"Perturabo's hand flashed out and gripped Fulgrim's hair. With sudden force, he slammed his brother's face into the Warhound. The wondrous automaton shattered into a thousand pieces as Fulgrim's head crunched into the pitted surface of the workbench."
— Horus Heresy #23: Angel Exterminatus
A particularly nasty kind of attack or abuse involves grabbing your target's head and slamming it against a hard surface. While the human skull is rigid enough, everything adjacent to it is pretty frail. The victim of this is guaranteed to suffer a great deal of pain, anything ranging from severe bruising to a concussion, skull fracture, permanent disability, or even death. The nature of the attack makes it nigh impossible to defend yourself once the attacker grabs a hold of you.
Due to its utter viciousness, it's mostly used by villains and sociopathic jerkasses, especially if it is done repeatedly, but it may also be used by a Combat Pragmatist during a Bar Brawl or other vicious fight.
Compare Face Plant when someone lands on their face of their own clumsiness, Head Crushing which involves splattering one's head altogether by any means necessary, Wipe the Floor with You when a head is dragged against a surface and Swirlie for when someone's head is dunked into a toilet. Bludgeoned to Death involves whacking someone's head with a blunt weapon or tool. If a person does this to themselves (mostly out of frustration) it's Head Desk.
See also Metronomic Man Mashing for when the opponent is picked up and swung about, which sometimes results in a literal forceful faceplant.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Bleach: After overpowering Ulquiorra's Segunda Etapa form, the fully Hollowfied Ichigo stomps on his head to pin him, crushing his face into the roof of Las Noches, and then blasts him with a massive point-blank Cero.
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam: To demonstrate the power of his Mid-Season Upgrade (the appropriately named God Gundam), rather than an epic confrontation with the Master Gundam (and apparent Big Bad of the series), the God Gundam's first fight consisted simply of him grabbing the Master Gundam by the head and smashing it into the ground with such force that it seems to explode before the God Gundam takes off to the final round of the tournament.
- My Hero Academia: During the League of Villains' attack on USJ, Eraser Head is pinned face-down on the ground by a Nomu which then proceeds to repeatedly slam his face into the ground. He survives, but spends part of Season 2 recuperating from his injuries and is left unable to use his Quirk (which relies on making continuous eye contact) for as long as he could before.
- Plastic Nee-san: In the series' Signature Scene, Okappa pulls an Eye-Covering Surprise on Nee-san, then proceeds to slam her head into the wall hard enough to leave a crater. Nee-san is completely unfazed by this.
Comic Books
- Secret Wars (1984): The X-Men meet privately in the heroes' fortress to discuss breaking away to form their own, separate faction. Spider-Man overhears their plans and intends to tell his colleagues that the X-Men are going rogue. The X-Men try to stop him, but Spidey is much too savvy to be captured. Wolverine tries to tackle him, but Spidey simply leap-frogs over him, pushing Wolvie's head into the nearby wall as he does so.
Spider-Man: Those claws may scare the barroom bullies, but to me, you're a joke.
Fan Works
- Danganronpa: Darkened Hope: Daichi knocks Hayato out by grabbing his head and slamming it into the wall behind him. This leaves a dent in the wall and a pretty nasty wound on Hayato's head.
- The Mountain and the Wolf: During the attack on Euron's ship, Gunnar (one of the Wolf's berserkers) gets so caught up in his murderous frenzy that he keeps smashing his victim's head into the ship's gunwale even once there's nothing left of said head. The Wolf needs to break Gunnar's arm to snap him out of it, which contributes to Gunnar being killed by Jon Snow later.
Films — Live-Action
- American History X: Derek has his head slammed into the wall after being raped by his former comrades in prison.
- Birds of Prey: While fighting with some of the Black Mask's goons in a car, Harley Quinn slams the driver's head into the car's steering wheel six times and the head of another of the goons into the windshield twice, putting them both out of commission.
- Crimson Peak: Lucille Sharpe murders Carter Cushing in this fashion by repeatedly slamming his head against the corner of a bathroom sink.
- The Dark Knight: Batman begins his violent interrogation of the Joker by grabbing his head from behind and slamming it into the table. The Joker is not only completely unfazed but criticizes Batman for his choice of opening blow.
