Book Safe: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
m (update links) |
m (clean up) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
Line 14:
If you're feeling clever, you can make sure that the object you are hiding goes into a hollow book of an appropriate genre or title: A secret locket in a romance novel, a safe key hidden in a book on finance, or the example below from ''[[The Matrix]]''.
A book that is hollowed out and then glued into place on the shelf may be used to [[Bookcase Passage|hide a secret switch]] (or the book itself may even [[Bookcase Passage|BE the switch]].) If you're
This trope can be [[Truth in Television]]; check [[That Other Wiki]] under "Book Safe" for examples.
Line 44:
** ''[[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
The illegal software was hidden in the chapter titled "On Nihilism", again referencing the philosophical themes of the film. It's worth noting that ''Simulacra'' and Jean Baudrillard are '''huge''' influences to the Wachowski brothers, as plainly evident in the sequels.
* 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
{{quote|'''Inga:''' Put...ze cendle...''beck!''}}
* ''[[The Shawshank Redemption]]'': The warden of Shawshank prison opens up the Bible to discover that this is where Andy has been hiding the rock hammer he used to tunnel out of his cell. Salvation, indeed. For that extra touch of irony, the hollow section begins halfway through ''Exodus''.
Line 91 ⟶ 93:
* ''[[The Wire]]'': Randy is a group home kid who tries to stash the cash he's been earning in the spine of a school textbook. When he finds it stolen, it's one of the worst gut punches in the series.
* An episode of ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'' has one of the twins hiding candy bars in hollowed-out cookbooks because his mom never looks at them.
* When Blanche was going through her father's belongings in [[The Golden Girls]], she came across his Bible, and fondly remembers Sundays at
* ''[[The Colbert Report]]'': Colbert faked out the audience by revealing that he had a secret stash of Eggo waffles hidden inside of Sarah Palin's new book (the Palin story had to wait until the waffle shortage story was done).
* Once on ''[[Just Shoot Me]]'', Nina says that the only book she owns is the hollowed out almanac from her trip to Colombia.
| |||