History Main / ConvenientlyPlacedSharpThing

[[folder:Real Life]]
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Aimee_Semple_McPherson Aimee Semple McPherson]] claimed to have escaped her kidnappers by cutting her bonds on the lid of a tin can, and responded to reporters' incredulity by repeating the feat in their presence.

* ''ComicBook/LeScorpion'': At one point, Armando uses one of Mejai's spilled poisons to [[PoisonIsCorrosive to burn through his bonds]].

Whenever someone is tied up, the bad guys often leave something sharp in the room that the victim can use to cut themselves free. Even if tied to a chair, they can move the chair to the object to cut the ropes. This is as unrealistically common in serious drama as it is in adventure, action and other genres that don't take themselves seriously.

A rarer and more badass way of escaping from bonds that doesn't require an IdiotBall is to somehow ''dislocate the bones of one hand'' and pull the crushed hand through the loop before the swelling sets in. (Ouch!)

SisterTrope to PetGetsTheKeys, HookingTheKeys, and WithinArmsReach. The latter is where, instead of being tied up, the character is being attacked and manages to grab something that they can use to turn the fight to their advantage.

!!Crushed hand variant examples:

* In ''Film/SawIII'', Detective Eric Matthews escapes the infamous bathroom by breaking his ''foot'' to get it through the manacle.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

One step further, and it becomes a LifeOrLimbDecision.

[[quoteright:215:[[Webcomic/TeamFortress2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sharp_thing.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:215:She's got a sharp eye for detail.]]

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[[caption-width-right:250:She's got a sharp eye for detail.]]

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}''. In the pilot episode, Dobson is seen sawing at his bonds with a sharp object.
** The possibility is raised that Jayne left it with him for exactly that purpose. [[AntiHero It would not be out of character for him...]]

* ''Film/MonsterHunter'': When Captain Artemis, who has her hands bound, is knocked to the ground by the Hunter, she uses the opportunity to palm a sharp rock that she uses to cut through her bonds later that night.

* ''ComicBook/LeScorpion'': At one point, Armando uses on of Mejai's spilled poisons to [[PoisonIsCorrosive to burn through his bonds]].

* A conveniently placed ''dog'' appears in the Canadian kids' film ''Film/BaileysBillion$.'' Two kids are tied up in a cage, and a dog is in another cage. He bites through the ropes on the kids' hands.

* In ''Series/{{CSINY}}'s'' "The Untouchable," perps use a WoundedGazelleGambit to ambush Mac. They taze him, zip-tie his hands, and pull a knit cap over his head before leaving him in a construction area. He manages to find a piece of rebar to saw thru the tie, and does so more quickly than would be realistic.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the seventh ''LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai'', [[spoiler:Shiki]] manages to one-up most of the examples on this page by [[spoiler:''chewing her own thumb off'']] to get out of handcuffs. Of course, [[spoiler:the thumb in question is on her [[ArtificialLimbs artificial left arm]]]], but it just shows how hardcore the character is. It's even more hardcore when you realize that despite being an artificial limb, she can feel through it and is nearly indistinguishable from an flesh and blood arm.

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[[caption-width-right:250:She's got a sharp eye for detail.]]

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* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':
** In one episode, Castle has his character Nikki Heat tied to a chair and can't figure out how she will escape, so he has Alexis tie him up for research. He ends up knocking over a garbage can and using a broken soda can to cut free.
** In a later episode, Castle and Beckett are locked in a room and are bound with zip ties. Castle finds a screw and uses it to saw at Beckett's binds. [[SubvertedTrope A decent amount of time passes and he doesn't even make a dent in it.]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E1DayOfTheDaleks Day of the Daleks]]," the Doctor rubs his bonds against a wine rack in the cellar to cut his wrists free.
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani The Caves of Androzani]]" the Doctor is chained to the wall in a spaceship's control cabin. He's able to break free of the wall, and finds a [[CowTools vertical glowing energy beam]] he can use to cut the chain, through trying to do so while standing with his back to it is rather painful.
* In the ''Series/{{Haven}}'' episode "301," Audrey uses broken glass to cut through her ropes. Her hands get very bloody in the process.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. In "The Sons of the Harpy," after kidnapping Tyrion Lannister, Jorah Mormont steals a fisherman's boat, then returns to where he's left Tyrion lying in the sand, his longsword stuck through Tyrion's bonds to hold him in place. He finds Tyrion frantically rubbing the ropes against the blade, but Jorah was only away for a moment, not enough time to escape.

