This Is a Drill

You know what, screw this.

"Mark my words! This drill will open a hole in the universe! And that hole will be a path for those behind us! The dreams of those who've fallen! The hopes of those who'll follow! Those two sets of dreams weave together in a double helix! Drilling a path towards tomorrow! And that's Tengen Toppa! That's Gurren Lagann!! My drill is the drill... that creates the heavens!"

—Simon, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Chainsaws aren't the only power tools to be used as weapons in TV Land. Weaponised drills are a staple of the Super Robot Genre, almost as ubiquitous as the Rocket Punch. Perhaps it's because they're actually fairly effective against heavily-armoured targets, or perhaps the male gender finds an inherent appeal in the idea of "penetration". For whatever reason, huge cone-shaped mining drills, often with rings of contra-rotating spikes, are much more popular than the boring "normal" kind (no pun intended, for once). It also puts one in mind of a "spinning" chainsaw, which of course, makes Everything Better.

Drills are also, slightly more realistically, used on vehicles for tunneling.

This is a Weapon of Choice trope. You know the drill. A subtrope of Everything's Better with Spinning. Often found on the business end of a Drill Tank or Drill Mole.

Not to be confused with This Is Not a Drill. Because it is. And a Bavarian Fire Drill is not an overly specific example of this trope (but you have to admit, a burning drill from Bavaria would be pretty damn awesome). Neither is Drill Sergeant Nasty, although again, a nasty sergeant armed with a drill would be cool and Badass. Princess Curls is this line of thinking applied to hair styling—they're nicknamed "drill hair", for goodness' sake!

Examples of This Is a Drill include:

Anime and Manga

  • Getter-2 of Getter Robo was the original drill-wielding Super Robot. They're also all over the place in the manga and OVAs. Drill tanks, drill monsters, drill dinosaurs, drill trees... the list goes on. Getter Drill Missile. Drill hand Rocket Punch.
  • In fact, Mazinger Z - unsurpsingly - already applied this trope with one of its weapons: Drill Missiles. They were drill-shaped missiles located inside its upper arms drilled the Robeast armor and exploded into it. Some MechanicalBeasts also used weaponized drills (such like Zaila D3 or Holzon V3).
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (The first chapter even lampshades the male symbolism when one of the girls points out how nasty it would be if Simon "drilled" them). As well as being a choice weapon for the most power mechs, drills are a motif and symbol of the series' theme:

Simon: We evolve beyond the person we were a minute before! Little by little, we advance a bit further with each turn. That's how a drill works!!

