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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Please place the Weighted Storage Cube on the [[Expospeak Gag|1500-Megawatt Aperture Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Button]]."''
|'''GLaDOS'''|''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]''}}
A '''Pressure Plate''' is a switch that's activated with the addition (or removal) of weight on it. Sometimes they're used for [[Block Puzzle
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[
* The first of ''[[The Librarian]]'' movies with Noah Wyle features a shout out to the above. Finding the first [[MacGuffin]], the love interest reaches for it. The Librarian pulls her back and throws a rock at it. [[MacGuffin]] moves, Enormous stone head slams down in front of the pedestal.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[
==
* One episode of ''[[The Wild Wild West (TV series)|The Wild Wild West]]'' had a cart weigh-scale rigged to explode if weight was removed from it. Of course, Jim, Artie, and the [[Girl of the Week]] were knocked out and dropped onto the scale's pressure plate before it was rigged. However, the plate wasn't rigged to explode if more weight was added.
▲* In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Fifth Elephant|The Fifth Elephant]]'' there's a [[Locked Room Mystery|locked room]] with a pressure plate near the entrance that compares the weight of people entering and leaving. So how was the Scone of Stone stolen?
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==▼
* ''[[
▲== Tabletop Games ==
▲* ''[[Tableto Game/Dungeons And Dragons|Dungeons And Dragons]]'' players ''dread'' the activation of a pressure plate, because nine times out of ten, it will set off a nasty trap that will ruin your whole day.
** Subverted in one of the Grimtooth's trap books for d20 systems, which features the "Click Plate", a pressure plate that gives an ominous click when you step on it... and does nothing else. No problem... unless you intersperse them in a trapped dungeon with other plates that go click just before the trap goes off...
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
* On your way to the Red Queen's domain in ''[[
▲== Video Games ==
* ''[[Portal (
▲* On your way to the Red Queen's domain in ''[[American McGee's Alice (Video Game)|American McGee's Alice]]'', you need to retrieve an insane child(who ran off the pressure plate) back to stand on it to open the gate to the portal.
* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' has pressure plate as the only trigger for mechanisms not requiring a deliberate action (unlike the lever), and thus cornerstone of all Dwarven automation.
▲* ''[[Portal (Video Game)|Portal]]'' has many of these, usually involving the [[Companion Cube]].
** The main variants are single-use or resetting, triggered by enemies (commonly used in traps) or by civilians (useful for things like [[Decontamination Shower]]) in the designated range of weights. Diplomats, merchants and their animals and some creatures avoid either type and invaders will not activate any pressure plates that have been observed by any diplomat from their civilization. However, any creature activates any plate if drops on it, unconscious or webbed. Also, plates can be triggered by the chosen level of liquid (whether water or magma) or mine carts on tracks (also within the given range of weights, which has many uses - such as making sure that a minecart with rider won't be accidentally allowed to visit the magma-scooping track, or that a vampire artisan receives raw materials and sends produced items, but stays locked at all times), allowing to build various automated systems, whether as complex death traps (e.g. plate toggles the mechanism connecting watermill power to roller, roller propels a minecart full of magma on the track toward a cart stop, which is set to dump carts' contents onto a floor grate above the tile next to that plate), for practical purpose (e.g. water level sensitive valve maintain safe water level in a reservoir, or repeated activation of traps with training weapons in an area designated for soldiers' sparring, to make sure [[Stat Grinding|Dodge skill is used often]]) and for fun (e.g. digital clocks).
*
* Various Rare games: ''[[Donkey Kong 64 (Video Game)|Donkey Kong 64]]'', ''[[Banjo-Kazooie (Video Game)|Banjo-Kazooie]]'', ''Banjo-Tooie''...▼
** Giant keas are large enough to crack a dwarven skull if cornered, and afflicted with kleptomania that leads them to try and carry away random items — which is a bad combo, of course. But since this bird can lift a minecart… and track pressure plates allow to implement fairly reliable traps (lethal or not).
