Top 10 Defenestrations

[Danny Stephenson]

If you could make a list of the Top 10 TV and film moments where a person, people or objects had gone through a window. What would they be?

Topic

[JamesTC]

Nathan Barley would have about 3 of them for Episode 6.

[Carlito]

Father Jack jumping through the window in Father Ted when he sees a nun?

Or is this like QI where “FATHER JACK” is about to flash up in big letters as too obvious an answer?

I know Mrs Doyle fell off the window sill a few times (easier landing than falling off the roof, I guess) but I’m trying to remember if she ever fell through the window…

[Dessie]

1. John Locke on Lost getting thrown out of the skyscraper
2. Arnie getting thrown through the shop window in Terminator 2
3. Comedian in Watchmen
4. Lister going backwards through the window
5. Claire Bennet in heroes jumping out of Peters apartment
6. Arnie getting thrown through the shop window in Terminator 2
7. Hans Gruber getting thrown out of the window in Die Hard
8. Mace Windu in Star wars
9. A clipboard being thrown out of a window in Scrubs and hitting a guy
10. Angel gets thrown out of a window in either Buffy or Angel.

That was incredibly difficult to put together. I was pushed out of double decker bus window once. I never knew there was an actual name for it!

[Carlito]

I once played the Maniac in Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist, defenestration fans.

[Carlito]

Del throwing the suitcase out of the window in ‘Jolly Boy’s Outing’ has a good pay off.

[Dave]

In no order:

Auric Goldfinger being sucked through a aeroplane window in Goldfinger

Lynda With A Y being blown through a window after a Dalek has destroyed it (silently) from the other side in Doctor Who’s The Parting Of The Ways

Angel kicking a vampire-sat-on-an-office-chair through a window in broad daylight, and the subsequent flaming office chair hitting the sidewalk sans vamp in Angel’s pilot

Robin Hood robbing Prince John with a pulley in Disney’s Robin Hood

[Danny Stephenson]

2. Arnie getting thrown through the shop window in Terminator 2
…
6. Arnie getting thrown through the shop window in Terminator 2

‘Defenestration’ is my word of the year.

[Dessie]

Oh dear i never noticed that.

Change number 6 to Del Boy sliding the suitcase out the window.

[Carlito]

Bill Murray being thrown out of a high rise office window (without breaking it!) in Scrooged… that was a good ‘un.

[Phil]

Chris Morris departing The IT Crowd?

(Include literature for Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, which features a main character who earns his living by defenestration–as distinct from transfenestration…)

EDIT: Miss Piggy crashing through a stained-glass window on a motorcycle to save the day in the GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE.

[Carlito]

Does Lee Harvey Oswald in Tikka To Ride get a mention? Yes he does.

[thomasaevans]

Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible???

I remember that being rather impressive.

[JamesTC]

The Doctor on the Horse in ‘Girl in the Fireplace’.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I do like Kyle Reese blasting the T800 through the window of Tech Noir in Terminator…

I also like Hicks balsting through the lab window that Hudson just shot in Aliens…

Fuck it, just give me Michael Biehn diving through a window.

Oh, and kudos to Clarence Bodicker, king of broken glass.

[si]

>The Doctor on the Horse in ?Girl in the Fireplace?.

That’s a mirror, isn’t it?

[Danny Stephenson]

Oh, and kudos to Clarence Bodicker, king of broken glass.

Yes that’s in my top 10.

Axel Foley being thrown through a window, and the old lady in Gremlins gets my vote.

[Ben Paddon]

Tim. Spaced.

Thread over.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

“I’d do it again in an instant!!”

[hummingbird]

Interesting that nobody’s mentioned BtE (or Bladerunner for that matter)

[NoFro]

>Tim. Spaced.

This was the first thing that popped into my mind and definitely the best defenestration ever.

[Ian Symes]

Should I admit that it’s only thanks to this thread that I now know what “defenestration” means? But what a glorious word to have for such a very specific thing.

[Bob Loblaw]

Morpheus, Matrix, Mid-air Man-hug.

[TheLeen]

> The Doctor on the Horse in ?Girl in the Fireplace?.

