Mind you, this includes dwarves, so watch where you point that thing. Either way, upgrades make it better at both digging and killing, culminating with one that makes it so blood spilled by enemies cools the drill to stop it from overheating.
  • Dig Dug. The Mr. Driller series, for that matter. According to the cutscenes in Drill Spirits, the drillers are Dig Dug's kids.
  • Dink Smallwood, the titular hero enters a base that is producing killer drill-bots. One of which proceeds to kill the attending scientist, while saying "Don't be alarmed, this is only a drill."
  • Disgaea:
  • Dragon Quest IX has handrills and hammerhandrills as claw weapons. There is also a spear called the sandstorm spear whose tip looks like a drill.
  • In Drill Dozer, almost everything possible is achieved by spinning your drill, including deflecting bullets, navigating screw-patterned air vents, controlling a fountain to defuse EMP bombs, removing screws to defuse more bombs, playing a complex hot-potato game with even more bombs with a giant mech, launching up the sides of buildings, flying via attaching a propeller to your drillbit, slaughtering the police force, and causing a giant drill-tipped missile to suddenly reverse direction and crash into the enemy gang's HQ building. The only thing you don't accomplish by this is defeating the main villain, which the character, a pink-haired schoolgirl, accomplishes by simply punching him in the face.
  • Dusty Revenge and it's prequel, Dusty Raging Fist have andromorphic mole enemies whose arms are grafted with gigantic drills for slicing you to bits from up close. They can also use these drills for Fast Tunneling purposes, popping underground and emerging quickly to ambush you.
  • In Dwarf Fortress, you can wield trap components in adventure mode. Leading to the quote, "I CANNOT HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF ME DRILLING HOLES IN ELVES!". Funnily, it's actually a screw pump.
  • Dynasty Warriors 7 introduced the new character Deng Ai, who uses what can only be described as a drill lance as his primary weapon.
  • The Epic Battle Fantasy series features several drills, chiefly as references to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
    • Epic Battle Fantasy 2 introduces the Drill Bot (then named the Flybot), a flying drone with a pair of drills on its sides. Its Bestiary entry in the third game states "It's drills will pierce your heavens".
      • Defeating a Drill Bot for the first time in EBF3 will also prompt a comment from Lance which references Gurren Lagann:
      "I don't think these guys have the spirit to pull off a Giga Drill Breaker. Good for us!"
    • Epic Battle Fantasy 3 introduces the Tera Drill skill (renamed to Giga Drill in later games), which causes a huge drill to erupt from under its target, dealing massive physical damage which increases if the target has buffed Defense. In all three appearances, it is given by an NPC who references Gurren Lagann (Kamina himself in EBF3, a knight wielding a drill-tipped spear named Simon in EBF4, and a Kamina Expy named Aniki in EBF5).
    • Epic Battle Fantasy 4 introduces the Drill Lance (renamed to Hyper Drill in the fifth game), a drill-tipped spear based on one Simon carries in the epilogue.
  • For one of her attacks in Eternal Fighter Zero, Akane Satomura forms a large drill over her entire arm by wrapping it with her own Prehensile Hair.
  • In Fate/stay night and its associated spin-offs:
    • Gilgamesh's personal weapon, Ea (the Sword of Rupture), is called a sword, but designed specifically to resemble a subterranean tunnel drill. Gilgamesh rarely uses it as an actual striking weapon (though he did impale an enemy on it at least once), instead charging up energy and unleashing tremendously powerful magic beams from it. When charging up, it sucks in wind by rotating like a drill. The reason it looks so weird for a "sword" is because it pre-dates humanity, pre-dates the world itself, and indeed pre-dates the very concept of a sword in the first place. In fact, Shirou, whose very existence is deeply tied to swords, cannot get a read on Ea and fails to understand anything about it. It's simply beyond human comprehension.
    • A less flashy example is Servant Archer's frequent use of a modified duplicate of Caladbolg as a Trick Arrow. His 'Caladbolg II' is dubbed 'the Fake Spiral Sword.' Fate/Grand Order reveals the original Caladbolg looked even more like a drill, mounted on a hilt that made it overall resemble an enormous lance more than a sword.
