# ID a movie: motorcyclist decapitated by plate glass **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [March 14, 2022, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010 "2022-03-14T07:56:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/1 "2022-03-14T07:56:52Z")
No, it’s not _The Omen_. As a 10-year-old, I saw _The Omen_ on broadcast television. Last night I found it as a TCM on-demand title and decided to watch it again. This time I’d get to see in all its R-rated glory the infamous (on the playground at least) scene where the guy on the motorcycle is following a truck, only for a sheet of plate glass to supernaturally fall off the back and chop off his head. So imagine my surprise when there’s no motorcycle in the entire movie. Instead, a pedestrian in a construction zone bends over while a parked truck’s parking brake is released supernaturally, the truck rolls backwards until it stops abruptly, sending a sheet of glass through a dummy’s throat. (What was so shocking in 1976 that it almost got the film an X-rating looks kinda goofy today and was considerably less gory than a typical X-files revival episode) So obviously I’ve conflated _The Omen_’s decapitation scene with something else. But what? (And no, I didn’t originally see _The Omen_ in New Zealand) ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/2 "2022-03-14T08:34:40Z")
14 going on 30? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/3 "2022-03-14T19:44:04Z")
My first thought was **The Omen** , of course, in which David Warner gets his head cut off by a piece of plate glass. The only other notable decapitation in a horror movie I know of is off-screen – the “Toby Dammit” segment of the non-Corman Edgar Allan Poe anthology film **Spirits of the Dead** (1968), based on Poe’s story “Never Bet the Devil your Head”. It starred Terence Stamp and was directed by Federico Fellini. No motorcycle, though – Terence Stamps’ Toby is driving a convertible. > **[Spirits of the Dead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirits_of_the_Dead)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Spirits of the Dead (French: Histoires extraordinaires, lit. 'Extraordinary Tales', Italian: Tre passi nel delirio, lit. 'Three Steps to Delirium'), also known as Tales of Mystery and Imagination, is a 1968 horror anthology film comprising three segments. The French title is derived from the first collection of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories translated by French poet Charles Baudelaire; the English titles Spirits of the Dead and Tales of Mystery ... ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/4 "2022-03-14T23:09:25Z")
Has anyone seen **Psychomania** (1973) recently? I don’t recall such a scene, but a good portion of the film is bikers committing suicide in various creative ways. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/5 "2022-03-14T23:13:28Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Has anyone seen **Psychomania** (1973) recently? That’s a possibility. I know I saw it on Elvira’s Movie Macabre in high school, so only a few years after I saw _The Omen_. I remember the plot involved a gang of bikers being able to “come back” and be invulnerable if they something something while committing suicide. ---
**Author:** ![AzFavorite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@AzFavorite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AzFavorite)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/6 "2022-03-15T06:30:26Z")
red asphalt? ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/7 "2022-03-15T06:47:26Z")
The Motorcycle gang episode of Night Stalker? > **[Kolchak: The Night Stalker: Chopper](https://headhuntershorrorhouse.fandom.com/wiki/Kolchak:_The_Night_Stalker:_Chopper)** > > "Chopper" is the fifteenth episode of the supernatural mystery series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. It was directed by Bruce Kessler with a teleplay written by Steve Fisher and David Chase, based on a story concept developed by Robert Zemeckis and Bob... ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/8 "2022-03-15T07:14:23Z")
Or maybe the end of Electra Glide in Blue…but theres no decapitation ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/9 "2022-03-15T07:32:39Z")
I don’t suppose you are mixing it with the final scene from _2001 Maniacs_, where the two kids who think they have escaped the ghost town full of killers drive off into the sunset on a motorcycle…only to be decapitated by barbed wire strung across the road? ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/10 "2022-03-15T20:47:04Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > 14 going on 30? Man, you were soooo close to the best answer but you were supposed to say _Big_! ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2022, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/11 "2022-03-16T00:24:44Z")
That scene where Tom Hanks bangs his head against the Zoltan machine in frustration and breaks the glass and decapitates himself is _hilarious_! ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2022, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/12 "2022-03-16T00:56:24Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > (What was so shocking in 1976 that it almost got the film an X-rating looks kinda goofy today and was considerably less gory than a typical X-files revival episode) Yeah, the first 90 seconds of any given episode of **Bones** is 100x gorier than anything that ever occurred on screen in any **Friday the 13th** movie. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2022, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/13 "2022-03-16T00:58:20Z")
In _Force 10 from Navarone_ (1978), a German soldier on a motorcycle is decapitated by a wire strung across the road. I can’t find a clip online, but I remember that the effect wasn’t very convincing (IIRC, the motorcycle keeps going with the headless body still gripping the handlebars). ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2022, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/14 "2022-03-16T07:00:47Z")
> [@Pavelb1](#): > > The Motorcycle gang episode of Night Stalker? oooh! I’d forgotten that one. Very good possibility. I watched that show almost every week during its one season. Headless guy on a motorcycle chopping off other people’s heads. I definitely remember seeing that episode. Wiki says 1975, so still elementary school. Omen would have shown up on network television a few years after being in theatres in 1976. > [@AzFavorite](#): > > red asphalt Never saw it. My sister, who is 4 years older than me, saw it and told me about it, but by the time I got to high school, it had been dropped from the curriculum. I remember some of the older kids in my boy scout troop talking about it as well when their school showed it. I haven’t seen any of the other films mentioned in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/15 "2022-03-25T10:36:41Z")
There’s a Chester Himes novel – I’ve forgotten the title, but it’s one of his Harlem crime stories with Coffin Ed and The Gravedigger – in which exactly that scenario occurs, motorcycle, truck, plate glass, and all, early in the book. Several of those books have been made into movies (and that scene is pretty cinematic), so my guess is that it was in one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/16 "2022-03-25T16:10:44Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > …but a good portion of the film is bikers committing suicide in various creative ways. Sounds like a description of my racing career. ---
**Author:** ![AzFavorite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@AzFavorite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AzFavorite)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-movie-motorcyclist-decapitated-by-plate-glass/961010/17 "2022-03-26T06:38:28Z")
sorry so late to reply, i was away. So, good ole Red Asphalt, it was considered really shocking and gory way back when, but by todays standards not so much. My kids probably see worse daily, without being even a little shocked.