There Was a Door



""That's just like Clark. Perfectly serviceable door, and he makes a hole in the wall.""

- Batman, Justice League Abridged

Some people just don't feel the need to follow certain rules. Like, using a door to enter a room. Instead, they prefer to simply burst through a wall or window in a truly dramatic fashion, even if it makes no sense or it would have been easier to go the conventional way. This is especially common when someone shoots through a door despite the considerable time and ammo this would take in Real Life. Use of this Trope may be an indicator that the buster is really a Ted Baxter and/or not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

Also often happens in the form of a fake out, where the audience is led to believe someone will enter through the door when the camera focuses on it, only to have them burst through the wall somewhere on either side instead.

Frequently lampshaded by someone shouting out the trope name, especially the Deadpan Snarker or the disgruntled owner of the building. Also, keep in mind the old joke about the stupid burglar: he breaks two windows, one to get in, and one to get out. The gag can run loose if the person goes through a different place every time, or does it just as the hole is being repaired, much to the frustration of the owner.

Oftentimes this is committed because they forgot that We Have the Keys. See also Efficient Displacement (Man Shaped Hole), Bullethole Door, Dungeon Bypass, Super Window Jump, Enter Stage Window and The Exit Is That Way. Compare Barrier-Busting Blow.

Advertising
"Dane: BEEP drinking out of him; if that was me, I'd be like, "You fix that BEEPing wall before my dad gets home from work! He's gonna beat me with a belt; he's not gonna believe a talking bowl of fruit punch came in here.""
 * The Kool-Aid Man. OH YEAAAAHHHH!!!
 * Referenced in the first episode of Family Guy, and then parodied in several later episodes. In "Peterotica," a car crashes through the wall of Kool-Aid Man's house, and he remarks "Wow! You know, from the other side, that's kind of annoying." When Peter crashes through the wall again, after Kool-Aid has just finished repairing it, he shouts "Oh, come on!!" Also in the courtroom, where the courtroom audience goes "Oh, NO!" and the Koolaid Man comes crashing through the wall, "OH YEAH!" When the Koolaid Man realizes where he is, he backs out in embarassment. The Judge tells everybody to stop doing that so that the damn Kool-Aid Man doesn't keep busting through the wall.
 * Also done in Robot Chicken multiple times in one episode. Interestingly, the protagonists of the scenes (who are the same two guys) are intentionally invoking Kool-Aid man even after witnessing his reign of terror.
 * Dane Cook had a field day with this.


 * As The Critic's awful student film proved, the Kool-Aid Man breaking through a wall is highly symbolic of... um, something. We're not sure what. Just make sure you play O Fortuna in the background.
 * Yo mama is so fat, when people yell Kool-Aid, the bitch comes crashing through the wall.
 * Linkara grows increasingly annoyed with this over the course of Adventures of the Kool-Aid Man #1.
 * *CRASH* "I'm not gonna pay a lot for this muffler!"
 * Done in this Old Spice Odor Blocker Body Wash commercial.
 * The ultimate example is certainly this commercial for Levi Jeans. Don't ask what it has to do exactly with jeans, though.
 * Later parodied in this Lilt ad.
 * One of the first Three Musketeers commercials (the ones with the eponymous badass trio) had two musketeers burst through the stone wall of the Princess' cell... while the third walked through the door.
 * A Whiskas cat treats commercial has the cat bursting through the wall (which has several already patched holes in it) to get to the bag of treats.
 * William Shatner does it by carving a Man Shaped Hole with a laser into a guy's living room in order to save him money on hotel discounts from his bearded Evil Twin.

Anime & Manga
"Nabiki: (sarcastic) Hey, Kunō-baby, the door... Kunō: Be silent, woman!"
 * One Piece
 * Garp bursts through a wall to beat Luffy's head. When his men ask him why he didn't use the door, Garp claims that his way was cooler.
 * Both Gadetsu and Admiral Garp are prone to this, though Garp is at least polite enough to repair the hole later.
 * The end of chapter 346. Zoro cuts through a door while Luffy kicks through a wall.
 * In the Fruits Basket anime it become a Running Gag that people keep destroying Harem Nanny Shigure's house, and he says this line at least once when someone bursts through the screen. In Shigure's case, he's probably good-naturedly remarking on that very fact. Kagura is later shown spending most of the night trying (and failing) to fix the screen after she wrecks it even more than usual.
 * Ranma ½
 * Shampoo tends to burst through walls in her appearances. When asked why she doesn't use the door, she replies "Door take too long!" From observation, it appears that whenever she's chasing someone (usually Ranma), she focuses on the chase to the exclusion of the building's floorplan. If there happens to be a door in her way, she'll open it, but she won't take an alternate route just because there's a wall in her way. On at least one occasion, she is seen to exit the room by smashing a new hole in the wall, right next to the one she made coming in. Takahashi must love this trope.
 * Ryû Kumon, from the late manga, also walks through walls (he's just that strong) in order to intimidate people. Worse, he broke through an entire wing of walls at Fûrinkan High School, from the ground floor and up to the third floor, completely ignoring the stairs and the doors. Ranma's classmates even felt the tremors and thought it was an earthquake.
 * From the first movie, after Kunō thrusts his way into the living room with his wooden sword:

"Yuki: Learn how to open a door, you damn brat, I've just moved in here and you're already wrecking the place!"
 * Pantyhose Tarō also does this a lot in monster form -- but then again, he doesn't fit the door.
 * Edo Phoenix of Yu-Gi-Oh GX has a taste for dramatic entrances, i.e. skyboarding into school, jumping from a helicopter through a closed skylight. Would it have been such a tragedy to wait for the chopper to land?
 * Shuichi Shindo of Gravitation seems to lose his ability to use doors whenever he is excited. This does not please Yuki. Nor is Tohma happy at the damages to his property when an exuberant Shuichi breaks down a wall to deliver his complete album. Yuki lampshades this.

"Loly: How'd you get in here!? Grimmjow: How? Through the wall, of course."
 * After Vanilla Ice is introduced in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, he uses the power of his Stand to phase a hole into the wall when he goes to attack Jotaro's party. Dio's response: "At least open the door when you leave..."
 * In Baccano, Nice blows up the wall of a warehouse when coming to Jacuzzi's rescue. "But Nice, the entrance was right there, why did you blow up the wall?" "Why did she blow up the wall? What kind of stupid question is that? Boss likes blowing things up, so she blew up the wall!"
 * Princess Tutu contains a scene where Fakir dramatically crashes through a window to gain entrance to a building... even though both Mytho and Tutu were able to easily enter using the door.
 * Hunter X Hunter. The two main heroes evade an enemy in a subversion. They kick through wall after wall...then double back one room and simply leave by the front door. It works.
 * Bleach
 * The enemy bases tend to have maze-like layouts, so most travel is done by either smashing through walls or jumping over them. This trend reaches its climax during the second Ichigo vs. Ulquiorra battle, where four characters separately bust into the same room through the floor, the inside wall, the outside wall, and from another dimension. (That last one might technically count as a door, since it can be opened and closed without inflicting structural damage).
 * The design of one Hueco Mundo tower was openly mocked in an omake. The character explaining it claimed that the building was designed without stairs and multiple heavy pillars to allow people to smash through the floors without completely destroying the building.
 * Grimmjow's epic save of Orihime. To stress just how epically unnecessary this was, Grimmjow blew a hole in the wall when the door, which was destroyed by Loly and Menoly when they entered, was literally three feet away. He even acknowledges the door was open, but says he came through the wall because the door was "busted".

"Kageyama: Has this guy never heard of a door?"
 * Kenpachi loves this too, having busted through several walls and even a ceiling to get to where he needs to be. If he didn't, he might never get to where he's going.
 * Yammy does this so often there's a listing on his character page calling him Kool-Aid Man.
 * In the Mai-HiME manga, Mai and Mikoto smash into Natsuki's apartment through the window to rescue Tate. Natsuki's response? "You guys are going to owe me for that window. Why didn't you use the DOOR?" Apparently window-smashing is Mikoto's stock in trade.
 * In the second episode of Arcade Gamer Fubuki, Mr. Mystery jumps through Fubuki's window to give her a card. He then jumps out another window to make his exit. Umm...
 * Mr. Yotsuya of Maison Ikkoku frequently uses a log to break through the wall between his apartment and Godai's.
 * The Raikage in Naruto takes "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line" to a new and completely awesome extreme, starting with his own office window. Judging from his assistant's response, he apparently does this a lot. Whether it be a wall, a person, a table,, and even the ground, god help whatever happens to be between the Raikage and his goal, because by the time he gets there, it no longer exists. At one point he does it to a wall in a room that was being used for a diplomatic meeting. Granted, he was in a hurry. It has now become a Running Gag for the Raikage to break a wall and exit, after which Darui apologizes for it and remarks to C that he will just use the door.
 * Sōsuke from Full Metal Panic! tends to do this. In one instance, he ends up blasting a hole in the wall to get to the classroom next door... Instead of, you know, using the door. When asked why he responds that it's more efficient this way, which from his point of view is entirely true: On an actual battlefield, using the door is generally a very poor idea since they're natural chokepoints.
 * Fairy Tail
 * Natsu does this often, though to be fair it's usually when he's looking for an enemy. Kageyama lampshaded Natsu's searching method during the Lullaby arc.

