Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: Difference between revisions

What happens when you mix a [[Death Trap]] with a [[Rube Goldberg Device]]?

 

 

Delayed deathtraps also have the advantage of giving the culprit an alibi, allowing them to slip away after activating it, and provide verifiable proof that they were somewhere else at the "time of death".

 

 

Often attempted by any variety of [[Evil Genius]] but it can vary whether or not they are successful. After all, if it's [[The Hero]] who is the victim, they'll no doubt find some way to escape the trap....

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Detective Conan]]'' uses this quite a bit.

* Also considered in ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' when Kyon and Haruhi are pondering about the supposed murder in the island house.

 

== Comic Books ==

{{quote|[[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|Visit our showroom.]] [[Rain of Blood|Bring an umbrella.]]}}

* [[Batman]] villains are partial to these, which makes sense since a lot of them do things [[For the Evulz]] rather than a practical motive.

** The Riddler used to set up insurance fires that were set off by such an elaborate series of events using items already in the buildings that they would look like accidents.

 

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Law Abiding Citizen]]'': This entire movie is a love note to this trope. The way Clyde kills people makes [[MacGyver]] look like he was creating science projects for the elementary school science fair.

* The ''[[Saw]]'' movies. One could argue that the plot exists only to allow the use of this trope.

* ''[[The Omen]]'' films and here there's no chance of the elaborate schemes failing because they're planned by, you know, the ''Devil''.

* In ''[[13 Ghosts]]'' (the 2001 remake), the entire house would be considered this.

* [[James Bond]]. For a while, especially during the Roger Moore era, the Bond films ''were'' this trope.

* Parodied in ''[[Austin Powers]] International Man of Mystery'', where Dr Evil leaves Austin and [[The Chick|the current chick]] to die in an over-elaborate device, and Dr Evil's son suggests just shooting them.

 

== Literature ==

* Done occasionally in the ''[[Florida Roadkill]]'' series by [[Tim Dorsey]]. The earliest example: The victim is tied to an armchair, with the TV on showing the space shuttle being prepped for launch at Cape Canaveral (which was fairly close to the motel where the victim was tied up in). When the shuttle launched, the shock waves of the launch would cause the model space shuttle hanging from the ceiling to swing, striking the metal ring cut from a beer can. The contact between the metal ring and the metal toy would complete a circuit, which would start a small electric motor, which would wind in a cord, which would pull the trigger of a shotgun that was pointed at the victim.

* Dirk Gently ''faked'' a report of this when handling a [[Locked Room Mystery]] in ''[[The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul|The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul]]''. The police [[Weirdness Censor|didn't accept the real supernatural answer]], so Dirk needed some other explanation of how the victim could commit suicide and leave his head perched on a spinning turntable.

 

* ''[[Dead Like Me]]'': The use of this trope is actually [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]]. All of the deaths in the show are of this variety and it is explained early on that the gravelings exist solely to make sure the circumstances leading to the deaths occur. Hell, their boss is even named [[Meaningful Name|Rube]].

** The movie of the series plays with this trope has a suicidal inventor create an ingenious Rube Goldberg device to kill himself. He straps himself in, starts it off, and then receives a phone call which makes him want to live. Rube Goldberg's hatred comes up when the device works perfectly, then subverts it when it becomes clear his afterlife will be even better than what he was going to receive in this world.

* The serial killer Mr. Yin, on ''[[Psych]]'' is particularly creative, including {{spoiler|strapping Juliet to a chair that was attached to a clock tower by a rope in such a way that at 4:30 the rope would be severed and she would fall to her death.}}

* Several of the murder methods in ''[[Jonathan Creek]]'', such as "Satan's Chimney" and "The Grinning Man".

* An episode of ''[[CSI]]'' has the "minature killer" set up a trap in their victims' apartment and send their calling card (a minature of the scene) early. {{spoiler|It turns out to be a device which pours charcoal on the fire and fills the room with carbon monoxide, it silently kills the undercover officer they posted in the room while they were watching unaware the entire time.}}

** The episode Lab Rats has one of these as one of Hodge's causes of death in his "thought experiments" {{spoiler|as a scenario for his board game}}. The first one ( {{spoiler|a booby trapped evidence box}}) is even disparaged as the work of Wile E. Coyote.

** Not sure if it's the same one, but there's one that involves a weapon resting on a block of melting ice.

* In an episode of ''[[Fringe]]'', a genius arranges deaths through convoluted chain reactions.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Evil Genius (video game)|Evil Genius]]'': You can create traps to foil agents of justice trying to crash the party. You get extra points for clever, sadistic traps.

* In ''[[Hitman]] Blood Money'', you are rewarded for making your hits look like accidents. In all of the games in the series, you can come up with very indirect or ingenious ways of offing your targets.

* ''[[MadWorld]]'' awards higher points per kill the more elaborate the kill is.

** It's also been invoked on a much larger scale: building a [[Pointless Doomsday Device]] to destroy the ''entire fortress''. Often used when {{spoiler|monsters from the depths of hell}} are swarming in. [[Dead Baby Comedy|Or]] [[Black Comedy|when]] [[Bloody Hilarious|it's]] [[Rule of Funny|funny]].

* In ''[[Carmageddon]]'', if you kill a pedestrian by hitting them with an object (like a pole or parked civilian car) you get an extra bonus and the words "Nice shot, sir."

* This trope is used by the Origami Killer in ''[[Heavy Rain]]''. Killing boys by leaving them trapped in a ditch that fills with rainwater is certainly more elaborate than most. The same applies to the trials that the Origami Killer leaves for his victims' fathers, which, among others, {{spoiler|include heading to a power plant, crawling through a vent with glass on the bottom, and then navigating through a maze of electrical condensers to get the next clue}}.

* ''[[Ghost Trick]]'', in spades. It, for example, features {{spoiler|death by Rube Goldberg contraption}} (twice) and {{spoiler|death by giant plastic chicken}}. You, of course, get to go and try avert all those ridculously complicated deaths.

** In fact, the game deconstructs the idea a little; the {{spoiler|Rube Goldberg contraption}} permanently scarred the person who set it up (since it was supposed to be harmless). Later, it was found to have made an "impossible move", and nobody could ever figure out why it acted the way it did, leading all involved to despair.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'' has an example of one of these in the form of a [[Death Trap]]. It doesn't actually work but points for trying.

** It ''does'' work, just not in the way [[Big Bad|Ratigan]] had in mind: Basil sets it off at just the right moment so that it self-destructs and frees them instead of [[Rasputinian Death|killing them]] [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|excessively]]. It also deserves bonus points for involving a record player featuring [[Vincent Price]] singing gleefully evil [[Crowning Music of Awesome]].

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Murder Tropes]]