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Floorboard Failure (view source)

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{{quote|''"It's amazing such shaky buildings can stand up well enough for the characters to walk upstairs in the first place."''|'''[[Roger Ebert]]''', ''Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary''}}
 
{{quote|''Some primal termite knocked on wood''<br />
''And tasted it, and found it good''<br />
''And that is why your cousin May''<br />
''Fell through the parlor floor today''|'''[[Ogden Nash]]'''}}
 
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{{examples}}
 
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Seitokai Yakuindomo]]'', the main characters visit [[The Ojou|Shichijou Aria's]] house and are taken to an old storeroom. The floor breaks under Shino and Hata asks if there's a way to get under the floor to take photos.
* Happens twice in the second episode of ''[[Code Geass]]'': the rebels destroy a group of enemy [[Humongous Mecha|mechas]] by shooting the floor out from under them, and Lelouch's own mech falls through several floors of a concrete building [[Plot Armor|(it survives undamaged)]].
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* The [[Tom Hanks]] movie ''The Money Pit'' had this.
** In this case, the hole was already there with a large rug thrown over it, and poor Walter gets stuck in it for several hours.
* Another [[Tom Hanks]] movie, ''[[The Burbs]]'', also used this--althoughthis—although it was the creepy neighbor's porch in this case.
* Happens to Po on ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' as he tries to sneak down a hallway late at night.
* The first [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Filmfilm)|Ninja Turtles]] movie has this occur in the middle of a fight between the Turtles and the Foot clan on the second floor of April's apartment. Given that the floor had been hacked at with ninja axes and the number of people in the room at the time this was inevitable. Donatello even tries to warn the Foot.
{{quote| '''Donatello:''' Uh, guys, I'm not so sure if this is, structurally speaking... such a good time for your buddies to drop in.<br />
''Foot soldiers drop in through the skylight. Seconds later epic floorboard failure occurs.'' }}
* A central part of the plot in ''Duplex'', a Drew Barrymore black comedy.
* [[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]]: Tony's first flight test ends him crashing though the ceiling ''and'' the floor during an attempted landing. Further causalities are a piano and a car.
* A justified variant in ''[[National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Film)|National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation]]'', when Clark is trapped in the attic. He deliberately steps ''between'' the rafters rather than on them, so his weight is supported only by sheetrock, which, unsurprisingly, eventually gives in.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* In the ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]'' book ''The Reaction'', Rachel involuntarily morphs an elephant on the second floor of her house, causing the floor to collapse.
* In ''The Mighty Queens of Freeville'', Amy Dickinson tells the amusing story of the time her daughter's entire high-school madrigal choir crashed through the boards of the stage in the middle of rehearsal.
* In one of the [[Ramona Quimby]] books, Ramona falls halfway through the unfinished floor of a friend's attic. She's very annoyed when she tries to tell the story at the dinner table with what she feels is an appropriate amount of drama, and her older sister interrupts, saying how easy it is to step onto the plaster and that she knows someone who fell all the way through.
* In ''[[Septimus Heap (Literature)|Septimus Heap]]'', when the Port Witch Coven is hunting after the protagonists, they are thwarted when the floor of the Coven collapses due to a long-standing giant woodworm attack.
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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* [[Splinter Cell]] has this when the player character moves too fast in a burning building.
* Happens quite often in the [[Half-Life]] games. Also happens in ducts as well (once into a room full of laser tripwire explosives).
* In [[BioBioShock Shock(series)]] 2 Subject Delta is shot at, nearly set on fire and falls though several floors into water.
* In ''[[Barrow Hill]]'', entering the barn's loft for the first time causes the floor to collapse, trapping you in the lower part of the building until you find the means to escape.
* In ''[[Mortal Kombat 3]]'', the stage [[Finishing Move|fatality]] of Shao Kahn Tower has the winner uppercutting the loser, after which the defeated opponent falls through the floor (which stayed intact for the entire duration of the fight), and keeps falling through several stories of floorboards, before landing on a bed of spikes.
* In the "[[The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings]]'' trailer for the Xbox-release, the assassin throws an [[Kill It Withwith Ice|ice grenade]] at a kings ship, freezing the ship and almost everyone on it. When one of the survivors makes a few steps forward to see where the blast of cold came from, a breaking deck plank sets off the [[Tranquil Fury]] sequence while the entire ship starts to shatter around them.
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' averts it by [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=727 bypassing the rickety floorboards altogether]
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* When [[The Simpsons (animation)|Homer Simpson]] was joining the [[Brotherhood of Funny Hats|Stonecutters]] he had to take part in an [[Initiation Ceremony]] while blindfolded.
{{quote| '''Number One''': All Stonecutters must take the Leap of Faith. If you survive this five-story plunge, your character will be proven.<br />
''Homer whimpers''<br />
'''Moe''': Happy landings! ''pushes him''<br />
''Homer falls two feet onto the floor; everyone laughs''<br />
''the floor collapses and Homer falls through with a yell and a crash -- five times consecutively''<br />
'''Homer''': ''from the bottom'' I think I have to do it again. My blindfold came off. }}
** Another Simpsons episode has Homer & Marge talking about the terrible shape their house is in, and just then Bart falls halfway into the kitchen from the 2nd floor. "Little help?" Marge pushes him back up the newly created hole with a broom handle.
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[[Category:Index Failure]]
[[Category:Floorboard Failure]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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