Elevator Failure: Difference between revisions

But sometimes, that's exactly what happens. Because of tampering, inadequate maintenance, or unusual environmental conditions, something goes wrong with an elevator, with very bad results.

 

{{examples}}

 

 

== Films -- Live Action ==

* ''[[Devil]]'' is about five people who get trapped in an elevator by none other than the Devil himself, [[Lights Off, Somebody Dies|who slowly kills each one off]].

* In ''[[Die Hard]]'':

** Because {{spoiler|a bomb blew up the roof of the building}}, an elevator stops on the floor John McClane is on, with a little "ding", and instead of the doors opening the elevator explodes.

* In ''[[Earthquake]]'':

** An elevator in a highrise fails, and an aftershock knocks it off the rails, causing it to plummet, killing the passengers.

* The aptly named Romanian film ''Elevator'' is about two teenagers that get trapped in an abandoned warehouse elevator, with no one who can hear them and rescue them. {{spoiler|The movie ends with both characters hopelessly expecting to die inside.}}

* In ''[[Speed]]'', a man wires the cables on an elevator with explosives, blows them (while people are on the elevator), then wants $3 million or he blows the emergency brakes.

* ''[[The Towering Inferno]]'' has:

== Live Action TV ==

* In the ''[[Criminal Minds]] episode "Scared To Death", Reid, Morgan and Hotch are investigating an apartment. While Reid and Morgan ride an elevator, Hotch (wisely) takes the stairs. It gets stuck, and then proceeds to drop suddenly. They hit the emergency button, Morgan tries to pry the door open, Reid panics, and they both scream (well, Reid squeaks) for Hotch before it finally opens and they stumble out. Which can be seen [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMb_BC5ndTU here].

'''Reid''': I'll get back to you on that. }}

* One episode of ''[[Castle]]'' had the protagonist ([[It Makes Sense in Context|Who was paranoid about being cursed by an ancient Mayan Emperor at the time]]) get trapped in a broken elevator, which goes pitch black [[It Got Worse|and then creepily green.]]

* On ''[[Friends]]'', Joey's character is killed off ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'' when he falls down an elevator shaft. Of course, it's a soap opera, so he comes back to life.

** In another episode the Enterprise encounters a cosmic string fragment, causing massive damage throughout the ship. When it hits [[The Captain|Captain]] [[Patrick Stewart|Picard]] is in the turbolift with three children (a situation he wasn't exactly thrilled about to begin with), and the impact is so violent he breaks his leg. Later on they discover that one of the safety clamps has been damaged, forcing all four to climb out before the turbolift plummets to the bottom of the shaft.

* In one episode of ''[[Boy Meets World]]'', Cory has a nightmare where he pushes all of his friends down an empty elevator shaft.

* ''[[Jam]]'' had a sketch where an office elevator breaks down, but because the security guard has a speech impediment, he isn't able to warn people in time and they all plunge screaming to their deaths.

* One episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show has Rob and Laura (pregnant in a flashback) mugged while in an elevator. The mugger simply pressed the stop button on the elevator so he could hold them up, but pressing the resume button does nothing. The entire episode is devoted to Rob, Laura, and the mugger trying to find a way out and hoping Laura doesn't go into labor while in the stopped elevator. At one point the mugger reads the inspection record of the elevator and finds that just this year they switched inspectors. Dick even climbs out the top of the elevator but only reads a sarcastic comment left by the building workers.

* In the ''[[CSI]]'' episode "CSI Unplugged", Hodges and Henry get stuck in the elevator when the lab and all of Las Vegas loses power.

* Ziva and McGee are trapped in the ''[[NCIS]]'' episode "Power Down".

* Bud takes the elevator not realizing it is malfunctioning in the ''[[JAG]]'' episode "Yeah Baby".

* Happens a few times in the ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'' games.

* [[Gears of War|Marcus Fenix]] lampshades this tendency in his [[Deadpan Snarker|typical style]] at around the end of ''Gears Of War 2''.

* In ''[[Dead Rising 2]]'', during the beginning of the zombie outbreak, {{spoiler|Somebody disguised as Chuck Green places an explosive device on one of the zombie gates that goes off releasing yet another zombie outbreak}} and when Chuck is on the elevator it suddenly stops in the overtures to the outbreak. Upon forcing the doors open, he almost gets stuck in front of a rampaging zombie coming right at him, but as luck would have it somebody runs right into it and becomes the new target of the zombie, saving Chuck.

* This happens in ''[[Dead Island]]'' at the start when you're escaping from the hotel.

== Western Animation ==

* Happens to Wakko and Dr. Scratchnsniff in an episode of ''[[Animaniacs]]''. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

 

 

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[[Category:Elevator Tropes]]