Surprise Slide Staircase



This a classic gag often seen in silent films and cartoons: a staircase with hinged, pivoting, or collapsible steps turns into a steep ramp or slide. Often used in sequences where a character climbs the Stairway to Heaven, only to be turned away at the Pearly Gates and sent whizzing down to Hell (compare with Hellevator).

Advertising

 * In the "Dancer" commercial for Pop-Tarts, the boy with the oversized head is so eager to get to the toaster pastries when they emerge from the toaster that he flips a switch to turn the stairs into a slide.

Film

 * The Buster Keaton short "The Haunted House." Appears as a Booby Trap and in the Stairway to Heaven variant.
 * James Bond:
 * A View to a Kill, Max Zorin (played by Christopher Walken) does this to a stockholder who declines to take part in his plan to destroy Silicon Valley. It's worth mentioning that this staircase leads to the open door of an airship.
 * The Man with the Golden Gun. Scaramanga has one of these in his lair. In the opening segment he uses it to slide down and grab his golden gun to kill an assassin.
 * Near the end of The Care Bears Movie, Swift Heart and Bedtime flip the staircase to slide mode to speed up a pair of orphan children and then flip it back to slow down an older boy chasing them.

Literature

 * In the Harry Potter series, a staircase in Gryffindor House does this to prevent boys from entering the girls' dormitories. The boys' stairs have no such trap.
 * In the final battle of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hermione turns a staircase in a Hogwarts secret passage into a getaway slide to escape from a pair of Death Eaters. Of course, the Death Eaters simply go sliding down after them, so she turns the tapestry covering the entrance at the bottom to stone. CRUNCH.
 * The Hand of Thrawn duology has this built into secret passages in Thrawn's fortress, which causes considerable inconvenience to Luke and Mara.

Tabletop Games

 * Dungeons and Dragons.
 * Dragonlance module DL12 Dragons of Faith. One of the traps in Chafka's Tower is of this type.
 * The Judges Guild modules The Caverns of Thracia and Verbosh each have one of these.
 * Module I2 Tomb of the Lizard King had one of these. Anyone who fell victim to it would slide down into a flaming pit that would kill anyone without fire resistance.
 * Module A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity. The last room of the dungeon (where the Boss Battle takes place) has a long descending stair into the center of the room. If the PCs don't detect and disarm the trap, the stairs will become a slide and the party will slip down it into the room, automatically losing surprise and initiative for the first round of combat.
 * The 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide mentioned a sliding staircase trap as a possible dungeon feature.
 * Flying Buffalo's Grimtooth's Traps supplement. The "Slider Spiker" trap uses this trick.
 * Role Master Arms Companion. One of these is given as a "Maiming" type trap.

Video Games

 * In Chrono Trigger, Crono, Lucca, and Frog can encounter one in a dungeon located underneath a chapel. There are two stairways to choose from, but the first one taken will always become this, forcing you to go all the way around to get back to the other.
 * A couple of times in the Super Mario Bros. series you have to ascend a flight of stairs within a time limit, or they'll turn into a ramp and return you to the bottom.
 * Wario Land: Shake It! has switchable stair/ramps that can be used to build up momentum.
 * Occurs briefly in Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy ("Escape from Cloud City" level) and Lego Indiana Jones ("Well of Souls" level).
 * Actually, Lego Star Wars contains several of these, in the form of slides that the player must turn into stairs (or build stairs on top of) in order to pass
 * One of those things are present in That One Level in Loco Roco 2.
 * The "Lonesome Ghosts" level of Mickey Mania has a bunch of these.
 * Dragon's Lair has one of these.
 * The Lode Runner-clone Wizard uses this as a standard level design mechanic.
 * Near the end of Psychonauts, you run into one of these, with the switch being manned by a bird.

Western Animation

 * Superfriends (1973) episode "The Baffles Puzzle". Wonder Woman is walking down a staircase leading underground when the stairs fold and she slides to the bottom. Watch it here
 * Done at least once in Scooby Doo, though I couldn't tell you the episode(s).
 * Occurred in the Scooby Doo Where Are You! episode "Never Ape An Ape Man". Fred has the rest of the gang run up some stairs while the Ape Man chases them. When the gang reaches the top Fred presses a button, the stairs fold down and the Ape Man slides down them and into a trap.
 * The Simpsons:
 * "Bart Gets Hit By A Car": Bart's escalator to Heaven turns into a slide to Hell after he spits over the side.
 * Played with in the "Bart Simpson's Dracula" segment of "Treehouse of Horror IV." In this case the "surprise" slide actually has a switch that must be pressed from the top of the stairs. Even though Bart realizes that pressing it would be a terrible idea (since the vampiric Mr. Burns has just woken up and the staircase is the only way away from him), he can't resist the urge to press it anyway.
 * Futurama:
 * Played straight in the episode, "Hell is Other Robots", when Fry and Leela are sent down a chute onto a surprise slide.