History Main / MeleeDisarming

** In ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', Kylo Ren does the same move to Finn that Vader does to Luke on Cloud City when Finn tries to fight Kylo, prying the lightsaber out of Finn's hands with his own and sending it flying away.
*** Rey also disarms Kylo while they are grappling at the end of their duel, knocking Kylo's lightsaber out of his hand with her own and then swiftly cuts him across the face.

* ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' will frequently use his whip to deprive an enemy of their weapon. [[HeroicAmbidexterity Sometimes he'll even disarm someone while holding his gun on them in his off hand.]]
** His EstablishingCharacterMoment, before we even see his face, is using his whip to disarm a revolver from a man set to shoot him in the back.

For a version where guns are involved, see BlastingItOutOfTheirHands. However, while that trope more-or-less [[RequiredSecondaryPowers requires]] ImprobableAimingSkills (or [[AccidentalAimingSkills a whole lot of luck]]), using a melee weapon (or bare hands) to deprive an opponent of another melee weapon is more likely. Indeed, many RealLife fighting styles feature moves meant to take an opponent's weapon, and many real-life weapons are designed to make such attempts easier or harder. Long, curved quillons on a sword can more easily trap and apply leverage to an opposing blade to wrench it from someone's grasp. A basket hilt that envelops the entire hand ensures that your blade won't fall from your grasp unless your wrist is broken first.

** Tanimura in ''VideoGame/Yakuza4'' can learn Kiryu's firearm disarming. He also gets the unique Heat Action "Essence of Seizing", where he'll disarm an opponent by [[SickeningCrunch dislocating their arm]] and stealing their one-handed weapon.
** In ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'', Majima has a Heat Action where he grabs the opponent's sword by [[NowThatsUsingYourTeeth catching the blade between his teeth]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'', the [[ReoccuringBoss first fight]] with [[TheDragon Ghirahim]] has him grabbing the Goddess Blade out of Link's hands and either wielding it himself or throwing it at Link.
* In ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'', Kirby can SwordClash with [[TheRival Meta Knight]] during the final battle of his Colosseum cup and force his sword Galaxia out of his hands, allowing Kirby to grab it himself and wield the upgraded Sword ability, Meta Knight Sword, before you can get it naturally. Meta Knight will then fly off to grab a regular sword and come back to finish the fight.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'': The opening cutscene shows the BattleInTheRain between Dante and Vergil. After an intense fight, Vergil manages to knock Dante's sword Rebellion off him with his katana and finishes the fight by [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaling Dante]].
** Dante is disarmed again in [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry4 the sequel]] by Nero. This time he counters by slamming his opponent to the ground, catching the sword, and holding it to Nero's throat until he yields.

For a version where guns are involved, see BlastingItOutOfTheirHands. However, while that trope more-or-less [[RequiredSecondaryPowers requires]] ImprobableAimingSkills (or [[AccidentalAimingSkills a whole lot of luck]]), using a melee weapon (or bare hands) to deprive an opponent of another melee weapon is more likely. Indeed, many RealLife fighting styles feature moves meant to take an opponent's weapon, and many real-life weapons are designed to make such attempts easier or harder. Long, curved qullions on a sword can more easily trap and apply leverage to an opposing blade to wrench it from someone's grasp. A basket hilt that envelops the entire hand ensures that your blade won't fall from your grasp unless your wrist is broken first.

* ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': Vader rather easily disarms Luke early in their Cloud City duel, the first sign that maybe Luke's in a bit over his head here.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'': At the end of the Rufus Shrina boss battle, Cloud uses his large Buster Sword to knock Rufus's twin guns out of his hands, ending the battle.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' series has [[ActionCommands Heat Actions]] that will disarm an opponent. In ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'', Majima has one where he grabs the opponent's sword by [[NowThatsUsingYourTeeth catching the blade between his teeth]].
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'': Disarming enemies in melee is an obscure gameplay mechanic that is rarely useful, but becomes a plot point in the flashback of Altair's return to Masyaf, where his rival, having proclaimed himself the new Old Man of the Mountain, sends younger assassins against him. Being an OldMaster himself, Altair can kill the younger men with ease, but doing so immediately desynchronizes the player -- instead, you are required to pull off a tricky disarm maneuver on every single attacker without taking any damage yourself. In-story, this stunt establishes Altair's complete moral and skill superiority among the assassins and allows him to take over their leadership with relatively little bloodshed.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': In 3rd Edition, it's possible to disarm an opponent with a melee attack by declaring you're going to attempt to do so before attacking. Roll the attack as normal, but if you hit instead of dealing damage you and the target make opposed strength checks. If you win, you disarm your target. If they win, they're allowed to make a free disarm check against you. Some weapons gave bonuses to disarm checks, such as flails. On top of that, there was a feat, Improved Disarm, that gave you a bonus on the strength check and meant that enemies couldn't make a retaliatory disarm check against you if you failed.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3'': The opening cutscene shows the BattleInTheRain between Dante and Vergil. After an intense fight, Vergil manages to knock Dante's sword Rebellion off him with his katana and finishes the fight by [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaling Dante]].

