Death Course: Difference between revisions

* The [[Indy Escape|giant rolling stone ball]], always an [[Indiana Jones]] [[Homage]].

* [[Trap Door]]s

* [[Surprise Slide Staircase|Stairs that become slides]]

* Mines

* And, of course, [[Bottomless Pits]] and/or [[Pit Trap]]s.

 

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Hanaukyo Maid Tai|Hanaukyo Maid Tai: La Verité]]'' has one hidden under the front lawn of the mansion.

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Ed discovers one of these on his way into the Fifth Laboratory. After the first few traps, though, he gets sick of it and transmutes the hallway to have perfectly smooth, unbroken walls and walks straight through.

* One features in the second episode of ''[[Angel Beats!]]'' in the form of anti-Angel traps on the path to Guild which the heroes must themselves traverse. They don't see it is a big deal because in their world, [[Death Is Cheap]].

* [[Gintama]] had one in an episode involving an art museum. It included a [[Corridor Cubbyhole Run]], [[Spikes of Doom]], a treadmill floor and {{spoiler|[[It Makes Sense in Context|a 100% normal old man, his wife, their son and their grandson riding on said treadmill]]}}

 

== Comic Books ==

* This is Arcade's MO - for a fee, he'll ''capture'' heroes and put them in a death trap (''Murderworld'') of his own devising. One wonders why villains don't just pay him to capture and collect their unconscious foes.

** He is also willing to rent his courses out to various villains so that they can train.

* The [[Don Rosa]] Scrooge McDuck story "Treasure of the Ten Avatars".

* In an issue of ''[[Catwoman (comics)|Catwoman]]'', Catwoman had to navigate one of these in order to get into an ancient temple buried beneath the Sahara. She wondered why all of the traps were in such good working order after centuries of disuse, only to realise that her rival Hellhound had got there ahead of her and had repaired and reset all of the traps on his way in to slow her down.

* A hero-villain inversion occurs in ''[[Sin City]]''. [[Heroic Sociopath|Marv]] sets fire to [[Serial Killer|Kevin's]] house, lures him out with gunshots, tries to trip him up with razor wire, sets up his coat as a decoy, tries to lob his head off with a hatchet, and then just resorts to handcuffing him and punching him in the face.

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Galaxy Quest]]'', the characters are moving through a spaceship based on the one in the TV show they starred in. When there's a Death Course down one corridor, one asks why the heck such a thing would be in a spaceship. The answer is, of course, because it was in the TV show.

{{quote|"Whoever wrote this episode should DIE!"}}

* Let's not forget the path into Alcatraz in ''[[The Rock]]''.

* [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] movies:

* Inverted in the ''[[Home Alone]]'' series, in that it's the ''villains'' who are forced to negotiate a Death Course, designed by the protagonist.

* Shifu's temple from ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' has one of these.

* In 1972's anthology ''Tales From The Crypt'', the abusive manager of a home for the blind gets his comeuppance when the visually-impaired men he's been mistreating lock him in his office and construct a Death Course through which he must exit, with hundreds of razor blades set into the walls of a very narrow passage. They wait until he's squeezed his painful way through it once, then sic his own attack dog on him and turn out the lights.

 

== Literature ==

* Near the end of ''Inheritance,'' (the last book of the ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]') Eragon, Saphira, Elva, Arya, and eleven other elves make their way through a hallway filled with traps to get to [[The Big Bad]].

* In [[Matthew Reilly]]'s books ''Seven Deadly Wonders'' and ''The Six Sacred Stones'' almost all the action sequences take place in Death Courses.

* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' books, it is heavily implied that Lord Vetinari has one of these set up in the passage that leads to Leonard of Quirm's cell. Or maybe that's just what he wants you to think.

** Leonard apologizes earnestly for designing it, so it is far more likely to be true.

*** Maybe not. Given their reaction when Death arrives, it seems Mrs. Cake might already have been...

** ''Small Gods'' features this as a security precaution against visiting dignitaries from hostile lands. They didn't count on the main character's photographic memory.

* In the [[Young Bond]] novel ''Hurricane Gold'', El Hurican has ''La Avenida de la Murete'': a death course where all the challenges are based on legends of the Mayan gods.

