History Main / BabyCarriage

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature "Human Nature"]], when the Tenth Doctor is in [[HumanityEnsues human form]] to hide from the MonsterOfTheWeek and has no idea of his real identity, one of the hints of his HiddenDepths comes when he realizes [[PianoDrop a piano is about to fall]] on a baby carriage (two clichés for the price of one!) and sets off a Rube Goldberg-like sequence of events in time to stop it.

-->'''The Doctor''': A pram? ''At midnight''?!
-->'''Pram-pushing woman''': It's my shopping. [pulls the awning down to reveal a pile of packages]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* The OpeningBallet of ''Theatre/GuysAndDolls'' has a baby carriage being used as a MobileKiosk.
[[/folder]]

* The LicensedGame of ''Film/TheUntouchables1987'' uses the iconic film scene with the baby carriage rolling down the steps as the premise for an EscortMission.

* ''Literature/TheNightMayor'' culminates in a car chase through a virtual reality realm based on old movies. At one point, the hero notices a little old lady crossing the road ahead, very slowly, pushing a baby carriage containing quintuplets. Knowing that the only real people around are either in his car with him or in the car pursuing them, she ruthlessly plows straight on through rather than slow down and risk being caught.

If there is a car chase, there will be a woman pushing a baby carriage (aka, pram or bassinet). In RealLife, you will never see as many women pushing baby carriages down the street as you will during a car chase in a movie or TV show. Obviously, this device works because the idea that [[DeathOfAChild a baby might be harmed]] as the result of a chase adds instant Drama. Of course, don't expect the drama to last long. It's usually just a temporary distraction, ImprobableInfantSurvival assures that both drivers will be able to swerve around said Baby Carriage.

* In WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles, a woman is shown taking her baby out of one to escape from an oil tanker thrown by the Omnidroid.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', the Omnidroid v.10 grabs a tanker truck and flings it through the air. A mother at her carriage grabs her baby and runs as the truck approaches. She is ultimately unable to get away in time, allowing Syndrome to swoop in and "save" the day.

* Shows up in ''Manga/BitterVirgin'', where it leads to Daisuke discovering Hinako's scar from her C-section. He even hangs a lampshade on the cliché as he runs towards it.
* In one chapter of the manga version of ''[[VideoGame/{{Neptunia}} Hyperdimension Neptunia]]'', Neptune ends up having to watch over Nepgear, Uni, Rom, and Ram after they were accidentally [[FountainOfYouth transformed into babies]]. At one point, after some mishaps, she puts the two latter girls back in a baby carriage, only to see the two other girls wandering off. She picks them up, turns around, and notices the baby carriage is rolling down a road. Neptune manages to catch up to it, but not to slow the carriage down. To her horror, they're about to fly off the road and crash into a huge sign, but fortunately Rom (Or Ram) [[ShoutOut throws a turtle shell she had picked up]] [[VideoGame/MarioKart from one of the floating ? Blocks they ran into while rolling down the road]] and breaks the sign, causing the carriage to fly into a house instead, with no harm done to the girls.
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'': In the Highway Star chapter, while Josuke is trying to drive away from Highway Star on a motorcycle, he comes across a woman pushing a baby carriage across the road. He can't dodge the and slowing down would mean Highway Star can catch him. Josuke's solution is to destroy his bike with Crazy Diamond, flip over the carriage and repair the bike mid-air.

* In the anime ''Anime/ErgoProxy'', Vincent Law is attacked by a proxy in a crowded plaza. Raul Creed's wife is killed in the melee and the carriage carrying their adopted son is bumped and begins to roll down a flight of stairs. When we next see the carriage in the aftermath, it is lying on its side at the bottom of the stairs with blood pooling out of it.
* The runaway baby carriage example also shows up in the very first episode of the ''Anime/LittleLulu'' anime. Fortunately, Lulu and Tubby were there to catch it before it could continue rolling away down the sidewalk. The baby's mother then [[AndYourRewardIsEdible rewards them with a bunch of bananas for their good deed]].

