History Main / FutileHandReach

* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' has Elizabeth silently reaching out for Booker's hand [[spoiler:as the Songbird swoops away with her in its grasp. He reaches back but misses, and both Elizabeth and the Songbird disappear through the hole in the tower. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome And then Booker gets to his feet and charges right after them]].]]

* Simba when Scar falls to his doom in ''Theatre/TheLionKing''.

* In the prologue of ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'', little Anna and Elsa are playing around with [[AnIcePerson Elsa]]'s ice powers and Anna makes a leap that Elsa realizes she'll be unable to save her from, so Elsa futily reaches out and, in a case of distress related PowerIncontinence, accidentally blasts Anna with a frost bolt. This leads their parents to seek out [[AllTrollsAreDifferent the Trolls]] who, [[LoveFreak kind as they are]], not only heal Anna to the greatest extent of their abilities, but also predict that fear of her powers will be Elsa's greatest enemy, causing her parents to isolate her in order to keep her away from those who may fear and harm her, while Elsa rather considers the reason for her isolation to be for the safety of everyone else... And that's the story of how a "futile" little gesture ironically kickstarted the plot of a whole movie.

* Subverted in Franchise/{{Batman}}: Under The Red Hood. Jason Todd has just captured Joker and gives Batman a choice. Either he kills Jason to stop him, or he lets him kill the Joker and avenge his death. Jason begins counting down, and just as he's about to shoot Joker, Batman yells out and reaches for him--only to see that he only did so to cover the fact that he was throwing a batarang, knocking Jason down.

[[folder:ComicBooks]]

[[folder: Literature]]
* During ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' the BigBad starts to fall down a [[BottomlessPits Bottomless Pit]] and Tash [[SaveTheVillain automatically reaches towards him]], but it happens too fast and she's too far away for it to be a TakeMyHand.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "Doomsday", the Doctor does this while Rose is about to be dragged into [[VoidBetweenTheWorlds the Void.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Manhua]]
* In ''[[Manhua/RavagesOfTime The Ravages of Time]]'', Liaoyuan Huo does this when Xiao Meng kicks him out of the way of incoming enemy spears, taking two in his own side and plummeting to his seeming death. When Xiao Meng is impaled with a thrown spear to prevent him from assassinating Cao Cao and falls off of a roof, he [[CallBack sees Liaoyuan Huo reaching out for him]]... and when he's executed via sword and then a mass of impaling with spears, the final page of the chapter is just covered in spears and Xiao Meng's hand.
** A decade in-story and over a hundred chapters later, when Liaoyuan Huo[[note]]now under the ''nom de guerre'' [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Zhao Yun]][[/note]] is trapped under a myriad of incoming spears that he's just managed to block and parry but nevertheless believes himself about to die under, it's not his life that flashes before his eyes -- it's Xiao Meng reaching for him through the spears.

[[folder:VideoGames]]

[[folder:WebComics]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* [[Franchise/{{Batman}} The Dark Knight]] himself pulls one of these in ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Batman: The Animated Series]]'' after Scarecrow throws Barbara Gordon off a building...[[spoiler:[[AllJustADream in a nightmare.]]]]

* Happens several times in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' where [[TheHero Shepard]] has a recurring nightmare about a little boy s/he failed to save on Earth, and at the end tries to reach the boy as he bursts into flames. Depending on your choices, this can also happen on [[spoiler:Rannoch]] if [[spoiler:you fail to solve the Geth and Quarian's conflict, so Tali is forced to watch as the Migrant Fleet gets blasted out of the sky, and starts to walk off a cliff to her death]]. Cruelly, right then you have a Paragon interrupt where you can reach out, but [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption it doesn't work]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/SherlockHolmes http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dramatic_hand_reach1.jpg]]]]

* The page image is from Guy Ritchie's ''Film/SherlockHolmes'', but is not quite an example of the trope in that rather than being a futile emotional reaction, it's a rather clear-headed attempt at protecting his colleagues: Watson realises he has triggered a grenade and in the few seconds before it explodes has the presence of mind to remember Holmes and Irene Adler will be on his heels, and turns to warn them with a gesture and a shout to keep back. Holmes promptly obeys the gesture and is therefore standing several meters away from the centre of the explosion when the grenade goes off. If the film was less... muddled... about the effects of what standing at the centre of (several) grenade blasts will do to you, Holmes' distance would have meant the difference between life and death for the detective (and a very practical, but very final act of heroism for a very deceased Watson). Admittedly, a series of further explosions triggered by the first mean ultimitely Holmes is little better off where he is than if he'd run right up to Watson, but Watson wasn't to know that would happen.

* ''Film/XMen'':

* In the cliffhanger to [[Recap/TheFlash2014S3E8Invasion Part I]] of the "Invasion" event in the ''Franchise/{{Arrowverse}}'', several key members of the ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' cast are kidnapped by the Dominators. Barry/The Flash is running towards Oliver/Green Arrow to try and save him, only for the aliens' teleportation beam to beat his SuperSpeed.

