History Main / CapeSnag

* ''Film/{{Halloween|2018}}'' (2018): Oscar tries to run away from Michael Meyers and climbs over a fence, but the cape of his Halloween costume gets caught on the fence, allowing Michael to catch up and kill him.

Often shows up during Superhero deconstructions/parodies, specifically with regards to the SuperheroesWearCapes[=/=]BadassCape tropes. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome can come into play here. See Also: NotWearingTights, where the characters refuse costumes entirely, KillerOutfit, when it's the ''rest'' of your wardrobe trying to take you out, and PinnedToTheWall.

* Defied in ''Franchise/{{Mistborn}}''. Mistcloaks consist of many easily detachable ribbons, so snagging one would just break it off the cloak.

* Gambit also pulled this off in his [[ComicBook/Gambit1993 1993 miniseries]], disposing of the villainous Tithe Collector by charging up the hem of his longcoat and then kicking him through a window before it exploded.

* Gambit also pulled this off in one miniseries, disposing of the villainous Tithe Collector by charging up the hem of his longcoat and then kicking him through a window before it exploded.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'': Green Arrow tries to fill in for an injured Batman by wearing his costume, but finds his usual fighting style hampered by the cape.

* ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'' has a variant toward the end of the series, with Archer of Black [[CombatPragmatist stepping on]] Rider of Red's [[ScarfOfAsskicking scarf]] so that Rider can't pull away while Archer pummels the shit out of him.

* In ''Series/{{Supergirl|2015}}'':

* In the ColdOpen of ''Series/TheWheelOfTime'' season 1, episode 7, an Aiel Maiden of the Spear takes down one of her fully-armored foes by grabbing his cape as she runs past, yanking it so that he falls on his back. She then stabs him through the visor of his helmet with her spear to finish the job.
* One fight in ''Series/MoonKnight2022'' had one of the adversaries of the title character grabbing his cape to prevent him from going forward. Of course this means that Moon Knight turns around and beats him to get free.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' is the old TropeNamer. It isn't hard to see why, as it {{Lampshade| Hanging}}s the topic quite heavily.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles No capes!]]]]

** Given an IronicEcho of sorts when [[spoiler:Syndrome's cape gets caught in a jet turbine in the climax, leading to his death]].

[[folder: Video Games]]

* ''VideoGame/PajamaSam 2: Thunder And Lightning Aren't So Frightening'': Near the beginning of the game, Sam accidentally trips on his cape and hits a BigRedButton at World Wide Weather, causing the weather factory to go haywire.

* The ComicBook/ScarletWitch had a pair of cases in ''''ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers'', and tried a new costume without cape. It didn't stick.

Often shows up during Superhero deconstructions/parodies, specifically with regards to the SuperheroesWearCapes[=/=]BadassCape tropes. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome can come into play here.
See Also: NotWearingTights, where the characters refuse costumes entirely, KillerOutfit, when it's the ''rest'' of your wardrobe trying to taking you out, and PinnedToTheWall.

* ''WesternAnimation/KoalaMan'': Koala Man's cape accidentally saves him from Lady Tradie's [[TimeMaster time powers, which was going to freeze him in time,]] when he accidentally trips over his cape and [[CoincidentalDodge dodges her attack]], causing her to accidentally hit her teammate Brickie, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard who freezes over and falls on top of her and her other teammate]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'': While Batman and Catwoman were fighting Ragdoll, Batman's cape got caught between some moving gears. What's worse, his cape is connected to his mask, meaning if he wants to survive, he has to take his mask off to escape. Fortunately, Catwoman helps him out by cutting his cape off.

* In the [[WesternAnimation/AladdinGoldenFilms Golden Films version of]] ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin|GoldenFilms}}'', the villain Hasseem during a sword fight with Aladdin accidentally trips over his cape and ends up stabbing himself.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'', Razoul uses his scimitar to attempt to stop the Titular King of Thieves, who's actually Aladdin in disguise.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood'', Red Hood pins Batman's cape with a dagger and punches away at him until Batman is able to rip the cape.

* In ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeTheMovie'', Serpentor's cape gets tangled in his air chariot's turbine, causing him to fly out of control.
* A later Disney example occurs in ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' when [[spoiler:Ratigan's cape gets caught in the gears of Big Ben. That isn't what kills him, though, it just delays his pursuit of the heroes.]] An InvokedTrope as well, as it's done deliberately.
* In ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragonTheHiddenWorld'', Snotlout spends a lot of time on missions hanging off the scenery by his cape.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', Shan Yu is defeated when Mulan stabs his cape with his sword holding him in place so Mushu can shoot him with a rocket.