  • Spoken word for word in Yotsuba&!. But only with a power drill.
  • In Star Blazers, the Gamilons use a drill missile to penetrate the barrel opening of the Wave Motion Gun and destroy the Argo. It probably would've worked too, if it didn't travel at about 2 miles an hour.
  • Parodied in Lucky Star. Konata imagines a Gunbuster/Getter Robo-esque dentist. And, if Freud Was Right, Miyuki's fear of dentist drills may be symbolic for fearing men in general.... In a later episode, Akira Kogami refers to the page quote... to, rather disturbingly, justify her desire for Princess Curls (or "twin drills", as she calls them). A later episode has her wearing two literal drills in her hair in an attempt to simulate the style.
  • GaoGaiGar - GaoGaiGar's very legs are formed by the DrillGao, a twin-drilled tank. Super Robot Wars even took the name of the robot's basic melee attack from Guy shouting "Drill Knee". Before the Transformation Sequence, GaiGar can also attach DrillGao to his hands for a devastating punch attack (which also has been used to dig).
GaoFighGar uses DrillGao II, which is enhanced with an expanding, contra-rotating drill setup. Genesic GaoGaiGar has the Straight Drill, used to parry enemy stab attacks, and the Spiral Drill, which is used as a standard attack.
  • Gravion - Gravion's G-Driller forms its arms, which of course makes its Graviton Pressure Punch a combination Drill and Rocket Punch.
  • Played realistically in Dai-Guard. When the titular robot first uses its drill arm, it gets stuck in the ground and is near-impossible to control due to the torque from the drill. They upgrade to a more Awesome but Practical weapon, a giant pile driver. When this is damaged in a late-series fight, they have developed the piloting skills to compensate for the torque and use it as a backup.
    • It's even given a Lampshade, when the drill is revealed everyone thinks it's super-cool and can't wait to use it, after it fails so spectacularly they take off their fanboy-goggles and ask "Why the hell did we think that would work?"
  • Kotetsu Jeeg has the Mach Drill, a pair of rockets Jeeg attaches to his arms so he can fly to his enemy and drill through them. It can also equip the Earth Parts, which give it giant drills for legs (and chainsaws for hands)
  • Vulking from Gaiking Legend of Daikuu Maryuu can equip the gigantic drills attached to the front of the Cool Ship it travels with.
  • Jean in Claymore is a non-Super Robot example. She twists her arm around several times, allowing her to use her sword as a drill against heavily-armored opponents. After the timeskip, Helen starts using the technique herself.
  • One of the inmates in Dead Leaves had a giant drill for a phallus. Yeah. Unsurprisingly, it was directed by the same guy (Hiroyuki Imaishi) that would later do Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and is even drawn in a similar way. Dude likes drills.
  • The Destruction Form of Vita's Graf Eisen and Ginga's hand when she's using her cyborg abilities in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
  • Speed Grapher had a sadistic dentist who could grow drills out of his body to torment his patients.
  • Machine Robo has Drill Robo, who is... well, you figure it out.
  • Steam Detectives has Goriki, who often destroys Megamatons with a steam-powered drill.
  • Wilhelmina from Shakugan no Shana uses a Cloth Drill in one fight.
  • Teppa Aizen from Grenadier also used cloth drills, along with other assorted cloth-based powers.
  • Desarm's and Genda's Drill Smasher from Inazuma Eleven.
  • Naruto has a fellow by the name of Kimimaro who can control his bones as weapons. In his full Cursed Seal form, he can form a gigantic bone drill over his left arm to attack with.
    • The Inuzuka's signature attacks: Tsuuga and Gatsuuga.
  • In The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk, Ahmey's lance has a drill bit at the tip, which she can activate using a ripcord.
  • Kaze's Magun in Final Fantasy Unlimited has a spinning effect (which is supposed to be connected to the transmutation of Soil, or... something).
  • In Inukami!, the perverted magician Sekidousai has a robot assistant with a giant drill in the crotch area. That same robot grows huge and starts drilling the ground with its drill bits not long after. Yes, really.
  • In the second season of Code Geass, the rather Ax Crazy Knight of Rounds, Luciano Bradley, pilots a Knightmare with an arm-mounted laser drill lance.
    • When he tries using it against Kallen (who he had threatened to rape earlier in the season), she ends up breaking his drill to little bits.
    • The Byakuen from the spinoff story Oz the Reflection has a drill (resembling a modern power drill more than the Gurren Lagann variety) among its variety of optional weapons.
  • The Big O fought a few opponents with drill weapons. Big Duo Inferno had fingers that could come together into a wicked drill instead of punching, and Big Fau had what looked like turbines on his wrists. Alan Gabriel can turn his hand into a drill and thoroughly enjoys using it.
  • The first episode of the Witchblade anime series featured an Excon with a drill-like weapon.
  • Infinite Ryvius: the primary weapon of the Blue Impulse, the Vorticular Drill.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Orbital-7, Kaito's Robot Buddy from Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, had a "battle mode" where he could change his hands into drills; unfortunately, he wasn't a very good fighter and often got them jammed in the wall behind whatever he was aiming at.
  • In Episode 197 of Keroro Gunsou, Keroro gets a virus called the Space Drill, that causes him to sprout a drill in the middle of his forehead and dig holes. The whole episode becomes a lot more awkward when it is revealed the virus is spread by anally drilling unsuspecting victims.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ramiel, the 5th/6th Angel, uses a drill to break into the Geofront. It's unclear how it intended to get the rest of its body down the hole.
    • Actually, the way Ramiel was in the original, it was not only directly over the Geofront, but over Central Dogma as well - all he needed to do was keep on drilling until the drill came in contact with Lilith - which would of course, cause Third Impact.
    • Rebuild retconns this in a way that makes a tad more sense, having it twist part of itself like a drill in conjunction to using its AT field in a similar manner.
  • One of Miyu's attack forms in My-HiME has a drill-arm.
  • One of the Omakes in a Fullmetal Alchemist manga volume had Scar waking up in the field hospital with, instead of his brother's arm, a drill attached to his shoulder. Ed added a drill to a baby stroller as part of his attempt to lure Scar and the Homunculi out.
  • Even though it's called the "Eve Cannon", Eve's finishing move in NEEDLESS is an arm-mounted drill. Which, for some reason, comes with a school uniform.
  • One of Black Lady's weapons in Sailor Moon R is an umbrella which she turns into a drill.
  • Several Digimon have drills, including one of the main Digimon in Adventure 02 (Digmon, an armor evolved form of Armadillomon. He's got a drill nose and drill hands, and can shoot them).
  • The Grand Slam missile in the Area 88 manga is a 300 ton bomb delivered by an underground drill vehicle. It could carry a nuke, but its limited range means that the launch platform would be heavily irradiated at the very least.
  • Accurately pointed out by just about every one on the freeway in an episode of Zettai Karen Children, including the performers of the show's opening.
  • Menasor in Transformers Cybertron has a massive drill for a hand.
  • In Demonbane, Dr. Herbert West's first Humongous Mecha, The Super West Invincible Robot No. 28, is packing no less than FOUR huge drills... which it can use to launch the Super Hard, Super Thick, Super Long, Super Electric Drill Full Spin Tornado Crusher! (Yes, that's what it's named.)
  • Super Atragon: The huge drill mounted on the bow of the Ra
    • Avatar's ship has two mounted side by side on its bow; it makes for a Does This Remind You of Anything? moment when the ship's bow turns to face the camera head-on.
      • The Liberty has a third mounted below the first two.
  • In Highschool of the Dead, Saya dispatches a zombie in this manner early on.


