• Blade: In his Standalone Episode of Midnight Sons Unlimited, Blade throws his sword to kill Angela, who was coming at him from behind. As if anything else could be spoiled, she was trying to avenge her brother, who was also trying to kill Blade.
• Deadpool: In Cable & Deadpool, Deadpool throws his blade as a timed anticlimax.
• Diabolik: The titular character normally uses actual throwing knives, but in a pinch, he would sometimes throw things that aren't supposed to be thrown, at least that way:
  • On one occasion, caught in the act by the victim of his current heist while unarmed, he reflexively grabbed a paper knife and threw it, hitting him right in the heart. Given it wasn't a throwing knife nor sharp, the strike just knocked the victim out with a bad wound that wouldn't have been fatal had his inheritance-hungry grandson called for help rather than push it further in.
  • On another occasion, Eva threw his knives... From a crossbow. She had to simulate Diabolik being in a certain place and isn't anywhere near as skilled with throwing knives as he is.
  • Some of Diabolik's knives are actually ballistic knives capable of shooting their blades (see below in Real Life). He only does it when he can't throw the knife properly.
    • In the DK Alternate Universe, Diabolik's counterpart had a peculiar variation: having hit an enemy with a Bulletproof Vest and being held at gunpoint by his comrades, he pressed a button on a remote, and the knives, still embedded in the vest, ignited a charge in the handle to fire themselves deeper, injuring the victim-and then he did it again to prove there was more than one charge in the knives and he could eventually kill him if they didn't let him leave. The others just shot their companion.
• Star Wars: Darth Vader. Vader can do a more plausible version of this trope as he uses the Force to stabilize his lightsaber when thrown, and then to retrieve it. One example is when he's fighting a cybernetically-controlled rancor, and he throws his lightsaber so it impales the part of its head where the control circuits are.
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel): It would've worked for Storm Shadow in his debut, to Scarlett's detriment, but Snake-Eyes catches it between his hands, from behind Scarlett, who was wearing a rocket-powered glider at the time. The blade was intended for Snake-Eyes, but Scarlett landed in front of him, intending to take it herself to save him. It was fortunate for her that he made that catch.
• The Mighty Thor: Thor gets a pass with his hammer, since it returns to him when he throws it and he can control it.
• Ronin (1983): The main character throws his samurai sword early in the first issue with his master even commenting on how the move is not a very intelligent one. Then again, the main character is a fictional person even within the comic itself.
• Star Wars: Republic #44: Aayla and Quinlan take out the ship of a pair of Morgukai assassins by throwing their lit lightsabers like boomerangs, making it explode by slicing through their power lines, and having their weapons then fly back to their hands.
• Superman:
• In Superman/Masters of the Universe crossover "Fate is the Killer", He-Man throws his sword and it plunges into Skeletor's chest.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The TMNT do this all the time, particularly Raphael's sai (which works) and Michelangelo's nunchucks (at times, particularly in the games, they return boomerang style). Donatello also throws his staff at times (in fact, this is how he originally killed the Shredder), making ironically only the swordsman Leonardo to not hurl his weapon.
  • Raphael's "sais" appear to be more daggers shaped like sais. Throwing knives are, of course, well known. Throwing a real sai would be rather like throwing a piece of rebar. Not to say that couldn't be effective.
• Three: Klaros is very good at this. In the notes, Gillen tries to justify it by pointing out that in classical Greece, both the spear and the sword were primarily hand-held stabbing weapons, and that the sword was actually more practical to throw.
• The Warlord: Travis Morgan uses this tactic multiple times. It is almost always successful.
• X-Force: In Uncanny X-Force, Psylocke wounds Archangel this way, though even she admits that it's a one-in-a-million shot.

Crossovers

• Adventures of a Line Hopper:
  • In 88719, Buffy kills Wtarfich by throwing her swords at his head, accurately making it avoid Jack's head between them and sending it through Wtarfich's.
  • Invasion of Hell, Part IV: the Doorway: Buffy easily kills a demon by throwing her sword at its back, impaling it and allowing her to slice it in half.
• In Child of the Storm, Thor, naturally, pulls this to great effect.
  • His son, Harry, proves that it's In the Blood by throwing a sword into a training dummy, with one friend later noting that Harry has a remarkably good eye. Though it is subverted by how Harry looks noticeably relieved that it worked and the latter reveals that he's a very powerful telekinetic. In the sequel, he reveals that he's more than capable of it, even without the telekinesis.
• Fate of the Clans: Bad Ends: In one story, Reisi's sister-in-law attempts to strike Okada, only for him to throw his wakizashi and skewer them through the neck, pinning them against the wall.
• Fate/Reach Out: The Inner Child sees Shirou freezing up due to a Fear spell. Before Yomotsu-Shikome can finish him off with Mudo, Kirei throws a Black Key at Shirou, startling him out of his trance.
• Kingdom Hearts Familia Myth: This is Sora's primary method of dealing with Heartless with ranged abilities. He can also make his Keyblade orbit around his body, control it remotely, set it on fire or create multiple copies made of light after throwing it.
• Paragons of Virtue and Glory: Seeing a Beowolf advancing on Yaoyorozu, Jaune throws his sword. While this doesn't kill the Grimm outright, it does injure and distract it. Discussed a little, as both understand how lucky he was to pull that off, but Jaune takes inspiration from it to later add throwing knives to his arsenal.
• A Skittering Heart: Taylor's Keyblade outright ignores gravity whenever thrown, honing in on targets, and can fly back to its wielder like a boomerang. Even if knocked away, she can call it back to her hand. After she fuses with Ifrit, Taylor can even throw it with rocket-like propulsion.
• In The Swarm of War, The daemon Ga'huld orders Judanus to break the hibernation tube where it's imprisoned with his bare hands. Fortunately for Judanus, he takes time first to consult other daemons about possible consequences and... well, from that moment, he has a powerful sword named Ga'huld.
• The Weaving Force: Taylor starts doing this during the attack on the space station. Having Force telekinesis and a lightsaber helps a lot with making this a viable tactic.

Danganronpa

• I Told You, I'm Psychic! has an Aversion that is Played for Drama: Upon witnessing two students grappling with each other, Genocider Jill throws their weapon... and hits the wrong target.

Dragon Age

• Life on Thedas: Elisa throws her sword at Uldred during "Dreams and Demons". While Uldred No Sells the blade, it remains embedded and becomes a tactical weak point that the rest of the part attacks.

Dragon Ball

• Dragon Ball UV:
  • Guts tries this on Vegito; not only does it not work, they have a much harder time fighting Vegito unarmed... until they're able to reclaim their weapon.
  • Subverted when Light throws their blade at Frieza, only to catch it mid-flight and Flash Step away. The blade toss was simply a distraction so they could come at their target from another angle.
• Savior of Demons: Frieza uses telekinesis to psychically toss his faishin around in order to distract Android 17, before calling it back to his hand.

The Fairly OddParents!

• Burning Black: In Act 2, Remy steals Apollo's scimitar and hurls it at Chester. Despite how the sword wasn't designed for such treatment, it still impales the target, puncturing their lung.

Fate Series

• Servant Shenanigans: Throwing his sword is part of Mordred's typical fighting style, which is entirely improvised and based on his monstrous strength. The other heroic spirits, who have been properly trained, range from bemused to mortified when they see this.

Fire Emblem

• In A Chance for a New Dawn, Byleth saves Bernadetta from the Death Knight by throwing his sword into the knight's shoulder.

Harry Potter

• Dark Secrets: Draco kills Ron during a knife fight by throwing said knife at his opponent.
• In My Immortal, Enoby throws her wand at Snape and Lupin, causing them to trip. She never uses it again for the entirety of the story, so that's a surprising bit of continuity.
• The Peace Not Promised: Lily uses wandless magic to throw a chain wrapped around the Sword of Gryffindor, which winds up impaling Voldemort.
• Thirty Hs: Dobby launches his Groinsaw, causing it to fly through the air like an early dream of mankind. And yes, that is a direct quote.

Highlander

• Highlander: Penance: Penance has spent centuries honing his ability to throw his favorite knife at targets. His mentor never approved of him doing this, however, and the maneuver ends up working against him during his first fight with Nicnevin.

KanColle

• Kancolle Alt: After harpooning an Abyssal destroyer by throwing her katana, Ise brags "I put the cute in execute! I put the laughter in slaughter! And the katana in the Abyssal, ahaha!"