* In the Highway Star chapter of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', while Josuke is trying to drive away from Highway Star on a motorcycle, he comes across a woman pushing a baby carriage across the road. He can't dodge the and slowing down would mean Highway Star can catch him. Josuke's solution is to destroy his bike with Crazy Diamond, flip over the carriage and repair the bike mid-air.

* In one chapter of the manga version of ''[[VideoGame/{{Neptunia}} Hyperdimension Neptunia]]'', Neptune ends up having to watch over Nepgear, Uni, Rom and Ram after they were accidentally [[FountainOfYouth transformed into babies]]. At one point, after some mishaps, she puts the two latter girls back in a baby carriage, only to see the two other girls wandering off. She picks them up, turns around, and notices the baby carriage is rolling down a road. Neptune manages to catch up to it, but not to slow the carriage down. To her horror, they're about to fly off the road and crash into a huge sign, but fortunately Rom (Or Ram) [[ShoutOut throws a turtle shell she had picked up]] [[VideoGame/MarioKart from one of the floating ? Blocks they ran into while rolling down the road]] and breaks the sign, causing the carriage to fly into a house instead, with no harm done to the girls.
* In the Highway Star chapter of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', while Josuke is trying to drive away from Highway Star on a motorcycle, he come across a woman pushing a baby carriage across the road. He can't dodge the and slowing down would mean Highway Star can catch him. Josuke's solution is to destroy his bike with Crazy Diamond, flip over the carriage and repair the bike mid-air.

* ''Animation/RubenBrandtCollector'': A woman carries a baby down the street into Mike Kowalski's and Mimi's CarChase. Both avoids them with their cars in time.

* Next to ''Potemkin'', the best known example is in ''Film/TheFrenchConnection'', during the subway chase.

* Which was likely inspired by the real life kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, as portrayed in ''Film/TheBaaderMeinhofComplex'', where the terrorists use the baby carriage to get the vehicles to slow down so they can be ambushed.

* This is played with, along with other chase cliches, in the 1960s ''Film/BatmanTheMovie''. Trying to [[BombDisposal ditch an explosive]], Batman runs repeatedly into a woman with a baby carriage, a group of [[NunsAreFunny nuns]], and a Salvation Army-type band. After these repeat [[OverlyLongGag several times]], he [[BreakingTheFourthWall looks the camera dead on]] and says "Somedays, you just can't get rid of a bomb."
* In the opening CarChase of ''Film/MadMax1'' an arguing couple fail to notice their baby has left his carriage and wandered out onto the road. Cue MassOhCrap as three methane-boosted V8 interceptors (the Nightrider and his police pursuers) come baring down. The baby is uninjured, but sets off a DisasterDominoes that leaves Max the only MFP officer in a position to stop the Nightrider.
* Played with in ''Film/WorldWarZ''. The protagonist and his family stop at a supermarket that's being looted by panicked civilians. As he takes one daughter to get medicine, his wife puts their younger daughter in a shopping trolley and starts getting food and other supplies off the shelves. Suddenly he hears his daughter scream and sees her go flying down the aisle in the trolley, because her mother has just been attacked by a couple of opportunistic criminals.
* In the 1995 German short film ''[[https://youtu.be/VdG8pyEcL1o?t=289 Countdown]]'', the brakes of a baby carriage loosen and the vehicle with a crying baby inside tumbles onto a street where a truck is approaching. Cue the hero performing a DivingSave.
* Film/ShogunAssassin features a weaponised baby cart containing spears, bombs and a volley gun.

* ''Literature/TheNightMayor'' culminates in a car chase through a virtual reality realm based on old movies. At one point, the hero notices a little old lady crossing the road ahead, very slowly, pushing a baby carriage containing quintuplets. Knowing that the only real people around are either in his car with him or in the car pursuing them, her ruthlessly plows straight on through rather than slow down and risk being caught.

** Chasing down an out of control baby carriage to keep the baby from being hurt is also how Kimberly, Tommy, and Billy met [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Aisha, Rocky, and Adam]] in ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers''.

