History Main / SoftGlass

[[RealityIsUnrealistic Normal glass is harder than you think it is.]] It takes a lot of force to break a glass window, and, even if you succeed, you have many shards of glass all over the place, which can be [[AbsurdlySharpBlade sharper than a surgical scalpel]]. However, horribly hurt heroes aren't awesome. [[RuleOfCool It's so much cooler]] to have your ActionHero effortlessly [[SuperWindowJump leap through a window]] and come out with minimal damage.

Also note that the stunt glass you see people jump through all the time in movies is not real glass. Traditionally, it's actually made of sugar -- a clear, thin sheet of hard candy that looks like glass, but breaks much more easily and is less likely to cut the stuntman to ribbons (the iconic crashing noise is added in post-production). Afterwards, the crew can quickly clean up by either picking up the pieces or simply spraying the area down with a hose to dissolve the sugar. As it's literally just sugar, [[UnconventionalFoodUsage it's edible too!]] Modern "breakaway glass" is usually some form of plastic such as acrylic.

** Another type of 'fake glass' used for media productions is to use sugar; boiling it will produce transparent hard candy that, at a distance, looks reasonably like glass (think a Fox's Glacier Mint) that will also easily shatter. Part of the advantage of this method is that cleanup of the sugar shards is easy: Simply hose it down with water to dissolve it.

* Averted, to nauseating effect, in ''Film/PansLabyrinth'', when Captain Vidal beats a poacher in the face with a wine bottle. The bottle doesn't so much as crack. The poacher's face, however, is smashed in with a series of wet crunching noises.

* ''Film/KillBill'': In the opening of Volume 1, when The Bride fights with Vernita in the latter's house, they throw each other to the glassy objects, such as: the glass-covered photo frame, the glass-covered table and the glassy rack. Yet, they got only a few scratches.

** In the Prequel ''Recap/StartOfDarkness'', [[BigBad Xykon]] hurls Redcloack and Right-Eye through a diner window. Both are shown to be scratched up afterwards.

* ''Film/SoClose'': The sisters, Lynn and Sue, shatter through a lot of glass windows in almost every action scenes yet they manage to stay pristine, no single scratch; first, in the opening when Lynn killed Chow Lui and second, when Sue exacts revenge (with Kong's assistance) in the same building in the final fight.

* ''Fanfic/OrchestratingTheSilence'': Averted when Asuka touches the remnants of a glass door -which she has just broken- to support herself and hurts her hand.

* ''Film/TheHauntedMansion'' film has Jim Evers thrown through the attic window, land on the greenhouse roof (which doesn't break) then falls on his back on his car's windshield. He not only has no marks on him, he [[MadeOfIron gets up seconds later like nothing happened]].

Also note that the stunt glass you see people jump through all the time in movies is not real glass. Traditionally, it's actually made of sugar - a clear, thin sheet of hard candy that looks like glass, but breaks much more easily and is less likely to cut the stuntman to ribbons (the iconic crashing noise is added in post-production). Afterwards, the crew can quickly clean up by either picking up the pieces or simply spraying the area down with a hose to dissolve the sugar. As it's literally just sugar, [[UnconventionalFoodUsage it's edible too!]] Modern "breakaway glass" is usually some form of plastic such as acrylic.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', when Joel stabs a Hunter neck first onto a broken window pane.

* Played with in ''Film/TheTerminator''. One of the questions Sarah asks the police is how the Terminator (whom they believe to be an ordinary human) was able to punch through a car's windshield without any injury. The police think that he was hopped up on PCP, and ''did'' injure himself quite badly, likely even breaking every bone in his hand, but the drugs prevented him from feeling any pain from it. Naturally the real reason is that the Terminator possesses a steel skeleton that is much stronger than any glass.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Film/SoClose'': The sisters, Lynn and Sue, shatter through a lot of window glasses in almost every action scenes yet they manage to stay pristine, no single scratch; first, in the opening when Lynn killed Chow Lui and second, when Sue exacts revenge (with Hong's assistance) in the same building in the final scene.
* ''Film/CharliesAngelsFullThrottle'': In the opening, when escaping from the Mongolian, Natalie smashes the car window bare-handed and her hand remains clean, unharmed. Later, Alex is thrown away from Madison's car and crashes into a store window yet she only got just a few scratches and bruises.

* Played with in ''Film/TheTerminator''. One of the questions Sarah asks the police is how the Terminator (whom they believe to be an ordinary human) was able to punch through a car's windshield without any injury. The police guess that the thug was hopped up on PCP, and ''did'' injure himself quite badly, but the drugs prevented him from feeling any pain from it. Naturally the real reason is that the Terminator possesses a steel skeleton that is much stronger than any glass.

* ''Film/SoClose'': The sisters, Lynn and Sue, shatter through a glass window in almost every action scenes and they manage to stay pristine and no single scratch; first, in the opening when Lynn killed Chow Lui. Later when Sue exacts revenge in the same building in the final scene.
* ''Film/CharliesAngelsFullThrottle'': In the opening, when escaping from the Mongolian, Natalie breaks the car's window and her hand stay clean unharmed. Later, Alex is thrown away from Madison's car and crashes into a shop's window yet she only got just a few bruises and scratches.
* ''Film/KillBill'': In the opening of Volume 1, when The Bride fights with Vernita in the latter's house, they throw each other to the glassy objects, such as: the glass-covered photo frame, the glass-covered table and the glassy rack. And they got only a few scratches.

* Fellow Arnold movie ''Film/TrueLies'' has him punch another car window without injury. Bizarrely, in reality he actually missed the stuntglass and broke a real car window.

* In ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus,'' [[HateSink Rip Blascowitz]] takes several vases to the face, which only give him a nick IF you manage to smash him accross the gob with your last one. One alone should have put him in the hospital (presumably, sheer adrenaline lets young BJ throw them hard enough to break), if not killed him outright.

* In ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewColossus,'' [[HateSink Rip Blascowitz]] takes several vases to the face, which only give him a nick IF you manage to smash him accross the gob with your last one. One alone should have put him in the hospital (presumably, sheer adrenaline lets young BJ throw them hard enough to break), if not killed him outright.