History Main / CleanCut

* In the 2006 remake of ''Film/TheOmen'', [[spoiler: photographer Keith Jennings]] gets his head sliced cleanly off...by an unhinged sign post. Seeing as the momentum wasn't terribly large, that thing must've been sharp as hell. Then again, though, [[{{Satan}} higher powers]] are also at work, which might help explain it.

* Averted in ''Franchise/StarWars''. The lightsabers do cut through almost anything (they cannot cut through other lightsabers, cortosis blades, Phrik or blades created by sith alchemy, and it can be difficult to make them cut through anything with an electromagnetic field), but are obviously immune from material limitations, what with being plasma and all. Also people don't spend half a minute looking shocked before falling to pieces. Limbs and appendages tend to fly all over the place, although [[BloodlessCarnage bleeding is very limited]] as the laser cauterizes as it cuts, and leaves a gap due to the width of the blade and the fact that surrounding flesh is heated white hot and thus charred.

* In ''[[DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight 2]]'', there is a cheat setting that allows the lightsaber to do this, accurately slicing models along the cuts, making it possible to filet enemies and friends alike. The setting to allow this implies that it was a feature of the game that was censored.

* Happens in pretty much every episode of ''HighlanderTheSeries.''

* A couple of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' shorts like "Tree For Two" and "The Honey-Mousers" featured a gag where a character would get slashed by a pair of giant claws or a sword. After a few seconds the character appears to be fine and then says the strike missed only to fall into pieces on the ground. They would usually put themselves back together.

** Notably, at one point this actually works ''against'' the person who made the cut. At the end of the ''Jetstream'' DLC, [[spoiler: [[{{TheRival}} Sam]] manages to cut off [[{{BiggerBad}} Armstrong's]] hand, leaving a stump. However, Armstrong's [[{{MadeOfIron}} body-hardening]] [[{{Nanomachines}} nanomachines]] turn the stump into a razor-sharp shiv, which Armstrong then uses to skewer Sam, crippling his arm. This, along with Armstrong's subsequent HannibalLecture, sends Sam over the DespairEventHorizon and makes him [[{{FaceHeelTurn}} join up with Desperado.]]]]

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''s Odin does this to his enemies when using his Zantetsuken (effectively, decapitating iron sword), slicing them cleanly into two pieces.

** Lightsabers also cannot cut superconductors. Apparently, the StarWarsExpandedUniverse has room-temperature superconductors that can hold an edge. Combine that with {{Vibro Weapon}}s, and you get the vibro-shields (yes, shields used as swords, contrasted with the lightsaber's status as a sword used as a shield) of the Akk Guards, who fight [[BadAss Mace]] [[SamuelLJackson Windu]] in ''Shatterpoint''. Aside from the cauterizing, {{Vibro Weapon}}s in general can perform this trope just like lightsabers. Better, maybe, since cauterizing is not strictly part of the trope. However, hold a lightsaber against a superconductor for long enough and the whole thing will melt. Also, vibro weapons have less cutting power than lightsabers.

* A [[http://youtube.com/watch?v=VX6xsIrZfdo deleted scene]] from TomCruise's ''TheLastSamurai'' has the lead character, Nathan Algren, witness a samurai named Ujio walking along a street, who gets hassled by a pair of businessmen. The samurai takes their insults for a few moments, as they insult his heritage and his swords, but when one of them pokes him with a cane, Ujio slices off the head of the man in a clean, swift fashion, and sheaths his katana in one fluid movement while the other scrambles backwards.

* In the teaser for ''{{Cube}}'', a character is in one room when ''something'' happens. The character freezes in shock, and seconds later falls apart in neatly diced cubes. The ''something'' turns out to be a moving grid made of razor wire.

* ''{{Equilibrium}}'': John Preston incapacitates his former partner with four quick, obviously fatal slices. The former partner sinks to his knees and looks shocked before his face slides off.
** Actually 3 of the slices were to his opponent's pistol holsters (which is why the fall off and he's able to go all gunkata with the big bad). The fourth was definitely the fatal slice though.

** In theory, this is because the Green Destiny Sword is extremely hard and sharp ''steel'', cutting not-quite-as-hard iron.
*** Even the finest steel doesn't cut the poorest iron this way. Also, the sword is only effective in the hands of a right bearer. Master Li Mu Bai defeats an opponent wielding Green Destiny with a thin branch of wood.
* In the extended [[IncrediblyLamePun cut]] of ''SinCity'', Miho dispatches [[ScaryBlackMan Manute]] this way at the end of The Big Fat Kill.
* Averted in ''StarWars''. The lightsabers do cut through almost anything (they cannot cut through other lightsabers, cortosis blades, Phrik or blades created by sith alchemy, and it can be difficult to make them cut through anything with an electromagnetic field), but are obviously immune from material limitations, what with being plasma and all. Also people don't spend half a minute looking shocked before falling to pieces. Limbs and appendages tend to fly all over the place, although [[BloodlessCarnage bleeding is very limited]] as the laser cauterizes as it cuts, and leaves a gap due to the width of the blade and the fact that surrounding flesh is heated white hot and thus charred.

