http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FallingChandelierOfDoom



"That looks like an accident waiting to happen if ever I saw one," she mumbled. Maskerade For some reason Agnes's practical eye was drawn to the huge chandelier that hung over the auditorium like a fantastic sea monster. Its thick rope disappeared into the darkness near the ceiling...."That looks like an accident waiting to happen if ever I saw one," she mumbled.

Advertisement:

When in high-class surroundings, the standard way to create chaos or kill people is inevitably to drop the enormous chandelier hanging from the ceiling. This is usually intentional on the part of the character, but occasionally it happens by accident. A frequent comedic version is for the hero to accidentally drop the chandelier on his own allies.

This is most common in film and theater since it creates a visually spectacular effect.

Generally, it's a subtrope of Death by Looking Up. It might overlap with Impaled with Extreme Prejudice. Compare Chandelier Swing.

Advertisement:

Examples:

open/close all folders

Advertising

Anime & Manga

Comic Books

Archie vs. Predator: Archie hurls an axe at a chandelier to bring it down on the Predator. Unfortunately, the Predator dodges it.

In Jonah Hex #68 (original series), Jonah stops a rowdy who was busting up a saloon by shooting out the chain holding up the chandelier so it falls on him. Said chandelier was made out of a wagon wheel. Ouch!

In Tintin: The Crab with the Golden Claws, Big Bad Omar Ben Salaad is about the shoot Tintin but Snowy come from behind and bites him in the ass. Ben Salaad loses his balance and shoots in the air upon which a chandelier comes crashing down on his head.

Advertisement:

Fan Works

Loved and Lost: Fluttershy kicks the chain of a chandelier, causing it to fall on Commander Hildread and her guards, entangling them in diamond chains and giving the heroes a chance to escape. Applejack : Good thinkin', Fluttershy. Rarity : But what a waste of a perfectly beautiful chandelier.

No Competition: Discussed when Jasper first gets a look inside The Lich's new home in Little Whinging and counts six chandeliers, he notes to himself that each of them could crush a man if they fell.

Film — Animated

Film — Live-Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

Newspaper Comics

It was a Monday and the screws on the chandelier above Garfield needed tightening.

Music

A scene in the Meat Loaf video "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" has a chandelier fall on the cops searching the castle. The Literal Video version has Teen Girl Squad type commentary "CHANDELIER'D!" "Ow! My only scene!"

In Katy Perry's song Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) where she tries to figure out What Did I Do Last Night?, one of the damages she notices is the chandelier on the floor. Trying to connect the dots Don't know what to tell my boss Think the city towed my car Chandelier is on the floor

One of Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach performances was supposedly in a (fictitious) castle in an advanced state of disrepair. "Unfortunately, due to the lack of funds for maintenance, there aren't as many chandeliers now as there used to be." CRASH!

Tabletop Games

In the board game 13 Dead End Drive, one of the traps used to kill off the other heirs is a falling chandelier.

The game Cards Against Humanity includes a white card with the text "Dropping a chandelier on your enemies and riding the rope up."

Theater

The Phantom of the Opera makes the chandelier into a major gimmick of the show, having it hauled laboriously up into the rafters during the overture, only to have it come plummeting back down at the end of the first act. However the 25th Anniversary Celebration, filmed at the Royal Albert Hall, subverts this. Obviously the show couldn't drop the Hall's actual chandelier; instead, it just sparks and fizzles a little.

The Play That Goes Wrong has most of the set come apart at the seams, but keeps this trick in reserve until the last five seconds, with the lights going out mid-"fall".

Video Games

Web Video

Viari from Acquisitions Incorporated has an apparent obsession with falling chandeliers. In season 7, he single-handedly defeats the penultimate Flunky Boss by dropping a chandelier on them and wiping out the entire group, while in season 9, he thins out Vannefer's forces considerably by dropping several (weaponized) chandeliers on their heads.

Western Animation

Real Life

At the Theatre-Lyrique in Paris (an opera house), some portions of the glass chandelier fell on the audience, but no one was killed. (Novello, 'The Musical World'). Then in October 1888, according to 'The Times', one of the chandeliers fell and did kill a man.

On February 2, 1795 , Joseph Haydn was conducting the premiere of his newest symphony at the King's Theatre, London. At one point, several patrons left their seats to get a better view of Haydn. Not long thereafter, a chandelier crashed to the floor where they had just been sitting. Very cinematic! There were no injuries, earning the piece the nickname "The Miracle Symphony." note Except they tagged the wrong symphony with it! It was long believed that this event occurred at the premiere of Symphony No. 96 on March 11, 1791, but the date above was actually the premiere of No. 102. Nevertheless, 96 has held onto the "Miracle" name.

, Joseph Haydn was conducting the premiere of his newest symphony at the King's Theatre, London. At one point, several patrons left their seats to get a better view of Haydn. Not long thereafter, a chandelier crashed to the floor where they had just been sitting. Very cinematic! There were no injuries, earning the piece the nickname "The Miracle Symphony." Norwegian author Jens Bjørneboe is supposed to have tried to kill his parents this way when he was 8 years old.

In the former Soviet Union factories were assessed on how much material they used, which led to elaborate overweight chandeliers constantly on the verge of crashing on everyone's heads.

There's an urban legend about a visitor to the Soviet Union who became paranoid that his room was being bugged. Looking under his bed he found a suspicious-looking metal box fixed to the floor so he unscrewed it, but didn't find a microphone. The next morning when he went down to the lobby he was told that a chandelier had fallen from the ballroom ceiling the previous night (just how much damage it caused depends on the version), and he realized to his horror that the box he dismantled had been the chandelier support.

In September 2013 it wasn't the chandelier but a whole balcony that collapsed onto people below in a crowded theatre.