Tropedia

All unique and most-recently-edited pages, images and templates from Original Tropes and The True Tropes wikis have been copied to this wiki. The two source wikis have been redirected to this wiki. Please see the FAQ on the merge for more.

READ MORE

Tropedia
WikEd fancyquotesQuotesBug-silkHeadscratchersIcons-mini-icon extensionPlaying WithUseful NotesMagnifierAnalysisPhoto linkImage LinksHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconic
Hook

You'll be hooked on a feeling. That feeling will be pain.


Cquote1

Hooks in you, hooks in me, hooks in the ceiling

For that well hung feeling

No big deal, no big sin, strung up on love

I Got the hooks screwed in.
Hooks In You by Iron Maiden
Cquote2


A Sub-Trope of Improvised Weapon, a hook is a curved or bent device for catching, holding, or pulling, while a crook is an implement having a bent or hooked form, such as a shepherd's staff. These can be great weapons with the addition of tripping and catching things. Included are canes and fishing hooks.

Often seen (in cartoons mostly) in situations where a comedian is doing so poorly on stage that a large wooden crook on a stick comes up from offstage and yanks him away: see Vaudeville Hook.

See also Hook Hand and Cane Fu.

Examples of Hooks and Crooks include:

Anime and Manga[]

Comic Books[]

Film[]

Literature[]

  • In Night Watch, it is mentioned that the butchers on the rebel's side are particularly terrifying to the soldiers, as they wield a large amount of meat hooks, normal weapons being in little use. In Thud!, Vimes' butler Willikins suddenly reveals his Battle Butler side by carrying a few meat hooks with "worrying expertise".
  • The boatwoman in Jessica Salmonson's The Swordswoman uses a grappling hook as a weapon, both in melee and also dangling it from rooftops to catch necks.
  • This is how the victims in Village of the Vampire Cat are seemingly killed by claw attacks from a distance. The killer using a grappling hook thrown from a distance.

Live Action TV[]

  • Deadliest Warrior: the Somali Pirates use grappling hooks as their close range weapon.
    • And the Shaolin Monk's hook swords.

Real Life[]

Tabletop RPG[]

  • In Dungeons and Dragons the "Gaff/Hook" as a typical Improvised Weapon in naval and quasi-naval settings got official weapon stats. Long before a crowbar or pry bar.
  • GURPS: Martial Arts has special rules for adding hooks to weapons along with a few things that already have integral hooks.
  • Tyranids use a biological version of this, aptly named flesh hooks. These weapons are typically housed in the rib cage or abdomen and are fired by intercostal muscle spasms. Nominally, flesh hooks are used for scaling sheer surfaces, but they can also be used to impale or snare unfortunate victims and drag them to their doom Scorpion-style.
  • Ogres in Pathfinder use "ogre hooks" as their signature weapon.

Theatre[]

Toys[]

Video Games[]

  • Sly Cooper's weapon of choice is a hook cane.
  • In Donkey Kong Country 2, the Krook enemy throws boomeranging hooks at you.
  • Bioshock has Spider Splicers that use hooks, and they even throw them at you.
  • Undead Abominations in Warcraft use cleavers and meat hooks as weapons.
  • Some of the skeleton pirates in The Ghost Ship level of Medievil fight with throwable hooks.
  • Mortal Kombat's Kabal fights with chinese hook swords.
    • As does Mavado. In canon, he almost killed Kabal to steal them, then Kabal returned the favor. Mavado also uses grappling hooks on bungie cords as a means of launching himself at opponents.
  • One of Rolento's super moves in Street Fighter Alpha 3 is hanging his opponent on a hook.
  • Hitman: Contracts has a mission with the Meat King's Party in a slaughterhouse, so a meat hook was both used in a cutscene and given as a weapon.
  • One of the early ideas for Resident Evil 4 featured a ghostly figure armed with a hook who chased Leon around.
  • The Butcher in Shank fights with a long hook-and-chain.

Web Original[]

Western Animation[]