Joker: Never start with the head. The victim gets all fuzzy. He can't feel the next— [Batman smashes his hand; the Joker doesn't react] See?
- Dune: Part Two: Glossu-Rabban Harkonnen, a Psychopathic Manchild par excellence, does this to one of his underlings as punishment while overseeing the genocide against the Fremen. The advisor's crime? Suggesting that he take a short break from his duties.
Rabban: Rats! HAIRY! RATS! Kill them! Kill them! KILL THEM ALL! KILL! THEM ALL!!!
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): During the Final Battle in Boston, a super-charged Godzilla slams King Ghidorah's right head into the side of a skyscraper and violently grinds it against the building with his bare hands.
- Godzilla vs. Kong: At one point in their battle, Mechagodzilla grabs Godzilla by the neck and rams his head through multiple skyscrapers. After Kong is revived from his earlier defeat by Godzilla and joins in the battle against Mechagodzilla, the two Titans return the favor and drive it face-first into another skyscraper.
- Jason X: Arguably the film's most memorable kill sees Jason grab Adrienne's head, dunk it into a vat of liquid nitrogen, then slam her frozen face against the countertop. The result is not pretty.
- Spider-Man 3: At one point during his No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of Sandman, Spider-Man grabs his head and rams it against a passing train, which erodes half of his head as it passes. Being made of sand, though, he just reforms like nothing happened.
- In the climax of The Substance, Sue and Elisabeth have a fight in the bathroom where Sue pummels Elisabeth by repeatedly smashing her head into the mirror until the latter collapses.
Literature
- Warhammer 40,000:
- Horus Heresy: In Angel Exterminatus, Perturabo shows Fulgrim a clockwork model of a Warhound Titan that Vulkan had made, which was damaged from being knocked off a shelf. He tells Fulgrim that if he puts it to his ear, he can hear the irregularity in its clock cycles. Fulgrim leans in to listen... and Perturabo, annoyed at the Stupid Evil of Fulgrim and the Emperor's Children, grabs him by the hair and smashes his face into the Warhound model and the table it's on.
- Night Lords: In Soul Hunter, a Night Lord named Uzas has fallen to Khorne and incessantly mumbles prayers to him as a Madness Mantra, "Blood for the Blood God" et cetera. This annoys his squadmates to the point where Talos slaps the guy's helmet so hard it bangs off the headrest while telling him to shut up. This only works for a few seconds.
Live-Action TV
- In the Italian version of Caméra Café, the most common form of physical abuse that happens in the nameless company where the protagonists work consists of employees smashing other employees' heads, face first, against the coffee vending machine located in the relaxation area of said company with a lot of force, sometimes repeatedly. And given what kind of people work there, it's all played for laughs.
- CSI: NY: Invoked by a suspect during "The Box". After having to confess to trespassing and burglary in order to provide his alibi for a murder, an ex-con slams his own head on the metal table in the interrogation room, then says he's going to tell his lawyer that the detectives beat the confession out of him. Mac cheerfully explains that physics will prove that he did it to himself because no handprint-shaped bruise will show up on the back of his head, which would happen if someone else had pushed him hard enough to cause the goose-egg already forming on his forehead.
- Cherif: in Episode 7, When a Frisbee Player Trying to Recovery the Object Crossed in the Bush, He Found the Corpse of a Young Girl named Jade Killed Recently by Someone Dragged His head to hit in a bench With traces of blood.
- Kaamelott: Arthur's obnoxious and brutal father-in-law Léodagan thinks he's found a solution to Kaamelott's Perpetual Poverty: getting Venec the small-time crook to counterfeit money. When Arthur asks how Léodagan would react if Venec were to do the same in Carmélide (Léodagan's kingdom), Venec cheerfully says he's already started. Léodagan immediately grabs Venec by the back of the hair and smashes his head to the Round Table, knocking him out.
- The Mandalorian: "Chapter 16: The Rescue": When Din Djarin fights a Dark Trooper aboard Moff Gideon's flagship, the droid at one point grabs him by the helmet and starts repeatedly smashing his head into the nearest bulkhead, ultimately leaving a helmet-shaped dent in it. Luckily for Din, he's the protagonist of a TV-PG-rated show so his helmet is Made of Indestructium.
