The lever is powered by AI
this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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Something I never got about the "tied up on train tracks" trope is that the victim is never tied to anything. Can't they just wiggle out of the way?
i think what is going on here is making an example. This is not a moral problem with some kind of inevitability. This is an execution that is trying to make a point
I always thought they were tied *to* the tracks
How would you even do that? Train tracks are typically flat against the ground. If you can find a picture of a person being depicted as tied to traditional tracks rather than just being tied up and laying on the tracks, I'd like to see it. I didn't find one from a quick search.
EDIT: Downvote all you want, but please show an example! I'm genuinely curious if anyone has ever shown a person tied to the tracks that makes any logistical sense.
EDIT 2: I've seen a few pictures from searching that show it is possible - I assume it depends on how packed down the planks under the tracks are - but the fact remains that the vast majority of the time, the person is show as just being tied up and laid on the tracks.
No, they're attached to sleepers, and the whole lot sits on a bed of ballast (stones). You could easily move some stones aside and thread the rope through the gap.
Even if that's so, people are never shown tied up that way. They're always just laid onto the tracks.
You don't see all the rope so there could be a loop around the line behind them.
Usually it's clear the rope isn't tied to anything beneath them.
You know you've got a point…
It's to the wooden whatchamacallits orthogonal to the rails
The ones flat against the ground that have been packed down by trains driving over them? I don't think you can usually get under those.
EDIT: I found a few pictures where the ropes do go underneath them - so now the question is, why are people not depicted that way 99% of the time? They're just laid onto the tracks in a way that it would be easy to get out of the way.
Because for the pacing of the scene, "wrapped with ropes" is movie shorthand for "immobilized." Most of the time, most of the audience doesn't really care about the details of the knots.
I think it's also because tying someone up that way is wildly impractical. The fact that nobody wants to show it the proper way is evidence of that.
A bit more practical would be looping the rope under the track itself between the ties; especially if you found a viaduct or something where there is no ballast you could just loop the rope right under.
I doubt every track is easy to find spots to do that. Snidely Whiplash would have to go out and survey all the tracks to find ideal spots, or dig holes ahead of time. That's a lot of trouble when he could just shoot them instead!
Snidely Whiplash only needs to find a bridge, preferably one over a large ravine.
Then he just has to tie the hostage to the center of the bridge. Then when the hero makes a daring rescue Snidely can blow up the bridge.
And, like I said, the bridge won't have ballast so you don't have to dig out around the rails to tie Pettycoat McVictim town in the first place.
Ties. Those are called railroad ties.
I'm very good at wiggling
Honestly, I usually saw this alongside Wile E. Coyote style antics performed by someone literally twirling a mustache, so I was never looking for consistency!
And less charitably, the character tied rarely seemed to do more than protest delicately even when she wasn't tied...