* In ''Series/{{CSINY}}'s'' "The Untouchable," perps use a WoundedGazelleGambit to ambush Mac. They taze him, zip-tie his hands, and pull a knit cap over his head before leaving him in a construction area. He manages to find a piece of rebar to saw thru the tie, and does so more quickly than would be realistic.
* ''Series/TheBoys2019''. In "Over The Hill With The Swords Of A Thousand Men", superpowered terrorist Kenji is ShippedInShackles with his hands bound in duct tape so he can't use his telekinetic powers. He rubs the tape against his chains to free a single finger, which enables him to direct enough telekinetic power to summon and crumple a drink can, creating a sharp piece of metal to cut the rest off.
* ''Series/Batwoman2019''
** In "A Mad Tea-Party", Sophie Moore uses her diamond engagement ring to saw through the zip ties binding her and her husband Tyler to a chair. As their marriage is a bit shaky at that point thanks to Sophie having revealed her past homosexual relationship with Kate Kane, Tyler notes the irony.
** A variation in "Off With Her Head". Kate has someone tied to a chair for interrogation purposes, but agrees to give him a glass of water. Rather than using it to cut his ropes it turns out he's already got his hands free; he smashes the glass and tries to cut his own throat so he can't be made to talk.

* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestV'' there is a mouse you save really early on in the game. If you don't, when you become tied up much later, the mouse won't come and rescue you by gnawing through your ropes.
* This is an option in the video game ''VideoGame/{{Darklands}}'' when you are tied up by devil worshipers in a hamlet. The game features an illogical subversion; it can be easier to break the ropes with brute force if strong enough than it is to cut them.
* Parodied in ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland''. When Guybrush is thrown underwater tied to a heavy idol, the ground around him is ''[[RedHerring littered]]'' with swords, scissors, and other miscellaneous sharp objects, all of which are just out of reach. If you wait a while, you'll hear two people on the dock discuss whether they should throw a knife into the water, and then decide not to. The solution, of course, is to [[spoiler:pick up the idol and climb out]].
* Parodied again in ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland''. After Guybrush is swallowed whole by a very large snake, you can see that all around you are: a Snake-Slicing machete, a can of Snake-Away, the Jaws of Life, a good-size Snake-Beating plank, some high-fiber cereal, and a Nine Iron golf club. All of these things would easily allow him to escape if they weren't outside the snake.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/RuleOfRose''; the sharp thing is very deliberately placed, as well as controlled by the villain: a pair of scissors that is automatically lowered by rope to cut the protagonist's ties, and then lifted up again beyond her reach.

* ''VideoGame/{{Nightshade}}'' on the NES has this or a variant in a couple points. Right at the start of the game, you use a Conveniently Placed Candle (The game even notes it's there "For no explainable reason" when you examine it) to free yourself from a chair. Later, one of the continue scenarios has you use some sharp metal protruding from the wall as part of your escape.
* ''VideoGame/JohnnyRocketfingers''

* This also occurs in the "Big Top Trap" episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePerilsOfPenelopePitstop''.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Captain Planet|and the Planeteers}}'' had Gi tied to a chair in a room used to gather coral from a reef. One sharp piece falls conveniently nearby and we all know what happens after that...

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'': In "Codename: Electric Haircut", Fillmore is able to cut through his bonds with a CD that fell on him when he was being tied up.

* In ''Film/SawIII'', Detective Eric Matthews escapes the infamous bathroom by breaking his ''foot'' to get it through the manacle.

* In ''Film/TheBoondockSaints'', the brothers are handcuffed to chairs, so they move to allow one brother to ''stomp the other's thumb until he can pull it out of the handcuffs.'' It hurts to watch.

* ''Film/{{Assassins}}''. ProfessionalKiller Miguel Bain dislocates his thumb to escape police handcuffs after being arrested.

* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': Miles Vorkosigan ''used'' to be able to do this easily when his bones were still brittle enough that he could crush them with his own muscles. The bones were replaced with unbreakable synthetics by the time of ''Komarr'', so that he was unable to escape no matter how hard he tried.

