History Main / BedsheetLadder

[[caption-width-right:300:We lose most of our [[RebelliousPrincess princesses that way]]...]]

* Bobby Pinson's "Don't Ask Me How I Know" advices against doing this, but "[[NoodleIncident don't ask me how I know.]]"

* Videogame/GrimFandango: Manny climbs a rope made entirely out of tacky 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.

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* In ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'', Victoria does with a quilt, though she does nearly get caught by her father.

* Referred in episode 42 of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', when Church and Grif were trapped in a cell and left to die.

* Played with in ''Series/TheAvengers'' episode "The Danger Makers:''

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant,'' Sybil Vimes escapes a room via this method; it was one of the more useful things she learned while attending her all-girls boarding school.

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* In a Creator/BobHope movie he's being held hostage in a hotel room in NYC. He tries this but when he looks out the window, where he's got a four sheet rope, it looks like he's on the 1,000th floor. The street is so far down the buildings seem to meet. His analysis: "I need more sheets."

* Edward uses one to leave Morgana's castle in ''Witches' Legacy 6: The Dark Throne''.

* In Literature/{{Adventures of Huckleberry Finn}} Jim, a fugitive slave, made one - on urging of Tom Sawyer. As he was held in a shed, it made no practical sense - except as a part of Tom Sawyer's [[ComplexityAddiction prolonged]] exercise in EscapeTropes.

* In the ''Disney/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad'', when Toad develops a nasty case of motor mania as his latest passion, his friends Rat and Mole have him locked in his room to keep him from getting into trouble. However, they forget to lock the window, and Toad escapes by this trope.

* Subverted in the first ''Film/CharliesAngels'' movie, Bosley tries this one, but the Thin Man happened to be stationed below the window. Like it mattered though - the gap in the bars was too small to escape through anyway and his cell was far too high up.

* Subverted in the first ''Film/CharliesAngels'' movie, Bosley tries this one, but the Thin Man happened to be stationed below the window. Like it mattered though - the gap in the bars was too small to escape through anyway.

* In the ''Disney/TheAdventuresofIchabodAndMrToad'', when Toad develops a nasty case of motor mania as his latest passion, his friends Rat and Mole have him locked in his room to keep him from getting into trouble. However, they forget to lock the window, and Toad escapes by this trope.

The first snag in this plan should be a guarantee that there's enough length to reach the ground. It never happens, whether you're in a second-story bedroom or in a cell in the EvilTowerOfOminousness.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Mokuba attempts to escape from Pegasus' castle by climbing down a bedsheet 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, not to mention ImprobableInfantSurvival, he survives. This despite the fact he clearly falls from ''above the height of the trees''.

* In ''Film/BeautyAndTheBeast2017'', on Belle's first night in the castle, she tries to escape by making a ladder out of

* ''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''.

* 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, not to mention ImprobableInfantSurvival, he survives. This despite the fact he clearly falls from ''above the height of the trees''.

* In ''Anime/IppatsuKikimusume'', Kunyan is stuck in the restroom. To get out, she braids a rope out of toilet paper. It works, but about halfway down, rain dissolves the paper....
* In ''Manga/JunjouRomantica'', Usami's brother Haurhiko locks Misaki [[LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard in a store room where bedsheets are kept]] (alongside a desk full of notebooks that Usami wrote stories in as a kid). Misaki soon sees his way out, though the sheets rip causing him to fall and sprain his ankle.

* Harry attempts this in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9300041/2/In-Betweens-Book-5-What-Ifs In Betweens: Book 5 What-Ifs]]'' when his uncle has men from St. Brutus' Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys come to pick him up, but doesn't get very far down it before they drag him out kicking and screaming.

* Subverted in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''. Prince Herbert puts together a bedsheet ladder to escape from the tower, but is stalled by Lancelot's hesitance until his father cuts the rope and sends him plummeting to his doom. Of course, as we all know, he was NotQuiteDead.

* ''Film/WomanInTheDunes'': The man being held prisoner in the bottom of the sand pit makes a rope out of fish nets and rags, fashions a grappling hook out of a pair of scissors and a piece of wood, and uses them to escape.

* ''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''.

* In ''Deader Homes and Gardens'', Claire tries to do this to escape from an upstairs bedroom. Unfortunately she's not yet recovered from being drugged by her captor, and forgets to anchor one end of her improvised rope before throwing it out the window! [[spoiler: Luckily, Jordan spots the coils of fallen sheet/rope on the ground and comes to sneak her out of the house.]]

* In the [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts Mickey Mouse cartoon]] ''Ye Olden Days'', when rescuing Princess Minnie Mickey is surprised to find that there is no prearranged rope in the tower she's locked away in, so he constructs one out of lady in waiting Clarabelle Cow's many articles of clothing. The couple is caught on their way down while passing the King's window.

* [[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. A few years later the English worried about his ex-wife using this trope to escape Bolton Castle. She didn't.

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