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Rope Bridge: Difference between revisions

m
housekeeping: undid some potholes, made it clear that it was characters and not works that encountered the bridges, etc.
(Smart)
m (housekeeping: undid some potholes, made it clear that it was characters and not works that encountered the bridges, etc.)
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* ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'': The Bridge of Death. Although old and rickety it's perfectly functional.
* ''[[Pandorum]]'' has a sci-fi take on this trope, with the old and damaged platform leading to the reactor. But instead of a ''[[Star Wars]]''-type abyss the platform passes low over a horde of sleeping carnivorous mutants.
* A rope bridge over a river of lava serves as the entrance to Atlantis in Disney's ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire|Atlantis the Lost Empire]]''.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* Subverted but [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in ''[[Narnia|The Silver Chair]]''. Eustace, Jill, and Puddleglum come to a giant stone bridge spanning a canyon. Puddleglum, who [[The Eeyore|sees a down side to everything]], is reluctant to take it, theorizing it's just too convenient and will probably vanish into thin air or something when they're halfway across.
* Subverted in ''[[Discworld/Carpe Jugulum|Carpe Jugulum]]'', when the rickety old rope bridge over a bottomless chasm is on a piece of magical ground, and to Perdita (who lacks any self-doubt) is simply a large stone across a ditch. There's also a description of the bridge as having a "negative quality", in that it looks ''less'' safe than jumping off the edge and hoping a gust of wind will carry you.
* ''[[His Dark Materials|Northern Lights]]''{{context}}
* In ''[[Kushiel's Legacy|Kushiel's Chosen]]'', island prison [[The Alcatraz|La Dolorosa]] is connected to the mainland only by a rope bridge, which has two guards on the island side armed with axes, who can cut the bridge long before anybody gets across. Joscelin's solution? [[Badass|Climb along the underside of the bridge]].
* One of the first signs that something's up in ''[[Matthew Reilly|Temple]]'' is the existing, already cut rope bridge. Several characters note that it's new, but Incan rope bridges rarely lasted more than three years. Not only is there a native tribe in the area, but they want to keep ''something'' on the tower of rock the temple is on.
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* In the ''[[The Lord of the Rings|Lord of the Rings]]'' parody ''[[Bored of the Rings]]'', Goodgulf the wizard performs his [[You Shall Not Pass]] scene on a rope bridge {{spoiler|which the Fellowship chop down with him on it}}.
 