* Played with in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' novel ''Proven Guilty'', where Harry is held captive by a pair of villains in an old garage, who are [[ItMakesSenseInContext selling him on eBay]]. There's a tool chest a few meters away, but out of reach, and he can't use any magic because the restraints are designed to trap wizards. However, with a bit of help from [[spoiler: Lasciel]], he uses a technique that lets him dislocate his thumb and slip one hand free of the restraints. Then he gets to the tool chest and manages to find a hacksaw. Fortunately, the restraints are made by [[TheFairFolk fae troll-smiths]], and iron is the fae's bane, so the hacksaw goes right through the restraints. He also levels a few curses at his dad, the stage magician, who never got around to teaching him how to get out of a pair of handcuffs painlessly.
* Variant: In ''Literature/GeraldsGame'', the heroine escapes from being handcuffed to a bed in a cabin somewhere in BFE (the only other person who could have let her out is her husband, recently deceased of a heart attack) by [[spoiler:using a broken drinking glass to cut the skin around her wrist, partly degloving her hand to slip out of one cuff]].

* In the Inheritance Cycle's fourth book, Inheritance, Eragon and Arya are imprisoned in Helgrind by the fanatic worshippers of the Ra'zac. Eragon considers breaking his thumbs to get out of his chains when the Ra'zac's eggs start to hatch.

* This is how Series/{{Dexter}} escapes the Skinner in season 3 - rocking the table over to land on his hand.
* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'': Sarah Connor manages to be even ''more'' badass: after breaking her hand bones, she ''bites her wrist open'', giving her the necessary slipperiness.
* Casey tells Series/{{Chuck}} about this trick (breaking one's own thumb), but Chuck's far too pain averse. [[ChekhovsSkill Casey himself pulls it later.]] Still later Morgan does it, but discovers he didn't need to break his thumb.

* A variation of this trope appears in ''Manga/NatsumesBookOfFriends'': When the titular [[DistressedDude Natsume]] is captured by Matoba, he has his wrists bound with a type of restrictive paper that can't be seen by normal humans and is then left in Matoba's hotel room with one of his shiki as a guard. Fortunately, Natsume spots a glass of water on the table and breaks it, then punches out the shiki and uses the Newly Created Sharp Thing Made From A Conveniently Placed Breakable Thing to cut through his bonds before escaping out the window. In Matoba's defense, he wasn't then aware of Natsume's power and likely assumed that his shiki would stop any escape attempts even if Natsume ''did'' manage to break free from his restraints.

* Deliberately {{invoked|Trope}} by the Joker in the standalone story "Slayride". Tim Drake/Robin wakes up to find himself [[BoundAndGagged tied up]] by the Joker in a car he stole from a family on Christmas Eve. Robin searches behind his back for something to cut his bonds, and finds a small toy car, snaps the hood off it and starts cutting. But shortly after that, the Joker snatches the car hood out of Robin's hands, because [[MagnificentBastard the Joker placed it there]]. Just to provide false hope. Oh, that [[ForTheEvulz Joker]]!

* ''ComicBook/RulahJungleGoddess'': In "The Harpies from Hades" (''Zoot Comics'' #10), Rulah has her hands and feet bound and is tossed in a cell containing the skeletal remains of previous victims. She snaps the jawbone off one of the skulls, files the teeth to points against the stone wall, and uses it to cut her bonds.

* In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', the conveniently-paced burning object (the lucky charm shamrock lighter) fails to be properly used, leading instead to a DisasterDominoes sequence.
* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'' plays it straight, with Mutt throwing his knife so Indy can cut the ropes that tie him (the knife opens while he tries, but what happens isn't addressed).

* A conveniently placed ''dog'' appears in the Canadian kids' film ''Bailey's Billion$.'' Two kids are tied up in a cage, and a dog is in another cage. He bites through the ropes on the kids' hands.
* In ''Film/BladesOfGlory'', Chazz is tied up in a room full of ice skates.

* In the movie ''Film/PansLabyrinth'' [[ChekhovsGun we are shown several times how the maid Mercedes hides her knife in her belt]] after using it for her work. So when Captain Vidal captures her for a spy and ties her hand in front, it is logical that she can get loose.
* ''Both'' versions are simulated by Riddick in ''Film/PitchBlack''. He dislocates both shoulders (eat your heart out, Riggs!), and slips his cuffs through some [[BenevolentArchitecture Conveniently Placed Starship Damage]] before cutting them off with a [[LaserBlade Conveniently Placed Plasma Cutter]].
* The American president (played by Creator/HarrisonFord, no less) from ''Film/AirForceOne''. The film's rating permits showing that using a glass shard cuts you while you're cutting the rope.
* ''Film/TheMatrixRevolutions'': Trinity, in the real world, gets tied up by Smith in Bane's body. She's thrown down into a hatch where some conveniently placed sharp things were broken earlier.

