Blindfolded Trip

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A point in a story where a character is blindfolded and taken somewhere.

A blindfold is not even necessary. Being shoved and driven somewhere in a locked car truck is pretty much blindfolded, for all intents and purposes - so long as the protagonist doesn't know where they are being taken.

Sometimes used in initiation ceremonies. Sometimes used in trust-building exercises. Sometimes used to hide the location of where a prisoner is being taken. Sometimes a character will sit down and try to figure out where they were taken by other senses than their vision.

Examples of Blindfolded Trip include:

Comic Books

• Batman usually does this when bringing visitors to the Batcave.
• Buck Danny was once captured by Lady X's goons and driven into her headquarters that way.

Fan Works

• In Winter War, this is how Grimmjow is brought to the temporary headquarters of La Résistance, after his sort-of Heel Face Turn.

Film

• in the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie Sherlock Holmes has his head covered and is taken to a secret location... however being Sherlock Holmes he figures it out quite quickly.

Sir Thomas: Mr. Holmes, apologies for summoning you like this. I'm sure it's quite a mystery as to where you are, and who I am... Sherlock Holmes: As to where I am, I was, admittedly, lost for a moment, between Charing Cross and Holborn, but I was saved by the bread shop on Saffron Hill. The only baker to use a certain French glaze on their loaves - a Brittany sage. After that, the carriage forked left, then right, and then the tell-tale bump at the Fleet Conduit. And as to who you are, that took every ounce of my not-inconsiderable experience. The letters on your desk were addressed to a Sir Thomas Rotherham. Lord Chief Justice, that would be the official title. Who you * really* are is, of course, another matter entirely. Judging by the sacred ox on your ring, you're the secret head of the Temple of the Four Orders in whose headquarters we now sit, located on the northwest corner of St. James Square, I think. As to the mystery, the only mystery is why you bothered to blindfold me at all.

• In the movie Sneakers, a man is blindfolded and kidnapped but a blind member of the team is eventually able to make out where he was taken by asking how far apart the seams sounded in the bridge that the car crossed. Subverted when the kidnap victim says he passed near what sounded like a cocktail party—it turns out to be a gaggle of geese.
• In Time Bandits, Kevin is blindfolded and taken to the king's room to be initiated as the king's son.
• A variation happens in Beverly Hills Ninja, Haru is blindfolded when he is first taken to the Big Bad's warehouse. Later, he blindfolds himself and tries to use his "ninja skills" to remember the route. He is completely clueless, of course. Luckily, his clan brother Gobei knows the route well and takes the wheel without Haru knowing.
• In Legend Jack blindfolds Lily before taking her to see the unicorns.
• In the first |Mission Impossible film, Ethan Hunt is told to put on a mask before he's taken to see the mysterious Max, being told that it's "the price of admission".

Literature

• Discworld:
  • Small Gods - Brutha and Vorbis, while being led through the trap-filled labyrinth of Ephebe, which protects the inner city from people like... well, Vorbis. Unfortunately, the labyrinth keepers never counted on someone with a memory as perfect as Brutha's. When he's ordered to lead Vorbis through the maze so the Omnians can take over, Brutha realises that he could just make a run for it or lead Vorbis into a trap, but can't bring himself to do it, even knowing what Vorbis has planned.
  • Night Watch has the History Monks blindfold Vimes to bring him to his temple so they can explain just what happened to him. Vimes gets around it by "reading" the street through his feet, since he is so familiar with the city that he can tell the difference between the different types of paving, which lets him find his way back to the temple. Lu-Tze actually bets that this would happen.
• Happens twice in The Lord of the Rings.
  • In The Fellowship of the Ring the elves of Lothlórien insist on blindfolding Gimli's eyes before the fellowship is taken to the elf village. When he objects to being singled out that way, Aragorn says that all of them shall be blindfolded.
  • In The Two Towers Faramir blindfolds Frodo and Sam before leading them to the refuge of Henneth Annûn.
• In Geheimen van het Wilde Woud by Tonke Dragt, Tiuri and the Fool are captured, blindfolded and led to the Taren Castle. As the Fool has however been there before (and escaped), the trope is mildly deconstructed at the end:

Fool: I know where we are! I hear it, I smell it, I feel it, friend! I don't need to see it. Fool: (continues with an extremely detailed and lengthy description of the landscape) Viridian: You can take off their blindfolds, they shall see everything. One of them can apparently see through the rag anyway, and neither of them will be able to tell anyone about this.

• Used in at least two Sherlock Holmes stories. In both "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" and "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", Holmes' client was bundled into a carriage that they could not see out of and driven to an unknown destination. Holmes, of course, figures out where they had been taken or at least the general area from clues.

Live-Action TV

• On Jericho, Mrs. Green is taken to a secret location where Jake Green is being held prisoner. When she returns they are able to identify it as a pig farm from her saying there was a horrible smell.
• Get Smart had Max being taken by Ziegfried to a secret location. Not only was Max and Ziegfried are blindfolded but the driver is blindfolded too.
  • Another episode had Max and 99 blindfolded and made to feel they were being put on a long plane trip (without leaving a room in Washington) to let them deduce they were taken to a secret headquarters in Buenos Aires.
• In one MythBusters episode, Jamie heads out to "a secret location" to shoot a fish with a minigun. When he arrives, he pulls a blindfolded Adam out of the back of the car.
• Used in Supernatural. Of course the boys are trained to memorize twists and turns...
• In the pilot of Falling Skies, Tom and his team are taken prisoner by a gang of outlaws, who have set up in a school auditorium. The prisoners are, of course, taken to the location wearing black bags over their heads. Later, when Tom's son Hal is taken back to bring the kidnappers' demands to Captain Weaver, he is also wearing a bag.
• Mike Rowe is blindfolded on the trip to the source of the mud used to dirty MLB baseballs (pristine balls are difficult to grip). He says it reminds him of "that time I interviewed that sheik."
• One episode of The Saint had Simon Templar made prisoner and driven around a city. Too bad they passed some locations that made very characteristic sounds.
• The Bill. The police doubt the story of a bank manager who was held captive overnight, then forced to empty his vaults, because he said they drove over a couple of humpbacked bridges and stayed in a room near a combine harvester, none of which matches anything near Sun Hill. While the detectives are driving around checking out clues however they drive over two humps on an unpaved road and realise that the hostage, scared and locked in a trunk, could easily have mistaken them for the bridges. Working from that clue they soon find the room, which is near a factory whose machinery produces the 'harvester' sound.
• Used in The Amazing Race Family Edition, where teams were put onto a bus to be taken to a mystery location (Huntsville, Alabama).
• Used occasionally on Burn Notice. Michael's narration discusses how this is somewhat of an occupational hazard for spies, but wearing a sack on your head is still very unpleasant.

Tabletop Games

• Basic Dungeons & Dragons module B8 Journey to the Rock. If the PCs surrender to the chameleon men they're blindfolded and taken to a secret mountain cavern.

Video Games

• The infamous moment in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas where it's either really, really cool or controllers go flying.

Real Life

• Often used as a trust-building exercise.
  • Which can lead to a completely different trip.
• The blind only technically go everywhere like this. They tend to pick up on more things than the sighted give them credit for, though.