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Air Vent Passageway: Difference between revisions
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* In ''[[Shugo Chara]]'', Kiseki and Yoru escape from a locked room this way. [[Justified Trope]] since the Shugo Charas in that series are small enough to fit in normal air ducts.
* Done once in ''[[Rave Master]]'' though by a creature who must be light, because he floats when he sleeps, and something that [[Call a Smeerp A Rabbit|may be a small dog]].
* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] on two occasions in ''[[Dance in The Vampire Bund]]''. Akira making it through the massive vents and tunnels of the underground city beneath Tokyo Landfill #1 to escape the assassins hunting him makes sense (and even then he finds himself reminding his [[Undead Child|prepubescent rescuers]] that he is not as compact as they are). In an inversion from volume 7, after a [[Manchurian Agent]] locks down Mina's skyscraper-cum-palace the only person who can get to the security center via the way-to-small-for-anything-remotely-human vents is [[Battle Butler|Vera]] (who turns into mist and is obliged to [[Full
* ''[[Franken Fran]]'' has to cut off at least half her body in order to pull off a vent escape.
* In ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam (Anime)|G Gundam]]'''s second episode, Domon sneaks through the ducts of Madison Square Garden and ambushes Chibodee's boxing opponent so he can take his place. In the 2010 manga re-telling, the sequence is [[Played for Laughs]] instead: Domon ''intends'' to go to Chibodee and challenge him, but [[Idiot Hero|ends up in the opponent's room because he got lost]]. [[Refuge in Audacity|He then tries to play himself off as an autograph hound.]] Needless to say it doesn't work, and after knocking the guy out he decides to take his place.
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** In the ''[[Spider-Man]]'' game for the Playstation, Spider-Man has to escape from an underwater base using the air ducts... ''which are big enough for him to web-swing through''. Talk about shoddy design....
* Kei tries this in ''The [[Dirty Pair (Light Novel)|Dirty Pair]]'' series ''Biohazard''. But she gets stuck when her full, child-bearing hips won't fit. Mmmm.
** It's a [[Shout
* Subverted in ''[[Y the Last Man]]'' when Agent 355 and Yorick are breaking into a hotel in Sydney (surrounded by barbed wire and armed security due to the increase in drug-related crime after the plague).
{{quote| '''Agent 355:''' You said we'd be able to use the air conditioning vents. They're six inches by four inches.<br />
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** Plus he gets really dirty.
* In ''[[Masterminds]]'', Ozzy has an extended sequence where he dodges the hostage-takers in air vents. Done realistically in that the school is huge but only covered by a small group, the ducts are barely large enough for him to fit in the first place, and he makes enough noise that they can follow him once they stumble upon his location.
* Used, more realistically than usual, in ''[[Sky High]]''. One character's power (glowing in the dark) comes in handy here, allowing the others to see. And only the character who can become a rodent can reach the place needed to save the day. [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|Lame power? What's a lame power?]]
* Subverted in ''[[The Breakfast Club]]''. After John Bender is locked in a broom closet by Principal Vernon, he tries to escape through an air duct, which collapses just as he is muttering the punchline to an obscene joke to himself (and [[Fourth Wall|the audience]], of course).
* Minor subversion in ''[[Serenity (Film)|Serenity]]'', when the Captain must get a wrench and properly remove the duct cover before executing the trope to get past a locked door.
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* ''[[Daylight]]'' has Sylvester Stallone get into a caved-in tunnel through a air vent. Since the air vent was meant to supply air to an entire car tunnel, its huge size is justified. However, the architecture of the system is still not completely realistic.
* In ''[[Paul Blart Mall Cop]]'' Blart attempts to use an air duct to escape from some [[Mooks]] but only ends up completely giving away his position by all the noise and all the dents showing up, leaving him open to attack. In the end the air vent just breaks loose anyway, proving to not be a stable place to climb in in the first place.
* In ''[[
* The famous [[The Walls Are Closing In|trash compactor scene]] from ''[[Star Wars]]'', which is a subversion because in that case, attempting to escape [[It Got Worse|led to an even worse situation]].
** Yoda's escape through the vents in ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]''. Justified, of course, by Yoda's small size.
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*** Also worth noting, Spike notices, and in a singsong voice says “some-one's-in-the-cei-ling”.
*** Subverted in "Gingerbread", where Xander and Oz can fit into the vents but become lost and only reach the rest of the cast after the monster of the week is already dead. "We're here to rescue you..."
* ''[[
* ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' has the "Jefferies Tube" tunnels criss-crossing the ship and was actually designed for human access, but is quite often used in this way.
** Dr. Helen Noel saved the day this way in ''[[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'', episode "Dagger of the Mind".
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* In the second season of ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'', this was a legitimate way of getting around in the Swan station. Kate used the ventilation ducts to escape imprisonment in the food storage room in the episodes "Adrift" and "Orientation", and in the episode "Lockdown", Ben (then going by the alias of "Henry Gale") could escape from being locked inside ''by blast doors''.
** Locke later sealed the vents to put an end to this kind of thing, which didn't work out so well later once he and Jack found themselves locked inside.
* [[Lampshade Hanging]] in the ''[[
** According to ''[[Doctor Who Confidential]]'', the reason Jefferson says he appreciates the reference is [[Actor Allusion|because the actor playing him was actually]] '''in''' one of the ''Alien'' films -- Danny Webb was in ''Alien 3''.