* In the sci-fi movie ''Xchange'', the conveniently placed sharp thing is a spool of monofilament line capable of cutting through basically anything. And it shows that when a nervous person is working with monofilament behind their back, [[{{Fingore}} someone's apt to lose a thumb]].
* Played with in ''Film/FunnyGames''. A knife that's been left in the family's boat [[ChekhovsGun is later used]] by a tied-up Ann to try and free herself. [[spoiler: Subverted, in that Paul and Peter see her, take the knife away, and throw it overboard. A few minutes later they send ''her'' over as well.]]
* Of course it helps if you're such a MemeticBadass you can create your own sharp object. At the start of an otherwise forgettable Creator/ChuckNorris action movie ''Firewalker'' (1986), our hero is staked out in the desert to die. To taunt Chuck, the villain leaves a bottle of water in his hand. Chuck is able to break the glass with just one hand, giving himself the glass shards to cut his bonds.

* In ''Film/BreakheartPass'', Deakin is able to use the fireplace in the governor's carriage to cut/burn through the leather thong binding his wrists.
* ''Film/TheTournament'': When tied to a pole inside the strip club, Joshua is able to undo one of the screws enough to cut through his bonds.
* ''Film/{{Deadpool|2016}}''. The BigBad has kidnapped Deadpool's ex-girlfriend and locked her in a hyperbaric chamber which has the oxygen pumped out. During the battle Deadpool [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks throws a katana to pierce the chamber]], letting the oxygen back in. She uses the lodged katana to cut her zipties, then pushes the blade out (despite the injury to her hand this inflicts) so she can open the chamber and use the katana for a BigDamnHeroes to save Deadpool.

* ''Film/RanchoNotorious'': After being bound by Vern, Wilson is able to cut his hands free by rubbing the rope on a nearby grindstone.
* In ''Film/ViolentSaturday'', Shelley is able to use a nail stuck in a beam to rip off his blindfold and gag.
* ''Film/TimberFalls'': When Mike is tied to a chair in the cellar, he is able to topple the chair over and reach the scalpel Ida dropped on the floor, and use it to cut himself free.

* ''Film/HotSpur'': When Susan is tied up in the mining shack, she is able to grab a knife off the table with her teeth and drop it on the floor, then get it with her hands and use it to saw through her bonds.
* ''Film/MonsterHunter'': When Captain Artemis, who has her hands bound, is knocked to the ground by the Hunter, she uses the opportunity to palm a sharp rock that she uses to cut through her bonds later that night.
* In ''Film/HoodedAngels'', Hannah is able to free her bound wrists by burning through the rope on the campfire.

* In Edmond Hamilton's ''Literature/TheStarKings'', the main hero, while prisoner on the enemy ship, manages to escape and draw the attention of his own side's ship. The bad guys are victorious in the battle, and they tie him up in a chair. However, the battle forces a crash landing, which cracks the chair just enough for the hero to saw through his bindings after half a day or so.
* In the short story "Literature/TheBorderlandOfSol" by Creator/LarryNiven, an extremely limber Beowulf Schaefer has his arms very securely tied to the coolant line of the [[BigBad Big Bad's]] superweapon. It just so happens that he has a piece of [[AbsurdlySharpBlade monomolecular wire]] sewn into one of the buttons on his clothing, but its not like his hands are free to reach it... so he uses his ''feet'' instead. Instead of trying to cut his bonds directly, he cuts the coolant line right through, making for a big mess involving a miniature black hole that was being manipulated by a mechanism using said coolant line, and the antagonist being HoistByHisOwnPetard.[[note]]He was using the black hole to rob ships leaving from Sol, and then eliminate the evidence afterward by using that black hole to consume the ships and people aboard them.[[/note]]

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': after kidnapping [[spoiler: Chapman]] in one novel, the heroes arrange his escape because they [[TechnicalPacifist can't kill him. They leave broken glass near the tied-up Chapman, which reinforces the idea that the Animorphs are "Andalite bandits" - Andalites don't use glass, and don't understand its sharpness.]]
* Used in ''The Lost Scrolls'' After Harry, Garth and Gid fail in their attempt to save Meagen and Jesse. As the evil cult people start to ready the poison, Harry starts frantically looking around for anything he can use to free them. It takes him a bit to remember that he has a knife blade he sewed into his tunic at the beginning of the book...