This was the first thing that popped into my mind and it definitely was a window, because it was see-through from one side and also intentionally so, except that it was more like a portal. But anyway, the horse makes it a very very good defenestration moment.

The BtE one was awesome.

[si]

>it definitely was a window

*sulks*

[Ian Symes]

it definitely was a window, because it was see-through from one side and also intentionally so, except that it was more like a portal

Oh, a magic door! Well, why didn’t you say?

[Seb Patrick]

Should I admit that it?s only thanks to this thread that I now know what ?defenestration? means? But what a glorious word to have for such a very specific thing.

I only know it because of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_8_(comics)

But also, we have a clear winner here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9ARbKvUyUM

(and the guy speaking at the start? The cop that Bill possesses in Bogus Journey)

[TheLeen]

> Oh, a magic door! Well, why didn?t you say?

Because Deportamagication sounds shit.

[hummingbird]

Deportamagication sounds great.

[Danny Stephenson]

(and the guy speaking at the start? The cop that Bill possesses in Bogus Journey)

And Dr. Edgemar in Total Recall.

[Nakrophile]

Everybody in the final twenty or so minutes of Police Story.

[Nick R]

“This isn’t one of those shady ‘pyramid schemes’ you’ve heard so much about. No, sir! Our model is the trapezoid, guaranteed [something something] within hours of your inital… uh-oh, the cops!”

(Forgive me, but I’ve forgotten some of the line, and every quotes page on the internet only has an incomplete version copied from The Simpsons Archive. Sorry.)

There are many other Simpsons examples, including Ned’s talent for arobatics, Moe’s Homer escape strategy, Homer’s gay escape strategy, and of course “Stop him! He’s headed for the window!”

And I know you didn’t specify video games, but Timesplitters 2 and Future Perfect have player statistics keeping track of how many panes of glass you’ve shattered.

[Phil]

Another great Simpsons example (maybe my choice for best) is the man who jumps out the window when he hears the PTA has disbanded. Then they clarify that the PTA has not, in fact, disbanded, so he jumps back in through the window and takes his seat.

Lovely stuff.

EDIT: Oops, didn’t see you had linked to a full list. Oh well. I described it. It’s out there. Now we have to live with it.

[JamesTC]

Angel pushing some vampire out of a window and he burns on the way down in the show Angel, I think it is in the first episode, can’t be sure, been a while.

Oh and in The Mask where Stanley (with the mask on) is getting shot at and jumps out the window to fall flat on the ground and call himself road kill.

[Danny Stephenson]

Ooh Ooh, another one:

Biff’s future gang in 2015 which fly into the clock tower. That’s a good one.

Also the last accountant in the Crimson Permanent Assurance.

[ChrisM]

>But also, we have a clear winner here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9ARbKvUyUM

That was great. I liked the end scene gag too. (I think it was the same film, unless there are two films with that same long table run up idea.)

TUNK!
“Flexiglass!”*

*I forget the name but it was something like that.

[Joey TORDFC]

My mate’s band was called Defenestration.

[Seb Patrick]

That was great. I liked the end scene gag too. (I think it was the same film, unless there are two films with that same long table run up idea.)

TUNK!
?Flexiglass!?*

*I forget the name but it was something like that.

Yeah – after SPOILERS! the company becomes mega-successful but Mussburger had sold their shares, the guy with the eyebrows decides to make like Hud, and announcing “I’m getting off this merry-go-round!”, he runs down the table and jumps into the window, which doesn’t break. “Plexiglass,” says Mussburger, “put it in last week”.

Hudsucker Proxy was ’94, so I think it predates the same gag in Father Ted ;-)

Good call on the Simpsons examples, btw. If Fox weren’t so bloody-minded in taking things down, there should be a compilation of them on Youtube.

[Nick R]

This whole thread could be filled with examples from Hong Kong action movies, but to pick one each from John Woo and Jackie Chan…

Hard Boiled – THAT single-shot sequence alone includes two examples (at 0.15 and 2.45). But I still say The Killer’s the better film. :-P

Police Story – bus crash

And one with a Red Dwarf connection: just before the tank chase in GoldenEye, James Bond swings out of a window (with a soft landing on a handily-placed crash mat).

[Author]

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