Team Hand-Stack

The Power of Friendship, visualized.

Chase: Sorry, I didn't realize putting your hand in a pile was some sort of legally binding contract.
Alex: It's symbolic.

— Runaways

In order to show solidarity, camaraderie, teamwork, or friendship, a group of people will put their hands together, one on top of the other. Often accompanied with some kind of cheer. This tactic is a favorite of True Companions.

See also Circle of Friendship. Compare and contrast Huddle Shot and Huddle Power.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Doraemon: Nobita and the Windmasters have Doraemon, Nobita, Shizuka and Temujin doing this before the final battle.
  "The fate of this world depends on us. Let’s go!"
• Frequently done by the kenkyuusei in AKB49 – Renai Kinshi Jourei before important performances.
• In Bleach, after the heroes infiltrate Las Noches, Renji calls for a Hand Stack — something he never got the stoic captain of his squad to do.
• Claymore strike teams have been known to do something similar, standing in a circle and crossing their swords together in the middle as an expression of camaraderie.
• In the anime Eyeshield 21, Many of the Devil Bats' huddles during football games break with a cry of "Crush them! YA-HA!" "YA-HA!", while in the manga they did the same, but used "kick their asses!" instead. Many of their opponents have similar hand stack cries.
• Mobile Fighter G Gundam's second opening caps off with the Five-Man Band doing a hand stack, then turning around in time to face the Devil Gundam as it erupts from the ground nearby.
• Naruto: Team Guy gets everyone together after Gai's big speech and puts his hand out for a hand stack. Lee puts his in after a grunt from Gai. Tenten puts hers in, resignedly, after more Gai grunts. Neji refuses. Grunt. No dice. Grunt. Cut to shot of forest as the grunting continues until Neji relents and completes the circle.
• One Piece:
  • A variation between arcs: Back when The Straw Hat Crew was a Five-Man Band, (Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Ussop) they did this with their feet.
  • There's also one in the 11th opening with the eight Straw Hats.
• Snow White with the Red Hair: Zen puts out his hand intending to hold his girlfriend's hand, only for Obi and Shirayuki to turn it into a hand stack while talking of their dedication to each other to his initial annoyance.
• In Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream episode 35, the Kirakira Girls do this as they're about to play in the band contest.
• First episode of Yu-Gi-Oh!, lampshaded in the Abridged series. Yugi and friends also do a variant where they put their hands together, each of which has part of a smiley face drawn on it.
  • Yugi, Judai / Jaden, and Yusei do it at the end of the tenth anniversary movie.

Asian Animation

• Flower Fairy: In Season 3 episode 33, An'an and her friends do a hand stack before they split up to follow a source of dark energy.
• Happy Heroes: In Season 10 episode 5, the heroes do this after they've defeated the monster who was carrying the gun Careless S. really liked.
• In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Smart Dodging episode 29, the goats do a team hand-stack with Wilie when they agree to help him during his training.
• In the Simple Samosa episode "Spa Wars", Samosa, Dhokla, Jalebi, and Vada do a hand stack right before they go inside Appa Spa to stop its rivalry with Amma Spa.

Comic Books

• The Fantastic Four. Parodied/homaged in ads for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
• A variant is done in Beasts of Burden. When the main characters are inducted into the Wise Dogs Society, they put their paws forward in a circle.

Fan Works

• In The Return-Remixed, just before they fight DEAR in the climax, the Diva Army does one that combines it with To Absent Friends, as each member names a Diva that got taken out by DEAR earlier in the story as they put their hand in.

