Within Arm's Reach

An apparent Curb-Stomp Battle is happening. One character has another at their mercy, and they're attacking them. Strangulation and drowning are particular favorites. They have this character pinned down, apparently helpless. They are moments from death or unconsciousness — when out of the corner of their eye, in a case of Contrived Coincidence, the victim notices something they can use to fight back... and it's conveniently within grabbing distance, or it can be pushed/pulled down just close enough to be usable. Often, this will be a literal weapon (or some form of Improvised Weapon). No matter how previously injured they were or how dominant their attacker was, the victim has no problem twisting around and managing to grab or otherwise access said item. Although they're almost always doing this in full view of the villain, the villain usually doesn't notice or try to stop them. However, this does not necessarily have to apply this way round; it may be that the hero is attacking the villain when it happens.

Although you'd expect the victim to be more injured, they are usually a beneficiary of Hollywood Healing and manage to get in a counterattack heavy enough to subdue and instantly turn the tables on their enemy. Although their body is usually starved of oxygen or otherwise injured, it generally only takes one Tap on the Head for them to succeed. This will commonly overlap with Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?, because it relies on the attacker opting for a more drawn out method of death.

A Sister Trope to Conveniently Placed Sharp Thing, where a character is tied up, rather than being attacked, and manages to loosen their bonds, and Hooking the Keys, where the villain locks up the hero and leaves behind the keys so that they can access them. Related to Pet Gets the Keys, which also results in the characters having the means of escape moved significantly closer to them, but not under their own steam. Not to be confused with At Arm's Length. See also Hope Spot and Weapon Stomp for when the bad guy does take measures to stop this.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Parodied in Ayakashi Triangle. Matsuri tries to get past Masurao, but ends up knocked down with his head stuck between Suzu's thighs. Matsuri is able to grab Shirogane and throws him to distract the cat-loving Masurao before getting himself out from under Suzu.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Stone Ocean: Westwood repeatedly tries to crush Jolyne under his boot, but said boot is quickly swiped by Jolyne who stuffs it with piles of heavy rocks and the boot getting blasted by one of his own meteors causes his defeat.
  • Steel Ball Run: Funny Valentine is in the middle of trying to unknowingly rape Lucy Steel, currently disguised as his wife, on a dinner table. Lucy manages grab a knife from the table and tries to stab Valentine with it... only for him to immediately notice and grab her hand before it lands. Valentine then realizes Lucy isn't actually her wife, and starts raping her for real. Double Subverted when he accidentally transfers her flesh mask onto himself, which distracts Valentine long enough for Lucy to actually stab him in the neck for real. Doesn't matter in the long run though...

Comic Books

• The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank: During a scene where Frank is getting the absolute shit beat out of him by the Russian, he notices a gun he dropped lying under a piece of furniture. Averted in that Frank does manage to pick up the gun, but the Russian easily takes it away from him and breaks off the barrel, then proceeds with beating down Frank. Frank finally killed the Russian by throwing a piping hot, freshly delivered pizza in his face and then suffocating him by pushing his morbidly obese neighbor on his face and then piling on so the Russian couldn't get away. Played straight because both the pizza and Mr. Bumpo were within Frank's reach.

Films — Animation

• Perfect Blue has Mima Kirigoe getting choked on the soundstage by her Stalker with a Crush, Me-Mania. Unable to cry for help, Mima scrabbles desperately for something to get this monster off her. Her fingers close around a claw hammer, and she swings this at Me-Mania's gonk head.
• Rio: When Blu is being choked by Nigel, he uses his foot to attach a fire extinguisher to his foot and pull the pin, sending Nigel flying out of the plane.
• In Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Diesel 10 catches Mr. Conductor in his claw and carries him to the viaduct, intending to drop him over the edge unless he tells him where the buffers that lead to the titular Magic Railroad are within ten seconds. Mr. Conductor then pulls out a pair of gardening shears that he intends to use to cut one of the wires on Diesel's claw, but accidentally drops them. Thankfully, the shears still land on the claw and are just barely within reach of Mr. Conuctor's arms. As Diesel counts down, Mr. Conductor reaches for the shears, grabbing them and cutting the wire just before Diesel can get to one, resulting in Diesel's claw launching him into the air, causing him to land on bags of flour near the windmill he was looking for to uncover the next clue to the source of the gold dust.
• The Transformers: The Movie: Galvatron begins to choke Hot Rod during the climax (don't ask how that works with robots in space), but the Decepticon leader still has the Matrix chained to himself as a necklace, which Hot Rod rips off and uses to turn into Rodimus Prime.