  • Final Fantasy:
  • In Gems of War, the Deep Borer troop has a pair of drills at the end of each limb, and its special attack is to use them. It's operated by dwarves as part of their mining operations.
  • Genetic Species grants you a heavy-duty industrial drill that's a far better weapon than the ax, where you use it on zombies, robots, and mutants.
  • The Drill Robot from Gotcha Force, which has a total of seven drills on its body.
  • In the physics-based flash-game Gravitee Wars, one of the unlockable weapons is a Drill Missile, which will dig all the way through a planet before exploding. Very handy for disposing of one of those annoying enemies who think they can hide on the other side.
  • Parin, the heroine from Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure carries a magical drill with her. Before she pulled out of a pedestal, it was containing the Sealed Evil in a Can.
  • In Hotline Miami, there is a locust mask called Carl. If equipped, the player starts out with a power drill that can be used for gory executions. This execution gives you a large point bonus every time you do it, but it has an extended animation which leaves you vulnerable to other enemy attacks.
  • In Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, a boss battle has Indy pursued by a drill tank — from the tank's POV.
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising has the Drill Arm as one of the many weapons.
  • The King of Fighters: Nameless's Rasen, his equivalent of K9999/Krohnen's Help! My power... It's running wild!/Calamity Overdrive, has his Power Limiter morph into a giant drill which he then thrusts forward into his enemy.
  • Kirby:
    • In Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, the Rock and Needle combination gives Kirby a drill that will pull him along as long as you hold the button. It becomes a scenery-piercing projectile once you release it.
    • The main story climax of Kirby: Planet Robobot has Kirby on his Robobot Armor performing a last-minute ditch drill attack on Star Dream's last form, destroying it entirely. The Robobot does this to previous bosses as well, turning its arm around and forming a screwdriver out of its shoulder.
    • Kirby and the Forgotten Land introduces the Drill ability, allowing Kirby to dig his way underground and attack enemies from below the surface.
  • Flash game Knightfall has you rescuing the Damsel in Distress by - quite literally - drilling to Hell from the cellar.
  • Ruru from Magical Battle Arena personifies this trope as a Magical Girl.
  • Flay Gunnar of Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis, who gets attacks such as "Big Screw", "Screwdriver" (to name a couple) that turn his giant sword into a (eventually even more) massive drill.
  • Drills are one of the more unusual classes of weapons in Makai Kingdom — though by no means the most unusual. They are, however, quite effective if you give 'em to a character strong enough to handle the weight. Drill Tanks are also available as vehicles, and at least one attack in the game launches drill missiles.
  • Touko Matsudaira from the Light Novel Maria Watches Over Us appears in the Tag Team Fighting Game Maribato! as a playable character. Touko fights by summoning drills in her hands, and ramming her opponents with them. In general, Touko seems to have an obsession with drills, as most of her normal attacks, specials and even one super are related to drills. Curious enough, if you look carefully during her standing A animation, she actually hits her opponent with one of her pigtails, which, you guessed it, are drill-shaped.
  • The ending for Shadow Lady, a dark, robotic version of Chun-Li, in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes featured Jin getting mortally injured in a confrontation with Bison. Shadow (robotic Charlie) and Shadow Lady show up after Bison leaves, and revive him with "cybernation", turning Jin into a dark robotic version of himself... with a drill for an arm. Chun-Li herself was forcibly cyborgized and Reforged into a Minion by Bison, and one of her cybernetic enhancements allows her to morph her hands into drills.
  • One of Tron Bonne's special attacks in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and later Marvel vs. Capcom 3 involves turning her robot's hand into a drill.
  • Mass Effect has got a laser drill on Therum, but it is a puzzle solution rather than a weapon.
  • Mega Man:
    • In Mega Man (Classic), Crash Man's "Crash Bomber" (Mega Man 2), Drill Man's "Drill Bombs" (Mega Man 4), Ground Man's "Spread Drill" (Mega Man & Bass), and Tunnel Rhino's "Tornado Fang" (Mega Man X3). Ground Man actually has more drills on his body than Drill Man himself! Spark Mandrill even has a drill hand in Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X.
    • Drill Man and Ground Man get remixed in Mega Man Battle Network. Also — drill squid viruses in the fifth game, and the True Companions are threatened by the misfortune of being in a room right below a giant, out-of-control mining drill (the viruses are found here too, naturally.)
