why the dad didn't put up a fight

Never thought about that. Good job

Or the less exciting version could be her adrenaline lol.
You know, the theory that you have like.. super strength when you're really scared.

I think the dad didn't put up a fight because that's how it was written in the script.

Having blood flow to the brain instantaneously cut off would be part of it... plus having his windpipe either cut or broken would be another part of it. But this is a movie... not real life.

Dwacon
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Good interpretation, but no matter how much heavier than you the person you're attacking is, when someone grabs you by the neck with a hefty wire, very suddenly, YOU try fighting back, and we'll see what happens. Sure it's easy to think in theory, that he should have been able to fight back. But he wasn't expecting it, and she was pulling pretty hard, on a body part that if suffocated, leaves you unable to breathe or even think for that matter. She caught him so off guard and in such a sensitive area, I really don't think it would have been that easy for him to fight back.

The last two posters were mostly correct.
Dot stood 5'7" and so had some height to begin with in quickly slipping the piano wire around Nina's dad's neck.

But two factors made it possible.
One, Dot had the element of surprise and speed. She also applied her whole strength immediately and quickly.
Two, the BIG difference was that she was using PIANO wire, not merely rope, string, cloth, for that matter. PIANO wire is extremely effective, deadly, and lethal in a garroting. It's almost like using a knife. Before the dad knew it, the wire was already cutting through his neck to cut off and possible partially sever his windpipe and arteries.
Dot was applying her full strength and don't underestimate the strength of a 17-year old teenager, even if she is a female.

The dad might have had a chance to escape had Dot used a rope or cloth, plus she was not trained in garroting assassination. From what I've read, an expert trained in commando assassination techniques knows how to use a knotted rope to effect a strangulation so fast that the victim, no matter how big or strong, cannot react fast enough.

Once that piano wire cut through the windpipe & possibly the carotid or jugular, there isn't much fight left. Besides, this was not some well-conditioned soldier or experienced fighter that knows he can use his legs or torso to "throw" his body weight around and perhaps get ahold of his attacker -- though you'd better move FAST! He was some sissy office worker. As long as Dot kept her weight centered on him and didn't get thrown to either side, he was toast.

Most of the commenters here seem to have gotten all their commando skills from TV & the movies.

Talk to someone who's been through Special Forces or SEAL training, where you have to work both ends of this fight (though without the sharp wire).

I never really read that scene as him "not putting up a fight," personally. I always thought it was more the fact that Dot caught him completely off guard, and he didn't have a chance to fight. When you have a piano wire pulled against your neck and digging into your trachea, you're not going to be able to fight because oxygen is being cut off to your brain in a matter of seconds. I suppose you could look at it as him surrendering himself to punishment for what he'd done to his daughter, but from a scientific standpoint, I just always thought he didn't fight it because he couldn't.