- The Punisher: In "Memento Mori", after discovering that William Russo was involved in the death of his family, Frank Castle bashes his head against a glass panel to the point of making him amnesiac and needing a mask to hide his scar, earning his nickname of Jigsaw.
- Stargate SG-1: In "The Broca Divide", a member of SG-3 (who turns out to be infected with a virus from offworld) picks a fight with Teal'c for no apparent reason in the middle of a debriefing. Teal'c slams his face into the table and holds him there in an armbar, then asks General Hammond for input, saying, "I would prefer not to hurt this man."
Video Games
- The very first thing that the Doom Slayer does in Doom (2016) upon breaking out of his sarcophagus at the very beginning of the game is to backhand a zombie approaching him across the face, grab it by the head and slam it onto the lip hard enough to outright crush it.
- The Head Smash in Fights in Tight Spaces is a vicious maneuver that does a lot of damage to an enemy, but can only be done when you and your opponent are next to a wall or an obstacle.
- Full Throttle: When Ben can't get the key to his bike from the Kickstand barman Quohog the courteous way, he grabs his nose ring and slams his face against the bar. He doesn't go beyond that, though.
Ben: You know might look better on your nose?
Quohog: What?
Ben: The bar. [slams Quohog's face against the bar]
Quohog: —brrk— - Monster Girls You-ki Chan!: The titular heroine can execute various fatalities on both regular enemies and bosses. This trope is involved in the boss fight against Succubusspoiler on a dinner table when Youki is shrunk; she can grab Succubus' head by her bangs and slam it against said table with extreme prejudice.
- Mortal Kombat:
- Johnny Cage's "Little Improv" Fatality in Mortal Kombat X has him slamming his opponent's head, face first, into the floor, repeatedly. The end result is the victim being defaced and dying.
- Mortal Kombat 1:
- Johnny Cage's "Hollywood Walk of Pain" Fatality has the trope being Played for Laughs (dark laughs at that): he pretends to take a selfie with his defeated opponent, telling them they're a new "mega-star", only for him to slam his opponent's head into a Walk of Fame star with his opponent's name grabbed onto it, and then pulling them back. The result is the face sticking to the star and Johnny finally taking a selfie, with his morbid fans reacting with lots of hearts.
- Omni-Man's "Trained Killer" Fatality recreates his scene from Invincible (2021) below, only with his opponent taking the place of his son. Unlike Mark, his victim does not survive.
- Shipwrecked 64: Brandon Lester in the Bucky suit kills Gary Wilson by ambushing him in the kitchen, grabbing his head, and slamming him into a microwave multiple times, then dunking his face into a deep fryer to finish him off.
- Yakuza 0: During Tachibana's Cold-Blooded Torture session at the hands of leader Kuze and violent underling Yoneda, the former commands the latter to stop attacking Tachibana with a sledgehammer, realising that he won't break from physical torture. Yoneda snaps when Tachibana smirks at him in response and goes from crushing his toes to crushing his head. Tachibana's information dies with him, resulting in the flaming-pissed Kuze killing the insubordinate Yoneda by grabbing his head and violently slamming it into the floor in a single motion.
Web Videos
- Joueur du Grenier: In the episode about Star Wars games, Seb as a developer explains some of his ridiculous ideas about how to conclude one such game, but Fred is so sick of it at this point that he slams the dev's head against his own desk.
Seb: And in the end, Darth Vader goes on planet Xantar to party with Indiana Jones!
[SLAM]
Western Animation
- Castlevania: After taking a few strikes from Alucard's Flash Step, Dracula manages to predict Alucard's next strike and catch him out of it, then slams his head into the ground repeatedly. Had Alucard not been his Dhampyr son, the first slam would've killed him but even still he's sufficiently dazed as his father then punches him through a wall.
- Invincible: When Mark stands up and challenges Omni-Man, he quickly finds himself in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by his father. At one point, Omni-Man holds his head in from of an oncoming passenger train, using Mark's face to split the train down the middle, and killing many innocents in the process.