    • The DrillArm Battle Cards even allow Geo Stelar to utilize the power of drills.
    • Mega Man Legends and its sequel also have a Drill Arm. Less for direct combat and more for destroying barriers.
  • Metroid: Samus Returns has Diggernaut, a massive mining robot with two drills as arms. During the second encounter with it, it uses them to chase you through a series of corridors. Getting hit by one during this section is a One-Hit Kill. When it is actually fought, it uses them to either sweep across the screen horizontally or collapse the ceiling on top of you.
  • Mischief Makers: Merco's mech, Phoenix Gamma, is a flying drill that can transform into a mechanical bird.
  • Attentive players of Monster Hunter will notice that among the hundreds of weapons in the game are a couple of drill lances. No, not blunted practice lances — knight lances, the kind that fits over your arm, about as long as you are tall, and mostly made up of a giant spinning drill bit. There's also the Dragonator: If you need to kill an Elder Dragon fast, this is your weapon of choice, and it's usually mounted to vessels that go out hunting these beasts. In Monster Hunter 3 (Tri), one shows up offline when fighting the Ceadeus, and online you got to use it against Jhen Mohran (not anymore). Monster Hunter 4 takes it a step further with a Drill Hammer, complete with a Rocket Booster activating on certain attacks.
  • The Roquefort Mine in Musashi Samurai Legend hosts several drill-wielding enemies (from which you can learn a special technique) and the boss in the first part of the mine is a Drill Golem complete with two possible forms.
  • In Naval Ops, you can research Drill Missiles. These are highly advanced missiles with a drill head that are effective against land, sea and air targets. For more drill goodness, in the 3rd game of the series, if you destroy enough battlecruisers you can earn a Drillship which is gigantic battleship with a ramprow drill and side-buzzsaws.
  • PAYDAY 2 has the most common method of cracking safes, door locks, gates, and any major obstacle being sticking a drill on it, and waiting for the door to open. Of course, the drills the PAYDAY Gang uses are hardware store drills designed for boring holes in wood, so they tend to seize up and jam, much to the gang's ire.
    Hoxton: Don't know what the fuck this drill's made for, but it sure isn't drilling!
    • The only time a drill is used as a weapon is during one of the live-action trailers, where Wolf pins a Bulldozer to the ground, and drills through the faceplate into the poor guy's eye.
    • The gang also uses larger thermal drills for when they need to break through larger vault doors.
  • In Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff, the A.T.T. has a mode with a large drill mounted on the front, which can not only break through weak walls, but also defeat enemies.
  • A semi-obscure FPS for the PlayStation and 3DO called PO'ed had a big industrial drill as a usable weapon.
  • Pokémon:
    • The series has the Horn Drill attack, one of only four One-Hit KO moves, and Drill Peck, a powerful Flying-type move. Beedrill, a first-gen Pokémon, has drill-like stingers, hence the name (which only become more pronounced when it Mega Evolves). And Rhydon has a metal drill for a horn that actually spins by itself in Pokémon Stadium.
    • Fearow goes as far as being a drill. Its Japanese name is Onidrill and it learns a couple of drilling moves.
    • Generation V also gives us Drilbur and Excadrill, which are basically mole-like Pokémon centered around the idea of digging drills. They even have a move called Drill Run.
  • Power Drill Massacre has the main character finding herself locked inside an old sawmill, where a drill-toting killer starts hunting her.
  • In the obscure mid 90s First-Person Shooter game Rebel Moon Rising, you were given an industrial power drill as your backup melee weapon. There waas no point in ever actually using it since your laser pistol's ammo would recharge a few shots if you ever ran out.
  • Avoid being above a Sidewinder Tank when it surfaces in Red Alert 3: Paradox .
  • Red Faction lets you drive mine drillers. Subverted in that they're actually meant to carve through stone.
  • Resident Evil:
  • The National Power for the Vinci in Rise of Legends, Industrial Devastation, is basically a giant drill that comes from underground and devastates the area of effect.
  • One of the Humongous Mecha in the PlayStation 2 game Robot Alchemic Drive can switch out his hand with a drill, and several of the enemy types have similar armaments.
