Basic Trope: Someone's head is crushed, almost always killing them.
- Straight: Bob kills Alice by crushing her head with his fists.
- Exaggerated: Bob crushes Alice's entire body with just his pinky.
- Downplayed:
- Alice's head is merely Squashed Flat.
- Bob crushes Alice's skull, killing her.
- Justified:
- Alice is a zombie, and Bob knows that the only way to kill a zombie is Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain.
- Bob wants to make sure Alice is definitely dead.
- Inverted:
- Alice kills Bob by generating a second head for him.
- Bob resurrects Alice's headless corpse by regenerating her head.
- Subverted: Bob tackles Alice outside the camera, and is then shown raising his fist and pounding at her head, with blood flying everywhere. The camera then shows Alice, who merely has a bloody nose.
- Double Subverted: While Alice is distracted by her bloody nose, Bob then crushes her head for real.
- Parodied:
- Bob's nickname is "The Head Crusher".
- Someone's head is crushed via Anvil on Head.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: Nobody's head is crushed.
- Enforced: The producer wants to up the drama by killing someone in a very graphic way.
- Lampshaded: "Why does Bob always opt for crushing the head when he kills?"
- Invoked: Bob orders his underling to capture Alice and crush her head.
- Exploited: Alice secretly hid a pressure-detonated bomb in her mouth, so she could kill Bob when he crushed her head.
- Defied: Bob refuses to crush someone's head, always opting for a different limb.
- Discussed: "Man, Bob loves crushing heads!"
- Conversed: "Why does that one character always crush his opponents' heads?"
- Implied: Bob is pinning Alice to the ground, with his fist aimed at her head, before the scene moves away. When we see Bob again, Alice is headless and Bob's fist is bloody.
- Played for Laughs: When Alice's head is crushed, a burst of confetti is shot out.
- Played for Drama: The mayor's head is crushed by a dictator, and his headless corpse is put on display to symbolise the end of order and justice.
Back to Head Crushing.