▲* Various Rare games: ''[[
** There is a simple [[Block Puzzle]] in the last level of ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' which is needed to reach the final boss.
* ''[[
* Let's see, is there a ''Zelda'' game that doesn't have this?
** ''[[Zelda II:
* ''[[Evil Genius (
* The old ''[[
* Ol' good ''[[
* ''[[
* The map WAR-TankCrossing in ''[[Unreal Tournament
* Sometimes summoned in ''[[
* Lots of them in the ''[[Lego Adaptation Game
* ''[[
** ''[[
** Earlier ''Fallout'' titles used pressure plates for a variety of traps ranging from the classic spear-thrower to explosive mines. Players could use the Trap skill to detect and defuse traps for a small amount of XP. A [[Critical Failure]] when attempting to defuse a trap usually set it off.
* ''Bloodwych'', which includes puzzles where you have to either leave a party member behind on a pressure plate, or (if playing multiplayer) have the other player's party stand on the pressure plate.
* ''[[Thief (
* In ''[[
* First-generation ''[[Pokémon]]'' games and their remakes featured these in Victory Road, in the form of a [[Block Puzzle]].
* In one of ''[[
* ''[[Soul Reaver]]'' beat the Christ out of this trope as part of its beating-the-Christ-out-of the Block Puzzle.
* ''[[
* These show up in the [[Edutainment Game]] ''Math Blaster 2: Secret of the Lost City''.
* ''Golden Eye'' uses a puzzle like this in the Aztec level, [[Guide Dang It|based on]] ''[[The Man
* ''[[
* A staple of ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' games. Many of them require a block to keep the plate pressed down so a door or other mechanism stays active.
* A few puzzles in ''[[
* ''[[King's Quest
* ''[[Rise of the Triad]]'' uses "touchplates" a lot; on the easy difficulty, the game tells you when you have triggered them and what they just did.
* ''[[Jumper (
* Wii version of ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Patapon]] 3'' has pressure plates in some of the dungeon levels to open gates and stuff.
* ''[[
* Pressure plates are found throughout ''[[Legend of Grimrock]]'', used to raise/lower gates and activate [[Trap Door|trap doors]].
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[
==
* In ''[[
▲* ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]'', as a ''D&D''-inspired comic, has this as a stapple of the traps found in dungeons by the Order. Vaarsuvius gets caught by a rather nasty one in the Draketooth pyramid in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0843.html strip #843].
* In the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
▲* ''[[Girl Genius (Webcomic)|Girl Genius]]'': In Castle Heterodyne, pressure plates are only one of the many ways intruders can get themselves messily killed.
* Seen in some [[Dungeon Crawling]] episodes in ''[[
▲{{quote| '''Zola:''' Avoid any floorstone marked in ''white''. It is a trap that will kill you.}}
▲* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]],'' the Sun Warriors' temple has a room with a ring of statues and corresponding pressure plates. When visitors perform the dragon [[Insistent Terminology|firebending form]] on the pressure plates, a pedestal with a golden egg on it comes out of the ground. [[Schmuck Bait|Don't touch the egg.]]
▲* In the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "Read it and Weep" the protagonist of the story Rainbow Dash is reading has to steal a small stature from off of a pressure plate, referencing the famous ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark (Film)|Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' scene. Only the protagonist in question doesn't even attempt to trick the counterweight system and grabs the statue anyway, triggering a massive [[Death Trap]].
▲* Seen in some [[Dungeon Crawling]] episodes in ''[[Wakfu (Animation)|Wakfu]]''. The ones from the [[Temple of Doom]] of the Dragon-Pig are especially nasty: the pressure plates change positions regularly, and the safe ones can only been spotted by looking into mirrors framing the trapped corridor. The heroes don't quite make it without triggering the trap.
▲{{quote| '''Sadlygrove:''' I really don't like clicks!}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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