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• If I Could Start Again: Not only is Mjölnir able to return to its wielder's hand, the fact that Thor's enemies tend to line up in ways that make it much easier to take them out in droves gets Lampshaded.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• Pony POV Series:
  • Subverted during the Final Battle of the Dark World Series. Minty Pie announces her arrival on the scene by throwing her Cool Sword at Nightmare Paradox... only for it to bounce harmlessly off her target's armor.
    Minty Pie: Huh, that usually works on Pony Rangers.
  • The second time she tries, it works, though only with Twilight's telekinesis guiding it.

Naruto

• Naru-Hina Chronicles: During his fight against Kei, Suigetsu throws his sword at her. Kei blocks it with her own sword, but she correctly guesses that he threw his sword just to distract her in order to charge up chakra for a jutsu.
• Son of the Sannin:
  • Ameyuri Ringo is the current wielder of the Kiba Thunderswords of Kirigakure. During the Fourth Ninja War arc, she fights her predecessor Raiga, and at one point reveals that she can throw one of the swords and control it to attack independently while she wields the other normally.
  • Fugaku Uchiha's Susanoo can wield two swords that combine into a double-bladed one (similar to Darth Maul's lightsaber). It can also be thrown for a Deadly Disc effect.

Pokémon

• A variation of this happens in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines. While in the Safari Zone, Ash catches a Farfetch'd who wields three leeks, holding the third in his beak. He later uses Feint by throwing one of his leeks to smash through a Protect barrier, clearing the way for Ash and Butterfree to use a Z-Move and defeat Sabrina's Mega Alakazam.

RWBY

• Lost to Dust: Adam kills Columbus by throwing Weiss' sword into him. However, the blade is then lost when Columbus falls off his ship and gets eaten by a Grimm Kraken.

Star Wars

• Ryan vs. Dorkman 2 ends this way.
• In The Way it Should Be, Luke Skywalker does a lightsaber throw similar to the one described in the Literature section. Only this time, he cuts the guy in half.

World of Warcraft

• In the Fan Movie Tales of the Past, Alexandros Mograine is attacked by a giant voidwalker during the battle at Blackrock Mountain. While he's shielding himself with Light powers, he sees the orc warlock controlling the voidwalker, then hurls his sword at the orc. It goes right through the warlock's head. The voidwalker, no longer bound to the warlock's will, dissipates.

• 9: 8 manages to pull this off during the fight against the Winged Beast. He never gets the sword (actually half of a pair of scissors) back, though.
• Batman: Soul of the Dragon. Lady Shiva throws her sword at Lady Eve, only for it to miss the target and get stuck in the wall.
  Lady Eve: Fool. You gave up your weapon.
  Shiva: [assumes a fighting stance] I am the weapon. [proceeds to break Lady Eve's sword with her bare hands].
• Taken to silly levels in Delgo, where not only does it work, but it works while averting The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In by knocking out the target with the hilt.
• The extended re-release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children features Cloud arriving at the Midgar EDGE battle by hurling one of his swords several hundred feet, where it flies in a wide lateral circle and slices through three monsters along the way before he catches it. By this point in the movie, it's pretty clear you can bugger physics all you like as long as you're doing it awesomely. Not only does he throw it, it splits in two in mid-flight. And he catches the second sword with the blade of the first one. Justified as this is a setting that has active magical abilities via materia. Although in this case, Cloud isn't using any magical assistance. He's just THAT good with his swords.
• In the Chuck Jones animated version of The Phantom Tollbooth, Milo defeats the assembled demons by throwing the Mathemagician's pencil like a javelin. This is even odder because the weapon in question didn't work by physical contact in the first place.
• Occurs in The Secret of NIMH where a character (who admittedly had been uneasy about the morality of his situation from about halfway through the movie) pulls himself up with great effort and flicks a small dagger through the air — where it lands squarely in the back of the villain — before falling down dead himself. Redemption Equals Death again...
• Sleeping Beauty (1959): There is a sword-throw at the climax which may have inspired some of the others. This is how Prince Phillip kills Maleficent after she has transformed into a dragon. However, in this case the effectiveness of the attack is justified by the magic Flora, one of the Good Fairies, uses to enchant his sword so it would "Fly swift and sure, that Evil die and Good endure."
• Wizards: The questing party of four (Avatar, Elinore, Weehawk and Peace) find themselves being approached by a tank, clearly one of Blackwolf's devices. For some reason, the tank crew doesn't shoot at the heroes, which allows Peace to climb onto the turret. Before Peace can open the hatch, however, Elinore throws her sword at him, which skewers him through the thorax, killing him. Elinore then jumps aboard the tank, and hops inside in a stunning Face–Heel Turn that leaves Avatar and Weehawk stupefied.

• 7 Man Army: In the flashback of one of the seven, he kills a Japanese colonel pointing a pistol at him via flung sword.
• The main villain of Ambush is killed using this method, with the hero's flung sword pinning him on one of the blades of a windmill where the final battle took place. He gets nailed like a butterfly specimen and stays on the mill as the credits roll.
• Alatriste (2006) lampshades the trope when Ensign Newbie Guadalmedina throws lazily his dagger against a Dutch soldier as a last act of defiance, only to be visibly dumbfounded when the dagger actually hits perfectly and kills the enemy.
• Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid: The badass captain kills one of the giant snakes and saves someone else from being eaten in the process by throwing his bowie knife at its head for an insta-kill.
• Antigang: During the raid in the warehouse, Genu exits the car carrying a baseball bat. His first act is to throw the bat at one of the robbers, knocking him out.
• The Bandit of Sherwood Forest: During their final battle, William of Pembroke attempts to escape the wounded Robert by running up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, he turns and prepares to hurl his sword at Robert like a javelin. However, Robert is quicker and throws his own sword first, spearing Pembroke through the chest.
• Big Trouble in Little China: Wang Chi throws his sword at Rain and impales him in the chest. Rain himself is unable to dodge in time because he was jumping through the air right at Wang, thinking they were about to do another round of Air Jousting.
• Done far too much in Braveheart. The unrelated instance of sword-throwing at the end, however, makes up for it tenfold.
• City of the Dead: In an attempt to stop Bill, Elizabeth throws her large sacrificial dagger the length of the graveyard and manages to nail him squarely in the middle of his back.
• Clash of the Titans (2010) ends this way, with Perseus chucking his Olympian sword at Hades. Thankfully, Zeus helps out with some lightning assistance; otherwise, it probably wouldn't have succeeded.
• Conan the Barbarian (1982): Conan throws his axe at one of the Vanir warlords in the battle of the Mounds.
• Conan the Destroyer: Conan tosses his sword at a mirror, sending it halfway through the sorcerer Thoth-Amon without even seeing him.
• Dead Again in Tombstone: During the showdown at the church, Col. Boomer throws his cavalry sabre at Alicia. It would have killed her had not Dr. Goldsworthy jumped in the way.
• Deadtime Stories (1986): In "Peter and the Witches", Peter throws the knife he was supposed to use to sacrifice Miranda across the room at Hanagohl. It hits her directly between the eyes with enough force to penetrate her skull and kill her.
• Done with less killing and more lifesaving in Enchanted.
  • In order to save Robert from plummeting to his doom, Giselle throws Edward's sword. It catches on his sleeve and pins him to the wall, catching him.
  • It was done twice. Edward did the same thing in the Cartoon World to save Giselle.
• A Fistful of Dollars: After the shoot-out in the little house, Joe is wrecking the place with a machete. Marisol sees a not-quite-dead bad guy reaching for a gun and shouts a warning. Joe spins around and hurls the machete at him, neatly impaling him.
• The scene in Freddy vs. Jason where Jason throws his machete (which is on fire) through the fat guy's chest is a great example. It also doesn't seem too hard for Jason, a super-strong guy who seems to know how to properly use any form of weaponry.
• The hero in The General (1926) kills a Union sniper completely by accident when he sends his sword flying around.
• Storm Shadow kills Zartan by throwing his sword at him during the climactic battle of G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
• Gladiator:
  • Maximus throws his sword and kills a Praetorian Guard from about twenty meters away(!) in order to escape execution. Being the smart guy he is, he kept a backup sword to deal with the remaining Praetorian.
  • Subverted later when he throws a sword into a crowd of people during the "Are you not entertained?!" scene and injures... a coffee table.
• Used ridiculously in the climactic scene of Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, in which Hamlet skewers his uncle with a thrown fencing foil (which not only impales him, but pins him to his throne) before dropping a chandelier on him and finishing him off by forcing him to drink poison. The famous/infamous critic John Simon commented that he hadn't noticed Circus Skills 101 on the syllabus of Gottingen University (Hamlet's alma mater).
• Played egregiously straight in Hawk the Slayer, where the eponymous hero impales a bad guy through the stomach by throwing a massive two-handed sword at him. Even dumber/more awesome is that the sword in question, called the Mind Sword, is a magical throwing sword the hero has psychic control over. The fact that he can command it to yeet itself back to his hand negates the "Hah! Now you're unarmed!" factor.
• In Hercules (1983), Hercules kills Queen Ariadne with a thrown sword that impales her through the stomach.
• Highlander: The Source: Duncan manages to throw his sword into The Guardian's neck.
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: Legolas' second-to-last onscreen kill is an orc which he executes by throwing his elven sword. Unfortunately this leaves him without his best weapon against his final opponent, the orc's second-in-command Bolg, which Legolas ends up battling with twin short daggers.
• The Hunger Games: Katniss makes fun of Cato with this. After he proves incapable of hitting her with a bow from a measly distance, she claims he should try throwing his sword instead.
• In Ironclad, on arriving at Rochester, Marshall saves a woman being held hostage by throwing his sword using the technique described in Fiore (see Real Life, below). Given that he is using a 14th/15th-century Italian-styled longsword, this is somewhat appropriate. The film is set in 1215.
• Jumanji: Played with. When confronted with Van Pelt, Alan throws the family sword. It's played straight in that it stabs through the sleeve of Van Pelt's blazer and pins him to a column. It's subverted in that Van Pelt, being a spirit of the game, is unharmed. He simply walks through the blade after snapping it in half since it didn't get his arm.
• In Killers Five, the Action Girl heroine kills the otherwise indestructible Bandit Leader by hurling her sword through his eye.
• At the very end of King Arthur (2004), after Lancelot is shot by The Dragon, he chucks one of his short swords at him, neatly impaling him dead center of his chest. This is more justifiable, given that it was at fairly close range.
• Lady with a Sword defies, subverts, and plays this trope straight all in one scene: In the finale, the heroine hurls her sword at the main villain ( who just hurled her nephew off a cliff to his death). The villain's equally ruthless mother, who is also a kung-fu practitioner, throws her sword as well, deflecting the heroine's flung weapon causing it to be embedded into a tree, but the heroine then throws a shorter sword which un-embeds her stuck weapon, that ends up skewering the main baddie to death.
• Etienne Navarre throws his sword twice in Ladyhawke: once to stop Philipe "the Mouse" Gaston, and once to kill the Bishop of Aquilla. Impressive since this is a full-length great sword. Navarre throws his sword like a javelin, as well.
• In Howard Hawks' epic Land Of The Pharaohs, the pharaoh (played by Jack Hawkins in his best British officer accent) wins a fight with his treacherous captain of the guard by throwing his sword.
• Nathan Algren kills Bagley with a katana using this method in The Last Samurai, presumably in order to ensure Bagley's death before everyone is cut down by Gatling gunfire... while riding on a galloping horse!
• In The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, Hilary Briss kills the giant homunculus with the heads of the three league members by throwing his halberd at it.
• Legend (1985): Jack throws the unicorn horn at Darkness and impales him in the chest, wounding him and helping to drive him back.
• In Lone Wolf and Cub, our hero kills one of the Brothers of Death by throwing his katana. His response before dying: "I did not think you would throw your sword."
• In the Extended Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn non-ironically kills an Orc in Moria this way. When seeing that Boromir has lost his weapon and is at the mercy of his opponent, he picks up Boromir's own sword and throws it. Improbable Impaling Skills, yes, but it's the goddamned Elessar we're talking about. Later in the film, Gimli enters the battle at Amon Hen by throwing an axe into an Uruk-hai. At the beginning of Boromir's Last Stand, he throws a knife into an Uruk-hai's throat.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Hela from Thor: Ragnarok takes sword-throwing to its logical extreme; her "Necroswords" are aspects of her powerset. Besides also being adept at melee combat with swords, she can throw with impeccable power and accuracy, even defeating the Warriors Three with but one sword stab. She does not even have to retrieve them, because she can spontaneously generate a never-ending supply.
  • In the climax of Avengers: Endgame, Thanos throws his broken sword like a spear to destroy Scott's van and the quantum tunnel in it, and scores a perfect hit.
• Played for Laughs in Monty Python and the Holy Grail: the Black Knight kills the Green Knight by throwing his sword into his helm's eye slot.
• In The Mummy Returns, during the battle with the Anubis Warriors, Ardeth throws his sword at one of them. Yes. He throws a scimitar at something that will not die unless decapitated. And it works. It also lands point in the sand, allowing him to grab it while riding past.
• Mythica: The first time he kills an enemy on screen, Thane throws his long sword to do this (albeit at close range). Subverted later when he and Qorl both try this while fighting orcs, but fail.
• In Onmyōji 2, Genkaku does this in order to stop Seimei from reviving Amaterasu. Perhaps justified, as Genkaku is a skilled magic user and might have thrown it with magic.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: Will Turner does this twice...
  • The first time is to seal off Jack's escape by pinning a door shut. On the more realistic side, Jack reacts to the first incident with appropriate surprise that it worked (and, probably, that the sword landed an inch from his face), and then points out that Will has left himself unarmed. But they're in a room full of swords at the time, so it's only a temporary setback.
  • The second time is to help Jack avoid execution by hanging, creating a miniature platform under his feet.
• In Predator (1987), Dutch tosses his machete at a guerrilla sneaking up from behind, killing him and pinning his body to a neighboring post.
  "Stick around."
• The Princess (2022): The princess kills an enemy archer by throwing her sword at him (albeit from pretty close range).
• Azeem does this in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves just to show how righteous he is. Interestingly, the scimitar he throws is actually better suited to throwing, given the way it is designed.
• Robin Hood: The Rebellion: When the Sheriff's men rush Robin and his band at the armoury, Robin throws the group's only sword and spears the lead man through the chest.
• Rogues of Sherwood Forest: During the fight in Nottingham Square, Robin sees one of King John's men about to stab Little John from behind. He throws his sword like a javelin from a balcony over Little John's shoulder and spears the soldier through the chest.
• Scream 3: When Dewey catches the killer by surprise, he retaliates by throwing his knife at Dewey... though it's hilariously averted as the handle side hits him square in the forehead.
• Silent Night (2012): When Tiffany tries to flee, Santa brings her down by throwing his axe such that it cuts her Achilles tendon with the precision of a scalpel.
• Six Assassins takes this trope to the extreme, with the hero, Mu Jun-jie, mortally injuring the main villain by throwing his sword, missing by an inch, flying for a dozen meters before having it bounce off a bamboo tree and skewering the villain In the Back instead.
• So Close: When the two protagonists reach the Big Bad's room he presses a button that drops a bulletproof glass around him, but one of the protagonists throws her sword towards him. While it doesn't directly kill him, it keeps the shielded glass doors from closing so that her partner can finish him off.
• In Stardust, Prince Septimus effectively lobs a sword near the end of the film during the big battle, which hits and kills one of the Lilim.
• During the fighting on Qo'noS in Star Trek Into Darkness, John Harrison dispatches several Klingons by throwing blades into them—at least, when he isn't mowing them down with two BFGs. Justified, as he's actually Khan Noonien Singh.
• Star Wars:
  • In Revenge of the Sith, Yoda kills a clone trooper this way while he is still surrounded by blaster fire. This is probably covered by Rule of Cool though, plus he's goddamned Yoda. Justified as a lightsaber's blade has no weight so the only source of mass and balance is the actual hilt and every "side" of it is an Absurdly Sharp Blade, and also because Jedi can manipulate the lightsaber's trajectory with the Force to make sure it hits blade-first.
  • In Return of the Jedi, conversely, Darth Vader cannot reach Luke, so he cuts down the catwalk Luke's standing on and effortlessly retrieves his lightsaber off-screen. It helps a lot in retrieving your weapon if you're telekinetic.
  • Downplayed in The Last Jedi, as the throw itself is not fatal. Kylo Ren loses his lightsaber while fighting alongside Rey, and gets pinned by his opponent. So, Rey throws her lightsaber to him, letting the blade retract in the air. Kylo Ren catches the hilt, and activates it through the guard's head.
• Happens thrice in Sucker Punch. Babydoll throws her katana as a distraction so she can get close enough to shoot the second samurai in the face. Babydoll throws a bayonet to pin the courier's shoulder to a wall. The German general throws his rapier at Babydoll and uses the time it takes for her to dodge to close the gap and punch her into a wall.
• Swashbuckler (1976): When Lord Durant grabs Jane and uses her as a Human Shield as he backs towards the window, Lynch hurls his rapier like a javelin and skewers Durant through the heart.
• The Sword and the Sorcerer features a variation: the title sword has three blades, two of which the wielder can launch like rockets (complete with flaming exhaust!) at his enemy.
• Taken to the apex with the Shredder Powered Armor in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014). Not only does it have at least three massive blades on each arm, it is designed to launch those blades in a fanning motion and has a magnetic return system, letting him recover "ammo" almost instantly. Towards the end, though, it started backfiring, as the Turtles start deflecting those blades back at him. Played straight with Leonardo, who chucks a katana at Shredder and impales his shoulder.
• The ThreeMusketeers (1973):
  • Double subverted when Porthos invents a move that involves throwing his sword at the enemy. Aramis, unimpressed, asks Porthos to perform this move on him and easily parries the thrown blade, pointing out that Porthos is unarmed now. Later, however, Porthos uses this move anyway, and it does work as intended.
  • In the sequel The Return of the Musketeers, Porthos throws his sword at Justine de Winter during the climactic battle. He misses, but it does provide a crucial distraction.
• In The Three Musketeers (2011), a mook throws his sword at Aramis, but he grabs another mook and shoves him in the way. Aramis then throws his own sword and kills the first mook instantly.
• X-Men (Film Series):
  • Deadpool: Deadpool, with his two katanas, does this twice in the film.
    • First in the highway scene when subduing Ajax, throwing his sword into Ajax's motorcycle front wheel to send it out of control.
    • Second in the climatic battle, when Deadpool throws his sword to crack the oxygen chamber Vanessa is in.
    • Deadpool also performs a couple of knife throws, one while he's working his way through Francis' men midway through the film and another one early in the Final Battle.
  • Deadpool 2: When Deadpool throws his katana at Russell, it clocks him with the handle, not the blade. But Wade was trying to subdue the kid, not kill him, so it was deliberate. Probably.
  • Deadpool & Wolverine: Deadpool kills a TVA agent who disparaged Canada by impaling him in the mouth; in a variation, however, he doesn't throw his katana straight, but instead has it bouncing on the ground first. That's still impressive accuracy either way.
• Yang does it while battling the ninjas in the laundry in The Warrior's Way. But Yang is The Greatest Swordsman in the World. Ever.
• In Yor: The Hunter from the Future, the title character throws a flaming longsword at a purple caveman. Oh, and he does it underhand.
• Zatoichi:
  • In Zatoichi Challenged (1967), Blind Weaponmaster Ichi is fighting samurai Akatsuka because he refuses to hand over Shokichi for execution. A second samurai turns up during the duel and Akatsuka orders him to kill Shokichi. Ichi throws his sword at the second samurai, saving Shokichi but leaving himself defenseless. Fortunately Akatsuka decides to forfeit the duel rather than kill Ichi.
  • The Dragon in Zatoichi (2003) likes using his wakizashi (the short sword paired with the katana) as a throwing weapon. It works well for him against various mooks, but Zatoichi is able to block it.