"Piedmon: I must stop this, it costs me a fortune in new doors!"
 * would also apply. He's so accident prone that he
 * Fullmetal Alchemist
 * The Crimson Alchemist prefers blowing walls up as opposed to opening doors.
 * Ed and his teacher Izumi might count as an inversion; on several occasions they transmute doors on walls that didn't already have them, so they can enter through said doors rather than smashing the wall.
 * Sloth plays it straight during his grand entrance in the final arc.
 * Code Geass R2 has a magnificent example: when, Lelouch responds by pointing skyward. Seconds later, Suzaku crashes through the ceiling with the Lancelot, Dual-Wielding VARIS rifles and announcing that he "will not tolerate any insolence towards His Majesty!"
 * Parodied in Axis Powers Hetalia. America (as Santa Claus) smashes through a window to get into a little boy's room. Apparently he just got back from Hollywood.
 * Piedmon from Digimon Adventure tears through several walls when hunting down the Digidestined through his palace. Likely at least some of them is likely because it's a quicker path. But in the end, when chasing TK and Kari, the only two he hasn't captured, he comes across the door to the outside were they'd be trapped. Instead of opening the door, he decides to blow it up to make a dramatic entrance. Large Ham that he is, he lampshades this:


 * In Gunsmith Cats, Bean Bandit hunts down some drugrunners after they shoot him in the forehead. They lock him in a room with an impenetrable door. After gloating about it, the boss's #2 gets promptly flattened by the wall Bean cut through with his combat knife.
 * Hatenkou Yuugi plays with this. When asked how he got in, Shogetsu replied, "Through the door, of course." His servant adds that it took a while, since it was a heavy door (while holding what was left of it).
 * In Tiger and Bunny, Kotetsu has a known habit of taking the most direct route in or out of a dangerous situation -- walls or windows be damned. Ben chides him for it in the first episode, reminding him that entering monorails through the front window will just up the premium on his Hero Insurance.
 * Rebecca Reed in Shakugan no Shana tends to blast through doors rather than opening them. Even in her own headquarters.

Comedy
"''I said, "Just take it easy! Don't panic. Just look around, and figure out where the back door is." She said, "I already looked, and there ain't none!" I said, "Reckon where do they want one?""
 * Musician Wendy Bagnell's "Here Come the Rattlesnakes" features a hypothetical example. Once, when performing at what turned out to be a church of snake-handlers, he relates his and his backup singer's reactions when the eponymous reptiles are produced:

Comic Books
"Kitty Pryde: (exasperated) Classic X-Men style, guys: Never use a door when you can make one of your own!"
 * X-Men
 * In one of the X-Babies appearances (perhaps Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem), there's a sequence where -- of course -- the door is not used.

"Danger: I'm assuming that Breakworld technology never evolved doorknobs?"
 * Note that the above remark is from someone whose power allows her to walk through walls. On that note, while Kitty does phase through walls, she at least has the courtesy to phase through the door.
 * From Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run, Danger has teamed up with Sufficiently Advanced Alien Ord of the Breakworld to invade the X-Mansion (again). The superstrong and mildly berserk Ord is bashing through everything in his path, ripping doors off their hinges and generally making a mess. To be fair, what do you expect from a place called Breakworld?