* The most important blows are delivered this way in ''KillBill''. Oren Ishii beheaded a mutinous henchman with a single swipe, and the Bride cut of an arm off Sophia Fatale, chopped ''another sword'' in pieces like it was a straw, and then sliced Oren's head in half.

* In the 2006 remake of ''TheOmen'', [[spoiler: photographer Keith Jennings]] gets his head sliced cleanly off...by an unhinged sign post. Seeing as the momentum wasn't terribly large, that thing must've been sharp as hell. Then again, though, [[{{Satan}} higher powers]] are also at work, which might help explain it.

* When in ''ClashOfTheTitans (2010)'' the hero slashes Medusa, she's standing right up for a few moments before her head finally falls off her shoulders.

* An assassin in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' has a sword that can cut through ''anything'' (e.g. cutting a moving car in half). Examination by Wayne reveals that the blade terminates in an edge thinner than a molecule.

* Guillotines.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': One of his signature moves is to leap at the enemy, perform a series of lightning-swift slashes in mid-fly, then land and pose dramatically with his eyes closed as the enemy falls apart and explodes behind his back.

* ''CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon'': the sword Green Destiny, in the hands of the right wielder, can be drawn, cut pieces of iron in half, and sheathed again ''all in the one movement.''

* Goemon, in ''Manga/LupinIII'', does this regularly. In one movie, he cuts through a helicopter's blades in such a way that they stay on for a few seconds ''while still turning and keeping the chopper in mid air.''

** {{Man-Thing}} probably doesn't count, however, given that it is (despite its human origins) little more than a mobile mass of vegetable matter and slime.

* Most bladed weapons shown on ''DeadliestWarrior'' leave jagged, messy wounds; even those that hack limbs off. Of course, more often than not they're cutting through gel torsos. Though in a few instances, this was played straight. The samurai cleanly cut through two pigs with a katana.

* GameOfThrones appears to measure general awesomeness by whether you can do this or not; Stannis and Tyrion are both able to cut ridiculously cleanly in the Battle of Blackwater ([[ArmorIsUseless sometimes through armour,)]] but Theon requires a lot of frantic hacking to remove [[spoiler: Ser Rodrik's]] head, and Gregor Clegane, despite being the strongest man in the series and wielding a BFS, fails to completely decapitate his horse.

* In Gabriel Byrne's ''Film/GhostShip'', the [[http://youtube.com/watch?v=mVxgzBVjgIs opening sequence]] has a group of partygoers dancing in the ballroom of an ocean liner. An unseen person hooks up a spool of wire cord level with the ballroom deck. The spool snaps and flails across the room, and the guests look around to see what's wrong. It turns out that all of the guests (save for one little girl) have been bisected, falling apart more than ten seconds after the incident. Of note is the captain of the ship, who has been dancing with the little girl. He looks down at her in concern, then ''half of his head falls off''. To some, this was [[{{Narm/Film}} narm]], especially when the cut superceded the one guy's enormous grin.
* ''FinalDestination 2'' features a similar scene, except with two fenceposts with barbed wire spun in between, slicing apart one of the destined to die.

* Recurring ''AlphaFlight'' character Nemesis uses a mono-molecular blade that can slice through practically anything.

* Also done in the ''KnownSpace'' series of short stories by LarryNiven. Not by a knife though... In the stories there is a type of thread referred to as "Sinclair molecule chain" -- [[RazorFloss a thread that is one molecule wide, and can slice through anything with just a gentle tug]]. How they manage to attach handles to it is a different story... This is also used in the "variable-knife" and "variable-sword" from the same series, which is nothing more than Sinclair chain spun out from a handle, with a "stasis field" to support it. Not to mention a red ball at the end, so you can tell where the thread ends.
** In another Larry Niven story, the 'attach handles' part is explained when we find out that Sinclair had no trouble designing the monomolecular chain, but the hard part was devising molecular links for the ends so handles could be attached and the chain wouldn't unravel.

* ''StargateContinuum'' features Que'tesh warning Ba'al that her sword's blade has been sharpened to the width of an ''atom'' and that it would be very easy to cut a body in half [[spoiler: as she later does]].

* Goemon, in ''Anime/LupinIII'', does this regularly. In one movie, he cuts through a helicopter's blades in such a way that they stay on for a few seconds ''while still turning and keeping the chopper in mid air.''

* ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'': Neville decapitates Nagini (Voldemort's snake) with a single swipe of a sword.

* In the adaptation of ''{{Shogun}}'', Englishman John Blackthorne is shocked to see a samurai slice the head off an oldster who did not bow when he was supposed to. You get a great look at Blackthorne's face (and that of the Jesuit priest accompanying him) and just a glimpse of a headless neck - and vertebra - before the body falls out of camera shot.