  • Darli Dagger in Samurai Shodown (2019) has a super where she swaps her giant saw for a drill & literally performs a Giga Drill Breaker.
  • Honda Tadakatsu in Sengoku Basara had his already badass spear Tonbogiri turned into a drill spear, while Ieyasu's joke weapon becomes a pair of drills mounted over his hands called Crash Drills.
  • Senran Kagura has Ginrei who uses a lance in the form of a drill.
  • Sharpshooter 3D has a small, handheld drill as one of the many melee weapons you can use on enemies. To puncture tony holes in their craniums.
  • Silent Hill:
    • In Silent Hill, one of the secret weapons was a Rock Drill.
    • In Silent Hill: Homecoming, Judge Holloway has a normal power drill with a wood-boring drillbit (wide and flat, with three sharp points — ow) in a cutscene. She is clearly off her rocker and tortures Alex with it while he's restrained to a chair by ramming it into his leg fully in-camera, and the look on Alex's face as he screams is far more effective at unnerving the player than any of the acting in Hostel. In the end, the torture itself inspires a burst of strength on Alex's part sufficient to tear out of his bonds, after which, he promptly shoves the drill up through the bottom of Judge Holloway's jaw. The look on her face at this point is equally brilliant, as are the sound effects. As a final note, the fact that Alex has no signs of hindered movement when the player gains control can be viewed, in addition to the combat system itself, as evidence that his false memories actually give him the skills he would've had if he'd actually been in the military.
  • Drachma from Skies of Arcadia can get a drill attachment (among numerous other things) for his artificial arm.
  • The Skylanders have quite a few drill users.
    • Drill Sergeant is a reactivated Arkeyan machine who has drills in place of hands. He primarily uses them as explosive missiles, but he is also able to charge into opponents drill first. His Character Catchphrase reflects his abilities, being "Licensed to Drill".
    • Grilla Drilla is a gorilla-like Drilla who wears armor, with the lower half able to turn into a drill so he can prepare sentries, and can turn his gauntlets into drills as well. He also happens to be a "Dig" Swap Force member, and in certain zones, he can tunnel underground to find buried treasure.
    • His fellow "Dig" Swap Force member, Rubble Rouser, similarly uses drills, having two on his feet that he uses to tunnel underground. A later upgrade also upgrades his hammer with a hand-cranked drill, allowing him to release rubble to damage opponents.
    • The Sensei Ro-Bow does use drills, but he combines this trope with The Straight and Arrow Path, using a bow and drill-tipped arrows. However, he has a number of other abilities relating to drills. These include turning into a ball littered with drills like a pincushion, sending a barrage of drills, turning his hands into drills to rapidly launch them at enemies, and even turning into a massive drill to bore into enemies for his Sky-Chi.
  • The third level of Slashout is a mining valley filled with robotic enemies, one of them who uses a drill larger than it's body to rip you apart.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • The boss of the Emerald Hill Zone Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a car with a drill in front. A fairly simple fight, when it's down to one hit left, it launches the drill at you, in case you weren't paying attention. Also, the boss of the Mystic Cave Zone in the same game.
    • Marble Garden Zone in Sonic 3 has three drill-based bosses: The miniboss which excavates the ceiling and causes debris to fall, a flying vehicle driven by Robotnik fought by taking flight with Tails (fighting this boss in "Tails Alone" mode is infamous for its difficulty in some circles), and Knuckles' fight against Egg Robo in a similar drill-equipped flying vehicle, albeit on the ground. Knuckles can, however get to Sonic/Tails' boss by using the spinning tops, enabling you to play with Knuckles and Tails.
    • In Sonic Triple Trouble, the last battle against Nack the Weasel in the fifth and final Special Stage has Nack piloting a drill machine that he tries to drill you into the ground with. Dodge it enough times, and he will get stuck on the last attempt. Then, you can defeat him by repeatedly pounding him into the ground.
    • One part of Cosmic Wall in Sonic Adventure 2 involves being chased by a giant drill. Knuckles and Rouge can drill into the ground after finding a certain power up too.
    • The final zone in the first Sonic Advance game reuses bosses from the Genesis game, including Emerald Hill Zone's Drill-car.