Films — Live-Action

• Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon: In their final confrontation, Leslie is choking out Taylor, who manages to run her hand down his body and grab his weapon, which she then uses to attack him. Possibly justified there as Leslie knows all about slasher tropes and wants his ideal Final Girl to fight back against him.
• Constantine. While fighting a The Worm That Walks demon on a city street, Constantine uses a matchbox containing an Amityville screech beetle to break up the demon into its component creatures. When the box is knocked from his hand and the demon pins him to the ground, Constantine must grab a metal rod to hit the box to disperse the demon and free himself.
• Averted in The Dentist in a scene directly inspired by the scene in Dial M for Murder. Alan the insane dentist is strangling Jessica with pantyhose. She reaches out for a pair of scissors on the tray, to stab him with—but they are just out of reach, and she dies.
• Dial M for Murder: When Swann tries to strangle Margot she spots a pair of scissors and has to stretch to reach them and stab him to death.
• In the final taxi chase of Godzilla, Godzilla catches the taxi carrying the main characters in his mouth (as well as a large chunk of the road), but they're able to escape when Nick notices a loose electrical cable dangling next to him which he uses to zap Godzilla's gums. This causes Godzilla to screech in pain, opening his mouth and giving the taxi a chance to drive free.
• In Hush, after disorienting the Serial Killer antagonist by holding a piercing loud smoke alarm in his face and spraying insecticide in his eyes, it looks like Maddie's done for when he has her pinned to the floor with his hands around her neck, but she manages to just barely grab a corkscrew lying on the floor and kills him by plunging it into his neck.
• Turns up several times in James Bond films:
  • In From Russia with Love as Bond and Red Grant brawl on the Orient Express, Grant starts strangling Bond with his garrote watch until Bond reaches for his briefcase to pull out its concealed dagger and stabs Grant's arm with it before strangling him with his own garrote.
  • In the last scene of Live and Let Die, Tee Hee attacks Bond in his train room and is about to kill him with his hook arm when Bond reaches into his suitcase and pulls out some tweezers, which he uses to snip the wires controlling his arm, leaving his hook stuck on a window handle, with Bond throwing him out.
  • Similarly, in The Spy Who Loved Me, while fighting Jaws on a train, James Bond is pinned against a wall with Jaws trying to bite his neck. Seeing a lamp nearby, Bond grabs it and breaks off the shade and light bulb. He then uses the electrified end of the lamp against Jaws's metal teeth, giving him quite a shock. The scene can be viewed here.
  • Die Another Day has the climatic showdown between James Bond and the villain Gustav Graves aboard an aircraft with a gaping hole in its fuselage. Graves has Bond at his mercy, largely by wearing Powered Armor. Bond, however, pulls the ripcord on Graves's parachute, deploying it, whereupon the turbulence pulls Graves out of the aircraft.
• John Wick: While dueling Kirill at the Continental hand to hand, John manages to pin him against a table only for Kirill to notice a wine bottle there, which he grabs and smashes on John's head, stunning John and letting Kirill gain the upper hand.
• Kill Bill: When Gogo is strangling The Bride, Gogo manages to yank The Bride a tiny bit closer and the Bride is able to flip up a board with a nail in it with her foot and then is able to throw the board at Gogo, getting it in her foot to begin with and regaining some advantage before smashing her face in.
• A villainous example in The Matrix Revolutions during Neo's fight with Bane (possessed by Smith), Neo almost throttles him before Bane grabs a sparking electric cable and blinds Neo with it.
• Old: When being attacked by the violent Charles, Guy reaches out and grabs a handful of sand, which he then throws in Charles's face. It temporarily blinds him, allowing him to get the upper hand.