* Played with and averted in the Creator/StephenKing novel ''Literature/GeraldsGame''. The female protagonist is left handcuffed to a bed, naked, with no one alive for miles around. She makes her own conveniently placed sharp thing by breaking a water glass...[[spoiler:which she then uses to cut, not the handcuffs, but ''her own hand'', so the blood can act like a lubricant so her hand will slip out]].
* In ''[[Literature/KateShugak A Taint in the Blood]]'', Kate is captured and tied to a camp bed in an old cabin. She escapes by breaking the bed till she can squirm across the floor, and then lighting a Coleman stove and using it to burn through the rope.
* ''Literature/TheSagaOfArrowOdd'': Captured by the viking Saemund, Odd spends the night scheduled to be executed in the morning, with his feet shackled and his hands tied behind his back, and guarded by twelve men. He strikes up a conversation with his guards to lull their vigilance, and eventually sings to them until they are all sleeping. Odd then crawls to a nearby axe and manages to cut the fetters on his hands on its edge. He unties his feet, grabs the axe, kills the guards, and gets away.
* ''Literature/HowMuchForJustThePlanet'': Invoked intentionally. After Uhura and Aperokei are captured by the villain of their subplot, [[CardCarryingVillain Ilen the Magian]], he leaves them tied back-to-back in the projection room of his movie theater, with a liquid explosive that will go off at about the time the movie ends. Aperokei, knowing that Ilen -- who is obsessed with movie tropes -- will have [[GenreSavvy left them a way to escape]], realizes they can cut through their ropes with the spinning projector wheel. [[spoiler:In reality, Ilen did this because he's an actor playing a caricatured villain, as part of the Direidian "Plan C". Oh, and the explosive was actually just ginger-beer.]]

* Parodied in ''Series/PoliceSquad'', where a kidnapped woman begins sawing away at her bonds on the requisite sharp object, wipes her forehead with her hand from the strain of it all, and then puts her hand back into the ropes to continue sawing away.
* Subverted on ''Series/{{NCIS}}''. Jenny, while tied to a chair, spends considerable effort edging a flat shard of metal towards her with her foot. Then the guy kicks her out of range. (Yes, he kicks ''her'' out of range, not the convenient sharp object. Ouch)
* Used on ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' when a mook has to escape.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer:'' In the episode "The Dark Age", bad guy Ethan Rayne has Buffy tied up, with her arms wrapped around the edges of a table and tied together beneath it. There is a conveniently located screw sticking out the bottom of the table that she uses to saw through the ropes.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}''. In "Five by Five", Faith is about to kill a BoundAndGagged Wesley when Angel does a BigDamnHeroes and her switchblade gets dropped in the struggle. Fortunately TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn and Wesley uses it to cut his bonds.
* Michael has to do this in ''Series/BurnNotice'' when a former friend sells him out. He escapes but bloodies his wrists.
* In ''Series/TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr'' episode "Crystal Hawks", Brisco manages to get himself loose from the ropes he's tied up in by using a partially exposed screw in Crystal's cart. The next time she catches him, she shackles him to the cart so he can't do that again.
* In ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'', Claudia is handcuffed with no way out. Looking around, she picks up a plastic spatula and tosses it down disgustedly. After the action falls, Artie shows up and tells her he sees seven ways out of the situation. He picks up the spatula and corrects himself: "Sorry, eight." It should be noted that he got himself out of a similar situation earlier in the episode using a iron to make an electromagnet.

* In the series ''Series/OnceUponATime'', in the episode called "Hat Trick", Emma does this with a tea cup from which she had drunk earlier. While falling into a drug-induced unconciousness, she drops the cup, and when she wakes up she's bound and gagged. So she drops a pillow onto the tea cup and stomps on it, breaking it, and uses it to cut the rope.

* DoubleSubverted in ''Snobs'': Abby is captured and tied up below the deck of a ship. She tries using a letter opener to cut through the bonds, but one of her captors comes back in and takes it from her before she can finish. Luckily, the titular dog finds her and finishes the job.

* ''Series/Batwoman2019''. In "A Mad Tea-Party", Sophie Moore uses her diamond engagement ring to saw through the zip ties binding her and her husband Tyler to a chair. As their marriage is a bit shaky at that point thanks to Sophie having recently revealed her homosexual relationship with Kate, Tyler notes the irony.

* Of course it helps if you're such a MemeticBadass you can create your own sharp object. At the start of an otherwise forgetful Creator/ChuckNorris action movie ''Firewalker'' (1986), our hero is staked out in the desert to die. To taunt Chuck, the villain leaves a bottle of water in his hand. Chuck is able to break the glass with just one hand, giving himself the glass shards to cut his bonds.