Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: Difference between revisions

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 ==

* ''[[Nodwick]]'' once was caught in a trap that didn't merely kill a victim, but... [http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/gamespyarchive/index.php?date=2006-05-31 see for yourself]. It even produces a copy of the manufacturer's business card when it gets triggered with the suggestion:

{{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.

 

== Fan Fic ==

 

== 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.

 

== 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.

** 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.

** Clever players can even use this to create inescapable rooms with traps that constantly affect the trapped agents and/or tourists, earning money for trap chains. With proper set-up, you need not worry about money again. See [http://wiki.n1nj4.com/index.php?title=Ubertrap here] for the designs to "The Square of Insanity" and "The Tornado Trap".

 

== 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]].