Comic Books

  • In Ghost Rider: Road to Perdition, the villain intends to use a huge drill to bore a hole straight into Hell. There is a funny scene: At the end of one page, some soldiers are being told that "This Is Not a Drill". Flip the page, and the next thing you see is the giant drill.
  • Calvin "Cave" Carson, a classic DC Comics adventurer who still appears once in a while, is a spelunker (hence the nickname) who uses vehicles with giant drills to tunnel into the Earth's crust and such.
  • Twin Twist in Transformers Generation 1 has a pair of long drills that he uses to attack from beneath.
  • Iron Man - Iron Man's suit has a specialized armor made for tunneling that has its forearms transform into drills. Considering that Tony managed to dispatch a bunch of Mecha-Mooks with them they are also pretty effective weapons.


Fan Works

  • Not precisely an anime, but in the fan UTAU spinoff of Vocaloid, Kasane Teto's curl-twin-tails are sometimes played on and drawn as drills.
  • Naruto's Kaze Kiwa, Tatewaru, and Kaze Doriru are effectively wind chakra drills in Legacy Of The Rasengan.
  • Similar to the above example, Zuko uses firebending to move burning oil in a spiral and create a drill to break his ship free from an army of earthbenders in Embers.
  • Raim's Heaven Piercer "Drill of Soul" spellcard in the Touhou fanfic Human of the Other Side turns Kraid into a drillsword. In fact, the spellcard itself is a Shout-Out for Gurren Lagann. And it was awesome.
  • Avatar: The Abridged Series Ep.10

"Let Me Get This Straight...: You can invent tanks, (invented 1915) jet-skis, (invented 1973) and a gigantic FRIGGIN drill, (invented 20XX) but the concept of a hot air balloon (invented 1783) eluuuuuuudes you."
"Um, yes"
"I hate this world and everyone in it"


Films -- Animation


Films -- Live Action

  • Benny "I'm gonna screw you", the cab driver from Total Recall, who is about to use a tunnel drilling machine to crush Ahnold Douglas Quaid, until Quaid grabs a hand-held drill and cuts into to the operator's cab and does unto others to Benny first. And with that accent of Arnie's, we have the immortally classic line:

"Beenny!! Schklew Ewe!!"

  • Drills seem to be a standard robot feature in the movie The Black Hole. Evil robot Maximilian uses his to kill Dr. Durant, and shortly thereafter, good robot V.I.N.CENT uses his to destroy Maximilian, who is Immune To Lasers.
  • The machines in The Matrix use gigantic robotic drills, accompanied by swarms of killer robots, to burrow through the earth's crust and attack the underground city Zion. The drills aren't exactly weapons so much as a way into the city; this is zero comfort to those who get in their way.
  • A drill torpedo is used by the villain of Tomorrow Never Dies to sink a British ship—and later by James Bond to kill said villain.
  • A bow-mounted drill is a staple feature of the Gotengo (known as Atragon in America), a recurring Cool Ship of Toho features (including Godzilla: Final Wars). Making its movie debut in 1963 and based on even older adventure novels, the ship may be Japan's Ur Example and why drills are such a staple in their pop culture.
  • The villainess in The Machine Girl has a drill bra. She uses it to give the protagonist a double mastectomy with lots of High-Pressure Blood. Ouchies.
  • Tetsuo: The Iron Man, for a particularly disturbing scene with his girl.
  • Anyone remember the evil dental drill from Marathon Man? Or better yet, Space Mutiny?
  • The protagonist of Idiocracy has to fight against monster trucks, one of which has a massive drill. And then it nods that yes, Freud Was Right, the drills are overtly phallic in design.
  • The Narada, the Romulan ship in Star Trek, is a giant 24th-century mining vessel with a drill that can reach a planet's core in a relatively short amount of time. The fact that the drill is made of fire is just that much more awesome.
    • The original Narada was a mining ship with no weapons. The Macross Missile Massacre monstrocity shown in the film was modified using reverse-engineered Borg technology, as shown in the Countdown comic.
  • The Driller Killer.
  • The Slumber Party Massacre. Check out the cover.
  • The Tall Man's flying killer spheres from Phantasm kill by sticking into their victim's head with twin pop-out blades and then drilling into their victim's brain, the blood spitting out from a hole in the back of the sphere.
  • The tunneling vehicle in The Core.
  • The killer in Body Double kills a prone woman with a giant industrial drill. We see the bloody drill pierce the ceiling of the floor below.
  • In Pi, Max trepans himself with a carpenter's drill. Or does he?
  • The giant drill-headed mining machine in Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow.
  • A creepy pedophile gets impaled through the back of the head with a huge cordless drill in Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill!.
  • A couple are found skewered by some kind of mining drill in the original My Bloody Valentine.
  • The first victim in The Toolbox Murders is stabbed in the arm and spine with a handheld drill that looked kind of like an egg beater.
  • A woman gets a drill through the forehead in Las Vegas Bloodbath.
  • The villain in Midnight Movie uses a dill-like knife to kill his victims.
  • Dark of the Moon, the third installment of the Transformers Film Series, introduces The Driller. Essentially, it's this trope meets Sand Worm and Mechanical Lifeforms, in the form of a titanically large mechanical monstrosity capable of bringing down buildings with ease. They're supposedly Cybertron's apex predators. Shockwave has one as a pet/warbeast, which thus sees plenty of action against Autobots and humans.