* Inverted from ''WesternAnimation/SinbadLegendOfTheSevenSeas'', [[GiantFlyer Roc]] inadvertently bites off Marina's Duffle Parka-Robe.
* Another early Disney example occurs in ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'' when [[spoiler:Prince Phillip's cape gets caught in the branches of Maleficent's forest of thorns. Merryweather alerts the fairies to this and they use their magic to free his cape from the thorny branches without a single tear.]]
* A very early Disney example as shown in ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' during Snow White's terrifying flight through the spooky forest, her cape, along with her skirt gets caught in the tree branches, twice. But she manages to free herself without any signs of tears. Later on, her cape gets caught on another branch in a different part of the forest, but her animal friends free it for her.
* In ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', one of Ziro's IG-86 sentinel droids grabs Padme Amidala's cape as she tries to escape from being imprisoned. She successfully does this at the cost of her cape which finally ripped as it fell on IG-86. Very smart of her, even if it costed her a nice fashion piece.
* Darkseid tries this against Superman in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanBatmanApocalypse''. Superman goes with the snag and punches Darkseid in the face hard enough to send him flying across half of Kansas.
* In the final battle in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanDoomsday'', as Superman is fighting his clone, at one point he grabs his clone by the cape and swings him around.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', while Batman and Catwoman were fighting Ragdoll, Batman's cape got caught between some moving gears. What's worse, his cape is connected to his mask, meaning if he wants to survive, he has to take his mask off to escape. Fortunately, Catwoman helps him out by cutting his cape off.
* A version of Batman's detachable clasp is shown in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' when his cape becomes trapped in the grip of a robot Joker henchman -- Batman quickly detaches his cape and spends the rest of the episode capeless. Whether Batman's cape is attached to his cowl or not is inconsistent in the series, seeming to rely on the script.
* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', Green Arrow tries to fill in for an injured Batman by wearing his costume, but finds his usual fighting style hampered by the cape.
* In ''WesternAnimation/CyberSix'' you could make a DrinkingGame out of how many times the titular character takes a blow because a [[DumbMuscle Fixed Idea]] managed to grab onto her cape.
* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'': plays with this trope somewhat.
** In "[[Recap/DarkwingDuckS1E63BadLuckDuck Bad Luck Duck]], the titular hero got his rip-proof cape trapped in the hood of a car just as a brought-to-life Hamburger Hippo stand was bearing down on him. Later in the same episode, it is shown that Negaduck has enough foresight to buy rip-able capes.

* When [[SupermanSubstitute Omni Man]] fights what are essentially a group of [[ArtificialZombie cyborg zombies]] in ''WesternAnimation/Invincible2021'', they jump onto him while he's flying low to the ground and one of them blinds him by wrapping Omni Man's cape around his face, which causes Omni Man to immediately plummet to the ground.
* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', Draaga and Captain Marvel have yanked Superman around by his cape.
* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueAction'', Batman trips up ComicBook/MisterMiracle by stepping on his cape, much to his indignation.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Spike mocks comic-book hero Hundrum's cape as impractical and pointless. Sure enough, in "Power Ponies", Spike is turned into Humdrum, and he trips on his cape.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' Darth Vader's gets caught in the toilet. In this case, he was already stuck there since his arm got caught while trying to figure out how to remove his suit, so the cape simply made things worse.
* In ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'', Shaak Ti manages to temporarily defeat General Grievous by using the Force to tie his cape to a passing train.
* A comic example in ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperHeroSquadShow'', where ComicBook/DoctorStrange gets his Cloak of Levitation caught in a portal, spoiling what would have been a pretty good entrance.

* Inverted in one of the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheatricalCartoons''. Superman saves Lois from a torrent of molten steel by sheltering her under his cape.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2003}}'', Michelangelo decides he wants to be a superhero and sets himself up with a costume, complete with cape... which proceeds to trap him in the door of a bus falling into the river. Oops.
* In the Christmas episode of ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012'', while in the middle of a LetsYouAndHimFight moment with Moon Knight, Spidey thwarts Moon Knight's initial offense by grabbing his cape and throwing him against a wall, stating that this is the reason he never wears one himself.

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': In the backstory, the corporate hero Dollar Bill was ordered by his sponsors to get a cape as a part of his outfit, in order to increase his marketability. However, one day, when he tried to stop a bank robbery, his cape got caught in a revolving door, allowing the bank robbers to shoot him to death. Nite-Owl notes (somewhat bitterly) in his memoir that Dollar Bill would likely be alive today were he allowed to design the costume himself. The same section of the memoir notes that Nite-Owl experimented with a caped costume in his early days, but gave it up because he was unable to master the art of walking around ''his own home'' without the cape catching on things.

* ''Film/TheBatman2022'': In the final battle, the Riddler's followers grab Batman's cape to drag him down and almost manage to hurl him off the scaffolds they are fighting on until he breaks free.

* Mentioned In ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''. When Gohan requests a uniform similar to that of his ParentalSubstitute Piccolo, (which includes a cape with ''very'' wife shoulder arches) Piccolo immediately recommends that Gohan practice walking around with it to avoid this, including advice for dealing with potential obstacles.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles In the words of Edna Mode: No capes!]]]]

** Edna Mode hates adding capes to superheroes' costumes solely because too many have gotten into accidents related to them. When Bob requests one on his new costume, she [[https://youtu.be/M68ndaZSKa8?t=120 shoots him down]]:

'''Edna:''' Do you remember Thunderhead? Tall, [[WeatherManipulation storm powers]]? Nice man, [[FriendToAllChildren good with kids]].\\

** [[EnforcedTrope The real reason for "no capes" was that Pixar]] [[NoFlowInCGI didn't want to animate flowing capes]].

[[caption-width-right:300:[[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles No capes!]]]]

* Defied by ''ComicBook/DoctorZero''. He wears a cape as part of his carefully crafted (and deliberately misleading) benevolent superhero persona. But when he's ambushed on a submarine and knows he'll be forced to fight at close quarters, without using his usual flight and ranged attacks, he immediately discards it so that it won't cause problems.