• In one of the Blood Sword books, during an encounter, one of the options you can do is to have the Warrior throw his sword at an enemy. It'll kill the foe and one of the people you're traveling with, comments that in his country what the Warrior did is a special technique of the weapon masters there. The Warrior retorts that what he just did was something desperate and not a little foolish at throwing his weapon away. There's also the Dagger of Vislet and the Axe of Heraklos, both of which can be thrown and return to the hand.
• Fighting Fantasy:
  • In the book Slaves of the Abyss, you actually have to learn this skill from a master swordsman in order to use it. It becomes a very useful skill at a crucial point later in the story. Notably, however, it doesn't always work — if you attempt it in the wrong circumstances, your enemy will parry your sword, and then insta-kill you by throwing his own.
  • Meanwhile, in Sword of the Samurai, you absolutely do not want to throw the magic sword Singing Death. There are two places you can throw it; the first option merely means you have to fight the Big Bad with your regular sword; the second dooms the entire kingdom of Hachiman.
• In the Lone Wolf series, the opportunity to throw your sword is very rarely given, since the hero has usually plenty of better opportunities, like using a bow and arrow or even offensive magic in the later books.
  • There is however one noteworthy occurrence in Book 12, The Masters of Darkness. If you draw the Sommerswerd before Darklord Kraagenskûl to fight his Crypt Spawns, Lone Wolf is forced to throw the Sun Sword at his back before he'd alert Darklord Gnaag. It never misses and Kraagenskûl is badly wounded either way, but on a low roll he's still able to warn his master, making "your life and your mission end here."
  • In Trail of the Wolf, part of the New Order series, Lone Wolf (as a Previous Player-Character Cameo) also throws the Sommerswerd to bring down the Soultaker.
• In one scene of To Be or Not To Be: That Is the Adventure: "Screaming, you throw your sword at the pirate, roll a natural 20, and do a critical hit right in his eye."
• In Wizards, Warriors and You, the Warrior has a lot of weapons in his arsenal and he will throw some of the melee weapons, such as his Diamond Mace. While his mundane weapons will fall to the ground after, quite a few are enchanted to return to his hand.

