Characters are always getting knocked out in movies

[levcore]

This cliché is so overdone lol, it happens in so many movies. A character, usually the lead gets knocked unconscious so we can have a scene break and they can wake up in a different location all woozy.

The "getting knocked unconscious" act usually occurs either by being punched or hit in the face with the butt of a weapon/ gun. In almost all instances, the act will be shot from a POV perspective so we can see the fist/ weapon come towards camera and then cut to black.

I wonder how many movies this happens in? What are your favourite examples?

[terp_fan99]

Not a movie, but the last time my girlfriend and I watched Smallville we were joking about how many concussions Lana Lang had sustained throughout the show.

[Samus Aran]

Originally Posted by terp_fan99

Not a movie, but the last time my girlfriend and I watched Smallville we were joking about how many concussions Lana Lang had sustained throughout the show.

An article on a website says the KO counter is:

Lois 52
Lex 51
Lana 47.5
Chloe 41
Clark 40
Oliver 21
Jonathan 19
Martha 14
Tess 12
Lionel 8.5
Davis 7
Pete 5
Kara 2

[lupinskitten]

Originally Posted by terp_fan99

Not a movie, but the last time my girlfriend and I watched Smallville we were joking about how many concussions Lana Lang had sustained throughout the show.

And Lex as well. Anytime they had to keep him from figuring out Clark's identity, he wound up unconcious, heh.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by levcore

This cliché is so overdone lol, it happens in so many movies. A character, usually the lead gets knocked unconscious so we can have a scene break and they can wake up in a different location all woozy.

The "getting knocked unconscious" act usually occurs either by being punched or hit in the face with the butt of a weapon/ gun. In almost all instances, the act will be shot from a POV perspective so we can see the fist/ weapon come towards camera and then cut to black.

I wonder how many movies this happens in? What are your favourite examples?

Yeah, it happens a lot and it always seems so much easier to knock someone out in the movies than it would in real life, not to mention there's no long-lasting damage.

My favourite example(s) are the Bond films. Tomorrow Never Dies, which was the 17th film in the series released 35 years after the first film was the first in which 007 doesn't get knocked out in some way. Sometimes he is drugged or gassed, but the majority of the time he is knocked out sometimes 2-3 times per film.

[Jay H.]

I laugh my *ss off when Jack Burton fires his gun in the air triumphantly, thus causing ceiling plaster to knock him out, in Big Trouble in Little China. It pretty much sums up his entire character. Cliche or not, it's a classic scene to me.

[RYJAPE21]

I recently rewatched the show Lost, and I feel like a character was knocked out with the butt of a gun at least once per episode.

[BudBaxter]

It's been a while since I saw it last, but didn't Knight & Day kind of spoof this trope?

I vaguely recall Cameron Diaz getting knocked out (or drugged?) after every action scene & waking up somewhere else. I found it irritating the first time I watched it, but pretty funny on further viewings.

[SeanJoyce]

My favorite/most egregious example of this in Tombstone, when Sam Elliott knocked out Stephen Lang with the weakest gun butt thump on the head ever...it's even worse when it takes him extra time to get it out.

[Samus Aran]

On Supernatural, the villains who have the upper hand on the Winchesters love to knock them out, then poorly tie them to a chair so they can escape and kill them. Doing a Google search, the Supernatural wiki says Sam has been knocked out 73 times and Dean 50 time.

[CSM101]

My personal favorite is the chop to the shoulder. I feel like it was a tv show trope. I spent a good part of my life thinking it really would work if done properly.

[OnlyJapantown]

'Character gets knocked out with no lasting damage' comes second only to 'character gets hit over head with bottle and glass shatters to a million pieces leaving character totally unharmed' in my list of movie peeves.

[format916]

Im sure Violent Night checks off all the cliche boxes including stepping on a characters foot so he drops his gun.

[DR Herbert West]

Happens a few times in Re-Animator.

[J999]

Marty gets knocked out by Biff's security in Back to the Future Part II ( "The Easy Way....")

He's knocked unconscious in all three movies, but that's the only time where it's from someone intentionally hitting him.

[Zivouhr]

Originally Posted by levcore

This cliché is so overdone lol, it happens in so many movies. A character, usually the lead gets knocked unconscious so we can have a scene break and they can wake up in a different location all woozy.

The "getting knocked unconscious" act usually occurs either by being punched or hit in the face with the butt of a weapon/ gun. In almost all instances, the act will be shot from a POV perspective so we can see the fist/ weapon come towards camera and then cut to black.

I wonder how many movies this happens in? What are your favourite examples?

I just went through all 4 Indiana Jones films, and he's getting knocked out often, waking up imprisoned by his enemies to have them preach to him and him talk back and punched again. I like the films but Indy really does rely on others to often get him out of hot water.

But good point about people getting knocked out and caught by the enemies. The old show Daniel Boone with Fess Parker, almost every episode has him being captured by the enemy, sometimes by gunpoint, other times knocked out.

[stvn1974]

Most of the time when a character is knocked out in a film in real life it would have killed them.

[avilab]

It's egregious how often it's done. But not as egregious as how cheesy it is in almost every movie of a 'bad' monster or animal to growl out loud as if to scare the good guys before fighting. No animal on this planet would ever do that. They would just attack and then probably eat you, or at least take some bites of you to see if you're tasty to them. Animals only growl when they want you to leave them the F#$k alone. Such cheese from our fabled directors.