History Main / BedsheetLadder

* ''Literature/{{Rapunzel}}'': "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your [[RapunzelHair hair]]!" Slightly unusual in that the braid was also the only way ''up'' the tower, and it was intended for other people to access said tower. The main illustrations that show her wrapping it about some kind of hook are wise. The hair could probably take the weight; it's keeping the weight from unrooting your hair that's the problem, and a hook would do it. Creator/TheBrothersGrimm have the prince bringing her stuff to make a replacement rope when she gives the game away. Apparently he never thought of just bringing ''a rope''.

Note: This was tested by the ''Series/MythBusters'' and ''confirmed'' -- Grant was able to climb down a 14-story building using a rope made from prison bedsheets. Kari did it with [[RapunzelHair human hair plaited into a rope]], while Tory did the same thing with ''toilet paper''.

* One ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip had Calvin use one of these to sneak out of the house and phone his dad that "It is now three in the morning. Do you know where I am?"

* In Beirut Lebanon five prisoners pulled off this trick, escaping from a [[http://news.yahoo.com/using-bed-sheets-5-prisoners-escape-lebanese-jail-151856960.html maximum security prison.]]

* In ''[[http://kinsfire.fanficauthors.net/Betrayed/Excrement_Meet_Fan/ Betrayed]]'' Harry uses one to escape from the hospital wing while locked-in and wandless but has to drop the last twenty feet or so.

* In ''Cadenza 3: Havana Nights'' the main character uses a bunch of Maria's scarves to avoid the police by escaping from her balcony.

* In the 11th ''Famous Five'' book by Enid Blyton, ''Five Have a Wonderful Time'', the climax of the story is set in the top room of a castle tower, where a kidnapped scientist has been imprisoned by a colleague trying to steal and sell his work. The Five have found him, and are attempting to get him out of the tower, but unfortunately the bad scientist comes back on the scene with several henchmen, and is set to imprison them all. However the Five have allies below in the courtyard in the form of people from a travelling fair, one of whom is expert with a throwing knife and another expert in ropes. They manage to throw a knife (point blunted for safety) high up in the air and through one of the slit windows in the tower room with a thin string attached to it, and the prisoners can use this to pull up a rope ladder which they can tie to a fixed object in the tower room and climb down. Also, in the final stand-off, further developments happen: one of the fair people uses a whip to disarm the main criminal, the criminals end up captives in the tower room awaiting arrest by police, and the prisoners end up free.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' movie, Robyn was able to escape this way along with the titular characters from the third story window of her evil guardian's house.

* In ''Film/OpenWater2Adrift'', the protagonists take off their swimsuits to make a ladder to get back onto their boat. It doesn't work.

* Played with in 3 Ninjas Kick Back[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/ThreeNinjas]]. After being captured by the ''BigBad'', the heroes trick their guard into thinking they escaped this way, then when he comes to investigate they escape and lock him in the room.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stuart,_Lord_Darnley Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley]], second husband of [[UsefulNotes/MaryOfScotland Mary, Queen of Scots]], escaped a bomb planted in his house via a chair tied to a line of bedsheets. Unfortunately (for Henry, at least) while he made his escape he ran right into the people who planted the bomb and they promptly strangled him.

* Subverted in the first ''Film/CharliesAngels'' movie, Bosley tries this one, but the Thin Man happened to be stationed below the window.

* Videogame/GrimFandango: Manny climbs a rope made entirely out of takcy neckties, tied to a gargoyle, near the top of a skyscraper, going all the way to the ground. This was all set up before he got there, presumably by his boss as part of a scheme to blow off work.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Mokuba attempts to escape from Pegasus' castle by climbing down a bed sheet rope. It doesn't work, as he runs out of sheets a fair way up the tower. As he panics, two of the sheet's knots slip, and he plummets. However, in a bit of standard cartoon magic, he survives. This despite the fact he clearly falls from ''above the height of the trees''.

* In the 11th ''Famous Five'' book by Enid Blyton, ''Five Have a Wonderful Time'', the climax of the story is set in the top room of a castle tower, where a kidnapped scientist has been imprisoned by a colleague trying to steal and sell his work. The Five have found him, and are attempting to get him out of the tower, but unfortunately the bad scientist comes back on the scene with several henchmen, and is set to imprison them all. However the Five have allies below in the courtyard in the form of people from a travelling fair, one of whom is expert with a throwing knife and another expert in ropes. They manage to throw a knife (point bluntened for safety) high up in the air and through one of the slit windows in the tower room with a thin string attached to it, and the prisoners can use this to pull up a rope ladder which they can tie to a fixed object in the tower room and climb down. Also, in the final stand-off, further developments happen: one of the fair people uses a whip to disarm the main criminal, the criminals end up captives in the tower room awaiting arrest by police, and the prisoners end up free.

* An ''Literature/EncyclopediaBrown'' mystery revolved around this trope - a starlet said that a big, masked intruder broke into the room, knocked out her bodyguard, grabbed a diamond-encrusted statue, and climbed out the window from a bedsheet ladder tied to one of the bedposts. However, Chief Brown and his son proved them to be lying by asking Bugs Meany (who happened to be around at the time) to climb up the bedsheets so he could meet the starlet - when he did so, his (significantly less than the alleged intruder) weight pulled the bed from the wall and released a fountain pen trapped in between.

* In ''Film/GodHelpTheGirl'': Cassie is by the window on the top floor of her house when her friends James and Eve come by and call out for her to join them, so she starts to make a bedsheet ladder. She's not trapped in the room or anything, she's just enough of a CloudCuckoolander that it was the first thing she thought of doing. Subverted in that James and Eve manage to point out how unnecessary it is through gestures and she just takes the stairs and walks out the front door.

* Princess Flame does this in ''BlazingDragons'', [[RememberedICouldFly completely forgetting about her ability to fly]].

* In ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'' by HPLovecraft, the protagonist escapes from an upper story of the local HellHotel by using the drapes as a ladder.