Films — Animation

• The Fearless Four: After the team signs their contract with Mix Max, Fred the donkey tells the other members that, despite all the fame they'd get, he just wants them to stick together no matter what. At that point, he invokes this trope and they all put their legs together despite Buster the dog not fully trusting Gwendolyn the cat.
• Played for Laughs in animated version of the The Hobbit as seen here.
• Luca: This is done by the Underdogs Luca, Alberto, and Giulia as they prepare for the race.
• In The Mitchells vs. the Machines, the Mitchell family tries to do this accompained by the cry "Mitchell Family!" before heading to stop the machine apocalypse. Emphasis on "tries".
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
  • Done in the first movie when the Equestria Girls vow to make Twilight Sparkle princess of the Fall Formal.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree, twice:
    • First, when the Mane Five gather together and psych themselves up to fight Gaea Everfree.
    • Later, after Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer have joined them, when they decide to arrange a fundraiser for Camp Everfree.
• In Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, the other fairies do this with a call of "Faith, trust, and pixie dust" when they prepare to go find Tink.
• In Turning Red, Mei and her friends do a variation where they waggle their fingers together while ululating.

Films — Live-Action

• In a recently retired AMC pre-show clip, three guys in costumes of snack foods (Popcorn, Soda Drink, and a Candy Bar?) give an encouraging pep talk before their skit. They finish with a hands in and cheer "Concessions!" They then proceed to do a showtune that presents common theater rules.
• The protagonists in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen do this before entering the Fantom's factory/fortress.
• Spy Kids franchise
  • At the end of Spy Kids, Carmen, Juni and their parents do a double hand stack (both hands).
  • All the heroes do a hand stack at the end of Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.
• Ocean's 11 — the original with Frank Sinatra — might hold the record for the total number of hands in the stack.
• Ghostbusters (1984): The Ghostbusters do this just before entering the building to fight Gozer. They do another one when they think they've won, until Egon tells them that things are about to go From Bad to Worse.
• In the first Scooby-Doo live action movie this comes up twice: once when Shaggy tries to get the gang to join but only Scooby complies (the others being angry with the rest of the gang at the time), and again at the end when they finally all do it.
• Super Sentai (see below) occasionally uses this in team-up movies.
  • Used in Mahou Sentai Magiranger Vs Dekaranger before the final fight scene.
  • The Gokaiger and Goseiger do this after settling their differences, although poor Gosei Knight is left out (either it's humans-only or because Gai hadn't shown up yet).
• The Mighty Ducks, complete with quacking.
• McFarland, USA: "Uno, dos, tres... McFarland!"
• In the unreleased 1994 Fantastic Four movie, the title characters do this when they all decide to go after Doctor Doom together.
• Happens at the end of Batman & Robin between Bruce, Barbara and Dick, affirming their crime-fighting partnership.
• Dungeons & Dragons (2000). At the end of the movie the four remaining protagonists do a hand stack over the Eye of the Dragon gem and are teleported away.
• Done by Alan, Fermat and Tin-Tin twice in Thunderbirds.
• In The Princess Bride, Fezzik, Inigo, and Westley stack their hands together just before their attack on the castle. Of course, Westley has to work a little harder at it.
• In the 1980's movie, Band of the Hand, the five protagonists are led in one by their mentor, Joe, to symbolize that the five are all part of each other now, "like fingers on a hand".
  • Later, after Joe gets killed, they do another one as they prepare to take on the guys who killed him.
• Done in the original Jumanji, by Alan, Sarah, Judy, and Peter as they agree to stick it out to finish the game. This would later be done again in Jumanji: The Next Level.
• A League of Their Own. The Rockford Peaches and their manager do this before heading out for the final World Series game.
• Done multiple times in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story by the Average Joe's team during the dodgeball tournament. "One, two, three, Joe's!"
• In When Taekwondo Strikes, Li tells Huang, "I hope you will join us." She puts her hand on his and says, "We share a common enemy!" They stack all four of their hands together.
• In The Air Up There, the Winabi basketball players stack their hands, then pump their fists in the air and yell, "Naftalanja!"

Literature

• Maximum Ride and her Flock have a team fist stack, holding out the one fist and stacking them one on top of the other, then the other hands tap each other's fists twice.
• In the Bounders novel The Tundra Trials, Jasper, Mira, Cole, Lucy, and Marco do this after they resolve to work together and not keep secrets. Mira builds a cairn of stones to symbolize their bond.