    • The first two games feature standard-issue Badniks that use drills as weapons in their respective underwater levels. Specifically, the second game features Grounder, recognizable as the (drill-wielding) robot from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon.
    • Sonic Colors gives Sonic himself the ability to turn into a drill due to the yellow wisps, capable of drilling through certain dirts and even through water. One of the bosses in the DS version has drill attacks - you get the drill by boosting into it, then drill underwater to hit the real weak points.
    • Sonic Forces has the Yellow Wispon, which can give the Avatar the ability to perform a dash attack and scale along floors and walls.
  • A giant drill in Spider-Man 3'' is used against him in the video game adaptation.
  • Balthazar from Steel Assault pilots a Sand Worm mecha with an extendable drill for a head larger than you during his boss battle.
  • Odd PC game Stratosphere, which revolved around floating rocks kitted out as flying battleships, featured the "auger" as a melee weapon. (Well, a ramming weapon, but it worked as long as you were close).
  • Subnautica has a more unusual (in fiction) example in the PRAWN Suit's mining drill arm, which is a grinding wheel drill rather than the usual pointed one. Still, it works wonders to dig through large mineral deposits and, while it won't kill much without a lot of perseverance (mostly because the planet's life seems to be Made of Iron), it will get pesky predators to back off for a decent while when applied directly.
  • One of the five types of weapons you can use in Summon Night: Swordcraft Story (among much more "mundane" weapon types like swords, spears and axes). They were a bit arthritic and had limited attack range compared to the other weapons, but were great at stunlocking enemies and shattering weapons in duels, the latter being very useful because shattering a weapon grants you the blueprints necessary to construct it later.
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2 gives Mario a drill power-up.
  • Super Smash Bros.:
    • In Brawl, there's Meta Knight's Drill Rush attack, while Jill from Drill Dozer shows up as an Assist Trophy.
    • In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/WiiU, Bowser Jr. (and, by extension, each of the seven Koopalings) uses drills as one of his many gadgets in his Junior Clown Car. Also, the Drill arm from Kid Icarus is an item usable by all characters.
  • Super Robot Wars:
    • Grungust Mk III has two drills on it's back it attaches to its fists for a Rocket Punch.
    • Thrudgelmir has a third drill on it's head it uses to headbutt with, while KoRyuOh can turn it's hand into a drill before rocket-punching. Both machines actually used to be Grungust MK IIIs.
    • Kurogane, another submersible flying space battleship with a drill in the front.
    • The Soulsaber FF has the Drill Craft Missiles, which are two drills attached to a compartment on either side of the FF's wrists. They can be launched, and when they do, the drills accumulate enough energy mid-flight to discharge it on impact, smiting the enemy.
    • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is making its debut in Super Robot Wars Z2 as well.
    • The second PV promises that the game will be full of them. Dai-Guard's drill arm, the Graviton Pressure Punch and of course Getter-2 and Lagann Impact…
  • Supplice grants you a rock drill as your first weapon against hordes and hordes of monsters. And it can be upgraded into a flaming drill that incinerates and grinds at the same time!
  • A trailer for the upcoming Tales of Graces revealed that Pascal has a drill. Needless to say, that hit Memetic Mutation among Tales fans in sections.
  • In Tales of Vesperia one of Karol's weapons is the drill hammer, a hammer with a drill on the end.
  • Tech Romancer has the Combining Mecha Twinzam V. In one of its two forms, it has drill arms that can even be used for a Finishing Move... in which the mecha pins its opponent, punches it repeatedly, then drills through its face.
  • Temtem has Drill Impact, a powerful, physical, Neutral-type attack that mainly learned by tems with horns.
  • Terraria has these available as endgame replacements to the pickaxe. They are also relatively viable as weapons against most enemies that will be encountered while mining. And its most powerful version, the Hamdrax, consists in a spinning combination of Hammer, Drill and Axe, basically destroying everything and anything it touches in one hit.And dealing huge damage at close range.
  • Tiny Hands Adventure: Defeating the water guardian will make Florella grant Borti a drill. It can allow Borti to dig up objects from shining areas.