It happens quite a lot in action and scifi movies, though shows and movies based on comic books seem to like this trope quite a lot. Also a common Anime Opening trope. It is somewhat common in a fantasy setup with magic or psychic powers to have someone perform this trope straight only for their latent abilities to trigger thus subverting the "futile" part of this trope.

It happens quite a lot in action and scifi movies, though shows and movies based on comic books seem to like this trope quite a lot. Also a common Anime Opening trope.

* Just before the ending of CrisisCore, [[spoiler:Cloud starts to wake from his mako addiction]] and reaches his hand out. [[spoiler:Zack]] already has his back turned by then, however, off to face the [[spoiler:Shinra Army that we know from the original game will kill him]]. He manages to catch up after the fighting, though.

* At the very beginning of ''VideoGame.MetroidOtherM'', we are taken back to the battle against Mother Brain at the very end of ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', with the Baby Metroid shielding Samus as it uses the life energy it stole to recharge her Power Suit and bring her back from near death. Just as Mother Brain is about to unleash a Hyper Beam, the Baby lets go of Samus and charges forward, taking the entirety of the blast. As Samus enters a SlowMotionFall she reaches her hand up towards the Baby, only to see it explode before her eyes.

* In ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonVsAceAttorney'', in the ending of Chapter 4, [[spoiler:Phoenix reaches out and screams "MAAYYAAAAAA!!" as Maya is dropped down into the raging fire, just like what was done to other convicted witches.]]
* In the true ending of ''[[NightsIntoDreams Nights: Journey of Dreams]]'', Will and Helen desperately reach out toward [[spoiler: [=NiGHTS=] as s/he smiles, takes a bow, and DisappearsIntoLight.]]

* At the very beginning of ''[[MetroidOtherM Metroid: Other M]]'', we are taken back to the battle against Mother Brain at the very end of Super Metroid, with the Baby Metroid shielding Samus as it uses the life energy it stole to recharge her Power Suit and bring her back from near death. Just as Mother Brain is about to unleash a Hyper Beam, the Baby lets go of Samus and charges forward, taking the entirety of the blast. As Samus enters a [[SlowMotionFall Slow Motion Fall]] she reaches her hand up towards the Baby, only to see it explode before her eyes.
* Happens several times in ''Videogame/MassEffect3'' where [[TheHero Shepard]] has a recurring nightmare about a little boy s/he failed to save on Earth, and at the end tries to reach the boy as he bursts into flames. Depending on your choices, this can also happen on [[spoiler:Rannoch]] if [[spoiler:you fail to solve the Geth and Quarian's conflict, so Tali is forced to watch as the Migrant Fleet gets blasted out of the sky, and starts to walk off a cliff to her death]]. Cruelly, right then you have a Paragon interrupt where you can reach out, but [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption it doesn't work]].

* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' has Elizabeth silently reaching out for Booker's hand [[spoiler:as the Songbird swoops away with her in its grasp. He reaches back but misses, and both Elizabeth and the Songbird disappear through the hole in the tower. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome And then Booker gets to his feet and charges right after them]].]]
* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in the opening of ''VideoGame/GarouMarkOfTheWolves''. The backstory shows Terry having beaten Geese Howard, to the point where he's hanging off the balcony at the very top of Geese Tower. Terry reaches out and grabs his hand...and then Geese spitefully yanks his hand away, staring up at an aghast Terry as he willingly falls to his death.

* The titular character in ''[[Film/HarryPotter Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]]'', towards young Hagrid in a PensieveFlashback in which he was shown to have been hiding a monster which he thought was the monster of the chamber.

[[folder:Film]]
* Luke pulls one on Hoth after Obi-wan appears to him in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''.
* In ''Film/BatmanReturns'', Batman's use of this is used by the Penguin to make the populace think that he pushed the Ice Princess off a building to her doom.
* In ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'', Reed does this towards Sue after [[spoiler: Sue gets stabbed by Doom. She recovers.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2''. Tigress does a Futile Paw Reach as Po is blasted by Lord Shen's cannon. Later it happens again, but [[TakingTheBullet Tigress shoves Po aside in time and takes the impact herself]]. All the heroes are blown into the harbour, and Po swims up to Tigress, who is clinging to wreckage, to check that she's still alive. He gently pushes Tigress out of harms way and swims off to confront Lord Shen's fleet single-handed. Tigress can be seen in the background, [[TearJerker feebly reaching out to stop him]].

[[caption-width-right:350: [[JustifiedTrope Well, when you're about to go up in a massive explosion, warning others away only works from a distance.]]]]

* In ''{{Naruto}}'', Sakura reaches out and runs to the middle of the first fight between Sasuke and Naruto. Those two had their hands out as well, but in their hands were special techniques they were trying to use to fight each other.

* In an ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}''/''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' crossover in a 1980s comic, Cyclops does this towards Jean (in her Dark Phoenix form) as Darkseid takes control of her.