• Octavia from The 100 throws a sword right into a guy's chest. She immediately gets her sword back by doing a sliding kick down the hallway and yanking the sword out of the guy's chest before he can even fall down. She does this again in Season 3, to take out an Ice Nation scout.
  • Also in Season 3, after a Combat by Champion duel between Lexa and Ronan, Lexa hurls a spear into the Ice Nation Queen.
• Arrow. In the second episode, John Diggle suspects there's more to Oliver Queen than he's letting on when he saves Diggle's life by throwing a kitchen knife (which is not balanced for throwing) from ten feet away with the accuracy to knock his attacker's weapon out of their hand. Oliver tries to pass this off as luck, but Diggle knows the skill needed for that feat and doesn't buy it.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Buffy has done it on occasion. In Season 5, it was her "seriously don't interrupt me" move, while laying the verbal smackdown on the Watcher's Council.
  • Subverted with gusto in "Anne". Dramatic music swells as Oz narrows his eyes and readies himself for a long-distance staking — but his arm is like a wet noodle and the Wooden Stake bounces harmlessly off a gravestone. ("That really never works.")
  • Justified when in the same episode Buffy throws a hungamunga (which actually originated as a throwing weapon) and nails a demon in the back.
• The Community episode "Advance Dungeons & Dragons" has Fat Neil's character Ducane throwing his sword at Pierce Hawthorne as a desperate attack in their battle.
• Farscape had an example in "Liars, Guns, & Money". D'argo's Qualta Blade runs out of power (or whatever phlebotinum it uses to work — Qualta Blades aren't ever really explained) and, in frustration, he wings it at the guard he was targeting. It skewers him right through the sternum and, giving the obligatory shocked stare, the guard slumps over dead. This exchange follows:
  Aeryn: Nice shot, D'argo.
  D'argo: (glaring at the guard) I was aiming for between his eyes.
• Fear the Walking Dead: Seventh season episode "PADRE" has Alicia throwing her signature sharpened hunk of a gun barrel radiator across a room and embedding it in a tree trunk, to interrupt an execution-by-walker.
• Firefly:
  • The episode "Shindig" has a variation of this in the duel between Mal and Atherton Wing. At the fight's climax, Wing breaks Mal's sword, and when he gets distracted, Mal punches Wing in the face, grabs the broken half of his blade, and throws it into Wing's shoulder. This wounds him long enough for Mal to hit Wing again with his handguard before snatching up his opponent's weapon and ending the duel.
  • In "Jaynestown", Jayne's "fight" with his old partner starts with Jayne throwing his knife into his chest, and actually gets more brutal.
• The 2007 Flash Gordon series has Barin attempt to assassinate Ming by throwing a morning star at him.
• Galavant has a non-battle example. Sid overeagerly tosses Galavant's sword to him, impaling and eventually killing him.
• Game of Thrones. A different take on this trope occurs in "The Gift". Jorah Mormont knocks the wind out of one of the gladiators by throwing his sword so the flat side hits him in the gut. Lacking a weapon, Jorah follows it up with a Shield Bash.
• Goodbye My Princess: Cheng Yin kills the man about to kill Cheng Ji by throwing his sword from horseback.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: One of the people enslaved by the orcs, a woman, dies after an orc throws a hatchet in her back while trying to escape.
• Merlin:
  • Would have worked in the first episode had Merlin not pulled Arthur out of the way in time. Although it's justified by the fact that the blade was thrown by magic.
  • Arthur later manages to kill a cockatrice this way in "The Poisoned Chalice".
• My Country: The New Age: Hwi kills a man by throwing his sword at him.
• On NCIS, Ziva saves Ducky's life by throwing a knife into the villain. Several episodes later, she tries to teach the rest of The Squad to do this, with mixed results.
• In the Season 1 finale of Once Upon a Time (2011), Emma throws the sword to slay Maleficent in dragon form, in order to retrieve the true love potion. Justified, as it was a Shout Out. And subverted below.
• Power Rangers and Super Sentai:
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers:
    • In the season two episode "The Song of Guitardo", Kimberly borrows Tommy's Dragon Dagger and fires it from her bow to slay the titular monster. By the way, this was after Kimberly used her multi-stringed bow as a harp because the monster could be harmed with music. And, as this episode pointed out, the Dragon Dagger can also be used as a flute.
    • A better example involves Tommy's final battle under Rita's control. Jason ultimately got the upper hand on him by throwing the Power Sword. Then again, all he was aiming for was to knock Tommy down and separate him from his Sword of Darkness, which Jason then destroyed with his Blade Blaster.
    • When Tommy fights Lord Zedd one-on-one, the only hit the White Ranger lands is by throwing Saba at Zedd's staff, shattering it into a snake and thus prompting Zedd's retreat.
  • In Power Rangers Zeo, the Super Zeo Megazord disarmed Archerina this way during the giant-size battle against her and Gasket.
  • In both Battle Fever J and Dai Sentai Goggle Five, the Humongous Mecha uses this technique to finish off the Big Bad. The Jason vs Tommy example from Power Rangers was also present in its Sentai counterpart Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. Notably, that same show also averted the trope later on; when Dai Satan first appears and beings to transform Zombie Franke into Satan Franke, the Zyurangers try to stop him by having Daizyuzin throw his sword at Dai Satan. However, Dai Satan simply destroys the sword before it can reach him and continues Zombie Franke’s transformation.
• Ned in Pushing Daisies pulls off a trick version — rather than throw the sword to hit the villain (who's running away anyway), he throws it to lodge in the wall so that the villain trips over it.
• The first episode of Robin Hood had him throw his sword from the ground and it knocked out two guards on the roof so Much could go free. A subverted example occurs in the series two episode "Get Carter", when the titular character throws his two swords at Robin. The first one Robin ducks and avoids, the second Robin catches and immediately whips back at him.
• Shadow and Bone: Alina is held up in the air by a shadow monster. Inej throws the Neshyenyer blade at the creature and the sword lands true, destroying it.
• Used quite a bit on Spartacus: Blood and Sand. When employed by the protagonists it is even effective against armored opponents.
  • While fighting in the Pit, Spartacus spots an assassin sneaking up on Batiatus. He kills him with a thrown axe.
  • Despite insisting this trope does not work (see below), Doctore uses it to kill a Roman soldier about to attack Crixus in the season finale.
• In the Japanese Spider-Man TV series, this served as Leopardon's standard Finishing Move. In fact, outside of a couple promotional photos, this was the only thing Leopardon ever used its sword for. (This was partially thanks to the Leopardon suit being stolen early in production; thus, most giant monster battles simply had Leopardon tossing the sword at the enemy via stock footage.)
• In an episode of Stargate SG-1 Jack penetrates a Goa'uld Lord's defensive force field with a thrown combat knife.
• In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Menagerie" (during the flashback to the pilot episode "The Cage"), Captain Pike throws a sword to stop a big hairy giant from threatening the girl. The sword sticks in its back and causes it to fall fatally.
• Done on a number of occasions in Xena: Warrior Princess by the titular character. Even Gabrielle managed to do so with her staff once.

• The Norse hero Sigurd is stabbed in his sleep by Gutthorm. Before he dies, Sigurd flings his sword after the fleeing Guttorm, cutting him cleanly in half. This incident is told identically in Prose Edda, Poetic Edda and Völsunga saga.

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Basic D&D provides rules for rarely thrown weapons in the Master Set. Targets may get a saving throw to halve damage, making it a less-than-perfect tactic.
  • There is a feat called "Throw Anything" that allows a character to throw melee weapons (swords included) without the ridiculous penalties that it would normally entail. There's even a Prestige Class (the Bloodstorm Blade), dedicated to this... whose feats include not just throwing anything, but having it return.
  • 4th Edition has the swordmage, with several abilities in this style; justified in that he has magical control over his sword, including the ability to summon it back to him. One is he throws his sword at the enemy. If it misses, the sword looks for a second enemy and throws itself at him. If it misses again, it will seek a third enemy, and then a fourth at which point it gives up. Either way, the sword comes back. Another power coats the sword in fire and then causes it to explode. The pieces reform in the swordmages's hand.
  • 4th Edition fighters also have a single ranged weapon attack called Coward's Reward, where you throw your weapon, whatever it might be, at a retreating enemy. Somewhat justified in that it has lousy range for a ranged attack, and is only available at the highest levels, when the character is already firmly established as having superhuman powers.
  • The 3.5 source book Tome of Battle has the 8th level maneuver Lightning Throw. You throw your weapon to deal damage in a 30-foot line (meaning that it theoretically over-penetrates), dealing normal weapon damage plus 12d6. The save is Reflex for half; the DC of which is the results of an attack roll, and the one class that can get it has full BAB progression. Your weapon even returns to your hand at the end of the round.
  • And several magical melee weapons (such as the Dwarven Thrower) are specifically enchanted to be able to be thrown at an enemy.
  • In 5th edition, the rules state you can throw some melee weapons and have them deal the same damage as they would up close, as long as they have the "thrown" property. Javelins, spears, and handaxes, among others, have it. However, none of the swords do. If you do try to throw a sword (or any other weapon that is not made to be thrown, for that matter), it will deal the same damage as an improvised weapon (i.e. a maximum of 4 damage plus bonuses, with the weakest sword having a max of 6 plus bonuses when used as intended). Also, you're probably more likely to miss, as you don't get to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll unless you have proficiency in improvised weapons, which is hard to come by (no class, lineage, or background gets it as a default); additionally, if you play a dexterity-focused character, you'll have to add your worse strength modifier to the attack roll even if you throw a weapon that ordinarily has the "finesse" property. Not ideal, but then again, not completely useless. Likewise, trying to use a ranged weapon, like a longbow, as a melee one will have the same effect.
• Exalted:
  • The Solar Exalted can use the aptly named "Iron Raptor Technique" to throw any weapon (but mostly swords) at a target, after which the weapon will return. It acts as a normal melee attack.
  • The Ink Monkeys expansion Grass-Cutting Strike, which also requires Peony Blossom Attack, allows you to throw your sword at every opponent within thirty to forty yards and quite possibly hit all of them.
• Feng Shui: The Leaping Storm fu power "Loyal Steel" allows a character to throw his sword at an opponent and deal full melee damage before having it return to him like a boomerang.
• GURPS has the Throwing Art skill, which lets the user accurately throw anything he can lift. It's duly earmarked as a "cinematic" skill and requires taking an advantage reflecting similarly cinematic training (which in turn may be explicitly disallowed in "realistic" games) first before the character is allowed to learn it.
• Sentinels of the Multiverse: While it's not a sword, Ra can throw his Staff of Ra as a power to deal one target 3 projectile damage. This is considered an act of desperation as the Staff gives +1 damage (so he'd actually be doing 4 damage) and throwing the staff destroys the staff after damage. It should be noted that the Staff heals Ra when played, and the Staff is Limited (only one copy in play at a time) so if he wanted to play a second staff he would have to play a staff, heal, throw it, and play a second staff next turn.
• In Rocket Age the Metisian warriors and nobility use the Kithakis Throwing Sword, a weapon similar in construction to some African throwing knives, with the added advantages of it returning like a boomerang. It's perfectly effective in melee too, but to use it properly you really need all the tentacles of a Metisian.
• As the page quote above makes clear, the Deadlands: Hell on Earth supplement for Templars, The Last Crusaders adds a maneuver to throw your sword using the throwing mechanics of the system. It even has a rule for if the sword hits pommel first.