Literature


Live Action TV

  • Several show up in Power Rangers and Super Sentai. Of particular note is the Drill Driver zord and Drill Blaster from Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, aka GoGo Drill from Go Go Sentai Boukenger. Bonus points for GoGo Drill having a finishing attack named "Maximum Penetration", with a variation called "Rising Penetration" as well. Also, Yellow Overdrive Ranger Ronny tended to Nerdgasm over machines, and the Drill Blaster led Memetic Mutation to make Ronny/drills a Cargo Ship.
      • The way she caresses it and the look she gets... priceless.
      • Partial subversion for the mecha in that it was initially used for tunneling, before the Humongous Mecha started using it as an arm.
    • The weapon of the Thundersaurus Megazord in Power Rangers Dino Thunder / Abarenoh Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger was a drill. Combining with the Ankylosaurus zord gave it a second one on its other arm.
    • There's also the Predazord's Revolver Phantom attack from Power Rangers Wild Force.
    • The Spiral Sabre from Power Rangers in Space is also styled in this fashion.
    • The "Terrible Terror" mecha in Dekaranger (SPD) also contains copious drills.
    • Coming before all of these was the original Dragonzord from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (aka Dragon Caesar from Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger). It had a drill on his tail, and when it combined with three other Zords to form a different megazord it had a Drill Lance weapon. It's finisher was boring a gigantic hole in the Monster of the Week's effing chest!
      • When Saban contracted the makers of Super Sentai into producing more footage for later seasons of Power Rangers, the Plex design office made an updated version of the Daizyuujin/Megazord, which featured the Tyranosaurus' tail as a drill; though the design was rejected in favor of re-using the mecha from Gosei Sentai Dairanger, some fans suspect that the Abaranger/Dino Thunder mecha were influenced by it.
    • The tradition continues in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and Power Rangers Samurai with the Tora Origami/Tiger zord, the kitteh that will pierce the heavens.
    • Tensou Sentai Goseiger has two examples, as well. First is one of the three Landick Brothers, the Sai/Rhinoceros Headder, which has a drill for a horn. The other is during the last third of the series, when the current bad guys, the Matorintis, take the Biibi bugs (this season's version of Make My Monster Grow), and, because they're robots, have them twist themselves into the Biibi Nails, which look like drills in a way. This may or may not be a subtle reference to the fact that The Dragon for the Matorintis is Yoko, while the 6th ranger is Kamina.
    • In Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, the Sixth Ranger's mecha is one-third Dragon Caesar homage and one-third Abarenoh homage. Of course it has a humongous drill.
  • The Mole in Thunderbirds was of the "tunnelling vehicle" variety.
  • Drills would sometimes be used as weapons in Robot Wars, mostly notable was Sir Killerlot's lance drill.
  • Tomica Hero Rescue Force has a Humongous Mecha called the Rescue Drill, primarily used for digging.
  • In Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider Impala (herd animal) wields a drill. Kamen Rider Knight's Finishing Move also resembles a drill.
    • Kamen Rider Den-O has the Zero Liner, which utilizes a drill as a method of attack. Kamen Rider Zeronos' Henshin also includes a drill animation when his mask forms.
    • Though note that it's not a drill on his face - it's a spindle, as a reference to the Deneb/Vega/Altair Love Triangle.
    • Kamen Rider Birth has, besides his gun, 6 different weapons he can summon as of this edit. One of these is Drill Arm.
    • Kamen Rider Fourze Has a Drill Kick thanks to Astro Switch 3 being a Drill.
  • The mysterious cylinder from the fourth episode of Fringe might be a burrowing, land based ultrasonic drill torpedo... or it might not.
  • In Burn Notice, Michael traps a car full of pursuing thugs in an alley. He grabs a gigantic masonry drill located handily nearby and drills a critical spot in the hood, disabling the engine. Then he climbs on top of the car, perforates the roof with the oversized drill and dumps kerosine on the passengers. All while pretending to be Ax Crazy.
  • An episode of The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne featured a Steampunk drill used as a method of underground transportation by rebels to attempt to kill the Queen. It is shown impaling at least two people. Verne first encounters Fogg when the latter arrests him on suspicion of building the drill, as it is based on one of his sketches.


Music

  • Van Halen's "Poundcake" opens with a guitar being played with a drill.
  • Before Eddie Van Halen, Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan of Mr. Big had used drills while playing.


Tabletop Games

  • Warhammer 40,000 has bionic drills used as hand weapons by gladiators and tech-priests; Dreadnoughts and Titans equipped with gigantic drills used to destroy fortresses (and quite often, other mecha); giant burrowing tanks which carry armies and other tanks through the ground and, among the most unique weapons in the setting, the mole mortar, which fires drilling missiles into the ground which burrow under the enemy, surface, and explode.
    • Also Raveners and their larger, scarier cousins the Trygon, which, being Tyranids, are living drills which burrow up from underneath the enemy and shred their faces.
    • 5th Edition Killa Kans also come packed with an option to equip your Kans with drills. This can yield some interesting references if done with the paint jobs displayed on the page...
  • Standard drills in Mekton are an armour-piercing melee weapon with a low accuracy. Mekton Plus lets you build ones that can be anywhere up to "pinpoint" accurate.
  • In the Mechwarrior Dark Age click-base game, industrial machines can use their civilian equipment as reasonably capable melee weapons. This includes forestry saws, combine harvesters, and of course, mining drills. The MiningMech IndustrialMech uses rock cutters and mining drills as its primary means of attack. Aesthetically subverted, however, in that the drill is not a traditional cone-shaped drill, but more like a trifecta of smaller drills mounted together.


Toys

  • Bionicle: Drill of Onua, Earthshock Drills, and Laser Drill. Used by those (Whenua for the first two, Nuparu for the last) affliated with Earth, unsurprisingly.
    • One end of Reidak's Buzzsaw and Pohatu Nuva's Twin Propellers can be used this way.
  • There was a Gobot whose vehicle form was an underground tunneling machine with a big drill on the front. His name? Screw Head.
  • From the Transformers line, Twin Twist.


Video Games

  • The Big drill in Spider-Man 3 was used against the hero in the video game
  • KOS-MOS of Xenosaga is capable of turning her arm into a drill as a special move, as well as an Arm Cannon or a Blade Below the Shoulder.
  • In Kirby 64, this is one of the combinations (Rock and Needle).
  • In Super Smash Brothers Brawl, we have Meta Knight's Side-B attack which is, well, a drill.
  • Pokémon has the Horn Drill attack, one of the One Hit KO moves, and Drill Peck, a powerful Flying-type move. Beedrill, a first-gen Pokémon, has drill-like stingers, hence the name. And Rhydon has a metal drill for a horn that actually spins by itself in Pokémon Stadium.
    • Beedrill is more of an aversion, since its name and design imply that the stingers on its arms can be used like drills, but it doesn't learn any drill moves (and its stingers are never shown to spin). The Japanese name, "Spear," is more accurate to its combat style.
    • But Fearow is a drill! Its Japanese name is Onidrill and it learns a couple of drilling moves.
    • Generation V also gives us Drilbur and Excadrill, which are basically mole-like Pokémon centered around the idea of digging drills. They even have a move called Drill Run.
  • The Disgaea series has the Drill Emperor spear, which is also the strongest spear in the game in some of the installments.
  • Drill Dozer. Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
  • The Drill Arms and Drill Helmet in ZHP: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman. One creates a giant energy drill that pierces through enemies, another can lift up a giant chunk of earth and blow it up, and the latter allows the player to attack an enemy from underground.
  • The boss of the Emerald Hill Zone Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a car with a drill in front. A fairly simple fight, when it's down to one hit left, it launches the drill at you, in case you weren't paying attention.
    • Also, the boss of the Mystic Cave Zone in the same game.
    • Marble Garden Zone in Sonic 3 has three drill-based bosses: The miniboss which excavates the ceiling and causes debris to fall, a flying vehicle driven by Robotnik fought by taking flight with Tails (fighting this boss in "Tails Alone" mode is infamous for its difficulty in some circles), and Knuckles' fight against Egg Robo in a similar drill-equipped flying vehicle. The last is fought within a lone room because Knuckles, at this point in the story, is still not in a mood to help nor be helped by the game's only flying hero; making defeating it in the sky impossible.
    • One part of Cosmic Wall in Sonic Adventure 2 involves being chased by a giant drill.
      • Knuckles and Rouge can drill into the ground after finding a certain power up too.
    • The final zone in the first Sonic Advance game reuses bosses from the Genesis game, including Emerald Hill Zone's Drill-car.
    • The first two games feature standard-issue Badniks that use drills as weapons in their respective underwater levels. Specifically, the second game features Grounder, recognizable as the (drill-wielding) robot from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon.
    • Sonic Colors gives Sonic himself the ability to turn into a drill due to the yellow wisps, capable of drilling through certain dirts and even through water. One of the bosses in the DS version has drill attacks - you get the drill by boosting into it, then drill underwater to hit the real weak points.
  • It's a weapon trope, gotta have Mega Man: In this case, Crash Man's "Crash Bomber" (Mega Man 2), Drill Man's "Drill Bombs" (4), Ground Man's "Spread Drill" (Mega Man & Bass), and Tunnel Rhino's "Tornado Fang" (Mega Man X 3). Ground Man actually has more drills on his body than Drill Man himself! Spark Mandrill even has a drill hand in Maverick Hunter X.
  • One of the five types of weapons you can use in Summon Night: Swordcraft Story (among much more "mundane" weapon types like swords, spears and axes).
  • Edgar of Final Fantasy VI has a Drill amongst his Tools skill set.
  • Barret of Final Fantasy VII can also equip a drill arm as a melee weapon.
  • Drills are one of the more unusual classes of weapons in Makai Kingdom—though by no means the most unusual. They are, however, quite effective if you give 'em to a character strong enough to handle the weight. Drill Tanks are also available as vehicles, and at least one attack in the game launches drill missiles.
  • Super Robot Wars: Grungust Mk III has two drills on it's back it attaches to its fists for a Rocket Punch.
  • In Silent Hill 1, one of the secret weapons was a Rock Drill.
    • In Silent Hill Homecoming, Judge Halloway has a normal power drill with a nasty-looking drill-bit in a cutscene. She is clearly off her rocker and tortures Alex with it while he's restrained to a chair by ramming it into his leg fully in-camera, and the look on Alex's face as he screams is far more effective at unnerving the player than any of the acting in Hostel. In the end, the torture itself inspires a burst of strength on Alex's part sufficient to tear out of his bonds, after which, he promptly shoves the drill up through the bottom of Judge Halloway's jaw. The look on her face at this point is equally brilliant, as are the sound effects. As a final note, the fact that Alex has no signs of hindered movement when the player gains control can be viewed, in addition to the combat system itself, as evidence that his false memories actually give him the skills he would've had if he'd actually been in the military.
  • Dig Dug.
    • Or the Mr. Driller series, for that matter. According to the cutscenes in Drill Spirits, the drillers are Dig Dug's kids.
      • Actually, that was actually clarified in Mr. Driller G (but that game was a No Export for You ) Only Ataru and Susumu are Dig Dug's kids.
  • Dordary in Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram has a heat-seeking launchable drill for an arm. A few "Vok" variants in the later games also use drills.
  • In BioShock (series), the Bouncer-type Big Daddies have their right hands replaced with a drill. As if to prove its effectiveness, the player gets to see a Big Daddy demonstrate its drill on a random splicer. There was blood everywhere.
    • And let's not forget the announcement trailer, which culminated in the protaganist being drilled through the hand and chest... in first-person.
    • And this is how Dr. Suchong appears to have met his end, after slapping a Little Sister.
    • In the sequel, Subject Delta, a prototype Big Daddy is the player character. The drill you start with is arguably one of the most powerful weapons in the game. When you drill and slam at exactly the same time, you perform a very powerful charge attack that deals massive damage. There's even an upgrade to it which makes it the only weapon you can use. Apparently this is supposed to be a drawback.
  • Odd PC game Stratosphere, which revolved around floating rocks kitted out as flying battleships, featured the "auger" as a melee weapon. (Well, a ramming weapon, but it worked as long as you were close).
  • One of the Humongous Mecha in the Playstation 2 game Robot Alchemic Drive can switch out his hand with a drill, and several of the enemy types have similar armaments.
  • For one of her attacks in Eternal Fighter Zero, Akane Satomura forms a large drill over her entire arm by wrapping it with her own Prehensile Hair.
  • The arcade (and Dreamcast) game Tech Romancer/Kikaioh, a Fighting Game involving giant robots, has the Combining Mecha Twinzam V. In one of its two forms, it has drill arms that can even be used for a Finishing Move... in which the mecha pins its opponent, punches it repeatedly, then drills through its face.
  • In Touhou Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, Iku Nagae transforms her scarf into a lightning-imbued drill for some of her specials and spellcards. Tenshi Hinanai also fires rocks that are vaguely drill-like.
  • Red Faction lets you drive mine drillers. Subverted in that they're actually meant to carve through stone.
  • In Indiana Jones and The Emperor's Tomb, a boss battle has Indy pursued by a drill tank -- from the tank's POV, but that's not the only problem with that level.
  • Subverted in Worms: Not only is the drill usually relegated to digging as it's pathetically weak, it's a pneumatic drill. Still makes for for an awesome and silly finisher.
    • Situational. Given an opponent in a sufficiently deep hole, it is very possible to land multiple hits with the drill as they keep falling back into the hole while you dig, causing lots of damage.
  • X-COM : Terror From The Deep widened the operatives melee arsenal from the previous game (which was limited to the Stun Rod) with a series of oversized power drills. Very efficient at dispatching armored critters, too.
  • Mass Effect has got a laser drill on Therum, but it is a puzzle solution rather than a weapon.
  • Parin, the heroine from Gurumin a Monstrous Adventure carries a magical drill with her. Before she pulled out of a pedestal, it was containing the Sealed Evil in a Can. Stop me if you've heard this one before.
  • The Bangai-O's "Break" missiles, able to destroy two enemy shots to one Break, are little drill shots.
  • The Drill Robot from Gotcha Force, which has a total of seven drills on its body.
  • Drachma from Skies of Arcadia can get a drill attachment (among numerous other things) for his artificial arm.
  • Gilgamesh's Wave Motion Sword Ea (the Sword of Rupture) in Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero is ostensibly a sword, but designed specifically to resemble a subterranean tunnel drill. When charging up, it sucks in wind by rotating like a drill. The Wave Motion bit comes in when it rips apart spacetime.
    • A less flashy example is Servant Archer's frequent use of a modified duplicate of Caladbolg as a Trick Arrow. His 'Caladbolg II' is dubbed 'the Fake Spiral Sword.'
  • Ruru from Magical Battle Arena is this trope personified as a Magical Girl.
  • In Dwarf Fortress, you can wield trap components in adventure mode. Leading to the quote, "I CANNOT HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF ME DRILLING HOLES IN ELVES!"
    • Though it's not actually a mining drill (all mining is done with picks) but a screw pump.
  • Aero Fighters prominently features a drill in one of Keaton's endings. The scene is a bit difficult to forget.
  • Honda Tadakatsu in Sengoku Basara had his already Badass spear Tonbogiri turned into a drill spear.
  • Attentive players of Monster Hunter will notice that among the hundreds of weapons in the game are a couple of drill lances. No, not blunted practice lances—knight lances, the kind that fits over your arm, about as long as you are tall, and mostly made up of a giant spinning drill bit.
    • And if that wasn't enough drill for you, there's the Dragonator. If you need to kill an Elder Dragon fast, this is your weapon of choice, and it's usually mounted to vessels that go out hunting these beasts. Offline, one shows up when fighting the Ceadeus. Online, you get to use it against Jhen Mohran.
  • Mario gets a drill powerup in Super Mario Galaxy 2.
  • There was a video game adaptation of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Being Gurren Lagann, drills of course featured prominently.
  • Flay Gunnar of Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis, who gets attacks such as "Big Screw", "Screwdriver" (to name a couple) that turn his giant sword into a (eventually even more) massive drill.
  • Flash game Knightfall has you rescuing the Damsel in Distress by - quite literally - drilling to Hell from the cellar.
  • X-Men Vs. Street Fighter's final boss, Apocalypse had a move where his arm turned into a Giant Drill.
    • The ending for Shadow Lady, a dark, robotic version of Chun-Li, in Marvel vs. Capcom featured Jin getting mortally injured in a confrontation with Bison. Shadow (robotic Charlie) and Shadow Lady show up after Bison leaves, and revive him with "cybernation", turning Jin into a dark robotic version of himself... with a drill for an arm.
    • One of Tron Bonne's special attacks in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and later Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 involves turning her robot's hand into a drill.
    • Morgan has several attacks that involve changing her arms or legs into drills in nearly every fighting game she's appeared in.
  • A recent trailer for the upcoming Tales of Graces revealed that Pascal has a drill. Needless to say, that hit Memetic Mutation among Tales fans in sections.
  • In Tokimeki Memorial 2, drills are a trademark of Homura Akai, who's a fan of mecha anime. It's such a trademark of hers, that in a Shout-Out to Metal Gear Solid, the game's illustrator even made a joke illustration in one of the official illustrations books of Tokimemo 2 where Homura offers a drill to Revolver Ocelot (who's rather annoyed by the girl's antics, so much that Homura's best friend, clearly afraid, tries to restrain her) so he can use it as a replacement for his severed arm.
  • Command & Conquer : Tiberian Sun, subverts this with the Subterranean APC, as it cannot use its drill to attack anything (save for crushing infantry) and must rely on its transported infantry to cause damage.
    • Same with Metal Fatigue's Drilltruck which is only used to dig tunnels and capture Hedoth structures.
    • Ditto with the Zuul ships with Rip, Rend, and Radiant Bore sections in Sword of the Stars. These ships look like giant spinning drills in space. However, their only function is "digging" tunnels through node space and cannot be used as a weapon. Even colliding with another ship with the drill results in no more damage than from a normal collision.
  • Dink Smallwood, the titular hero enters a base that is producing killer drill-bots. One of which proceeds to kill the attending scientist, while saying "Don't be alarmed,this is only a drill."
  • Engineers in Battlefield Bad Company 2 can use their drill as a weapon. While its very damaging on vehicles, it can also be used on humans for a quick kill and an achievement.
  • Twisted Metal III introduced Mr. Slamm ripoff Auger, a big yellow construction vehicle with a big-ass drill on the front.
  • The National Power for the Vinci in Rise of Legends, Industrial Devastation, is basically a giant drill that comes from underground and devastates the area of effect.
  • A semi-obscure FPS for the PlayStation and 3DO called PO'ed had a big industrial drill as a usable weapon.
  • Dynasty Warriors 7 introduced the new character Deng Ai, who uses what can only be described as a drill lance as his primary weapon.
    • A STEAM-POWERED drill lance, if the steam coming out of it during some attacks is any indication...
  • In Tales of Vesperia one of Karol's weapons is the drill hammer, a hammer with a drill on the end.
  • In the Battletoads arcade game, Zitz's "Drilla Killa" finisher grinds enemies' faces into bloody paste.
  • The Roquefort Mine in Musashi: Samurai Legend hosts several drill-wielding enemies (from which you can learn a special technique) and the boss in the first part of the mine is a Drill Golem complete with two possible forms.
  • Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel has the main character wield a Morph Weapon (supposedly a builder's tool) which can be used as a sword, a scissor or... a drill. The first Supermove you learn with him has the drill grow to enormous proportions as he charges through the enemies. Taken to the extreme with his Ultra Supermove.
  • The flash-game Epic Battle Fantasy 3, which essentially RUNS on tropes, features several drills, inevitably escorted by Gurren Lagann references. Two of the player characters can learn a special move that summons a huge drill from below the ground, dealing enormous damage to enemies with buffed defense, and one late-game enemy is a Flying Drill-Bot. Seriously, that's its NAME.
  • In the physics-based flash-game Gravitee Wars, one of the unlockable weapons is a Drill Missile, which will dig all the way through a planet before exploding. Very handy for disposing of one of those annoying enemies who think they can hide on the other side.
  • Avoid being above a Sidewinder Tank when it surfaces.
  • Terraria has these available as endgame replacements to the pickaxe. They are also relatively viable as weapons against most enemies that will be encountered while mining.
    • And its most powerful version, the Hamdrax, consists in a spinning combination of Hammer, Drill and Axe, basically destroying everything and anything it touches in one hit.And dealing huge damage at close range.
  • The Darkness has The Dragon use a drill on your face as a form of interrogation/torture. Luckily being possessed by a timeless demon means you get better. From Shrote's dialogue, it seems this is a preferred method for him.