"Reed: Ever heard of a door, jackass? Ben: Okay, now I feel stupid."
 * In an issue, the X-Men are imprisoned in Murderworld. Cyclops faces three doors, and Arcade tells him one of them leads to life, the two others lead to death. Actually the three of them lead to death, and the only possible issue was blasting the side wall. Of course Cyclops does it.
 * Heck, the X-Men were doing this as far back as the fifth issue. Professor Xavier has been depowered, so the X-Men have to break him into his own house to get him some rest. Cyclops blasts the front door despite the fact that they key was right there.
 * Rorschach in the Watchmen comic does use doors. They're just usually locked. The sequence of events goes something like this: Rorschach breaks into his old partner Dan Dreiberg's apartment by smashing the lock. Dan has the lock replaced. Rorschach breaks the new one effortlessly. Dan has the lock replaced a second time. Then the police try to break in, and the lock holds, but the door itself smashes to pieces. But really the lock makers were asking for this. After all their company is called Gordian Locks.
 * The Juggernaut is fond of this means of travel, particularly in X3. Well, he was chasing Shadowcat, and HE'S THE JUGGERNAUT, BITCH, so... Then again, what good are doors for a person larger than the door frame?
 * In an issue of Young Justice, former heroine Cissie King-Jones has been captured at her school. As Red Tornado breaks down the wall, and Wonder Girl smashes through the window, she says "We have doors here, you know! Only superheroes could turn entering a room into a 'who is muy macho?' competition!"
 * Hulk SMASH!
 * During Peter David's run on the Hulk, when he had the brains of Banner in the Hulk's body, he decides to sneak out the back way by creating a back way. Subverted in a later punch up with Captain America, where despite being inside a fragile house, nothing is damaged. He's thrown cleanly out the front door thanks to Cap's judo skills.
 * Broken subversion in Earth X: Bruce Banner (currently separated from the Hulk) appears to be telling Hulk to be careful with Dr. Strange's walls. But he tells Hulk "We don't need to use a door here", apparently a typo for "We need to use a door" or "We don't need to make a door". Hulk use door anyway.
 * Asterix
 * Obélix does use the door. Of course, by "use the door", we mean "punch the door out of its frame, then trample whoever was behind it."
 * In the animated version of Asterix meets Cleopatra, a soldier tries to prevent this by rolling a large stone in front of the door -- only to have Obelix crash through the wall right next to it.
 * He also resizes the door every now and then. And sometimes he doesn't bother punching the door -- just walking through it as if it weren't there. He once ripped open a cell door just with a belly push.
 * He often tries to knock, but even a gentle tap with his superhuman strength is enough to shatter stone, so it doesn't do much good.
 * Played with in Mortadelo Y Filemon: The two protagonists find themselves in a cell with a steel door. Filemon starts making a hole in the wall, all the while brushing off Mortadelo who's trying to tell him something. When, after considerable time, he finally breaks through the wall, he finds Mortadelo there waiting for him -- it turns out that the bad guys forgot to lock the door...
 * Lampshaded in an issue of The Avengers, where the team helps Jean Grey get back into her old life after being replaced by the Phoenix for so long. They take her to parents' house but they weren't home, so Hercules breaks down the door and is chewed out by Jean, who points out that there was a key beneath a paving stone meant for her and her sister. Captain America assures her they'll write her parents a check.
 * Batman never uses a door if a window will suffice. Why? Because he's the goddamn Batman.
 * Superman: Super strong, super fast, can fly, is invincible, has X-ray vision, heat vision, can time travel, can't work a doorknob.
 * He does it so often, in fact, that Jimmy once caught him with the "bucket over the door" gag by putting the bucket over a random spot in the wall, which Supes of course broke right through.
 * Of course, this is nothing out of the ordinary, considering that Superman is a dick.
 * For example, this page from Action Comics #266.
 * And let's not forget our friend, Doomsday. He pretty much won't go anywhere, unless there's something in his way to smash to pieces. Granted he's basically violence incarnate, so he may just smash stuff because he likes to.
 * Fantastic Four
 * This is a common problem for Ben Grimm in most universes, due to being a giant rock-man. One comic showed him involuntarily smashing through a wall and muttering, "Why must they build doorways so narrow?"
 * In an Ultimate Fantastic Four/Marvel Zombies crossover, Ultimate Reed Richards finds himself trapped in the Marvel Zombie universe with Magneto and a handful of human survivors. They are found by the rest of the Ultimate Fantastic Four and hurry to escape the building. Ben heroically breaks down a wall so they can get out and Reed points out that the door was right there.

"Dr. Doom: The DOOR? Like a PEASANT?"
 * In the Marvel Adventures take on the Infinity Gauntlet story, Dr. Doom's idea of a casual entrance involves blowing up a wall of the Baxter Building and telling all the heroes present to "Behold the grim visage of DOOM!" When Spider-Man points out that most normal people would use the door, Doom simply brushes off such methods as beneath him.


 * Sin City: In his first appearance, Marv invokes this trope and subverts it... by running straight through a door instead of the wall.

Fan Works
"Bando: Thanks for the new arm and leg, but I gotta run! (jumps out a third story window) Scientist inside building: You could have used the door, asshole."
 * Lampshaded in the Elfen Lied Abridged Series:

"Garrus Vakarian: I've yet to encounter a potentially dangerous situation that can't be defused by smashing through a wall."
 * In Renegade, "Spectre" Garrus Vakarian demonstrates his disdain for the traditional methods of entry by repeatedly knocking down walls with a cargo hauler to surprise groups of mercenaries. In his own words:


 * This backfires a bit when {{spoiler|He re