• Common in the Nasuverse:
  • Tsukihime: Ciel, an Executor, fights using the standard-equipment Black Keys, literal throwing swords; she only carries the small hilts (reputedly hundreds of them), and materialise the blades as needed. Kotomine Kirei also uses them briefly in Fate/stay night and more prominently in Fate/Zero.
  • Fate/stay night: Servant Archer's favoured pair of Chinese dao that possess a yin/yang quality which works like magnetism, always drawing the opposite sword back to it. If he throws them to the sides of an opponent, they'll pull themselves to cut it. This is the basis of his Triple-Linked Crane Wings, which uses three different pairs of Kanshou and Bakuya, the first two purposely blocked until the third comes out for a finishing blow since the enemy is unable to keep up. Too bad we only see Shirou use in an a bad ending Last Stand against Saber Alter in Heaven's Feel. Archer is also capable of circumventing the main flaw in this tactic, due to his ability to instantly summon his blades back to his hands if he's ever disarmed (or, in reality, just project a new identical pair of swords).
    • This is also Gilgamesh's main tactic. With his Gate of Babylon, he has access to an unlimited amount of magic swords and weapons, but can't use most of them properly, and his default strategy is to just fire them from the Gate like a cannon (Hence his class in the Fourth War, Archer).
    • Saber of Red does this while fighting some Golems. It's described as a mark of how skilled a warrior she is since A. it shouldn't have worked and B. she gets around the 'not having a sword anymore' issue by beating the rest of the golems to death with her bare hands.

• Animator vs. Animation: The last member of his team alive in their first near-disastrous round of Bedwars on the Hypixel server, Blue throws his sword at Team Green in a last-ditch attempt and causes actual damage to one of Team Green's members, quickly realizing that as a stick figure he wasn't completely bound by Minecraft's physics of being only able to attack what is front of a player. Blue's team later exploits this to great effect, such as throwing wool blocks and helmets as attacks.
• DEATH BATTLE!: The climax of "Dante VS Clive" comes down to a clash between one, with Dante having thrown Devil Sword Dante in an attempt to catch the downed Clive, while the Dominant of Ifrit manages to force one final Limit Break and throw Invictus at Dante. After a clash, Invictus overpowers the enemy blade and strikes Dante, hitting a hole through his stomach and burning him to ashes.
• Played with in Stairjump. Someone throws a sword at someone else, only for him to fall down the stairs and impale the first through the head.
• Madness Combat proudly features the various protagonists and antagonists throwing melee weapons, often to deadly effect. Hank is noticeably lethal with thrown weapons, able to throw a humble police baton, barely more than a stick, with such force and accuracy that it can penetrate through a person's head or torso.

• The Other in Girl Genius throws a sword to kill off an enemy holding up a delicate piece of machinery.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Zig-zagged in one strip, where Roy throws a broken sword to save his friends from being hanged by a group of bandits. The sword cuts through the nooses of Elan, Haley, and Vaarsuvius, but misses Belkar's. Then it stabs the hangman... who falls over onto the lever in his death throes. Fortunately, the next strip reveals Belkar is too lightweight to be hanged.
  • Done humorously again in another strip, where Thog kicks away Roy's greatsword to disarm him during a gladiator fight, and it lands in the public, beheading one of Thog's fans.
  • Tarquin's able to throw his greataxe at close range in a spin to knock off (and wound) an opponent about to finish off one of his companions — perhaps not quite as unrealistic, and he only chooses to do so when forced to run away anyway so the loss of a weapon doesn't matter so much.
  • Justified in later strips as Roy gains an ability to summon his thrown sword back to his hands. When he throws his sword to kill a vampire in the middle of a fight, the lead vampire gloats that he's without a weapon. Roy simply calls his sword back and throws it again, killing another.
  • Durkon's shiny new hammer is also a throwing and returning weapon, fitting as he is a cleric of Thor. And Thor himself had given that hammer to the dwarves long ago, implying that it's basically a nerfed copy of Mjolnir for his mortal followers' use.
• In Gunnerkrigg Court two last Defenders of the Court did it. Mr. Eglamore (Chapter 7) and Mr. Thorn (in Chapter 22) opted to throw some sort of a glowing sword... thing to save time. In the former case, it's still a bit too late.
• In Terinu Space Pirate Mavra Chan throws her sword and not only hits her target but manages to pierce Mama Bear Leeza's fully modern clamshell torso armor.
• Happens all the time in Hitmen for Destiny, but the sword in question is magical and is able to find its target.
• In The KAMics Brunhilda did this at the end of the Squirrel Wars portion of the Crossover Wars. While she didn't actually hit her target it did work out on the next page.
• In Vattu, the first hunter of Vattu's tribe is killed by such an attack.
• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja: In "Revenge of the Hundred Dead Ninja", Dr. McNinja kills a zombie sneaking up on Gordito by throwing his ninjato (sword attributed to ninjas, like a katana but straight, pretty much fictional) through its head. It's nothing special for him.
• DICE: The Cube That Changes Everything: When X opens the portal into his dimension, while in air a few floors above, Dongtae throws his Time Cutter into it. It goes straight into the Final Die as planned, stripping X of his invincibility. The next Time Cutter throw hits X directly.

• Taken to ridiculous extremes in the KateModern episode "The Wedding Video". Ninja Charlie fights off a bunch of monsters with a katana, which gets bent out of shape when one of the monsters blocks it. She then throws it like a boomerang, which slices through all the monsters in the room — apart from Demon Rupert — before embedding itself in the wall, right next to where Charlie is standing. Charlie pulls it out of the wall (bending it back into shape in the process) and throws it directly at Rupert, skewering him.
• In Zeonquest, then-rookie Zolomon Ringo kills not one, but two Federation jets by throwing his Zaku's Tomahawk at them. He hasn't stopped being awesome since.
• Justified in Worm, since the character throwing the sword has a superpower that lets her imbue any objects she touches with the ability to ignore gravity and penetrate through absolutely anything, no matter how it hits.
• Void Domain: Genoa has tossed a sword on occasion and Arachne has tossed around a dismembered arm that she was using as a sword. In both cases, they were able to manipulate their weapon in some manner to increase accuracy, either through ferrokinesis or thread.
• This is actually Discussed Trope and a Double Subversion with a RT Life video. Gavin Free bets fellow Achievement Hunter Ryan Haywood that he can throw any sort of knife into a wall and make it stick. Ryan counters that it can't just be any old knife, since throwing knives are designed to be balanced enough to be thrown and you have to counteract the off-balanceness of a regular knife. Indeed, Gavin makes his throw and ends up slapping the bulletin board while Ryan shows the proper way to throw a regular knife and makes it stick.
• Parodied in Scott The Woz where he destroys the Polybius arcade machine pursuing him by throwing a baseball bat like a javelin at it at point-blank range.

• The Adventures of Puss in Boots: Armed with a magical living sword that can think and move on its own, El Guante Blanco frequently throws the Goodsword as an attack, as it can fly back to him afterward.
• In the Batman: The Animated Series, episode "The Demon's Quest: Part 2", Batman is dueling with Ra's al Ghul and decides that the best use for his sword would be to throw it at Ghul's Doomsday Device which was seconds away from blowing up half the planet.
• Batman in the "Birds of Prey" episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold with a pair of daggers. Not only does he throw them both at once, but one of them cuts through a rope to drop a Falling Chandelier of Doom, while the other deliberately hits Two-Face in the head with the blunt end.
• In Castlevania Alucard is perfectly fine with throwing his heirloom sword, perfectly justified since he has telekinesis and can summon it right back into his hand or sheath. More traditionally Trevor throws his short sword into the Cyclops’s chest, but more spectacularly pulls the sword out with his whip and kicks it into the Cyclops’s eyeball in mid-air.
• Code Lyoko:
  • Ulrich throws his katana a lot (especially once he got two in Season 4) and it generally ends up with a monster struck in the Eye of XANA.
  • William also sometimes throws his sword, despite it being HUGE; he rarely stays disarmed, however, since he can call it back with telekinesis.
• An episode of The Fairly OddParents! had Timmy save his parents from a dragon by throwing Excalibur to cut them free from the cow costume the dragon was holding (It Makes Sense in Context). Being magical, Excalibur returns to him.
• Agent Six from Generator Rex uses this trope a lot. One of the best examples is in the very first episode during his fight with Breach, who can open portals through space. She surrounds him with portals and proceeds to punch and kick him from every direction until he finally throws his fold-out katanas through two of them. A few seconds later, Breach and both swords fall through another portal several yards away.
• Masters of the Universe: In The Secret of the Sword, where He-Man meets She-Ra for the first time, at one point He-Man disarms Adora by throwing his sword at her gun (which she's holding in front of her, pointing at him). How he was capable of knowing that it would not physically harm her is anyone's guess.
• In Ninjago, Kai throws his sword like a javelin a couple of times, but not as an attack. He does it to knock important objects from someone else's hand. Like a teacup.
• Samurai Jack:
  • Jack is no stranger to using this technique as a finishing move. Memorably, he once pinned an enemy ninja to a wall by throwing his sword from a concealed spot and giving him no time to dodge. Fortunately, like most things Jack kills, the ninja turned out to be a robot, so it was okay to show on TV. Also used by an Ally of Jack, the Spartan King, throwing Jack's Katana through a mechanical monstrosity's head and killing it.
  • This applies to the Minions of Set as well. One of the Minions has two swords. One of them is attached to its left bracer, but the other is held in the right hand and is used for several special throwing attacks, including a kienzan-like homing attack and a spectacularly fluid and flawlessly executed leap off of a tall pillar while simultaneously throwing its sword into the back of Jack's knee, knocking him to the ground and allowing the still-falling Minion to almost land on top of him.
• The hero does this in the short Australian CGI spoof Samurice.
• Star Wars Rebels: The Inquisitor is able to turn his double-bladed lightsaber into a spinning disc that he can throw at his opponents.
• Franchise//Tom And Jerry:
  • When the eponymous duo are trying to have a duel with swords, Jerry accidentally bends his epee while showing off. Jerry throws his sword at Tom but misses. But since the sword is now bent into a boomerang, it comes around and hits Tom in the rear.
  • In "The Little Orphan", Tom flings a fork at Jerry's little charge Nibbles. The fork pins Nibbles to the table by his diaper. This also happens in the remake "Feedin' the Kiddie".
• Transformers: Prime episode "Regeneration": Megatron chucks the Dark Star Saber at the Spark Extractor in order to prevent his spark from getting extracted. Doesn't save the numerous mooks much closer to the Extractor, though...
• Trollhunters: Jim is fond of throwing his magic sword, Daylight. Since it's magic, as long as it's not struck down too hard, he can simply will it back into its hands.
• The Blade of Marmora, an order of Galra dedicated to fighting against the Galra Empire in Voltron: Legendary Defender can pull off insane stunts with their blades, including bouncing them off walls to strike an opponent from the back or throwing them with pinpoint accuracy. Then again, they are essentially alien ninjas whose blades are Empathic Weaponsin some way linked to their wielder's Quintessence. Combined with their proficiency with Combat Parkour it allows for them to combat and even kill Galra Druids.
  • Keith, while not (initially) on the same level as the Blade of Marmora, is still capable of throwing his sword in a perfectly straight line without the blade spinning into his opponents from across a room. It must be a Galra trait.

• The most famous Japanese swordsman of all time, Miyamoto Musashi, was an expert at throwing his sword, making this Truth in Television. He also won over 60 duels in his life and tended to win using things like wooden sticks and metal fans, so he may have been a special case.
  • In his book on Musashi, martial artist Kenji Tokitsu comments that Musashi probably threw his short-sword as a surprise attack, in order to create an opening for his long sword. Also, because Musashi spent a lot of time wandering, this skill would have come in handy when it came to catching his supper.
• Some African groups use the hunga munga (alternately the mambele), an awesomely named and bizarre-looking sword that can be thrown effectively. Though it's really more of an axe than a sword, and in fact is designed more as a throwing weapon that simply happens to be capable of use as a melee weapon in a pinch.
• Zweihanders/dopplehanders could be thrown like a spear due to their large, strong ricasso.
• In Gladiatoria manuscript, MS Germ.Quart.16, page 7r, armour fighting with spear. Note the twelfth play. If you want to end him rightly (?), hold your spear and sword together on your arm, unscrew the pommel of your sword, and throw it at him vigorously. Close in with the throw and use your sword or spear, whatever suits you best. When he throws his pommel at you, keep your buckler close to you and watch out for the throw. Hold your spear in your right hand and prepare to thrust, to stop him from closing in if it is his intention.^note Since this move is Awesome, but Impractical to the highest degree, modern experts are unsure whether it's supposed to be a taunt used at the end of a duel, the manuscript writer being a Troll, a reference to some sort of now-lost meme or in-joke, or an unusual method of copyright.
• The Fior di Battaglia (an Italian fighting manual) contains a plate wherein the stance in which a longsword may be thrown is detailed. This being real life, the stance is a modified javelin throw stance, not the two-handed overhead swing commonly used in fiction.
  • Skallagrim released a video with a brief overview of Fiore's technique.
• The Spetsnaz Ballistic Knife: Shooting Your Knife Always Works.
  • See also Joerg Sprave's latest act of engineering lunacy.
• The Kriegsmesser may actually be the origin of this trope since throwing it at your opponent was actually a decent strategy, made feasible due to a key construction difference between knives and swords. A knife has a larger and heavier blade relative to its handle, and the Kriegsmesser was a knife with a blade the size of a short sword, designed to circumvent medieval laws banning weapons in cities.^note Civilians were forbidden from carrying swords, as knife-makers were forbidden from making them, but they were allowed to respectively carry and make knives, and the charter at the time which set this restriction defined a knife almost solely by the handle construction and not the blade length. As a civilian self-defense weapon, it didn't need to work well against fully armored opponents. It fell out of use because it was hard to use, due to its overly wide blade, but the depictions of people using the Kriegsmesser may have inspired actors and artists.

• Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls: After blasting up a cloud of dust to obscure his opponent's vision, the Espada Grogar throws his Zanpakuto through it at Captain Celestia, who twirls to avoid the spinning blade only to lose a lock of hair, but he then uses Sonido to catch the sword when it's barely passed her and tries to backhand slash her while she's off-balance. Instead, she catches his wrist to halt the attack and then proceeds to hit him hard enough to send him flying away and prepares to fire a Kido at him. As it turns out, the sword-throw was the real feint. When Grogar used Sonido, he dropped a freeze grenade inside the dust cloud and banked on Celestia being too focused on his blade and himself to notice it, and by the time she does spot it he triggers the explosive, forcing her to defend herself by jumping away and giving him the precious seconds he needs to activate his Resurreccion.

• Snotlout tries this is in How to Train Your Dragon (2010)... and misses completely. Apparently the sun was in his eyes.

• Oliver Stone's Alexander:
  • At the Battle of the Hydaspes, Alexander throws his sword at King Poros in a futile attempt to kill him, only to miss. Also in the Final Cut, during the Battle of Gaugamela, Antigonus (the one-eyed general) barely manages to protect himself with his shield from an arrow, and then counterattacks by tossing his sword at the Persian archer.
  • Another funny subversion from the same film: in both Alexander and 300, there's a climactic scene of the Greek Hero-King charging the Persian Emperor while screaming in slow motion before dramatically hurling his spear at him. In 300, the spear cuts Xerxes' cheek, humiliating him. In Alexander, Darius casually leans out of the way of the thrown spear with a puzzled expression on his face as if to wonder what this Greek loony was thinking.
• Subverted and lampshaded at the end of Big Trouble in Little China. Jack Burton throws his knife at Big Bad Lo Pan and misses. Jack knows he just blew it big time, as Gracie glares at him. Lo Pan picks it up, comments, "Good knife. ... Goodbye, Mr. Burton." and throws it back at Jack, who catches it and tosses it right between Lo Pan's eyes, making it a Double Subversion. Like Jack said, it's all in the reflexes.
• In Black Death, Ulric attempts to throw his sword at the last of a group of bandits who raided his camp and killed one of his men. His sword falls several feet short of his target.
• Subverted in the schlocky wuxia-fantasy film, Buddha's Palm. The hero, Long Jian-fei, defeats one of the Masked Killers by throwing his sword into the target's gut, but the Masked Killer teleports away with his chi, so Long's sword impales a white cloak instead.
• Averted in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937); Rupert of Hentzau hurls his sword at Rudolph Rassendyl, who easily parries it despite being already wounded.
• While Azeem used this successfully in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Robin himself failed. In Robin's duel with the sheriff, Robin's sword is broken and in desperation, he throws the hilt shard at the sheriff. Nottingham barely even has to move to avoid it.
• Defied in the climactic duel scene from Rob Roy. One of the rules is: "You shall not throw your blades."
• Scream 2: Ghostface throws a knife at Dewey, right between his eyes, and would have killed him... if it hadn't hit handle-first.
• In Seven Samurai, Kyuzo does this, though it is something of an exception as he doesn't appear to be trying to kill the remaining bandits, who are hiding behind cover, but rather desperately trying to show the others where the hidden bandits are before he dies.
• In X-Men: First Class, Erik Lehnsherr tries to throw a dagger at Sebastian Shaw, but Emma Frost catches it. Given the nature of Shaw's powers, the dagger would not have harmed him even if it had scored a direct hit.