• Palm Springs: In one of the loops, Nyles reveals to the entire wedding party that the groom slept with Sarah. The groom tackles him and beats him up, until they pull a table down in the tussle and Nyles grabs a fork off the table and stabs him in the face with it.
• Predator 2: During their battle at the top of a building, the Predator has a death-grip on Harrigan's arm. When the Predator activates its Self-Destruct Mechanism, Harrigan reaches out and grabs the Predator's flying energy disc, then uses it to cut through the mechanism and the Predator's forearm.
• Raising Arizona: While Smalls is beating up Hi and throwing him around Hi accidentally grabs the pin from one of the grenades that Smalls keeps on his vest. Smalls has just enough time to realize what happened before the grenade blows up.
• In Ready or Not, Becky is strangling Grace and Grace is seconds from passing out - at which point Grace manages to twist around and grab the edge of the tablecloth, pulling down a heavy book, which she then uses to bludgeon Becky and get the upper hand.
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. While the robots are attacking Sky Captain's base, Dex fights them with a Disintegrator Ray pistol. A large beam falls on his legs and knocks him down, causing him to drop the pistol. He has to reach out desperately to grab it and continue the battle.
• Played with in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Luke Skywalker regains consciousness in an ice cave on Hoth, dangling inverted from the ceiling of a wampa's den. Unable to pull his feet free of the ice, Luke looks for his lightsaber. He finds it stuck in a snowdrift well out of arm's reach. Ah, but Luke can use the Force to pull his Laser Blade into his grasp. Luke does so just in time to cut himself free before the wampa, alert to Luke's shenanigans, closes for the kill.
• In Star Trek, a Romulan grabs Kirk by the neck and lifts him up off his feet, squeezing hard. Kirk manages to pickpocket the Romulan's gun, and gurgles. The Romulan asks "What did you say?" and loosens his grip just enough for Kirk to croak "I got your gun" before shooting the Romulan.
• The Strange Thing About the Johnsons: Isaiah tries to kill his mother Joan by shoving her head into the fireplace. As he's doing so, she manages to grab the fire poker and bludgeons him to death with it.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990): Casey Jones is on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle from Tatsu until he lands near a bag of stolen golf clubs. He grabs a driver and proceeds to One-Hit KO Tatsu.
  Casey Jones: I'll never call golf a dull game again!
• The Terminator: After an explosion that leaves them both wounded and disabled, the Terminator crawls after Sarah Connor through a hydraulic crusher and manages to grab her by the throat just after she slips out. Unfortunately for him, one of her flailing hands finds the crusher's control button.
  Sarah: You're terminated, fucker.
• True Lies: While thinking her undercover operation is for real, Helen does such a good job of dancing for/seducing hidden-in-the-shadows Harry, that he asks her to lie down on the bed and close her eyes so he can bend over her and kiss her without her discovering his identity. Still thinking he's one of the bad guys and surmising that he wants her to make love with him, she - with eyes still closed - flails one arm around, grabs the bedside phone and beans him over the head with it to escape his advances.
• U Turn: Played with in the final scene. Bobby is strangling Grace. As her arms flail around one hand lands on a gun. She has just enough strength left to pick it up and fire a bullet into his gut...but he in turn has enough strength to keep a grip on her neck, and seconds later she dies.
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit: During the climactic fight with Judge Doom, Eddie Valiant is pinned to a drum by a toon magnet, as Doom approaches with a steamroller. Seeing a box of Portable Holes at his feet, Eddie struggles to move it towards him so he can grab a hole and use it to escape just before he gets flattened.

