I knew I had seen that trope many times but Superman 2 was the only one that I could specifically remember. But all that I could google up was this, so I thought that I had misremembered!
Now I’m a bit confused, because I remember the thrown object scene specifically from watching the Superman II VHS when I was a kid. Apparently that’s now that’s a “lost cut” or something? But I never saw the cut you posted at all.
This is how film studios mess with people with aging brains, changing films years after release…
Another Simpsons example (at 0:30):
Yeah, I definitely remember seeing it in the theater, specifically the “He will never become a man!” line, because it was so chilling. I don’t think this was a cut scene at all.
There was a Richard Donner director’s cut released about 15 years ago, where he undid changes made by Richard Lester after Donner was fired from the film in 1980. I suspect the scene in question was one of Lester’s and was part of the original film, but is absent from Donner’s director’s cut.
I recently saw that episode. Poole makes the throw like a cricket pitcher (bowler?), and then says “I honestly didn’t expect that to work!”.
Has anyone suggested this for addition to TVTropes yet? And are there any good examples of subversion? (I.e. someone makes a ridiculously long throw, but you expect it to hit because that’s what happens in movies, but then it doesn’t.)
Surely there’s some basketball movie in which a ridiculously long throw misses the hoop thus results in a loss but I can’t think of any right now.
Napoleon Dynamite. When the uncle beans Napoleon with his brother’s steak…brilliant.
“If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.” - Patches O’Houlihan
Not a huge distance, but deserves some credit for being improvised on the spot by a drunk extra.
Bahahaha that captures the spirit if not the distance. I’m still laughing.
ETA went down a rabbit hole and came up with the understanding that it was actually not improvised by a drunk extra. Here’s Malkovich doing an AMA…
Home Alone 2 - brick off the roof.
What about the Three Stooges? I know they did that a lot very close but I don’t remember about long distances. ?
Modern Family
Oh, no! Bette Midler!
OK, so it wasn’t that far.
The last two get right at what I imagined
Damnation Alley had a young kid save the movie’s leading lady from a menacing redneck by bopping him in the head with a rock from a distance. It made a cartoony bonk noise, as I remember.
I was browsing HBO, came across The Lego Movie, and landed on this scene:
From “Major League”:
