To put it simply, this is the act of firing attacks from the head. Typically this appears as either a beam fired from the forehead, a weapon mounted atop the head/around the face or even turning the head itself into some kind of blaster. Psychic power blasts, such as those fired by comic book telepaths, are usually depicted this way.
A character who fires beams from their literal Third Eye does not qualify as this trope; that's Eye Beams. If it comes out of the mouth, it's a Breath Weapon.
Can sometimes overlap with Weaponized Headgear and Psi Blast.
Not to be confused with Boom, Headshot!, which deals with situations where a head is the target and not the cause of shooting.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Digimon Adventure 02: Nefertimon's "Cat's Eye Beam (or "Beam of Isis" as it is called in Digimon Frontier) is a twin beam attack fired from her head ornament.
- Dragon Ball: As a child, Chi-Chi wears a pink helmet which could fire laser beams.
- Gundam: A lot of Mechas have head-integrated vulcan guns, usually used as anti-personnel weapons.
- The titular ZZ Gundam of Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ has both the vulcans and a Wave-Motion Gun mounted in its forehead, but firing it drains nearly all of its power.
- The Wodom mobile suit seen in ∀ Gundam has a single massive weapons platform for a head, containing not just vulcans but also racks for two different kinds of missile and a Wave-Motion Gun of its own.
- Guyver:
- This is one of the (many) weapons granted by the eponymous suit of bio-armour. Specifically a small laser emitter mounted roughly in the forehead. At the end of the day its probalby one of the weaker weapons but benefits from being more precise and faster firing than something like the Pressure Cannon and Mega Smasher.
- The Sonic Buster overlaps with this trope and Breath Weapon, given its sound-based nature and the emitters being mounted roughly where the Guyver's mouth would be normally.
- Medabots:
- Metabee has a pair of missile launchers modeled after a beetle's horn on his head.
- Arcbeetle has a head-mounted cannon called Prominence.
- "Cyandog Bites Back" has Churlybear, a Medabot who can fire an energy projectile from its face. Said projectile is even designed to look like Churlybear's face.
- Naruto: Pain's Asura Path can turn parts of its body into weapons, including a laser cannon inside of its skull.
- One Piece: Urban's Devil Fruit ability allows him to transform parts of his body into cannons, he can be seen transforming his head into a cannon when Saturn orders the Marines to shoot Bonney.
- Transformers: Robots in Disguise:
- One of Megatron's attacks is the "Cutter Beam", a series of vertical, arc-shaped energy blasts fired from the crest atop his head.
- In Super Mode, Optimus Prime has small lasers on each side of his face.
Comic Books
- Empowered: Heavy Artillery has a large cannon for a head.
- Giantkiller: Jack can fire energy blasts from his forehead.
- Legion of Super-Heroes: Valdius of the Fatal Five can fire electric bolts from his exposed brain.
- Marvel Universe:
- M.O.D.O.K. wears a headband which allows him to focus his mental powers into devastating energy beams.
- The Defenders: The villain Ruby Thursday had her head replaced with a red mass of "organic circuitry". The spherical mass can alter its shape so she can form tentacles or fire projectiles and energy blasts. She can also cause her head to explode and reform; she once generates an explosion so powerful that it knocks out The Incredible Hulk.
- The Inhumans: Black Bolt can fire energy beams from the antenna on his mask.
- Iron Man: Unicorn wears a helmet that fires laser beams.
- The Vision can fire solar beams from his eyes or the gem on his forehead.
Films — Animation
- The Incredibles 1: Dynaguy, one of the heroes from the Golden Age of Supers, could fire Disintegrator Rays from his forehead.
- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water:
- Bubbles can fire red laser beams from the blowhole on his head.
- SpongeBob's superhero form comes with a mask that can fire bubbles from the bubble blower stick mounted on it.
Films — Live-Action
- Austin Powers: In the first movie, Dr. Evil wanted sharks with laser guns attached to their heads in his lair. This request was denied due to sharks becoming an endangered species but he gets them in third movie courtesy of his son Scott.
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Doomsday combines energy coming from both his eyes and mouth into one powerful blast. This causes an epic Beam-O-War between the monster and Superman, who's no match with his own Eye Beams. At their maximum range, Doomsday's blasts can reach all the way to outer space.
- Dark City (1998): In the climax, John Murdoch discovers he has the Strangers' power of "tuning" (telekinesis), which manifests as a rippling translucent beam from his forehead. When he finally gains conscious control over his tuning in the film's climax, John destroys the Strangers' underground lair with multiple mental blasts, and engages Mr. Book in a Beam-O-War.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- The Destroyer from Thor (2011) is an Asgardian Animated Armor that can fire energy blasts out of its face.
- Like his comic counterpart, Vision can fire energy blasts from his forehead (though he seems to lack his comic counterparts Eye Beams). This time, the source of the blasts is the Mind Stone.
- In Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Quantum Realm freedom fighter Xolum has just a glowing forward-facing cylinder for a head, so it's no surprise this is what it does.
- Transformers: Age of Extinction: Lockdown can transform his entire head into a gun powerful enough to paralyze Optimus Prime.
- X-Men: Days of Future Past: The future Sentinels have a laser gun stored inside their heads. When they open their faces, they can fire a beam of concentrated energy to incinerate their foes.
Gamebooks
- Way of the Tiger: You have to fight a barbarian with a magical headband that he can use to fire energy bolts at you with.
Literature
- In "Arm of the Law" by Harry Harrison, a police robot has a gun installed in its head, much like in The Stainless Steel Rat below (also by Harrison). Unlike the below example, headache obviously isn't an issue, and aiming is simpler that way.
- The Diamond Age: Skullguns, guns embedded in the skull.
- The Stainless Steel Rat: One book in the series had Jim infiltrate an alien alliance in a mechanical suit which had a large recoilless gun installed in the head. After a single shot, Jim takes a big dose of headache pills and decides the recoilless part is somewhat exaggerated.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who:
- The Cybermen in "Revenge of the Cybermen" uniquely have guns mounted in their foreheads.
- The Mondas-style Cybermen in "The Doctor Falls" fire an energy beam from the lamp attached to the top of their head.
- The Orville: In the two-part episode "Identity", we learn that robotic crew member Isaac, as well as his home race, the Kaylons, are now xenophobic and are bent on conquering the galaxy to curb what they see as illogical species waging war and destruction, much like their precursors did. What reveals them to be a very real threat is the fact that their heads open up, and what normally appears to be their "eyes" contain energy pulse weapons.
- Power Rangers/Super Sentai:
- Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger/Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Daizyuzin/Megazord has an energy cannon atop its head. Also, King Sphinx could fire energy beams from the cobra statue on his Egyptian headdress.
- Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger: As Necronomica/Onihime, Toxica/TsueTsue can fire green energy blasts from the gem on her forehead.
- Power Rangers: Dino Thunder: Mesogog can fire a psionic beam from his forehead which he can use to immobilize or torture people.
- The Ultra Series has numerous examples, such as Ultraseven, who kickstarted the trend with his forehead beam called the Emerium Ray. Other Ultras such as Ultraman Ace, Ultraman Taro and Ultraman Leo have displayed this ability as well; basically, if an Ultra has a gem embedded in their forehead, it's definitely capable of ejecting an energy blast.
Toys
- The Kanohi Crast, Mask of Repulsion in BIONICLE, generates a force blast that can blow away targets. Krika used his mask to repel himself off the ground as a form of flying.
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: One of the MI Mecha's attacks is firing a laser blast from its head that sweeps across the area.
- Cho Aniki: Adon and Samson are grinning, bald, scantily clad body builders with holes on the top of their heads that they fire beams out of. In the first game they serve as an Attack Drone power up.
- Cuphead: The cup protagonists fire the liquid out of the tops of their heads as their first Limit Break ability.
- Fallout 4's Assaultron fights with a very destructive laser blast from their face.
- Final Fantasy XIII: Whenever the fal'Cie Barthandelus performs his Thanatosian Laughter or Thanatosian Smile attacks, his face splits open to reveal a few dozen concealed laser cannons which open fire all at once.
- Killer Instinct has Fulgore, whose Finishing Move has his head transform into a turret and blast the enemy with bullets.
- Library of Ruina has one later opponent called Nemo. Since his head is a rectangular screen, his signature attack named "Energy Beam" works this way.
- Marvel vs. Capcom 3: M.O.D.O.K.'s Psionic Blaster is a beam of telepathic energy fired from his forehead.
- Psychonauts: The PSI-Blast move involves shooting psychic blasts from one's head by focusing on something the user really wants to destroy.
- Makron, the final boss of Quake II has a railgun for his head.
- Super Mario 3D World: Mario can wear the Cannon Box item on his head to shoot projectiles at enemies.
- Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict has Devastation, whose Adrenaline combo "Head Turret" turns her head into a turret which automatically shoots any enemy on sight with laser blasts.
Webcomics
- Schlock Mercenary: At one point, Kevyn Andreyasn got some emergency "upgrades" courtesy of some very illegal soldier-boost nanites (it was that or die). A few strips later, we learn that one of those upgrades was mounting a gun inside his skull
. After the dust has settled, Kevyn plans to essentially exile himself for being a walking weapon, and so when the upgrades are reversed he rejoices at no longer having a crosshair trained on whatever or whoever he's looking at.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Combustion Man from Avatar: The Last Airbender can fire explosive blasts from his forehead, using the Third Eye tattoo on his forehead as a focus.
- The Legend of Korra features a firebender named P'Li who can fire combustive blasts in an identical way, with the additional ability to control the trajectory of the blasts.
- Ben 10:
- Ben 10:
- Synaptak of the Galactic Enforcers is an alien with Psychic Powers. One of his moves is firing beams of telekinetic energy from his brain-like head.
- "The Big Tick" has an alien called the Great One, a giant, parasitic alien that feeds on a planet's life force. Two of its worshipers have devices on their foreheads that fire laser beams.
- Ben 10: Alien Force: One of Ben's new alien forms is Brainstorm, a crab-like alien that can fire electric bolts from his brain by opening up the exoskeleton plates on his skull.
- Ben 10:
- Dexter's Laboratory: In the episode "Rushmore Rumble", Dexter and Mandark battle each other via statues of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington they respectively brought to life. One of the features Dexter installed in Lincoln's statue is a missile launcher in his top hat.
- Justice League: The source of Star Sapphire's powers is the gemstone she wears on her forehead. Its main application is firing beams of concentrated energy, though it has also been shown to create force fields and move far away objects.
- Looney Tunes:
- Looney Tunes: "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" has the villain Flattop, who launches small airplanes from his head to attack Duck Twacy (flattop being a slang term for an aircraft carrier).
- Loonatics Unleashed: Lexi Bunny can fire "psi-balls" from the top of her head. In the atmosphere or vacuum of space, this power usually manifests as an explosive beam of pink energy, but underwater, the Brain Blast disperses into a concussive wave attack, which unfortunately runs the risks of hurting Lexi herself.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Any time a unicorn or alicorn fires a magic blast from their forehead horn, it counts.
- Tirek often fires blasts from a ball of energy between his bovine horns.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998): In "Mr. Mojo's Rising", Mojo tricks the professor into granting him superpowers identical to the girls. However, Mojo also gets the ability to fire a powerful beam of energy from his exposed brain, a power none of the girls have.
- Stroker and Hoop: In the episode "Just Voodoo It (aka, For Whom The Bear Tolls)", before rushing in to face a horde of zombies, Double-Wide wire's C.A.R.R.'s AI to a shotgun mounted on a helmet that he wears into the fray. When C.A.R.R. starts firing the gun, however, Double-Wide remembers guns have kickback.
- Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!: The antenna on the Super Robot's head can fire energy blasts.
- Sym-Bionic Titan: Ilana's Corus armor comes with a head-mounted laser.
- X-Men: The Animated Series: Professor X's powers are represented by beams of light that emanate from the telepath's forehead and connect him to his target.