Literature

• Warrior Cats: Hawkfrost tries to kill Firestar by strangling him in a fox trap, and he pins down and tries to kill Brambleclaw as well when Brambleclaw tries to stop him. However, Brambleclaw notices the stake of the fox trap, grabs it, and uses it to stab Hawkfrost.

Live-Action TV

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
  • Towards the end of the season one finale, Melinda May fights her traitorous ex-lover Grant Ward in the under-construction wing of a building. When Ward starts getting the upper hand, May notices a nail gun near her and grabs it to put three nails through Ward's foot.
  • During the episode "Among Us Hide", Bobbi Morse is attacked by Kebo, who manages to disarm her of her batons and puts her in a pool to drown her. However, Bobbi notices one of her batons inside the pool and grabs it to give Kebo a Groin Attack, causing him to release her.
  • In the episode "Broken Promises", Jemma Simmons fights a bad guy who manages to overpower her with a headbutt, causing her to fall on a small table. Thankfully, she notices a (conveniently-placed) glass carafe on the table and grabs it to hit the bad guy in the head with it, knocking him out.
• Doctor Who
  • In "The Twin Dilemma," a hallucinating Doctor attacks Peri, believing her to be an alien spy. In the struggle, a small compact mirror falls out of her pocket, and she's able to grab it. She manages to flash it in his eyes and prompt a My God, What Have I Done? moment.
  • In "The Power of the Doctor", Tegan is about to Reverse Polarity a cyber-conversion unit when she's pinned in place by a Cyberman's hand smashing through the wall. Fortunately she's able to reach out and pull the final plug to do the trick.
• Killing Eve:
  • Parodied in Season 1. While Villanelle is attacking Eve, she panics and grabs a toilet brush. This actually does stop Villanelle, but just so she can laugh about how ridiculous it is.
  • Played straight in Season 2. Villanelle is in a knock-down, drag-out fight with Julian while she has a serious infection. He's strangling her...when she realizes that there's a vase within arm's reach that she uses to hit him and regain the upper hand.
• Vagabond: In episode 3 a masked assassin is garroting Hae-ri. She pushes him backwards and they smash through her coffee table together, but he is able to maintain his grip on the garrote—until her flailing hand finds her letter opener on the floor. She stabs him in the leg with it and escapes.
• Veronica Mars: A drugged Veronica is hiding under her bed from the Hearst College rapist, Mercer, who maniacally drags her out about to rape and physically attack her. She, however, manages to grab a unicorn toy she has dropped under her bed, and stab him, hard, in the leg with it.

Theatre

• The off-Broadway production Extremities has Marjorie alone at home, and at the mercy of a sadist rapist. Pinned to the floor, and being undressed, Marjorie sees an aerosol can of insecticide. Her fingers scrabble for it, she attains it, then sprays her attacker's eyes with it. Blinded, the man cannot fight effectively, and Marjorie defeats him, locking him in a makeshift cage.

Video Games

• In Catherine: Full Body, when both Katherine and Catherine are at his front door with the intent of killing him, Vincent quickly grabs a metal rod to defend himself.

Western Animation

• The end of the American Dad! episode "Hot Water" has Stan fighting a killer hot tub. After Stan is hit with a serious blow, he is conveniently knocked next to a can of "Spa Down", which he remembers that he can use to calm the machine down. Subverted when Stan dies from his injuries shortly after grabbing the can.
• Batman Beyond: The Distant Prologue shows that Bruce Wayne's final battle as Batman ended with him collapsing as age and declining health caught up with him. Fortunately for him, a gun that had been knocked to the floor earlier in the fight lies within reach, and he brandishes it to force the thug who is beating the tar out of him to retreat. This incident convinces him to hang up the cowl for good.
• Family Guy:
  • "Brian the Bachelor": After Chris gets tired of Doug the pimple, a huge sentient zit he has on his face, controlling him, he goes to a dermatologist to remove it. Realizing what's going on, Doug pulls out a gun, but after Chris manages to knock the gun to the ground, Doug reaches for it, while Chris reaches for a syringe full of anti acne medication. Luckily, Chris reaches for the medication and uses it to kill Doug.
  • In "No Chris Left Behind", Ernie gets the upper hand during his fight against Peter, pinning his opponent down and attempting to slash his throat with an electric knife. However, Peter reaches for a nearby frying pot, which he proceeds to smash Ernie's head with.
  • In "Killer Queen", the assassin puts Chris on a chokehold. As they stumble across the room, they accidentally shatter an aquarium, spilling its contents into the floor. Noticing a decorative rock within arm's length, Chris grabs it to bash the assailant's face, freeing himself and earning a chance to escape.
• The Owl House: In "King's Tide", Belos just happens to throw Luz (whose mobility is severely limited due to being petrified) into the table with the Sigil Branding glove when she implies that his goals of being recognized as a valiant hero and slayer of demons by the modern world will only result in him being dismissed.
• The Simpsons:
  • "Bart's Friend Falls in Love'': After Bart confesses that he's the reason Samantha's dad won't allow Milhouse to see her anymore, he starts to strangle Bart. Bart then reaches around the floor, choosing from a brick and a broken glass bottle, before bashing the "Lucky 8-ball" on Milhouse's face.
  • In the episode "Lisa the Iconoclast" Lisa discovers that Jebediah Springfield, the town founder, was really a pirate named Hans Sprungfeld who attempted to assassinate George Washington in 1781. The flashback sequences revealed that during the attempt, Hans had managed to pin down the then Revolutionary General and started to choke him. However Washington managed to reach for his false teeth that were lying on a table, and used them to inflict a Groin Attack on his assailant.

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