Hairpin Lockpick: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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Alice and Bob are in a tight situation; maybe they need to break into a closet, or maybe they have been locked up by the bad guys. Either way, a lock is blocking their... way. Bob's mind is racing. How are they going to get out? And what is that [[Written Sound Effect|''click!'']] he just heard? [[Double Take|Wait a second]]... ''did the lock just open?!''
Alice holds up something. "My Handy Hairpin," she says. "Don't leave home without it."
When a resourceful character picks a lock, be they [[Handy Cuffs|handcuffs]], [[Locked Door|doors]] or [[Secret Diary|secret diaries]], with a hairpin, you get the
Note that a hairpin ''can'' be used to pick some locks in [[Real Life]], but only if you break it in half and use one piece as a torsion wrench, and one as the pick. ▼
▲Note that a hairpin ''can'' be used to pick some locks in [[Real Life]], but only if you break it in half and use one piece as a torsion wrench, and one as the pick (or you use two of them the same way). See the video to the right for one way to do it.
Subtrope to [[Improvised Lockpick]] (pending).Compare [[MacGyvering]] and [[Master of Unlocking]]. ▼
{{examples|Examples: }}▼
== [[Comics]] ==▼
* Night Nurse in ''[[Doctor Strange]]: The Oath'' opens a door this way. The impressed Strange can only comment "You should wear your hair like that more often."
== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[Fatal Instinct]]'', Ned once walks into his office to find [[Femme Fatale|Lola]] waiting there for him. When asked how she got in, she says, "Isn't it amazing what a real woman can do with a hairpin?" Cut to the door, the lock of which has been completely destroyed.
* There's a subversion in ''[[Shanghai Knights]]'' where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is attempting to do this but Chon Wang gets impatient and shatters the door window with a lock, reaches in, and unlocks the door.
* Michelle Pfeiffer uses a hairpin to pick Jack Nicholson's handcuffs in ''Wolf''.
* The father in ''[[
* ''[[Terminator (
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[
* In the ''[[Doc Savage]]'' novel "The Lost Oasis," a woman tries to pick the lock on her slave collar with a hairpin after seeing Doc perform a similar feat. She doesn't have the necessary training.
* In ''[[Harry Potter and
* If [[Nancy Drew]] didn't have those Industrial-Strength bobby pins, she would still be locked in many a closet.
* Subverted in ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', where the fallacy in this trope is pointed out, and Violet uses an electrical plug as a lock pick.
* [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[Misery]]'' has a segment where the author-hero [[
== [[Live
* On ''[[Burn Notice]]'', Michael has noted that Fiona's hairpin is as good as a lockpick.
* In an episode of ''[[Flight of the Conchords]]'', [[Loony Fan|Mel]] uses a hairpin to open the bathroom door. While Bret's in the bathroom.
* In one episode of ''[[Friends]]'', Chandler and Joey are trying to open a locked closet door. Joey asks Chandler whether he has a bobby pin; Chandler runs his hand through his hair, then says, "Oh, that's right — I'm not a 9-year-old girl."
* In an episode of ''[[Gilligan's Island
* In an episode of ''[[The Man
* Maddie does it in an early episode of ''[[Moonlighting]]''.
* In an episode of ''[[Thunderbirds]]'', Parker uses one of Lady Penelope's hairpins to open a sophisticated electronic lock on a ''Bank of England bullion vault''.
* Used by Victoria in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S5
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Nico Collard of the ''[[Broken Sword]]'' series knows how to pick a lock with a hairpin, and does so in most of the games. Being an [[Intrepid Reporter]], it's probably a useful skill to have.
* In ''[[Drakensang]] - The Dark Eye'', you can use hairpins to open chests.
* In [[Fallout 3]] and the sequel ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', Bobby Pins are your standard lockpicking resource. Fortunately, loads of them have survived The Great War intact.
* ''[[No One Lives Forever]]'' has a lockpick disguised as a hairpin.
* More of a jewelry example in ''[[Quest for Glory II]]'', but the Hero as a Thief must use the decorative golden pin given to him by the Katta as a mark of friendship earlier in the game to pick the lock of a cell door. Actually, creative lockpicking is something of a recurring theme throughout the series for a Thief hero...
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* [[Lampshaded]] and [[Subverted]] in one episode of ''[[Kim Possible]]'': Ron and Monique are facing a locked door, so Ron asks Monique whether she has a bobby pin. Her response? "I don't know; why don't you ask my grandmother?"
* Producing a hairpin to pick locks was one of the only things Daphne ever did of use in ''[[Scooby Doo]]''.
* In ''[[The Perils of Penelope Pitstop]]'' episode "Carnival Calamity," Penelope used one of her hairpins to open the padlock on the loop-the-loop ride.
* Done on a ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' [[Wartime Cartoon]] about women in the work force. When a factory breaks down, a repairwoman goes into her toolbox and pulls out a bobby pin, which she uses to start the factory up again.
* Parodied in a [[Rocko's Modern Life]] version of Hansel and <s>Gretel</s> Debbie.
{{quote|
'''Rocko/Debbie:''' No, but I have a key ''(pulls out of hair).'' }}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
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[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
[[Category:Alice and Bob]]
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