  • In Tokimeki Memorial 2, drills are a trademark of Homura Akai, who's a fan of mecha anime. It's such a trademark of hers, that in a Shout-Out to Metal Gear Solid, the game's illustrator even made a joke illustration in one of the official illustrations books of Tokimemo 2 where Homura offers a drill to Revolver Ocelot (who's rather annoyed by the girl's antics, so much that Homura's best friend, clearly afraid, tries to restrain her) so he can use it as a replacement for his severed arm.
  • In Touhou Hisouten ~ Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, Iku Nagae transforms her scarf into a lightning-imbued drill for some of her specials and spellcards. Tenshi Hinanai also fires rocks that are vaguely drill-like.
  • Tread Marks's Ramdrill is a tank-mounted drill made of diamond that can cut through armor like a hot knife through butter; not even the GAU-8 Avenger can kill faster.
  • Twisted Metal III introduced Mr. Slamm ripoff Auger, a big yellow construction vehicle with a big-ass drill on the front.
  • The classic Mega Drive/Genesis Run and Gun platformer Vectorman had a drill powerup which was used to break through certain floors.
  • Dordary in Virtual-ON: Oratorio Tangram has a heat-seeking launchable drill for an arm. A few "Vok" variants in the later games also use drills.
  • This was the Unite power of the old Wonder-Red ( AKA: Laurence Nelson) in The Wonderful 101.
  • Subverted in Worms: Not only is the drill usually relegated to digging as it's pathetically weak, it's a pneumatic drill. Still makes for for an awesome and silly finisher.
  • X-COM: Terror from the Deep widened the melee arsenal from the previous game (which was limited to the cattle prod) with a series of oversized power drills. Very efficient at dispatching armored critters, too.
  • The Goliath Piledriver Skell superweapon in Xenoblade Chronicles X is a weaponized mining drill installed with a rocket booster to maximize the force of impact. The description given when you unlock it plays up the cool factor, describing it as "the very weapon you dreamed of owning as a kid".
  • Xenosaga: KOS-MOS is capable of turning her arm into a drill as a special move, as well as an Arm Cannon or a Blade Below the Shoulder.
  • X-Men vs. Street Fighter final boss, Apocalypse had a move where his arm turned into a Giant Drill.
  • The Drill Arms and Drill Helmet in ZHP: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman. One creates a giant energy drill that pierces through enemies, another can lift up a giant chunk of earth and blow it up, and the latter allows the player to attack an enemy from underground.

    Web Animation 
  • DSBT InsaniT: Psycho Man has a drill horn. Also, by rotating in the air horizontally, Screech can create a huge drill in front of himself that allows for Fast Tunneling.
  • RWBY: The left hand of the Colossus can retract to expose a massive drill for use in close quarters. It is never revealed during Cordovin's battle with the protagonists but she activates it to defeat the Leviathan once Ruby has partially petrified it with her silver eyes.
  • The Transformers: Combiner Wars: Nosecone is a drill tank, and he forms the leg of Computron. When Computron engages Menasor, he uses the drill to do extra damage when he knees his opponent in the torso.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • A few non-super robot example exists in Chaos Fighters where drills can be used as weapons. Unlike most examples, rotating blades count as drills in-universe and it is possible to mount them on shoulders.
  • The Creepypasta Salt House has the protagonist kill the pedophile who kidnapped his son by shoving a power drill up his nose.
  • DRILLBJORN!
  • How to Hero has an entire entry on drills (not to be confused with the entry on drills).
  • Abel from the SCP Foundation used to conjure up all sorts of swords, axes, and other blades when he would fight. After spending some time with the SCP, he started using mostly drills and chainsaw-like weapons. When asked why, he said because the blades fascinated him.

    Western Animation 
  • The Fire Nation use a giant drill as a siege weapon in the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode The Drill. Loads of Freudian imagery ensues. Given that the country it's boring into is based on Imperial China, one might call this a real Chinese Fire Drill.
  • Ben 10: Alien Force has Dr. Animo who is using a literal drill to break down dimensional walls of his prison.
  • In Code Lyoko Season 4, the one-shot Digital Sea monster "Kalamar" attacks the Skidbladnir with a drill.
  • In Centurions, Jake Rockwell's Awesome Auger weapon system consists of a giant drill mounted to a tank-like body.