Web Comics

Web Original

  • DRILLBJORN!
  • A few non-super robot example exists in Chaos Fighters where drills can be used as weapons. Unlike most examples, rotating blades count as drills in-universe and it is possible to mount them on shoulders.
  • In the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, the villainous Subterranean uses a tank equipped with a tunneling drill to break into bank vaults, museums, and other secure locations from underneath.
  • Abel from the SCP Foundation used to conjure up all sorts of swords, axes, and other blades when he would fight. After spending some time with the SCP, he started using mostly drills and chainsaw-like weapons. When asked why, he said because the blades fascinated him.
  • The Pellucidarans faction from Fenspace are known to build tunneling vehicles that use massive drills to dig through the earth.

Western Animation

  • The Fire Nation use a giant drill as a siege weapon in Avatar: The Last Airbender. (episode title: "The Drill") Given that the country it's boring into is based on Imperial China, one might call this a real Chinese Fire Drill.
  • In the second Season Finale of Justice League, Green Lantern used his ring to make a drill when he didn't quite agree with a spaceship hull.
  • The Swat Kats regularly used drill-bit missiles, and used a Drill Tank, the Turbo Mole, in "Caverns of Horror".
  • In the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, once the Technodrome was moved to the center of the Earth, travel to and from the surface was accomplished via tunneling Transport Modules with big drills on the front. The second cartoon had Donatello create a similar vehicle for the turtles, with the "drill" made out of pure energy.
  • In Code Lyoko Season 4, the one-shot Digital Sea monster "Kalamar" attacks the Skidbladnir with a drill.
  • A few Transformers, including Menasor from Cybertron (not the combiner from G1), have these. More turn into drill tanks but lose the ability to use their drills offensively in robot form. Examples are Twin Twist and Nosecone from G1, and Drillhorn from Transformers Victory.
    • Animated Scrapper's main weapons are drills that unfold from his hands and Dirt Boss can fire a drill bit from his forehead that lets him control other bots' bodies.
    • In Beast Machines, Megatron uses Vehicon Mole drones to attack the Maximals underground. Mounts a chaingun as well, in case the earth-grinding blades weren't dangerous enough.
  • Ben 10 Alien Force has Dr. Animo who is using a literal drill to break down dimensional walls of his prison.
  • In the old show Superfriends, one of the villians had a drill... vehicle of some sort with two drills on opposite sides of the vehicle.
  • In Centurions, Jake Rockwell's Awesome Auger weapon system consists of a giant drill mounted to a tank-like body.
  • One of the Earth Corps scientists from Inhumanoids, Eddie "Auger" Augutter, has an auger attached to his exosuit.
  • Thundercats has a guy called Driller who's a living drill. We mostly works for Mumm-Ra for diamonds, to keep his drill sharp.


Real Life

  • Subverted by combat robotics. Drills turn out to be absolutely useless against a moving, armored target. On the other hand, many robots use motors scavenged from ordinary cordless drills.
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