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who:
  • "The Day of the Doctor": The War Doctor, Ten and Eleven stack their hands on the Big Red Button of the Moment as they consider pressing it. Fortunately, they don't.
  • At the end of "Arachnids in the UK", the Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham stack their hands on the TARDIS lever, having decided to travel together long-term.
• A regular occurrence on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition;, always accompanied by "Let's do it!"
• Fort Boyard: Used in this French game show when the single team wants to motivate itself to take on the against the game. Seen in many other game team-based game shows too.
• Glee : Before each competition, the New Directions have one with the cheer "Aaaahh-MAZING!"
• In the old-school Sentai show J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai, the four main heroes had a finishing move (JAKQ Hurricane) performed by grasping forearms and running in a circle.
• Subverted in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, where the team does the hand stack over the Greatest Treasure in the Universe after they resolve to use it to rewrite reality to eliminate Zangyack. However, before they do, Don interrupts to point out that there has to be some kind of catch; The Reveal quickly puts them through a big moral debate.
• A key scene in the second opening of Kamen Rider Blade, but with fists instead of open hands.
• The ex-Trope Namer was not the first example of this trope, but perhaps the most iconic example is the "Whoa Bundy!" call from Married... with Children.
• Mimpi Metropolitan:
  • In episode 15, after noticing that they haven't make much money with their laundry bussiness, Bambang, Alan and Prima put their fist-pumped hand on top of the other as they declare their decision to continue.
  • In episode 46, after discussing their plan to keep going and face the struggles of working in Jakarta, Bambang, Alan and Prima does another hand stack.
• Power Rangers:
  • Used more than once on Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, combined with a "YEAH!" Shot of everyone jumping in the air. This was homaged in the 10-year Forever Red special with a team fistbump, the 15-year special in Overdrive, and the premiere episode of Power Rangers Samurai.
  • Power Rangers Turbo had a unique variant originating from the sentai: typical stack, then put the other hands on top for a thumbs-up.
  • Ninja Storm had an actual plot-driven example - after Cam was promoted to Sixth Ranger, the six of them joined hands to open an urn the other five's powers had been sealed in.
• Done plenty of times on Saved by the Bell, but possibly the most memorable case was towards the end of "Jessie's Song" when the gang (sans Slater) were doing one and Lisa refused get in the stack if her hand was touching Screech's! Ultimately, his ended up on the top of the stack while she placed her's at the very bottom.
• In the Here Come the Brides episode "A Hard Card to Play," the Bolt brothers do this while planning to win Clancey's boat back after he lost it gambling.
• The introduction of the show Sisters ended like this—first their younger counterparts hands, then their present-day ones.
• Seinfeld. Newman and Kramer enthusiastically do this before embarking on one of their capers and invite Jerry to join in. Disgusted at having to align himself with these idiots, Jerry merely places his index finger.
• Done a couple of times over the course of The Musketeers, usually accompanied by the "All for one..." stuff. Then again, would it really be an adaptation of The Three Musketeers if they wouldn't do that?
• Ghostwriter: The Ghostwriter Team sometimes does one in the form of the Ghostwriter cheer, which is finished with them all saying "Ghooooost...WRITER!".
• Reboot (2022): After an awkward meeting Zack attempts to initiate a hand-stack ("Step Right Up on three") but no one bites and he does it by himself.

Video Games

• In Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, the Debut Queue the heist makes up the bulk of the story, and each time a new member is added to the Cooper Gang, we see a quick shot of the hand stack, with the new member placing their hand on top of the others (with the exception of Dimitri, who only gives a thumbs-up).
• At the end of Jak X: Combat Racing, the True Companions does this right before the final race, which will determine whether they'll defeat Mizo, and whether they'll all live or die.
• In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, at the end of the second episode, Phoenix and Maya handshake while Mia contributes the hand stack.◊
• In Final Fantasy X, the Aurochs are seen doing this in game as well as in this◊.
• In Final Fantasy XIII, Snow starts one in Chapter X.
• In Sonic Heroes, Team Sonic does one right before they use their 11th-Hour Superpower. Rouge also forces Team Dark to make one in their opening cutscene.
• The western generals (Kanbe, Yoshihiro, Muneshige) do this after they form an alliance in Sengoku Basara 3.
• At the climax of Yakuza 4, when Akiyama, Tanamura, Saejima, and Kiryu agree on the plan to use Akiyama's remaining fortune to lure out the villains to the top of Millennium Tower, Akiyama enthusiastically tries to initiate this. Tanamura finds it corny, but eventually joins in anyway.
• Before the final battle in the Street Fighter V Story Mode, Ken, Karin and Dhalsim do this over a handshake between Chun-Li and Ryu, symbolizing their determination to take Shadaloo and Bison down together.
• The Investigation Team does this twice in Persona 4. The first time is just before their concert at Junes in Golden. The second time is after they catch the killer and save Inaba from the fog, leading to a hilariously awkward moment when Chie tries to replicate the same cheer they did at the concert together.

