Book Safe: Difference between revisions

This trope can be [[Truth in Television]]; check [[That Other Wiki]] under "Book Safe" for examples.

 

{{examples}}

 

* In ''[[Mai-Otome Zwei]]'', the ''Book of Neptune,'' from which Nagi alleged to have learned about Yuna and the CHILDs, was really a box with the Neptune Emerald GEM inside.

* A ''[[Detective Conan]]'' case revolves around drugs hidden not in a book, but a "fake book" that has four sealed edges.

* In ''[[Trigun]]'', a variation on the standard gun-in-the-Bible occurs when that big heavy cross Wolfwood has been lugging around with him everywhere turns out to not only to BE a BFG in its own right but to also CONTAIN a plethora of hand pistols as well. "It's heavy because it's so full of mercy", right...

 

* Played straight in ''[[V for Vendetta]],'' where the corrupt priest Father Liliman pulls out a gun from his Bible when V enters the room.

* ''[[Tintin]]''. In "Explorers on the Moon" Captain Haddock smuggles his whiskey on board the rocketship inside a [[Doorstopper]] tome, labelled "Guide To Astronomy".

* Red Hood smuggles a collapsible bow to Arsenal inside a bible in the first issue of ''[[Red Hood and the Outlaws]]''.

 

* ''[[Live and Let Die (film)|Live and Let Die]]'' features the classic gun in a Bible.

** ''[[Thunderball]]'' features a sound-activated listening device in a book, which Bond uses to determine if someone has sneaked into his room while he's been out.

* Used in ''[[Johnny Dangerously]]'': as Michael Keaton is being walked to the Chair, in passing each cell along the way each prisoner hands him one component of [[IKEA Weaponry|a Tommy gun which he assembles]] whilst walking. The last piece is in the Bible the priest is "reading" from. However, it's a fake gun, that falls apart mere moments after Johnny makes his escape.

* In ''[[The Matrix]]'', Neo keeps his illegal software inside a hollow copy of the real-world philosophy text "Simulacra and Simulation" by Jean Baudrillard. A real copy of ''Simulacra'' wouldn't be thick enough to hide that much stuff (it's not a very long book), so one can conclude that the filmmakers specifically worked this reference in as a hint to the nature of Neo's reality.

* In ''[[The Addams Family]]'' movie, the first stage of the secret entrance to the family vault is accessed by pulling a book out from a bookcase. The book's title? ''Greed.'' It's worth noting that ALL of the Addamses' books were like this, and that ''Greed'' was the most 'normal' book. ''Gone with the Wind'' causes a tornado when opened, and ''The Sun Also Rises'' emits daylight and the sound of birds.

* ''[[Young Frankenstein]]'' subverts the "book-as-hidden-door-switch": hearing something behind a bookcase, Dr. Frankenstein tries activating a secret door by yanking a seemingly out-of-place book from the shelf — to no effect. When his assistant pulls a candle from a nearby sconce for added light, however, the door is opened.

{{quote|'''Inga:''' [[Funetik Aksent|Put...ze cendle...''beck!'']]}}

** When the warden hears the police coming to arrest him, he looks at the picture on his wall that conceals his wall safe. The picture says, "His judgment cometh, and that right soon." Andy had stolen the incriminating documents out of the safe.

* In ''[[The Game (film)|The Game]]'', Michael Douglas's character keeps a revolver hidden in a copy of ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]''.

 

== Games ==

* The [[LARP]] of ''Killers'' mentions in the section on concealed weapons that players who hide their guns may have an advantage, but it's still considered legal self-defense to shoot the guy who's dropped into a firing stance and is pointing his geometry text at your heart.

 

* Although in ''[[Star Wars]]'' they don't use actual paper books very often, the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] has a couple of examples where a tiny hold-out blaster is hidden in a box in Imperial libraries that was supposed to contain datacards: ''The Complete History of Corvis Minor''. Supposedly the topic was so dull that no one who didn't know would choose to pick up the box.

** When Mara Jade finds it, it's because as the Emperor's Hand she knows exactly where to look. When [[X Wing Series|Corran Horn]] finds it and a number of other hidden library secrets, it's because he has luck and [[Sentient Cosmic Force|The Force]] (which may be the same thing).