For the version when guns are involved, see BlastingItOutOfTheirHands. However, while that trope more-or-less [[RequiredSecondaryPowers requires]] ImprobableAimingSkills (or [[AccidentalAimingSkills a whole lot of luck]]), using a melee weapon (or bare hands) to deprive an opponent of another melee weapon is more likely. Indeed, many RealLife fighting styles feature moves meant to take an opponent's weapon, and many real-life weapons are designed to make such attempts easier or harder. Long, curved qullions on a sword can more easily trap and apply leverage to an opposing blade to wrench it from someone's grasp. A basket hilt that envelops the entire hand ensures that your blade won't fall from your grasp unless your wrist is broken first.

!!Examples

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

[[folder:Live-Action Television]]

The SwordFight, the cross and clash and flare of blades as two characters try to kill each other with sharpened lengths of metal. When [[MasterSwordsman master swordsmen (or women)]] are involved, getting an attack in past your opponent's defenses may well be impossible. Thus, you remove their means of defense. With a flash of blade and twist of the wrist, you send their sword flying from their hands, arcing dramatically through the air. [[TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn Pointy end landing is optional.]]

The SwordFight, the cross and clash and flare of blades as two characters try to kill each other with sharpened lengths of metal. When [[MasterSwordsman master swordsmen (or women)]] are involved, getting an attack in past your opponent's defenses may well be impossible. Thus, you remove their means of defense. With a flash of blade and twist of wrist, you send their sword flying from their hands, arcing dramatically through the air. [[TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn Pointy end landing in optional.]]

While a staple of swashbuckling movies, there are a wide variety of techniques for using a wide variety of melee weapons (including one's empty hands) to get a wide variety of melee weapons away from your opponent. As such, this trope will most commonly appear in a SwordFight, but can apply whenever two (or more) combatants have non-ranged weapons.

Related to {{Flynning}}, since while disarming an opponent can be advantageous, many of the disarms seen in TV and movies are rather flashier than strictly necessary. Related to WreckedWeapon and/or BreakableWeapons, if one deprives an opponent of their weapon by destroying it instead of just knocking it out of their hands. If TheHero is sufficiently [[PragmaticHero pragmatic]] (or [[AntiHero anti]]), they may go for [[AnArmAndALeg a literal disarm]] instead, which may lead to FakeArmDisarm. May follow a BareHandedBladeBlock. May overlap with ExtendedDisarming, if the opponent is a WalkingArsenal who just keeps pulling out new weapons every time they lose one. Can also lead to a MidfightWeaponExchange, if both combatants are disarmed but recover each others' weapons. May be a signature move for a TechnicalPacifist or MartialPacifist, as taking away an opponent's weapon severly reduces, if not eliminates, their ability to be a threat.

For the version when guns are involed, see BlastingItOutOfTheirHands. However, while that trope more-or-less [[RequiredSecondaryPowers requires]] ImprobableAimingSkills (or [[AccidentalAimingSkills a whole lot of luck]]), using a melee weapon (or bare hands) to deprive an opponent of another melee weapon is more likely. Indeed, many RealLife fighting styles feature moves meant to take an opponent's weapon, and many real-life weapons are designed to make such attempts easier or harder. Long, curved qullions on a sword can more easily trap and apply leverage to an opposing blade to wrench it from someone's grasp. A basket hilt that envelops the entire hand ensures that your blade won't fall from your grasp unless your wrist is broken first.

* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': During Inigo and The Man In Black's duel, The Man In Black briefly disarms Inigo with an adroit flip of the sword out of Inigio's hand. To end the duel, The Man In Black disarms Inigo again. The actual Disarm isn't {{Flynning}}, but what leads up to it is. The Man In Black swirls his sword before Inigo, confusing him as to where it is and will be, whips it beside his head, then just knocks Inigo's sword from his loose fingers while he's distracted.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3'': The opening cutscene shows the BattleInTheRain between Dante and Vergil. After an intense fight, Vergil manages to knock Dante's sword Rebellion off him with his katana, and finishes the fight by [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaling Dante]].

* The weapon commonly referred to as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrying_dagger "sword-breaker"]] is theorized to have actually been [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr8tSuMyGOI used for this in real life.]] A duelist could wield it like a main gauche and catch the enemy blade in the "teeth", upon which they could easily yank it out of its opponent's hand. However, the low number of of sword-breakers in existence imply that [[AwesomeButImpractical it just wasn't practical compared to parrying]] with the much more easily made parrying dagger. Even those fell out of fashion as the sport of fencing evolved.
* Also the Japanese [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitte jitte (or jutte)]], a kind of truncheon with a hook near the hilt, usually used by law enforcers in Edo era up to Bakumatsu era. When used for disarming weapons (usually bladed ones) from an opponent, the user would block it with the truncheon part, then capture it with the hook part, and finally yank it off the opponent's hand.
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