Basic Trope: A character is hanging off a cliff's edge or otherwise over a long drop.
- Straight: Billy, The Bully, hangs Helen on a flagpole as revenge for spilling chocolate on him.
- Exaggerated: Helen, clinging by a mere pinky finger, hangs over the edge of the Grand Canyon.
- Downplayed: Helen is hanging from a smallish cliff, tall enough to injure (but not kill) her if she falls.
- Justified: The area they live is known for falling accidents, making her death easy to look like an accident.
- Inverted: Billy decides to have Helen Buried Alive.
- Subverted: Billy decides not to leave Helen on a flagpole and prepares to leave her Chained to a Railway.
- Double Subverted: Realizing a public demise would be better, and the 3:15 train doesn't arrive until 4:00, Billy takes her back and leaves her hanging.
- Parodied: Helen clings to dear life over a drop of 10 centimetres.
- Zig-Zagged: Helen clings to a kilometre-high cliff, loses her balance, and falls... a few metres at a time, somehow grabbing a prominence every so often.
- Averted: No character is taken to high altitudes and made to hang on to anything to keep from falling.
- Enforced: It generates easy suspense.
- Lampshaded: "Can't... Hold... On... Much... LONGER!!!"
- Invoked: After Billy pushes Helen over the cliff, Billy calls to her "Try to catch something!"
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- Billy shoots Helen to injure, scare, or kill her.
- Helen learns that Billy plans to do this to her and promptly says "Screw This, I'm Outta Here"
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Literal Cliffhanger. Quick, before my arms tire out!
