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It seems in majority of chase scenes on foot, our runners eventually head down a dead-end alley. It's usually a chain-link fence at the end, but nearly as often it's some other kind of wall or barrier. Almost always the chase ends here, the 'chasee' escaping just as often as he doesn't.

Examples of Chain Link Fence include:


Film[]

  • In Revolver, the protagonist escapes over a wooden fence and his pursuer tries to follow him with a shotgun in one hand. He drops it. Ouch.
  • A chase scene in the movie Barbershop ends with the main character jumping over one... and then jumping back because there's an Angry Guard Dog on the other side.
  • Spoofed in one of the Police Academy movies when Lt. Harris and his minion climbs a chainlink fence only to have a caretaker come along and unlock the gate while they're climbing over it. Hilarity Ensues.

Live Action TV[]

  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit uses this multiple times, usually ending with Elliot pulling down the perp from climbing the fence.
  • Done with a corpse in Ghost Whisperer. He climbs the fence, drops over the other side, and lands with his leg in a squicky position. He then proceeds to re-set the leg and run off. Definitely breaking some fundamental laws of physics and biology there...
  • In the Doctor Who episode "Age of Steel", Mickey Smith, and his Alternate Universe double, Ricky, are running away from a squad of Cybermen. They have to climb a chain-link fence to escape. Mickey makes it. Ricky doesn't.
  • Bargearse (a Gag Dub of an Australian cop show that appeared on The Late Show) rather cannily takes advantage of an out-of-focus fence to trap a fleeing criminal.

Manga and Anime[]

  • Not actually a chase scene, but Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex definitely deserves some kind of prize for a scene in which a big, heavy Tachikoma climbs over a flimsy chain link fence at the top of a high-rise building.

Video Games[]

  • Subverted in Assassin's Creed, where due to Altair's Spider-man-esque climbing abilities, there is no such thing as a dead end. However, during climbing he's vulnerable to thrown rocks, or arrows if archers are nearby.
  • In the stealth sections of Sid Meiers Pirates, you can jump over short walls in order to elude the night watch; the manual lampshades this by suggesting that they're too fat and lazy to follow, or even to just run the long way around to corner you.
  • Faith from Mirrors Edge laughs at chain link fences. Unless they are electrified—then she first turns off the power, then laughs at them.
  • This works surprisingly well in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, since you can vault fences but it generally doesn't occur to the cops. They can still shoot you, though...

Western Animation[]

  • The opening to the 1990s X-Men animated series includes a shot of Jubilee, being chased by an Angry Mob, running into a chain-link fence.
  • Subverted in Family Guy, where a perp is confident that he's eluded Joe for the second time by climbing over a fence. Joe however is able to use a steel girder to catapult himself over and land on top of the chasee. It turns out that Joe landed on his spine, killing him in the process.
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 Peter: Ah, a fence — the cripple's natural enemy.

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