* In ''Series/UltramanGinga'', up hearing a woman shouting for her "baby", a girl saves a runaway baby carriage, only to find it contained... a dog.

* In an early episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', "Final Exam", this is one of the disasters staged by bad-guys in training Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth to lure the Teen Titans into an ambush: "Aren't baby carriages supposed to have babies in them?"

* A baby carriage goes careening down the steps in the ''WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk'' episode "Gem of a Different Color" during the Changewing attack. It hits a cart and the baby is catapulted through the air, but fortunately Fishlegs and Meatlug are able to catch it safely.

* ''Film/BirdBox''. As humanity succumbs to mass insanity and suicide, there's a brief shot of a baby carriage rolling down the street [[AdultFear by itself.]]

If there is a car chase, there will be a woman pushing a baby carriage (aka, pram or bassinet). In RealLife, you will never see as many women pushing baby carriages down the street as you will during a car chase in a movie or TV show. Obviously, this device works because the idea that a [[AdultFear baby might be harmed]] as the result of a chase adds instant Drama. Of course, don't expect the drama to last long. It's usually just a temporary distraction, ImprobableInfantSurvival assures that both drivers will be able to swerve around said Baby Carriage.

* In the first season of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'', there was an episode where a reporter sent a[[spoiler:n empty]] Baby Carriage out in front of an oncoming truck in an attempt to get [[spoiler:Prue]] to use her powers. It [[spoiler:kind of worked.]]

* The LicensedGame of ''Film/TheUntouchables'' uses the iconic film scene with the baby carriage rolling down the steps as the premise for an EscortMission.

** Probably the definitive Odessa Steps[=/=]Baby Carriage scene is the fight in the station in ''Film/TheUntouchables''. [[spoiler:Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) had to make a SadisticChoice between dropping the baby carriage down a flight of stairs or shotgunning a mafioso who's about to kill him. He dropped the carriage -- but fortunately, George Stone (Andy Garcia) was on hand to save it. '''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome By stopping it with his legs, while still shooting some bad guys]]'''. And the baby is okay in the end.]]

* This is {{Parodied}} by the ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' crew in order to bring a reclusive mark out of hiding and into the spotlight. It doesn't work; the mark ignores [[TheRoper Sophie]] crying for her "runaway baby carriage" and once the opportunity passes Sophie gets distracted by a fashion store display.

* In the Highway Star chapter of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure: Diamond is Unbreakable'', while Josuke is trying to drive away from Highway Star on a motorcycle, he come across a woman pushing a baby carriage across the road. He can't dodge the and slowing down would mean Highway Star can catch him. Josuke's solution is to destroy his bike with Crazy Diamond, flip over the carriage and repair the bike mid-air.

*** Brilliantly sent up in one of ''Film/TheNakedGun'' movies during a dream sequence ("MMMMYYYY LLLLLAAAAAWWWWNNNNMOOOOOWWWWWWWEEEEERRRRR"). It gets bonus points for [[UsefulNotes/OJSimpson Nordberg]] trying to ''spike'' the baby after saving it.
** Also referenced in the latest ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' film.

See also FruitCart and CardboardBoxes for other stock obstacles that will get in the way of a ChaseScene, no matter how improbable their location may be. For detailed homages to one of the most famous dramatic film uses of the trope, see OdessaSteps.

* The silent film ''Film/BattleshipPotemkin'' featured a Baby Carriage during the much-homaged "Odessa Steps" sequence. [[spoiler: it's pushed down as the baby's mother is shot to death.]] It could be argued the whole trope of Baby Carriage is a {{Homage}} to ''Film/BattleshipPotemkin''.

** In ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'', we see Chase [[IncrediblyLamePun giving chase]] to one of these on his skateboard (we find out that when he's on his board, his mind becomes laser-focus and he performs ComicBook/CaptainAmerica-class feats to go around all kinds of obstacles.) [[spoiler:The carriage's passenger? A cat.]]