== [[Live -Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Lost]]'' featured a rope bridge that didn't collapse when (very large) Hurley crossed it, but did when the much smaller Charlie followed him.
** It is possible that Hurley strained the bridge enough to weaken it so that it could break when Charlie tried to cross it.
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** In ''Voyage of the Damned'' they have to cross a sort of rickety-bridge. It's not made of rope, but {{spoiler|one of the people shocks us by falling off before he gets on the bridge, and one jumps off voluntarily, taking the host with her}}, so it seems to fit the trope, or at least subverting it.
* The ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' episode "Hero's Heart" starts with Iolaus having a crisis of confidence after failing to save a woman from falling from one of these.
* The ''[[Myth Busters]]'': The Myth Busters recentlyonce demonstrated that you can build a 100 ft rope bridge, using nothing but ''duct tape.'' (It only took 196 rolls.)
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Dusky Bridge in ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]: Trials and Tribulations''.
** Which, unlike most examples of the trope, it actually stood up despite missing large gaps... {{spoiler|until it was struck by lightning and caught on fire, which is when Phoenix actually tried to cross it.}}
* ''Original Adventure'' (''[[Colossal CavesCave Adventure]]'') from the 1970s has you crossing a bridge where there is an angry bear on the other side which is guarding a valuable chain. You calm the bear down {{spoiler|by feeding it}}, and then you have to make sure the bear isn't following you, because if you and the bear cross the bridge, it will collapse and you're killed.
* The cast of ''[[Eternal Sonata]]'' make quite a scene about going across a fairly sturdy bridge that comes to nothing until a boss a little later in the game destroys it in a final blow.
* ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Shadow and The Flame'' had a fight with an invincible skeleton on a rope bridge. The ropes hold, but the planks don't.
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** It's also possible to cut the rope bridge yourself. Here's a hint: don't cut the rope bridge yourself, or wait until you're off the bridge and shoot the ropes. Makes a good ambush tactic because when the bridge falls or wobbles it'll send the enemies on it flying to their deaths.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' has a rope bridge incident {{spoiler|in Cloud's past}}; however, it isn't part of a chase scene; some adventurous kids just fall afoul of a rickety old bridge.
* Used for dramatic effect in ''[[X-Men]] Origins: Wolverine]]'', in the very-first level. The bridge is pretty rickety in the first place, missing a long line of boards in the middle, and after you jump across there (killing half a dozen mooks in the process), other enemies cut the ropes behind you... of course, Wolverine is far too awesome to just fall down, so instead, he sticks his claws into the planks, and crawls up the bridge as it hangs vertical along the cliffside... killing half a dozen mooks along the way.
* [http://blockland.us Blockland]: This is true of virtually every rope bridge. Ever. It actually got to the point where a rope bridge was built and advertised simply because it ''didn't'' collapse.
* ''[[Super Mario Bros. (video game)|Super Mario Bros.]]'' features two giant rope bridges infested with jumping Cheep Cheeps.
** It's debatable whether they're meant to be rope bridges, since they're always parallel to the bottom of the screen and they never sag or sway, although this may be due to gameplay limitations. The graphics leave a lot of ambiguity as to what material they're made of. At any rate, definite rope bridges appear in ''[[Yoshi's Island|Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island]]''.
** And Hightail Falls from ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'' composes entirely of planets held together by a planet-sized rope bridge.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Mercilessly parodied—andparodied — and ultimately subverted—insubverted — in ''[[South Park]]'', in which Chef is killed by falling off a collapsing rope bridge, into a chasm, where he is impaled on jagged rocks. He is then attacked and pulled apart by pumas and grizzly bears. After all that, he is revived (and turned into Darth Vader) by the "Super Adventurers Club."
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'':
** Parodied and subverted in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''the episode "Mr. Plow," where Homer has to ''drive'' over one of these in a truck - at least, so it seems until he gets halfway across, whereupon he looks over only to see a perfectly sturdy-looking iron suspension bridge just a few hundred metres down the road that he could have used instead.
** In the episode "The Boy Who Knew Too Much," Bart crosses then tears down a rope bridge while playing hookie, in a futile attempt to evade Principal Skinner.
** Played around in "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" when the Simpsons went on a Japanese game show to win plane tickets back to Springfield. After humiliating and painful tasks, they family must grab the tickets off a rope bridge suspended over a volcano. The bridge snapped and the family fell into the lava, which turns out to be orange juice loaded with wasabi.
* For no apparent reason, one episode of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' starts with the kids crossing one of these in a ''thunderstorm''; naturally it fulfills the trope by collapsing halfway through. (Heaven only knows how they got Eric onto the thing in the first place.)
* In ''[[The Emperor's New Groove|The Emperors New Groove]]'', Kuzco only truly begins to become a better person after he and Pacha have to work together to survive the collapse of a rope bridge. (Something of a subversion in that they actually do fall off the bridge into the chasm, and are just lucky enough to get stuck in a choke-point before hitting the crocodile-infested river.)
* On ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'', an angel comes to Butthead on a stormy night and tries to kill him by goading him into walking over one of these. In an inversion of the [[Stock Parody]] of "It's a Wonderful Life." he shows Butthead how much better the world would be without him, which bores Butthead so much he ignores the bridge and goes home.
* ''[[Jonny Quest]]'' TOS episode "The Devil's Tower". While making their escape from the title place, our heroes have to cross a rope bridge while an insane World War I German war criminal is throwing grenades at them from a biplane. One of the grenades hits the bridge and breaks it while Dr. Quest is crossing it, requiring him to be pulled to safety.
* ''[[The Flintstones|]]'': Fred Flintstone]] RUNS across one of these - carrying his car - scaring his costars half to death in the process. (They were in the car.)
* In one episode of ''[[X-Men (animation)|X-Men]]'', a depowered Magneto and Professor X stumble across one of these in the Savage Land while fleeing a vertigo-inducing supervillainess; eventually they just grab on tightly and cut the thing, which gets them out of her area of influence.
* Subverted in ''[[Futurama]]'', where a rickety rope bridge turns out to be a perfectly safe conveyor belt.
* An episode of ''[[Gummi Bears]]'' centered around replacing an old rope bridge. The replacement is ''too'' durable, and leaves the Gummis open to an invasion.
* These popped up all the time on ''[[DuckTales]]''.{{context}}
* An episode of ''[[Captain N: The Game Master]]'' had a scene with a deteriorating rope bridge. Fortunately there was a stalactite handing just above the unstable post on the far end, which, when blasted loose by Kevin, impaled the rope and pinned it safely to the cliff.
* The ''[[Duckman]]'' episode "Short Plush and Deadly" manages to feature one of these ''and'' an [[Inevitable Waterfall]]
* In the [[Batman: The Animated Series]] episode ''Tyger, Tyger'' [[Batman]] fights [[The Dragon|Tygrus]], a giant [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-human]] [[Catgirl|cat man]], on a decaying rope bridge. The bridge snaps with Tygrus deflects one of Batman's batarangs, cutting the rope.
* ''[[My Little Pony]]'': Shows up in the pilot. Part of the first route the focal ponies and their human ally Megan attempt to take to Midnight Castle involves a rope bridge that collapses with Megan and Applejack on it, dropping them into the river mouth below. They are rescued (and treated to a [[Busby Berkeley Number]]) by the Sea Ponies.
* In homage to the above, in the second part of the pilot to ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', the Mane 6 must cross a rope bridge to reach the castle where the Elements of Harmony lay. Twilight Sparkle goes first but the ropes are severed as she starts to cross. The others pull her up and Rainbow Dash retrieves the bridge, allowing them to retie the ropes and continue on their way.
* ''[[George of the Jungle]]'': George has to cross one of these but Ape doesn't think it's sturdy enough to hold Shep<ref>George's pet elephant who he thinks is a dog</ref> - so George carries Shep over instead.
 
== [[Truth in Television]] ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity]]
[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Chekhov's Gun]]
[[Category:Chase Scene]]
[[Category:RopeChekhov's BridgeGun]]
[[Category:Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity]]
[[Category:Chekhov's Gun{{PAGENAME}}]]
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