*** Naturally, Corran responds by going through the remaining datacard boxes, hoping in vain to find additional weaponry.

{{quote|''He eventually gave up on finding a "Complete History of Corvis Major" that might hold something a bit more substantial, like, say, an X-Wing''}}

* Mike Ripley's [[Amateur Sleuth]] Angel has a copy of ''The History Of The United States'' adapted into a fireproof safe.

* In the book (but not the film) of ''[[James Bond (novel)|From Russia With Love]]'', Grant has a gun concealed in a copy of ''[[War and Peace]]'', which ''[[Shoe Phone|fires if you press the spine in the right place]]''.

* In the ''[[Babysitters Club]]'', Claudia mentions that she hides some sweets in a hollowed-out book.

* In the [[Tim Dorsey]] novel ''Stingray Shuffle'', a drug ring sells cocaine to its customers by running a book-shop and giving their drug customers hollowed-out paperbacks of a book entitled 'The Stingray Shuffle' (Chosen because it was an unpopular book that a normal customer wouldn't ask for) which had a gram of cocaine contained in the hollow. They sold so much drugs that way that they inadvertently triggered a revival of interest in the author, which caused a publicity event to be held at the shop, which caused normal people to accidentally buy paperbacks filled with drugs, which brought in the cops.

 

* On ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', House hides a secret stash of Vicodin inside a textbook on Lupus, on the grounds that he'll never need the textbook because [[Running Joke|"It's never Lupus."]] (Shockingly, in the fourth season, they did get a Lupus case.)

* ''[[Lost]]''

 

== Music Videos ==

* The video for ''Spaceship'' by Phase features a hammer (being used by oppressed office workers to dig an escape tunnel) hidden in a hollowed out book.

 

* In ''[[The Wizard of Id]]'', the lawyer hides bottles of alcohol of some sort within his thick law books.

* ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' has when Flattop is hiding out in a boarding house and decides keeping his loot on his person is too risky. So, when he sees an old thick photo album under a table that looks rarely used, he decides to cut out the inner pages and hide his money in it. As it happens, the kid blackmailing Flattop has drowned while ice skating on expensive skates bought with the shakedown money. Those skates led Tracy to the boarding house where he requests the boy's mother to get a photo for the newspaper and so they go to the photo album and the money is discovered. When Tracy asks where this money came from, the mother guesses it must be from her boarder and Tracy proceeds to Flattop's room while the crook is frantically trying to escape.

 

* ''[[Adventures in Odyssey]]'': Whit's secret [[Magical Computer]] room is hidden behind a bookcase, and the key that unlocks it is hidden in one of the books -- ''[[Narnia|The Last Battle]].''

 

* In ''[[Educating Rita]]'' the professor hides his whiskey behind a book.

 

** Homer repeatedly took out a flask hidden in a Bible whenever he claimed he needed guidance ("Now I know why they call it the good book.") He freaked out at the end of the episode when it was somehow replaced with a real Bible.

** In a Halloween episode he keeps a donut stashed in a book at work. Except when he needs it he finds he's eaten it already and left himself an IOU. He curses himself for always being one step ahead.

* Helga Pataki of ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' often kept her diary inside a much larger book.

* This happens in ''[[King of the Hill]]'', where Dale walks into Peggy's newly-acquired bookstore and buys a book, hollowing it out right on the counter in front of her. This, naturally, gives her an idea for a side-business...

* Some episodes of ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'' used a book mechanism to allow access to the titular lab (which was located behind the bookcase in Dexter's room).

 

* Of course, there's the [[Glurge|Glurge-inducing]] short story turned spam-mail about the college boy who, instead of getting a car as a gift for getting in college, gets a Bible. Inside the Bible there's a check for him to buy the car, but he never opens it. This was hilariously subverted with a short story about the man opening the Bible after his father's death, buying the car and using it to run over infidels.

** Related bits of urban folklore recounts [http://www.snopes.com/luck/gideon.asp money left in Bibles for needy souls seeking salvation and inside doctoral dissertations to determine whether anyone has read it].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Bookish Tropes]]