** Lampshaded again in the ''[[Big Finish Doctor Who]]'' audio adventure ''The Apocalypse Element''.
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** The Doctor and companions use one of these to escape from Area 51 in the animated special ''Dreamland''. The Doctor lampshades their captor's [[Justified Trope|Justified]] [[Genre Blindness]].
{{quote| '''The Doctor:''' I love 1958, no one's seen Die Hard. Or Alien. Or Die Hard 2, or Aliens, or Die Hard 3...}}
** The frequent use of this trope in its [[Doctor Who
{{quote| {{spoiler|'''The Doctor'''}}: Ventilation shafts, that takes me back. And forward.}}
** The Cybermen's Cybermat devices could infiltrate target installations by going through ventilation ducts.
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* The air duct was used to get Robin Hood out of a Norman castle in the TV series ''[[The New Adventures of Robin Hood]]''. The series was a bit on a ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' and ''[[Xena]]'' level of authenticity but (sadly) not meant as a spoof.
* The old ''[[Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea (TV)|Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea]]'' series was rife with this trope, especially in the later seasons, when it seemed every third episode had a villain or Monster of the Week or regular character evading a villain or MotW getting into the ventilation system at some point. Played straight for the most part, although somewhat subverted in that the ducts themselves were quite roomy, and the vents were about a yard square or more in size, hinged like a door with a latch that anything brighter than a rock could operate, allowing convenient access.
* ''[[
* Lampshaded on ''[[Leverage (TV)|Leverage]]'': "Looks like Parker's going to have to climb through the air duct again..." Somewhat justified in that Parker is a) a master thief with an extensive knowledge of building layouts, and b) petite.
** Played with in one season three episode, when Parker encounters difficulties trying to do this as there are lasers blocking her path. Why it wouldn't be cheaper to simply make the ducts too small to crawl through is never addressed.
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** Also, the air vents were used by Lamiroir to get from one side the stage to the other quickly for her part in the magic act in the middle of her song. They are stated to be large enough for her to walk, albit hunched over and there was staff waiting at either end to help her
* As lampshaded by [[The Spoony Experiment (Web Video)|Spoony]] in his review of the ''[[The Thing (Video Game)|The Thing]]'' videogame, at one point Blair acquires access to another room by walking hunched through a four-foot-wide air duct.
* Lots of duct-crawling goes down in ''[[Beyond Good and Evil (Video Game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]''. Jade makes use of air vents once or twice in order to break into a few facilities, but Double H tends to do it whenever he and Jade [[Let's Split Up, Gang!|split up]] in order to follow her. He literally ''slides out of one'' during the third boss fight, [[Big Damn Heroes|rocketing to the rescue.]]
* The online game ''[[Infantry]]'' has a "Bug Hunt" map, allowing players to play as humans or aliens, the aliens granted the advantage of traveling by air ducts and even launching ambushes from them.
* In episode one of ''[[Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People (Video Game)|Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People]]'', Strong Bad must use the air vent to sneak past The Poopsmith while infiltrating the King of Town's castle. However, unlike some other examples here, you can get caught if you aren't careful.
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* The ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' episode "The Ultimate Doom, Part 2" introduced ventilation ducts large enough for Transformers to stand inside. Of course, they're on Cybertron, where everything is of the same scale as Transformers are to humans, but why would they need air anyway?
** And pulled again in ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', episode "Decepticon Air". Optimus Prime crawls through the ducts (it seems to be a squeeze, letting him homage [[Die Hard (Film)|Die Hard]] as well) of a spaceship -- maybe the air circulates to keep the energon from heating up and getting unstable? He does use it as a makeshift bomb, after all.
* Peter and Brian do this in an episode of ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'', complete with a [[Shout
** They don't make it all the way in stealthily, though, Peter's large girth causes the vent to give out and dump them right in the middle of the prom.
* Subverted in ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]''. Fry and Bender try to escape from a brig through a steam pipe vent. Unfortunately, the steam pipe is full of steam. At least they got a good sauna out of it.
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* During and around [[The Dung Ages]], a popular way to infiltrate a stronghold was to climb through the privy chute. This had varying outcomes; either they made it, and incidentally killed Edmund II by puncturing his arse, or they got stuck and died in there, or they suffocated and ''then'' died in there. After such sieges, those chutes had to cleaned elaborately and swept through because of all the stuck-up cadavers.
* This was attempted in 1994 by Cleveland Indians pitcher Jason Grimsley to try to switch out teammate Albert Belle's corked bat before the umpire could find out he was cheating. Going through 10 feet of ducts and a false ceiling, he might have even gotten away with it if he hadn't replaced it with [http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/7338 an autographed bat].
* Averted in real life: [
* Successfully done by serial killer Ted Bundy. While in prison awaiting trial on one of many murders he was suspected in, he climbed through the roof of his cell (he had dieted and lost enough weight to make this possible), crawled across the floorboards into the adjoining warden's apartment (the warden and his wife were out at a New Year's Eve party), and simply walked out of the apartment into freedom. He was caught several weeks later, but not before adding several more victims to his list.
* When Kingsley Ofosu and 8 other Ghanians stowed away on a Europe-bound cargo ship, he escaped from the ship's murderous crew (the other stowaways were not so lucky), by shimmying up one of these.
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[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:Air Vent Passageway]]
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