* The titular castle ''[[Malevil]]'' is well, ''[[Shaped Like Itself|a castle]]''. See the [[Real Life]] section below.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' loved this trope. Another episode had a Death Course in the form of {{spoiler|an agent-killing automated factory}}.

* The episode "Legacy" of ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' had a villain who would capture and put anyone he deemed useless to society (prostitutes, junkies, vagrants, etc.) in a meat plant he had inherited, which he filled with such pleasant things as vicious dogs, noxious gas spewing vents and a room filled entirely with broken glass. Though he told his captives that he would let them go if they found the exit within a certain amount of time this appeared to just [[I Lied|be a means of inspiring false hope]] and in the end he'd just vivisect them with lots of nasty looking tools.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Tomb of Horrors]]''. Enough said.

 

* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'', most particularly 2, where a Death Course is seen as a training ground for the Shadow Thieves of Amn.

* ''[[Tomb Raider]]'', in which most of the tombs are equipped with diabolical anti-raider devices.

* The K'chekrik Gauntlet in ''[[Heretic]] 2''.

* The Gauntlet in ''[[Nox]]'', through which prospective Warriors must fight their way to show they've got what it takes.

* This is the entire point of ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]''. It would be redundant to list the numerous things that will kill [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|The Kid]] throughout the game, but suffice to say that every single screen is enough to make the proudest [[Adventure Archaeologist]] [[Bowel-Breaking Bricks|shit bricks]].

* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' lets you build these as a very effective method of keeping your fortress safe from invaders. Interestingly, you can make an auxiliary entrance which invaders are forced to take when your drawbridge is up or your main entrance is sealed off in some other way. This entrance, of course, can be extremely long and extremely deadly.

* Oni Island in ''[[Okami]]'' is a huge deathtrap... which is apparently entertainment for the local youkai. There are even ''rules'' for these areas posted on a small, hard to miss sign right before them. And don't get me started on Tobi, the game master for the largest of these death courses...

* In ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Force Unleashed]]'', the Death Star level consists of a series of Laser Hallways ''on steroids''

* ''[[N]]'' in all its incarnations is just a ninja [[Le Parkour]]ing through Death Courses.

* Games with level editors can allow players to make Death Courses. Such as a [[Mega Man Powered Up]] level where the floor and every platform are made from [[Spikes of Doom]], or a [[Halo|Halo3]] multiplayer map where all the teleporters and spawn points are placed outside the map's border.

* About halfway through [[Dead Space 2]], Tiedemann seals Isaac in a section of the Sprawl meant for processing hazardous waste. This includes several large, sharp, spinning objects that will kill you if you get too close. Which must be navigated in Zero G. Arguably the most fun part of the game.

* [[Orcs Must Die]] runs on you creating these, [[Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom|pushing, crushing, smashing]] piercing, slicing, [[Kill It with Fire|burning]], [[Shock and Awe|electricuting]], bludgeoning, freezing and [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|impaling]] hapless orcs.. Then there's the catapult trap which, when placed correctly, can catapult the orcs all the way back to the beginning of said deathcourse.

 

* In ''Reality Experiment'', one of the main characters has to run a death course to return to life after being killed. The price of failure is eternal torment. However, after being asked by the Grim Reaper('s assistant) to try to avoid the grinding gears at the beginning, since it jams the whole course and takes forever to clear up, the character throws the Grim Reaper into the gears to jam the whole course and run back to life.

* Most of Castle Heterodyne in ''[[Girl Genius]]'' has turned into one of these by the time Agatha enters it.

** This becomes a [[Hoist by His Own Petard]] for Pete as, when the regular GM returns, Pete's character is forced to make his way back through his own Death Course, thus missing out on all the action taking place at the same time.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* [[Adventure Time|Gauntlet]] [[Awesome but Impractical|Dock!]]

* In the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "Read It and Weep", Daring Do faces two sets of these back to back, though we only ever see the first. Said course involves thrown axes, fire pits, crocodiles hanging from the ceiling, arrows, and spikes.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]

[[Category:This Index Is in The Way]]