History Main / BangingForHelp

* At one point during ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Pride ends up trapped in an enclosed space with Al's helmet, stripped of his powers and with nothing to do but sit down and tapping on the helmet with a stick. The heroes end up realizing too late that he was actually tapping in Morse code, drawing [[PsychoForHire Kimblee]] to their position.

* In an Italian movie about the Aldo Moro kidnapping, he hears a child bouncing a ball in the apartment above and starts banging on the ceiling with a broomstick to get attention. However the child's mother thinks someone is just complaining about the noise and tells the terrorists that she'll get the child to stop.

* ''Film/DickTracyDetective'': BoundAndGagged in the boiler room of an abandoned steamboat, Junior manages to grab one of the ropes that releases coal from the bunker and yank it. The coal spilling out on the floor creates a clatter that Tracy hears.

* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfArchieReynolds'' has a hilarious variant of this. Amanda is BoundAndGagged in a crate and banging and "mmmphhing" to get attention. Archie is terrified of the banging, muffling crate for several pages, until he finally realizes "these might be human moans".

* In the video for ''Street of Dreams'' by 80s metal band Rainbow, the hero's girlfriend, tied a chair, gagged, and locked in a closet, manages to attract her boyfriend's attention by kicking the door with the toes of her shoes.

* Julie Yamamoto in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' does this after being bound, gagged and locked in a closet by Elena in "Revenge of the Swarm". It worked.

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* In an episode of ''Series/{{MASH}}'', someone is trying to kill LCOL Blake, going so far as to blow-up the latrine while he is using it. As the unit comes to his help, Klinger shouts to him:

-->'''(Knock)'''

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* What Peewit does after being {{bound and gagged}} by knocking things over in his room after Torchesac/Oily-creep/[=McCreep=] steals the magic flute the night before in {{WesternAnimation/The Smurfs and the Magic Flute}}, alerting Lady Prattle.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': when they got trapped together in a place where Pride was powerless, [[spoiler:he pretended to play with Al's helmet, but his idle banging actually contained messages to his allies.]]

* Happens several times on ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' to alert Conan, who has HyperAwareness, that somebody's in serious trouble somewhere.

* ''Film/{{Body}}'': Paralyzed from the neck down and unable to speak above a whisper, Arthur attempt to attract Ben;s attention by [[NowThatsUsingYourTeeth using his teeth]] to yank a tray off a table and shatter some glasses. [[spoiler:Ben doesn't hear it.]]

* In ''Series/TheXFiles'', a bound and gagged Agent Scully bangs to attract the attention of a police officer when locked in the trunk of Duane Barry's car who kidnapped her. Unfortunately, this leads to the cop being distracted enough that Duane can shoot and kill him.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': Paula von Gunther (after her HeelFaceTurn) was once BoundAndGagged and tossed in a closet in her laboratory. When Diana came to see why she wasn't answering her mental radio device she quickly found and freed Paula as Paula was kicking at the door.

* What Peewit does after being {{bound and gagged}} by knocking things over in his room after After Torchesac/Oily-creep/[=McCreep=] steals the magic flute the night before in {{WesternAnimation/The Smurfs and the Magic Flute}}, alerting Lady Prattle.

** A variation appears in ''Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS1E9E10TheMainMan'' when Lobo shows up looking for Superman. When a police officer tells him that Superman shows up when there's trouble, Lobo takes out his [[{{BFG}} big gun]] and starts some.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "[[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS1E6FeedingTime Feeding Time]]", Superman bangs out "SOS" on the pipe that [[VampiricDraining Parasite]] tied him to to get ComicBook/JimmyOlsen's attention. He succeeds.

* Rachel from ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'' bangs full of despair against a magical barrier that separates her [[spoiler:from Baam, as he takes Headon's test. She is in fact trying to stop him.]]

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* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': when they got trapped together in a place where Pride was powerless, [[spoiler: he pretended to play with Al's helmet, but his idle banging actually contained messages to his allies.]]

* Played unusually in ''Film/{{U 571}}'', as the German captive on their sub isn't BangingForHelp, [[spoiler: he's banging out Morse code: "I am U-571, destroy me."]]

* In the Creator/DanBrown thriller Literature/DeceptionPoint, scientists Rachel Sexton, Michael Tolland, and Corky Marlinson are left for dead on an iceberg in the arctic by a team of Delta Force operatives sent to cover up the results of their investigation. Rachel uses an ice ax to bang out S.O.S. in Morse code to get the attention of the hydrophones listening hundreds of miles away. She doesn't believe that the trio can be rescued before they freeze to death, but she hopes that whoever finds their bodies will dig into the anomaly they were investigating. [[spoiler: They end up getting rescued by the Navy submarine USS Charlotte, which happened to be three miles away on a highly classified lie-and-listen mission.]]

* Rachel from ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'' bangs full of despair against a magical barrier that separates her [[spoiler: from Baam, as he takes Headon's test. She is in fact trying to stop him.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', [[spoiler: Comte Boisvert]] can be heard letting out muffled shouts from inside a cabinet after an assassin ties him up and [[MuggedForDisguise steals his clothes]].

* Happened in an episode of the original ''Franchise/{{Scooby Doo|Where are You}}'' when Daphne was tied and gagged and had a sheet put on her. Her struggles and her mmmphing through her gag from under the sheet caught the gang's attention, whereas they otherwise might have ignored her.

[[IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do with having sex to summon aid]], although that certainly would be something.

* JTEdson character Doc Leroy, temporarily working as a lawman, was coshed and immobilised to prevent his interfering with a planned robbery. (The crooks didn't kill him as Leroy had plenty of the kind of friends you don't want to spend the rest of your life running away from.) He was reduced to banging on the floor of the hotel room he was shut up in, hoping to attract attention.