Web Animation

• Toon Sandwich: Parodied in "Super-Showdown-Bowl!" through Exaggerated Trope; toward the middle of the fight, the heroes and villains reaffirm that they can win against Oscar if they work as a team, and they start putting their hands (and other appendages) on top of each other... until a good thirty are doing so. Then Black Widow complains...
  Black Widow: Guys, cool as this looks, my hand is on the bottom and it's now unbelievably heavy...

Western Animation

• Done in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius episode "The N Men", as Jimmy, Carl, Sheen, Cindy and Libby decide to use their newly acquired superpowers to fight crime as a superhero team.
• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes had this after paranoia regarding an alien among the team caused all but four members to quit.
• Done by Blaze, Starla, Zeg and Darington in the Blaze and the Monster Machines episode "Truckball Team-Up", as they talk during the Truckball Tournament's timeout and again when they win the game.
• The Defenders of the Earth do this at the end of the first episode in the series, immediately after they have decided to pool their various talents in order to fight Ming's forces.
• In the opening of their 1967 show and in the debut episode, The Fantastic Four do this.
• The premiere episode of Justice League ends with the heroes doing this as they decide to form a permanent team.
• Frequently done in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, usually after the team that has focus comes up with a plan to defeat the latest threat to The Power of Friendship.
• The PJ Masks do a three-way fist bump to kick off their Transformation Sequence.
• Used with the main six in Recess, as well as with the Ashleys.
• Used in The Simpsons when the Be Sharps are putting their hands together. Former member Wiggum tries to sneak his hand into the stack and is met with angry stares.
• Sonic Boom has this when Sonic, Tails and Dr. Eggman plan to lower a force field around Eggman's lair, immobilize with a freeze ray, and disarm MTTW Cow Bot, whose programming to destroy Sonic was accidentally reversed by Tails and is now going after its creator, once it gets into range.
• In Super Why!, the Super Readers do this before starting their Transformation Sequence, with Super You (the viewer) invited to put out a hand too.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003):
  • The Turtles do this as they prepare for an all-out assault on the Shredder's base.
  Leo: We're gonna be a four-turtle wrecking crew.
  Splinter: (joins in) Five.
  • Turtles Forever includes an eight-turtle handstack.
• Total Drama:
  • The Guys' Alliance performs a team hand-stack twice in "Hide and Be Sneaky". The first time is to make the alliance official and the second time is to signify their agreement to vote off Bridgette.
  • Team Amazon performs a team hand-stack in "Walk Like An Egyptian - Part 1" when they proudly announce the team name they've settled on.
  • With the last girl voted off the previous episode, the Toxic Rats rename themselves Team Man in "Runaway Model". They officialize it with a team hand-stack, but when Sam joins in, the other three pull back their hands in horror of his bulked-up gamer thumb.
  • The Heroic Hamsters perform a team hand-stack at the end of their Huddle Shot when they've agreed on a strategy in "Evil Dread".
• In Transformers: Animated, the Autobots do this around the beginning and end of season one.
• The VBirds do a variant of this occasionally where instead of laying their hands flat they each form a V-sign.
• A mixed team of heroes and villains does it in The Venture Bros. episode "Hate Floats".
• The Spectral Knights do this a couple of times in Visionaries: Knights Of The Magical Light when uttering their sacred cry:
  "May the Light shine forever!"
• Wonder Pets! do this after every rescue.

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