  • In the first episode of Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Shyir Rev, outnumbered and surrounded, summoned a drill construct and, instead of using it to dig or attack, he uses it to kick up a twister of dust which he used like a smokescreen to escape.
  • One of the Earth Corps scientists from Inhumanoids, Eddie "Auger" Augutter, has an auger attached to his exosuit.
  • In the second Season Finale of Justice League, Green Lantern used his ring to make a drill when he didn't quite agree with a spaceship hull.
  • In the Kim Possible episode "Go Team Go", Kim, temporarily infused with Hego's Super-Strength, spin-drills a tunnel into Aviarius' lair — then groans "I do not recommend that" as she recovers from the resulting dizzy spell.
  • The Ruff & Reddy Show: In the "Spooky Meeting At Spooky Rock" story arc, Professor Gizmo shows Ruff and Reddy his invention, the Gizmo-Borer. It's a rocket-powered drill he uses to traverse solid rock and gather scientific data. Showing the blueprint:
    Gizmo: The nose is designed on the woodscrew principle.
    Reddy: It's a pretty screwy principle if you ask me.
  • The "Team Homer" episode of The Simpsons has an infamous scene with Mr. Burns, high on ether, believing Hans Moleman to be the Lucky Charms leprechaun and using a power drill to get the cereal himself:
    Moleman: (offscreen) Oh, no. My brains...
  • There is one in the South Park episode "Die Hippie, Die" and Cartman will not hesitate to use it against hippies.
  • Sardonyx from Steven Universe uses a giant hammer, although it has on one occasion been shown to be capable of changing into a drill.
  • In the old show Super Friends, one of the villians had a drill... vehicle of some sort with two drills on opposite sides of the vehicle.
  • Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!: The Hyperforce's resident Badass Bookworm, Mr. Hal Gibson, can transform his robotic hands into huge drills. Not only can he bore holes with them, he can use them to fire lasers, eject insulation foam, and even vacuum up messes!
  • The SWAT Kats regularly used drill-bit missiles, and used a Drill Tank, the Turbo Mole, in "Caverns of Horror".
  • In the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, once the Technodrome was moved to the center of the Earth, travel to and from the surface was accomplished via tunneling Transport Modules with big drills on the front. The second cartoon had Donatello create a similar vehicle for the turtles, with the "drill" made out of pure energy.
  • ThunderCats (1985) has a guy called Driller who's a living drill. He mostly works for Mumm-Ra and is paid with diamonds, to keep his drill sharp.
  • In Thunder Cats 2011, Driller is a creepy Humongous Mecha that mines Thundrillium for Mumm-Ra's military complex.
  • A few Transformers, including Menasor from Cybertron (not the combiner from G1), have these. More turn into drill tanks but lose the ability to use their drills offensively in robot form. Examples are Twin Twist and Nosecone from G1, and Drillhorn from Transformers Victory.
    • Animated Scrapper's main weapons are drills that unfold from his hands and Dirt Boss can fire a drill bit from his forehead that lets him control other bots' bodies.
    • In Beast Machines, Megatron uses Vehicon Mole drones to attack the Maximals underground. Mounts a chaingun as well, in case the earth-grinding blades weren't dangerous enough.
    • Soundwave's Combat Tentacles. Knock Out's hand can do this as well, though that's not too surprising given his job.
  • Xiaolin Showdown: One version of Jack Spicer's Mecha-Mooks had drills for arms and legs. When he took them out for a test drive, he remarked to Wuya:
    Jack: My robots will turn this mountain to rubble if they have to.
    Two robots attack each other and drill each other to pieces.
    Jack: (sheepishly) See? Mountain of rubble.

    Real Life 
  • Power drills were notoriously used for executions by Shi'ite militias in Iraq's civil war.
  • They were used as a torture device by one of the nastier Protestant/Loyalist terrorist groups in The Troubles. The perpetrators, led by a psychopath, were known as The Shankhill Butchers.
  • Shipworms are unusual bivalves with their shells modified to form a drill shape. They use these shells to tunnel into any wood they find undersea. These creatures are infamous throughout history for sinking wooden ships by carving holes right through them; legend says that Erik the Red met his end when shipworms penetrated his ship's hull while he was still on it.

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Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Giga Drill Break

Kamina performs the Giga Drill Break attack

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