• In the Fighting Fantasy book Sword of the Samurai, at the climax, the reader is given the option of throwing the magic sword at the villain. If they choose this option, however, they miss, and the only effect is that they have to fight the Big Bad without a stat boost.

• Subverted in All of Us Are Dead, in which Episode 4 ends with Gwi-nam chasing Cheong-san down a hallway and throwing his knife at him. The next episode opens with a Once More, with Clarity scene showing that it hit his back on the blunt end, allowing Cheong-san to flee.
• Edmund tried this in Blackadder 2... it didn't work.
• Oz tries this with a stake in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 3 premiere, only for it to fall far short of its target and bounce comically off a tombstone instead. He mutters "That never really works" afterwards.
• In the pilot of Once Upon a Time (2011), Prince Charming throws his sword at the Evil Queen. His aim is dead on, but she makes it disappear in a puff of magic.
• Spartacus: Blood and Sand
  • Spartacus tries this during gladiator training. Not only does his opponent easily deflect it, the stray weapon kills a fellow gladiator recruit by slicing open his throat. Spartacus immediately gets chewed out by the trainer for this stupidity.
    Doctore: Throw your sword in the arena and you are dead.
  • It happened one other time during a fantasy/plan laid out by Spartacus, though he was immediately reminded why it wouldn't work.
  • In Vengeance "Libertus", Spartacus standing in the arena throws a spear at Glaber who is in the pulvinus (royal box). The distance and/or Glaber's reflexes allow him to dodge it, but Cossutius (standing by behind Glaber) is hit and killed.
• Ultraman Ace averts and subverts this in the case of Baraba, a Terrible-Monster who has (among the numerous other weapons on his body) a sword mounted to the back of his neck that he can fire off like a missile. When he first fought Ace, Ace managed to catch the sword and fought back with it, but stopped short of killing the monster as Yapool revealed that he would have Ace Killer kill the Ultra Brothers on Planet Golgotha if Ace killed Baraba. During the rematch, Ace does it again... and promptly throws it back, skewering Baraba through the chest.
• Ultraman Z brings Baraba back, and this time the attack is a bit more successful, as he's now able to control where the sword goes (rather than firing it in a straight line) thanks to an energy chain that connects to the sword's hilt after he shoots it. He would have been successful in executing Z with the sword, had Ace not arrived in time to save him.

• The post-apocalyptic setting of Deadlands: Hell on Earth outlines this as one maneuver that a desperate Templar (no, not that one) might perform. Unless the player rolls well, though, the sword will most likely hit pommel-first... if it hits at all.
• GURPS again: Perhaps ironically in light of the real-life information about such techniques, the system's usual fondness for detail, and the cinematic throw-anything skill option mentioned above, there is actually no "mundane" Thrown Weapon skill for swords longer than knives (which are sorted into the general "sword" group for melee weapon skill purposes) listed in the basic rulebook.

• Subverted in Red vs. Blue Revelation. Oh, sure, the knife lands pointy-end in, and it was a desperation attack, but all it did was break the invisibility unit. Subverted again in Season 10 when the Unnamed Blue Soldier in episode 10 tries to throw a tomahawk back at the two Turret soldiers and it skids to the floor in front of them.
  • Played with in Season 14, Episode 11. Felix throws a knife at an incoming henchman, but it hits the henchman with the handle end. Fortunately, this is enough to knock the henchman over a railing behind him, sending him falling to his death.
    Felix: (deadpan) That works.
• In OneyNG's Final Fantasy VII parody "Pointy Bits", Cloud throws his sword at a boss...and doesn't even come close to hitting him. The party is then one-shot.

• At one point in Exterminatus Now, Jamilla is taken hostage by a ninja/assassin raven to secure his escape. Rogue responds with a "BEAM SWORD HURL ATTACK!" which not only misses completely but also leaves him without his Energy Weapon. Lothar immediately lampshades both tropes.
• Errant Story: Sarine, having been knocked on her back, throws her sword at Sarna. Subversion: it misses. Double-subversion: Sarine uses a kinetic spell to loop it around for a backstab. Triple subversion: She pulls that trick every time she throws her sword, so Sarna is ready to block. Quadruple subversion: the thrown sword is just a carrier for an attack spell. End result: Sarine has the opportunity to get back on her feet.
• Averted in Tales of the Questor when the duke misses. To be fair, a magical bird from among The Fair Folk makes a tricky target.
• In one The Order of the Stick strip, Roy does this in a desperation move, chucking his sword at the vampire inhabiting Durkon's corpse, who is protected inside a magical "anti-life" sphere. The target teleports away, and the sword very anti-climatically clatters on the ground.
  • A few strips later Roy throws his sword and kills a mook causing the Big Bad to mock him for giving up his only weapon to kill a disposable minion. Roy then demonstrates that he learned a few new tricks since their last encounter and has the sword teleport back into his hand. He then throws it again, killing another mook and then regaining the sword again. The Big Bad realizes that Roy can keep doing this over and over till he runs out of minions to kill and can then go after the main villain one-on-one.

• Item #197 of the Evil Overlord List is a vow to explain to his Mooks the difference between ranged and melee weapons. The sentence for any Mook found mixing them up is death.
• In Stupid Mario Brothers, during Wario's battle with the Darkness in The Movie, after fooling the Darkness into thinking that he was dead, Wario hurls his Beam Saber through the Darkness' gut, which seemingly kills him. However, as Waluigi failed to bestow a counter-curse upon Wario before his prolonged absence, which would ultimately turn the Darkness mortal and killable, the Darkness ends up getting back up later on.
  Darkness: Gee, that stung!
• In the original video/pilot for Hearts of Dorkness, Kyle attempts to toss his prop sword at the Director after going on strike. It just pathetically lands off to the side.
• The sentry in part III of Oedipus in my Inventory throws his sword at you if you threaten him with the knife. But you can dodge it if you planted the tree in Day 1.

• In addition to the video on sword-throwing mentioned in the other Real Life section above, Skallagrim also made a video about the pommel-throwing technique similarly brought up there, which has made "ending him rightly" a Running Gag of memetic proportions on his channel since.
• Attempted by Scanlan of Critical Role, hurling his legendary sword Mythcarver at a distant foe in a clutch moment to rescue one of his friends. The dice do not fall in his favor and the enemy, Dr. Anna Ripley, kills Percy on her next turn.
• Sword Art Online Abridged:
  • At the end of episode six, Griselda's ghost shows up to thank Kirito and Asuna for bringing her murderer to justice, only for Kirito to throw one of his swords at her in a panic before he and Asuna run of screaming. Not only does the sword completely fail to hurt her (being a ghost and all), the fact that he's too frightened to go back and get it means he has to comission a new one from Lizbeth in the following episode.
  • Shortly after logging onto ALO for the first time, Kirito scares off a Salamander with a "warning shot" by throwing his sword at him. After the Salamander leaves, he admits that he only had the one and now needs to go find it.

• In the Adventure Time episode "When Wedding Bells Thaw", Finn throws his sword, but it gets deflected off an ice wall.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • Jet gets killed when he tries this.
  • However, Sokka succeeded, but lost his sword.
  • In "The Search", Ikem tries this while fighting the Fire Nation royal guards escorting his lover Ursa to the palace, when his prop sword gets lit on fire. It's more understandable than most cases, as the sword was useless to begin with, and about to become completely unusable.
• Jim from Trollhunters is able to do this, since the Sword of Daylight is a magical construct made by the amulet.